Saturday 27 February 2010

My First Hospitalization

Did I mention that there was a sizeable anomaly growing in my right lung?

It's quite a long story as to its discovery but the short version is that multiple xrays in January taken to ascertain whether I had tuberculosis instead led to the finding of a mass in my lower front of the right airbag. No I don't have TB. I sense a sigh of relief among the people I may breathe on and around. (There is a sign at the TB Clinic that read in no uncertain terms "Tuberculosis is a serious infectious airborne disease".)

I also went for a CT Scan where they lay one down on a bed at moves vertically and one direction horizontally through a giant ring. Inside the ring, something spins. It takes images in slices across the vertical plane of whatever's in the ring. That was me was weeks ago when embarassingly my dry left contact lens managed to elicit a tear of relief that promptly exited my then horizontally reclined eye, down my face. The nurse thought I was afraid. Goodness. The only other things I remember from this scanning was that the machine was made by Siemens, the spin frequency was 666Mhz (because there was a display right above where I lay, the sides of the aircon vents on the ceiling looked filthy and the attendants took an ominous pause when they came out of their room to tell me the procedure was over.

When I told some friends about this mass, it got christened "a piece of mutton" and "sponge". At home, the folks expressed their worry and lamented at what a 'suay' the start of the year had been. I was not quite as worried.

The docs were curious though. So they set me up a biopsy to extract some fleshy morsels and run various tests. That happened today, a day surgery at Tan Tock Seng.

I was decked out in hospital patient gear, a fashionable blue set of pajamas and a giant apron that went around my neck and was open at the back. Wheeled down some floors on the hospital bed, I met my good friend CT scan machine again. This time it would the doctor's guide in his quest to fish out some flesh.

And what you saw on House is true. Biopsies hurt! They administered a local anaesthetic and those injections hurt like hell already even before the big needle made its presence felt. Come on, right lung with a rib cage in the way, something's sure gotta hurt. I was of course looking up all the time, at same not-so-pleasant ceiling, with the 7 vertical slits of the CT machine's built-in speaker some 5 inches up and ahead from my face plus a yellow light that kept coming on when the guiding laser was positioned. Yes there was a laser, probably like those laser sights that produce red dots on targets for assasination in the movies. As I was slide into the ring, I read a sticker on the inner side of the ring that read "Class 2 Laser Device. Do not look into the laser directly" - a cause for concern since I was in the spinning ring of image gathering. So the doc came round, introduced himself and got on with the procedure.

He disinfected the area with at least 3 cold fluids and a spray which made my body quivver. Then came the pain relief injections that hurt so bad dispensing their wares. There were other sets of insertions and compressions to my chest and the whammy, I could feel the needle entering the deeper recesses of my chest, into the lung. It hurt. I tensed like any human would, my spine tightening and back sweating. All the while I kept tellingyself to breathe with long, controlled inhales and exhales to relax and not freak out but makes you do dumb things. And guess what? The needle didn't quite hit the spot. So there another poke. This time I knew the doc was fiddling on target because after a bout of insane pain, I could not breathe normally. Yup, he got the lung! Funny that people say you can survive with one lung that it isn't quite the slight difference you expect. With difficulty breathing and a right arm very numb from being propped over the head for eternity, it was a new level of physical agony I was brought to. Wow, I never knew it could hurt so bad. I wanted the doc to stop. I also knew it didn't matter if I did ask him to cease. This pain wasn't gonna go away in an instant.

Having got the stab right, the doc asked me to "breathe in, breathe out slowly". That screwed up my conscious attempt at relaxation and threw my mind and lungs into uncoordinated disarray. I was a little pissed. Was I not calm enough for you suck out spongy samples? At the same my brain rationalized that breathing out slowly gave the doc some control over how to manipulate the extraction. Imagine all this thinking happening as searing pain radiated in my chest.

Slightly traumatized I guess I was, even the operation was over because the pain and laboured breathing didn't end. The blood was returning to my arm as I lay outside along the corridor in the Diagnostic Radiology department staring blankly at the flourescent lighting above. Ow ow ow ow ow! My mouth was too dry to utter anything, my brain was processing my anguish. The doctor came over to ask if all was ok. I can't remember when he explained that the mass kept moving with my breathing and that made the extraction tougher. Oklah.

I was wheeled up to my shared room and progressively the pain subsided. TV provided some relief too although all channels were free-to-air. Then the relief of Milo and biscuits (I had to fast since midnight the night before and it was about 11am when chocolatey goodness was dispensed. Thank you kind nurse) and then lunch. It wasn't bad - I had chappatis (!) and mildly curried chicken and green veg.

By 2pm I was addicted to a TV3 melodrama about a bad son and his undoing/retribution. It wasn't half bad but had to whisked away for another xray to check the lung was fine. My mum filled me in on what transpired on the show when I got back.

All clear was at 430pm. We proceeded to then have a Killiney teh si and then thosais in Little India.

At home, I confirmed the dual vampire punctures from the repeated entry of the big bad biopsy needle with two distinct spots of dried blood remnants on the bandage that I need to keep on till ten the next day.

Now to rest and heal.

Side note, I ran into a friend from JC who's now a doctor (ahem!) in TTSH, and I learned that my body redirects stress to my lower back. That's probably why I suck at some yoga poses.

Sunday 21 February 2010

Google To The Rescue

I went "Thank God for Google" yesterday at my ex-ex-boss' boss (complicated interdepartmental shuffling makes for equally bizarre prefixes) for Chinese New Year lunch. Having graciously accepted the kind invitation, guests were treated to twee bak bee hoon served with fiery sambal and limes, and chicken curry with bread with dried longan soup for palate cleansing. Someone brought cheesecake (an odd but interesting mix) and there was obligatory yusheng too. That's when my divine praise came forth. The host asked if anyone knew what to say as she poured out the various ingredients and condiments that made up the dish. Most of us were stuck at "nian nian you yu" and "tian tian mi mi", a miserable recollection of yusheng tosses of yore. So I whipped out the good ol iPhone and Googled the necessary: "what to say with yusheng" and voilĂ ! The answers were on screen before us. Awesome.

