I am very disappointed... mostly with myself. Let me rewind............
I arrived Hollywood Hosp at 11am, and was ushered by a very friendly consierge through what seemed like tunnels in a pre-war building. Honestly, the hospital is undergoing some renovations and there were wooden boards everywhere and every floor looked the same from the elevator view. Soon we reached what felt like eternity, a few floors towards Lucifer's playground. The door opened and there was a HUGE "FERTILITY" sign pointing to the left and a "DOSA" sign pointing to the right... I chuckled and explained to the consierge what DOSA actually meant in Malay. There, I reached the "reception room" where I was the youngest there... there, the receptionist came over with my file, going through my personal details e.g. what's your name, address, what's your favourite boy band, do I think she looked fat in those pants..... Then the question I was dreading to hear "what will you pay by"... I wanted to answer "with my spleen and appendix" but I thought I'd better not offer those bits just in case I need collateral for a personal loan in the future. You could almost hear Derrick groaning in pain when the receptionist fired up the MasterCard to the tune of AUD$13000.00. "Don't you have Private health Insurance" you ask? Well that's part 2 of the story. After picking Derrick off the floor, we was ushered to a nearby treatment room where a gum-chewing nurse took my vital statistics... temp, BP, pulse oxymeter, pulses from different parts of my body, bust size etc.....Then we were told to wait for 30mins for an RN to cannulise me. 30mins became 40mins, 40 became more than an hour. Finally, a very friendly young porter came in with a wheelchair to wheel me to the theater. That, my friends, was the beginning of my disappointment.
Upon arrival at the theater, I was parked in front of the fridge.... Staff passed me with food and hot beverages on their way to the lounge.. I am hungry... I don't do hunger well. I could hear the food calling out to me. An RN finally put a canulla on my left arm Cos I needed my right hand to hang on to dear Racheal's plastic rosary. I went through 4 decades of rosary while waiting for my turn. At last, my turn came. The Theater RN was nice, she microwaved the gel pad before sticking in on to my back. 10 years ago, in Singapore, the gel pad was freezing cold and I was shivering like a turkey on Thanksgiving eve. Anyway, the theater staff were excellent. To take my mind off the pain and from the fact that my heart were stimulated to do cartwheels, we played "80's music trivia". My surgeon played too..... he's one cool dude who is also a trained classical pianist. Honestly, there is so much difference comparing nursing staff here with those in Singapore hospitals. Over here, I finally meet people who can match my wit.....
MOving on.... Local Anaesthetic numbed my right groin and believe me, when you have numerous probes going into your body, you CAN still feel it.... it's not THAT painful, it just feels like something crawling up your insides and you just can't scratch it. Anyway, I felt some referred pain on my top left shoulder.. I guess that's the price to pay for being so bony. Anyway, tests showed the ablation done 10 years ago was indeed successful and this time, I have problems arising from my atrium. With a very apologetic look on his face, my surgeon said the words I dread to hear the most, "I have bad news". Apparently after successfully getting rid of my SVT due to AV nodal reentry 10 years ago, I have now Atrial ectopy with tachycardia. So surgeon started me on Tambocor 2x daily and to see him after a 2D echo in January 09. Will go for more major surgery next year, for Pulmonary Vein ablation No peace for the wicked i guess.....
So now you know why I'm so disappointed? Spent $13K, heart still not fixed and now my groin and my chest still hurts...... and it's all my bloody fault.
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