Insomnia

For me, to sleep is the hardest thing to do. I remember my friend used to say that sleeping is an easy and favorite thing to do whenever they have time. In my office, I find many friends sleep during the lunch hour just by putting their head on the desk or sitting at the couch. Wow! So easy... I wish I can do that. I have a sleep disorder and so afraid that I might have insomnia. Sometimes in order to get a sleep, I drink a cold & flu drug or a sleeping pill. I know it is wrong, but I really need to sleep.

Recently, I read an article about FFI syndrome. FFI is fatal familial insomnia. The story is about a man at his 40, having a problem to sleep. The problem continues until he can not sleep at all, the brain just won't let him have it. The body was exhausted and the disease finally killed him. He died after 6 months from a complete lack of sleep.

According to Wikipedia, FFI is a very rare autosomal dominant inherited prion (mutated protein) disease of the brain. So far, it has affected 40 families around the world. This is a very fatal disease and inherited. If the parents has the gene, they have a 50% chance of inheriting it. Scary! The disease untraceable and ultimately fatal.

Fatal Familial Insomnia attacks between the ages of 30 and 60 years, with no apparent trigger that the sufferer can relate to. Patients have been known to survive for up to three years, gradually passing through four stages of illness:

1. The onset of insomnia, creating panic attacks and unfounded phobias, lasting for four months.
2. Severe insomnia, worsening panic attacks and hallucinations, lasting for five months.
3. Complete insomnia and rapid weight loss, lasting for three months.
4. Dementia and unresponsiveness, lasting for six months. FFI is eventually fatal.

There is no cure or treatment for FFI. This prion disease is still shrouded in mystery, and sleeping pills only worsen the symptoms. However, there is hope that one day, Fatal Familial Insomnia will be controlled through gene therapy.

Beware of it!


Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal_familial_insomnia
http://sleep-disorders.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_man_who_never_slept

Picture:
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y185/iris-glows/Insomnia.jpg

A House or Home

 

These last few weeks I got home very late. I left at 9am and backed at 10 or 11pm, everyday! I love to be busy and enjoy each activity. Although tiring, I like to spend more time outside than at home.

Wait! Is it wrong to feel more comfort outside? Well, that's what I feel for more than a year. My main reason is to avoid spending time with my parents. Being home with them around is disaster. Most of the time we argue, I dislike this kind of situation. I want to have a home not a house. A house is just a building, a place to go after work. But a home is a place where I can find comfort, happiness, and peace around my family. I couldn't find it at my current house, except on weekend when my parents not around.

I always try to find after work activity, so I can get home very late at night. Directly take a shower afterward then off to sleep. At the morning I don't have enough time to spend as I rush to office. I know is not a good relationship and I wish to be able to repair it. But we have different perspective about many things in life, and it cause all the argument. They want the best for their children, they push us with a high level pressure while we just want a life according to our own standards not theirs. Whoa... Hope I can fulfill your wish, please help me God ^^...

Right now, I want a home where I can feel secure, comfort, and happy. I miss to stay at home, to laugh and chat with light subject or to watch a movie together with the whole family. Let's build a better home...

Another Addiction

This is weird. I have never felt so addicted like this before. Yes, as my previous entry, I still play "CAFE WORLD" and right now I'm playing another 2 online games. This is not good since I could not stop playing, whenever I have time and no one use the modem. The worst thing is... I play it at the office too, gee... I really have to stop playing.

FARMVILLE

This is an old game. I used to play it but got tired of it because the game was too heavy for my PC. But then the office open the gate for this online game and I start to play again. My brother's laptop also supported for this game, with its minimum memory. Lucky me to have a helpful best friend, Nit2x, who I trust to play the game on my behalf. So every time I have a problem with my modem or laptop, I ask her to play.

There is something funny, one day I asked my friend to play. As the game always give a free will to post our new achievement on our wall, she put my achievement on my wall. That day, I was sick and need to sleep early, skipped my choir practice. After the choir practice, my best friend, Blue Jasmine, opened the Facebook and saw my last activity. In the morning she asked me about it, was I played instead of getting a rest for my sick.

About the game, is a farming game. It requires us to plant, grow and harvest our corps. Now, the game provide a special job with a great reward for the farmer. I learn to manage my money at this game... hihihi... ( since I have a bad financial situation in my real world).


SOCIAL CITY

Actually, 2 online games are plenty and I thought I have enough. Until one day, one of my friend invited me to play "SOCIAL CITY". Like Farmville, the game is quite heavy. My PC at the office can not open it since it require the newest version of Mozilla Firefox. So, I asked my IT staff to install the new version.

They said this game is similar to "SIM CITY", which I never play. One thing for sure, I love this game very much. I love to design, how do we called it... love to design layout of a house, and this game fulfill it. I can design my own city... hihihi... Love it very much!!!

About the game, it's easy. All we need is to arrange a city, balance the population and the entertainment so they won't get bored... hihihi... The game also require us to work to earn money to build entertainment building. Here is my city, CIMO CITY. Again, I named it after my dog.

OH NO!!!... I really need to quit playing, I play too much... Help me to quit!

Six Months Result

This month I'm having a bad cold, cough and flu, until this very day. I went to 3 doctors, yet no one cure me. I took all the medicine they gave, followed the advice, and avoid certain food. Maybe I'm too tired and stressed. Now I didn't take anymore medicine, just try to rest and release my tense.

