Posts
I was just on the line with Hor Fun. He, together with Peng and Spencer made it back to Singapore safely. Hor Fun, however, related to me an incident that happened to them while having supper at a stall around KLCC, that left him and his friends in shock!
Just before 3am, right after having supper, they walked back to their car, which was parked in KLCC. On their way back , while walking on the side walk pavement, a group of about 10 motorcyclists came and accosted them.
One of the motorist went up the curb onto the side walk and pulled Peng. They were shouting and speaking in Malay, which neither of the boys understood. Spencer helped to free Peng from the Mat Rempit and the 3 of them ran for the fear of their lives with the rempits chasing them.
Luckily they managed to get to their car and immediately left for Singapore. This must have been a traumatic experience for them. I feel embarrass as a Malaysian and really feel sorry for them having to have to go through that.
The fact that this happened around KLCC was deplorable! KLCC is supposedly to be the pride of all Malaysians. If you cannot feel safe around KLCC, where the fuck can you feel safe in this country? Johor Baru???
I am angry. I guess, the problem lies with me. I was the one naive enough to tell them that KLCC is a safe place. Trust me, I will never ever tell anyone, especially foreigners, that KL or any fucking place in Malaysia is a safe place to be.
Sad and angry.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Black Wednesday
Yesterday, Sean and I set out for Singapore to collect the Echo Pure trial bikes we purchased from Armstrong. The order was placed in January and arrived on Tuesday. We were both very excited and could not wait to get our bikes.
The day started off well and we left my house in Bukit Mahkota for Singapore. After we passed Malacca, we stopped at one of the rest area to go for a much needed toilet break at about noon. When we entered the public toilet, two policemen in plain clothes stopped us and ask to test our urine for drugs. We were both very surprised. I found it rather amusing that a urine test would be conducted in one of the rest area on the North-South highway. The cops gave us a specialised plastic container that can be made to immediately produce the test result by turning a plastic key.
Give us your Pee
They told us to fill up the container with urine when we pee. The thing was that they were standing behind us and expected us to pee into the container while they watch. Their reasoning were not because it turn them on... but rather to make sure that we actually filled it with our urine and not some other liquid... LOL.
Let me tell you. Sean and I were in desperately need of visiting the toilet when we exited the highway. But when we were told to pee into the plastic container while the police were watching, it just made the desperate primal human need vanished.
Finally, I told the cop that I needed a drink and will try to pee again later. After the drink and a very clear mental picture of a gushing waterfall set in my mind, I managed a trickle which eventually turned into a much needed release that almost overfill the plastic container.
I was told to close the container and hand it over. One of the cop used a plastic key to activate the test. Through some sort of PH-like chart, they concluded that indeed I was not on drugs (which I told them so for which I received a lecture about disco and drug abuse).
During that time, I noticed that Sean requested to go drink water as well. I dunno how he managed it, but Sean managed to produced a container full of urine as well and his test came back negative as well.
As we were leaving, I noticed that in and around the toilets and parking lots, there were numerous plain clothes cops. Btw, there was a Malay man sitting hand-cuffed in the toilet, so it goes to prove that drug abusers do use the North-South highway and that the cops were justified to conduct these tests... :-)
Oh Shit! Oh Shit! Oh Shit!
We left the rest area and headed for Johor Baru. It was raining on and off throughout and along the highway. Suddenly, when we were about to pass Machap, my Toyota Hilux skidded and aquaplaned. I was doing about 100km/h when I lost total control of the vehicle. It swerve to the left heading into the drain but I managed to wrestle some control back and turned the pickup to the right which further make it spun clockwise and the left front rammed into the metal divider thereby pivoting the vehicle banging the left tail section hard into the divider before turning further clockwise to a stop blocking the entire two lane of the highway! All this while, I was cursing, "Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!", for the longest time.
I remembered looking back and saw a truck and maybe a Volvo coming towards us. Quickly, I started the car engine and luckily for us it came to life on the first try. I drove the Hilux to the side of the road and parked it as far away from the main road as possible.
It started raining very heavily as Sean and I sat inside the car and looked at each other stunned. I knew from the handling of the car that I had a puncture on the front right wheel. Sean looked out his side of the window and gave me an assessment of the damages. Basically, we sat inside the car until the rain stopped, which luckily for us was in less than 10 minutes (if my sense of time can be trusted at that time).
