It took him three months to mail out a two-page form that already filled up except his signature. Somehow he managed to mixed up the form and submitted a draft copy he printed out earlier which has my name wrong! You have to salute him for his ability to screw up. I think he has allergy to paperwork!

It took one week for USCIS to generate the letter requesting for evidence(the missing marriage certificate), one week for the letter to arrive, one week for the response to find its way to the system, that was a total of three weeks of delay. We would have gotten the approval for I-130 petition  in the middle of June if not because of the missing document.

The I-130 petition has been approved for a week now. While he was taking his time to figure out what he supposed to do next, I went ahead to email an expedite request on his behalf. However, after talking to the live operator at NVC, to my horror, found out the error in my name has not amended before the file was forwarded to NVC. My fear is: the expedite request will not be looking at until the error in name is amended. I panicked and emailed a request for amendment on his behalf. After all this being done, he mailed the amendment letter by snail mail because he said the live operator told him they process mail faster than email. I hope the duplicate is not going to delay the process further.

By the rate it goes, I will be 64 by the time this whole process completes!

As we were waving goodbye to US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and getting ready to say hello to National Visa Center(NVC), discovered USCIS gave us a goodbye gift - they never amend the mistake on my name though multiple service requests were filed to amend it and we were told it will be amended during adjudication.

The nightmare has turned into reality - the mistake has propagated to NVC now. Great!!

It’s very important to have the right name because the visa is going to be issued in that name! Have to send another request to amend the mistake! Hopefully people who work at NVC are more competent than those jokers at USCIS! They do seem like they are more efficient because within a week, they have already assigned a case number and have a person called “Supervisor Sue” whom we know is processing the expedite request!

They took about 2-3 months to produce the certificate previously. It was mainly required by people who were migrating. But, in recent years, many countries like Australia and US have requested this for people who applied for student visas too. That means they are a lot more people who apply for this certificate now. So, they changed the procedure, we just have to do a statutory declaration and have some big shot or class A government servants signed the forms, they can produce the certificate based on the declaration and it can be done on the same day!

Have already done the statutory declaration and have one of my teachers signed the paper in May. But I waited for the I-130 petition to get approved before getting it because the certificate has a validity date and it can expire.

The Ministry of Foreign Affair is at the Wisma Putra in Putrajaya. I decided to drive up there today. This is my first time to the new administrative capital, don’t have any idea how Wisma Putra looks like, armed with an address that says it’s at Precinct 2, Putrajaya, I drove there by myself!

After much ado about nothing, left my parents’ house at 9.15 a.m. Exit the North South highway at Kajang and reached Putrajaya township at about 11.00 a.m. The Wisma Putra is not too far off, but I missed the sign behind some trees and drove into a maze of office buildings. (are you surprised? Malaysian poor road signs and my sense of direction aare not very good combination!!) Gosh, I have no idea there are hundreds of office buildings that have the same color tone and all look the same (at least to me) !

I stopped and asked two Malay girls, they pointed to a hill and said “Tu, yang bangunan putih dengan bumbung hijau atas bukit tu” (There, the white buildings with green roofs that sit on that hill) Can you see?

By the time I reached the Wisma Putra and found the consular office, it was nearly 11.45 a.m. Though my queue number was called within 5 minutes for document submission, have to wait for them to produce the “Certificate of Good Conduct” after that. They were quite a lot of youngsters who looked like students and a few adults were waiting for the same.

By 12.00 p.m, they were still about 10 people ahead of me who were waiting in line. I knew I would have to go back there to collect the certificate after lunch hour. Didn’t realize the consular office is closed from 12.30 - 2.00 p.m. (The office hours are 8.30-12.30 p.m and 2.30 -4.00 p.m, they only works 5 1/2 hours!!)

How to kill the 2 hours? decided to call a friend who works about 25 minutes away, we went out for lunch and catch up.

Went back to Wisma Putra at 2.45 p.m and got this certificate:

RM60 for gasoline, RMRM27.80 for toll, RM6 fee for statutory declaration and RM20 for the certificate, all for the pleasure of getting a certificate that says “The Government of Malaysia finds her to be a person of Good Conduct“! Got to go all length to show Uncle Sam that I am a good girl ! :-)

Five weeks after filing an expedite request, the petition for an immigrant visa is finally approved today! Does that mean I can buy an air ticket and get on a plane now? No way! The I-130 petition basically is an initial filing to determine eligibility of the petitioner to file an immigrant visa for an  immediate relative, which is spouse in our case.

