Little-Wonder.Net

25 September, 2008

So I overestimated myself, so what?

23:25:49 | Daily Life | writebacks (3)

This will be the very, very last health update here. For future updates on my progress, health wise - it’s elsewhere.

I wish to maintain happy and cheerful karma on this blog. (As far as possible.)

Plus, I’m pretty sure that people typically prefer happier entries rather than having to listen to someone complain.

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No symptoms for one and a half days. A pretty good sign, right?

So, I cleaned the windows yesterday afternoon (because they were getting pretty dusty). Experienced a short bout of dizziness after that. But otherwise, I held out for the rest of the day without any major symptoms.

Even more of a good sign, right?

So, I decided to push myself to the limits this evening and brisk-walked from Orchard Scotts (where I had to pick up at item) to Centrepoint Shopping Centre where I was supposed to meet my mum - which was about four bus stops away and approximately a fifteen minute walk.

Surprisingly, I held out well throughout the walk - which amazed me because I still have the stamina despite having stopped all vigorous activity since all this cardiac/sickness hoo-ha began three months ago.

Joy was short lived.

Plagued with giddy spells after that walk and came close to passing out completely three times this evening. Heart palpitations were strong and remained that way for two hours straight. Counted my heart rate using my watch at one point and found it to be 150 bpm - another episode of tachycardia.

Mum had to carry my bags and laptop for me since I could barely stand on my own.

Then, I had to endure a round of nagging about not knowing my own limits and overdoing things when I am nowhere close to recovering completely.

Mum wanted to drive me to the A&E, which I refused.

But I still feel that it’s better to have tried and failed than never to have tried at all.

Ah, fuck it.

20 September, 2008

Further updates, updates!

17:42:19 | Daily Life | writeback (1)

Mmmph.

Apparently, I do not only have sinus tachycardia, but atrial tachycardia (a specific form of supraventricular tachycardia) as well - based on the in-depth report I received in the mail today.

(When I saw the initial report at the clinic last week, my eyes caught the word ‘tachycardia’ and I automatically assumed it was the mildest form (sinus tachycardia). Must. Not. Make. Assumptions. Next. Time.)

The rate ….. is characteristically 100-160 beats/min …. difficult to distinguish from a sinus tachycardia. Diagnosis is important as it may lead to dilated cardiomyopathy if left untreated.

I don’t know what dilated cardiomyopathy is and I can’t be bothered to find out more about it because I am sick of medical terms, but it still sounds like major W-T-F to me.

But at least atrial tachycardia by itself is generally not life threatening.

Oh and yes, here’s the oh-so interesting 24-hour ECG graph summary obtained from last Friday’s hook-up to that silly monitor.

No guesses for how many hours I slept that night.

And those little ‘peaks’ in heart rate during the period where I was asleep indicated the times I woke up to toss and turn due to sheer discomfort.

As for my progress over the past one week - I would say that the past three days (today included) hasn’t been too good. The dizziness, fainting spells and heart palpitations are still out in full force and I am struggling to ignore it all as I go about my daily life.

Bah.

18 September, 2008

Of photography and balloons

03:54:26 | Daily Life, Events | writebacks (5)

Signed up for the Canon Photo Marathon 2008, to be held on the 18th October.

The competition involves three segments - each with different themes lasting about three hours each. Participants would be assigned the theme at the beginning of each segment and they are required to go around, gathering snapshots and submitting their best work at the end of the three hour time frame before being assigned the next theme.

Nifty, huh?

Was initially contemplating whether I should register for it since I wasn’t too sure whether I would have recovered by then. But heck - this is just too good to be missed.

In the meantime, I’d work on polishing up on my techniques and use of lighting with Mojojo (that’s what I named my camera - a Canon Powershot SX100) so that I needn’t wrestle too much with settings and exposures and all that jazz on the actual day itself.

Speaking of which, I am eyeing quite a few DSLR models from Canon as of late. I feel that I’m quite ready to upgrade now, since I’ve progressed quite a fair bit from my former point and shoot with automatic mode phase. Mojojo, with his fair amount of manual functions has been serving me well enough but … I want more!

But of course, it’ll be a while before I actually go out there and get a new one. The prices are hefty, so I gotta’ think carefully.

Hmm.

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Presenting, the girl who loves colourful balloons. Captured last Sunday at my uncle’s 60th birthday celebrations, courtesy of my younger cousin, using Mojojo on … automatic mode.

Yay for balloons.

Much as I swear by the manual mode these days, I can’t seem to trust others to use them properly. Take my younger cousin for example - he only managed to get the above photo after six attempts, the first five using manual mode, and finally, his first success on automatic mode.

He struggled and struggled and after each photo, he’d go … “Eh, Brenda! Why (is the photo) so blurred/dark/grainy, ah?”

But I love the photo anyway.

Mainly because there’s a balloon in it.

It was balloons galore at the event, by the way. Loads and loads of balloons floated around us on the ceiling, in various shapes and sizes and colours. It made me ecstatic, and I wanted to take all of them home with me upon leaving. I eventually took only two in the end since there were a fair amount of kids around and it wouldn’t be fair, right?

There were a couple of balloons that were overly inflated, and ended up taking on a weird shape - elongated at the bottom and veering towards slightly round at the top.

My little nephew happened to be enchanted with one of those elongated balloons and had it tied to his pants such that it followed him everywhere he went, which I found really cute.

Until my smart alec cousin poked me in the side and went … “Eh, why is there a t*sticle following Luke around, ah?”

OMGGAH.