Memories
Nose Job
Nov 16th
I’ve explored every section in the ENT Department in SGH. Ears when I was young, a surgery for tonsillitis when I was in MI and now my nose. I landed in the same Ward 55B again and was due for a surgery to remove the excess skin foldings in my nose and to correct the middle septum. It’s funny how much excess flesh I have in my throat and nose that have to be removed.
I’d say going under General Anesthesia is morbidly exciting especially when the doctor tells you an hour before that there may be a risk of life in the surgery. It’s their disclaimer in case things go wrong and its also injects a good bit of excitement when you inhale your possibly last conscious breath.
Fluid down a drip into your hand, a mask over your nose and mouth and you’re told to inhale deeply while the surgeon relentlessly drive the cocktail of drugs down into your bloodstream. I did my best to remember every thing in GA. Your feet first feels exceptionally numb, and the numbness climbs up to your chest. Just when you think the numbness has left you dead, you go unconscious. GA success.
Woke up choking. Heck, they haven’t even tried to call me up. I was still lying on the operating table when I was carried onto a trolley and all the vitals tracking equipment being unplugged from me.
Can’t breath through your nose. It’s all clogged with blood. Must breath. Must survive. First four thoughts in my mind.
Breath through your mouth, you dimwit. Taste of blood. Damn, the throat feels stuck as well. Need to clear throat.
One great thing about surgery is that you’re treated like a god in recovery. Nurse came with a basin for me to clear my throat, brought other things and still wore a smile when I emptied a whole lot of blood and mucus into the basin. Ew, yuck. But I could now breathe.
Back to the ward.
Everyone’s glad your survived. And then, everyone wants to look at your nose. Still giddy, and since its late, they leave and offer you some peace for recovery. Giddiness last for at least 2 hours. I brought some shows on my iPod Touch for entertainment but could not last through 5 mins of watching any. Vision goes circular and I’ve to take a break.
10pm. Finally I feel better. Nose is still like a fountain and I call for dinner. Dinner rolls up and I realise I can’t eat much with so much junk dripping off my nose. Dinner passed.
Sleep. Dreamless sleep.
3am. Awake again. Some shows on the iPod Touch. Nurse comes in to take vitals and have a small chat. I’m told I have to take a pee to make them happy (or they think I’m in a serious condition). Ok, I’ll pee if you like it. Job done, back to show.
Discharge the next day. 16 days MC. I can hear my NS friends screaming blue murder.
1 week later. Nose is still in a semi bleeding stage. Additional 12 days MC. NS friends scream again. A twist this time, I have to pump a full cup of salt water into my nose twice a day to clean it.
Here’s a toast to less blood and goo from my nose as I’ve to leave my keyboard and get my nose cleared in the washroom.
Oh yeah on the sidenote, 7 working days left in the army.
two years on
Oct 1st
So here we are again…
There’s this burning urge to write after I stopped blogging for a long while. That was back on National Day 2006. Man, a good long 2 years plus. Things have changed pretty much. Well things change for every single male in Singapore at this time. Read: NSF.
Ok, fast forward.
‘A’ levels went fine. First major exam that I finally had positive results in. PSLE and ‘O’ levels were disastrous. Secured a places in NUS, NTU and SMU with no hiccups. Chose NUS in the end. Parents happy, they get off my back finally. I’m not trying to bitch about them but well, one of them, replayed by PSLE and ‘O’ level scenarios to me on EVERY DAY of my ‘A’ level exams. Talk about positively encouraging your son.
I didn’t work after ‘A’ levels. I had about 3 weeks between the end of ‘A’ levels to my enlistment. A major change took place here, Joel introduced me to World of Warcraft (WoW) and in the game I found fulfilment that was never present in my time as a duty bound ’soldier’. WoW deserves a section on its own.
18 Dec 06, I walked into Palau Tekong. It looks really like a school – reminds me of Pioneer Sec. I was to undergo a week of BMT as I was classified PES E thanks to imbalanced hearing. Put it bluntly, there are two main routes you have left when you are PES E. If you are educated, you become a clerk. If you’re not, you become a storeman. So after 5 days in Tekong, I was permanently sent to SAFTI MI to serve the remainder of my 2 year sentence (yes its a sentence) as a clerk. And NSF days require a section on its own as well. More about it next time.
In 2008, two deaths hit close to home. My grandma lost her battle with cancer. I wasn’t very close to her but that was the first death that hit within the third degree of my family tree. Just when things settled down, what really broke me down was the death of cat of 13 years. Tiger, remember him? I had fishes and all that before my cat but it was this very cat that I grew up with from Primary school right up to adulthood. I’m the only child so it was normal for me to treat him as my brother. The fact that he was closest to me made it a harrowing 2 weeks after I finally accepted that he had lived a happy and long life as a carefree outdoor cat. More about that next time.
I have no objectives in this blog. Heck, I’m not even gonna tell anyone I have this blog all redone and updated. No promises when it’ll be updated again. My last blog said “Weekly” and we know how well that went. Nothing fancy on this blog, no tag board, no fancy dandy links. Nothing of that sort.
Here are my thoughts. Take them as they are.