The approved I-130 is now being forwarded to National Visa Center (NVC) for further processing. We are filing another expedite request so that NVC will forward the file to KL immediately.

Meanwhile, the big boy has to pay more fees, submit more documents and sign a contract with Uncle Sam that he is going to be financially responsible for me. The contract is called an affidavit of support (AOS). It means if I ever become a public charge i.e. claim unemployment or any mean tested benefits, Uncle Sam can recover the payments from the big boy!

When the file is forwarded to KL, I have to submit an application form and some civil documents i.e birth certificate, marriage certificate and police clearance. This step is going to be fast as I already have all the documents, ready to go out. Then, I would need to go for a medical check up and take some vaccinations. The last one will be the interview.

My conservative estimation- all this will take at least another one and half months! It may take longer if the big boy does not submit the AOS documents in time!!

Though was able to connect to the Internet off and on, but the speed is so turtle, it’s a waste of time trying to get online. The customer service person asked me to test the speed. Yeah, when I can load the pages then I will test it! Have you ever experienced this: you open up the browser, went to take a nap, came back two hours later, the page has not been loaded yet!!

Though the technicians are quite efficient, they almost always show up the next day when we called on a weekday, the same old problem kept coming back after a storm. We were told they have to replace the faulty ports. How to work with Internet that has more downs than ups in a week, some more have to change pots and pans six times in three weeks!

Not that we have a choice, this lousy service provider is the ONLY provider in this boondocks. We need another competitor who is more competent!!

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Who doesn’t like to soak in a bubble bath after a hard day work? However, when people get older and are not as flexible anymore, getting in and out of the traditional kind of bathtub can be dangerous.

That’s why they have this kind of walkin tub at some of the retirement communities. You can walk in and out of the tub, and some model will have a seat to sit on. You don’t have to be afraid of not able to get up or slip when trying to get out! So, getting old is not an excuse not to take a bath! :-)

It doesn’t help that we are dealing with one of the most inefficient  governmental agencies in the world. These bureaucrats are jokers, they have been covering their butts with old excuses like security check for delays and backlogs. After 911, “security” has been the magic word to cover all the backlogs due to an arcane system and incompetent work force.

In this computer age, it’s hard to imagine an agency that handles more than one million permanent residencies application alone still uses an outdated and arcane system which involve transferring files around physically! Our initial petition is processed at a service center in CA , when the petition is approved, the file will be forwarded to the National Visa Center (NVC) in NH, then it’s forwarded to the consulate oversea. It’s not uncommon that files get lost or misplaced in all this moving around!!

The irony amidst all this is: it takes only a week or two to get a visa for a spouse of a non citizen H1B worker! You see, in the capitalist world, the corporates who have the financial power to hire lobbyists to influence the lawmakers get ahead of the games. Family reunification stays at the bottom of priorities because they do not have many people who look out for their rights. I really feel sorry for many families (some with young children) being separated for years while waiting for the visa to be granted.

It has been closed to three months since we filed the papers, except for a notice of receipt, we are kept in the black hole not knowing what happened to the papers. We tried to file an expedite request based on my medical condition that needs further attention. The big boy had even involved the congressman’s office to chase them down. However, we are yet to receive any news that the expedite request is approved or rejected. An expedite request takes weeks to process, what an oxymoron! It’s good that I have plenty of things to keep me occupied while this waiting game is going on, or else can die with all this slow response and keep in suspend not knowing what kind of outcome we will receive.

It’s a big old house in the downtown area, we will be living on the second floor.

We use the side entrance and stairs leading up to the second floor.

The balcony and the view of the family room from the outside.

The dining area. I like the fact that it has plenty of natural light from the windows.

The living room.

The bedrooms before moving in the furniture.

I like what I see so far. The big boy knows I would fall for the wooden door and window frames, built in cabinet and those decorative panels that scatter around the house. :-)The rich brown colour and its beautiful grain has character, don’t you think? Though some people say they make the place look a little darker !

The big boy has already moved in some of the furniture and lived at this place. He would have to change the mailing address and get more kitchen appliance.

Hey, the house is ready, why am I still here? Unfortunately, it’s going to take much longer before we can be united. Uncle Sam hasn’t started to look at the papers. It was like throwing a rock into the ocean, we have not heard anything back. I bet the papers are collecting dusts somewhere at a storage or warehouse. We sent in an expedite request last week, hopefully we would hear some good news next two weeks !