It took us about 30 minutes to change the tire. We continued our journey and arrived in Johor Baru at about 2:45pm. I went to a tire shop to see if I could get the puncture fixed. The proprietor took the tire and did a number of leak tests after he inflated it. He said that there was nothing wrong with the tire and that there was no puncture.
I asked him how come and he could not come up with an explanation. From the look of the rim, it looked like the tire deflated which resulted in one side of the rim being flattened due to the friction caused by the grinding on the the road when brake was applied.
X-Files
Strangely, the tire that "punctured", which was the right front side, did not come in contact with anything and was not the side that rammed the divider. So how come the flat tire? Secondly, the abrasion on the rim clearly showed that the tire had to deflate first before the rim can come in contact with the road surface!
In the end, I concluded it as x-file and decided to change the two front tires completely. Better safe than sorry, I thought. All in all, I was VERY glad that nobody was hurt and that Sean and I got away injury free. We were really blessed!
After a quick lunch, we left for Singapore at about 4pm. We were both new to driving into Singapore. After I checked with Joe, I was told that I needed an Autopass for my car to get into Singapore. We went through immigration and custom, and almost drove out before we realised that we missed the point to buy the Autopass. Sean had to walk back and purchase the pass before we could leave.
By about 5pm, we managed to find our way to Toa Payoh Lorong 10 to met up with Hor Fun. Hor Fun was helping Armstrong (whom went to Taipei for a show) to get the bikes to us. We went up to Hor Fun's apartment to collect the long awaited bikes of ours.
The bikes were the only reason we drive down to Singapore and went through a shit day of urine testing and life threatening accident. After what had happened, the bikes almost makes it worthwhile.
Disappointing Trials
But unfortunately, the bike was less than par. Some of the parts (the Echo hub with a built-in tensioner), according to Armstrong, was discontinued by the manufacturer. Without the tensioner, the chain could not be installed. On top of it, the stems were on loan to us (from gracious Peng :-) until the the ones meant for the bike arrive.
It was indeed an unfortunate day. The bikes was disappointing! After what we have gone through, we could not even ride the bikes. (Today, I discovered that the front gear cog where the pedals are attached was wobbling side to side as I turned the pedals... sigh!)
However, all is not lost. We met up with Hor Fun and Peng, whom are trial riders themselves. They shared with us their experience on how to maintain a trial bike. We really appreciated their help. We wished we could have spent more time with them but it was getting late and we had to leave for KL asap.
Complete Waste of Time
So we left Toa Payoh at about 7pm and headed towards the causeway. Almost reaching the traffic lights leading to the causeway we were caught in a jam which took 3 hours and 15 minutes to get through. The reason for the jam was because the police were looking for a terrorist fugitive which escaped from their prison.
There must have been a few thousand motorbikes caught in the jam.
We managed to get into Johor Baru at about 10:35pm. Our first stop was the loo and a place for food. We ate the best in the world "Kueh Tiau Kia" and left for KL at about 11:30pm.
Thankfully, without incident, we arrived in my house around 3:30am. I believe Sean reached home about 4:30am.
Blessed on Black Wednesday
I must state that yesterday was a horrendous day. A black Wednesday. I have no intention of going through something like that again. Sean and I are blessed to have survive that terrible accident and for that I am eternally grateful that no one was hurt.
The day started off well and we left my house in Bukit Mahkota for Singapore. After we passed Malacca, we stopped at one of the rest area to go for a much needed toilet break at about noon. When we entered the public toilet, two policemen in plain clothes stopped us and ask to test our urine for drugs. We were both very surprised. I found it rather amusing that a urine test would be conducted in one of the rest area on the North-South highway. The cops gave us a specialised plastic container that can be made to immediately produce the test result by turning a plastic key.
Give us your Pee
They told us to fill up the container with urine when we pee. The thing was that they were standing behind us and expected us to pee into the container while they watch. Their reasoning were not because it turn them on... but rather to make sure that we actually filled it with our urine and not some other liquid... LOL.
Let me tell you. Sean and I were in desperately need of visiting the toilet when we exited the highway. But when we were told to pee into the plastic container while the police were watching, it just made the desperate primal human need vanished.
Finally, I told the cop that I needed a drink and will try to pee again later. After the drink and a very clear mental picture of a gushing waterfall set in my mind, I managed a trickle which eventually turned into a much needed release that almost overfill the plastic container.
I was told to close the container and hand it over. One of the cop used a plastic key to activate the test. Through some sort of PH-like chart, they concluded that indeed I was not on drugs (which I told them so for which I received a lecture about disco and drug abuse).