Anyhow, I should write about my menstrual cycle. The menstrual came last week. I didn't feel much pain, yet curious about it. Whether the pain is too mild or because the medicine of the cold, cough and flu contain pain killer... Hmm... I wonder... I did have a pain killer in a form of paracetamol 500mg which I took 3 times a day. Need to be positive, so just believe that the pain was mild or gone.

I have decided to stop the hormonal stuff or the birth control pills. I learn before, when I took a stronger hormonal stuff to stop the menstrual, the doctor told me that I can not take it more than 6 times or the drug will damage my body. So, this is a quite difficult decision since I enjoy using the birth control pills to reduce the pain. Back to the ordinary pain killer means inviting the problem with my stomach too. Pray hard that next month the pain won't torment me. 

This picture is taken from: http://www.stanford.edu/group/parasites/ParaSites2006/Strongylodiasis/images/cough.gif

Journey: Malaysia

This is my second visit to Malaysia, the first one was in 2007. Why I choose to come back to this country? Hmm, it's because Genting Highland. On my first visit, I haven't spend enough time at Genting. This time I spent plenty of time. Genting is like the Las Vegas of Malaysia. We can find complete entertainment at Genting. There are malls, casino, and theme park.

Day 1:
I have been sick for several days before leaving. I saw a doctor, got medicine, but still sick. That day on the check in counter, I was having cough... a heavy cough, unstoppable, and tears keep falling from my eyes. I asked my friend to queue for us. Finally able to stop the cough and the fever came. I was afraid of being departed or quarantine for the fever at Malaysian Airport.

The flight was on schedule. We arrived at 1.20pm Malaysian time. My fear of the heat sensor was saved by a guy who walked 10 steps before me. He got detected by the sensor. Luckily, there was only one person behind the heat sensor detector counter. While he was busy with this guy, I passed the counter easily. Thanks God... After the immigration process, we stepped out side and directly choose the bus for KL Sentral. KL Sentral is like the main station in Kuala Lumpur.

After an hour drive, we arrived at KL Sentral and buy the bus ticket to Genting Highland. Genting highland is a mountain peak of Titiwangsa Mountains, located in Malaysia. It is situated at an altitude of 2000 meters above sea level. Genting features lush green forest in its valley, the characteristic feature of equatorial region. The soothing temperature, which ranges between 16 to 23 degrees, provides a natural feel of air conditioning. The climate is usually cold and refreshing, often clouded and misty. Genting, only 50 km from the Kuala Lumpur city, offers a hill riding experience, while getting there.

We arrived around 6.30pm. As my condition got worse, after refreshing at the hotel, we sought for a medical clinic. We went there and the doctor gave me 4 drugs: antibiotic, pain killer, drug for my cough and flu. It was quite expensive, it costs me 1/3 of my pocket money. Afterward we had dinner and saw the indoor theme park. The medicine worked quite well for me.

Day 2:
We started with breakfast at the hotel. Since I have a sore throat, I can only eat bread and porridge. It was enough to start the day. So, we bought the outdoor theme park tickets. Firstly, we visited the chocolate house, then we played space shot and corkscrew. I got really tired. I must say this is the first time I challenge to such games. I usually refuse to try it because of 2 reasons. One, I'm afraid of the safety and second, because for me playing such game is like buying happiness only for short moment. It's a waste of money. Since the ticket was all-in, I ignore the safety and the money... just played. LOL...

 

We also went for the indoor theme park. We tried the Ripley's Believe it or Not, 4D Cinema and Snow World. The medicine really asked me to sleep. Actually I need to sleep, but tried not to sleep. Hardly open my eyes during the 4D... LOL... The funniest thing happen on the Snow World. The ticket allowed us to play inside for 45 minutes and since I can't stand the cold, I just spent 10 minutes in there. LOL... What a waste!!!!

Day 3:
Down from Genting to Kuala Lumpur. We took the same transportation and arrived during lunch hour at KL Sentral and went to the hotel. The weather was so hot. We spent our evening at the hotel, resting. Before dinner we went to the malls around the hotel. After that, we went to Petaling Street, is the China Town at Kuala Lumpur.

We just walk and walk that night, saw the Kuala Lumpur at night. We didn't do much activity, spent most of the time resting.

Day 4:
Start the day by making plan how to spend the last day in Kuala Lumpur. We decided to go to KLCC or Twin Tower, the famous icon of Malaysia. We took monorail to KL Sentral and switch to another monorail to KLCC. Inside the KLCC is a mall, we sought direction for Aquaria. Aquaria is the Sea World of Malaysia. We spent an hour at Aquaria and amazed by many sea creature. It's not just sea creatures, they display snake, frog, tarantula, etc. I was amazed the most by a huge fish called ARAPAIMA or Dragon Fish. The maximum size is 4.5M. Wow...

After Aquaria, we had lunch at KLCC then order a cab to go to Beryl's Chocolate House. Some of our friend ask us to buy this chocolate. The most famous chocolate is Durian Chocolate, where you can find the real durian fruit inside the chocolate. Too bad I don't like durian, LOL...

Back at the hotel, picked up our luggage and went back to monorail station. Arrived at KL Sentral, we bought another chocolate and then took the bus directly to the airport. Our flight was delayed for an hour. Arrived at home at 11.30pm.

This is our journey to Malaysia (March 2010)...