There are a few people I would like to ask this question last week, but I didn’t ! Incidentally, they all work for the bank! Which make me wonder what kind people they hired to work in the bank nowadays?

The first incident, I walked into the bank, requested a “reduce of mortgage interest rate”, two customer officers told me there is no such thing. When I insisted there is, they asked me to write a letter.(And you thought that’s a special talent of government bureaucrats to stop people from bothering them!) I live 45 minutes away from the bank, I was not going to drive home, type out a letter and drive back there, so I requested a piece of paper and drafted a letter on the spot and asked them to fax the request to the HQ. I got a call from the HQ the next day, offered me a 2% reduction in interest rate!!

The second incident is an old issue that had not been solved for four years. I have a margin trading account with this bank and have an online account for stocks trading. Four years ago, I forgot the username and password, my account was suspended after three unsuccessful attempts. I was told to go to the branch to restore the account and the fellow at the branch asked me to call the customer careline. The customer careline people asked me to see the fellow at the branch to get the access code, after being kicked around like a ball for a few times, I just gave up. Recently, as I am trying to take care of the banking and financial matters before leaving for IL, and I wanted to sell the remaining stocks, I went back to the branch to enquire about how to restore the password (Amazingly, the same guy I talked to four years ago still works there and deals with this kind of problem) But, looks like he has not been equipped with the right product knowledge in this four years! Guy A at the branch asked me to call the customer careline, guy B at the customer caerline asked me to see A, so I told A and B, why don’t you figure out what to do and call me! That was a week ago, I am still waiting for their calls!

The third incident happened at the same bank of the first incident, I handed in a few security documents for verification and certification to a woman officer, was told it would take 2 weeks to get back to me. As I didn’t want to go down again to pick up the documents, I requested for the documents to courier to me. After two weeks, no news, but I was too busy accompanying my mom on a hospital tour and didn’t drop or call to check on the status of the documents. Four weeks later, I called the branch and enquired about the status of the documents, the woman who picked up the phone told me she couldn’t tell me anything wouldn’t check anything for me on the phone, I have to go to the branch personally. I got really annoyed with her, I asked for her name but she refused to give me. I then called the customer careline, made a complaint about it and asked to trace the whereabouts of the documents. The man on the customer careline was helpful, he was surprised that I was even told it would take two weeks to verify the documents, he said the branch could usually do the verification on the spot! Anyway, he verified with his superior, called the branch and managed to get them to trace the documents. He then called me back a few hours later, told me I could go to the branch to pick up the documents the next day, they would be verified. I was not free the next day, so I went in the following business day. Guess what ? I drove 45 minutes down there, was told they need to send the documents to HQ for verification and the woman who was in charged of this matter was on leave and I have to come back the next day. My face must have changed color, I tell you. I sat there, insisted that I would not leave without the documents. The woman who served me didn’t know what to do, she went inside and came back with another woman who looked like she is the supervisor or manager. (What’s wrong with this people who never identify themselves? Isn’t that a common courtesy to let your customers know who they are dealing with? ) She apologized for the “miscommunication” and offered to courier the documents to me the next day, so I don’t have to drive one and half hours to and fro just to pick up the documents.

The ridiculous thing is: after all the hassles and five weeks of waiting for the documents, was told they are no longer needed by another institution who required it, just because they never update their website!!!

Malaysia boleh!

This Chinese herbalist doesn’t use the traditional herbs that need to cook for long hours, the doctor actually gave her some herbal medications in pill forms! He recommended her to see the acupuncturist at the same building to expedite the recovery.

Mom thinks the acupuncture helps and she feels less pain after the half an hour session. So, we are going back tomorrow for another session.

The MRI showed the disc between two of the bones on the spine (L5 and S1) has extruded and pressed against the nerves. The nerves happened to be the ones that control the leg movement. That’s why mom has been having leg pain. The extrusion is actually quite bad and the only way to repair such condition is going for a surgery according to the orthopedic.

The orthopedic said there is no medication to cure this kind of problem, he can only give pain killer for pain relief. Since mom is not keen to go for surgery and it may be a while for the pharmaceutical companies to come out with the right drugs for this kind of health problem, we will bring her to try some alternative medicine in the next few weeks i.e. acupuncture, Chinese herbals and chiropractic .

The children are going to stay with us for 6 days. We are looking forward to see them and enjoy the time with them. They are good children, they can play together pretty well, of course the cat and dog fights are inevitable.

