What's Up Doc? You A Croc of Shit?

Recently a very good friend went for a surgery. He had his abdomen cut opened and his intestines examined from end to end, every inch squeezed and stretched. This was in Dec 2007 and I got to know about it in late Jan 2008. WTF, I asked him? Why was I not told? He said that he does not want the fuss and et al.

As to the reason for the operation, my friend could not pass motions or flatulence and his stomach was bloated, and he was in great discomfort and pain.

He saw a doctor from a specialist center and the doctor could not diagnose the problem as well. It was a lot of "educated" guess work. In the end, the doctor recommended some sort of drip. So my friend was admitted into the hospital and was put on some sort of drip. The next day, my friend could let flatulence and defecate.

Thinking that he was getting better, he was set on getting discharged. The doctor paid a visit and said that he was still not sure of the cause of the problem. He recommended some sort of intestine examination using fluoroscopy, which required my friend to ingest barium. The X-ray revealed nothing. Next the doctor recommended surgery to check thoroughly. My friend was reluctant but the doctor was painting a very dark picture of what could happened, etc. talking to the wife and putting the fear in them.

So my friend agreed to go through with the surgery. After the surgery, the doctor was still not sure of what was causing the problem. But he did remove my friend's appendix while he had the intestines out... consolation prize I supposed.

In my opinion, I think my friend was being insurance scammed by the doctor. These doctors prey on you when you are at the weakest and vulnerable, capitalizing on your fears and of loosing your love ones.

Since I was 16years old, I have had a three difficult major encounters with doctors, GP or general practitioners in general.

Stomach Upset? My Ass!

The first was in 1979. One night, I had major abdominal pain. My mom took me to see a doctor in the little town in Sibu, Sarawak. The doctor quickly dismissed it as normal stomach upset and sent me home with a couple of medications. I suffered throughout the night with the pain spreading throughout the abdomen. Did not sleep a wink! The next morning, my mom took me to see the doctor again. This time, he pressed down hard on my lower right abdomen and held it for a while before letting go. I felt a sharp pain. The doctor quickly told my mom that I had severe inflammation of appendix and quickly told my mom to admit me to the old Sibu General Hospital for immediate surgery.

When we reached the hospital, the bloody bastard at the admission counter told an orderly to sit me down and wait after viewing the papers from the doctor. It must have been more then 30 minutes and I think I almost passed out from the pain. A passing orderly or was it a doctor noticed me and quickly call out to someone and wheeled me into the emergency area. While semi conscious, I noticed someone shaving my pubic hair and cleaning my abdomen. Next thing I saw was the operating theater multiple lights above me before I passed out.

When I came through, I noticed that I was in one of the ward filled with other patients. I was in and out of consciousness, probably stoned out from the amount of morphine I was getting... LOL. I remembered by mom and grandma sitting by my bedside. With my grandma holding on to my hand, it was a great great comfort to me.

I was told that I had severe appendicitis and would have died within the next hour if I had not gone in for surgery. MF!

When I got well, I ran through the whole ordeal in my head and came to a conclusion that doctors are just idiots like the rest of us. They read more, enough to get a medical doctor title, and then they qualify to diagnose from the symptoms that they see and make educated guesses.

When you were a kid, in a small town like Sibu, doctors, teachers, parents, polices, etc. were treated with great respect and widely admired. I came to a different conclusion that day. Fair or not, as far as doctors were concerned, they cannot be trusted, especially with my life!

Just A Little Yellow Urine, Drink More Water!

My second major encounter with a doctor was in 1991 in Petaling Jaya. At that time I was working for Parkson Grand. I was a buyer based in Subang Parade. One day, I noticed that my urine was very yellow. This continued for a couple of days. I went to see a panel GP in Subang Parade. And typical of a GP, she just prescribed some fucked up medication, advise me to drink more water and sent me home. The yellow urine persisted and I felt very tired and I developed serious itching on my elbow and knee. I went to see the GP again and was given some crap medication again and more advice to drink enough water.

Not the one to trust what a GP said, that night I went to my friend's house and decided to look up those symptoms in an old Reader Digest Medical Encyclopedia. I searched for "yellow urine" which led me to read the section on jaundice and the excessive bile (yellow color) secretion in the urine, thus leading to yellow urine. Next, I followed the related sections on hepatitis and itching, and found the link to the liver diseases. I read up on hepatitis A, B, C, D, E and G. Boy, I was really worried and vulnerable then. Almost in a state of panic!

