A Blessing in Disguise

Everything happens for a reason…Many believe in that saying…Believing that something occurs in one’s life because God made it so, with a ‘hikmah’ (blessing) behind it all. I’m one of those individuals.

Last time I wrote about my early years of inadequacy, where failure was more prominent than success. There are many ways one may approach such matter, to find the best way to ‘cure’ one’s ‘illness’ or shortcomings. One of the more scientific manner of approach involves continues training and repetition, which is what my parents did. No matter where we were, they would ask me to say out loud the things I saw, such as signboards, car’s plate numbers, a flower, a plant, etc. They even bought a book with tongue-twisting sentences and asked me to practice with them every day. I improved slowly, but steadily. Unfortunately, it was still slower than what was expected for a girl my age.

Another approach was through continues prayer. Praying to God for His help and guidance which (in my opinion), was finally answered through an incident that lasted for more than a month. A month or so before my mid year exam, I got the chickenpox. It was nothing serious, a normal occurrence in most growing children. But what made mine more harrowing than others, was the fact that I started to develop a fever and by the time the chickenpox started to recede, it developed into a full, blown high fever. I couldn’t remember much of anything that occurred during that month (due to the fever) but I remembered being bed ridden with an IV stuck to my arm the whole time. Anywhere I go, which was mostly to the toilet and then back to bed, I would be dragging the IV drip with me. It was really annoying.

By time I was healthy again, the mid year exam had already started. I went back to school on the first day of exams. My parents and I weren’t hoping much. If anyone had asked me what I wrote during the exams, I would truthfully say that I couldn’t recall a single thing. But it was like a dam had broken in my mind and all this information were flowing out. Did the fever finally burn out whatever it was that was blocking my mind? Did God finally answer our prayers? Or was it all those trainings with my parents? Well, whatever it was, we were really grateful for it because when the results came out, everyone was shocked. And I mean everyone; my teachers, friends, parents and especially myself. I got number 3 in class. ME! The quiet, slowest student in class! From then on, my results became better. I got number 1 for that same year (in my final year exam) and finally 5As in UPSR.

Hence, I firmly believe that everything happens for a reason and they may be blessings in disguise. Allah is Most Merciful and will help us in our hour of need. So as Muslims, we should always be grateful to Him and should always remember that every second we live on this Earth, is because of His blessing, whether we realized it or not. Take a minute to reflect on life and be grateful to Him, for without Him, we would never have existed. Take care and may Allah bless us all, amin.

Final Year Project (FYP) Summary

Before I continue with the story of my life, I’m gonna write about my FYP first since its one of the requirement my lecturer asked me to post. So, as a 4th year student of Biomedical Science in IIUM Kuantan, I am required to do a final year project as one of the prerequisite to graduate. So I am now in the process of conducting said project.

My FYP is entitled, ‘Toxicity Study of Crude Hexane Extract of Sapium baccatum’. The research main objective is to observe the toxicity level of the plant extract. This is done by administering certain dosages of the extract in specimens (e.g.: rats) and observing their percentage of motility. After an observation period of 14 days, the rats will be dissected and their livers will be taken and stored. These livers will then be analyzed through gross and histological observation in order to see whether the extract has affected them or not. Gross examination includes the possible presence of spots, change of colour or texture, reduction or increase of size, etc., while histological examination includes the percentage/ratio of dead and live cells, change in size of cells, and so forth. We’re expecting to see some toxicity effects on the liver as it has been proven that the plant contains alkaloid, which is quite a toxic substance.

Unfortunately, we have yet to find the LD50 (Lethal Dose) of the compound which can cause the immediate death of at least 50% of the specimen used. It seems that even with the presence of alkaloid, the plant extract may not be that toxic or harmful to the rats, which is a good thing for the future of pharmaceutical development but will make it tricky for me to present the results for my paper. Nevertheless, we’re still trying, and hopefully, we will find the dose we’re looking for.

Another problem that’s giving me a big headache is the fact that my extract can’t be easily or fully dissolved in either DMSO or saline solution. I’m trying to get my hands on some CMC but it seems that chemical is low in stock in both Kulliyyah of Science and Pharmacy. If anyone has any suggestions on how to possibly dilute the extract, I would greatly appreciate the input. Anyway, that’s all for now, wassalam.

Journey of My Life: The Beginning…Really

The beginning of my life’s journey will start from this entry on; hopefully, I’ll have time to update it often. I said before that I may start from my baby years but I think I’ll skip that and move a little bit forward.

Since starting to learn to talk, read, and write, as well as knowing my alphabets and numbers, a prominent thing that my parents and teachers started to realized was that I had a very BIG problem in pronunciation of certain letters or words. The most boggling to them (and to myself), was the fact that I can remember all of my alphabets and numbers at a very early age but for some unknown reason I can’t, for the life of me, remember its sequence and placement. Meaning that I would put, for example, C, F, E, 1, 3 instead of the normal A, B, C, D. And when I write some of them, they become, well, funny…Why? I would write ‘e’ facing the other way or even the number 9 would be facing the wrong direction.

Furthermore, I was a VERY slow learner and couldn’t understand something if it was not repeated to me for at least twice or three times. It’ll come in one ear and go out the other within seconds. My parents were awfully worried, experts said that there’s nothing wrong with my brain or anything, I’m supposedly a perfectly healthy child…They said I was just slower than others and will develop faster brain functions once I’ve grown older…But sadly, hope was beginning to expire in my family as when reaching 7 years old, I still couldn’t write, read or speak properly. What was to become of me, they wondered. I, myself, became more despondent and got quieter. I was ashamed to speak out loud because of how funny it may sound, as well as the fact that it was hard to pronounce even the simplest words. Better to just be quiet than be laughed at for being different.

So…What happened between then and now that made me capable of speaking, writing, and reading properly? Well, that’s a story for another entry. That’s it for now and the next entry may include a summary of my FYP as it’s also a part of my assignment. Take care and may God bless us all, amin.

Journey of My Life: The Beginning

LIFE…There’s a VERY big word…Full of meaning just by its own lonesome self…Frequently interpreted by the human mind through their many understandings, perspectives, thoughts… which are then influenced by unaccountable factors such as religions, believes, education…So, what does it truly means? How would I, who have just lived for 22 years on this planet of ours, interpret life? To tell you the truth, I done have the slightest idea!!! But I’ve read somewhere that sometimes, to know what life truly means, one should first experience it…So, now another question uproots…When do you know you’ve experience the true extent of life that you’ve reach a level where you understand what it stands for? Sigh…so many questions, yet the answers are still vague or non existence!

Anyway, I think that’s enough to contemplate for one day…Now to start my assignment, which is, as the title says, to write the journey of my life in this shiny, new blog of mine. Well, just to inform, I’m planning to write it by starting from my baby years to the current ones, but at the same time, I may write anything significant that may have occurred on that day (mostly involving my Final Year Project (FYP)) which I think is interesting and would like to share with all of you. As this is just the preliminary, I’ll start on the journey in the next entry, hopefully, and any innovative, insightful comments or opinions are greatly appreciated…As long as they’re not intended to be harmful, hateful, painful, etc .for the any viewing readers (especially the writer!).

Thus, I’m leaving the floor in hopes that I’ll have the time and opportunity to really start my assignment in the very near future. So, take care and may God bless us all, amin.