(PhD tales) Months after long silence.. Now, I'm back!

My previous entry in this blog was somewhere in June last year. Masa tu nearly finishing semester 2, now dah habis sem 3! Betul-betul xde masa and takde banyak nak share since work in progress.

Today, my semester 3 is officially ended. Of all semesters, sem 3 is often the most terrifying. For my PhD's programme structure (Faculty Business & Accountancy, UM), all students are required to take 4 coursework and 2 elective (total 6 subjects) and advisable to complete those by semester 2. And at the end of sem 3, we need to defense our proposal to confirm on our candidature. If fail to do so, we may have chance in the following semester and if still fail. Pencalonan akan ditamatkan. Before one pass the preliminary conditions like completing the coursework and more important pass your proposal defense, kita digelar 'PhD candidate' - calon aje ye.. jangan perasan lebih2 ;p  Once you passed proposal defense and confirmed on your candidature barulah digelar 'PhD student'.... READ MORE...

Preterm Labor Symptom

So, semalam dah follow up dengan Prof Hashim berkenaan contractions attack last 2 days. Luckily, we still engaged with the same gynae, he already know what to do for my case. It's confirmed what I had experienced the other day is similar with the one during my first pregnancy. Now dah start di'trigger' dengan contractions yang sebegitu.
According to Prof, mission kalini untuk tahan delivery at least until 34 weeks, which is 4 more weeks to go. And if contractions continue at that time, Prof kata saya akan dibiarkan deliver aje. Tapi since masa Amir, I dapat bertahan until 37 weeks so kemungkinan besar this time pun i dapat reach full term.

TPL stories here and here.

Jadi, antara alternatif ialah makan duphaston sekali 4 biji akan stop kan contraction. I took that medicine on the 2nd day of contraction attacks. No wonder lepas tu dah takde contraction yang intense. By right, kena continue ambil 2 tablets per day. Tapi, bila jumpa Prof semalam dia terus bagi injection that can last for a week - to halt contraction. So from this week onwards, I have to rely on this injection sampai lah 34 weeks. Ada 2 injections lagi to go. Huhuhu. But I have to bear with it, to deliver a premature baby is much more risky.
Tenang dan convinced lepas consult dengan Prof. And memang sampai ke harini, no contraction at all. And thanks to him, he is so responsive to my sms and inquiry.
Cuma, petang semalam bawak Amir pergi playground. I was sitting on the bench then suddenly rasa macam pee. Ok, yang ni I memang panicked because I'm sure I did not peed in my pants. Ajak Amir balik dia tak nak pulak, puas pujuk. Bila bangun dari bench, I saw memang ada kesan basah atas kerusi, sedikit.
Mujur lah husband babysitter boleh tengokkan Amir dekat playground dan I dengan lajunya (1km\sejam) naik atas untuk check. Ya, seluar memang basah. Tapi since kuantiti sedikit bukanlah waterbag ruptured so I maintain to be calm. Walaupun risau kot lah waterbag pecah malam tu confirm tak dapat ambil exam esoknya (Jumaat).

Alhamdulillah, I woke up with a healthy body this morning. Nothing happen last night, except for I tidur mati tak sedar apa ;p I believe du'a and best wishes from my husband, family and friends have blessed me today. Takde masalah masa jawap exam kecuali part yang tak study tu dah tentu bermasalah untuk dijawap hehehe
I have another big war which I harap I sempat untuk pergi berperang sebelum I deliver - proposal defense that is. 3 more weeks which is at my 33 weeks of pregnancy and the final week that I can rely on the injection! Hahahahaha

Apalagi nak cakap hahaha aje lah... Huhuhu

Sent by Maxis from my BlackBerry® smartphone

Braxton Hicks? False Contraction? Preterm Labor Symptom?

Kalau masih ingat, cerita 7 minggu sebelum I gave birth to Amir, 2 kali admitted to ward due to threatened preterm labor which started at 30 weeks. Surprisingly, kalini pun experience benda yang almost similar and luckily tak admitted. Well, tak tau lagi lucky atau tak, harini (Khamis) kena follow-up dengan Prof Hashim semula.

