Hospital Bahagia

There is a psychiatric hospital located in Tanjung Rambutan of Ipoh, one of the few I guess in Malaysia.
Since I was young I had already heard of it, my impression of it was an asylum with mad men behind bars mumbling creepily to themselves.
If you ask any folks on the streets in Ipoh, they will give you a similar answer, a place where lunatics are sent off to. This common perception is even stronger among elderly citizens.

But in fact it was not merely a place to capture the lunatics, there are in fact also a research center on psychiatric diseases with quite a number of experts in this field working there.
Recently it has opened their service to the citizen, other than doing research on the lunatics in its asylum it is now also treating patients suffering from mental illnesses and even Alzheimer.

Based on our own experience, I can tell that you should turn to this psychiatric hospital if you had a family members having any kind of memory problem and phyco problem because it is way more cheaper than the private hospital where you pay a good 50 bucks for an hour visit and the service is quite also way more better than private.

I can't believe my eyes in the first place. Because is was so stunning for me to learn that they are so professional.
My stereotype about this creepy place diminished immediately right after our first visit.

I still can recalled that there was a unpleasant face on the doctor in one of the private that we used to visit.
The doc never explained anything about my dad in detailed to us.
We knew that it was hard to explain everything explicitly to us
But at least please just shed some light on what step should we seriously take
Stop spitting out your professional terms to us and just show us a way to go
I couldn't see any balance between the money and time we spent and the service that I got
Thanks God, the doc suggested Lina to recourse to Tanjung Rambutan
I was thinking that she is fed up with the our lack of trust on her
The doc even once snapped at my mum impatiently
"Auntie, why do you still come to visit me, has I not told you to give a try in Tanjung Rambutan"

By hearing this conversation, Lina has made up her mind to go there.
In fact, the reason why she was reluctant to Tanjung Rambutan was because she thought it was not appropriate to recourse to governmental hospital, because she believed that governmental aid was meant for helping those who have financial problem.
With a very strong believe in her religion, she didn't think we were fit to this aid and she was determined not to go for governmental, but then she had choice and she had to take this as a last resort because we had actually visited almost all the experts in our town.

I was the company to Lina and Frankie in our first visit there.
It was located in a rural area
Lina and Frankie were both going there with a mixed emotions
Lina might be thinking that she needed to do more charity work for taking this advantage which is supposed to the poor
And Frankie himself was actually coming with a reluctant heart, it was more like being forced to be here by Lina.
But I had not the dilemma Lina faced and I had opened up my mind to accept what would amaze me soon.

Poor Frankie, my Dad was still thinking that we were bringing him to an asylum
"I knew this is a place for mad men, I sure remembered that"
he mumbled this after he asked us where were we heading for
Lina and I had to tell him that we were going for a new doctor and tried to avoid his questioning bout we were we going.

I felt guilty of it when I noticed that he was looking around with a blank face and mumbling soundlessly to himself and when I sensed that he was aware that we were going to Hospital Bahagia, a place he hated and thought that only madmen will go there in a sunny day.

The atmosphere was quite like those typical governmental clinic. We had to hang out in a near by hypermarket and get back again because we reached at a wrong time, lunch and praying hour on Friday. So we got back by 2 30 pm and be the first in the queue. A patient nurse had helped us with the registration and my daddy was called to do some check on blood pressure, height and weight and we were asked to sit on a sofa and wait for our turn in front of a consultation room. It took us some time in the wait that we expected in a government unit.
Then we saw a very tall guard in brown uniform brought along a lunatic who dressed like a patient in a faint blue cloth knocking on the door of the consultation room next the one that we were waiting for. His face is like spiritless, with his eyes like staring at point in full concentration and his jaw moving restlessly as if he was mumbling something soundlessly. The guard ordered him to sit down and pass a file to the Chinese doc who came out of that room and the patient went in while the tall guard waited on the sofa opposite to us.

This is in fact a scene I want to avoid Frankie to witness, I was so worried that he would think that we were bringing him to a asylum and treated him like a madman. I noticed that Frankie had been avoiding the view since the Chinese lunatic appeared.

Lina seemed unaware of it and urged Frankie to go into the consultation room when he was called by the doctor in the room. He didn't seem so friendly and strict, but I could tell that he was so serious in understanding Frankie like his recent memory condition, behavior, medical history and lifestyle. We were so fond with it despite the time that we had waited because never had a doctor that we had visited shown such a keen and serious attitude to the matter, most of them would just tell us to take the prescription.

Then a test was conducted to test Frankie's memory, it ranged from easy question like, where is here, time and, and date, some simple math problem and some drawing. And I found that they were quite useful and I had sometimes asked this same question to him after that.

The Unpredictable Breakout

I guess sometimes Frankie will be so blur and terribly forgetful.
this is the time when the case is worst most
But usually things will be normal on the next morning.

Sometimes he is not that bad.
He will feel annoyed if you keep testing him on some normal stuff like where is he now and has he had his meal. Too much of this kind of testing will sometimes offense him.
He will express to us that
" You think I am that bad, a kid can answer these question"
We are glad with this sign but at the same time I guess we protect his ego as well.

However, things are not that satisfactory sometimes.
He asks the same thing over and over again
He will just forget about what you have told him seconds ago
and he will ask for a couple of time in a row
where by in the "normal" circumstances he may just ask you a few times in a day

It is hard to anticipate his condition
sometimes he is good
and in some moment worst
that the difference is so apparent and huge

Lina has yet to consult to the doc with regard to this periodical symptoms
But we guess it is due to his mental state or maybe his feeling
the worst state might break out when he feels insecure inside
Last month we have been to Hong Kong for travelling
and he was so blur and worst off in one of the nights where there was so noisy and crowded
I can see that he is scared
scared to be lost
kept urging us to be home immediately
and kept saying that he was in Klang , Malaysia as we asked him

The other reason could because he is tired, over-worked with his brain and physically
just take an example
sometimes when he has been driving so long hours he will be terribly forgetful
( he still drives with someone guiding him)
 Definitely he still can drive alone around our residential area
thanks god he still recognize the roads

He still can memorize something

My mum always tells him not to go to the petrol station everyday
But he has made it routine to the petrol station everyday after going to office
One night Lina found out that the money that he spends is not reasonable
He is given RM 30 everyday, but at the end of the day, there is only a few ringgits in his wallet
Normally he just spend for food only
and it is too much to spend RM 30 plus a meal

light is shedded on the question one day.
When Lina went to a petrol station and the cashier told her
" Uncle will come here everyday. And he will forget to fill the petrol after he has paid the money"
Then a cleaner who heard the conversation in distance added in a curious manner
"Ya, I have also noticed it. I wonder why he can forget it every single day"
Then the young cashier advised Lina not to let him to come alone anymore

My mum was so startled and at the same time feels so hurt inside
because now she knows that the case is deteriorating now

I think that even though he has Alzheimer but he still can recall think that is told to him sometimes
May be after he pays, he recalls that Lina has told him not to fill and so he goes off
or may be he just simply forgets that he hasn't fill as he walks back to his car after making the payment.
whatever it is, it is not a good sign