One Night In Bei... No, ICU!

I awoke to nurses fussing over me. No idea what they were up to. It just felt like they were moving me around and setting up stuff. So op was over? This must be the ICU I supposed?

A nurse removed the huge breathing apparatus from my mouth that was so bloody big that it was pushing my teeth out (o no I'm gonna have buck teeth) and I wondered how the doctors managed to fit it in in the first place.

Then she stuck a suction tube down my throat to suck up the mucus. Super UNCOMFORTABLE, but the suction provided relief.

An oxygen mask was strapped to my face.

Air was blowing continuously into my nose and mouth. Sweet, sweet air. It made breathing so effortless that I felt I didn't need it at all.

I was told that I was having a fever, so they would not cover me with the blanket, to which I managed to muster a "mm", but whether she heard it was another thing.

After everybody was done and gone, I finally could get back to sleep.

Zzz...

D-Day

Got woken up super early, like before 6am, to bathe. Despite telling the nurse that my mother would assist me, she still insisted on following me into the bathroom. The reason being she wanted to ensure that I didn't wash off the markings made yesterday (Mother almost did, despite the nurse telling her not to rub so hard) and that I had to use their super strong smelling, drying and artificially pink anti-bacterial soap to wash. She should have mentioned earlier, so that I wouldn't wash with my own soap! Double soaping = super duper dry skin! Even my hair had to be washed with it! Luckily she didn't insist that I wash my face with that too hah.

Then it was back to traction. So strict on it. Seriously! Apart from being annoying, it didn't seem to serve any purpose!

The rest of the family came. Had to try very hard to keep quiet so early in the morning... noisy patient! Of course, our efforts, if any, were futile, because we still got to pack our stuff. Couldn't expect to return to the same bed later, right? I looked like I had been here for a week :X

Dr L and his group of students came to add on to the noise. He said that during the surgery, I would be lifted from anaesthesia briefly and called by name to move my arms and legs to check my nerve functions. I stared at him in disbelief. Not worried about pain. I had heard of this, but would I really be able to respond? Later never respond then jialat. What name I respond to? A wide variety since a lot of people mispronounce my name! So anything that sounds like it :P Which also implies that I responded mistakenly many times...

And it was waiting until 8.20am. I was wheeled out on the bed, with the traction and all. That's how serious they were about it. All the way to the operating theatre! The waiting area was bustling with activity. So many patients having surgery huh. Why did the place have to be so freaking cold? The cold air was penetrating my holey blanket with ease.

The operating theatre was actually warmer than outside lor. Everybody inside was doing something. I was expecting some students to stand around hah. I'm such a fine piece of exhibit wor~ Dr L greeted me before saying he was going to plan the surgery. Which made me worried for a second. Planning now only ah... ~_~

I was finally released from traction and got to play with the Patslide.

It dramatically reduces friction, making the transfer off my bed so easy. Just that it's very hard, hurting my shoulder blades.

Somebody swabbed my wrist with alcohol. I thought they were going to give me an injection, but I turned and saw them getting this thing with super thick and long needle and stuck it into my wrist! A tube was connected to it and I watched a clear, fluid travel through it into my wrist. So cool...

...

Last Day of Freedom

Despite being strapped up the whole night, I still didn't feel any discomfort this morning. Can I get rid of it since it didn't seem to be working?

The finger pricking spell continued. Sianz.

I could only recall the breakfast being very unappetizing. Of course Sister didn't want to share it with me when I myself didn't like it.

I got released because I had to go do a gait analysis. Yippee! The lady technician told me the purpose was to compare my gait before and after surgery, meaning I would have to repeat the test once I could walk. I was thinking to myself that could be years later at the earliest, or never... For the first time in my life, I wore a bikini haha. Look more like tube top with straps and boy shorts lah. She stuck some reflective balls all over my body, whose reflected light would be captured by the several cameras as I walked. I had to get up from a chair and walk about 5m, taking care to step on 2 tiles along the way as they were for measuring the force of my step. Shaky tiles lor, dangerous! Of course, I had to be helped out of the chair... walk with the wrong kind of garments (nowhere to grip)... walk after sitting for a long time (nearly 2 days)... deliberately step on something shaky... with cold air-con blowing at me... a few times... it's a miracle that I didn't fall over at all. So damn glad when it was all over man.

