All About Your Child

Today we went to Singapore’s National Skin Centre for a follow-up on Binbin’s Atopic Eczema. Read here if you want to know how serious his case is.

I’m so glad that the doctor say there is an improvement. Anyhow, he still prescribed a milder steroid this time as compared to the first visit ~ Dhacort Cream. We are supposed to go back for another check-up 4 months later…. but I requested for an open date instead.

We have a hunch that it might be orange that’s causing the reaction, but we are still in the ‘testing’ stage. Its more or less under control now, so we’ll act as we go….

(pop over to my personal blog to read how crazy I was over books after Binbin’s checkup)

First of all, I’m so lucky that my conscience has not left me, if not, I may have cooked my unborn baby for consumption, as in yesterday’s post….

15 Nov, 2.58am: Just switched off the PC after catching up with all the outstanding posts since my swollen eye days.

3.05am: Keatkeat popped his head out of the dark room and cried: “Mommy, I wake up and I can’t sleep again….” I asked if he was hungry, he shook his head. “Ya, its about time for his next intake of medication.” was what went through my mind after looking at the clock.

(I really dislike cold weather. Whenever it happens for more than 3 days in a roll, Keatkeat’s good friend - Bronchitis, will come for a visit and you will NEVER know how much ‘he’ misses my boy and hence how long ‘he’ would stay)

3.15am: Gave him a bottle of milk and a few tiny pieces of Pandan Cake, followed by his runny nose and cough medicine. “Mmmm….Yummy!” was his reply… and then *cough couGH COUGH AND BLEH!* He vomitted. Nothing to be alarmed. I’m used to this. Blogged so many times over this before: cough so much and so hard till he vomits! Ya…its the norm.

I’m so lucky that I wasn’t woken up to this, or I’ll be shooting fire from my nostrils and ears with unpleasant grumbles coming out of my big mouth. On top of that, I’m soooo lucky because he vomited in the kitchen and not on his bed. *Phew* Are you thinking I’m crazy? Anyway, I’m really glad.

So no scoldings from me, the only sentence that was said with a little faster heart-beat was, “Oh! Keatkeat, you COULD have walked faster, so that you could reach the toilet before the vomits come out…” He vomitted as he head for the toilet, the spread was about 3meters, yes, he vomited as he walked.

So there I am washing my kitchen floor at 3+am in the morning, nothing could be heard except the sound of me scrubbing against my mosaic floor and the singing of Keatkeat: “Mop! mop! mop! mop-pi-li mop. And we go mop! mop! mop! mop-pi-li mop…”

Can you see how calm my boy is? It has become such a common thing for him, its no longer a big deal! Its rather ironical.

He was extremely happy to be my assistant cos’ his brother is not there to fight that post with him. “Keatkeat, I need more water…” I commanded. “OoooKay!…(and started singing again as he wait for the water to fill the pail) 1 2 3 tap tap tap, 4 5 6 and tap tap tap….”

4.15am: The floor was cleaned and smelt nice. “Mommy, I don’t want to sleep..” pleaded my 5 year old. “Ok, then what would you like to do?” hoping that he would not request for something too much for his exhausted mommy. “I want to do art and craft…I want to fold paper…” I shook my head, I wasn’t in the mood to teach but suggested him to draw. He agreed.

As I watched his little figure completely engrossed in the white sheet of paper, making strokes with his pencil as every second passes…I doze off unknowingly….

5am: “Mommy wake up… I finished my drawing and finished reading my story books already. I want to sleep now…” *Hooray!* But when I looked at the detailed drawing, I can’t help but request for an explanation before we head for the bedroom.

“The sun is setting and the moon is rising. (to me, it should be the other way round, looking at the time… *sigh*) The sun is sad because its raining. (yes, its been rainy for almost a week now and that’s the main reason why your Bronchitis came) There were lightning and thunder, so we can’t go out for fun. We played hide and seek at home. Binbin is hiding in the hole (tiny figure on the right) and the 3 of us are looking for him…. Mommy is this nice?”

I pulled him close to my chest, stroke his hair, “Yes Keatkeat, its very nice…. Ok, now let’s go sleep….” *Yawn*

Hey friends, you know I love all of you so much. I have said that so many times and I meant it. The last thing I want to do is make you nice people puke or lose appetite….but I just had to share this !@#$%^&%$# with you. I can’t even find a word to describe this!

