Tag Archives: health

Nevus of Ota

The son of my friend got this rare “Nevus of Ota” disease. It start with a small birthmark on the face and it grows bigger as the boy grows. My friend is worrying about the condition of his baby. Luckily, according to my other doctor friend, the condition is cause by the pigment under the skin goes wrong. It won’t affect the health of the boy, except the appearance. I feel sorry for my friend, yet he shows how a loving parent will accept anything from his child. I accept the fact that his boy may not be cute, but still love him and never give up the hope of finding a cure.

I remember I had a friend in university with similar problem. Half of his face is much darker than the rest of his skin. When I know him, I am old enough not to make fun of his appearance. He is a nice guy and reasonably good in school and sports. Actually, after we get to know him, we quickly overlook the mark on the face, and treat him just like any other one of us. I think he even manage to get a girlfriend in school. Ok, he is a bit ugly, but so what? Guys should not worry too much about his appearance. For guys, it’s what underneath the face hide inside the skull counts. I am not too worry about my friend’s boy. Maybe he will have a few harsh years in kindergarten or elementary school. But once he survived that stage and develop a healthy personality, he will be on equal foot with another for the rest of his life. On the other hand, if a baby girl got this “Nevus of Ota” disease I can’t image how miserable her life will be.

Charlie has cancer

Charlie

Our family dog, Charlie, is 13 years old. Pat grew up with it since a little girl. Charlie is a very adorable golden retriever. Now, it is getting old and it can’t even get up on its own due hip problem. We have to help it getting up by giving it support on the stomach. Pat took it to visit a vet yesterday and did its annual lab test. The results come back today and reveal that it has cancer. We will see whether the insurance cover for the surgery fee. If not, we will just let it live its remaining days peaceful. It is simply cheaper to buy a new dog than fixing the old one. I guess 13 years of life is long enough for a dog. It does not do much everyday, spent most of time sleeping and gets up only for food and its daily walk. To Charlie, everyday is just the repeat of the previous day. Life of a dog seems so meaningless, all it does is eat, sleep, walk, pee and shit. The function of a pet is to give joy and pleasure to its owner. When owning a pet brings more trouble than pleasure, maybe it is time send it to SPCA to end its suffering.

Immunization

It is wise to take immunization and vaccines before traveling to third world countries.  Those places are so poor in hygiene that have many deadly diseases.  I just visited the travel clinic today before my trip to India.  I guess India is not a very healthy place, I have to take 7 different vaccines, Tetanus, Diptheria, Polio, Hypatitis A/B, Typhoid and Dukoral.  My arm is sore and numbed for having poked by 3 needles.  The vaccination is not cheap, I have to pay almost $300 just for the vaccines.  The most expensive one vaccine is for Malaria, one pill per day for the whole trip and the pill is $5 a piece.  Actually, there are cheaper vaccine for Malaria, just that the expensive one has least unpleasant side effects.  Luck that the company is paying for it.

There is a parsimonious manager in my company.  He is so cheap that when he book air ticket, he will take a transfer instead of direct flight to save $100 for the company.  I wonder when he travel to India, which Malaria vaccine did he get.  I bet he would take the cheap one over the expensive one.  If he suffer from the side effects, like nausea, vomiting, abdominal discomfort, diarrhea, headache, dizziness, insomnia, would he regret not spending the company’s money?

depression

Depression used to be a foreign concept to me, I don’t remember I feel really unhappy for an extended persion of time since the I have memory. Just somehow I don’t feel right for the past week and it getting worse, probably the worst today. Last time when I feel sad was when I got dumped by my ex-girlfriend in university days, but this timing the feeling is different. I can explain what happened back then and I’m totally aware what I was doing and allow it to happen. This time just that I can’t really jusitify my sadness, and can’t really figure out the cause of it. I have several clues but none of them or even all of them combined seems bad enough to turn me down like this. I’m looking forward to have a great day of ski in Whistler tomorrow, as my 5 days vacation begins. Hope I’ll feel better tomorrow.

sneeze

Ahh… Choo… Somehow I just keep sneezing all night tongiht, after I had a single badminton game with Edwin. I try to control my sneeze during the game and got my eyes all watery. The worst part is that you can feel your nose is very itchy but somehow you just can’t sneeze it out. Without kleenex make the situation worse as I keep sniffling to stop my snivel dropping out. It isn’t fun at all. I guess I’ll go to sleep early tonight after a cup of hot neo-critus, hope I’ll be fine when I wake up the next morning.