I declined the nurse's offer to bathe me as I preferred my sister. I must have hogged the bathroom for the longest time hehe. Because somebody had come to take my urine sample and were waiting for me for possibly the longest time. Well, it would have been easier if they had built a toilet bowl in the bathroom too!

When I returned, I realized a doctor was waiting to draw lines on me and draw blood :X

I was supposed to be back on traction immediately, but since I had to go for an X-ray and the nurses were too lazy to keep redoing the whole thing, they told me they would strap me back after that. No problem! :D Just that I was waiting indefinitely for the X-ray. No idea what they were up to.

Today's lunch was vegetarian horfun Mother bought from some vegetarian stall. She described it as ultra popular, need to queue up blah blah. Whatever. She's the one who wanted me to go vegetarian before the surgery. I would be happy with just fried beehoon. It didn't taste bad. Normal lor. Maybe it's impressive for achieving some taste without using meat?

Time for X-ray after lunch. Since I was in the hospital pyjamas, I didn't need to change into the gown. Difficult poses again. Only at the last picture did I realize that I still had that bloody amulet on me. It obscured something but still to an acceptable degree, fortunately. What kind of luck was it bringing me if I had to redo the whole batch of X-rays? From now on, such unnecessary burdens were banned from me. I don't want to expose myself to more radiation when I already had a lot this year. Or be responsible should I change clothes with or without my knowledge and lose that thing in the process.

A lady came to conduct a bleeding time test on me. She produced something that looked like the blood glucose test finger pricker, except that it stapled a hole like 1mm wide and 1mm deep in my arm!!! WTF need to be so deep or not? Then she pumped up the sphygmomanometer and we watched as blood oozed out of my wound. When the blood formed a nice little sphere, she soaked it up with filter paper. And this would go until the bleeding stopped. If it didn't stop then it meant I would bleed to death in the surgery, which in turn meant... hmm... go home lor? Well anyway of course the bleeding stopped. The lady removed her gloves before cleaning up, coming into contact with my blood in the process. Eww... she should remove her gloves lastly what.

The dietician came too.

The anaesthesia specialist came to tell me what to expect tomorrow. Nothing new. Just uh ya ok all the way. O it's an Indian doctor from India again. Was the whole anaesthesia department from India or something?

An old lady who just returned from surgery was vomiting non-stop. O no o no I don't want to be like her >+< J told me she also threw up after anaesthesia. Nooooo...

Found out that the yellow plastic bag was a trash bag. Cool! Can throw my tissue paper inside.

Dinner time! I'm not eating the hospital food, but I'm happy to be released. Shhh! Checked out the food today.

Same lor, only the 瓜 was different.

Yesterday's rice was too dry. Today's? Outside looked ok...

Walau inside wet like ketupat! I concluded that they made the rice very wet so hopefully it would come out normal after steaming inside the food trolley for goodness knows how long.

W and E came to see me! J couldn't make it as she had flu, very potent baby virus. Visiting hours were till 8pm, but we shamelessly chatted till 9+ when everybody were long asleep. Noisy patient! Then W asked why the nurses were giving me dirty looks and I told her that they were supposed to put me back on traction, which would require the labor of several nurses. Haha they'd better be off!

Finally time to be back on the traction. This time, the weights were increased to 8 lbs (3.6kg) on each of my calves and 5 lbs (2.8kg) for my head. Still tolerated it well. In fact, not much difference. What for man...

Mother's turn to spend the night with me. The call bell was going off every few minutes, she wouldn't be able to sleep like that! I asked the nurse for a solution. She said they provided earplugs due to the construction around. Really! Should have asked for them the first time round!

No more food and water from midnight onwards. Surprised that I didn't have to fast earlier. No problem, I don't drink before sleeping anyway.

I had to wake up super early to bathe tomorrow morning, but how could someone who chronically never slept before 1am, fall asleep so early? Heck care, I would be sleeping the whole of tomorrow anyway.