Ok here goes…My friend emailed this to me:-

A reporter was the writer of the email. It was written in Mandarin, so here’s the summary of what I read.

There is a restaurant in GuangZhou, China, which served a tonic soup cooked with foetus!!! They call it “Pai Gu” (’Ribs’ in Mandarin).

Normally, the foetus served on the table is usually 6 to 7 months old. It is cooked or rather brewed with many chinese tonics (which I’m not interested to state here cos’ I don’t know the English names for all those tonics) for 8 long hours.

The soup is believed to boost fertility. A 62 years old man was ‘promoting’ how incredible the effect of the soup was on his sexual life, that even at this old age, he was able to ‘perform’ daily!

The soup is ‘most beneficial’ when its boiled with fresh foetus. They had already been informed by a foreign couple working in China, who are blessed with 2 daughters, that if their 3rd child (in the tummy) is still a girl, after the ultra-scan had confirmed it, then they would sell it to the restaurant. They are hoping for a boy…..

The foetus in the photos (below) was from a village friend of the chef. The price paid for this foetus was not disclosed.

The midwife gets paid for this inhumane act too. The price varies with the age of the foetus. For a 5month old foetus, the midwife is given a few hundred RMB. For foetus carried to Full Term, an award of 2000RMB is given to the parents.

The soup is served for a price of 3500-4000 RMB in the restaurant. Use the Currency Converter to find out how much is that in your own currency. Choose ‘Chinese Yuan’

Currency Converter

According to the chef, up to date, only female foetus is available. The guess of the reporter was, “Could it be due to the one-child policy in China, which resulted to this? Chinese being traditional would want to have a son to carry on their family’s surname…..so girls are ‘not welcomed’….”

Warning!

The following photos are NOT recommended for the weak-hearted to see and definitely NOT for people who have just finished a sumptuous meal.

As I look at the photos. I was thinking: We are no longer in the ‘cave-men’ age, yet man-eating-man is still happening. I’m not talking about situation where a man is stranded on a mountain after a plane crash and had no choice but ate his fellow (dead) passengers bodies in order to survive. This is NOT about survivor. This is about inhumanity, isn’t it?

Eating is one thing. The parents who sold their ‘babies’ away for that miserable $$$. Do their guilty conscience eat them alive by the minute, day by day?

And is this approved by the law over there? Shouldn’t the police be involved?

The 2nd Last photo where the chef used the spoon to scoop up the head was too much for me to handle……My heart feels so heavy now….

The 3rd picture looks like a boy right? But the article says “5month old-female foetus” … hmmm… *scratch head*

I hope more people will get to see this…. Not that I’m a sadist, but this is too shocking to be kept in silence… I just hope to share with people how insane China Delicacies can be… Do Digg this story using my top left icon or you could just link this post from your blog…. whichever way, I thank you if you do….

The Damaged…on the right lower arm…

The Victim…

The Weapon… disguised in its nice wrapping….

The Accomplice…

The Guilty One….holding The Weapon in its ‘true colours‘.

The Punishment? NONE!

Victim said: “I REALLY (with extra facial expressions)want to punish him, but I choose not to. Because I don’t want him to cry….”

*event happened on Thursday night*

Though I can’t force, I do urge you to read my previous 2 posts ~ The Beginning and The Progress , before you get to this one, or else you may not fully FEEL the joy in my heart as I write this final post about the 7-long-months of struggle with Keatkeat and with myself.

Its took 7 months, yes it was that long. My sis asked me few months back, why didn’t I blog about the struggle I went through every morning? I shouted at Keatkeat so loud that my volume works better than my sis snoozing alarms, to wake her up for work. It was not just a physical, mental and emotional torture for Keatkeat as he tried to win this battle with the HELP from his almost-going-mad-mommy, it was stressful for the WHOLE FAMILY too.

