Saturday 24 June 2023

My Oesophagus in Pain

Pain Diary

Couldn't lie on the back. Couldn't lie on the right. Left is the only position possible. Until 1.5 weeks after I first had it, also few days after seeing doctor. 

Food Diary - Avoided Food

Drinks - Coffee, tea, nescafe, milo, chocolate, carbonated drinks, juices (acidic ones)

Salad from restaurant (since usually, the dressing will be citrus based). Need home made ones

Dishes - no sambal, no masak lemak, no curry, no ikan/ayam/whatever goreng cili, no anything with asam inside.

Fruit - no mango, oranges, plum, strawberry, berries. Even banana is painful while swallowing. But it shouldn't give the GERD pain after. Apple is the gentlest

Progress

First noticeable feeling was 3rd June. I was still on my final pieces of Tamiflu. I remember when we were in the hotel, I felt the pill was stuck in the chest and I had to remind myself to flush it down well with water. Thought that was it. The next day (Saturday), after dinner of mee goreng, I remember the food path in the chest felt stuck still. Thought it was just a normal indigestion. It was just uncomfortable, but wasn’t a painful one. 

By Monday, it didn’t come off and I knew I had to do something. Had 1 sachet of gaviscon early in the morning and thought that should do it. By night time, on our way back to KL, it turned into a radiating discomfort. Still, wouldn’t call it as pain. It was like a contraction that comes and pass. This was noticed mored between 7-9pm, with the radiating discomfort coming in intervals, about few times within a minute. We reached very late due to traffic, asked around for any gerd related remedies. Grabbed more gaviscon and eno we could find. Nothing seemed to help immediate after. Ok, maybe it needs sometimes before it can really kick in.

By Monday, it didn’t seem to help further. Went on to get more antacid of different brand, as recommended by the pharmacist. Few days on, it never improved, but got worse. 1st real sleep trouble happened Wednesday night. Couldn’t remember by now but I might have cried due to the pain at night and resorted for some pills. Made way to the clinic the day after. That’s when I considered myself a real GERD patient. Had a good explanation by the doctor and confirmed that my pain only came from the chest and nothing from the stomach. Was asked to watch my diet, as explained above, for 2 weeks, before a scope procedure is recommended. 

But one week after seeing doctor (read: the medication, the tighter diet), things seem to get much better. Lesser pain while sleeping already felt 4 days after seeing doctor. But day time, it was still there. 5th day though, the pain got worse. But it was probably due to the slight fever, and not so much for the GERD. 

My medicine supply finished, so I went on to grab more. Thought of just having a quick medicine supply, but of course clinic asked me to see the doctor. It was a different doctor, the doctor didn’t say much but went on to recommend me to see a specialist. I wasn’t that much inclined since I felt much better already. But thought it would be a good thing, so at least I know for sure, what had really triggered it. Finding a slot was definitely not easy. The soonest I could secure was the next Monday. 

By the day after the clinic visit, I felt much better again and has braved myself some roti canai (within the past 1 week of strict diet, I noticed fried food wouldn’t upset me as much). For dinner, I gathered enough courage to tryout 2 pieces of sambal bilis (read, whatever chilli consumed is only those stucked to the bilis, hence, very minimal amount). The night seems good, I could still sleep. But morning pain is there (i think it never went off). But mild enough I could get up easily, and can still utilise both sides to sleep. So this was much better. Gave me confidence to have the Yong Suan Nasi Kandar after PIBG meeting in the morning. Tummy was well (of course i was still very conservative on the gravy) and had my much awaited Nescafe Tarik. It was heavenly. Never have I watched my diet this much. The only good thing was this was a short duration. Braved myself for mee goreng for dinner as well, but chest started to feel not as great again. Coupled with the out of gaviscon advance supply. 

The next morning was powerman. Had dates and apple as breakfast. It seemed sufficient. But I knew I would be lacking salt, due to the plain food I’ve been taking. MasyaAllah, found a bottle of non-carbonated 100 plus, which is supposed to be mild for my esophagus. Put it alongside my bike station. Everything was good nutrition wise for Powernan, until the second run leg where I had to hydrate mid run (been avoiding drinks during 1st run, but I knew I had to hydrate before unnecessary thing happens). The water was damn cold, it really irritated my chest. Had to walk to slowly to calm the chest down. for the upcoming  stations, I had to ask for non-cold drinks. Which of course didn’t happen. It wasn’t too bad until the evening. That’s when I started to feel the radiating pain again. Was so worried that it would get as bad as before, not after I worked that hard to improve the condition. Just slightly relaxed diet for 2 days shouldn’t take my food freedom from me. Went on to find gaviscon advance from few pharmacies, to no avail. Even the clinic doesn’t have the stock. Recommended by Doc Faizi and an IG follower for Nexium. Went on to buy one, despite having bought 1 box of gaviscon. Nexium was damn expensive, RM 48 for 7 tablets. 

