A simple story of my patient in clinic

I saw a patient earlier. At first, I feel weird as he came to the group education before, but he never control his food intake. He seems to have very poor understanding of the diet control on the hypercholesterolemia,

He was telling me that he takes nasi lemak and roti canai quite frequently. I was quite pissed off and disappointed at the beginning, as I felt like my advices are all down to the drain. But in the end, I'm kind of relieved and happy. Well, we cannot easily judge a book by its cover.

I ask this patient why he never follow, he said he had problem to follow, lack of discipline, perhaps. but then I found out that he had limited understanding on the diet control, which mean, he literally did not understand or perhaps remember the diet advises given to him during the group education.

Well, I need to admit that when group education is carried out, it's hard for me to target everyone's need and make sure everyone can follow the flow of it. This patient seems to come from low educational status. That's why he cannot remember or understand whether what he took currently is under controlled or not.

I'm actually happy to find out the reason as he is still coming back to me to ask further about the diet control, even though I need to repeat the whole same thing on low cholesterol diet to him. He was motivated to come back and see me, as he knew he was not doing correctly. He working as a guard in swimming pool and he seems unable to understand thing fast. He cannot recognise many high cholesterol food, not even the common one, like fried food and skin.

However, I'm proud of this patient as he is willing to come back and asked for an individualised diet advises, as he really worried about his own health. He also informed me that he did boxing as his exercise, which is his favourite thing to do whenever he's free during his working hours. Guess he had nothing to much to do while guarding the swimming pool.

Counsel patient is never an easy job, A lot of time and effort needed in order to find out patient's need. As for this patient, I need to explain in the most simplest way so that I can ensure he understands what I am talking about. But I'm proud of him, many patients out there are well educated, but when talking about diet control, they just simply ignore that. This patient can work as a role model for many people out there.

Bird Nest~ A gift from my patient

Good day to everyone~

Share something funny that happened yesterday to all of you. ( yesterday was busy to upload this, having busy schedule)

Can you see what's in the photo? For those who are not familiar with these, these are all bird nests.. The 'original' one... which you can still look at the fur in the bird nest itself. Check out the photo down here.

Below was the conversation between my patient and I :

Patient : Dietitian, do you take bird nest?

Me : No, I'm allergic to it. (thinking the next question is to ask whether he can take bird nest or not)

Patient : Really? Why you allergic to them? I have brought some bird nest, thinking of giving them to you. Bird nests are really good for health. You should take them. 

(talking while taking the bird nests out from his bag)

Me : Ha?? It's ok. I'm allergic to them, you can keep them for yourself. Or perhaps sell them, they are expensive. 

Patient : It's okay. I have plenty of them. I used to eat them, thinking of sharing them with you. Don't be shy, just take them. 

(he passed me the plastic bag with bird nests inside, while explaining how to take out the fur and impurities from the bird nests)

Well, I need to emphasize that I did reject his offer, overall, I'm not fancy of bird nests, but he kept on asking me to keep them. Therefore, here they are, with me right now. LOL.... 

I got bread from an uncle very long time ago, I got mandarin orange from patient before Chinese New Year, I got muruku from an Indian boy last time, and I got Subway vouchers from a patient just one day before this, but this is my first time getting such a valuable gift >> Bird nests!!!

Meaningful experience when seeing patient in outpatient clinic~ Haha...

Batu Caves Visit

This is my first time here... Batu Caves~

I went there after attended my Malay friend's wedding at Selayang. Since the Batu Caves is very near to the wedding I attended. I decided to visit there.

Well, actually I confirmed my trip there just because I wanted to avoid the traffic jam. The direction from Selayang back to PJ was so jammed at that moment. I preferred to make full use of my valuable time, rather than trapped in the jam, doing nothing, but wasting the petrol and causing pollution. 

I have been staying in KL for quite some time, pass by this place for multiple times, but never visit there.

Once you enter the place, there will be a place to collect your parking fee, which is RM2 per car... If you come with a bigger vehicle, the price will be different, the bigger your vehicle, the more they charged. Well, they did charge more for vans and buses, but I could not remember the parking fees.

Well, there are shops around the area, and nothing much left. My sister and I decided to climb up the staircase and see what's inside. There are a few hundreds steps of the staircase and we were so excited as we were able to make our way up till the top.

You will see a very big statue when you enter the area or when you are on your way to get into the cave. 

This is the view from the peak of the staircase. Nothing much to see, only the terrible traffic jam at the highways. 

What a hazy day!

Oh ya, a reminder here, female visitors with short pants and shirts are not allowed to climb up the stair. Perhaps it is a place for worship and females should wear in proper attires when visiting such place.

But another reason will be -- steep staircase! Yes, the staircase is very steep and if you are looking up while climbing up, you can easily see something that you are not suppose to see. LOL...

Therefore, a warm reminder for all female visitors, please wear longer pants and shirts when visiting Batu Caves, if not, you can prepare a scarf and cover up yourselves, just for protection. 

There is also a Dark Cave somewhere near the peak of the Batu Caves. There is extra charges to go inside the cave. If I'm not mistaken, it's about RM35 per pax. 

I peeped a bit and it was so dark that you won't be able to see a thing. That place had unpleasant smell, which smelt some sort like bats' shit. So my sis and I decided not to go inside. Felt creepy when you can't see a thing. 

Home Made Aglio Olio ~

New recipe this time~ 

I'm a big fan of Aglio Olio all this while. This has been my favorite or may be my first choice if I would like to go for pasta or spaghetti. The second one will be pasta with marinara sauce, then the least that I like will be carbonara sauce. 

Aglio Olio

This time, my big project is to prepare my very own Aglio Olio! 

I got some very nice, big fresh prawns for my Aglio Olio, thanks to my mum~ Love you mum... The prawns are very sweet and fresh. Fresh ingredients are needed for good food~ hehe... 

These are the ingredients of my aglio olio, simple yet delicious:

1. Spaghetti 

2. SmartBalance oil (well, the original recipe should be using the olive oil, but due to my laziness to purposely go out and buy, I prefer to modify the recipe)

3. Chili flakes 

4. Garlic 

5. Onion

6. Salt

That's all.... simple huh?

A lot of oil is needed to prepare this dish. I never know it until I prepared my very own one. I pour lots of oil, thinking that it should be enough at the first time, but I ended up adding the oil again in the middle of the cooking, as the oil is not visible after I added in the spaghetti. 

After heating up the oil, I put in garlic and onion, you can put more if you like to take those. I put quite a lot of them, well, I like the aroma of them... 

After that, I put in the chili  flakes. Some info for the chili flakes, I tried to search in hypermarket, in AEON and Cold Storage, and guess what? I couldn't find them in the shelves. Surprise huh? Not sure whether it is sold out or it is really hard to get one. I ended up asking opinion from my colleagues and one of them proposed using the chili flakes provided by Domino Pizza. She offered my some so that I can use them in the cooking. Well, the taste is amazing! May be I will use Domino Pizza's chili flakes after this. My advice, keep the chili flakes next time when you order your Domino Pizza. hehe....

Next, just put in the spaghetti and salt for the seasoning. As for the prawns, I just boiled them and inserted them last in the cooking, to preserve the freshness and elasticity of the prawns..

The photos above shows the aglio olio that I prepared for my sister and I.  I cooked extra serving for my lunch box the next day, but my advice is not to do so, as the taste is never as good as it is just freshly cooked. But overall, it is still much better than what I have in the cafe. I'm satisfied though... hehe...