I started my first day of work as a Patient Care Associate at National University Hospital's Outpatient Clinic C (Surgery).
It was fun; I have really nice colleagues and got a mentor who is just 3 years older than me.
In a way, I see myself in her.
Or rather, I see her in myself.
We have the same views towards a lot of stuffs.
And we do things the same way.
She taught me a lot - be it about life or work.
The first week of working was really good.
I still don't have the ability to run a clinic by myself yet, but soon I will.
Because of Friday.
I won't say what happened then, it wasn't anything good.
But because of that episode, I learnt a lot as well.
In short, it may be tiring, but time flies very fast and I get to learn a lot from the doctors.
It's good knowing I'm assisting doctors helping lives.
I see patients who are on their way to recovery.
I also see patients whose health are failing.
At the end of the day, you feel good knowing that you played a role in saving their lives.
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I was being admitted to Mount Alvernia Hospital on 1st November, but because I was admitted after 12am, it was considered 2nd November already.
You might wonder why there when I'm a staff of NUH.
Well, my mum's gastro specialist, Dr Chew, works there, so there you go.
Yes, it was my 3rd time having acute pancreatitis.
The doctor couldn't find out what caused it either, even after running so many scans.
I did MRI, MRCP and CT scan.
Apparently all my organs and ducts are working well.
The funny thing was that the inflammation this time was actually at the tail of the pancreas.
There was an accumulation of fluid there, as reflected from the scans.
Oh, I have the scans at home.
They look very cool lah!
This time the attack was mild, thankfully.
No morphine, no catheter, no tube down to my stomach through my nose, no machines attached to me to detect my heart rate, no 7 bags of solutions hanging over my head running into my veins by IV, no more blood tests and blood glucose tests twice everyday, no medical students coming to interview me about how, when and why I got the disease and most importantly, no depression.
I took quite a lot of photos this time round to remind myself of the pain and suffer I went through.
The weird thing was that the treatment I received this time round was a little different from the one I had at NUH.
Every single day I had to take pills when I wasn't supposed to be eating or drinking.
Every single time I complain of pain or nausea, I get jabs.
And these jabs actually make me sleepy INSTANTLY.
It felt really awful.
I was slipping in and out of conscious.
I couldn't see anything.
And then I fell asleep without feeling a single bit of pain anywhere on my body.
See, they were afraid patients will run out of the hospital.
So they put these tags on us.
Okay that was a joke.
It's plainly for recognition.
This was what happened after the first IV was plucked out from my hand.
The vein was swollen.
It was badly bruised because the dumb nurse kept complaining my veins are tiny and did a bad job of poking me.
If you look carefully, there's another bruise higher up the hand near the fingers.
That was the first time the nurse attempted to poke me.
But she said she couldn't draw much blood there, so she poked me again.
I also had to do a urine test.
Hmm? Want a closer shot?
Here you go.
And this was my 2nd IV.
It was done by a doctor.
Freaking painful.
Aizuddin came and visit me on Sunday afternoon itself.
It was very nice of him to come visit me with a tin of wafers.
He said he loves to eat the vanilla-flavoured ones, but because he couldn't find them, he got the choc-hazelnut for me.
So sweet of him to buy me that when I'm not allowed to eat such stuffs.
And that tin of wafers look like this:
Looks very tempting right.
It's sitting just next to my bed.
Every single time I see it I feel like tearing it open and munch it down.
Tsk.
Anyhow, his visit was deeply appreciated.
He brought me a lot of laughters, which kinda chased away the blues that threatened to come.
Most importantly, he was sick himself.
Despite so, he still came down and visit.
Not to forget dear Belicia as well!
She gave me a surprise visit.
I had no idea at all that Aizuddin actually asked her along.
She came down after school, and stayed back even after Aizuddin left until my sister came and accompany me after her school.
It was so good talking to her.
We so need to hang out soon.
This was the 2nd time I was being poked for another round of blood amylase & lipid test.
Not that painful, actually.
If you look carefully, there are 2 needle holes...
Aiyah, I lost count how many times I was being poked.
All I know is there are at least 7 holes on both my hands and arms.
2 on my butt because they injected me when I was sent into A&E.
My hand started feeling painful one night when the nurse changed a new bag of glucose + sodium chloride + potassium chloride for me.
I woke up, and asked why does it hurt so badly.
She said it was because of the potassium chloride.
The pain was so bad I told her to change the IV to another hand.
It was the 3rd day by then.
The needle hole isn't that bad, but the area around it was slightly swollen.
I don't think you can see it from the photo, but right now one part of my vein is swollen.
And it hurts pretty badly.
Hopefully it'll go off soon.
And here's a photo of my 3rd IV.
Left lower arm.
By the 3rd day afternoon Dr Chew decided I was well enough to try clear fluids.
So I had my first meal in 3 days - soup.
She said the 4th day I would be on full feeds, and 5th day I would be on soft feeds.
Also on the 5th day, she would discharge me.
And I enjoyed it lah. :D
It's quite cool how they label everyone's breakfast/lunch/dinner.
Interesting huh!
I didn't get this when I was at NUH.
Also, on the 3rd day, Yang came and see me.
She visited me at night and we had a very lovely chat.
I love it whenever she tells me facts about life.
She'll always say I'm still too young to understand certain stuffs, but in time to come I will.
And I always make sure I'm prepared before certain stuffs hit me.
All thanks to her.
By the 4th day, Dr Chew said I can go on full feeds.
So I could take all sorts of fluids.
Just fluids.
And she said if my IV hurt, I could ask the nurse to take it out without having to attach a new one.