By the next morning, pain seemed subsided. My appointment was finally due. Doctor was a very nice, classy Indian lady (she has Cartier love bracelet on). Based on my explanation, she suspected that it was probably due to ulcer from the stuck Tamiflu, and recommended endoscopy at the earliest. Scheduled for endoscopy 2 days after, could have been sooner, should there was no issue from the GL. The process went very smoothly and was very pleasant. Except for the fact that I had a late discharge. As was suspected by the gastro, it was indeed an ulcer, which is healing. No wonder the pain was so much. I had cried in multiple occasions, ran and worked out in pain. Tried so many medicines to no avail. But yes, no matter what, the remedy will still be about the same. Just that, I might have had Nexium much earlier had I seen the specialist sooner. Nexium is one of the most effective medicine I’ve seen. Ok, maybe aside from the Tamiflu. Situation just improved after. So if there’s anyone having a severe gastric pain, this is the med that I would recommend

But yippee!!! This is not a permanent thing and I will get back to my previous self soon. But the healthy diet has been great. I should incorporate it as a permanent eating habit as much as I can, with just occasional treats.

6 June 2023 - First official antacid (1 day after the apparent radiation pain)


9 June 2023 - 1 day after doctor’s visit. Took the food seriously now, with a lot of google’s assistance


9 June - First dinner. It looked healthy, but it was trouble still. Cold drink. Fruits are no matter how good, still acidic for my ulcer, which I couldn’t have known. It’s good for normal gastritis, but not good when it flows down your oesophagus. The, the acidic salad dressing


10 June 2023 - Dinner in the weekend. Everything was good, except for the banana. It was painful to take


11 June 2023 - Visited mak and along, and couldn’t eat most of the things



12 June 2023 - First day of the week and the bland diet resumes



13 June 2023 - This was nice actually. Should have more of this, weekly basis at least


13 June 2023 - Lack of option. Even though it says kicap, it has chillie still in it, and it’s a cause for trouble


Couldn’t finish


15 June 2023 - 1 week later. Felt a bit better, berani to have some gracy on. Rice still minimal, need to minimise carbs


16 June 2023 - Felt even better. Upped it up a notch plus testing the dhal, in preparation for Yong Suan’s, the day after


Lunch, no chillie, except the one stuck to it


17 June 2023 - Yong Suan day, yea!!


1st Nescafe, heaven on earth. First after 2 weeks


The dinner. Berani, but it only got worse again.


18 June 2023 - Post Powerman, pain is back



20 June 2023 - Bland again.. bluekk


21 June 2023 - This is it. Had the best sleep ever over Pethidine


The ulcer is the 1st one. 


Ubat sebeban



Celebration lunch



Monday 12 June 2023

Lope's Pace Notes

This is more of a note, rather than an entry.

So Lope had an impressive training this year I would say. Just last week, he ran hamster loop in STAR's compound for a staggering 11km. That's a very big mental game. And the outcome as follows

11km@5:34@1:01:21

This is just one of his normal runs (dont think it was an easy one, probably tempo level or slightly easier)

The week before, brought him to the stadium. Not a very impressive time for him. But a good enough gauge for 400m reps. So to me, the pace can yield his 5km time

5km@4:44@23:40

Base on supposed 5km timing, should yield 10km timing as this:

10km@49:20@4:56

Should be doable since my best 10 km is also 52mins. 

His official 5km (not really that official, but a proper 5km run) was at 25:18@5:03. 23 mins should be possible with proper race conditioning 

Just slightly less than 1.5 months ago, he was struggling to keep up with my 10km. But right now, am gonna need a bike if I were to run along. 

Addendum (16 June 2023)

With my guide, he then did 6x400m rep in school. And he said, he had nailed <4 min pace for the rep. So on I went to update his appropriate training paces and times projection:

400m reps @4.00 pace (should be 5-6 secs faster than your goal 5km)

5km@4:10@20:50

10km@4:20@43:26

Sub 45mins for a 10? That's a huge feat. Let's hope this last min training can really yield that. Cross country will be on 24th, with very less time for him to train next week due to his leadership camp. Hope he can really nail it


Wednesday 12 April 2023

KLSCM 2022…the Unexpected PB

5 months after the event, here goes KLSCM recap. 

A miracle did happen (refer to my post on KLSCM build up).

Just when I thought sub 2 hrs HM will never happen again, it did. And a PB while at it. Totally ecstatic. 