The next day, I went back to the GP and told her, "Hey, you might want to check and see if I have any liver disease?" "Bingo!" I could almost see the bulb lighting up! Bloody MF! Immediately, she wrote a letter to get me to go for a check-up in Subang Jaya Medical Center (SJMC).

I went to SJMC and when my blood test result came out, I was immediately admitted. I stayed there for two blissful weeks. My job grade entitled me to a twin sharing room. Each day I had to take these green capsules at every 4 hour interval and that was it. I had a menu to select what I wanted for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Each visit by the doctor consisted of him reading the chart and only sometime he would ask a question. I found out later that I was billed RM80 for each visit.

Anyway, the good thing was that my urine returned to normal and I felt great! Later, I found out that, I had contracted a severe case of Hepatitis A and that I had nothing to worry about. On top of that, I have natural immunity against Hepatitis B. When I asked about the green capsules, I was told that they just helped to strengthen my liver.

Every Breath I Take Reminds Me Of A Pair Of Forceps

My third major encounter was self-perpetuated. For the longest time, I could not breath properly. My sinus was acting up constantly since I came back to Malaysia from Canada back in 1987. I could not taste what I ate nor smell anything. My nights constantly consist of blocked nose and the morning was followed by constant sneezing.

It was in 2006, when I decided to do something about it. I went to see a Ear, Nose, Throat (ENT) specialist in Petaling Jaya. He diagnosed me with severe sinusitis and I had a lot of polyp growths which blocked by nasal passageway. The only way to remove these polyps was to go for surgery.

Of course, my cynicism for doctors' diagnosis precedes me. So I decided to consult my good friends at Google.com and Wikipedia.org, leading me to tons of reading materials on sinusitis and nasal polyps.

Satisfied with my own findings, I checked myself into Sunway Medical Center and went for surgery. The polyps were removed and my sinus cavities were widened. When I woke up from surgery, I felt extremely uncomfortable as it was still bleeding and the bandages were soaked with blood, and I was in pain as well. When the ENT specialist visited me, he told me that one of the forceps broke during surgery and he wants me to go for X-ray to see if part of the forceps was stuck inside. WTF!!! That was some fucking news! Oh... and the reason he gave was, "It is required by the manufacturer to submit a report when the forceps break under use." WTF do I care? He offered no apologies whatsoever except, "I am not charging you for the x-ray."

Anyway, the good news is that the X-ray result showed that there was no forceps parts in my head! But I could not help it but felt that maybe, just maybe a metal piece could be stuck in my head!

The recovery was a torture! I had to breath through my mouth all the time until the bandages were removed from the nasal passageway (must have been about 2 meters worth of bandages stuffed into my nasal passageway). To make things worse, I must not leave the house for a month. The reason being to reduce the chance of me getting an infection. If infected, I would have to go surgery again, which I was determined to avoid at all cost!

Now I can breath easy and my sinuses are clear. All in all, it was worth it. I was also warned that the problem could recur in future. I don't care, I can taste food and smell the flowers now.

I hope if anyone is reading this post, my message to you is to wake up and smell the flowers too. Don't trust the doctors (or anyone) completely (especially when you are feeling vulnerable and weak). Always get second opinions. My favorite places to get second opinions are my good friends at Google.com and Wikipedia.org!

Guess what I have gotten myself into?

It all started with me declaring myself to be overweight in June this year. Then my purchase of a mountain bike in the hope of using it as one of my means to loose weight.



I spent RM400 on an Exitway - Mr Sub mountain bike, a really heavy "hardtail" (see... now I am talking biking jargons... LOL... must be progress), that I personally referred to as the "Lorry" bike! LOL.

Since buying the bike and riding to so many places these past months, I have discovered some must-buy gears for anyone wanting to go mountain biking on a budget!

One of the things I needed was a bicycle lock to lock my bike when I carry it behind my pick-up. So it was a must have item for me. The lock has seen better days since! The RM25 lock still works, but has lost it's casing after a week! Made in Taiwan! Quality?

I also bought a Cateye tail light for night riding for RM34. Excellent quality!

Aside from the bike, the next single most important thing I bought was the SixSixOne Helmet!



