estamun

Dear mist, Sorry to hear about your dad's situation. Brainstem stroke, age, pneumonia, MRSA... all adds to the poor prognosis. FYI, doctors often give the worst case scenario in terms of prognosis so that family can be adequately prepared for it. Thus, there will be many examples of patients "doing better than expected by the doctors". Brainstem control the basic functions for human to stay alive, e.g. breathing, body temperature, etc, thus the doctors would be pessimistic. There are stroke patients who recover, but those I've come across are cerebral stroke patients, e.g. the hemiplegic stroke patients. I think ahjane's advice is very relevant. Again the hospital staff can help you with this as they can provide you information on the licenses and procedure to handle death in Singapore. FYI, if your doctors' evaluation is that your dad is terminally ill, hospice care is another option. Hospices are given more leeway in the care/medication they can give to provide optimal patient comfort. My family didn't know about hospice care when my granddad was in the last stages of cancer 10+ years ago. He suffered much at the end because acute hospital care was bounded by restrictions on care/medication they can provide (e.g. amount of painkillers that can be given). Continue talking to your dad. Hospice caregivers say that it is the last sensory function to go. For precautions to take for your baby and yourself, the hospital staff will be able to advise you. Take care! Hugs! applefreak, I don't think the above in italics is a fair statement. Afterall, certain types of hospital wards have an unusually high concentration immuno-compromised patients. Any visitor/staff could be a carrier of the bacteria. You won't find the same risk levels in other ward specialties e.g. Obstetrics. Why? The conditions of the patients are different.

Have replied your PM. It is not a home jac setting, but a hospital one. Hospital environment ensures that you and your baby can be well-cared for should there be any issue.

Have replied your PM about the water delivery. My friend told me about her very experienced confinement lady which guided her to develop confidence as a new mum. If you want, I can ask her. PM me if I missed your reply. One question. You already visited a gynae? Do you intend to stay with the same gynae? If so, you will need to find out which hospital your gynae is attached to. Gynaecologists usually have 1 or 2 hospital where they usually practice.

Good point raised by deepakvali. To prevent bed sores, it is important to re-position your dad every 2 hours (hospital practice). In addition, check the backside (known as sacral area) for any redness or broken skin. Apply a skin barrier for added prevention. You can check the following url for Pharmex, a shop that sells/rent medical products and equipment. http://www.pharmex.com.sg/v2/index.php?pag...t&Itemid=26 May be worthy to observe chest physiotherapy being done to help your dad clear his lungs. This reduces the phlegm/fluid gathering in the lungs which increases risk of infection. You may also need to flex his joints (called "range of motion exercises") to keep them supple. Lastly, you may need to sit him upright sometimes to reduce bone de-mineralization.

Must have enough folate during 1st month of pregnancy for proper neural development. Other nutritional advice can get quiet easily from your gynaecologist's office or at the polyclinics. http://www.choice.com.au/viewArticle.aspx?...late+(archived) For baby's complexion, some people swear by breast feeding. I have seen a toddler breast fed by his mom for 2 years, and his complexion glows! But then, the mommy also has good complexion leh, so dunno whether it boils down to genes. For brainy baby... dunno ah. My mom swears by cod liver oil and fish... fed us lots of it when we were growing up. Hee, hee. Personally I find exposure and supportive environment are important too. One of my favourite bloggers recommend the following. http://mrwangsaysso.blogspot.com/2008/06/m...-up-gifted.html A ex-schoolmate of mine swears by hot-housing during pregnancy. That is, play classical music, read stories, etc to the womb while pregnant. She claims that she did it for her 1st child, and he is very smart. But she regrets not doing it for her 2nd child, whom she felt is not so smart. Aiyah, mommy delivered safely and healthy baby is already very good.

Yup, but in a tub (not a pool). Trying to PM u but your PM box is disabled or full. PM me back

Congrads! When are you due? Trying to PM u, but your PM box disabled or full. PM me back

For elderly care, a maid can be trained at Choa Chu Kang polyclinic. This 1-day training will include all the basic skills for day-to-day care for your father with stroke. The maid only need to attend Module 1 "Care of Elderly", costs around $98. It's much easier than finding a maid who is already trained. http://www.nhgp.com.sg/contentview.aspx?article_id=494 You can try Home Nursing Foundation for nurses to come to your home for the occasional more complicated tasks of changing the feeding tubes (NGT) and urine tube (urinary catheter). http://www.hnf.org.sg/ For more in-depth 3 month training, can consider the Healthcare Assistant course. http://www.hmi.com.sg/hmi_ihs.html http://app2.wda.gov.sg/web/Contents/Contents.aspx?ContId=40 Btw, depending on the weight of your father, you may need more than 1 person to lift/position him. 1 maid alone may not be able to do the job. In a hospital setting, there are usually 2 persons. For heavy patients, it may even take 5-6 persons to move the patient. Please do not leave it to the maid alone if your father is heavy, or he may be inadvertently injured or suffer discomfort during movements. In the interim while you're settling the arrangements for your dad's care at home, you may wish to consider step-down care such as Ang Mo Kio Hospital. You can get help from the hospital nurses for referral to an appropriate interim solution. In addition, get the referrals and follow-up appointments for physiotherapy, speech and occupational therapy care. As for your dad being unable to open his eyes, this may be only temporary. You can check with the ward nurses or the attending doctors for more details of your dad's prognosis. Find out where the stroke location is, and you will understand what physical limitations your dad may face. FYI: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diving_Be...d_the_Butterfly "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" is a translation of the French memoir "Le scaphandre et le papillon" by journalist Jean-Dominique Bauby. It describes what his life is like after suffering a massive stroke that left him with a condition called locked-in syndrome. It also details what his life was before the stroke. It is also available as a film on DVD.

