♥ Silver Sister 银姐2010

Thank you for the tonic basket and the balloon! The balloon is still going strong. As I was writing this, it floated out of my bedroom and into the kitchen.

Labels: My Colleagues at Dinner 21 June 2007

silver sister 银姐2010 ~ ! <3

9:58 PM

It was a night out of the 1001 Arabian Nights. We were decked in our best gold/silver costumes. At the cue ... "I don't know" we sprang into action and the rest they say ... is history.

Labels: Gold and Silver Sisters and Their Half-Brother at Annual D and D 8 August 2007

silver sister 银姐2010 ~ ! <3

9:29 PM

The original Silver Sisters

Labels: Silver Sisters after their Graduation Ceremoney on 29 December 2007.

silver sister 银姐2010 ~ ! <3

9:23 PM

What can you do if you are recovering from an operation and are confined to the house?

If you are literate, you can read and that opens up a host of things for you to read while you are recovering from your operation.

You can read books, magazines and the newspapers.

If you have internet access, you have even more things to do.

You may read up on your illness/surgery/after care e.g. I typed in keywords such as: 'thrombosis', 'graduated compression stockings'. You may check your CPF Medisave account (to see how much you have burnt when sick and how to make your money work harder). You may go online shopping for products. You may conduct your internet banking. You may read the news (try www.stomp.com.sg for the paperless bilingual newspapers). You may email/chat with your friends.

If you have a blog, you may post your thoughts. This saves you from explaining yourself. It will also be helpful to those who come after you (i.e. those poor souls who unfortunately like me need a laparascopy and a stint in hospital).

You may text your friends if you have a handphone.

For the illiterate, they may still have visitors, talk to friends using the telephone or handphone. There is also the television and radio to provide entertainment for all. You may watch DVDs or listen to your CDs.

Hey, nowadays, you can even watch YouTube and other television programmes on the computer.

There is of course housework to be done. First, start with light duties e.g. folding your laundry, washing your mug, cleaning the headboard of your bed, wiping the dining table. As you grow stronger every day, you may do more housework. However, stop at heavy duties e.g. changing the bedsheets and carrying heavy things.

silver sister 银姐2010 ~ ! <3

7:16 PM

Before you become hospitalised, you have to go shopping for a list of things.

For patients going for key-hole surgery (laparascopy), you have to consider that you will have three to four punctures in your abodominal area so anything with a waistband, especially the currently fashionable low-waist pants, are a no-no.

One-piece garments like dresses are ideal.

At home, you may wear those batik-printed dresses. These may cost from $6 upwards (if you buy from neighbourhood heartlands like Toa Payoh Central) or from $20 upwards (if you buy from the souvenir shops along Orchard Road).

Panties have to be either 'maxi' or 'bikini' style. This is because the surgery is from the belly-button downwards.

You will need a pair of footwear, preferably a cheap pair of flip-flops. This is because you will be down-and-out after the surgery and will be confined to your bed for at least one day, so nobody will be looking after your footwear. Ditto for jewellery, money and expensive personal items e.g. handphones - so leave them at home till you are fully conscious.

Depending on the ward that you have chosen to stay in, you may also need a set of toiletries e.g. toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, comb, and bath towel. (C-class wards do not provide any of these toiletries).

If you like reading, you may wish to bring a book to read to while away the hours, especially the afternoons, with only tea-break to break the monotony. There are others who played at their crossword puzzles and electronic games as pastimes.

Lastly, remember to put all these in a bag (together with your hospital admission card) and voila, you are ready to be hospitalised.

silver sister 银姐2010 ~ ! <3

6:29 PM

You can be discharged from the hospital if the hospital personnel observes that they have done everything possible they can for you e.g. operated on you, gave you medicine and provided you with physiotherapy, and you can perform self-help skills e.g. eating, walking and toileting independently. Then, physically, you are ready to go home.

However, some people chose to remain hospitalised. Why?

One patient told me that in the hospital, she gets more than three decent meals i.e. breakfast, morning tea-break, lunch, afternoon tea-break, dinner and supper. Besides the distinction of halal (for Muslim patients on religiious grounds) or non-halal food, rice or porridge or on the drip or nothing (if you are preparing for an operation), the menu varies everyday. A main meal like lunch or dinner comprises: rice with vegetables, a meat item and a soup. There is dessert too. Tea-break is usually crackers with a drink like "Milo", barley, ginger water or milk.

With windows on one side of the wall and an overhead fan per bed, the hospital ward is airy. For me, that translates to bright and breezy. For some lucky souls, like myself, we even get a window view, which sometimes we do not even get if we work in a windowless office, like I do.

