20210603 - Shingles

 In early May (2?,) 2021 I started to develop a bit of pain at my armpits.  A couple of days later, a rash started to develop on my chest.  At first, it just seemed to be a bit of a rash.  But it was later determined to be Shingles.  I went on medication for about 7 days taking valacylovir (otherwise known as Valtrex) to try to minimize the impact of the virus.  But there was a lot going on while the shingles was affecting my body.  I also ended up having the COVID-19 vaccine on May 12.  At the same time shingles was affecting me, I also had a urinary tract infection which was treated with ciprofloxacin.  I was having fever and chills.  I was very tired, dizzy, nauseous, and having hallucinations with the illnesses and medications.

Weeks later, the shingles rash had cleared up, but there was pain along the nerve paths on my chest and back especially around my left nipple.  From what I read, the pain can continue for 3 months or more.  

Yesterday, I started to use a vibrating massager on my chest.  It did not seem to do much.  Then I tried the Dr. Ho's electrical stimulation along the nerve paths from my arm pit to the front of my chest.  That actually seemed to help a bit and this morning, the pain was slightly less.

Today (2021/06/03) I went to see a TCM doctor to treat the pain.  He was apparently an expert in treating shingles (located at 2368 E. 54th Avenue in Vancouver) but looked to be retired.  He seemed very professional and knowledgeable.  The doctor proceeded to check my pulse (both wrists) and my tongue.  He then went to place thin strips of cotton balls on my back and chest which he then lit on fire on my skin with a butane torch lighter.  I think it might be called cotton moxibustion.  I was lying down for this process.  This process was intended to extract the shingles virus that were still attacking my nerves.  The burning process was very painful, but ended up numbing a bit of the pain.  After the burning process, he proceeded to use acupuncture needles along my chest and back to extract more of the virus.  The acupuncture was stinging, but not too painful - nowhere near as painful as the burning.  The needles was on me for about 10 minutes and then removed.  The doctor was nice but I had trouble understanding him as he only spoke Cantonese.  He only charged me $70 for the treatment (usually $80, but he gave a $10 discount) and then prescribed some TCM that my mother-in-law picked up and prepared for me.  It was very bad tasting but hopefully, it will help cure me.  I will need to take it for 2 days.  The TCM doctor said that for each year of my age, it would take that many equivalent days to be cured of shingles.  So in my case, after the treatment, I would have to wait another 49 days to be cured.  The doctor said that in the evening, I should take a shower and then use a hair dryer to warm up the nerves in my chest and back.  As I write this, it is later in the evening and the pain is coming back but it is a bit more numb than previous days (i.e. slightly less painful).  Hopefully, there will be some more improvements and less pain in coming days.

CC

20171119 - Grandpa in Hospital

 Just so I have a record in my own mind of what happened, here's my summary:

* At about 5pm today (November 19, 2017), I received a call from Anna Young who is a church friend of Grandpa.  She said that his church friends tried calling him to pick him up for church, but he was not answering.  They later went to his apartment to check up on him, and they found him unconcious in his bedroom.  She told me that Dad was still in China.  And that Grandpa was sent to Richmond Hospital.  I called Dad and he said that he was in China and was in the hospital for eye surgery.

* I arrived at Richmond Hospital at around 7pm.  He was assigned to bed 11 in the emergency room.  But he was not there when I checked as he had just been sent to get a CT scan.

* After about 10-15 minutes, he was brought back to his room.  I spoke to him.  He did not recognize me at first.  Then he asked me who I was and I told him.  He said that he did not recognize me as I got fat.  He was quite lucid and told me his side of the story.

* Grandpa said that 2 days ago, he fell in the kitchen.  But he was ok.  He said that even this morning, he was out shopping.  He had heard the phone calls from his church friends, but he was busy shopping so he did not answer.  He said that he was just in his bedroom when his church friends arrived and they called 911.  He thinks that he is fine and that it was a waste of time.  But he definitely had very noticable bruises on his knees, his elbows, and his face.  Otherwise, mentally, he seemed perfectly fine. 

