Retinal detachment : Update

Just a little update on my condition. After the 2nd checkup, the eye specialist in Selayang hospital re-confirmed that my left eye has retinal detachment. I'm scheduled for a scleral buckling surgery to correct this defect on Saturday.

the silicone buckle is sewn to the eye to keep it in place...the whole idea is to push the retinal tear against the wall of the eye

Unfortunately, my right eye has developed some early symptom of retinal tear. As a preventive measure, today I underwent laser treatment to strengthen all weak spots that potentially can develop into retinal tear. It wasn't that uncomfortable as I expected. It's the exposure to high intensity light beam (I had 217 exposure in total) that makes it unbearable. This outpatient treatment costed me RM5. How lucky we are being Malaysian.

I'll be warded tomorrow for my surgery on Saturday. At the moment I've lost almost 50% of my left eye vision. The sooner the surgery is done, the better the chances of recovering good vision. Oh yes, this procedure is done under local anesthesia. For 1-2 hours, while my eye is 'wide open', I hope the surgeons will talk about football!

Retinal detachment..

Now I know why occasionally I've been having headaches. For almost a year, I thought something is not right with my glasses. I even went to see the optician not so long ago to check on my glasses but they're OK.

Not until late last week, I suddenly suffer from continuous blurring vision. I ignored it at first but after several days when the symptom persist, I decided to see an eye specialist.

It was confirmed by the specialist that I'm suffering from retinal detachment and my left eye require immediate corrective surgery. According to Wiki, "Retinal detachment is a disorder of the eye in which the retina peels away from its underlying layer of support tissue. Initial detachment may be localized, but without rapid treatment the entire retina may detach, leading to vision loss and blindness. It is a medical emergency."

I'll be seeing the specialist tomorrow at Selayang Hospital for further assessment and they'll decide the right treatment for my condition. I hope this would be my first and last operation, although I do know that the condition may recur. For long term treatment, the Selayang Hospital would be the best choice to handle my case. Thanks to Dr Sue, Fiqar's wife for assisting me to get a quick referral letter from KK in Kelana Jaya.

According to one patient experience, he was advised to rest at home for 2 weeks post surgery. That includes staying away from the computer. So you might see my next blog entry in a couple of weeks. Hmm..maybe I can ask Raidi to update my blog...good idea!

Anyway, I hope the surgery will go well, InsyAllah. According to DrM, based on type of surgery, usually they put the patient under GA. I hope it's true for my case. Because I don't like the idea of looking at needles at very close range!!! Literally, an eye opening experience for me...this is not going to be comfortable.

Day trip to JB-Nusajaya

Had the opportunity to visit Nusajaya after our meeting with Johor State GM in JB. It was a day trip to the south so we decided not to drive. Except for Hafiz, he actually drove from KL and picked us up at Senai airport at 8.30am! For the rest, it was the first time we flew on Firefly. They provide very good service and the new refurbished T3 in Subang is very impressive.

this 'api-api' comes with turbo prop engine...

Out visit to Nusajaya was an eye opener (heheeh...literally to me-will blog about it later). Unless you go to these places, you can't really sense the magnitude of the venture. Today I have a better understanding on the vision of developing this southern corridor.

Puteri harbour with the Minister's office in the background...

With strategic location alone, you can see how it creates investment interest especially from the neighbouring country. Looking at the money involve in this project, and the market it intends to capture, one shouldn't underestimate the long term value or return on investment.

looking at potential market and demand...

The question is, how does a telco position itself with the state gov't in such projects? Just be an infra provider or have a deeper relationship that enables long term sustainable win-win-win outcome with Nusajaya community? Very interesting prospect to say the least. Education, helthcare and governance are some of their signiture developments. This is a great opportunity for a telco to provide industry specific solutions, tailored for Nusajaya community. The value is to enable stable governance for harmoniouos communities. Compare that to just infrastructure laying.

I told Ayu I flew on kapal terbang kipas...she asked me a priceless queastion "Huh? tak ada air cond ke?"

2.2.1 version with 02.30.03 baseband

The title to this entry only means one thing. If you're an iPhone user, you might well know that it's the latest iPhone version firmware. It also means that you're one unfortunate soul if you bought the 'locked' unit. iPhone usually comes 'packaged' together with the country's local cellular operator network. And in Malaysia's case, it's Maxis. But I'm a loyal Celcom customer.

I bought this outright iPhone unit recently that needs to be 'unlocked' before I can start using it with my Celcom SIM card. Why I bought it? Because the price is so much cheaper in Australia. But after using it for couple of weeks, I realised that this 3G handset is so much fun!

Ahmed from Telstra asked me a very good question, why did I buy the new iPhone... I told him I'm about to find out!

I still have to wait for the market to come up with latest jailbreak software. There are hardcore programmers out there who devote their resources to provide such software for free. I'm not alone in this one. If you happen to know where or how or who can help me do this, please let me know. For now, I will continue playing Pacman on my iPhone!

The 12 Apostles...

The 12 Apostles is a geological limestone formation located by the great ocean road in Victoria. It's the main highlight of our road tour which started 250kms away from Melbourne. The weather was fine when we reached the look out point and we started taking pictures almost immediately. If only we can keep count and charge all the pictures taken just like web hits, somebody could already be a billionaire by now!

sweeping views...