So I guess all d incidental build up and that last minute, less than 2 weeks specific workout was indeed fruitful

Sub 2 hrs HM is always a very special one. Started running since 2012. Pregnancy happened beginning April that year. Of course that means I didn’t get to progress much, running wise up until 1 year after. Had first HM in 2013 post pregnancy. Decent enough maiden HM timing at sub 2:15 for KLSCM. But it never got really better since then. Toggled between 2 hrs up til 2019, where I finally managed to nail the sub2 hrs at 1:57. This was supposed to be my key event prior to KLSCM FM that year, but shin splint struck again 3 weeks out of KLSCM. And I had to accept defeat, and turned to cycling. 

Fast forward 3 years after, with no specific training build up. Just, run as I’d like leading to Garmin HM 2022, then on towards Powerman, then a bit specificity around 1 week plus. Then suddenly, HM PB at 1:55 happened. -2 mins at 42 years of age. MasyaAllah, Alhamdulillah.

Another thing that helped the PB production of course because we managed to perform subuh prior. Didn’t need to stop in between run for subuh, making the run uninterrupted and the PB record is a clean one.

How the run happened? Of course, there’s no other secret recipe. Conservative start right up to 17km or so. 5km split was also very nice with -ve 5km split all the way. Nothing works better than conservative start and fast finish. HR was spiking right from the start, so I went by feel and hoped that the spikes was only due to adrenaline and not so much of the run being too hard. And I think it was partly right. 

It was a satisfying outcome indeed. HM is always a good enough distance. Would be sweet if the same outcome happens for FM as well. But guess I’m just too old for that much commitment. Until then, this is good enough for me to savour on. 





Tuesday 11 April 2023

Bye Bye VBQ

And today, I bid good bye to my 5 year old outlander

And we were not prepared for it to be this soon. At least it was for me.

We decided to put off the purchase of any new car to next year. But just 2 weeks plus ago, we decided to go for a drive test. Just for the fun of it. For me it was more like to try out if there will be any other car that give the same driving satisfaction as our Passat. It turned out to be true. No amount of C200, GLA250 and GLA electric can give that some amount of satisfaction. On that, we will very much contempt to hold on to our dear Passat. 

But while doing, hubs had also looked around for the Vellfire and the likes. And he stumbled across something that matches his requirement. Damn….It was an offer that he cannot pass.

And the rest is history.

So bye bye VBQ…I will definitely miss you. You being so pristine and divine still. But our time is up.

Edotco…Moving On

This will be a super short one.

Just want to put the thoughts and event somewhere private

Today, is the day that I think my time in Edotco is up.

Thought things were going well. My effort is recognized. Involved with key management personnel for key projects and few transformation ones. Was awarded with outstanding performance for last year’s assessment. But today, I was caught by surprise with the fact that my future role may seem to be lessen. Or of less significance at face value. I don’t have the full details as of now. But instead of speculating the positive reasonings behind it, I think it’s better that I stop justifying for people’s behaviour and start taking the active role of myself. Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise. There might be other better opportunities where I can advance better than my current role here. I have been here for 3 years plus now, duration decent enough to seek better opportunities elsewhere. There are other industries to explore further where it will definitely enhance my background and career prospects. I have in fact cried too many times here, more than I had in my previous employment. Getting a good package elsewhere is definitely a challenge at this current time. But putting it here, as a reminder to me, in case this intention slip by, again.

Wednesday 23 November 2022

Maiden Duathlon with Powerman 2022

Like everything else, 2022 redeems what 2020 held.

Powerman 2020 included. On 30th Oct 2022. And I redeemed myself as well.

Wasn’t that excited leading up to Powerman. Things got very hectic exactly 6 weeks leading into it. 6 weeks was also exactly the last outdoor ride I had (17 Sept 2022). Immediately after Garmin Half Marathon

In between, there were 2 public hols where the kids were at home. Went to Semashur and King Edward Taiping for Angah’s rugby tournament. Then bike tyre didn’t get repaired in time for the weekend, so instead of the much needed outdoor ride, had to make do with just a brick tryout with Zwift instead. Along with that, had a fast finish, non-stop 16km run to mock up the intensity.

Finally able to squeeze in an outdoor ride prior to the event, just 2 days before. It was a very modest 8.7 km ride at Cahaya SPK. The feeling of wind against your face was priceless. Must say it was getting a bit awkward to ride outdoor after that complete 6 weeks hiatus. But glad it was done. 

As if those were not enough to make me not Powerman ready, I was due for a futsal tournament just a day before. It didn’t seem to take so much toll when I signed up. But it did. On a big scale. On the very same week (luckily it was Tuesday, so it was quite early in the week), I had my one and only training with the team. The training left me sore, up until the rest of the week. The kind of sore that left me not being able to  even solat properly. Lucky I had 3 days to recover, so it kind of subsided on Saturday. Had futsal on the Saturday, which we surprisingly came 1st runner up, beating the favourite team. Immediately left for bike check in right after futsal. Had to have my lunch in the car while driving. Had a quick bib number collection, bike check in, snapped some photos, chatted a bit and off I went. Max duration there was probably around 45 minutes. Had to be home early after being away for the whole day. 

