I finished watching The Promise last night and I thought the ending was a bit daft. No, make that REALLY pointless. I agree that the fighting scenes are choreographed smoothly but the plot and the storyline are somewhat dry. Anyhow, I moved on to watch The Transporter 2. Sadly, it's also another pointless movie. I felt asleep halfway.

I woke up at around 1am to the sound of my vibrating mobile phone. I half anticipated it was from my mum and I was right. Apparently my dad was suffering from another pain attack on his right foot and he couldn't tolerate it any longer. This actually happened before during the CNY's eve where he was sent to the KB hospital for immediate attention. However the doctor gave him a topical cream and a few tablets of ibuprofen to relieve the pain, none of which worked well. Moreover my dad drove all the back to Bandar tt morning and I suspected the driving would have aggravated the pain. He could barely walked a few meters without showing excruciating pain and we, together with my mum and sister, accompanied him to the A&E depatment at the general hospital. We arrived at about 1.30am, preliminary examination was done by a staff nurse to check my dad's blood pressure which turned out to be fine, then we waited to be seen by the on-call doctor who explained that my dad was coming down with a degenerative disease called osteoathritis in his right foot. My dad received an injection for immediate relief of pain (rather temporarily). The doctor was going to prescribe the same medication as the KB doctor but my sister insisted that it wouldn't work well with the existing pain. The doctor later ordered for an X-ray so we waited, had it done, and reviewed again. The X-ray showed some growth surrounding the metatarsals of the right foot, consistent with the symptoms of development of osteoathritis. The doctor later prescribe a stronger dose of painkiller, and booked an appointment with the orthopaedic specialist for follow up review. Later we waited for the attending pharmacist to give us the medication. All these events took 2 hours and we were back home close to 4am. My dad felt a little bit better but I suspect the present medication wouldn't alleviate much of his pain. Looks like I will have to wait for the review and find out what exactly is the problem as there are many types of athritis affecting different people. As with my profession knowledge, I recommended plenty of rest, minimal weight bearing on the right foot, passive movement to be done gently at the ankle, and perhaps heat packs would help blood circulation and ease the pain. There will be a few changes to be carried out with immediate effect like purchasing a more suitable bed and mattress, a Zimmer frame to aid his mobility, a change in diet (more calcium and other supplements to strengthen the bones), and probably at later time to subscribe Astro so he can watch in his room and not be bored lying on the bed. Spring cleaning would also help to clear the cluttering area and allow more space for accessibility. Dear me, I am writing as if I am practising my clinical skills here! Anyway, I hope the pain will lessen as time passes because I know how painful it can be. Trust me, it's far beyond any pain that you can imagine and to be inflicted with it is very disabling.

Today I started my teaching at Walni again and so far all of my students are okay. Everyone seemed to be hardworking and attentive in class so let's hope it would stay that way till the end of the year. Teaching is indeed tiring and I'm beginning to feel the toll of standing up continuously for 4 hours. I'd had better get some rest as much as possible to avoid future ailments.

I'm not sure what I've got planned for tomorrow, I have bills to pay and another class in the afternoon. I might be going for a swim in the morning if I wake up early. I will have to hunt for the walking frame as soon as I can, and also to arrange other things as mentioned above.

Ok, I think it should be enough for today. I am off to bed now and thank you for reading! Good night!