They are also very independent children, they do not need much attention from the adults. In fact, they can be little helpers around the house. Their mother has trained them to wash dishes, sweep the floor and pretty much can take care of themselves, we just have to feed them regularly. :-)

However, that also means I am not in a hurry to move and have all the time in the world to wait upon the big procrastinator to act. Can you imagine if air ticket has been purchased and he is taking his own sweet time to find a place for us to live? The delays actually save me from stress and put more lines that cannot be erased with the best wrinkle cream. It’s a blessing in disguise, indeed.

The big boy had delayed the plan to move out from his present place a couple of times. Since the landlord’s daughter is coming back, he has to move by the end of the May. After looking at more than a dozen places, he finally mailed me some pictures of places that he had looked at.

This is a house that he likes. At first glance it looks like it’s facing the T-junction (see the traffic lights), it’s the kind of bad Feng Shui that Chinese people don’t like, isn’t it? No picture of the inside, just a picture taken outside the house, does he expect me to decide to live here base on this picture?

I can’t live with that kind of un-assuring decision making process. So I looked up the street views on Google map, from the 360 degree view, can see the house is actually not directly facing the T-junction (though bad Feng Shui or not does not really matters very much to us as Christians). The traffic lights there are for the crossing. I was also able to cruise the neighborhood and check out the houses around the neighborhood on Google map. It looks like a nice neighborhood! As a visual person, no amount of descriptions on the phone can replace the thousands words that a picture speaks! When is he going to learn this?

He also mailed a picture of the garage. That’s the most important feature we look for in a house?! Who is going to live in the garage? Not me.

Will this end the house hunting? I don’t know, he hasn’t put down a deposit for this place. As usual, taking his sweet time to take photographs of the inside so he can show me, he says tomorrow. Tomorrow, if it ever comes…. :-)

She is her usual impatient patient who will not wait for the medications to work. Every time someone mentioned her sister’s husband’s mother’s sister ..you got the idea… was healed after seeing this and that doctor, she wants to go see the same doctor. The end results: she has seen 8 doctors, got back 8 packs of medications, and she is still in pain.

It took a while to persuade her to see our friend who is an orthopedic. He thinks she may have some problem with her spine or nerves, he gives a 10-day medication to relieve the symptoms and if the pain persists by the time we see him again on Friday 30th May, he recommends going for MRI (magnetic resonant imaging) to diagnose the problem.

One interesting observation, we all know the doctors are very busy people, but none of the doctors we have seen in the last few weeks own a PDA! Looks like no tech geek among doctors in this small town. I bet they probably have not heard of PDA loaded with medical software that allow them to have access to online medical reference and drug guide.

This kind of PDAs apaprently are very popular among healthcare professionals who are more tech savvy. One of the PDA software companies - Epocrates has sold over 500,000 copies of its medical reference software to healthcare professionals.

This announcement was paid for by Epocrates.

After my sister in law helped me to forward the “Car for sale” ads to her colleagues, a few people rang and viewed the car. One of them took up the offer, I gladly got rid of it.

The buyer is an expatriate from India and he is not familiar with the name transfer procedures. I accompanied him to the government departments to deal with it yesterday. The transaction completed in about one and half hours, faster than I expected, the wait for Puspakom checking was about 30 minutes and the name transfer was quick too. Maybe this government servants really bucked up a little bit after 8th March, eh?

One thing I really don’t understand. The airfare for flights originate from KL  are much more expensive than the ones originate from LA for the same route !

For example, to fly from KL to LA and return costs RM5566 (6 months ticket). At the prevailing exchange rate, it’s about USD1700+.

 Whereas to fly from LA to KL and return cost USD1186.20 or at RM3855.

The difference is about USD514 or RM1700!!

Why is our National carrier charging us more to fly out of KL ?

Could even feel it right there, the wounds are hurting. Not to mention the after effect - I have been suffering from pelvic pain and back ache ever since I drove around town to run errands the other day! Well, the wounds outside may seem to be completely healed, but the inside is still healing, any heroic acts can still cause pain that keeps me awake at night. My mother would say: “See, I told you so!”. :-)

I have nagged and nagged about including me in his employer provided health care plan, and since I am not there in IL yet and it never seems urgent, he just kept procrastinating it. Actually all he had to do just tell the human resource personnel about his intention and provide some basic data about his wife.

When the first pathologist’s report came back recommended further investigation of possibility of cancer, he sprang into action and got me on his health insurance plan within three days!

