Living The Pozitive LIfe

So the time has come to draw blood at this new facility. As I was unfamiliar with the procedures here, I wasted about half an hour waiting in vain at the wrong place. My blood test schedule was almost once a year (if not twice at most), but since I was transferred to this new facility, I have not had my blood taken here before. So everything is new to me. And there is no online information on how to go about it. Again, here I am, writing and sharing the process with you all. The queue to draw blood is just horrendous, and it was all because there's only 1 counter serving. Only later the poor staff realised she cannot cope handling the registration, printing, assigning rooms, taking questions, directing patients all at the same time that she called for help to clear some backlog. Once registration is processed, nurse will assign a room to you. Each room has like 2-3 nurses inside drawing blood, which makes the process very fast. ...

5 years after I created my online persona to share and help others out there especially Malaysians who are HIV+, I decided it's time to move on. As you can see, the blog address has changed. https://livingthepozitivelife.blogspot.my/ My email has also changed: livingthepozitivelife@gmail.com , that's with the "z". I have deleted all old emails, so if you would like to continue to write to me, please do so at this new email). Thank you for all the support and I appreciate my sharing has helped one another to live our lives.

How are all my readers doing? For those who have wrote in to me, I hope you are well, going through the process, coping, seeking care and what nots. If you need a listening ear or someone to confide in, feel free - just don't ask for my identity or name :) Cheers!

My consultation with Dr Nurul was for today, and since it's the first time I am at KKKL, I decided to write about the experience here, so that for those of you who are new to HIV care and need direction and advice, I hope this will be helpful. Overview of KKKL Public parking is on the right-side KLINIK KESIHATAN KUALA LUMPUR Where: Behind Pusat Darah Negara (if you are driving, enter at Jalan Temerloh which is beside Istana Budaya). If you still don't know, please Waze or google.  Operation hours: Monday-Friday 8am-5pm (lanjutan till 9pm & Saturday morning for selected services, HIV care is NOT in the list of lanjutan) Pharmacy: Ground Floor  Monday-Friday 8am-5pm (except Friday 12pm-2pm) Pharmacy Drive Through: Monday-Friday (12pm-4pm only). Terms & conditions apply. My visit to KKKL So I arrived at 7.15am and there are several people queuing by the main entrance already. Good thing there is plenty of parking available. The door open at 7.30am, a...

With the new Kuala Lumpur clinic now opened in Jalan Fletcher (behind Pusat Darah Negara), they have moved Kuala Lumpur Hospital outpatient department to there to reduce the congestion in HKL. Did they also forget to mention that services at Klinik Kesihatan Tanglin is also being gradually reduced and moved to the new clinic? HIV physician Dr Nurul Aida Salleh has moved there, and so will most of her HIV patients. I will be seeing her next month on my next appointment and not knowing what to expect or how long it would take, I've decided to take the day off so that I can also run other errands. Until then, I will update more as we go along.

So I went and collected my medication supply again today. For the past month I have been going weekly basis because that's what I was given. Actually my stock can still last me 2-3 weeks more but I am not going to take the risk. We all know we should keep stock. So today I got back monthly supply, which is good, because the pharmacist, Julie Looi remembered I asked her last week when the normal supply would resume. This week she dispensed for me again and I can see she's happy to be able to give me my monthly bottles. And it's a different vendor now. In an unrelated note, just as I was about the leave, I witnessed an accident just outside Tanglin clinic. A car clipped the side of a motorcyclist causing them to fall. I saw it all as it happened just beside me but I decided against stopping to help seeing that it's nothing major. It took me a few seconds to look into the mirror and make my decision before driving away. 

A blink of an eye, one and a half months past 2017 have gone by. I initially have nothing to write, but of late, something disturbing has cropped up in the minds of Malaysian pozzies. Word has it that the Malaysian Government has cut budget into healthcare and education spends, which leaves us a very disturbing question - medication. While we are all concerned about education budget cuts, that is the least of our worries. We are more concerned about healthcare cuts. The minister has been boasting about how the Government takes care of its citizens by providing healthcare services at RM1 in government hospitals and that essentially makes us having the cheapest public healthcare. We don't deny this. But. But. Do you know that due to the budget cut, the supply of medications have also been affected? Take for example. Combivir . I hope I am not wrong in saying the supply of Combivir in government facilities have been wiped out. There are now absolutely zero stock of Combivi...