Warded.

Daddy is hospitalised.

The pain in his knees was too unbearable and he couldn’t even walk after getting a Synvisc-One injection from a specialist at Mt E.

It’s times like these I wished I was still working in the healthcare industry.

At least I’d be able to get advice from doctors whom I trust, find out stuff about the treatment available, unlike now, I’m helpless.

Daddy had been relying on painkillers for the last 2 months, but in the last week the pain had become too much to bear and that’s why we decided to go to a hospital.

I’ve heard so much about CGH that I didn’t want Daddy to go there so my mum suggested Mt E.

But apparently, not all specialists are created equal.

We visited Dr. Lee at the specialist centre at Mt E., he asked my dad a few questions, bent his knees this way and that, then sent my dad down for an x-ray.

After looking at the x-rays, Dr. Lee said that Daddy’s knees hurt because the cartilage has worn out and the joint fluid has broken down which is why he feels pain when there’s pressure on his knees.

We also brought the meds that Daddy has been taking over the last 2 months (mainly painkillers in different strengths) and Dr. Lee said that there’s no point in taking these since they’re not having any effects anymore.

So he suggested getting the Synvisc-One injection, which is really a replacement joint fluid for the knees that’ll relieve the pain for up to 6 months.

In retrospect, I should have asked, then what happens after 6 months, when the pain comes back?

Also, the doctor didn’t tell us the price, only when we asked.

It’s $1,200 per dose. Yes, you read that right, $1,200 Singapore Dollars per dose.

In total, it’s $2,400 for both legs.

He said that the effects are immediate, that my dad will be able to walk immediately after the injection.

He also assured us about that, saying that we could look for him if anything went wrong, so after resting for 10 minutes while we made payment, we left.

Only to have the pain return less than half an hour after walking out of the clinic. We were still in the specialist building when the pain came back. I was like, WTF?

Btw, the medical bill came up to nearly $2,700 including consultation and x-ray.

But we thought it was probably the soreness from the injections, and we trudged on home. My dad could still drive that afternoon, after I dropped them off at the office.

The pain got worse at night and the next day, he couldn’t even walk from the living room to the dining table. And he had to use a chair for support when he walked.

T___T

We SMS-ed the doctor who took one whole effin’ day to reply and when he called, ONLY TO ASK MY DAD TO PUT AN ICE PACK OVER THE KNEES.

SERIOUSLY. What kind of a stupid advice is that!? I don’t need to pay $2,700 to have a doctor ask me to put ice pack over my father’s knees to ease the pain.

WORDS FAIL ME.

Another SMS later, he told my father to go back to see him on Monday afternoon, which my father flatly refused because he’d lost faith / trust in the doctor already.

Tuesday afternoon, my dad asked my mum to bring him to CGH (I was at work) A&E to have a proper check up. The one reason why I refused to let my dad go to CGH was because there were simply too many trainee doctors there.

And they asked the stupidest questions.

Anyway, the doctor who saw my dad said he’d to warded for a few days while they do some tests and for observation, plus he gets better care in the hospital than at home.

Wednesday morning at 2am, they drained out the Synvisc-One stuff from his right knee, effectively throwing $1,200 down the drain, in 8 vials. But his knees seemed to be better now, so they’re not ruling out a possible infection from that stupid injection.

Sigh.

Whatever, money spent is money down the drain and I don’t want to think about that and all the possible ethical issues involved here anymore.

I just hope and pray and wish that Daddy will recover soon and that he doesn’t need any major surgery, ‘cos we all know that knee surgeries are MEGA invasive and will take eons to recover.

One word of advice to readers who are considering specialist treatments, PLEASE DO YOUR RESEARCH PROPERLY. Get advice from your regular doctors, friends / relatives who’ve seen them, read up on your condition so that you don’t get ripped off by the doctor who thinks you’re a carrot head waiting to be chopped.

If not, you’ll be likely to be funding his next fine vintage wine purchase or his year-end holiday to Europe while you slog your guts out to pay for the medical bill.

Oh, and please check if your condition / treatment is covered under your insurance plan. VERY IMPORTANT.