If we were gold coins collectors, we might be able to sell them to pay for the medical bills, but too bad we aren’t. Even a simple surgery and the subsequent diagnostic tests to identify malignancy has cost us more than 10k out of pocket. At least he knows cancer treatment without insurance coverage can wreck us financially and reason for many of the bankruptcy cases filed in America!!

The second pathologist’s report came back today, it didn’t mention anything worth further investigation! That means the first pathologist might have read too much and/or over analyzed the elements he saw on the slides!

Thank god it’s just a cancer scare!

It’s unlikely a common practice, but thank god for Dr Eugene who cares about the best interest of his patient, for voluntarily suggested getting me the slides to go get a second opinion. I believe it’s through divine intervention and the power of many prayers that changed and turned the outcome of this, thus keep me from going for another surgery to remove the left ovary as diagnostic and preventive measure, which is unnecessary in due of the second pathologist’s report.

I am very thankful that it’s not the real thing, just a scare that burnt a hole in my pocket and kept me busy running around for three weeks!

Are you frustrated because you cannot seem to get the hot tickets for your favorite NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL games or an amazing concert? Have you ever tried getting it online? With the Internet, it is possible to get your tickets without camping outside the ticket sale counter. :-)

In fact, many of the boxes haven’t been unpacked since the last two moves. They are so many things we need to sort out or throw away, but we get so overwhelmed and paralyzed by the sheer thought of going through this junks, we just don’t do anything with them!

Many of the things are not useful nor valuable, but they hold certain sentimental values i.e the two boxes of cards and letters from a dear friend who was studying in a different university. It’s amazing that we were able to write to each other faithfully for 4-5 years, these letters are good chronicles of our student lives. Nevertheless, it’s time to throw away the bouquet of silk flowers and the small trinkets as they have accumulated to much dust. Time to give away all the soft toys and small little gifts from ex boy friends to niece and nephew and whoever wants them. :-)

Then, I am going to our house to sort and pack up some boxes that the part time cleaners already helped to move to one of the bedrooms that we are going to use to store our stuffs. We plan to rent out the house for as long as we are away in IL. May be we will return to live here one day when we are older, right now our plan is to keep the house and not selling it yet.

I am also going to help dad pick up his computer that sent for repair on the way home. His desktop was fried during a thunder storm, the mother board, sound card and video card have to be replaced. Good thing they are still under warranty! The last thing is to pick up my second sister who is at the car workshop. She is sending her car for painting work and leave it there until tomorrow.

I just signed up for a first year free or almost free package. When the one year is up, I just move to another host. Since I have done the migrating a couple of times now, I have even learned to do it in a few simple steps, without involving the MySQL or any scripting whatsoever.

But, there are two lessons learned along the process. First, never take the “free” domain offered by this hosting companies if you plan to move out after a year. The “free” domain doesn’t register under your name and you need the permission of the hosting company that provides the “free” domain (the current registrar) to transfer the domain. Generally, they would lock the transfer of your domain one month before it expires and that would cause much delay when you try to transfer the domain and move your blog to another hosting company. It took seven days for me to be able to successfully transfer a “free” domain out.

The second lesson is: make sure the hosting company allows shell access. You cannot do a direct import of the posts, comments and categories from your old host if you do not have access to the root directory. This hosting company doesn’t allow access to their root directory for security reason. What lame excuse, don’t they heard of unix security software ? Luckily it is free for the first year, so I am still thinking should I get a new domain and start a new blog there, or just abandon it totally?

Not all of us have a chance to go on these cruise deals, but we all have a chance to sail and respond to storms  in our life. It’s probably never easy, but these will be the things that the spiritually stronger I of the future will praise and thank Him for bringing me through. It’s true that God never promise an easy life, but He did promise to never leave me nor forsaken me, what a relief and comfort!

He has agreed to help me with the medical bills and pay for the air ticket, now he is broke and won’t be able to purchase the air ticket! Luckily I have transfered a few thousands out of his bank account before he splurged it on toys. A boy should not be trusted with handling money. He “needs” to spend it when he sees money in his bank account!!

When I finally have time to sit down in front of the computer, two of the blogs that still have pageranks were down for one whole week because of the pending transfer of domains. Quite mad with the previous registrar who didn’t want to approve the transfer despite me sending them several emails. But it did get transferred automatically after seven days! But, so many opps expired and grabbed because of that! #$%^&

Then, granny G came smacking again. It’s like leaking roofs on a raining day, life is tough, boy!

