Stone Temple Pilot

The title might suggest that i might be talking about the band but what i am talking is about stone, renal stone to be exact. At the end of last year i was struck with a medical problem that i didn't think that i would get in my life. It came suddenly out of the blue. I got a renal stone, luckily it was not big and it was on its way out of my body. But the movement of the stone caused a great deal of pain. I was pissing out blood literally, and it was the most excruciating pain ever.

I got it removed as soon as i found out. The procedure was simple, the surgeon introduced a scope or a probe through my urethra via a Ureteroscopic Stone Removal (google it please, i dont want to tell it in detail.) and took out the stone. It was small in size around 0.5mm x 0.3mm but that small stone really did a lot of damage inside. The stone is a calcium oxalate stone which is very common. I didn't get the chance to take a picture of it as they had sent the stone to Australia for an analysis.

Picture of the procedure

The stone looks very much like this

The realization of the disease that i had made me come to terms that i am just another person and not a super person or a superman. The surgeon hit me with the truth, that the stone is caused by myself and by other people. Its the food and water that i had taken for the past 31 years of my life. Apparently i had been taking a lot of acidic food and unhealthy food.

Well for starters, my fav foods is usually seafood like shrimps, squids, and etc... And i have been eating out most of the time. And if i eat at home usually the food would contain 'belacan' as it is my favorite. And the water that i consume doesn't include plain water. Mostly it was carbonated drinks, or colored drinks or even the instant ones and the biggest culprit would be the 'teh ais' which i take almost everyday.

I don't have a family history with renal stone, but with all the factors above plus the area which i am living now is considered as the highest prevalence of people having renal stone so naturally sooner or later i would get it. And i am glad that i got it sooner rather than later. It may sound crazy but i am really grateful that God had given me the chance to feel what is like having this problem. Now i can take better care of my health as a result. And i can tell people with my own experience how it feels and thus i can treat them better.

How to treat it and avoid it in the future. For starters, a lot of modification in my lifestyle especially the foods. I have to avoid all my favourites plus foods that contain high oxalate such as chocolates, spinach, wheat bran. I have to eat less meat, and fish too. It is better to take white meat rather than red meat and especially not to take inside organs such as liver, kidneys. It is because those foods contain high protein content and high protien produces a lot of uric acid which is a factor for stone formation.

The amount of water is important too. I have to take at least 2 to 2.5 liters of water per day to avoid concentrating the urine. It is to dilute the calcium inside of my urine and avoid the stone formation. And of course not to take 'teh ais' anymore.. The content of the water is also important, i need to take water that is slightly alkaline as acidic water promotes stone formation. And also the surgeon advises me not to drink RO (reverse osmosis water as according to him is useless water and in fact will make you worse if you have renal stone) The water is best around ph 7.0 to 7.9.

I am more health conscious than ever before and i hope that i can influence people more by telling my experience. And i hope that i can avoid having a recurrent stone.

Games Numero Uno

The New Year has passed and i have yet to make a definite resolutions yet. But one thing for sure is that i have decided to cut down my daily intake of Facebook. Which i manage to do thus far.

But to day i'm not going to talk about facebook but a similar theme that got me hooked to facebook which is games. I stumbled upon an article in Yahoo Games that highlighted the most recognisable character in the gaming industry.

i had played the game when i was young and the odds are so have you. Which game and character that i am referring to... well, if you guessed Pac-man then you're a genius. Pac-man is a game where you as the Pac-man is required to eat all the pacdots in a maze and the power pellets. You have to finish all the power pellets and the pacdots to go up a level. In addition to the pac-dots and the power pellets, the game also has bonus items in form of a fruit.


The game also has 4 ghosts inside the maze and you need to avoid them or you'll be dead. The ghosts will follow you and sometimes gang you up until you make a mistake. You can also eat the ghosts by eating the power pellets that will make you power up for a while and eat them. Did you know that the ghosts also has their own names which are, Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clide. They also has their own characteristics according to the Pac-man creator.


The game is almost as old as me which is 30 years old this year. I still enjoy playing it despite having played it numerous times. Judging by the popularity and the longevity i guess it will stay here for as long as it can. Well, here's hoping to a 30 years more.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to All of You...

Hopefully this year would be better for me personally as last year was totally not the best year in my life...

Kad Raya and Selamat Hari Raya..

This year most of the kad hari raya were given through facebook or even through e-cards. The traditional kad raya seems to be forgotten. Luckily, a boy named Ahmad Aiman is very excited to learn something new to him which is called Kad Raya. He never knew a kad raya existed before. He even asked me how to make a kad raya. I told him that we don't need to make one. We can just buy the kad raya. He was surprised by the answer as he said that his teacher had asked him to make Kad Raya to be iven to his friends in school.

He later asked me to buy him some kad raya for him as he wanted to give to his friends and teachers. Being a forgetful dad, i forgot to buy him and he got upset. So last night i went out to buy some for him while he was sleeping.