Now it can happen any moment. The sudden change of temperature, passing by a construction site, smelling his baby-bolster or even when he is half-way chewing his pork chop rice and “Haahhh…Cheee”. I bet you can imagine the mess spread out 2 feets in front of him; the chewed-up rice will be on this hands and the table and some back to where it began with (that is back to the bowl of ‘fresh’ rice). Will you let him eat that bowl of rice then?!!! With the extra flavoring of Mucus and Saliva and Half-chewed-up food bits?!!! We didn’t! We couldn’t! Its TOO GROSS! Can you imagine how much FOOD we have wasted?!! *Ashamed*

I didn’t want to complain at the beginning of every blog post for those 7 months, it would be awful! I wanted this story to wrap up nicely. To have the beginning and hopefully a nice ending (solution). And The time has come. Its been a month since I last yelled at Keatkeat. *Hands Waving in the Air ~ Yeah!* He is able to react faster than his nose for a month now. I think its time to REJOICE. My boy had WON the battle. Not that his sneezing has stopped, but that he has trained his mind to tackle the problem like an adult, in full control. *Yeah*

If he is woken because of ‘IT’ in the middle of night, though he whines, he doesn’t forget to cover his Mouth and Nose and KEPT his little hand there, no matter how many times he continues to sneeze his way to the toilet. Yes, he woke us up too, but we no longer need to JUMP out of bed as if there was a bomb attack! We stay awake, lying on our pillow and listen for any SOS call, but there never had been, for a month now….*Yeah* After the minutes of washing and blowing in the toilet, the little figure in the dark just move back to his mattress and continues his sleep like nothing had happened…. *Hooray*

Months before today, I sat and thought “Could It Be? Could my poor boy be suffering because of his dad and mom? Could he have inherited his parents’ sinusitis?” High Chance, eh?! Yes, he did, with confirmation from the doctor.

Allan was a very weak boy when he was little. His immunity system was terrible ~ according to my MIL. His sinus was so bad, he was on those bitter Chinese brewed tonic for YEARS!

And Me? I was under the mercy of the cold surgical knife. My sinus was so serious when I was a teenager that I must have at least 6-8packets of tissues with me every day for school. And by the end of the day, they are all soaked through. At 16, I was diagnosed with Chronic Sinusitis. My face was bloated, I had fever and persistent sore throat for weeks.

When I went for the Head-Scan, the result was GROSS! My whole head was filled with Mucus, which made me looked as if I’ve put on weight on my Face. The sore throat was caused by the infection from the prolong-stay of the Mucus in my ENT area (Ear-Nose-Throat).

After the 2 days stay after the surgery, my doctor (who died 2 years after operating on me in a Car Crush with her husband during an anniversary trip to Australia) said I needed to be on a life-long medication in order to prevent it from happening again. And so I was on Clarytine till I was pregnant at 25. Though my gynae said it was ok to continue, I just didn’t want to. And boy, aren’t I glad I made that decision! ‘Cos since then, I’ve stopped taking it daily, except on very very terrible ’sniff-sniff’ days. I love those medication-free days! *Yeah* I’m free!

The only thing that made me feel better, when I was at war during my teens, was bathing every morning. I sneezed lesser, it did help. And so I did it to Keatkeat too. Boy, he sure is my son! It worked for him as well as it did for his mom!

Over the past 8 months (7months of battle + 1month of victory) and NOW, these are the things we have been doing other than 1st bathing him in the morning, before anything else.

2nd Forbide Keatkeat’s favourite soft-toy, Winnie the Pooh, to sleep with him.

3rd Stop his WEIRD HABIT! Keatkeat likes to uncover part of his BABY-bolster (small photo), revealing the ‘rough-bolster-skin’.

He would slip his hand into the cover and rub his fore-arm on the ‘rough-skin’, close his eyes with full satisfaction glowing on his face and said, “Soooooo ‘Shu-Fu’ (comfortable in Mandarin)” We believe the stuffings inside the bolster may sneak out of the ‘bolster-skin’ and might cause irritation to his nose. Ok, I’ve mentioned before he has WEIRD SLEEPING HABITS back in March 2008 ~ remember? he ’swims’ in order to sleep?!!! So I guess this bolster-rubbing-habit is ranked no. 2 then.

4th We change his mattress cover, pillow case, bolster cases (he has 2 bolsters) every 2-3days to ensure that it doesn’t collect too much dust.

5th On warmer days, we will let him wear slightly cooler clothes to bed and NOT have the fan switched on at all.

I don’t think the above measures help significantly, ‘cos he is still having the “Haahh…Cheee” moments, but at least we make an effort to help in every way we can to make my boy feel better….*Hmmm….*

The ONLY complain I have now is, I can never get the timing right every morning. ‘Cos once his sneezing starts, it can go on for 5mins or as long as 20mins. He would be stuck at the basin, blowing his nose and washing away the *Yuck*.