With this medical bills that burnt a big hole in my pocket, good thing I have multiple blogs and multiple streams of income. The other day, I overheard my sister’s friend asking her whether I am unemployed at home now as the business is sold and I am still stuck here not moving to IL yet. When she saw me sitting in front of the computer and claimed to be working, she thought I was doing stocks trading or futures trading online. No way, if you know any futures broker, you will know how stressful it’s when the market goes up and down. I just got out of a frying pan, do you think I am jumping into the fire?

Have been resting and taking it easy in the last few days, after the heroic act of driving around town to run some errands. Hey, even a simple movement like shifting the gears actually used a lot of the muscles around the abdomen, where the wounds are. Have to take care of the diet too, no Kim Chi and kava kava for now, as they both can potentially cause obstruction in me. The pelvic pain is killing me right now.

I have to start the preparation yesterday. The gastro specialist gave me some phosphate soda, it caused me going toilet 6-7 times after an hour of taking the solutions. I had to take it once last night and another time this morning.

My dad drove me to the doctor’s office since I would be put on sedative and not suitable to drive after the procedure. The colonoscopy and gastroscopy procedures only took about 10-15 minutes, but had to wait for one and half hours for the doctor, even with an appointment!

We can see the inner lining of the digestive tract  on a CCTV when a fiber optic camera passed through it. Nothing unusual was  found, except for a small ulcer in the stomach, this probably in a great extend rule out the possibility of colon cancer!!

Right after the scope, before the doctor typed out a report, I rushed down to the cafe at the hospital, had a bowl of beehoon soup. Really exhausted and hungry after all the purging!!

Our current security software has expired and we haven’t not decided to renew or to get a new software. I don’t like the fact that the current software is so intrusive and slow down the computer considerably. Anyone has experience using NOD32? Will you proceed with NOD32 renewals without hesitant when it expires?

The second gynecologist and our oncologist friend thinks removing the left ovary (like the first gynecologist Dr Eugene suggested) is a bit too drastic when there is no evidence of malignancy. He thinks further screening to rule out other possibilities and close monitoring of the hard cells on the left ovary plus tumor marker tests every other month would be more appropriate.

This is going like a roller coaster ride, one minute I am convinced that going for another surgery to remove the left ovary is the best thing to do, the next minute, it seems there is really nothing to worry about. Of course, I pray that all these are just false alarms, a cancer scare, instead of the real stuff!!

The good complexion is now replaced by all the acne marks. Sometime I wonder whether that’s the result of dealing with  marital stress. Are you aware of the statistics: married men live longer and married women live shorter! As usual, the ones outside the fence are trying to get in and those who are inside are trying to get out. :-)

He asked me to go to see him at his office at 10 a.m Saturday morning, so he can look at the pathological reports, the CT scan and advise me accordingly. I am really grateful for this kind gesture. The other four doctors in the bible study group also prayed for me.  I have informed Jo, the group leader’s wife earlier, so in fact they have been praying for me all along.

Since both the O & Gs advised me to check out the colon (the biopsy expressed CEA, a color cancer tumor marker), so I went to see a gastro specialist and made an appointment for a colonoscopy and possibly gatroscopy on Tuesday.

Both the O & Gs also agreed that the PCOS may be the root of my hormonal and acne problems. No need any acne treatment, just need to keep the PCOS problem under control!

SL called me on the phone, her mother was recently diagnosed with cancer, so she is quite familiar with various scans available. She mentioned about the PET scan, so I asked Dr Eugene the gynecologist, he thinks it’s not necessary as it probably won’t be able to pick up anything smaller than a ten cents coin too.

There were some magazines scattering around the waiting room, don’t know whether they were Denver magazine or not as I didn’t read any of them. Usually I would just read whatever I could get on hands on while waiting for doctors. But, my friend LC was there to accompany me, so we talked and caught up with one another while waiting for my turn.

After seeing the lab report and the biopsy that expressed the CEA and CK7 tumor tests. The doctor recommended to go for a CT Scan to determine whether any other organs have cancer cells.

Since I am allergic to paracetamol, the doctor gave me a type of steroid. I wonder whether it’s the kind of legal steroids those who are into body building take, but I didn’t ask the doctor. :-) I have to take three doses of the blue pills 12 hours before the scan to avoid allergic reaction.

 So the CT Scan was done on the 16th. The good news is: no other organ has traces of cancer cells. Well, this is only true to a certain extend, because CT scan can only pick up spots that are fairly big. The results of the scans just showed that there are no big spots detectable in other organs, which is good news!