During that time, I noticed that Sean requested to go drink water as well. I dunno how he managed it, but Sean managed to produced a container full of urine as well and his test came back negative as well.
As we were leaving, I noticed that in and around the toilets and parking lots, there were numerous plain clothes cops. Btw, there was a Malay man sitting hand-cuffed in the toilet, so it goes to prove that drug abusers do use the North-South highway and that the cops were justified to conduct these tests... :-)
Oh Shit! Oh Shit! Oh Shit!
We left the rest area and headed for Johor Baru. It was raining on and off throughout and along the highway. Suddenly, when we were about to pass Machap, my Toyota Hilux skidded and aquaplaned. I was doing about 100km/h when I lost total control of the vehicle. It swerve to the left heading into the drain but I managed to wrestle some control back and turned the pickup to the right which further make it spun clockwise and the left front rammed into the metal divider thereby pivoting the vehicle banging the left tail section hard into the divider before turning further clockwise to a stop blocking the entire two lane of the highway! All this while, I was cursing, "Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!", for the longest time.
I remembered looking back and saw a truck and maybe a Volvo coming towards us. Quickly, I started the car engine and luckily for us it came to life on the first try. I drove the Hilux to the side of the road and parked it as far away from the main road as possible.
It started raining very heavily as Sean and I sat inside the car and looked at each other stunned. I knew from the handling of the car that I had a puncture on the front right wheel. Sean looked out his side of the window and gave me an assessment of the damages. Basically, we sat inside the car until the rain stopped, which luckily for us was in less than 10 minutes (if my sense of time can be trusted at that time).
It took us about 30 minutes to change the tire. We continued our journey and arrived in Johor Baru at about 2:45pm. I went to a tire shop to see if I could get the puncture fixed. The proprietor took the tire and did a number of leak tests after he inflated it. He said that there was nothing wrong with the tire and that there was no puncture.
I asked him how come and he could not come up with an explanation. From the look of the rim, it looked like the tire deflated which resulted in one side of the rim being flattened due to the friction caused by the grinding on the the road when brake was applied.
X-Files
Strangely, the tire that "punctured", which was the right front side, did not come in contact with anything and was not the side that rammed the divider. So how come the flat tire? Secondly, the abrasion on the rim clearly showed that the tire had to deflate first before the rim can come in contact with the road surface!
In the end, I concluded it as x-file and decided to change the two front tires completely. Better safe than sorry, I thought. All in all, I was VERY glad that nobody was hurt and that Sean and I got away injury free. We were really blessed!
After a quick lunch, we left for Singapore at about 4pm. We were both new to driving into Singapore. After I checked with Joe, I was told that I needed an Autopass for my car to get into Singapore. We went through immigration and custom, and almost drove out before we realised that we missed the point to buy the Autopass. Sean had to walk back and purchase the pass before we could leave.
By about 5pm, we managed to find our way to Toa Payoh Lorong 10 to met up with Hor Fun. Hor Fun was helping Armstrong (whom went to Taipei for a show) to get the bikes to us. We went up to Hor Fun's apartment to collect the long awaited bikes of ours.
The bikes were the only reason we drive down to Singapore and went through a shit day of urine testing and life threatening accident. After what had happened, the bikes almost makes it worthwhile.
Disappointing Trials
But unfortunately, the bike was less than par. Some of the parts (the Echo hub with a built-in tensioner), according to Armstrong, was discontinued by the manufacturer. Without the tensioner, the chain could not be installed. On top of it, the stems were on loan to us (from gracious Peng :-) until the the ones meant for the bike arrive.
It was indeed an unfortunate day. The bikes was disappointing! After what we have gone through, we could not even ride the bikes. (Today, I discovered that the front gear cog where the pedals are attached was wobbling side to side as I turned the pedals... sigh!)
However, all is not lost. We met up with Hor Fun and Peng, whom are trial riders themselves. They shared with us their experience on how to maintain a trial bike. We really appreciated their help. We wished we could have spent more time with them but it was getting late and we had to leave for KL asap.
Complete Waste of Time
So we left Toa Payoh at about 7pm and headed towards the causeway. Almost reaching the traffic lights leading to the causeway we were caught in a jam which took 3 hours and 15 minutes to get through. The reason for the jam was because the police were looking for a terrorist fugitive which escaped from their prison.
There must have been a few thousand motorbikes caught in the jam.