School starts at 8am, it takes 2mins to walk to school (that is IF he DID NOT sneeze on the way there). When I wake him up early, say 7am, he could be perfectly ok with just ’sniff-sniff’ or sometimes ’snort-snort’, no sneezing at all, and we would be super early for school then!

But sometimes when I allow him to sleep slightly longer, he could be in his sneezing routine at the basin for the next 20mins and we end up being late for school for half an hour! Hmmm….I guess many of you would say, its better early than late, and that’s what I’ve doing. Sometimes when he does have the attacks, I’m glad I made the right choice; But when he is sneeze-free, I feel guilty for depriving him from the extra minutes of sleep….. *Sigh*

But this is no BIG issue, Really! ‘cos the worst is over already! I started the 3-Day long post with this sentence and I think by wrapping this memorial experience with Keatkeat with the same sentence is just too perfect:

Finally, after 7months, I feel relieved, at peace with my boy, at peace with myself….

(this is a continuation from yesterday’s post)

When the sun was beaming, “Good Morning”, our weary eyes and body were ready to report to our family doctor. We were the first customers. That was how urgent we want to get this over and done with.

Dr L. rattled on the usual stuff, “make sure the air-con is off…” “No, we don’t have air-con at home” I reminded the 50+ year old doctor AGAIN. He smiled and continued, “make sure the fan is not directed at him, no soft toys should be around him because of dust…blah blah blah…” All too familiar sentences that I was not listening to much. I just couldn’t wait for him to finish and GIVE ME THAT RUNNY NOSE MEDICINE so that I could get back to sleep!

We left the clinic satisfied. I fed Keatkeat the medicine the moment we reached home. He fell asleep soon after and so did I. Allan was taking care of Binbin that morning, while his wife, ME, tried to get her beauty sleep. My 4 year old was fine when he woke. No more sniffing, no more mucus and definitely no more “Haahhh…Cheeee”. Everyone was happy.

At 3am+, it HAPPENED AGAIN!!!! The nightmare happened again! Everything that I posted yesterday was replaying itself! *Urrrggghhh* The only difference was I had runny nose medicine this time. Got it down his throat and waited for the drowsiness to take effect, as my robotic body went like an automated machine, “Haahhh…Cheee” - Wipe Keatkeat’s nose and mouth - Wipe his saliva off my body….. “Haahhh…Cheee” Again - Wipe Keatkeat’s nose and mouth AGAIN- Wipe his saliva off my body AGAIN…..

He was all chirpy at 7.30am, ready for school. The nightmare was gone with the darkness of the night.

Did it happened again that night?! YES!!!!! In the wee hours of the morning I’m up AGAIN! This went on for about weeks. Went back to Dr L. for more medication, this time we took the bigger bottle. My body was so used to the unusual wake up timing, it didn’t feel like it was abnormal anymore. That’s how bad it was!

WE HAD TO STOP THIS CRAZINESS!

Step 1: We reminded him over and over again to cover his mouth. It didn’t work. We assisted him by bringing his palm to his nose and mouth every time he went, “Haahhh…..” (Before the “Cheee…” comes). After doing it for months, he still DOESN’T DO IT by himself!

Step 2: We fed him the runny nose medicine BEFORE he sleeps every night, EVEN THOUGH HE WAS NOT sneezing. I know its wrong. But after a month of such predictability, we just didn’t want to risk. Its not just about our sleep, its about Keatkeat’s sleep too. He lost weight, lost appetite and lost the cheerfulness. After doing it for another month, new progress, he stopped sneezing at night, he started to sneeze IN THE MORNING!

The sneezing and blowing of nose varied from 5mins to 35mins! We can be up early for school yet by the time all the sneezing and blowing of nose stops, we ended up being LATE for more than half an hour! Sometimes we were sent back, ‘cos the teachers think he is unfit for school. BUT THIS HAPPENS EVERYDAY, does that mean I had to stop his schooling totally?! That was another struggle I had to go through because of Keatkeat’s problem.

Step 3: We trained him to wipe and blow his own nose everytime his nose felt itchy and BEFORE he sneeze. For months, he would SNEEZE FIRST and let the thick mucus HANG DANGLING FROM HIS NOSE, threatening to break off and smack onto the floor, “Hurry Up! The mucus is DROPPING (noticed, not dripping). Get the tissue and wipe it off!”