So we planned to go home right after after seeing the doctor on the 12th. We got up really early, hoped to be the first patient when the doctor’s office opened at 8.30 a.m. Sure enough, I was the first patient!

The doctor checked the wound, took out the knot of the stitches and told me that the wound healed really well. Then he asked whether I would like my sisters to come in to listen to what he had to say next. He looked rather serious, so I thought he might have some bad news to disclose. I walked out the room to look my sisters, they have walked away to the other corner, I couldn’t see them. So, I went back in, told the doctor I couldn’t find them and he could talk to me alone.

He showed me the lab report and highlighted the part that mentioned the biopsy expressed to CEA and CK7 - two out of three of the tumor marker tests, so it may be malignant (cancerous tumor)! The doctor went on to say that he didn’t expect this kind of pathological report as the “hard cells” looked benign to the naked eyes. Guess it’s going to be the beginning of our headache, we need two cups of coffee, where is the capresso machine?!

I bet for people who are into paintball game, their closet will be full of paintball equipment and protective gears. When they go to shopping mall, they will be lingering around the counter that sells all the tippmann gears, like a seven years old at the candy counter? Oh, am I not grateful that the big boy’s hobby is collecting toys that cost a few dollars, not a few hundred dollars. :-)

The wounds were painful, but I was able to get down to a walk around the ward the next morning. With the help of painkillers, I was actually sleeping quite well at night. Minus the pains while getting up and lying down, I was having a fun time, chatting with my roommate, a 53 years old woman who had breast cancer, reading the newspaper and the novels that my sisters brought for me.

The doctor visited me twice a day and he was satisfied with my recovery. A few friends came to visit me and they were surprised I looked pretty healthy and could still laugh!

Early morning on the 5th, the doctor told me I could check out after he see me in the afternoon. After settling the bills in the morning, we waited patiently for the doctor to come back. He was a bit late because they were too many patients during his consultation hours. My two sisters got impatient and started joking with my roommate and the doctor came in when we were all laughing about something.

I was told to go back for a check up on the 12th of April and I could call to find out about the lab report starting on the 10th or wait until the 12th to find out the details during the consultation.

During the one week stay in PJ, simple home cook food plus the bad quality of sleep due to pain that kept me await at night, I was able to lose 5 kg without the help of any diet pills. I suspect it’s mainly by getting rid of water retention, still have a long way to go in order to lose all the weight that have piled on in the last five years!

When the doctor came to see me at about 10.45 p.m, even though I was not 100% alert yet, the first question that blurted out from my mouth was “What happened?”, before asking him for painkillers. :-)

What happened? He started with the laparoscopy or keyhole surgery but had to perform an open surgery, cut up a 3″ incision on my tummy to clean up all the mess. The cysts were not the more common “chocolate cysts”, they were teratoma or dermoid cysts and a bunch of small cysts which the doctor believed they are parts of the Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). PCOS is the culprit for hay-wired hormone and the skin problems that I have in recent years. Unlike some of my friends who have very bad acnes and tried all sort of natural acne treatments they have accessed to, I didn’t have acne or pimples in my teens or twenties, only at thirties!!

Ok, what it really was: the doctor took out about 10 bottle of “stuffs”!!! He showed my sisters the bottles before I woke up and gave them three bottles of samples. The rest were sent to the lab for further investigations.

Looks like we got to diverse our income source. Since I am already working in front of the computer all day long, may be I should learn to trade stock options. It shouldn’t be too much a rocket science, as some of our friends started trading right after they attended a seminar and bought the software program that enables them to do different spread and strategies.

At about 6.15 p.m, I was wheeled into the operating theater. The last few things I remembered were: it was damned cold inside there, the nurse asked me whether a man who was wondering around was my husband, and  the anaesthesist gave me some “fresh oxygen”!

I have told my sisters to bring me some porridge at about 9.30-10.30 p.m, thought I would be very hungry when I woke up after the surgery. My sisters rushed to the hospital at around 9.00 p.m, they waited and waited in the ward. At about 10 p.m, a nurse came up to look for my family members and brought them down to the operating theater and told them about what happened and why the surgery took so long.

The surgery was scheduled to be on 3rd April, so I left on the 2nd of April, took a bus to PJ, stayed overnight at my sister’s place. The next day, on the 3rd, I took a cab to the hospital, checked into the hospital at 9.00 a.m. The doctor and nurses were preparing me for the operation, I went on the fast after 10.30 a.m. They also gave me some tablets and solutions to drink to help to clear the bowel.