* At about 7:30pm, Anna Young had arrived to check in on Grandpa.  She was quite talkative and was talking to Grandpa and to the on duty nurse (Shaylene).  Anna seemed to be suggesting that Grandpa had some issue with his heart (though I am not sure how/why she came up with that).  But given the tests he was given, I guess that is what the hospital was focussing on.  She was able to speak Cantonese and so was better able to communicate with Grandpa than I was.  When I spoke to Grandpa, I found out that he had not eaten all day so I asked a nurse to bring some food.  But Anna decided to go out and get some congee for him.  She would be back around 8pm with fish congee.

* While Anna was gone, the on-duty nurse checked his blood pressure (it seemed normal to me at about 151 over 68, if I recall).  Another nurse then came to take some blood for a blood test.  Then another nurse did an ECG test.  I informed the on-duty nurse that I noticed that Grandpa had left pee in a pee bottle and she took it for testing.  About 30 minutes later, she came back and said that the pee was normal, but there was some blood in it so they were going to do further testing.  She indicated that it is possible that older people get urinary tract infections which could explain the blood and it could cause them to be dizzy.

* When Anna came back, she had called the church friend named Simon who was the one that found Grandpa.  He said that Grandpa was found on the ground behind his bedroom door and that Simon had to gently push the door to get to Grandpa.

* The on-duty nurse and I helped to prop him up on the bed so that he could sit properly to eat the congee.  He fed himself and ate about half of the bowl of takeout congee.  He seemed to be in better spirits as he was eating - probably was lacking energy.

* The doctor finally came by around 8:50pm.  I tried to record the conversation but it is a little hard to hear.  He is a Chinese doctor and was able to speak Cantonese to Grandpa.  He told Grandpa that he would have to stay the night.  Grandpa said that he felt fine, so the doctor said that he would get the on-duty nurse to help him up to see if he could walk around;  and if he was ok, he could leave in the morning.

* At around 9pm, I called Dad to let him know the situation and I told him that the doctor had asked if Grandpa would be able to make his own decisions (i.e. power of attorney).  I told Dad that he should talk to Grandpa about that.  Dad spoke with Grandpa and Anna.  After I hung up, I spoke to the on-duty nurse and left Dad's China phone number, Anna's number, and my number.  I left around 9:20pm.

20201117 - Alopecia Update

 Yesterday, I received ginger shampoo (from The Body Shop) from my mom as well as mulberry tea.  I will be trying the shampoo and mulberry tea today.  I am supposed to drink the tea no more than once every 2 days.

Also, I received a prescription from the nurse practitioner (NP) at Wello for cortisone cream called betamethasone (0.1%).  I will be trying that today as well.  The NP said to try it out for 3 months before we expect to see any results.  I am supposed to follow up with an appointment in 3 months.

CC

UPDATE:  After 3 months, the hair had grown back.  Ginger shampoo was used regularly as well as betamethasone cream.

20201114 - Alopecia Areata

Today, CF noted that there was something up with my hair/scalp.  It turns out that I have a bald spot about 1" in diameter at the back/top/right corner of my head.

 

CF says that it is quite noticeable.  And since she cut my hair a couple of months ago, she would have noticed it.  It must have happened only a month or so ago.

It appears to be alopecia areata.  It may have been caused by stress, allopurinol, naproxen, or something else.  It may be hereditary, but it does affect people who have seasonal allergies more often (such as myself).  CF suspects that I do not wash my head enough.  I suspect that it is due to the allopurinol.  The small bald patch does not hurt but does feel a bit weird not to have hair there.  From what I read, the hair may take up to 12 months before it grows back (but it may not).  I think I am doing everything I can since I take multivitamins daily as well as calcium and omega 3 (fish oil).

I wanted to document this in case this is the start of my permanent hair loss or if someone else in my family experiences this.

CC 

20200313 - Novel Coronavirus COVID-19

In the last few months, the world has changed due to a new virus that originated in Wuhan China.  In an unprecedented move, the world has taken notice and everyone is concerned about the virus and being quarantined.   Symptoms include fever, cough, and difficulty breathing.