I spent RM120 for this notorious US brand but made in China helmet that after the first day of use, the protective foam just came loose! I think I have a big head... Hahahaha... Check it out below! Quality? Sucks, I guess, but still usable as a protective helmet as long as I fasten the strap properly. I will not recommend anyone to buy this though.



After a few cross-country rides, I realized that a set of gloves would be an important piece of safety equipment to have, especially on downhills!



So I dished out a reasonable RM80 to get this nice pair of SixSixOne gloves, which has since save me from a lot of potentially nasty cuts and bruises on my hands! Quality stuff, yeah! A must buy for all bikers!



Liters of water are a must for cross-country biking. A friend of mine managed to get a 2 liters High Sierra branded hydration back-pack for me from Bangkok, Thailand, for RM110.



On the day I was going to use it, while filling in water, the bloody water bag was leaking profusely at the joint between the bag and the "straw"! Quality sucks big time! Major disappointment!

So now I am just using the back-pack to carry a spare bottle of water! Sad? Pathetic? Hell yeah! Still bloody sore about it! High Sierra sucks man!

About a week ago, I bought myself a nice pair of padded cycling pants! Since I started cycling, I have torn more than 5 pairs of shorts.



For RM110, I have basically reinforced my ass and save myself from a whole bunch of nagging from my wife regarding torn or split shorts... LOL.

A couple of months back, a friend gave me some MTB videos to watch! Man... my first thoughts were, "What? How the heck did that guy do that?" I was referring to Ryan Leech! Man... that guy is inhuman! Ryan Leech is the king of trial riding! Check out this video on YouTube!

Since then, I have been trying to learn track-standing, hopping and jumping on my bike! One of the painful lessons I learnt was that you gotta watch out for your shin hitting the pedals!



Which is why I bought this RM18 shin guard 2 days ago!



Check it out! I have yet to try them on. Probably gonna do it next opportunity I get.



Since I started MTB, I have amassed a whole bunch of stuff, some defective and disappointing and some really lifting and useful.

All in all I have not spent a whole lot of money. Including a child seat, a cyclometer, fixing a crooked crank and a broken headset, and 3 set of punctured tubes, I have spent only a total of RM 1277! (Btw, learning jumping and hopping are expensive if your bike's parts are only good for normal biking. I could have save RM200 if I hadn't tried jumping and hopping like an overgrown clown... LOL)

So what have I achieved since the time I bought the bike? Did I loose weight? Unfortunately, I did not loose weight! So what did I gain? I became a Superhero... that's what! LOL...



Just fooling around after a ride on the KL-Putrajaya highway in Sri Petaling... :-)

Basically, I now have more stamina. I do not feel lethargic from lack of exercise. I feel healthier. But most importantly... now at 44 years old, I can track stand reasonably well, hop like a bunny and jump over speed bumps... LOL.... HAHahhaa..

It's just gonna get better from here on... LOL!

Wild Geeks Hashing

Since the day I bought my mountain bike on June 12 2007, I have been very busy cycling. (Everyday I made it a point to cycle at least 11km or more to build up my stamina.) After watching Wild Hogs, it inspired me and George to start a "Wild Something".

By June 26 2007, the Wild Geeks Adventure club was formed.

With the formation of the Wild Geeks Adventure Club I have been very busy hashing with the guys. The first trip was to the Rubber Research Institute and there were only three of us - George, Daniel and me.

By the second trip, which was to Batu Dam, there were 7 of us - George, Daniel, John, Azril, Izaini, Ken Wei and me. We hope to get more people to start cycling and hashing with us.

I have gone on three MTB hashing trips and they were all fun and exciting. The joy was to be in an unknown place not knowing what is down the road or the trail, or around the next corner.

Thanks to Daniel and Azril, I have some photos of myself on our last hashing trip to Batu Dam (view GPS photos on Google Earth here).

Photos by Daniel:






Photos by Azril:




I had just completed a trip to the Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) with Joe and Azril yesterday - July 21 2007 (view GPS photos on Google Earth here). And now, we are already planning another hashing trip for next Saturday (28th July).

George proposed and planned this next hashing to the Lata Kijang Waterfall, Negri Sembilan. The Lata Kijang Waterfall destination is not exactly a MTB route. It's famous more for 4WD and there are a lot of 4WD 3D2N tour packages to the falls, with tour activities such as spending an evening in the orang asli village.

Hopefully Micol and Ken Wei will have bought their bikes by then to be able to make it for the trip; and also Henry and Jason, fellow MTB adventurers whom I met in FRIM, will be able to make it as well.