The surgery was scheduled to be at 6.00 p.m. It was supposed to be a therapeutic laparoscopy or keyhole surgery to remove the ovarian cysts. The doctor did mention occasionally it has to revert to open surgery if complications arise or the cysts ruptured or it gets too messy, but I was assured that that’s rather rare. I was also told the lapascopy procedure would take about half an hour and I just have to stay in the hospital for one night.

We were making arrangement and planning for my sister to drive home on the 5th of April, so that my mom could take care of me during the recuperation process. Little we knew about what happened in the next two weeks!!

We usually talk on the phone using the VoIP service that we subscribe to. We are able to talk for an hour for free on the VoIP phone systems if it’s a call originated from a land line to another land line. But we won’t have time to talk for an hour today. I am in a hurry to go out to catch a bus, so that I can reach PJ before noon. That’s because my sister can only pick me up during her lunch break.

Professor Eugene who is going to operate on me is an experienced O & G in UH. He is a very kind doctor, quite humorous too.

When I asked him whether the surgery will leave scars on my tummy, he explained in details about the keyhole surgery he is going to perform and said I can still wear bikini after this.

Yeah, like I own a Apogee Condo South Beach, and my job is sipping lemonade on a beach chair whole day. :-)

The two hours bus trip was a good time to catch up with lack of sleep in the last few days!

Would be going to PJ and staying at my sisters’ house tonight and then going for a laparoscopy surgery to remove a cyst tomorrow. It’s going to be done at UM Specialist Center near my sisters’ house. Will have to stay at the hospital for a night for observation after the surgery.

The UM Specialist Center is the private wing of UH, so no need to be put on a waiting list, can have surgery at a date you request. Of course you cannot compare with staying at the Las Vegas Hotels. But the nurses are more accommodating and the wards are better equipped. That’s health care in a capitalist world, you pay more for faster and better service! Sad.

Have told some of my friends about the surgery and they will probably visit me at while I am at my sister’s place or at the hospital. That will probably the last time to meet up with them before leaving for IL.

Wouldn’t want to come back to find the house full of maggots or worst the house burned down in a fire caused by electrical short circuits! Scary!! :-)

Got 2/3 of them done by seven o’clock, repeating the same promo and twist out different posts for discount Disney World ticketsfor different blogs, who says it’s money easy earned?! Whoever believes those scams that claimed to make big bucks on the internet without work needs to have his brain check!!

The tentative plan was to fly in the end of May before the summer peak season kicks in. But the procrastinator won’t move things along until the last minute and I refused to throw myself into a stressful situation where nothing is ready. So let him pays through his nose for expensive air tickets during peak season!

Hope it can be done before we leave  for IL, so that we can collect the last part of the payment for the sale of the business.

Most of the time, we are able to find recycled parts with really good price and most of them this parts come with warranties. If you are afraid of getting problematic parts, you  or you can get someone to test drive, visually inspect the parts!

Google’s home page provided a link to “Virgle”, an April Fool’s faux collaboration on an Mars expedition between Google and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic.

“It’s time humanity got started on a Plan B,” the site claimed. “So, starting in 2014, Virgin founder Richard Branson and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin will be leading hundreds of pioneers onto one of the greatest adventures in human history: Project Virgle, the first permanent human colony on Mars.”

The homepage of the “Project Virgle” has button for application to be “pioneers” and a video starring Page and Brin, they looked like they were up to something and having trouble keeping their faces straight, not very convincing on an April fool’s day.. :-)

It has been a rough three years. It’s enough trouble that the person you are married to is still taking his own sweet time to grow up, what more with all this long separation. Suffice to say that we have been separated longer than we were together in the last three years!

What to do with a marriage that doesn’t exist? We are still married mainly because we believe marriage is for life, but I have a feeling that I am just wasting my life with a procrastinator in every sense.

As he rather spend the money allocated for the air tickets on buying toys, I won’t feel guilty spending my money on Cheap flight to Orlando. I am sure visiting Disneyland and have a good time with Mickey and Minnie without him is more fun that waiting for him to do what he is supposed to do. It’s too stressful to deal with a procrastinator, should just go somewhere for a vacation and forget about the stress. Must do it after recovering from the surgery!!

It will take about a week to heal! A bit inconvenient to have only one hand to move and pack stuffs. Yesterday was the last day I have to clear out the center. I got the Indian guys next door to move some of the boxes into the car. The boxes are going to stay inside the car till my hand heals. Driving with one hand and have the right hand crossed over to shift the gear was challenging.