Soaring 45 metres high above the Southern Ocean, these giant rock stacks are formed from constant attack by the sea. The cliff faces are being eroded at the rate of about 2cm each year. From the look out platform, we could only count less than 9 rock stacks. Where's the other 3 we wondered? There's one quick way to count and audit all the stacks. Take the helicopter flight tour!

co-pilot seat again...the instructor told us not to wave our hands for obvious reasons while walking towards and away from the chopper.

After a quick safety briefing, we were escorted to our bright yellow coloured helicopter. The morning flight over Geelong was nothing short of spectacular but this was something else. It was my first ever helicopter ride (after thousands of simulated flight hours..hehehe). And flying over the imposing limestone cliffs makes it even more memorable. The problem was I couldn't capture the flight on video as there's no more space for me to record. I had to delete some of the pictures during the flight to create more precious bytes! I only managed to take a handful of pictures.

It's confimed, there was never 12 rock stacks. Infact there were only 9 in the past. Today, only 8 left standing. (click to en-large the picts)

While the viewing platform provides great views, the helicopter ride offers unparalleled vantage, but there's one place that I wanted to be for a different perspective. Which is from the beach itself. It must be amazing just to be able to look up at these gigantic rocks. But due to time constraint, at day's end, we left the 12 Apostles and drove back to Melbourne.

L to R: me, Akmal, Sai and Sherene...

For someone who loves the outdoors and appreciate beautiful landscapes, this is the kind of place that I could just sit for hours and enjoy the view. I wish I could stay there over night and just watch how the colours change throughout the day, especially during sunset and sunrise. That's a good reason to go back to Melbourne isn't it??

More pictures here

The great ocean drive...

The great ocean road ranks as one of the world's scenic drives and touring route. Wrapping up our visit to Melbourne, we were chauffeur driven to the 12 Apostles, some 300kms from the city centre. As we drove through miles and miles of panoramic coastal view of the southern ocean, it was certainly one of the most memorable road trips I ever had.

The journey started from Melbourne at about 9am. Nicholas, our chauffeur is a very nice guy and he made the journey even more pleasant. He's been to most of these places so he knew which lookout points that are worth stopping. Sherene's instructions were clear. Avoid crowded places and stop at scenic lookout area. The week was really packed with meetings (some even started at 5am M'sia time) so I think we all agreed with Sherene on this one.

nasib keta ni tak ada sun-roof...kalau tak dah keluar kepala dah...

Words can't even describe how beautiful the scenery was. But the road trip for me wasn't just about the picturesque and quaint coastal town, white sandy beaches or dramatic cliffs. It's also about the charm and personality of the Australian lifestyle. Since it was a Saturday, we saw city dwellers spending the weekend with activities. We weren’t alone on this journey I can tell you that. We were joined by weekend campers, bikers on Harleys and even cyclist. Their sights and sounds (especially from hundreds of Harley bikes) provided the added character into our trip.

relax jap...amek angin...

relaks jap...amek gambar

We stopped by many places. Took a short flight at Geelong, took hundreds of pictures, had lunch by the beach and did our final stop at the 12 Apostles (special blog entry on this coming soon) before we traveled north to the expressway to take us back to Melbourne.

We reached our Hotel at about 9pm. It took us 4 hours to travel back from the 12 Apostles to Melbourne via the A1 Expressway. My only regret was not being able to drive the V6 3.6 litre Statesmen Holden through the winding coastal road. I did tell Nicholas that I could drive the car if he’s tired or sleepy. Maybe I was taken away by the breathtaking view that I’ve forgotten about it. Nick was smart enough to distract me from taking away the absolute driver’s experience from him! Nevertheless, thank you Nick aka the transporter for driving us safely the whole day.

Bird's eye view of Geelong

I have to say, the experience of taking off and landing on water is something that I will never forget! Under perfect weather condition, we took off on a Cessna seaplane and flew for about 10 minutes over the bay city of Geelong.

This is one de-tour that we never expected. We were on our way from Melbourne to the 12 Apostles via the great ocean drive and decided to stop over at Geelong's waterfront for brunch. As we were busy taking pictures, I saw this bright blue coloured seaplane cruising back to the jetty. Out of curiosity, I quickly walked over to the place where the plane was mooring. I saw one couple getting off the plane with big smiles and looking happy. Hmm...I told myself that I want that kind of smile too!!

I didn't have to persuade the rest to take the ride. We just looked at each other and straight away knew that we have to be on that plane! In no time, we found ourselves seated and fastened with safety belts. After getting clearance from the air traffic controller, the pilot throttled the plane for take off. And it was one silky smooth take off experience, flying just couple of metres over the water before the pilot took us on a steep climb to 2000ft.

The co-pilot seat offers the best view of the city .....

The view from up above was breathtaking. With limited flight time, I find it hard to divide my attention between taking pictures or just sitting back and enjoying the flight experience. It was one of the most busiest and exciting 15 minutes of my life!

Landing on water was a thrill. The approach is very similar to that of a land plane. But as the plane touches down on water, it was a very unique feeling all together. I never would have thought to have this experience in my lifetime. And I'm so glad that I have my digital compact camera to record the in-flight experience on video.

flying 2000 ft over bay city of Geelong...

I like this bit, the water landing approach is so much fun!

Nothing could beat this I thought initially. This has to to be the icing on the cake. Not even the scenic drive to the 12 Apostles can take this away from me....I was wrong. To be continued.....

more pictures of Geelong flight here