The room service is superb. You just have to press the buzzer and the nurses are at your beck and call. You get the bed-linen changed everyday. (How many of us get that kind of service back home?) You change your hospital uniform everyday but are spared doing the laundry. Life is even better than having a maid at home. There was a patient who took up a lot of many people's time and energy because she was practically commanding everyone when things go slightly out-of-sync e.g. she complained her buzzer was not working; she fell off the bed the previous day; the chemotherapy treatment will make her blind!

If you are a social animal, there are other people to talk to e.g. doctors, nurses, student nurses patients, cleaners, caterers, physiotherapists. If you can walk to the patients' lounge, you can even watch television programmes!

For some patients, they get visitors and sympathy. Their family members, friends and colleagues are especially kind during this period.

All this attention, like painkillers, can be addictive. Therefore, it is harder for them to be prepared mentally and emotionally to leave the hospital if they are starved of attention back at home.

silver sister 银姐2010 ~ ! <3

5:40 PM

When you are sick, you can be rather undignified.

For example, you are confined to your bed and everything has to be done when you are in bed. This includes eating and excreting. Of course, this is assuming you are can eat and pass urine &/or motion at your own accord. Suppose you cannot eat or excrete by yourself, then you have to suffer more indignity i.e. have a drip or a catheter attached.

The other indiginity that happens when you are confined to your bed is due to your weak state, you neglect to groom yourself. If you are in hospital, the nurses may help you by offering you a mouth-wash for you to gargle with; a wet towel for you to wipe your face with; their help to wipe your body.

All these challenge your values that you were brought up with since you were a baby. All of a sudden, the values had to go out of the window!

We, the patients feel undignified because we had to ask for help for simple tasks that even toddlers can do. We feel violated and ashamed that nurses, who are strangers, see us in all our nakedness and vulnerability. But if you examine the intention of the nurses, they perform the services to preserve our dignity - to be groomed despite illness.

So it all boils down to intention and perception. And come to think of it, this also applies to all other things.

silver sister 银姐2010 ~ ! <3

5:22 PM

Before the operation, I was prescribed the following medication:
- "Sangobion Capsule": take 2 capsules every morning. Take with or after food.
- "Ascorbic Acid 100mg tablet: take 2 tablets every morning. May be taken with or without food.
- "Vitamin B Complex tablet: Take 1 tablet every morning.

After the operation, I was prescribed additional medication:
- Co-Amoxiclav 625mg tablet: take 1 tablet 2 times a day for 1 week. Take with or after food. Take regularly and complete the course.
- Antacid tablet: chew and swallow 2 tablets 3 times a day when necessary. May be taken with or without food.
- Mefenamic Acid 250mg capsule: take 2 capsules 3 times a day when necessary for pain or to reduce menses flow. Take with out after food.

I have continued with the vitamins as well.

I tried to reduce my dependence on painkillers on Saturday (26/1/08). I took 1 capsule at 9am and waited to see when the next wave of pain will come.

Pain gripped my abdomen at 1.30am (27/1/08). I decided to take a painkiller so that I could sleep. So I am back to my regimen of 2 painkillers a day - one at 9am and the next at 9pm.

I will try to reduce the intake of painkillers later, possibly by middle of this week.

silver sister 银姐2010 ~ ! <3

5:39 PM

I had a good night's sleep - five hours straight with no interruptions. Bliss!

My father came to visit me in the afternoon and brought more tonics. I now have enough tonics to last me three weeks!

The only luxury I gave myself was the afternoon nap.

Otherwise, life is pretty much almost back to normal except I remind myself not to carry heavy stuff. I wiped the headboard of my bed, cleaned the dining table, and cleaned the porcelain basin.

I even handwashed the special white stockings that I have to wear for two weeks to improve blood circulation. I sure felt unsecure when I slept without it last night because it was left to dry near my kitchen window.

I am still reading "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" which I bought at a 25% discount. I finished reading "The Incident of the Dog in the Night Time" before I had my operation.

I have started to wean myself off painkillers. Instead of taking 2 capsules 3 times a day, I took 1 capsule 3 times yesterday. Today, I will experiment with taking 1 capsule twice a day. I am still continuing with the iron tablets, Vitamin C and Vitamin B tablets. However, the surgeon has reduced my iron input by half.

I looked at myself yesterday in the mirror. Now, the whites of my eyes look normal. They are no longer blood-shot like when I was taking iron tablets twice a day.

The only 'ceremony' that I still have to perform for at least one week is the preparation for the shower. I cut a rectangular piece of plastic wrapping paper and tape it around my dressings before I shower. The dressings can come off in one week's time.

I will see my surgeon in two weeks' time, before Chinese New Year.

