Dear Choya & Her Sensitive Tummy

Choya was stricken by a bout of diarrhea. I mean, dogs get the runs once in a bit. She has had a few of those in the past few years, but they weren't a big deal. (Not after those early laosai years.) This time, it was. The first runs weren't too concerning. But the second set of runs barely four hours later worried me. She hadn't been great for the past three weeks — she reacted badly to a root (bupleurum) in some TCM-cooked pack of food, and wolfberries in another pack of treatos. Those gave her gastroparesis. She has also been licking too much and sniffing too much, eating too many flies and weird things of the floor. 

On a hunch, I took her to the clinch for an expensive blood test, fecal float, and a Giardia test. Now, paying money for tests wouldn't give me conclusive answers, but the results help me eliminate reason and causes of this bout. The expensive clinic visit reassured me that she doesn't have Giardia, worms/parasites, leptospirosis, poisoning or pancreatitis. 

Choya hasn't had diarrhea this bad for almost 3.5 years. Her stomach couldn't fight the bug with probiotics and Direa alone. She was purging twice a day for three days — full torrents of brown foul-smelling liquid. She held steady through the night. However, she was still bright and chirpy, eating and drinking as per normal. 

The clinic issued antibiotics (metronidazole) on standby, to be given for 5 days if needed. I'm never inclined to use antibiotics, but one 6am purge convinced me otherwise. It was the worst of it, and likely with stomachache. The poor sweet girl refused to purge at home or in the estate, and insisted on being brought out. Woahhhh. That was PTSD. That purge had too much liquid, too much stomach sounds, and that terrible stench. I remember it well. It's reminiscent of a persistent bug that would be the start of purging every three hours if I don't administer antibiotics. If I insist on not using it, then we're looking at up to six purges a day for the next three days. I'm not putting Choya or myself through that. That made me crush the first table to feed her the first dose at 6.30am. 

I shifted my entire schedule and pushed away as many commitments as possible that took me away from Choya. She's been extra sticky too. I'm reluctant to leave her unless it's absolutely necessary. Watching her also gives me a clue to her pain levels or discomfort. That would help me loads because the doctor ain't going to know, and I need every detail to aid their diagnosis. 

Looking at how metronidazole worked after one tablet (½ in the day and ½ at night), I knew my PTSD is pretty much deja vu. After years of avoiding the assault of clostridium (dunno what strain), she kena again. WTF. The last episodes were from her daycare/school days. 

Clostridium is sooooo annoying. It could be some sort of amoeba too, or things that don't show up in the limited range of tests we have. Ugh. This isn't an issue with food per se.  Helloooo….. she has been eating the same base for years. Maybe the pack of toppers… It's also an issue with the environments she came into contact with, her constant licking and sniffing that's extra bad recently, and dunno-what-else lah. Dogs will be dogs. Arrrrrgh. 

I will have to rebuild her gut flora. To rebalance it. I accept that she will always have some level of clostridium in her gastrointestinal system. The trick is to prevent it from over-growing and going BOOM.

Durians from Pahang!

The neighbors stopped by with durians for us. They don't know that I hate them. But well, the husband loves them. They gave us two durians. They said that the durians just arrived from Pahang this morning. I was like...... okaaay, obvious fuel shortages and inflated prices don't affect durian trucks coming into Singapore. 

I placed the durians outdoors on the patio and closed the doors. DAMN STINKY SIAL. What on earth do I do with two durians? They're totally unopened! I wasn't going to throw it away lah, what a waste. Didn't bother asking who would want unopened durians. The husband was really keen to taste them. 

As much as I hate durians, I can tell when they're a good batch. The husband has never opened a durian in his life. He wanted to watch a youtube clip and then try to follow it to open the durians. I rolled my eyes. Obviously I had to be the one to open them. He was incredulous. He has never seen me open a durian or even gut a fish.

Well, I can open durians easily, and I can open one in five seconds. It's one of those things I just know how to do. Okaaay, I've had plenty of practice as a kid. Give me a day or two to practice now, and I can open durians matching the speed of the crew at durian stalls .  

Now, I don't have those thick leather gloves used to hold durians. Neither do I have a parang. All I have at home is a Chinese cleaver, old tees to be thrown out, newspapers and plastic sheets. These would do I guess. With these make-do tools, instead of five seconds to open a durian, I took 12 seconds. Yes, I put on the timer. I'm competitive this way. LOLOLOL Not bad lah. I still can open a durian without breaking a sweat. 

We placed a few seeds in a box to share with other neighbors. Kept a nice 10 seeds for the husband. The fridge would stink, but nothing that coffee beans can't resolve. The husband declared that the durians were really good. We don’t know what type pf durians they are, but most certainly not the drier Mao Shan Wang. These are rich, wet, creamy and bittersweet. He loved it. 

Prawn Biryani & Lamb Shoulder

When the table enjoys Shahi Maharani's flavors, we made a 8pm date. Celebrated both the husband and E's birthdays. M had flown out on a work trip and couldn't make the date, so we naughtily picked Indian cuisine since it isn't her favorite but the rest of us like it! Teeeeheeee. 

The restaurant serves up good food that has been consistent, and great company makes for an easy wind-down before bedtime. We don't bother coming here unless our dining companions enjoy Indian food done in this style. 

Skipped all the chaat, because we didn't have enough stomach space for everything. We couldn't wait for the mains! We ate all the papadum in a small cup and asked for more, and that arrived in a big basket. Hahahaha. The food arrived together, as intended, making it a nice communal meal. 

We wisely followed the server's recommendation to do half a lamb shoulder instead of the full portion. That was more than enough for us when we wanted to sample other items. A spicy Chettinad chicken, fried potatoes and dal completed the meal.  Carbs came in the form of naan and rice. Prawn biryani is a must each time we come. That was done tonight too.

I was glad that we met at this restaurant. I didn't manage to get a gift for E earlier. There were shops downstairs, and a tiny Kinokuniya that provided me gift ideas and I managed to get her birthday presents sorted! We didn't mind one drink, but nobody wanted to drink that much. A glass of white for me, and gin tonics for the rest. It was a good meet after a loooong day at work.