Find what to say at your next fish toss here >>

Where would we be today without quick and easy aggregation of information? Would Yahoo! and Microsoft have stepped up to the plate as readily and cleanly, and perhaps so prolifically? I dunno. And having the iPhone with connectivity is no less short of a necessity for all this data to come through so competently and coherently. Industry game changers and life changers too. Information here, now and forever.

This is the future I imagined.

Thursday 18 February 2010

Recent Music

I hadn't been to a rock concert in a long while. In fact, I couldn't remember the last time I was at a concert of any kind. A right-at-the-back-row viewing of Jeremy Monteiro at the Esplanade comes to mind. Since last November however, I was all set and committed to watch two bands perform at the Indoor Stadium, Muse and The Killers. The latter cancelled a few days before they were due to bang the drums on our shores. Ten of us who were going to attend as a complete row of paying fans were duly disappointed. Muse however showed up from their Big Day Out adventure in Australia and didn't decide to 'take it slow' as they flew over Alice Springs. They were awesome. Loud and true to form, Muse showed they could almost perfectly transform CD music to on-stage magnificence. The crowd was all set for the anthemic melodies of Time Is Running Out, Uprising, and the classic finale, Knights Of Cydonia, with arms in the air and vocal chords straining to sing along to Matthew Belamy's peerless exhortations. It was quite awesome. Kudos to the back section of floor ticket concert goers who probably could see little beyond the video walls, but we're equally, if not more, wild. (I could see and praise them from my lofty vantage point. )

All my Muse concert pixes, plus 1 video >>


Moving away from the live genre, let me talk about Glee. This TV show is like a combination of High School Musical, American Idol and The Hills, perfectly set into the best heartwarming comedy to grace TV sets. Here's the thing: everytime I hear their rendition of Don't Stop Believin, I tear up. I dunno why. It happened twice in one day! It's a great song though. The staid, solid renderings of Steve Perry transformed into a chirpier yet more potent, sharper sign-of-the-times anthem for the disillusioned masses. A song of hope. The Journey version was out in the early 80s when problems were a little different. This Glee cover speaks to a wider band of audience, from kids who need a pick me up to those who were kids in the 80s and now have no job or home. It's powerful. Close your eyes and feel it. And cry.



Last but not least, this post includes a description of my music purchases from HK. It was a weird, unscripted agenda during the visit to cold and grey HK but HMV was having a sale. After all the girls had scowered the mall and judged it inconsequential. I was bored and entered this heavenly realm. I bought
- Acolyte from Delphic
- Music For Men from Gossip
- Absolution from Muse
- a 3cd dance compilation from Cream
The first two bands are electro rock bands that are making the rounds in the UK and acclaimed to the next big things. Muse is of course Muse. I went to the concert without any music from them, just what I heard on radio and on YouTube. So I figured I'd pay homage. The last album was a no brainer for me because I grew up on UK flavoured dance and house. I told the girls that "this is my Miu Miu" because they spent the day before raving about their purchases of expensive baggage.

That's about the size of it.

Wednesday 10 February 2010

Down Then Back Up

Funny day today. When I first joined this job, my desk was with a department, let's call them Team A, on level 17. Last year in August the whole bunch of us packed our precious whatnots into a maximum 2 boxes each and headed down to level 12. We missed our lovely wood panelled cupboards and desks albeit for a short time because the we began to fall in love with our spacious cold grey metal and plastic surrounds. I was also made part of a brand new department set to shift perceptions, take control and make money. Today, after some debate among the powers that be and several PowerPoint decks and perhaps even power plays/struggles from which my boss and I were assigned another department, we moved back up to level 17. Instantaneously we felt cramped. We didn't really accumulate much new stuff so it was purely an aesthetic rejection. But soon I was liking it after putting everything in its right place, monitor connected to the lappy, pretty things on the shelf, giant calendar on general shelving, ugly cumbersome things stashed away, printer hooked up, it was all good. My boss is taking his time moving his model planes and photos up. The only gripe I have is the exposure I now have to eyes along the corridor. We couldn't decide on where to sit so I am stuck exposed to the cushioned putter patter of colleagues' feet. Well, at least the fengshui rocks.

Tuesday 2 February 2010

Screen Fingers

I always thought I'd be blogging more with an iPhone. It would have been instant and frequent I thought. But I've been fascinated and occupied with other things that the mobile Internet has allowed me to do. I check my emails, talk to fellow iPhoners on Whatsapp (I figured out today that the creator of the app couldn't name it Whatsup for whatever reason and decided to tweak the spelling), check the news, read feeds and catch up on my favourite bloggers, photographers and news providers on the go and last but certainly not the least time consuming, play games. Yes, the one with two left hands with computer games, is using sways and jerks to play Dark Nebula, and tiny finger flicks to play SG Mahjong.

Both of these games like many others are addictive. Dark Nebula is awesomely loaded with space, sci-fi graphics all you need to do is bring a ball to the end of an obstacle-laden course, and not plummet to life minus one. Bounce, avoid and roll. SG Mahjong is well mahjong plain and simple. The cool thing is that the thrown tiles are neatly arranged before you and the app prompts you to pong or hu when the appropriate tile appears. The bad thing is that I have throw away important tiles because my flicking finger is too big and it locked on to the wrong tile. Still it's loads of fun and there's no money to pay out. Woof.

Not that I am constantly on my iPhone. Just when there's nothing much else to do.