Besides a little wind in the abdomen, I feel fine.

silver sister 银姐2010 ~ ! <3

6:28 PM

I woke up and went to brush my teeth. Despite the fact that there are only three toilets serving the C-class wards and another two toilets serving the B2-class wards, there is no queue for the toilets. This is sad as it implies that most patients are confined to their beds.

Yesterday night, I was issued a change of clothes. This signals to me that I am to shower today. (There are two types of uniforms for the patients. For those in the wards, they are to wear a tie-string long skirt with a tie-string V-necked blouse. These are in a dull pink, light cotton material. For those who need to go to the operating theatres, they need to change into a white blouse with strings behind and a red kimono-style bathroom robe.)

This morning the nurses dispensing the medicine put on a yellow vest that says: "Do Not Disturb. I am serving medicine". (I may not be 100% accurate about the second line as I was not wearing my spectacles). What a hilarious statement! What happened earlier? Did doctors/other nurses/patients disturbed the nurses who were dispensing medicine? Anyway, kudos to them for the courage to implement changes to improve the quality of their worklife!

I was happy to have Yong Tau Foo for breakfast. It came complete with sweet sauce and chilli. Yummy!

Just then, my surgeon came. He examined me and pronounced me fit to be discharged. Hooray! I quickly sent short messages to inform my husband, my boss and my brother.

After breakfast, I told the nurses I needed to go for a shower. They promptly taped my abdomen with a plastic bag and some tape to cover the dressing. Two of the three C-class toilets were occupied. The lock on the third one was not working. A nurse told me to use one of the B2-class toilets.

B2-class and C-class patients enjoy many similar benefits. For example, patients get similar subsidies on medicine for outpatient services. The wards are ventilated by fans (instead of air-conditioning). They share the same patients' lounge where they can watch television programmes or read the newspapers. Even the toilets look similar. B2-class ward has six beds. C-class wards has six beds too but they are partitioned off by 'half-walls' instead of 'full-walls'.

Besides the seating toilet on the right, there is a covered bin across the toilet and a laundry basket for the uniforms due for washing. Moving into the unit, there is the basin on the right and a shower on the left. There is an adjustable seat that is attached to the wall near the shower. There is also a shower curtain. However, there is no demarcation on the floor so when one showers, the whole floor is wet.

I shampooed my hair and showered. I had completed my set of self-help skills needed to qualify for a discharge i.e. be able to get out of bed independently, be able to eat independently, be able to walk independently and be able to take care of my toileting needs.

Physically, I am ready to go home.

silver sister 银姐2010 ~ ! <3

5:18 PM

I was awakened by a young, good-looking male doctor, who came to examine me. I think he must have been the ward doctor doing his shift. (This place has some of the most good-looking men. Its 24-hour outpatient clinic has a tanned hunk with rosy cheeks, who looks more like a body-building athelete than a doctor. The senior consultant who advised me to undergo the hysterectomy operation is a handsome man in his 30s. And now this man that stood in front of me can be described as 'cute' by most young girls.)

I asked for some ice cubes. The Indian nurse on night-shift dutifully gave me two cubes in a glass with a disposable spoon.

I was allowed to start drinking water, then "Milo" for breakfast and then to eat porridge for lunch.

A sprightly, petite lady came and introduced herself to me as a physiotherapist. She said she would help me to get up and walk. When she adjusted the height of my bed, I felt nauseated. She quickly ran to get plastic bags for me. I promptly threw up. So that ended the physiotherapy session. I asked her to come back later.

I saw another patient who had open surgery on the same day that I had my operation being helped out of bed and onto a chair. She was encouraged to walk. After that, her catheter was removed. I thought to myself: if she can do it, so can I.

So after lunch, my drip and catheter were removed. I asked to go to the toilet. A nurse helped me to the toilet.

By the time another physiotherapist came in the afternoon, she was impressed that I could walk the length of the ward corridor, from the patients' lounge, past the nurses' workstations, past the two isolation wards, past the B2-class wards, past the C-class wards and out the corridor to the lift lobby. Of course, I still walked very slowly then and was a little out-of-breath from walking and talking to her at the same time.

Two of my colleagues came to visit me. Besides a 'tonic basket', they also got me a balloon. It was tied to the basket so it kept bobbing up and down because of the wind from the overhead fan. It reminded me of the Chinese Lion Dance! I was thrilled to have it. (It was later 'usurped' by my 12-year-old daughter when she came during the evening visiting hours).

Another floral-cum-tonic basket also arrived from my employer in the late afternoon.

Then, I had porridge for dinner.

My father, husband, daughter and brother came to visit me. (My son was at home studying for his Geography test).