And even though the service at CGH cannot beat the service at Mt E. (even got people opening doors for you at the drop off point), at least I know that the doctors have no hidden agenda to cheat your money to fund their holidays or art collections because they’re paid a fixed salary and these restructured hospitals are still closely monitored by MOH.

*sad face*

Get well soon, Daddy!

postnote: Thanks to all who showed concern, really appreciate it. And those who wanted to come visit, really really touched, but I don’t think my dad’s in the mood to chat, although I know he’d definitely like some bah kwa. Hahaha. Thanks y’all, really.

Fried Rice Paradise 2010

I was really excited about Fried Rice Paradise, music by Dick Lee with Taufik and Sebastian Tan, y’know.

So imagine my glee when GRLs were offered 50% off tickets for the PA Night! Rounded up the usual gang and we bought 5 tickets to watch it!

It was a mad rush getting there from Choa “blody-far” Chu Kang and I had really hard time find parking lots at Marina Square.

Ended up parking in a non-parking lot but damn good location!

It’s like my own private lot!

Missed dinner, because I remembered the time wrongly. I kept thinking 7.30pm but it was actually 8pm lah.

Gan cheong for nothing leh.

Our seats were actually quite good. In the middle, but Circle 2. I was hoping for stall seats, but there were MPs and all, so I guess they kept all the good seats for the important people.

Photo taking during intermission. Apparently Ms Han’s pink iPhone 4 cover was affecting her flash, and we kept getting pink pictures. T_T

A real camera is what you need. I’m still thinking about the S90 (or S95 already, I heard cheaper) ‘cos I promised Parmi that I’d give her my camera if she’s extending her contract.

And she is. So yeah.

Anyhoos, after the intermission, about 10 minutes into the show, the audio failed. And I think the stage set up failed too!

OMG!

The director (or some big shot) came out on stage and sheepishly said that there has been some technical difficulties and the team would need 15 minutes to fix it.

We waited, and waited.

20 minutes later, still no news.

Then Sebastian Tan came out and announced that the problems needed more than 20 minutes and probably the whole night to fix!

We were like, -_____-!!!

No kidding.

And he asked us to go home.

That PA would make arrangements to either watch another show or to do a refund.

PAISEH UNTIL LAO SAI I SWEAR.

Sian or not!!!!

Now I’ll never know whether fried rice became successful and famous, who Taufik’s character ended up with and what happened to Sebastian Tan’s character.

Boo.

Obligatory photo with the board.

Cheh, after much grumbling we left the theatre and claimed our free packets of spice powder. I thought they were kidding. But really got! Hahaha.

One more without me.

Cheh. I am unsatisfied! Plus, we still haven’t got the refund. Sigh.

Of all the nights, they had to fail on PA night with all the MPs and important people! Argh.

We are just SUAY.

I should have done this long ago.

I’ve tried a number of facial places. And I’m still looking for that perfect facial place that use products which work, therapists who don’t hard sell (if I like it, naturally I’ll buy it, on my own accord, no need to force me) and with good skills.

Leonard Drake comes close, but that’s about it.

The rest. CANNOT MAKE IT.

Read on..

1. Modern Beauty – tried this when I was a student and bought their trial session, I think was $28. Went to the raffles place branch, very big and spacious. Massage was good but same thing tried to hard sell me expensive packages which I honestly couldn’t afford anyway.

2. Beyond Beauty – not bad this salon, I actually quite liked it. There was a manager who tried to hard sell my friend and me a more expensive package WHILE we were doing our facial. Pretty inconsiderate, I think. Come on man, we’re covered up in blankets and cotton pads, enjoying the massage and all. This woman comes in and starts talking about her packages. Very annoyed, I told her off.

My beautician was very nice; she didn’t try to hard sell me anything, only when they had special promotions or to add an ampoule. That’s why I stuck with her throughout my package there.

3. Leonard Drake – my favorite, by far. First of all, I like Dermalogica’s products, I think they actually work! Especially the Medibac range for acne prone skin.