During sahur, i placed the cards on the dining table. He was elated to see the cards and asked when i bought them. He was equally surprised that there were envelopes too as he thought that the envelopes is something that he needed to make too. How naive kids eh. After sahur, while i was waiting for subuh prayers i presumed that he had gone back to sleep. But being so excited of having the raya cards he did not sleep but he was writing on the cards so he can give to his friends during school time.

I still vividly remember the joy of sending cards and receiving them. Sadly the trend is slowly fading. But upon seeing my kid enjoying the raya card i think that there is still hope of the tradition to continue.

As we are approaching raya, i would like to wish all of you SELAMAT HARI RAYA and MAAF ZAHIR BATIN. Wish all of you have a great time visiting your kampung and your loved ones. Drive safely and cautiously.

Here's an E-card for all of you
SELAMAT HARI RAYA!!

Calm and Cool

This morning was a bit of a surprise. I woke up to found out that outside was covered with fog. This morning was a bit chilly and reminded me of cameron highlands and also bukit larut.

It's like living in high country

As you can see, the Hill on the background is covered with the fog and is not even visible from my house. The weather is nice and cooling. Oh how I wish that everyday was like this.

The weather is so nice, felt like going back to sleep

No hill!! Totally covered with fog

The hill during normal days

Baling is not exactly in highlands but it is cool. Especially when it rains. Its not hard not to like this place. But at times like this i wish that my wife is here to enjoy the scenery and serenity.

Oh, and today is little afiq's birthday. Happy birthday afiq!! Bak will post something later ya..

Fasting and sahur.. a tale of eggs

This fasting month is a bit different from the last ramadhan. This year my eldest son Aiman started to train to fast. He had never fast before, so it came as a surprise when he was able to finish the whole day fasting in his first attempt on the first day of ramadhan.

He is also delightfully easy to wake up for sahur. He didnt manage to fast everyday. But almost every other day which is very good for him. I'm so proud of him. Whenever he complains of hunger or thirsty, i asked him not to think of it and concentrate on other things to preoccupy his mind. That was one of the reasons that i had allowed him to play with the PS2. Now he is getting very good with it and even manage to beat me in his favourite game Naruto.

Back to sahur time, he likes to eat mostly rice during sahur. As he always does in other meal time. Last night all of us went to Penang to send their mother to the airport as she is going back to KL. When we got back to baling it is quite difficult for me to buy anything at the stall for sahur. Aiman had requested to eat rice for sahur. Erkk.. Aiyoo, what to do. Rice i can cook but the serving? I dont think so. I spent the night scratching my head on how to prepare sahur. I then said to myself, what the heck. I'll just try to cook something. But what to cook? There is not much in the fridge and i dont think that i can cook something complex.

I scoured the fridge and the answer was just in front of my eyes. What is Aiman fav food. Eggs!! I cant just fry the eggs and eat it with rice like that. So braved myself into cooking. I decided to cook fried eggs with tomato sauce. Luckily it went okay. The taste wasnt the same standard as my wifes cooking but at least it is edible. Hehe. Aiman ate the eggs without saying anything. A good sign eh. Later he said that he liked it. But being aiman, anything with egg he would like it. Haha, success. Now im feeling that im half way being a mr mama.

The not so spectacular eggs with tomato

I've conquered the first hurdle. Maybe in the future i'll try to cook something else that requires more skill. Hehe. I wish.

From McD to Meehon

Spent the whole day thinking of what to have for Iftar or breaking fast. There is only one thing in my was McDonald. Dont know why but i did crave the burgers and the shakes.

Since today i would get off early like i always do on Thursdays. I planned to take all my kids into the Stream and make way to the nearest McD. In seberang perai which is almost 90km in distance. Heh, the nearest. But what to do if you're living in the country region. Heck i cant even call Baling a suburb area.

When i reach home, i told my kids that we were going to McD. I had hoped that the news would be greeted gleefully but something was even bigger than McD. An immovable object. That got my kids hooked for the past 1 week. The Playstation2. The one that i had owned for the past 6 years. Aiman was only 1 year old when i bought it. How time flies!! Now he is able to play it. Now i'm feeling old. Again.

I had to give in to him. While he was playing a Naruto fighting game, afiq fell asleep infront of the tv while drinking his milk. Huh, there goes my McD.

So i rushed off to bazaar ramadhan to scour what to eat for breaking fast. I decided to buy the kids nasi tomato and a modest meehon for myself. Along the way, i met up with one of my patients, who is selling sup tulang and such in the bazaar. He gave me one sup tulang, and he refused to take my money. He just said that to pray for him 'a murah rezeki'. Alhamdulillah, i said to him and wished him to be more successful in his business.

Sometimes, when we didnt not get one thing, god will open other things to us, as long as we keep our mind and heart open. We just have to be thankful in what we have and insyaallah god will give us more.