Can "Anti" And "Pro" Co-exist?

What I'm referring to here is of course, antibiotics and probiotics.

My wife is now slightly over her 1st trimester of her pregnancy. Towards the end of the 1st trimester and the beginning of her 2nd trimester, she noticed some spotting (bleeding). Naturally we got worried because in all her previous pregnancies, she spotted and had to be bed rested. We thank God that this time around, throughout the 1st trimester she did not really experience any spotting.

We decided to go see her doctor, and through ultrasound scan, the doctor said that she has some infection, which is one of the common causes of spotting during the 2nd and 3rd trimester. Her advice was to take a very mild but effective antibiotic. She also asked my wife to take probiotic together not only because it will prevent the growth of bad bacteria, it will also help in reducing the side effects of the antibiotic. She instructed that my wife should take the antibiotic in the morning and night and the probiotic in the afternoon.

So, my wife, being the very cautious person she is, asked me to go online to confirm if it is ok to take antibiotic and probiotic together.

What I learn is as below:-

1. You can take antibiotic and probiotic together, just don't take them at the same time within a day. One website that I read recommended taking probiotic 2 hours after taking the antibiotic, and another website recommended taking probiotic 4 hours after taking the antibiotic. Either case I think it's quite safe.

2. Taking antibiotic and probiotic at the same time will render the probiotic ineffective as the antibiotic will kill ALL bacteria indiscriminately.

3. Taking probiotic when you take antibiotic is essential because after killing all the bacteria, you need to populate your gut with good bacteria, otherwise the bad (pathogenic) bacteria will grow. By taking probiotic during antibiotic therapy helps to keep the intestine flora in proper balance. It'll also help to minimize the destructive effects of antibiotics to the bacterial flora. Some even advice to increase your probiotic intake 2 or 3 times the normal amount for about 10 days after the antibiotic treatment is completed. However I'm not very sure if this is adviceable for pregnant mothers, you can always check with your healthcare provider.

4. Probiotics are food and are good for pregnant mothers and their growing babies.

5. We do need a little bit of bad (pathogenic) bacteria in our body. According to one website. The ratio of good to bad bacteria should be about 85:15.

The above are some of my findings regarding to this topic. In any case, my question has been answered. Please read the following articles for more information on probiotics and antibiotics.

1. Probiotics And Antibiotics

2. Probiotics And Pregnancy - What You Should Know (Part 1)

3. Probiotics And Pregnancy - What You Should Know (Part 2)


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Natural Remedy For Dengue Fever??

I received an email today about a natural remedy for dengue fever and two testimonials along with it, so I decided to share it with you, especially since we now have increased cases of dengue in some parts of Malaysia. That remedy is Raw Papaya Leaves Juice. 

Papaya Leaves - easily and readily available here in Malaysia

For those who condemns or opposes people for sharing a remedy that is not proven, chew on the 2 points below:-

1. This remedy is harmless. Even if at the end of the day it was found to be useless, so what? It ain't gonna harm you.

2. Just imagine someone dear to you is lying in bed suffering from a disease that has no known cure, with the possibility of loosing that person forever, I'm quite certain even the most skeptical will want to give an alternative remedy a try.

So if you don't like it, you don't have to use it, nobody is forcing you to do anything you don't want to.

Steps to prepare the remedy:-

1. Take 2 pieces of raw papaya leaves and clean them.
2. Use only the leafy part and not the stem or sap.
3. DO NOT boil, cook or rinse with hot water, it will loose it's strength.
4. Pound and squeeze with filter cloth, you will only get 1 tablespoon per leaf.
5. Take 2 tablespoons per serving, once a day.

It's very bitter and you have to swallow it. Will it work? Hopefully we all don't need to find out, but if you have tried it before, do let us know. Below are 2 testimonials that I received via email.

Testimonial 1

I would like to share this interesting discovery from a Friend's/Classmate's son who has just recovered from dengue fever. Apparently, his son was in the critical stage at the ICU when his blood platelet count drops to 15 after 15 liters of blood transfusion.? 

