Quote of the Day - Excuses to Justify decisions

"Everyone has a story they tell themselves to justify bad decisions..and it never matters. In the end you are always alone in your actions."

- Hawke, Dragon Age Inquisition

Andre Lim

Colonoscopy - Reflections

Today I did a colonoscopy and an endoscopy procedure.

Nothing serious occurred but I just wanted to post a quick note partly for the benefit of any of my friends who have never done a colonoscopy before, and partly for my own reflection.

The battleplan....

I am NOT a doctor, please get your own medical advice and do NOT rely on this, but:

• A colonoscopy is a procedure that checks your large bowel by inserting a tube down there. 
• A general rule seems to be that if you get regular bleeding down there when you go to the toilet, for say 6 months, then you should do a colonoscopy.
• Another general rule is to get a colonoscopy once you hit 50.
• Yet another general rule appears to be that you should not do a colonoscopy more than once in a less-than-five-year period.

I also did an endoscopy to check my oesophagus - to see if there were any problems associated with heartburn or reflux.

As far as I can tell the procedures went well thanks to the nurses and doctors, subject to the biopsy results. 

However the worst part really is the PREPARATION for the colonoscopy -- in particular, drinking the PREP liquid (which in my case was Moviprep)

Preparation

My particular procedure required me to, amongst other things, abstain from:

• Seeds; 
• Skinned vegetables; 
• Skinned fruits;
• Nuts; and
• Whole grains

for two days prior to the colonoscopy procedure. 

Some of the recommended foods were hot chips, mash potato, white bread, ice cream and fish. Which was certainly doable!

One day before the colonoscopy:

Starting from 9am on the day before the procedure, I had to drink "clear fluids" ONLY which was defined to include, for example:

• Water
• Black tea
• Black coffee
• Clear soup
• Sports drinks (only certain colours permitted)
• Jelly (only certain colours permitted)

In my case interchanging between the clear soup, jelly and sports drinks was a lifesaver - it provided me with savoury and sweet options!

My sister and my mum's friend were real life savers in particular because they helped me to find, and even prepared, the right food for me :)

Moviprep - $22.99 from Chemist Warehouse to a max (?) of $29 elsewhere

Moviprep deserves a heading of its own because this is what creates the chaos. The best way I can put this (as someone said to me) is that it is a liquid that causes you to 'cleanse your bowels'. 

In other words, there is no nice way to say this --- Moviprep causes you to diarrhoea very badly LOL. Stomach cramping seems to be common too.

Not all procedures are the same but:

At 4pm the day before the procedure, I had to drink 1L of Moviprep, interspersed with 500ml of clear fluid over the next hour or so.

At 8pm I had to drink ANOTHER 1L of Moviprep over the next hour or so.

Starting from midnight of the day of the procedure, I was not allowed any solid food or liquids.

Reflections

Prior to doing this procedure, I had read a forum on the topic. The procedure is not as bad as some people exaggerate ("IT WAS THE WORST DAY OF MY LIFE"), but it is not easy either.

For starters, although Moviprep is 'lemon-flavoured', no amount of lemon scent can actually mask the liquid's true intent. The taste gradually becomes foul after the first few gulps, particularly during the second 8pm dosage (when you are already quite full of liquid).

I had two real battle points during this procedure.

First testing point

The 4pm dose was fine. However the first real testing point was the 8pm dose.

At that point I was already full of liquid (from the 4pm dose plus my clear liquids for 'dinner'), and had to put in more liquid at 8pm. 

I almost felt like vomiting due to the horrible taste, but eventually spread out the 1L over the next 1 hour. 

Yellow Gatorade was my saviour.

You have to finish each dosage as prescribed. As Harry Potter said to Dumbledore: "You've got to keep drinking, remember? You told me you had to keep drinking."

Second testing point

The second testing point is the period from midnight of the day of the procedure to the time of the procedure itself (about 11am for me).

This is difficult because:

a) You are dehydrated but cannot drink water; and 

b) You may get hungry during this time, which is rather dangerous.

I woke up at 4am and at this point I was praying that I would not get hungry because that would be an awkward time to get hungry (my stomach was rumbling). 

However, thankfully I was able to have disturbed sleep for the next few hours and I shook it off.

In hindsight...

...I should have probably:

• Drank 2 cups of water at about 11.50pm before going to sleep. However quite honestly, I was too tired to do that and had slept by 11.30pm. I was still rather full of liquid.

• Spread out my consumption of clear liquids in between 4pm to 8pm so that I would not be too full for the 8pm Moviprep dosage.

Being put to sleep

It was also the first time I was put to sleep for a medical procedure.

Thankfully my friend was the anaesthetist which made things comforting :)

I can only remember him saying that there would be a cold shiver down my arm, and the next thing I remember was the nurse waking me up. I did not know what was going on when I woke up and I felt rather dazed!! It was such a strange sensation. I almost forgot who I was or what I was doing there. I had to lie down for it to wear off.

