The Day After

Had a peaceful sleep through Monday night and was woken up by the nurse about 5am who came in to take my blood pressure reading. It was at that time, I realised the other room mate of mine, Ah Bee just came out from having her shower. Ah Bee is probably in her early 60s (never got round to asking her) and was probably the only one who really kept me from going insane in the hospital. She's friendly and we both chatted like we knew each other for ages, ha ha. Our room was filled with constant visitors, with her family and mine and my friends, coming in around the same time. Hers was the first op on Tuesday morning 8am and before they wheeled her off, she told me that everything will be okay and that she will wake me up when I come back from my op. It was so nice of her to say that to me, words of comfort.

While she was being operated on, I was called for a round of checkup by the eye surgeon. I was then informed of the procedure and was told that apart from patching up the tear on my retina, they would pump gas into my eye. This would temporarily affect my vision more. Eh, yeah, I won't be able to fly for any trips for about a month or so as the pressure would cause the gas to expand and my eyeball would explode. Yes, that's was good to know. LOL!

Waiting back in my room with Ah Bee still not back yet, the doc came in at around 10.30 and told me that I should be prepared for my op within the next 30 minutes. I wasn't feeling scared or anything but more like "Am I in a dream? A very long dream???". I was the youngest patient there as the rest were in mostly for cataract op and I think the nurses weren't use to dealing with younger patients like me. Before they wheel me out, they had a checklist of questions to ask.

1) Gone to the toilet?
2) Removed underwear and bra?
and the one that made me laugh
3) Removed your dentures???

I replied laughing that I had no dentures and with that I was off on my magical journey. Seriously, I never had the experience of laying on a bed and being wheeled around. It was a funny feeling. They parked me in this area and was told to change again into a green gown (you know, the ones you just slip on and your front is covered but your whole back and posterior is exposed!) There I was, almost to go in for my first operation but I was fussing more about the fact of the "exposure". Ha Ha... They then wheeled me into the operating theater with the doc explaining to me about general anesthesia. I told him "I feel like a buffet spread being served on a tray" and we both laughed. After being man and woman handled for awhile, he told me if I feel like sleeping, go ahead. The next thing I know, I heard a lady's voice telling me "It's time to go back to the ward". The op was over. Do you know what was the first thing I did? With my eyes closed, I touched my chest area to see if I was naked or not!!! LOL! The good news was that I wasn't naked, the bad news was that they had already changed my clothes again and even put on the hospital pants for me! Not even feeling the pain and in my groggy state, I was thinking "My goodness, they got to see me in all my glory and dressed me though I was a piece of meat (a very big piece!)." Sigh....

Well, when I got back to the ward (around 1.30pm), mom and bro was there. KA (she took this pic of me) and SK were there too and I had two flower bouquets and get well soon balloons from my sis-in-law). I tried to speak but I think I sounded incomprehensible. I decided to use hand signals indeed. My throat was dry as the Sahara desert and finally had my first sip of water at about 4 since fasting from 12 midnight. Ah Bee was already up and about and came over to my bed to talk to me. Only mom and bro was still around and they left at 5pm, promising me delicious chicken porridge for dinner when they come back again later. OML dropped by shortly after to keep me company and by that time, my head had cleared and I was in pain. I asked for some pain killers and they gave me Panadol. Feeling better by dinner time, WoW2 visited me and my mom and bro dropped by with porridge which I finished. Chicken porridge never tasted so good!

With visiting hours over, it was back to me and Ah Bee in the ward. Slept early that night and early Wednesday morning, I had a checkup and the doc told me that I can go home! Yay!!!! Took down Ah Bee's contact number from her daughter and say that we'll keep in touch. We both checked out of the hospital on Wednesday and will have to go back this Wednesday for a follow-up. I've been at my bro's place since last Wednesday, with my mom pampering me. But you know me, I'm so use to going out here and there, I'm so bored now. Utterly bored out of my mind. I can't watch TV for long, can't read, I can only listen to music and sleep. I took a pic of myself with my phone cos I had nothing to do. Help ...

I have good news and bad news. The good news is that my eye is recovering. The bad news is that I'm dying of boredom. - wmw

The Night Before

Don't worry folks, I'm typing this with my eyes closed, thanks to my touch typing skills!!! So, here's the story. I had partial blurred vision in my lower right eye since Friday. I gave myself another day for it to clear as I was wondering whether it was due to fatigue. Saturday came and my vision was still blurred. I didn't really want to alarm Mom and told myself that I'll see the doc on Monday and if need be, then I'll let her know.

So there I was at UH at 7.30am, waiting for my turn to see the GP first. At 9, I was called in and he went through the usual test to ascertain my blurred vision wasn't due to some nerve problem. After passing every test with flying colours (except not being able to have full vision on my right eye), he sent me to the ophthalmologist who finally saw me at 11am. After explaining to him, he put some eye drops to dilate my eyes before he could examine it any further. I was told to sit outside for a good 15 minutes and was called in again.

Doc: Ok, let's take a look at it again. Mmmm....
Doc: Mmmm....Yup, it's a case of retina detachment
Me : Huh???
Doc : People with high myopia like you usually have a high risk of their retina tearing. Yours did and fluid started to seep in and eventually weighed it down, detaching it from the inner wall.
Me : Huh???
Doc : You can't go home now. You have to be warded and have to have an emergency operation. We will monitor you for the rest of today and the operation will be soonest tomorrow once the surgeon take a look at your eye.
Me : Okay...(In a state of shock!)

I was then sent to take a chest X-ray, ECG and they even took three tubes of my blood! Well, at least now I know that I'm healthy, it's just the eye! Ha Ha Ha....In my entire 38 years (almost 38) of life, I have never once be admitted into a hospital, you know, just have the occasional fever, cold, cough kinda thingy. The first time I walk into a hospital for a check up, I ended up being warded! Yes, I was in a state of shock alright. I had felt no pain in my eye. Apparently, when I had an increase of "floaters" (those funny "microscopic" things that seems to be floating in front of your eyes), it was a tell tale sign that my retina tore. Guess I was just unaware, the optometrist definitely never drew my attention to such matters. Optometrists should warn people like me, those who have high shortsightedness to be aware of such things so that we could seek treatment immediately. Seems that if I had gone earlier before the retina detached, all they do is just to fix up my eye with a laser to patch it back and I could walk out of the hospital on the same day itself. So, there I was, for the first time in my life in the hospital, sitting, sleeping and waiting for the morning to come, facing another long night. Family and friends (KA took this pic) came to visit and eventually left. I wasn't worried but I just wanted this whole ordeal to end as soon as possible.

To be continued ....

I learned a long time ago that minor surgery is when they do the operation on someone else, not you. ~ Bill Walton

All's Well

Just a quick post to let you all know that I'm "temporary out of order". Ha Ha ...

Pic by KA

Was warded on Monday and had to have an emergency operation on my right eye on Tuesday. It was a case of "retina detachment". Now I'm back home and it's time for me to rest, will blog more later. Thanks for all the well wishes and prayers!