I'm Running Out of Ways to Cook Chicken

Seriously. I have no idea how does the mums doing it. Kudos to all the mum  of well-fed children in the world. I now understand the occasional temptation of calling fish sticks dinner.

Trying to come up with different sets of menu to please people everyday is hard. Cooking for a person who is undergoing chemo and stem cell transplant are pretty challenging.

The thing is... I gotta at least try to keep it healthy. The holy trinity of good food: greens, protein and complex carbs (he is losing weight way too quickly) have to somehow be intertwined within an exciting menu.

Oh and not to mention that the hospital will sanitize your food by blasting them off in a microwave for 5 minutes. Have you seen microwaved meat? Just like the witch from Snow White - shriveled, dry and pure evil.

There are a couple of things that I learned to be very helpful. Yes, I am not a mum (yet) but you know, I found this out along the journey so I thought I'll share it. This is what I have learned so far in feeding someone who is on a mend.

1. Always have options of plain food. Saltines are your best friends. Good nuts like almonds and pistachios are plain enough for bitter mouth but give them the good fat and protein.

2. Eggs are protein that can be easily hid in stir-fry. Instead of thickening soup with cornstarch, throw an egg in. Voila.

3. Know that one or two bites is still ok. In a sense, don't panic if they refuse to it. They are attached to a saline bag. Yes. Food is good but when your tummy tends to expel its content, food can be pretty traumatizing.

4. When your food is in the drain (mostly because their palate's are off or stupid nausea) know that it's not personal. It's not that your food is not good. It's just...vomit happens, okay?

5. If your hospital does have an all-hot food policy (to avoid infection) do NOT put any sugary food/nuts/stuff in the microwave. Burnt smell in your microwave is not fun.

6. When they are out of the hospital, have splurge/cheat day. Seriously. YOLO.

7. Seeds are great for hiding and adding that extra protein here and there. Sprinkle it over ice cream. They won't know (kidding)

8. Blueberry and mangoes cover all sins... I mean...greens. Seriously. They won't taste the spinach in the smoothie if you put that extra dose of blueberry in it. Promise.

9. Frozen banana whizzed with cocoa is a great ice cream replacement. Just saying.

10. If you still want to sneak in fruits and your hospital have an all-hot-food policy, stewed  fruits are great. Just make sure they don't have added preservatives and sugar in it.


That's all I learn so far. Just take it easy. 

Auds xx

Battle Scars

There are a few things that I always ashamed of admitting in my whole entire life:

I can't eat apples (I hate the squeaky crunch when you bite it...eerghhhh). I can munch a scorpion but not apples.
I never got the chance to learn how to bike
I am a Chinese who speaks fluent English and zero Mandarin.

I did not put "can't" on my second point because I believe that I can totally ride a bike...my dad just brutally robbed my chance of learning when I was a kid. I think he saw the adrenaline-junkie side of me and decided he is keeping me safe by ensuring I will never be able to dirt bike. Or ride a Harley. Ever.

The thing is, when we got to Chi-land, electric bike is the ONLY way to travel. So I got my chance to learn. The funny thing is, now everyone suddenly take an enormous concern of my safety. Yes, China is NOT the safest place to ride anything-not even your own two legs. But I did it anyway. My dad got two electric bike and I manage to fall three times in two days. My legs are all blue and bruised. I once have a piece of skin/meat dangling from my left toe. My knees are scraped repeatedly. It hurt to walk for a week or so. The worst part was that my legs looks horrible.

Some of my dad's friends who were helping us here laugh at me-half snorting, half admiring the facts that I just don't care- because every single time they see me I have a new scar/scrapes/bruises.

The truth? I do care.

I wore maxi dresses and leggings for days. I bought cute band-aids (Disney collection, as always). I hate looking at my legs because they're ugly.

It's funny because as my ugly-looking legs are sapping my attentions, my bike-riding skill increased rapidly. But I seriously don't care.. I just want my pretty legs back.

It's funny how we focused so much on our battle scars that we forgot what we have won. How we focused so much on a little dent on across our eyebrow that we got when we snowboard/hang-glide/doing some adrenaline-junkie activities. I have friends who hides their surgery scars or old wounds from the dark days.