And that makes me wonder...this might be a distasteful subject but...that moment when one blacks out before surgery --- is that what it is like when someone passes away peacefully? 

They just suddenly fade out without realising it? 

Topic for another day.

Happy to be eating now

All I can say is that I'm glad that I can eat again and I would rather NOT do that again LOL.

I now have a tiny understanding of what it is like to undergo a medical procedure - doing a serious operation must be a 1,000,000,000,000 times worse because there is the added element of pain during rehabilitation and recovery etc. What I experienced these last two days is absolutely nothing compared to what others have faced.

I hope this short note proves to be useful for someone :)

I'd like to thank my mum's friend for dropping me off and my granduncle for picking me up - you are not allowed to drive after the procedure. 

Andre Lim

Nothing like football/soccer

I found this cool quote on the Guardian:

“I actually watched the entire match today and caught highlights of some others. As an American, I envy the national fever that football (our soccer) creates. There is really nothing like it here. Most of the professional sports are tied to cities or states, but not the US. I guess the Olympics is as close as we get. I do see the ratings for Euro 2016 increasing, but there is a long way to go. I was very happy for Portugal.”

Andre Lim

Eating Portuguese humble pie

So I'll be blatantly honest here.

Courtesy of www.mirror.co.uk

I betrayed my one cardinal rule in football, which is also a rule that I apply to most sports I follow:

"Always support the underdog...unless it is Italy**."

Today I was taught a humbling, but important, lesson by Portugal. A Portugal who, against all odds, beat France in the latter's own backyard to win their first major international trophy. In doing so, Portugal laid to rest 41 winless years and 10 consecutive defeats suffered against the French. 

Now, how did I miss that headline in the first place?

You see, I started off with all the wrong concepts. Concepts that blinded me.


Iceland - bad sportsmanship from CR7

Right from the time when Portugal played Iceland, and captain Cristiano Ronaldo refused to shake hands with the Iceland team, I refused to support Portugal. In fact, I confess that I wanted them to lose! Desperately. The whole team was tainted in my eyes all because of their captain.


Knockout stage - Round of 16 and Quarterfinal

When Portugal played Croatia in the Round of 16, I was quite clearly rooting for Croatia. I thought to myself: "This half of the draw is easy, and it looks like Croatia will meet France in the final."

How wrong I was. I failed to realise the signs when Portugal nullified Croatia to beat them 0-1 after extra time. That should have been a wake up call for me, but it wasn't.

Still, I stubbornly refused to believe Portugal could make it past Poland in the quarter-final. I desperately wanted to see Poland beat Portugal to teach the Portuguese captain a lesson. It didn't happen. Portugal edged out Poland in a penalty shootout.


The Welsh

Now, when Wales continued their miracle run into the semi-final, I thought to myself:

"This has to be it, Wales will beat Portugal to reach the final and make history. A small footballing nation like them deserves it. They are the underdog team to cheer on in this tournament."

And I was wrong again. Wales lost 0-2.


The Final - which changed my perception of everything

So in my mind, it was now up to the French to set this perceived 'injustice' right.

Then something crazy happened.

Credit Getty Images and Lars Baron

Cristiano Ronaldo got injured in the final. And he was taken off the pitch. In a stretcher. In tears.

Hang on a second..he's injured?!

Portugal's best player is injured! 

The fellow who made me annoyed is injured. It's almost as if I didn't have a reason to dislike the Portuguese team anymore.

Could Portugal fend for themselves without their star player?


And this is how Portugal proved me wrong.

You bet they could.

They absolutely proved today that they are NOT just a one-man team. I find it incredible that I had allowed one person to distort my view of the whole team - which was entirely unfair to the rest of the Portuguese squad.

I had betrayed my cardinal rule of always supporting the underdog team just because I took offence to one player's actions.

You see, no team is perfect and no person is perfect.

Today, my view of Ronaldo and Portugal changed. When Ronaldo injured his leg and was stretchered off, he was understandably devastated. I had never seen this side of him before. They were genuine tears. But even when he was off the pitch he was still at the sidelines, giving encouragement to his team mates. In my view, that is a heroic effort -- putting on a brave face and giving your team mates all the support you can give despite being unable to contribute directly yourself.

The whole team stepped up.

João Mário's energy was unrelenting; Rui Patricio's saves (vs Sissoko, Giroud, and from memory, Andre-Pierre Gignac and Griezmann) were outstanding; Pepe, as much as his character leaves a lot to be desired sometimes, was resolute this whole tournament; Fonte was also doing his job at the back; Carvalho was solid defensively in breaking up play; Guerreiro, the lively free-kick specialist, almost scored; and Nani, the fired-up stand-in captain, was pumped -- just to name a few.