We managed to get into Johor Baru at about 10:35pm. Our first stop was the loo and a place for food. We ate the best in the world "Kueh Tiau Kia" and left for KL at about 11:30pm.
Thankfully, without incident, we arrived in my house around 3:30am. I believe Sean reached home about 4:30am.
Blessed on Black Wednesday
I must state that yesterday was a horrendous day. A black Wednesday. I have no intention of going through something like that again. Sean and I are blessed to have survive that terrible accident and for that I am eternally grateful that no one was hurt.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
What's Up Doc? You A Croc of Shit?
Recently a very good friend went for a surgery. He had his abdomen cut opened and his intestines examined from end to end, every inch squeezed and stretched. This was in Dec 2007 and I got to know about it in late Jan 2008. WTF, I asked him? Why was I not told? He said that he does not want the fuss and et al.
As to the reason for the operation, my friend could not pass motions or flatulence and his stomach was bloated, and he was in great discomfort and pain.
He saw a doctor from a specialist center and the doctor could not diagnose the problem as well. It was a lot of "educated" guess work. In the end, the doctor recommended some sort of drip. So my friend was admitted into the hospital and was put on some sort of drip. The next day, my friend could let flatulence and defecate.
Thinking that he was getting better, he was set on getting discharged. The doctor paid a visit and said that he was still not sure of the cause of the problem. He recommended some sort of intestine examination using fluoroscopy, which required my friend to ingest barium. The X-ray revealed nothing. Next the doctor recommended surgery to check thoroughly. My friend was reluctant but the doctor was painting a very dark picture of what could happened, etc. talking to the wife and putting the fear in them.
So my friend agreed to go through with the surgery. After the surgery, the doctor was still not sure of what was causing the problem. But he did remove my friend's appendix while he had the intestines out... consolation prize I supposed.
In my opinion, I think my friend was being insurance scammed by the doctor. These doctors prey on you when you are at the weakest and vulnerable, capitalizing on your fears and of loosing your love ones.
Since I was 16years old, I have had a three difficult major encounters with doctors, GP or general practitioners in general.
Stomach Upset? My Ass!
The first was in 1979. One night, I had major abdominal pain. My mom took me to see a doctor in the little town in Sibu, Sarawak. The doctor quickly dismissed it as normal stomach upset and sent me home with a couple of medications. I suffered throughout the night with the pain spreading throughout the abdomen. Did not sleep a wink! The next morning, my mom took me to see the doctor again. This time, he pressed down hard on my lower right abdomen and held it for a while before letting go. I felt a sharp pain. The doctor quickly told my mom that I had severe inflammation of appendix and quickly told my mom to admit me to the old Sibu General Hospital for immediate surgery.
When we reached the hospital, the bloody bastard at the admission counter told an orderly to sit me down and wait after viewing the papers from the doctor. It must have been more then 30 minutes and I think I almost passed out from the pain. A passing orderly or was it a doctor noticed me and quickly call out to someone and wheeled me into the emergency area. While semi conscious, I noticed someone shaving my pubic hair and cleaning my abdomen. Next thing I saw was the operating theater multiple lights above me before I passed out.
When I came through, I noticed that I was in one of the ward filled with other patients. I was in and out of consciousness, probably stoned out from the amount of morphine I was getting... LOL. I remembered by mom and grandma sitting by my bedside. With my grandma holding on to my hand, it was a great great comfort to me.
I was told that I had severe appendicitis and would have died within the next hour if I had not gone in for surgery. MF!
When I got well, I ran through the whole ordeal in my head and came to a conclusion that doctors are just idiots like the rest of us. They read more, enough to get a medical doctor title, and then they qualify to diagnose from the symptoms that they see and make educated guesses.
When you were a kid, in a small town like Sibu, doctors, teachers, parents, polices, etc. were treated with great respect and widely admired. I came to a different conclusion that day. Fair or not, as far as doctors were concerned, they cannot be trusted, especially with my life!
Just A Little Yellow Urine, Drink More Water!
My second major encounter with a doctor was in 1991 in Petaling Jaya. At that time I was working for Parkson Grand. I was a buyer based in Subang Parade. One day, I noticed that my urine was very yellow. This continued for a couple of days. I went to see a panel GP in Subang Parade. And typical of a GP, she just prescribed some fucked up medication, advise me to drink more water and sent me home. The yellow urine persisted and I felt very tired and I developed serious itching on my elbow and knee. I went to see the GP again and was given some crap medication again and more advice to drink enough water.
