Brainstorm

I know people will think I am weird for blogging so much so often. But i have lots of time on my hands now to catch up with the things I wanted to do when I didn’t have time. I just want to keep a record of the things I’ve been doing so far, so here is a periodic dairy of some of my life’s events.

14th April 2007

My first interview for a scholarship. I got short-listed for The Star newspaper’s education fund. It was for the Institute of Advertising, Communication Training (IACT). I was so silently excited but thankful calm at the same time. Getting the scholarship would not mean I will attend the institute. IACT were offering 6 fully paid scholarships. Making the long story short, I think I did fairly well that day although receiving only a half scholarship. They couldn’t even offer that for my chosen course. In that case, it looked like Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman has become a huge prospect. Partial scholarship, partial disappointment.

21st April 2007

Hari Anugerah Cemerlang in my former secondary school. I was celebrated! Haha! Receiving RM50 was worth the effort of the slightly dreaded approach to school. But it wasn’t enough for the effort put in to study for SPM. I was still happy though. Seeing familiar faces doesn’t always seem bad :p Proof that I’m quite introverted.

26th April 2007

Another interview through The Star for PJ College of Art and Design (PJCAD). This time I was more relaxed, but ever more hopeful. Taking public transportation with my dad alone is really rare, and we did it that day just for kicks and fun. The interview went even greater than before but my chances of getting the full scholaship is smaller. They were giving out only ONE fully paid. There were 3 candidates, all girls *sweat*. According to the sweet CEO, I had more of a 50/50 chance, but the other girl’s father was a lorry driver or something :p And again, I got a half scholarship although they intentionally wasn’t giving that out. Heartbreaking.

IACT was offering lower fees for the graphic designing course compared to PJCAD; so it was finally either UTAR, or IACT. Bummer. Hard as it may be, I stood tough and understood my parents. I took a nap that day, feeling almost down in the dumps and when I woke up, my mum bursts into my room skipping, saying "Mr. Liew (PJCAD’s CEO) is offering to lower the fees to what IACT is offering!!" Wheee! God works in funny ways..

NOTE: No bribery was included :p nor any sugar-coated mouth sweet talking. Nope. Just pure good intentions. Thanks mom I hope this inspires you to dream.. because with best intentions, passion, hopes, dreams and prayer, you WILL succeed.

28th and 29th April 2007

‘No Apologies’ seminar was held. Here, I chose to abstain from SEX BEFORE MARRIAGE!! hahaha.. I was sure that’ll catch your attention. If you’re a doofus, you’ll lose your virginity too early in life. yuppp.. dooooOOofus. Wanna debate with me? Sure, I challenge you. Leave me a message on Friendster, fire me, fo’sure I’ll get back to you hahaha..abstain..abstain..abstain……

1st May 2007

Got my ridiculously expensive Puma watch! and bought a ridiculous amount of clothes to last me for a nice, good long time. On this day I also realised how materialistic I CAN become and realised that I’m moving from the Kid to Older Kid stage in life. People are treating me better. whoo..

Time to reinvent my blog and myself ever since the last time I deleted it. So many things about me has changed that I feel like I should type it down for nobody’s sake. Why do we blog? It’s just like asking why do we take photos? To commemorate the moment, or the experience or to explore the capabilities of our creativity, whether or not we choose to share it, make it public or not. Either way, blogging does not mean others have to read or anyone, for that matter, and that gives us the option of privacy. For me, it’s to help me journal out what I’ve been through.

Jaw Surgery; 28th March 2007

Day before surgery.

I was admitted into the hospital the day before the surgery. Being younger than most of the patients there, everyone looked at me curiously. Of course, I looked perfectly healthy, which caused more curiosity. I changed into pajama-type clothes. I was given a sarong! >_< what was embarrassing was that I couldn’t really tie it. Oh well, typical city girl. When an intern dentist wanted to take a blood test, he figured that my veins were so fine and he had to inject me a few times! oww. ha ha.. thank goodness a dentist with more exposure was around to ‘feel’ my vein. I reckon that I’m just full of nice fat :p

Later in the day on the 27th.

I was given multiple shots of novocaine into my mouth to numb my gums before they wire my mouth. This process is quite like putting on braces except that they wired my mouth in between every few teeth instead of going straight across. And THAT hurt way more than you can imagine. After the grueling wiring, the professor wiped my mouth with a tissue and that was when I realised I was bleeding profusely (shock!) but I didn’t feel the blood. This process just feels like someone sewing metal into your mouth. It sounded like a construction site..

I went back to my ward and the over-friendly patients sharing my ward looked and talked to me curiously again. I looked like a drug addict from my nose down to my chin. Or actually, more like a foaming, bleeding werewolf (ok, maybe not that gruesome). Oh, and it was the first time I had two stitches.

SURGERY DAY!

Nothing was running through my mind except, "Everyone is still looking, abit more worriedly this time". I changed out of my pajama-shirt and sarong and got wheeled out on a bed to the operation section. First came the cold air-cond and a then a few questions. I was actually 17 then, but my records said 18. So well, whatever, it got solved. More wheeling until i got into the surgery room and changed beds. Next, the anesthetics strapped me in, injected me here and there and finally placed a breathing mask over me… and whoa la!

(blank and darkness for one millisecond)

In a blink of an eye, 4-6 hours was gone. I can’t gage exactly how long because I don’t wear a watch into an operation room :p I woke up and felt drugged (I was after all) and although I can barely see, I heard the nurses loud and clear (sooo much chatter among themselves). One of them was tying my hair in a braid upwards from my lying position and another was saying, "jangan main rambut orang!". So cheeky. She continued to tie my hair though.

Day after surgery.

I was in the intensive care unit (ICU) for a night where I surprisingly felt like none of the nurses paid any attention to me, in contrast with the other hospital units. By then, I had a tube into my bladder, an injection tube on my left ankle and two on both of my arms. Every few hours I am injected with glucose and antibiotics. The antibiotics flows into the blood stream, so it hurts. Good remedy for an emo :p And for any extra pain, I could press a button to release morphine as pain killers! haha.. i accidentally pressed excessively once :p and that probably explained my post surgery behaviour :p :p :p

Recovery.

After ICU, I spent a night in the High Dependency Unit and soon I was shifted back to my normal ward. I still hadn’t gotten off the bed by then. Talking about the bladder tube, I found it useless. So you can imagine holding your bladder for a few days. After I got used to walking, I could pee happily! hahaha.. The negative side of this whole experience is that I have never felt so weak or depressed in my whole life. But I remembered my surgeon, Professor Roslan, telling me with a thoughtful far-away look "You just got to be positive and remember it gets better bit by bit daily. It’s not a miracle thing" (I was paraphrasing). At that time, I didn’t know why he would bother telling me that. Positively, it didn’t leave any bad effects and I was so grateful for the smallest things in life. I was grateful for mum, grateful for dad, grateful for walking, eating, drinking, peeing, and definitely releasing gas :p (sorry for being so detailed, but I really was..). All in all, it was great I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything much :p but I wouldn’t exactly want to do it again. If you want to know what it’s like, do try it. Especially if you get a government medical discount

Warning: One of the effects during surgery is scaring your mum to death.. so precautions should be taken

The physical improvement?

Don’t know. No idea. I looked the same as ever to myself :p I don’t doubt many people have gone and done a surgery expecting to come out a Britney. That is why my dentists stresses on practicality. Once, my home dentist asked, "So are you happy with the results?" I was quite taken off thought by this question because I had never considered it. I replied that I didn’t expect anything in the first place, and truly wanted the experience. She smiled at that.. I was happy too. For everyone and everything Thank you guys for your prayers.