Denggi

Weird title eh?

Well, ignorance is bliss.. but when there is a sudden need, you'd want to know what helps.

Mak gave us a fright last week when we got an early morning call from Aunty Nor. Apparently, they had to put her on the wheelchair and push her out when she came back from her Tawau trip. She was that weak. Temperature was high ~38-39 ish. And she was vomiting like there was no tomorrow.

We brought her first to the clinic (you know la, everyone pun tak nak pegi hospital - gi klinik pon cukup la is the normal answer). Itu pun we left quite late as Mak wasn't strong enough to move. [thinking back - we should have called for an ambulance, but I doubt Mak would have agreed to it either] But the doctor there referred us directly to Co.lum.bi.a A.sia Hospital. So there we went and straight to the ER as Mak was having some difficulty in breathing.

The doctor came, and obviously Mak had to be admitted much to her objection. Mind you, by this time it was almost 4pm. The blood test result showed that she was positive for dengue. Which explains the nausea, vomiting, high fever and even the chest pain which actually was what we would call sakit ulu hati.

Thus came the question - how can we help her get better faster. Goggling and asking around, I found a few petua which was even vouched by the doctor at the hospital.

The easiest would be to drink 100plus. Lots of it. But remember to open the cap for an hour or two to get all the gas out. Or better yet shake the gas out.

The not so easy one is to drink air daun betik. You need 2 helai. Daun ye bukan pucuk. Don't use the stem, just the leaves. You need to pound the leaves sampai hancur lumat. And then squeeze the juice out. If you have kain muslin, use it. But I didn't and just made do with a sieve. All that effort will get you at most 2 tablespoons worth of juice. Penat OK nak perah! My hand has been smelling of daun betik for the past week and has yet to fully return to its original colour (it is now still greenish). Mix it with about half a cup of drinking water and a bit of air gula. Drink once a day. I didn't taste it but Mak said it was sedap. Haha!

This one by far is the toughest for me. For one, I have NEVER cooked crab before. NEVER. Nak pilih ketam pon terkial. Haha. But yeah, you have to do what you have to do la kan. So anyway, you need some garlic, shallots, ginger and peppercorn. Tumis. And then you add in the crab - 2 ekor ye and masak and balik kan sampai the shell jadi merah. Once that is done, you add about 3-4 cups of water and 1 stalk of lemongrass. All this is to be done on low heat ye kenkawan. Tutup and leave it until it boils for about 10-15 minutes. Finally add in the lime juice and some salt to taste. The original recipe I found it from said to put in coriander leaves and Chinese leak, but I didn't find it so I forgo that part. This one I tasted, and memang sedap! Haha.

Apart from that, fruits are good too. Dragon fruit, watermelon.

Alhamdulillah, even though Mak is still in the hospital.. she is improving and doing much better now.