His father was so worried that he seeks another friend's recommendation and his son was saved. He confessed to me that he gave his son raw juice of the papaya leaves. From a platelet count of 45 after 20 liters of blood transfusion, and after drinking the raw papaya leaf juice, his platelet count jumps instantly to 135. Even the doctors and nurses were surprised. After the second day he was discharged. So he asked me to pass this good news around.

Testimonial 2

You may have heard this elsewhere but if not I am glad to inform you that papaya juice is a natural cure for dengue fever. As dengue fever is rampant now, I think it's good to share this with all.? 

A friend of mine had dengue last year. It was a very serious situation for her as her platelet count had dropped to 28,000 after 3 days in hospital and water has started to fill up her lung. She had difficulty in breathing. She was only 32-year old. Doctor says there's no cure for dengue. We just have to wait for her body immune system to build up resistance against dengue and fight its own battle. She already had 2 blood transfusion and all of us were praying very hard as her platelet continued to drop since the first day she was admitted.?

Fortunately her mother-in-law heard that papaya juice would help to reduce the fever and got some papaya leaves, pounded them and squeeze the juice out for her. The next day, her platelet count started to increase, her fever subside. We continued to feed her with papaya juice and she recovered after 3 days!!!? 

Amazing but it's true. It's believed one's body would be overheated when one is down with dengue and that also caused the patient to have fever papaya juice has cooling effect. Thus, it helps to reduce the level of heat in one's body, thus the fever will go away. I found that it's also good when one is having sore throat or suffering from heat.? 

Please spread the news about this as lately there are many dengue cases. It's great if such natural cure could help to ease the sufferings of dengue patients.? 

Furthermore it's so easily available. 
Blend them and squeeze the juice! It's simple and miraculously effective!!

It's entirely up to you whether you want to believe it or not, but the least I could do is make this information available to you.

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Call Me Un-Romantic

Just before Valentine's Day, a couple of my colleagues were asking me questions such as:

Q: So, are you buying anything for your wife on Valentine's Day?

A: No.

(Looks of horror and disgust crept across their faces)

Q: So, what are you doing on Valentine's Day?

A: Nothing.

(More or less the same respond as above)

My usual reply, albeit a little cliched, is "Everyday is and can be Valentine's Day, why must you celebrate it on a day when everything is more expensive and all the restaurants are over-crowded? If you need to have a special day to do something nice and different for THAT person in your life, you can do it any other day!"

And I truly believe in the above statement, as do my wife (and I'm not just saying that to make myself look good).  I just don't see a point in spending extra money unnecessarily on things that you usually can get it a whole lot cheaper. I also don't understand what so special about going out for a nice fancy dinner, and sit in a restaurant packed with people.

I'm lucky my wife is a very practical person who has no use for things like flowers and diamond rings (fine, call me cheapskate). Below are2 separate scenarios that may very well happen depending on her mood, should I buy her a bunch of beautiful flowers on Valentine's Day.

GOOD MOOD: Thanks dear, that is very nice of you, but you don't need to waste your money buying me flowers especially when you know that I have no use for them, nice as they are.

BAD MOOD: WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU THINKING!!? Why do you waste so much money and precious time buying something for me that I DON'T NEED? I'd much rather you stay home and help me take care of the kids (bearing in mind my wife is 3 months pregnant and still suffering from morning sickness).

I know that some of you are still thinking that I'm just giving excuses and trying hard to justify myself. I also know that there's nothing I can do to convince you otherwise, so I won't even try :P.

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Just installed Snap Shots from Snap.com

I just installed a nice little tool on this site called Snap Shots that enhances links with visual previews of the destination site, interactive excerpts of Wikipedia articles, MySpace profiles, IMDb profiles and Amazon products, display inline videos, RSS, MP3s, photos, stock charts and more.

Sometimes Snap Shots bring you the information you need, without your having to leave the site, while other times it lets you "look ahead," before deciding if you want to follow a link or not.

Should you decide this is not for you, just click the Options icon in the upper right corner of the Snap Shot and opt-out.