Knowing that the Tuesday’s training sore took me sometime to recover, I had all the remedy I could to minimize the soreness this time. Had cooling gel on prior to futsal. Did proper (and even extended) warm up. Prepared protein drink for consumption right after futsal. More cool gel and taping right after futsal. And finally, before Powerman began, popped Panadol Extend as recommended by futsal teammate.

It was raining in the Powerman morning, so, I was a bit worried about the slippery road condition. Some said there might be some potholes. I was prepared to have an easy ride then instead of a fast one. As long as I could get 30kph was good enough for me. My initial thought of having an easy 1st run, quickly changed with the fast start from others, and the possibility of getting a good headstart and less crowd. It was good in terms of able to nail my fastest 5km yet. But not the best move in terms of the headstart. It was not that crowded and seemed to have ample enough road space for everyone. Whatever lead time I had on the run leg, was quickly overcame by some in the bike leg. But still, I used the bike leg for active recovery, hovering below my threshold. I let others pass me by. If I really was able to catchup with anyone, it was non intentional. I was really just cruising along, and ensured that I wasn’t exerting myself. It was a good pace management, except that maybe I could have pushed a bit more. But my thinking was I better be reserved for the final run leg. 

Final run leg, as expected, started off with over the top HR. Managed to calm myself down, controlled from going to fast, but was still able to have negative split. I didn’t know the actual finish line (rookie mistake) could have charged up much earlier had I known. It seemed like a decent 2nd run, but upon seeing how others did, either I was pushing a bit much earlier on, or I didn't push enough for the final run. But in any case, it was a great outcome. Satisfied with all 3 parts. I logged my best 5km. I paced myself well and didn’t need to slow down at the end. It was a surprising outcome. But it wasn’t enough to score me a podium finish. My age group seems to be very competitive. I would have gotten a podium finish in a younger category. My run leg were generally stronger that others but bike leg seems to be my kryptonite. Thought 31kph was good enough, but it wasn’t. This is where experience make a difference. My transition time had definitely lost me 1 minute at minimum. 

So, what had went well in training. 

I think the minor workout that I had on Zwift really helped. I managed to maintain a decent threshold range workout, which is good in terms of stimulation and effort familiarization. I managed to identify the correct threshold pace by feel instead of relying on the device. It gave decent leg strength and power. I notice I have difficulty to slow down for my runs, possibly due to stronger leg and better form.

Runs were very minimal. Had only one 16km which was meant for KLSCM HM training. It had its benefit in terms of setting in fatigue, for the next day’s brick. Other runs was probably some fast finish 10km. Which is good tempo and threshold benefit. Nothing very fancy, everything just coincidental. But alhamdulillah, all seems to work.

So it was a very good event indeed. Especially great knowing that this 42 year old body can still do miraculous things. Let’s hope for better outcome ahead. 

Wednesday 2 November 2022

Crash build up plan for KLSCM 2022

More for my own notes, instead of a genuine blog entry.

Wanted to plan for a specific workout plan, leading up to KLSCM HM 2022. Which will happen within 11 days. Since I quite conveniently have tune up races data, figured, it should be good enough for me to have some rough estimates for the event, and maybe can squeeze whatever possible in terms of specific training.

1st Indicator

Had a good 5km from the recent Powerman 2022 - 1st run @ 4:51 pace, with supposed 5km time of 24:15 (supposed because Powerman was slightly underdistance, but I don’t think it was impossible for me to reach that timing, especially when that 5km was to be followed up with 30km ride and another 5km run).

2nd Indicator

The recent Garmin HM in September was not that far out. It was quite over distance. Assuming an actual 21.1 timing, I should have finished the event in 2:03:05. Runner’s World guide - 2:04 to 2:06. 

3rd Indicator

Best 10km, which was quite some time ago, but considering the recent 5km, don’t think it was too far out. Runner’s World indicator only needs 54mins, my best 10km last year was 52:21.

Race Prediction - HM at 1:51:33@5:17

Overjoyed with the prediction. But we know this is a tough one. Haven’t had that many long distance lately. But I have 11 days to squeeze whatever remain. And KLSCM, never an easy one. But a plan is still better than none. 

11 days, but with just 5 runs left. 3 key workouts. Let’s hope for miracle. 



Twincity 2019. "The Marathon". As of now.

So the months of hard work and life dream has finally broken. I have finally broken that 4:30 barrier, here in home soil, with few minutes t...