There was no urgency in him AT ALL. He took his own sweet time and pluck out the tissue and SWEPT his nose! Sending the LONG STRAIN OF MUCUS FLYING TO THE GROUND! *Urgghhhh*

I showed him the right way to do it over and over again (you bet I’ve got lots of chance to demonstrate ‘cos he was sneezing non-stop), but it just didn’t get into his head! I ended up mopping the *Eeewww* off the floor every time.

With the medication and the tissue, the cost of this sickness was getting way too high. We were lucky to have free supply of toilet rolls from Allan’s aunt. So no more tissue, we switched to toilet papers. Worst! He sloooowwwlly UNROLL the toilet paper with his goo dangling from his nostrils, COUNTED 3 Sections and sloooowwwwly tear the perforated line with perfection. DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO WATCH THIS every time?!!!

You want to DO IT for him, WIPE THAT MUCUS OFF with your well-trained hands, yet you know if you continued to do it, he will NEVER LEARN!

But we were reprimanded by Keatkeat’s teachers after she saw the toilet roll in his bag. We needed to do that because it comes in handy AS WE WALKED TO SCHOOL. He stopped and blew his nose several times on the way to school too. A 2mins walk may end up being a 10mins walk sometimes.

Mdm N. told us its better to wash then to blow his nose into the tissue or the toilet roll which is very dusty. Fine! I AM ALL GEARED UP TO TRY ANYTHING that can stop all of these nonsense! So we tried BUT our WATER BILLS WENT UP! This was really really tough…

I was GOING CRAZY! I was completely beaten, I had no more ideas to solve the problem. No more patience with my boy. No more nice mommy. The sight of his nose twitching just makes me *Urrrghhhh*. Every morning, I had to yelled at him, “Cover your mouth! Blow your nose BEFORE you sneeze! Wipe the mucus OFF!…” I hated every morning. I was fuming every morning and I hated myself so much, I couldn’t recognize myself ANYMORE!……

(I think I’ll stop here for today….will end this 3-DAY long post off by tomorrow… if you have read yesterday’s post and today’s post, I admire your tolerance level *wink*…. Thank You!)

Finally, after 7months, I feel relieved, at peace with my boy, at peace with myself….

7months ago, I was woken by a whining Keatkeat at 3am. My 4 year old was sneezing non-stop for who-knows-why.

The weather was not cold, my home was the cleanest that night ‘cos my part-time maid came that afternoon; his shirt was intact, it was not raised up to his chest, his body felt nice and warm….I have no idea what made him sneezed so badly suddenly… maybe a mosquito flew into his nose accidentally and go stuck in his nostril hair….I DON’T KNOW! *eyes rolled*

All I know was I was slapped awake from my beauty sleep by a whining kid in the dark bedroom. With the little moonlight that peered through my window, I was still clueless as to how bad the situation was, until my palm rested on Keatkeat’s mattress to balance my groggy-half-asleep body…I touched something cold, wet and definitely sticky…the clues were way too obvious to have second thoughts and after switching on the lights, it confirmed my guess - it was Mucus!

Mucus was everywhere! ON his twisted face, ON both his hands as he uses them like a napkin to wipe off the goo from his nose, ON his pillow, ON his bolster, ON his Winnie the Pooh, ON his shirt and what was the worst? Spots of mucus were all over his mattress. They were so thick, it seemed that its almost impossible to soak through the thin sheet of cotton bedsheet cover.

When I tried to lift my first born out of that mess, I noticed even his hair had mucus! He was resisting me, he kicked, he whined, he fussed and made noises of all kinds, enough to wake everyone up. Who would like to be woken up in this manner. I understand how he felt but I’ve got to get this mess cleared before he starts rolling around and soaking up the mucus with his pajamas.

I was pissed to some extent! The stronger he pushed me away the harder I lifted him up. After saying, “Keatkeat, get up first, let me clean you up…” in my gentlest tone, for countless times, he showed no signs of cooperation. I couldn’t control anymore, I shouted, “GET UP NOW! YOUR MUCUS IS EVERYWHERE! I NEED TO CLEAN YOU UP! GET UP NOW!!! NOW!”

I saw his body shudder, I felt guilty, I was scolding myself inside, “Get a grip of yourself, won’t you? The little kid is sick.”