Eder - the hero

And incredibly - this is my favourite part - a new Portuguese hero was born.

Eder is a huge muscular big guy who relies on his hold-up play and height. His dribble and shot must have caught everyone off guard!!!

Prior to this match, Eder had only scored 3 times in friendly matches over his 27+ appearances for Portugal. He had never scored in a competitive fixture for Portugal before. He was also criticised for his performance at the World Cup 2014; he did not score for Swansea last season and was eventually loaned out.

Despite this, Fernando Santos still had faith to put him on. And guess what.

Eder, a man of humble beginnings and a disadvantaged childhood - the striker no one expected would score - stepped up and belted home the most important goal of his career.

And in doing so, he proved EVERYONE wrong. Prior to the goal, even Martin Tyler and/or Alan Smith said words to the effect that "Eder would be a most unlikely hero."


Portugal unfairly castigated 

Portugal didn't just defeat the odds; they also proved their critics and haters wrong. Myself included.

I have never been happier to be proven wrong.

Portugal were undefeated the whole tournament.

Honestly, how can I not give credit where credit is due: it's one thing to debate whether Portugal deserved to win -- but how can anyone say Portugal DIDN'T deserve to win?!

People may criticise their defensive style of play but Portugal did what was best for their team, not what was entertaining in the public view. And they won. Who can argue against that? If you were good enough, you would beat them. But no one was good enough. So how can there be any complaint?!

They may have only scraped 3 points, finishing behind Iceland and Hungary, but is it their fault the tournament format allows four best third-placers? How can they be faulted for that?!

They were formidable underdogs -- or dark horses this tournament at minimum -- and for that, I have absolute respect for them.

Worthy Euro 2016 champions in my opinion. Let the celebrations in the Portuguese community run into the night - Petersham included!!

Andre Lim


**Of course the Italy part only applies to football/soccer. If you want to know why, you'd have to go back 10 years to a certain match in Kaiserslautern, Germany.

The Travel Book - Lonely Planet Kids

Even though I've not finished reading this, I am pretty sure that (one can never be too sure) this is one of my favourite books of all time.*

Price: AUD$19 from Target (Hardcover), $25+ online
Published: September 2015 (1st Edition)
Author (?) and Illustrator respectively: Malcolm Croft and Maggie Li
Pages: 211 (slightly larger than A4)

If you love countries, travelling or learning about cultures, I would highly recommend this book to you. It is absolutely excellent and a real keeper.

Forget about the fact that the book is supposedly for kids. If an adult knew every fact in this book, they would either have to be very well-read or incredibly well-travelled because the book covers a plethora of cultural concepts and national facts.

In essence, Lonely Planet Kids' The Travel Book captures the imagination of its readers by going through the unique aspects of EVERY country in the world (albeit very briefly).

When I talk about unique aspects I mean:

• Culture;
• History;
• What the country is renowned for;
• Wildlife, plants, animals; and 
• Geographical features or landmarks.

The term 'EVERY country' could be up for debate but the book does include the world's newest 'nations' South Sudan and Kosovo (although the latter may still be waiting for formal recognition). By my count there are 203 nations included in the book in total.

I understand there are actually some 196 official countries in the world at the time of writing -- how the book reaches 203 is something I'll have to look into but I suppose you have to bear in mind that Taiwan, Hong Kong and Palestine each have their separate entries. Perhaps some of the Oceania entries are actually 'external territories' of existing nations rather than countries?

I think this book would make for a great preliminary travel research tool for adults. Each country is featured on a page with approximately 5-7 unique things about it represented by real photographs or cartoon drawings. I've already started to make a list of things to see and do in Africa for example (not that I would ever get the chance to do all of them - but just for fun).

Every country has something interesting to offer, and so far there is no real repetition that I can see. Certainly some countries have similar sorts of cultural features though (eg. the warrior-clan-like tribal groups of various African nations) but every country's page is a fresh discovery and well-presented for fun light-hearted reading.

Countries are somewhat randomly sorted by region, but there is an index on the front if you want to look up at particular country.

The more obscure countries are really quite fascinating, and you can tell that the creators of this book have done their research [not that I am capable of verifying any of the information - except by Googling or using Wikipedia].

To give you an idea of what to expect, kindly have a look at the page above for Australia -- I have deliberately not included pages of other countries because I don't want to spoil the experience for you should you choose to get this book. :)

You may never look at any country the same way again.

Score: 

9.8+/10

Andre Lim

* However this book, which is the kids edition, may soon be eclipsed by the adult version, which I have ordered!

As long as Portugal lose...

...I am happy.

Prediction: France 1-0 winners.

Andre Lim

A cry for help

If there is such a thing as justice, Portugal will lose the final of Euro 2016.

Portugal 'fluking' their way upwards may have been amusing at first, but this is NOT funny anymore.

PLEASE

I'm getting desperate.

Andre Lim