And the beauticians don’t do hard selling, the first time I went, I wanted to sign the more expensive package, but the lady attending to me said, why don’t you try the cheaper one first, see if it suits you, then you sign the more expensive one.

Amazing!

I always leave the salon with clean, unclogged skin! If you go in the day, they actually apply sun block for you! So considerate!

4. Atos Wellness – this is one of the worst. Went for a trial with my mum (credit card promo) and signed up for an aromatherapy course. After the first session, they put me in a small cubicle, the manager came, and started to sell me a set of ampoules for don’t know how many hundreds of dollars.

I told her I have a lot of such products at home, I don’t use, and if I buy anymore, my mother’s going to give me a good scolding.

She came up with all sorts of funny theories, and even said that she’d sell it loosely to me, which is an exception because they usually only sell in a box set of 12.

I said I don’t need it, and she asked me to try. The best part is she tried the product on my left hand. after more talking, she held up my right hand and said, look, your right hand looks and feel smoother / softer now right?

I was, like, dumbfounded!!!!

So I told her politely, hey, you tried the product on my left hand actually.

She didn’t even blush!!!! Amazing right. She just said oh, because you’re a young girl, your skin naturally smooth.

What the…

And end of the story is, I still have 6 (I think) sessions with them, I’m going to take really long to complete it.

I hate that I have to think of excuses to reject their hard selling every session.

I thought facial and massage is to destress???

So why am I so stressed every time I go for these sessions???

Defeats the whole purpose of going for a massage altogether.

OMG! Kidnapped!

Some time ago, there was a trend of kidnap scams going on.

They work in a team, where 1 person will call the “son/daughter” to inform them that the telco is doing a system upgrade or something, and to switch off the phone for 10 minutes for the upgrade to be complete.

So, the “son/daughter” thinking that this sounds legit enough, they switch off their phones.

At the same time, another guy will call the “father / mother” to tell them that he has their “son / daughter” in their hands and that “he / she” was caught stealing / molesting / etc. In order to save “him / her”, you’d have to pay a sum of money to the bad guys.

They even have clips of people crying, getting beaten up and all.

My dad received one of these calls a while ago.

Some guy called him and told my father that he had my father’s son because apparently he was caught molesting some girl.

So funny, right?

Because my father doesn’t have a son (oh God forbid he has one of those illegitimate ones)!

DOH.

Stupid or not!?

Apparently my dad even tried to be funny with them and asked, “which of my sons do you have”?

Like he has any, at all. T_T

And the “son” started crying and shouting for my father to save him. SO STUPID.

Anyway, in the end my dad said, “just go ahead and beat him to death since he’s done such a horrible deed.”

MUAHAHAHAHAHA.

Dumbass shit.

So the moral of the story is, don’t switch off your phones when people tell you to.

Telcos so free to call each of its subscribers to switch off their phones to complete the upgrading not?

RETARDS.

We’re about to crash. NOT!

LONDON – British Airways apologized to passengers after an emergency message warning they were about to crash into the sea was played by mistake.

About 275 passengers were on the London Heathrow to Hong Kong flight on Tuesday evening when the automated message went out. The plane was flying over the North Sea at the time.

Cabin crew quickly realized the error and moved to reassure the terrified passengers.

“We all thought we were going to die,” Michelle Lord, 32, of Preston, northern England, told The Sun newspaper.

Another passenger was reported saying: “I can’t think of anything worse than being told your plane’s about to crash.”

A spokesman for British Airways said an investigation was under way to discover whether it was human error or a computer glitch.

“We apologize to passengers on board the flight for causing them undue distress,” he added in a statement.

“Our cabin crew immediately made an announcement following the message advising customers that it was an error and that the flight would continue as normal.”

Source: Yahoo! Singapore

Erm, what if someone had a panic attack and went bonkers? Or worse, what if someone with a weak heart and suffered a heart attack?

How is BA going to compensate for that?! Huh?!

Arhhh, WTF. I hope this doesn’t ever happen to me, because 1. I wouldn’t know whether to believe it or not, 2. I don’t know what crazy things I’d do.

Pfft. BA should compensate the passengers for causing undue psychological stress. T_T