The thing is, I think we gave our battle scars way too much attention. Battle scars are not trophies; they are proof that we have either won a war or we are bold enough to walk into one.

I think battle scars are often misuse in two extremes: over-glorified or hidden in shame. People over-glorified their scars when they use them as an excuse for a leeway or convincing themselves that they deserve something better just because they went through a battle. People hid their scars because they were ashamed and feel like the whole world are judging or pitied them - mostly because they are usually get thrown into battlefield out of their will.

Battle scars need to be put as it is. They are leftover marks of what we have been through; and everyONE has been through something. The truth is, you are constantly in battle; just different devils and different hells. The scars are just there. Stop licking it. Move on and learn your lesson from each battles.

I'm rambling. Stopping now.

xx

Manners Schmaners

People keep on asking how I feel about Chi-land... I mean, hello, I am in a land where I speak almost none of the language (well, if you count being able to point and do some Tarzan-inspired sign language then I'm quite ok). The one thing that I can't help but noticing though...is that people in China have very limited patience..and manners.

No, I'm not complaining. I just find it very interesting. Growing up, my mum will scold me if I forgot to say thank you or using harsh tone toward people. Here? Everyone is pretty much shoving, spitting or yelling at each other. Scared the life out of me. My first thought is that living condition shapes people's culture. Having heard so much about how bad it was in China during their closed economy period, I assume that most people who do all the no-manners thing are, well, less fortunate. They become rough and "pushy" in relation of survival.

I was wrong.

As I stayed here longer, I noticed that people who does all-of-the-above are (mostly) quite wealthy. I see the exact behaviour in high-end shops (they have great shopping centre here by the way) as well as the fish markets. Now this makes my head spins. These people are educated but they have no comprehension of personal space and respect.

Then it hits me. This "wealth" and economy growth happens just in the past 10 years. The call it the big leap. So now people in China have money, but they still act like they don't. They're instinct are still in survival mode even though their quality of life have improved and is sustainable. It's really interesting (and sad) to watch. I remembered how Chinese immigrant have truckloads of stereotypes just because of this. They are good people, they just haven't learn to switch their "survival-of-the-fittest" panic mode off.

So what do I do? Every time I queue I will make sure that I kindly remind people not to cut lines. I will be generous, and I will not be tired to show them kindness. I resolve to not shove people when they body-blocked me to get in the lifts (unfortunately, I might have a few occasions where I slipped... Especially when I was tired and/or PMS-ing). Sure, I've got a few stares and sometimes people are pointing and laughing. Yes, it is tiring and frustrating to feel as if we are a weird circus animals. But today in was queuing to discharge Andrew from hospital, and I asked politely for people behind me -who was pretty much breathing on my neck- to stay behind the yellow line. And when it was his turn I saw him telling the people behind him to do the same.

That makes me smile :)

I Can't Really Feel My Nose

We are in CHI-Land!

And I have felt the power of the great firewall of China, which banned most of our pleasure-inducing websites...including blogger. Nice. Anyway. Someone is posting this for me from the land of freedom.

So the transplant was done and dusted on Tuesday, 17th of June 2014. Fun times....Not really. Everyone keep in asking me if I'll get jabbed with massive needles on my bones. Thankfully, that did not happen. They are using something called stem cell allogeneic transplant instead of the old method: inserting SIXTEEN needles on my lower back. Thank you Jesus for technology!

 So what they did is simply giving me five days shot of GSCF (growth hormones to make my bone marrow bloom and overflow in my bloodstream) and then they collect it like a dialysis: blood come out from my left arm, go to a fancy machine that took my extra stem cells away and then back in on my right hand.

 I didn't know what to expect, but I have always been the tough one so I thought: Men. How bad can it be?

 It was bad. The first day I was nauseous and my whole body went numb. Like from head to toe. Pin and needles. Oh yeah.

I walk funny, like one foot in front of another slowly. Like a very cute baboon. And I trip, a lot. My soft motor skill goes out of the window. You should see me trying to put a key in a keyhole. Even a two year old can do that.

 So, long story short. Day two and three was okay. A couple of mood swings, nothing out of the ordinary. They put my stem cell in Andrew, and et voila! Now finger crossed my stem cell log themselves in and start producing some good juices. There you go for now ;)

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