Bila bercakap pasal braxton hicks, maybe majority preggers akan pernah experience starting from 20 weeks. However, kalau contraction yang kita assume braxton hicks tu jadi lebih intense dan berlarutan, it could be the real labor contractions. Since, ada history during pregnancy sebelum ni, I was anxious bila on the 1st January I started to feel contractions that quiet intense, they were 3-4 mins apart. And this is the 2nd pregnancy, I was certain that yang itu ialah contraction. That 3-4 mins contraction last for almost 4 hours starting from 1pm. Mujur hari cuti, so I just terbaring atas katil try to ignore the pain. Makan pun tidak, langsung takde selera.

Sekali sekala Amir datang buat kacau tak bagi sleep. Dia kata 'it's day' maksudnya kene lah wake up kan. Huhu

Bila contractions dah subsided, barulah mampu nak bangun and isi perut. Itupun badan rasa sangat lemah dan lenguh. Dalam kepala terfikir esoknya nak kerja, nak kena prepare for final exam and nak submit proposal for proposal defense hari Jumaat ni. Lagi la huhuhuhu... Dah lewat malam baru ada tenaga sikit nak siapkan kerja for the next day. Then, tidurlah macam biasa...

Until pukul 2am, terjaga dari tidur sebab perut rasa sakit. So pergi toilet in case itu membantu. Baring semula atas katil, mata sangat mengantuk tapi asyik terjaga sebab sakit. Hampir pukul 4am, sakit makin menjadi. That was when I decided to get up, buku whattoexpect kata, kalau braxton hicks, bila kita ubah position kemungkinan akan hilang. So I berjalan ke living hall, tapi lagi sakit kalau berdiri. Bila duduk, jadilah saya seperti udang yg terbongkok2 badannya. Kalau masa first attack siangnya tu, I still can ignore tapi kalini rasa risau pulak. I kejut Ami and discussed if we should go to hospital. Even worse, sampai termuntah-muntah pagi tu.

Then we went to the hospital. Masa tengah register, sakit bukan main, rasa tertarik urat seluruh pinggang. Bila masa nurse dah pasang CTG machine, I rasa macam contraction dah kurang, not as frequent as before. As expected, the machine did not detect any contraction. Aduhai, drama betul. I explained to doctor macamana sakit I experienced tadi and my history. She acknowledge but did not ask further. Bila buat VE, no dilation she advised me to go home.

Masa tunggu ami buat payment, sakit yang intense datang lagi. Bak kata Prof Hashim dulu, dia main acah-acah ni. Dalam kereta otw balik rumah pun masih ada contraction tapi interval far apart dalam 30 minutes. So I text Prof Hashim about my condition. He then replied yang I kena ambil duphaston and jumpa dia esok (Khamis) to follow up. Lega sikit Prof advised what I should do actually. Tengah hari nya kami ke HUKM semula ambil ubat. And contraction masih lagi ada.

Petangnya contraction dah berkurangan, tapi badan rasa sangat tak larat and macam semput. Asyik terbaring sambil jeling-jeling laptop bila lah nak setelkan study and proposal.

Kebanyakkan masa Amir dah tak kacau mommy, he understands mommy sakit and forcing me to take medicine padahal belum time lagi. Kalau dia dah boring sangat nanti dia datang kat katil and jerit 'ni tak night!' Bermaksud janganlah tidur. So I pujuk him to watch his cd kat bilik. Time dia termakan pujukan, dia duduklah diam2 atas katil tengok cd. Dapat mommy sambung tidur balik. Sekali terasa Amir kiss eyes mommy. So touching.

Towards the night, dah tak rasa contraction, once in a while. Tapi badan masih lemau. Luckily, midnight I rasa ada tenaga sikit. On kan laptop and siapkan proposal. Amir pun dah tidur, tapi sesekali dia terjaga I cepat2 pretend tidur hehe Dia bukan boleh tengok orang bukak mata. Kalau sampai berkali-kali pretend, ada jugak masa aku terlelap kejap kan ;p

At 4.30am ni barulah setel proposal. Ingat nak tidur kejap before Subuh, sambil baring sambil update blog ni haaa...

Today akan pergi jumpa Prof, hope ada better solution for me. Kalau dulu, kena ambil steroid injection to ensure lung baby mature in case of premature delivery, makan ubat untuk stop contractions. Tak kisahlah orang nak kata braxton hicks ke, normal la contraction tapi if ada remedy I have to explore. Because when that really happens, kalau kena hari bekerja, I tak sure mampu ke nak bekerja seperti biasa and kalau boleh nak ensure yang I sempat untuk defense my proposal hujung bulan ni. I'm praying for the best.

Sent by Maxis from my BlackBerry® smartphone