Hi LadyLuck, Was replying someone's PM, saw your message. Try these. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situational_leadership http://www.grad.ac.uk/cms/ShowPage/Home_pa...r/p!epmXjFc Most importantly, do not complain about your staff to your supervisor unless you have clear reasons for disciplinary action (e.g. bringing unauthorised persons to office premises, or consistently under-performing according to previously agreed measures). Otherwise, it will only reflect badly on your "poor leadership". Good luck!

Yeah, my friend's colleague and my sister used them and happy with their service

Your next door neighbour family name is Scully? My ex-colleague also same family name, scully is my ex-colleauge Scully! Hee hee Ok, pulling your leg but really got some1 with this family name lor

Me 2 then

Think the "dare to commit" part depends on an individual's risk appetite. Just did a quick calculation. If monthly income is consistently $3k/mth (x,12 mth/yr) from age 25 to 35, then CPF Ordinary Account (if left idle, OA at 22% of income, with interest 2.5% p.a.) would be around $100K at age 35. Based on HDB transaction site, 2 room cost around $120k, so can be fully paid-up if one has some savings. For 3 room, range is much bigger from $150k to $240k... so depends on what one is looking for, so one can be below-1/2-paid or 2/3-paid. For 4 room and bigger units, well... back to risk appetite. That said, personally I wished that the income limit to qualify for HDB preferrential loan rates would be higher, e.g. to match the median household income since HDB is supposed to be public housing for the masses.

1st my disclaimer hor... i personally have not been to a pre-marital check-up, still single mah! But I saw the pre-marital check-up notice on a doc I go to lor... 8-11 clinic at Yishun central (very nice docs there, both are Dr Goh). Anyway, pre-marital checkup can be for many things. Besides check for hereditary issues, also sexual health etc. then doc can advise mah, e.g. if one partner has STD, care to prevent infecting the other partner. Some STDs may also carry extra risks for pregnancy, e.g. herpes. So if know earlier got problems, can plan for solution mah. Got couple friend who checked ahead (before they hit their target age to try for baby) just in case. Lady got history of bad cramps, check show some fibrous stuff (pretty common) and partial blockage lor, so doc suggest they come in sooner (than the common try-2-years) when they want to have baby. Not everything 0-1, black-vs-white, marry-vs-cancel lah. A lot of things can discuss how to solve and got alternatives mah. Impt thing is open communication to discuss lor, but know earlier means got more time to solve issues and not so pressurized mah.

Thanks! Will go check it out O i c... i tot h/w price only go down so guess i was lucky

Think some do it because there may be hereditery issues that the couple may like to note or discuss wrt having children, because both may be carriers without symptoms. E.g. Thalessemia or thalassaemia (in Brit English). Better be open, talk than be upset later mah!

Actually don't need $200k lah. 3 room flat have huge range, depends on location, age of unit, upgrading, etc... last I checked (when my fren was house-hunting) the range is $150+ to $240+ in resale market. E.g. I settled for an old resale flat (as old as me) bcos of my budget and the flat's location. Happy hunting!

My experience is people often bring food also, so best is to under-order for big parties. Esp housewarming friends/family don't like to come empty-handed... many will bring both food and gifts. If you live near cake shops, Delifrance, etc, no worries... just send a friend to run out to buy more stuff *IF* and when you need Congradulations and happy housewarming!

Wow x4, that's a lot . I usu buy my stuff from MacShop at Funan lor... I'm h/w goon. Upgraded my iBook RAM from 512MB to 1GB at MacShop end-2005, cost less than $150... which I felt ok lah. Best part abt mac (to me) is not as much o/s problems as pc lor, and too many people write virus for pc but less for mac. Really ah? Which edition of MS-Office for Mac ah? Got "fine-print" and/or Terms&Conditions or not? Which booth and how to buy ah? Thanks hor.

No income limit to buy resale lah! I know people whose income more than $10k a month also buy HDB resale. Single Singapore Citizen Scheme (SSC) There is no income ceiling (unless applying for CPF Housing Grant).

Wow... so nice! MacBook all got built-in camera, speaker, wireless these days, so good Yeah, the Apple design very good, even the power-plug also got hook for you to wind-up excess cable neatly. If me, I will choose the STD MS Office 2004 (worth USD399) lor... http://www.microsoft.com/mac/default.aspx bcos 1. no need airport if your home already got wireless router (mine is the freebie router+gateway from Starhub) 2. HDD cute but the MacBook already come with 60GB or 80GB or 120GB HDD, so it is unlikely to be fully utilized if one is not into video editing stuff.

Functionality the same. Only thing is Mac often use .TIF as default image type, which is not recognized on most PCs by default. Therefore it is impt to remember to save all your images in formats common to PC such as .JPG and .GIF before inserting images into your MS-Word and/or MS-Powerpoint etc

Ha ha ha If you're lucky, you may get young landlord couple who are into "overnight chit chatting, movie marathon, gaming". One of my previous landlord couple is like that... and they would have loved a tenant who enjoy gaming with them (which I wasn't). Try your luck, ask around your friends with similar interests

Hi Barc, Not every landlord does not allow inviting friends for socializing, it depends. Try to find those younger sociable landlords. If you're decent person with decent friends, they may even enjoy having your friends' visits. All my previous landlords happened to know me beforehand, so I did not have any issue on inviting guests over. Try asking around your friends, you may be surprised by their offers to help you out. Don't be shy to share about the family issues you're facing, that's how I 1st started to rent a place. After a series of family issues, I was surprised when my friend offered to rent me her parents' home, so that I could at least get good night's rest daily