The stock market has fallen like 1700 points on the Dow Jones.  People are hoarding and stocking up on  food and essentials as the virus was recently declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization.   People are worried about being quarantined or having to self isolate.   You can not find surgical masks, hand sanitizer, or toilet paper.  It is also difficult to find canned foods, pastas, and rice.

Several closures include:
- Disneyland
- Disneyworld
- buffets in Vegas
- Effiel Tower
- Louvre Museum
- Sporting events
- Concerts
- Sun Run
- Gatherings larger than 100-250 people
- Private schools
- studio audiences on tv shows
- Science world

People are using social distancing and are not shaking hands.

People are asked to wash hands for 20 seconds, cough into a tissue or sleeve, keep distance.

Flights to China has been banned.  Flights to Europe has been banned.  The US has declared a state of emergency.  Cruise ships have stopped for a month.

Currently 64 cases on Vancouver.

Even the Prime Minister's wife has caught the virus.

Just about every company you can think of has sent emails to inform people how they will deal with the pandemic.

CC

20200219 - Notable Day

Today marks the first day that R was able to keep his ortho-K contacts in both eyes at the same time for 10 whole minutes.  It has been tough to get here.  R gas tried very hard to get the contacts into his eyes for the last few weeks, but was just not able to due to a bit of fear, his small eyes, and the large contacts.  A couple of weeks ago, R's eye doctor switched his contacts to a slightly smaller size (like less than a millimeter difference).  But we worked at it every night and he finally was able to get one contact in each eye slowly increasing the amount of time from 30 secs a day to 10 minutes - but only one eye each day until today.

I was probably not the best person to help him with the contacts though.  I yelled at him during the first few days since I was so frustrated that he wanted to give up early on.  Then, after trying so hard, he would end up moving away when I tried to get the contact close.  Later, we switched gears and I let him try by himself to put the contact in.  But he just could not do it.  He did relent later and just let me try exclusively.   After the first couple of weeks, I told him that he would not be allowed to have screen time if he could not get a contact in his eye.  Unfortunately,  this ended up in a few nights where he cried himself to sleep because he is addicted to screen time and especially Roblox.  I did not want to make him depressed about it, but it did give him incentive and drive to try harder to put the contacts in his eyes.

We made great progress over the last few days when R finally got a contact into one eye.  He was so proud of himself and we let him have a good amount of screen time the next day as a reward.  It has been less than a week now and I am happy to see that he can put both contacts on for 10 minutes.  I will try again for the next week and then check in with the eye doctor to confirm the fitting.

On a personal note, I have recently decided to go back on allopurinol after being off the drugs for over 10 years.  I went for a blood test today and also went to Costco for the first time to use their pharmacy.  I have to say that the Costco experience was not great as I felt like I was always just standing in line.  But the price was good with a low dispensing fee of less than $5.  My contribution came to only $1.38 for 30 pills.  Unfortunately,  I have to go back in 30 days to get my refill or else my benefits will not cover the costs.  I will start on allopurinol tomorrow and hopefully helps with the gout problems I have had since I turned 30.

CC

20200203 - First Period

Today started like any other Monday.  Groggy parents and kids trying to get ready for school and work.  But as I was in the kitchen getting things ready, CF comes downstairs and tells me that A got her first period.  ACK!  My smart little baby girl with the big eyes now has to deal with "bleeding and cramping issues" for the rest of her life.  So hard to believe it.  She's only 10 years old!  CF tells me that she had a similar early onset at the age of 11.  But oh my gosh, A is only 10 years old.  This might explain why she has been cranky (like all the time) or maybe it is just her personality.

 CF gave A a short talk and gave her a few pads.  I hope CF will provide further information and answer questions that A may have.  I do not feel well suited to address this issue.  I suggested that A stay home from school today, but A seemed to think it was ok.

I asked CF if A had any problems today.  CF did not seem to know, but just assumed that A was ok.  I hope so.

I still remember the early days when A was just a baby.  I would carry her around all over the place.  She was not the easiest child to take care of, but things did get easier as she got older.  She has always been a cute little girl.  Hard to imagine how fast she has grown up and that soon she will be boy crazy or something.

CC