Sotong.Bored

Got to sleep till about 8am and I had to wake up because everybody else was up -_-. Brushed up and breakfast was served. Breakfast in bed, envy me! Ya right.

Dr L had instructed the nurse to monitor my blood glucose, so they were going to prick my finger before and after each meal. First prick, didn't think much of it. Wasn't THAT painful... My levels should be ok since the nurses didn't say anything.

3 pieces of bread, margarine (I thought that's like the worst lot of the fats?), jam, scrambled eggs, forgot if there was ham, and of course Milo. Diluted Milo. That's a lot for breakfast. I let Mother have the bread. The remainder was more than enough for me.

I was told to stop eating my own calcium tablets since the hospital would supply me. Er ok, I hope I didn't have to pay for it!

After breakfast, the nurse asked if I wanted to shower. Later! Will DIY. Pricked finger again. A bit itchy after that.

Nothing to do liao. Surf net lor. I had nearly forgotten what I was here for until the nurse reminded me. They were going to put me on traction after lunch. As such, I would be confined to bed. Sounded bad.

The physiotherapist came to do her rounds. She's an angmoh who looked like Nicole Kidman.

Very tall too. She's here to see what I could do and also to teach me some exercises I could do after the surgery. Like how to cough (hmm) and some limb exercises.

Prick!

Lunch was rice with a slice of fish fillet with a few strands of vegetables. The fish and vegetables were decent, but the rice cannot make it. Too dry! The soup was the worst, just water with a hint of salt. Fruits were salted - biggest booboo. So depressing! But it was all mitigated when Brother dropped by with something nice... couldn't remember what though!

While going to the toilet at the end of the ward, I noticed that there were actually beds of other classes further down. I spotted a single bed in a room. The room looked quite lok kok like the rest of the ward. So, apart from having a big room to yourself, you are sharing the nurses too? So much for class A. Save the money man.

Prick!

Dr L told me that he was going to give me a BMP to aid in bone healing. The trouble was it was approved by FDA but not yet in Singapore (?), hence not subsidized. It would set me back by $8000 (?) per pop and due to the long length of spine to be operated on, I might need 3 doses.

WHAT! Stunned. What kind of bone promoter was that? For consuming or injecting? Then I read somewhere that it has an extremely short half-life of a few minutes, so I guessed it's probably going to be implanted.

A young doctor came to interview me. O well, the usual stuff. Your brief history of time, testing your strength. Fine with that. Public hospital what.

A group of nurses came with lots of gadgets and bandages. Uh oh time for the traction thing! Of course, most of the nurses were trainees. Specimen-time again. My calves and head were strapped up and rendered immobile, with weights dangling from the ends. Oh, I even got a u-squeeze to aid in blood circulation. Well it's some calf wrap that you connect to an air pump. They even setup an overhead grab bar for me to lift myself up when I needed to use the bedpan. Ya... not allowed to go toilet also lor. Not that I had the ability to utilize it, but since they brought it all the way here, just let them setup lah. My only reprieve would be during meals, where my head would be released. Got to sleep in it too.

So the nurses were done and gone. Me? Ok ley, no excruciating discomfort as forewarned. I didn't feel stretched at all. Although I looked like a multiple fractures patient. I had imagined it to be some 满清酷刑, pulled in all directions like 五马分尸, but now I just felt like I was lying flatter than usual on the bed. Did they attach enough weights? I can take more. Seriously. Arms still free to use tablet, yay.

G came to visit me in the evening. Haven't seen her in 10 years I think? So nice to see her again. We were wondering what that yellow plastic bag stuck on my side rail was for.

Another doctor came to interview me. Same few questions. This time, I was dissed. I don't mind helping, but not before I gave this poor, innocent doctor a piece of my mind, nicely of course. Why must they come one by one? Cannot come together is it? I don't want to repeat the same thing over and over again. Ok now you can proceed. Haha poor thing, still double confirm if I was really ok.

There might be some secret student rivalry going on. The kiasu doctor would come and disturb patients to get ahead of their peers.

Prick! 5^th time today and my finger was crumpled already! Shall ask them to change finger next time.

Dinner.

Prick! What a prick that blood glucose test was! Very normal lah, can stop already!