At 9pm, the nurses switched off the lights and the 'overstaying' visitors had to leave. Sleep was interrupted by the 10pm routine check by the night-shift nurses. At about 11pm, two patients checked-in, one to my left and one across my bed.

After that, I managed to sleep till the next routine check. I was looking forward to seeing the 'cute' doctor but I guessed he was not on duty.

silver sister 银姐2010 ~ ! <3

4:35 PM

I remember waking up in the Recovery Unit at 12.20pm.

I felt better than the previous time when I had a D & C done to have some tissue samples. At least, I did not wake up with a sore throat. Nevertheless, I asked for a drink of water.

I was wheeled back to the ward where I was told that I could not eat for the next 24 hours. Oh, my goodness! I had not eaten since about 4pm the previous day when I had to do 'bowel prep'. I was starving and the aroma from the lunch served to my ward-mates was not helping.

So there being nothing else for me to do, I decided to sleep. Anyway, I was confined to my bed with a drip (for the anti-biotics and saline) and catheter (for the urine) attached to me.

The only interruptions were the hourly temperature and blood pressure-taking. I dislike the machine that takes blood pressure. It grips the upper arm too tightly till it is painful. Sometimes, it does not read properly and the nurse has to do it again. Help!

The good thing about waking up at night is looking at the three efficient nurses at work - smiling, caring and getting work done (even doing porter's work like wheeling patients to another level).

Note: There are only three nurses from 10pm. They look after a maximum of 30 patients.

silver sister 银姐2010 ~ ! <3

4:15 PM

On 22 January 2008, I had a hysterectomy.

Hysterectomy means removal of the womb (aka uterus). Some women use it as a form of birth control. In my case, it was to remove the fibroids once and for all that were in my womb. Both my gynaes encouraged it because I have no intention to have any more babies as my son will turn 16 this year; my daughter, 13. (The fibroids were giving me severe anaemia).

I asked three of my friends who had had fibroids. Two of them had fibroids recurring despite their open surgery. The first friend opted for a key-hole surgery the second time. The second friend did not wish to repeat the "trauma" and decided to wait till her menopause, which she expects to happen soon. The third friend underwent a key-hole surgery and also encouraged me to get a second opinion.

I also have three women colleagues who shared with me that their mothers also went through a hysterectomy for a similar medical problem.

Both my gynaes agreed (for once) that the fibroids are best removed by a hysterectomy. (Many years ago, one gynae suggested that I do a key-hole surgery for removal of a cyst, while the other gynae suggested that I wait and see.)

One of my gynaes predicted a heart attack if the surgery were delayed. So that did it - I made up my mind: I will undergo the hysterectomy by key-hole surgery.

I was on GA so I have nothing to report about the surgery except that I went into the operating theatre at 10.25am and awoke at 12.20pm.

After the surgery, I asked the surgeon if there is now a vacuum in my abdomen. He said the womb was previously surrounded by intestines so the intestines will just fall into place. I also asked the ward doctor (on behalf of my female colleagues who wish to know) how to prevent fibroids. She said there is no way to prevent it.

So from now onwards, I will not have menstruation. As my ovaries are all right and still intact, I will still have the natural symptoms of menopause as the natural body clock decides.

Goodbye, Factory of My Procreation. You have served me well. Now, I only have a photo of you (fibroids and all) to remember you by.

silver sister 银姐2010 ~ ! <3

5:54 AM

On 16 January 2008, I was given 2 bottles of "Fleet Phospho-soda" oral saline laxative.

The instruction printed by the hospital on each bottle was to "take 45mls 2 times a day at 4pm and 8pm on the day before op. Follow the instructions you have been given." I was told by the pharmacist to drink the entire bottle at 4pm and then repeat at 8pm.

The printed information on the box states the use of the laxative as: "relief of occasional constipation. To help clean out the bowel before medical procedures ... This product causes a person to have a bowel movement in 30 minutes to 6 hours". It was also stated that I am to "drink as much extra liquids as you can to help replace the fluids you are losing during bowel movements."

So armed with all these information, I took the first dose at 4pm. I had bowel movement so everything was fine.

At 8pm, I took the second dose. All hell broke loose!

I had to literally run to the toilet almost immediately. My rear end was transformed to a 'tap'. This continued till 1.30am. For once in my life, I had lost count of the number of times I had had visited the toilet.

I thought I might dehydrated but it was too late to drink, since I was told not to eat or drink anything after 12 midnight. Anyway, I skipped dinner and only had a cracker at about 9.45pm.

Actually, to tell you the truth - I did not even finish the second dose.

It was all so unpleasant that it even beat the surgery. Can you believe it?

silver sister 银姐2010 ~ ! <3

5:32 AM