All Is Well For Now

Azura and family celebrating their 8th annivessary with hubby Jo holding their neice Balqis. Daughters Lis and As helping to blow the candles.

There had been SMS, phonecalls and comments from friends asking about Azura's condition. This show of concern is really heart warming for us especially the prayers for her to get well and be sheltered from getting the dreadful disease caused by the big C.

The anxiety of waiting for the lab test result which normally takes 2 weeks to be confirmed is quite hard for us to take. Only consolation is that the mother Azura and the baby son Muhamad Aqil are both doing very well. Lucky thing Azura is able to consume any type of medication be it traditional or modern medicine to hasten the healing not only the internal tissues where the placenta was attached to her body but also the seven layers of skin part that needs to be cut to reach the baby. That was what I was told by Azura as told to her by one of the medical personnel at Hospital Univeriti Sains Malaysia Kubang Kerian. Except for the outer layer of the skin which was taped together to reduce the scarring effects, the internal layers were sutured up. Dont ask me the details of the number of layers needed to be sutured up as I have no knowledge what so ever. Anyway rest assured that, that part of her body is healing up very well and all we are doing now is wait for the lab result which my dear friend Tokasid would like very much to know too.

I am not going to pester the people at O & G clinic HUSM though Pak Adib has given me access to his brother in law Dr. Ahmad Shukri Othman who hailed from my birthplace of Kampong Kangkong, Pasir Mas should I need any help. The people at the clinic are professionals and I trust them to do their job so let them do it at their own pace.

Today I am going to share some of experiences with traditional beliefs of traditional healing that Azura and many patients in Kelantan are fond of doing. We believe that ikan haruan the snake head fish has very high healing properties especially for people who has undergone caesarian operations as a mean of delivering babies.

Haruan fries sold in plastic bag being sold at RM8.00 a packet.

The living fries in a cup ready for swallowing.(Sorry for the blurry image. Yet to buy a new camera)


One of the way to consume this fish is to swallow the live fries. So popular is this form of treatment that there are people going to the maternity wards (post natal) selling them in small plastic bags. The fries are put in clear plastic containers containing clean drinking water. The way to take them is to suck them using straws. Azura could not wait for husband Jo to bring the straw so she just drank them from the cup. A small pack containing several hundred fries cost RM8.00 and we bought 2 packs.
Azura 'drinking' the cup of water with the live haruan fries.

Another way to consume the matured haruan fish is to have them baked in aluminium foil wrapped in mud. We didn't find that so we resorted to buying live haruans at the Pasir Mas market where live haruans are sold everyday. They even helped us to degut the fish, remove the scales and cut them up to size. All we need to do is to wash them before making it into delicious soup which Azura consumed with gusto. Lucky thing Azura didn't take to her parents who dont consume such fishes especially her mum who dont even take the delicious fresh water fishes. Even the heavenly kelah (tor tandroides) couldn't entice her into taking any fresh water fishes.

Muhamad Aqil being given a bath.

Beside ikan haruan, Azura consumes jelly gamat produced by Luxor. There are more expensive brands of course.

So if any of you ever give birth by normal or caesarian way, do try ikan haruan fries or the matured ones. It may not just fill up your stomach but helps heal your wound from delivery of a child as well.

To all friends and well wishers, we thank you for the prayers and support. I will make another posting when the result of the lab test is out whatever the outcome will be.