Sunday, October 07, 2007

a day of fun, a week of pain

It has been a painful week. But before talking about that, let me talk about something more pleasant.

Last Monday, I took some time off work to go back to visit 2M. It was Children's Day and I thought it would be nice to drop in with some goodies since it would probably be the last time I will see them as a class. sniff. It was a short but really nice visit. Great to catch up on all the juicy gossip. I think I've said it before, the one thing I've really missed about RI is the interaction with all the students. Well, I think this will probably be the last time I will visit RI on my own accord since after this, 2M will be divided into different classes and I think by next year, most of the students I really know would be out of the school. Kinda sad really.

OK, back to painful matters.

Last Tuesday, I went in for my operation to remove a kidney stone. I actually have two that need taking care of. One big one up in my kidney and a smaller one in my... shall we just say body's plumbing system. So this op was to remove the smaller one first. Anyway, got to Tan Tock Seng Hospital at 8.30 and it was good that there was no line so I was attended to quickly and moved into the prep room. Changed into the operation gowns and couldn't understand why they were designed like that. Someone should seriously look into improving those silly gowns. Anyway, within minutes, the nurse finished keeping my valuables and asking me repeatedly who I am (as if the person in front of her would change identity in a wink). Got wheeled towards the Operating Room. It's always a strange sensation, lying on the bed and being wheeled around. YOu just get to see the flourescent tubes overhead zooming by, and I just don't know what I should be thinking about. After being wheeled around like a supermarket trolley, I arrived in the prep room of the Operating Room (that's what I think it is anyway) and then began a couple minutes of waiting as the operating team/anaesthetist/doctor get ready. I finally got wheeled into the OR and that where they start prodding me with needles and monitors and stuff. Then came the best part... the mask. They put this gas mask over me and say 'it's just oxygen, take deep breaths', so i comply. Can't do anything else rite since the mask is in my face? Then this time round, the anaesthetist didn't even tell me she was injecting the drugs, i just knocked off.

About 2.5 hours later, I opened my eyes to the sound of the nurse asking me to take deep breaths again... something about filling my lungs or something... quite tough coz it feels so good to just go back to sleep. Then the worse thing happened. I had to pee. Believe me, this is not something I want to do after a kidney stone removal. For the sake of my male readers, I shall not describe the ordeal. Anyway, I found out later that the doctor had cleared the first stone fairly quickly so he made the decision to go after the bigger stone in the kidney. There's kinda mixed feelings although it would mean I probably need not go for another big op for that stone, it also meant that the doctor had to put in a stent (a tube from the kidney to the bladder)... so that means I have to go for a stent removal procedure... which I will describe at another time....

Anyway, finally left the hospital at about 2.45pm.

The past week has been painful coz of (1) sharp pain on my right side, probably due to some stones moving through the system and (2) peeing out sand... lolz... yes, i've had to pee out sand at times. It's not really painful but I think the thought is quite scary. But seriously, the first few days after the op, going to the toilet was something I had to but didn't want to do.

It's been 6 days since my op and things seem to be slowly going back to normal. Still have some pain, but it's becoming more manageable. Have MC until Monday, so it's back to work on Tuesday.

Might talk more about the past week of pain if i feel like it... but I think I've given enough info for now...

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