Sister's turn to camp tonight. Before Mother left, she made me wear an amulet that would supposedly protect me from evils in an infested area such as a hospital. And it's so precious and holy that I had to take extreme care of it. Wtf.

Third Last Day of Freedom

The day has come. I was supposed to admit at 3pm, but at noon, the hospital called me to tell me not to come yet as they were out of beds. They would inform me when they have secured one. Uh ok... by today right? I wouldn't mind if they couldn't.

I got a call telling me I could admit by 6pm. :(

Reached there, requested to pay $6000 deposit instead. Because I got a Manhattan credit card too, can get rebates on just about everything! If only I could pay by installments later, can earn even more rebates lor. The admission procedure was simple and quick.

I was shown to my bed at Ward 51, Bed 4. No air-con, what I had signed up for. I had a window-side bed, except the windows were sealed due to construction outside.

That resulted in the area feeling very stuffy. I could even smell the difference from the corridor.

The ward was strangely spacious... 6 beds? Counted wrongly? I thought I was supposed to be in a C-class ward with 8 beds? Went online to check. Hey, this was a B2 ward! Free upgrade! :D Hey... maybe if I came in on Monday instead, I could pay for 1 day less AND get an even higher class?

My neighbors were all elderly women who were having problem with their bones. Fractures? So many old people get hurt huh.

And I realized that I forgot to bring the X-ray.

I had to wear the patient's tag on my wrist. Boohoo tagged now. So ugly. It has both QR and bar code. So kiasu.

Dinner time. I don't have. Not as if I would be eating that. Went downstairs to Kopitiam instead. Mum said something about abstaining from spicy food, but heck lah, the food there looked so boring lor. I wanted something strong-tasting before being trapped in a boring diet for the next 103 days. Tomyam ban mian again lor. Last time it was quite good, but don't know why this time it's so bleah. Quite bland apart from the spiciness. Sigh really should have gone outside to eat. Last meal also so sad.

Nothing to do now. Tour the hospital. Nothing to see lor, all closed. Not enough shops for shopping too. Boring... Ended up enjoying air-con at Can Rigged Win. No public Wifi at all. What happened to Wireless@Sg? Noticed their secured Wifi is all named after birds.

When I went back to my ward at 10pm, the door to the ward was locked lor -_-;; Every patient was asleep already. I must be the most happening patient around. Mum came even later to sleep over with me. The call bell kept going off every few minutes and it's the ancient type that went "BAIRRRR!". Sigh got to learn to filter it from my ears, I still have 2 more nights to go.

The Annual Stay Away From Home - The Day Before

No holiday this year, but I'm still gonna be away from home for a while. It will be the most expensive stay ever, but nobody will be envious of me.

And it shall be life-changing. It will sweep me off my feet. Whether I can get back up will be entirely up to me. One thing for sure is that I will be back taller and straighter.

No, it's not a motivational camp duh.

Before my life turned topsy turvy, today's mission was to eat and play like it's the last day I could do so.

Because it could be.

Whatever. Just enjoy!

Farewell

Last workday of the year.

I'm not leaving the team lah. A colleague was going back to country C at the end of the month, so we had a farewell lunch. Might as well, we haven't had a get-together for a long time!

We gathered at the meeting room outside. Yeah meeting room shhh! Menu was the usual Old Chang Kee, Pizza Hut and 933 Golden Pillow. Very uncreative hor haha. Same organizer mah, what to do.

Lots of loose ends to tie, but I'm glad I managed to finish all my outstanding tasks. Lots of stuff to bring home. Handed over my laptop, keyboard and mousepad to my colleagues. I resisted pasting a note saying no dirty hands on my stuff. Hope they won't be sticky when I return.

Meeting Up With JC Friends

This has to be the most successful class gathering of the year. The biggest turn up apart from wedding dinners. What a great time catching up. And that distance is no longer such a big problem with so many car owners among us.

DIY popiah is quite fun. You people should try that out for gatherings too. Check out Kway Guan Huat Joo Chiat Original Popiah & Kueh Pie Tie.

Sad to say, we only meet up once or twice a year, apart from wedding dinners. When weddings dry up, does that mean we might not even meet for years?

