progress #2

Went back to the pharmacy to get the medicine for the earlier appointment. Arrived 5.02pm and the queue no. was 1534 while 1517 was being served. It's definitely not a market place after 5pm. Maybe it's because they have a satellite pharmacy at another site. Maybe it's just that they are better organised now. Either way, I don't expect to wait beyond 30mins.

Syabas, MOH!

Progress

I left the house at 6.40am to fetch my mother at the nursing home about 15km away. Picked her at 7.25am - it was raining and cars were queueing near schools. When we reach the hospital at 8.15am, I thought it was going to be one of those days akin to a market place. When the ticket number given was 2018 (auspicious?) and the current number was 2010, I thought perhaps the hospital and/or MOH has got the crowds figured out. 

It's 9.08am now and the queue no. is now 2017. Things sure has changed since the GH I remembered years ago.

Circle of Life

When I was younger, my mum used to bring back food from the office - food meant for her but she often forewent them to give us kids a treat. After more than 50 years, I still remember the cholera outbreak of the late 60s. Her team was tasked with vaccination of incoming visitors ftom Singapore, and she often brought home food provided at the vaccination site. One memorable treat was a bottle of Magnolia chocolate milk.

After I graduated, I was often given pens by medical reps promoting their products. Then came trips to conferences and currently, lunches were similarly provided by the medical reps. And now, I bring them home (lunches, not med reps!!) for my son to savour. Somedays, it's McD, other days it's Subway. Today  it's Nandos.

Call it paying it forward, or one good turn deserves another.

I call it the Circle of Life. And I can hear Elton John singing in my mind.

dashed dreams

He WhatsApped to me while I was at work. I commiserated with him for his failed attempt at plan B.

When I got home, I told him to focus on his strengths, and to return to his 1st love. Engineering.

In the scheme of things, Medicine had been a distraction. An after-thought. A mistress invading a longterm marriage. Just like me decades ago  when I took up the new girlfriend and dumped the incumbent.

Move on and go back, boy, to the original plan A. I wish you a happy and stable career. God bless.

Man proposes but the Lord disposes. Amen.

little mistake

Sudoku is where a little teeny weeny careless mistake disrupts the whole game.

Story of life.

🤣🤣🤣

Chess

In a cabinet filled with trophies, mostly my kids', there's one of mine that stood out. It was a 3rd place plaque in the state schools chess competition in 1974, and it was the highest position I was ever placed.

But I write this not to wallow in past glory but to reminisce on some of the best friendships I have fostered through the game. It is with much sadness that I remember Foo Howe Seng, the Muar District champ whose sudden and unexpected passing in 1976 shocked us. And especially, Wong Tzu Cheng, my classmate, partner-in-crime and best friend during our chess-playing and 6th Form days. 

You both left too soon. 😥

A ring, the ring

Same people but different designations.

Like fiancé and fiancée.

Like son-in-law and daughter-in-law.

And father-in-law and mother-in-law.

And so on and so forth.

Some cynically call the in-laws outlaws. 

🤣🤣🤣

Future career

Checking the place out. It's not exactly what he wants to do but this degree is a prerequisite for his intended career path.

Que sera sera. Whatever he does, I hope he does it well. 🙏

Ghostbusters 3.0

This is what we put on when handling Covid positive patients. It's called  Powered Air Purifying Respirator. Air is drawn in by a battery-powered pump and is filtered before entering the headgear, ensuring air free from viruses and bacteria is delivered.

Covid-19 #1

Starting to treat my 1st Covid positive patient as part of "national service." Feeling very much like a Star Wars episode, I have a bad feeling about him.

Weighing 130kg aka morbidly obese, panting like a untrained long-distance runner and blood oxygen level hovering at a critical level (SpO2 90% in med-speak) despite full force of oxygen blasting at him.

His best option, for all concerned, is a transfer to a Govt facility. Hopefully I, despite my physical short-sightedness, am not the only one with 20/20 vision.

🙏🏼

vaccinated but not absolute

The plaster

The pose

2nd dose completed but the precautions will be maintained, for there is no certainty that a fully vaccinated person can't get Covid19, although the infection  will be less severe.

money

Money is NOT the root of all kinds of evil but the love of it is.

Today I was tempted by expecting to get something that didn't belong to me. Instead I received something smaller that did belong to me and learned to be content with that.

It is well with my soul. 

back to blogging again. maybe.

My case in OT is scheduled for

9am. I am in OT by 8.50 and by 9.05 my part is complete and ready to go.

The nurses start trickling in at 9am and prepare their instruments, and when I have done my part, they are still fiddling around. More like messing around because the microscope cover doesn't fit and the drill parts don't align. And these are nurses supposedly trained to assist in this type  of surgery.

Another nurse is called in and she's the real trouble-shooter. Changed the microscope cover and fixed the drill bits and we're good to go. 

I didnt measure my blood pressure but i did forewarn the OT sister that if I drop dead today, her OT nurses are to be blamed.

I need to rant and vent.