But she discouraged me to remove it intentionally because I wasn't eating food yet, so I wouldn't have the necessary nutrients if not through IV.
I listened to her, and waited till it was swollen before I asked the nurse to take it out at night.
Oh, and Ferren came and visit that afternoon.
She brought me flowers and magazines.
It was shared between Mei Sin and her.
How sweet of them!
And they got me Torque mag.
I was so happy when I saw it.
Aren't the roses lovely.
Even though they're pink, they're still deeply appreciated.
Right now they're sitting in the living room, next to a whole basket of red roses.
You'll see the red roses later on.
In the evening, Hannah came.
We had such a heart-to-heart talk.
I shared a lot of stuffs with her, and she confided in me.
I felt sad seeing that depressed face of hers.
The Hannah in my mind is always smiling, spreading warmth and happiness to everyone around her.
It seems like the battery's dead for a while.
Time to re-charge.
I'm sure she'll be bouncing around in no time.
Hang in there, honey!
I'm here for you! (:
By the 5th day I was allowed soft feeds.
It was also the day of my discharge.
I was so happy that day, knowing that I would be going home that I didn't sleep well the previous night.
Every morning before 7am the lights in the ward would be switched on, and everyone would wake up.
I got up extremely early, like around 3.30am and flipped around in bed playing with my phone.
Dr Chew wanted me to try eating soft feeds and see if it would trigger any pain before letting me discharge.
So I was discharged in the evening.
I had milo and fish porridge for breakfast.
The fish porridge was really good.
I wonder how they cooked it.
And this was my lunch.
Chicken porridge and green jelly for dessert.
Of course, having not to eat for so many days already, I felt pretty full after eating half a bowl of porridge.
But I ate it slowly, and soon it was clean.
No wonder people always tell me to eat slowly when I cannot finish my food.
After lunch I felt sleepy.
But I hung in there, because Dr Chew still hadn't come see me yet.
I was waiting for her to come.
Soon it was time for another round of blood test.
Yes, I was poked again.
I think that was how the 2nd hole on my right elbow came.
I was supposed to do a urine test as well by 1.30pm, so I tried to keep myself awake because after my blood was taken it was 12.45pm already.
Still, I fell asleep.
I woke up at 1.50pm and went to the toilet.
After that I had my tea break and then relaxed on my bed by listening to music.
Soon enough I decided I want to take a nap.
When I woke up, it was around 3pm or 4pm, I can't recall.
A PCA woke me up because she wanted to take my blood pressure.
I saw someone standing behind her.
This person was wearing a white shirt, dark navy blue long pants, tanned and bald.
For a moment I thought he was some hospital personnel.
Upon scrutinising that person for a while, I got a shock.
The only person I know who would wear like that on a Friday afternoon would be him.
Yes, Ahmad Aizuddin.
He came and visit me. Again.
Because he knew I was going to be discharged that day.
I had no idea how long he was there, apparently around an hour, according to him.
But he didn't want to wake me up.
So he just sat there and watched me sleep.
He brought along a basket of red roses.
And they smell really nice.
Okay, sorry for the messy background.
Tsk.
Poor lighting.
Too bright.
Anyway, you know how it looks lah huh.
Here's a closeup shot of the prettiest rose I found among them all.
He apologised for not getting tulips because the florist didn't have them.
That was why he got roses for me.
Along with the basket of roses, there was a note.
Here's a closeup of it.
It's a joke we both enjoy.
It's lame, I know, but somehow it just makes you laugh, doesn't it.
It was really nice of him to come see me just before I got discharged.
He left around 5pm plus.
Just a few minutes after he left, my dinner came.
Kway Teow soup.
My parents came at around 6pm, and after a while Dr Chew finally came.
She did a final check on me, and told me the blood & urine test results.
Both were good, and I could go home then.
Home felt so good the moment I stepped in.
There was this...
Unfamiliar familiarity.
Okay, I know I'm not making a lot of sense, but I guess that's how NSmen actually feel after returning home from 5 days of harsh trainings at Tekong.
And that was the recent hospitalisation recount.
Right now, I feel very new.
Like a brand new me was born after I stepped out of Mt Alvernia.
Anyhow, I want to thank all those who sent their wishes.
Please forgive me if I leave any names out.
(Not in any form of order okay!)
Aizuddin, Belicia, Yang, Ferren, Mei Sin, Koon Kit, Dr Tan Hong Kiat, Dr Lau Quek Choon, Hannah, Li Bei baomu, Eileen baomu, Si Min, Vivian (Chua), Jian Kai, Cheryl (NPCO), Yu Ding, Chin Koon, Linette, Jona, Suelyn, Zhi Yan, Zoe, Ying Hui, Elaine (Lek), Felicia (Tay), Winnie (NPCO), Tian Yao and Zakiah.
Thank you very very very very much!
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Right now my routine has been changed.
I eat all my meals on time - breakfast, lunch, dinner.
Sometimes I take a second serving.
I even have tea breaks.
I lost quite a bit of weight from the hospital stay.
Right now I'm standing at 165cm with only 45kg of weight.
All my pants are too loose for me, can you imagine that.
I need to gain some weight back.
At the desired places, of course.
This hospital stay made me realise something.
Something very, very important.
And this costs me my future.
I feel very positive about life.
I feel ready to take on anything.
Even if the world is really going to end on 2012, I know I'll have no regrets because I have everything anyone can possibly ask for in life.
The only regret might be I would have to die a virgin.
(Okay, it's just for laughs. There's nothing to regret about if I do die a virgin.)
I guess this entry's long enough.
I'll update more soon!