And booking people way in advance does not work. It's safe to assume that everybody owns a smartphone with organizer capabilities. When people claim to have forgotten, or not free (as if you asked at the last minute) e.t.c, it says a lot.

Last Proper Haircut of The Year

After my NNI and PT appointment in the afternoon, I went for a last haircut at Act Point Salon at Singapore Shopping Centre. I asked for a very short cut as I didn't know when I could come again T_T Think it's back to my mother's boring haircuts again ba.

Nice hair for the next 1 month yay.

Mid-Autumn Fatten-up Festival

The time of the year for exotic mooncakes! We went to the mooncake fair at Ngee Ann City again, because it's the only one available when we wanted to go. Bear with the crowd.

Mooncakes were generally more expensive this year. There was a new brand that was pretty impressive, but too expensive. Like >$50 for 4?

Tasted the TWG mooncakes. Seriously, they should stick to tea. I didn't detect any hint of tea in their mooncakes. They just reeked of artificial flavoring. Reminded me of how an ex-colleague told me not to drink TWG because it's flavored tea.

Probably tasted the most mooncakes this year haha. We amassed a pile of pamphlets, which would be used to determine the purchase. Brother left for work (yeah... on a Saturday evening) while Sister and I went to the foodcourt for dinner. I was not hungry at all, but eat first lor, before we bought any mooncake. Tried the mixed beef pho from Pho Hoa at the food court. Ok lah. Really not hungry. It might taste better if I were.

Bought baked skin chestnut mooncake $27.

It's chestnut season in Japan again haha. Inspired. Not too sweet, not bad!

Father bought the original 大中国 mooncake. Brother bought the "fake" 大中国 Hainanese mooncake. Our snowskin fix was our favorite Fairmont Sze Chuan Court mixed flavors, consisting of Dark Rocher Chocolate, Rum & Raisin Chocolate Truffle, Champagne Truffle & Chocolate Ganache and Baileys Chocolate. All the better with Brother's 30% staff discount = $39.69!

*Looks at tummy*

Friends

N made a new friend, D in the washroom and started inviting her to join us for lunch. D is from another project. Like N, she is from India and married with a kid too. This spelt b-o-r-e-d-o-m for me because all they ever talk about are husband, kid, India and they break into Hindi sometimes. I felt so extra.

Because of D, we no longer went for early lunch. It's either 12.30pm, when all tables are taken up, or 1pm, when I would be long famished. Most of the time, D could only go at 12.30pm and I would flatly refuse to go. N would try to talk me into going, by promising that there would be seats, which was very irritating. Seats will NOT appear just because you said so! I go also eat quietly one what, go for what? Surfing net over lunch is really more enjoyable.

N really didn't have to try so hard to get me to join them. I have told her very truthfully before that I really didn't mind eating on my own (short of admitting that I LOVE it actually). I couldn't tell if N was truly apologetic about making me lunch alone, because if she were, couldn't MY timing take priority? It's not just me, but everybody else has to take a backseat when it came to deciding when to go for lunch. D is and always has been the deciding factor and the rest doesn't matter at all, does N herself realize at all? Why try so hard to get a consensus?

I'm not jealous of D. It's just irritating seeing N struggle with the same issue everyday when I already know what is going to happen.

Something good that came out of it? Sometimes D wanted to go to the coffeeshop for a change, so I got to eat the fishball tanghoon. With lots of 冬菜.

I guess N and S will never speak again. I rarely talked to S too. Not that I'm a N supporter, but we really didn't have much to talk about.

N was visibly very upset one day. She and S met at the corridor outside. S stared at her, sped up and left the scene. Why couldn't S even stand seeing her now? Or has it always been like that? So many months later, N still had no idea what she has done wrong. I don't know either. I only have a speculation. So I just said maybe it's something she has done that offended S, but S allowed it to pent up until she finally exploded.

N disappeared frequently that day. Confirm 诉苦ing to her numerous friends. Might as well. She sit here also not working one, just fiddling on her mobile (probably 诉苦ing on sms) and sighing.

On a brighter note, I will be away from all these nonsense pretty soon.