Here are some information about Lata Kijang Waterfall:

• http://www.waterfallsofmalaysia.com/42kijang.php
• http://www.mudtrekker.com/lata.htm

For more full reports of the Wild Geeks hashing trips go here:

• http://wildgeeks.org
  

The Wild Geeks Adventure Club

Wow!!! In just two weeks, I have come a long way since I bought the mountain bike.

Last week, Joe and Daniel bought their bikes. Right after that together with George and John, we formed a club called The Wild Geeks Adventure Club. "Adventure" because, cycling will not be the only activity for the club. Last Saturday was the first cycling adventure of the Wild Geeks. Together with Daniel and George, we went and had it out in the Rubber Research Institute (RRI).

It was a first time for everyone at RRI. The trails were easy and hardly a challenge at all. Nevertheless, it allowed George to try out his brother's "hand me down" bike... LOL and Daniel to determine whether if spending that RM1000 was worth it or not.. :-)

More about the trip at The Wild Geeks Adventure Club's blog here.

The 3rd Day

Its been two days now.... and so far I still enjoy exercising on my new mountain bike. Its fun when you can do some sight seeing and exercising at the same time.

Yesterday, I purposely cycled to a construction yard to try out the "mountain" climbing capability of the bike on the rough tracks there... I must say it was very satisfying to put the bike to good use. Having said that, I am also learning how to handle the bike on rough terrain.... Hokkien people will say I "hiau"... LOL. I am planning to go try out a real mountain track next week. Gotta check with George first... :-P

For now, I am actually looking forward to cycling this evening.

Wild Something!

I am overweight. There I said it. So what am I going to do about it?

Lets start with the BMI or Body Mass Index, this is the only legitimate proof that I am overweight (although my wife has told me countless of times). Currently I weigh 187 lbs and my height is 5 ft 11 in, which works up to a BMI of 26.1. This puts me in the overweight category, which is not that far from the obesity category. See the following chart:

• Underweight = <18.5
• Normal weight = 18.5-24.9
• Overweight = 25-29.9
• Obesity = BMI of 30 or greater

Heck man... I am not going to OBESE territory. The buck stops now. If you want to see which category you fall in, go here and check it out.

I have been telling myself to jog. Then I found an excuse not to do it, cause I don't have a pair of running shoes. After that I had to buy a pair during a Parkson Grand sale (wife was staring very threateningly). I hit the treadmill for 2 days (did not even last 5 minutes each time... LOL) then I found the perfect excuse not to jog... jogging is bad for the joints!!! That's when I stopped... :-)

Btw... thats was about a year ago... LOL...

And then came this brilliant idea, cycling!!! I used to own a mountain bike and was pretty active cycling to and from work. Went on a few expeditions organised by the Youth and Sports Ministry headed by a Mr Tarmizi and driven by a very charismatic ex-army dude, which all the kids affectionately refer to as Pak Yup. I was twenty-five then, nineteen years ago... wah liao eh!!! Man.. I was skinny as a stick then!!!

Coming back to what I was saying, cycling! Yes, I just felt that it was the perfect exercise for me! And so I pitch the idea to some of my colleagues, but it did not really catch on. I think everyone thought I would just quietly forget about it.

But no... I bought a mountain bike today!! And I did not feel guilty (which normally I do when I spend money on none essentials). Well... there was no inkling of guilt whatsoever and I felt great. (Btw, my old bike was stolen 17 years ago... LOL.)

After I reached home today, I rode the bike out for more than an hour and it felt great! I rode up and down a slope about 6 times... my legs are damn stiff with lactic acid. Sweat like a pig. Pant like a sow giving birth. The damn slope looked like hardly a challenge at all, and it was only about 500 meters sloping upwards. By the time I reached the top.... I could not pedal anymore... got off my bike and could hardly stand... HAhahha... it felt good and addictive!!!

For those of you who are still deciding whether if this is THE exercise to maintain good health and loose weight, check out this article and this one.

Come on guys... join up and cycle to good health!!! Better than Wild Hogs... Wild Something... :-) George, I know you are just waiting for the rest of the guys. Joe, tomorrow I go with you to buy the bike. John, you dun need it, just ride for fun... LOL... KC only wants the two seater and Peng Nam, you need it... hahaha

Here is a pix of my brand new bike... :-)