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Shit Happens, and lots of it! (Oh the smell!)

My youngest son, the 2 1/2 year old, is having the worst diarrhoea (or diarrhea depending on where you're from) that our kids had ever had. Even the worst that my 6 yo experienced was nothing like this. That being said, we thank God that there's still no need for him to be hospitalized. One thing that I could never understand though, is how can such disgusting, terribly foul smelling stuff comes out of such a cute tiny little body?? Even the fart! Oh me oh my, LOL!! Well, I guess shit happens, but that's not the end of it. The next day, it was my turn to have diarrhoea, about as bad as his but I dare say no where near as foul smelling as his. Then the day after, it was my mom's turn (she is staying with us). Like I said, lots of shit happened, and will probably continue on for another day or two.

Let's talk about my son since I'm most worried about him. His stool was very watery and every time after he drank some water, he passed it out almost immediately. I guessed that's the reason why it's recommended for them to take sips of water. The first night that he had diarrhoea, he soiled easily about 8 heavy diapers.

We got pretty worried, so the next day we decided to get some Oral Rehydration Salt (ORS). Can be obtained easily from any pharmacy. Just add one packet to 8 oz (240 ml) of water (or according to what the instruction says) and shake well. We used a water tumbler and let him take small sips through out the day. You can also use a bottle for younger children. He's acting well, still playing, active, but gets tired easily, didn't have much of an appetite and was eating less than usual, but we weren't really worried about that as long as he is well hydrated.

Today is the third day for him (and 2nd for myself). I pray tomorrow we'll all be fine. One thing though, all my life I always thought that diarrhoea is not contagious, until about 4 years ago, when a doctor told me otherwise. Well, I guess diarrhoea itself is not contagious but the microorganism that causes it is. So always practice proper hygiene especially after changing a soiled diaper, or you may find yourself, or another member in your family, follow suit with the slam dunking action.

Since my wife is just over 3 months pregnant, she was quite worried that she may catch it too. So in her visit to her gynaecologist today, she asked about it, and the doctor said that once or twice of soft stool is ok, if it's more severe, she better get it treated. The doctor was afraid that too much stress and strain may cause her to pass out the foetus!! LOL! Lucky she asked as she may very well catch it. Guess her paranoia pays off eh.

To learn more about diarrhoea (especially in young children) and dealing with dehydration, you can visit the sites below:

1. Rehydration Project

2. Babycentre

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Mr. A-Z, Here I Come!! - [Random Ramblings]

Finally got my Jason Mraz Live in Kuala Lumpur from my friend! Can't wait for the 4th of March hehe. Here's a proof of me going to the concert LOL! (Really got nothing better to do huh?!)

Front

Back

If you looked closely at the ticket, you'll see that the ticket I have is an early bird ticket. All thanks to my good and sacrificial friend who sacrificed his saturday morning to get the tickets for 7 of us.

I was however a little unhappy because apparently each person are only entitled to 4 early bird tickets (and he has to buy 7) and that was not mentioned on the website, so I decided to email them a letter of complaint LOL! A couple of days later, they replied apologizing and saying that they were only informed by the organiser about that "terms and condition" on that ticket launched day itself.

While I acknowledged that it's not really their fault, I do hope that they will pester organisers to give them the terms and conditions BEFORE the launched date in the future LOL! Oh well, some things are out of our control I guess. Click the pictures below to see the email conversation. (I've blocked out some stuff that is erm, unnecessary)

From me

From Axcess

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A Hard Life!!

And that was coming from a 6 year old!!

I know I'm going to have a hard life when my 6 yo started asking my wife questions like:

"Why is life so hard, Mommy?" *sob sob*

"Why is my life so hard??!!" *started crying*

"Why? Mommy, why??!!" *close to wailing*

*sigh* And all that just because our relatives who said they were coming for a visit were just a little late, and he's getting impatient of waiting.

It's getting harder and harder trying to imagine that my life can be easy with a son that is both dramatic AND philosophical LOL!

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