I zipped my mouth, let my hands do the work. As I scooped him up, he thanked me with wetness! He sneezed at the exact time when I pulled him closed to my chest and there he went, “HAhhh…Cheee” and his saliva and mucus were on my face! (*Eeewww* You can say that again)

I almost dropped him that moment! I was fuming! “Keatkeat! Cover YOUR MOUTH when you sneeze!!!” I yelled!

Seated him on the floor just outside the bedroom before I went to the toilet to wash my *Urrghh* face. I needed support, physically, Allan didn’t know that, he was sitting at the edge of the bed looking at me, obviously still in his dreamy-land, giving me the best MORAL support ever… sometime I do give the wrong signal - the signal that I’m too capable to do things on my own.

“Go clean him up and change his clothes!” I woke my man up to join me in my misery. I raised my voice to let Allan know that he had to snap out of his sleep completely and get to work THAT INSTANT!

The only good thing that night was Binbin’s super cooperative behavior. He was jumping in to ‘help’ but was rejected. He was asking tons of questions whereby no one was in the mood to answer, he sensed it quick and he just sat there and watched the ’show’.

Keatkeat went on sneezing the whole night through. We ran out of the runny nose medicine, so there is little we could do at that moment, other than applying Vicks, which created a whole new kind of struggle from my 4 year old, he hated that smell and the sticky feeling of that medicine on his skin.

That night was unforgettable. Neither Allan nor I could get back to sleep with Keatkeat sneezing the whole night through. I was so afraid that this intense sneezing could trigger his Bronchitis again…I sat beside him throughout the night, dozing off uncontrollably at times and woken umpteen times by his, “Hahh…Cheee”. With eyes half opened, I had to wipe his nose and wipe his saliva off my body over and over again….

This was the beginning of my worst struggle with Keatkeat.

(I’ve mentioned in this particular post before that THIS STORY is probably going to break the longest post record and I decided to break it up into 3 parts over the next 3 days, so as NOT TO KILL YOU! *laugh*)

First, it was Keatkeat with Bronchitis, then both boys were down with Hives…. and as I was taking care of my hives babies when it first struck them in April, I got so sick that I was bedridden with Glandular fever.

Now this!!?

Could this have been prevented? No! How sad. The cause of atopic eczema is not fully known. However, it was known that genes play an important part as atopic eczema often runs in families. But no one from Allan’s nor my family or our ancestors had this! It could also be due to food allergies, but he did a test before and it was proven that he is NOT allergic to any food…

So who was the lucky one this time? BINBIN! Yes, my 3year old has mild Atopic Eczema.

Its been a year…I’ve kept my silence. Went to polyclinic twice. But I wasn’t comfortable being shoved off with just a tube of $0.80 Aqueous Cream Moisturizer every time.

I don’t want to accept that. I needed a second opinion and I demanded for a referral letter to National Skin Centre. Yes, the expensive one, the specialised one, the one employer which my Dad last took his salary (as a Pharmacist) from before he passed away.

With the referral letter, instead of paying $60+, I paid $20+. Its a great place, you are offered free packet drinks almost at every counter, very comforting with nice landscape structures except for certain levels where its FORBIDDEN because it was the leprosy units.

Yes, it was one year ago, it started with the wrist area. Sometimes it peels off like a snake shedding its skin. Sometimes its just tiny pieces of skin standing up, waiting for its chance to fall off. Is it itchy? According to my 3 year old, sometimes. I noticed that he HARDLY scratch unless he is ’sweating like sweat-ducks’ (Keatkeat’s style of description).

From the wrist, it ‘peeled’ to the finger tips. Now the affected areas have increased. It has gone to the elbow and the inner-side of the elbow. Instead of on the left and its on the right too.

It peels and reveals the pinkish baby skin, leaving unsightly patches, as it contrast with the tan colour of the unpeeled areas of the active boy.

This time, Binbin was given the Aqueous Cream again but no longer in tube, its a container! On top of that, Desonwen Lotion, the stronger medicine, was given too, the damage for both were $20.15.

Spending almost $50 today and yet the verdict is still the same as those General Practitioners have said in the Polyclinic, where I just need to spend less than $10 for EVERYTHING. Paying $40 more with the same conclusion was painful….but then again, at least I got ONE additional medicine which the Polyclinic didn’t give during my previous 2 visits…that’s the only thing that make my heart feels good now….*sigh*