Not the one to trust what a GP said, that night I went to my friend's house and decided to look up those symptoms in an old Reader Digest Medical Encyclopedia. I searched for "yellow urine" which led me to read the section on jaundice and the excessive bile (yellow color) secretion in the urine, thus leading to yellow urine. Next, I followed the related sections on hepatitis and itching, and found the link to the liver diseases. I read up on hepatitis A, B, C, D, E and G. Boy, I was really worried and vulnerable then. Almost in a state of panic!
The next day, I went back to the GP and told her, "Hey, you might want to check and see if I have any liver disease?" "Bingo!" I could almost see the bulb lighting up! Bloody MF! Immediately, she wrote a letter to get me to go for a check-up in Subang Jaya Medical Center (SJMC).
I went to SJMC and when my blood test result came out, I was immediately admitted. I stayed there for two blissful weeks. My job grade entitled me to a twin sharing room. Each day I had to take these green capsules at every 4 hour interval and that was it. I had a menu to select what I wanted for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Each visit by the doctor consisted of him reading the chart and only sometime he would ask a question. I found out later that I was billed RM80 for each visit.
Anyway, the good thing was that my urine returned to normal and I felt great! Later, I found out that, I had contracted a severe case of Hepatitis A and that I had nothing to worry about. On top of that, I have natural immunity against Hepatitis B. When I asked about the green capsules, I was told that they just helped to strengthen my liver.
Every Breath I Take Reminds Me Of A Pair Of Forceps
My third major encounter was self-perpetuated. For the longest time, I could not breath properly. My sinus was acting up constantly since I came back to Malaysia from Canada back in 1987. I could not taste what I ate nor smell anything. My nights constantly consist of blocked nose and the morning was followed by constant sneezing.
It was in 2006, when I decided to do something about it. I went to see a Ear, Nose, Throat (ENT) specialist in Petaling Jaya. He diagnosed me with severe sinusitis and I had a lot of polyp growths which blocked by nasal passageway. The only way to remove these polyps was to go for surgery.
Of course, my cynicism for doctors' diagnosis precedes me. So I decided to consult my good friends at Google.com and Wikipedia.org, leading me to tons of reading materials on sinusitis and nasal polyps.
Satisfied with my own findings, I checked myself into Sunway Medical Center and went for surgery. The polyps were removed and my sinus cavities were widened. When I woke up from surgery, I felt extremely uncomfortable as it was still bleeding and the bandages were soaked with blood, and I was in pain as well. When the ENT specialist visited me, he told me that one of the forceps broke during surgery and he wants me to go for X-ray to see if part of the forceps was stuck inside. WTF!!! That was some fucking news! Oh... and the reason he gave was, "It is required by the manufacturer to submit a report when the forceps break under use." WTF do I care? He offered no apologies whatsoever except, "I am not charging you for the x-ray."
Anyway, the good news is that the X-ray result showed that there was no forceps parts in my head! But I could not help it but felt that maybe, just maybe a metal piece could be stuck in my head!
The recovery was a torture! I had to breath through my mouth all the time until the bandages were removed from the nasal passageway (must have been about 2 meters worth of bandages stuffed into my nasal passageway). To make things worse, I must not leave the house for a month. The reason being to reduce the chance of me getting an infection. If infected, I would have to go surgery again, which I was determined to avoid at all cost!
Now I can breath easy and my sinuses are clear. All in all, it was worth it. I was also warned that the problem could recur in future. I don't care, I can taste food and smell the flowers now.
I hope if anyone is reading this post, my message to you is to wake up and smell the flowers too. Don't trust the doctors (or anyone) completely (especially when you are feeling vulnerable and weak). Always get second opinions. My favorite places to get second opinions are my good friends at Google.com and Wikipedia.org!
As to the reason for the operation, my friend could not pass motions or flatulence and his stomach was bloated, and he was in great discomfort and pain.
He saw a doctor from a specialist center and the doctor could not diagnose the problem as well. It was a lot of "educated" guess work. In the end, the doctor recommended some sort of drip. So my friend was admitted into the hospital and was put on some sort of drip. The next day, my friend could let flatulence and defecate.
Thinking that he was getting better, he was set on getting discharged. The doctor paid a visit and said that he was still not sure of the cause of the problem. He recommended some sort of intestine examination using fluoroscopy, which required my friend to ingest barium. The X-ray revealed nothing. Next the doctor recommended surgery to check thoroughly. My friend was reluctant but the doctor was painting a very dark picture of what could happened, etc. talking to the wife and putting the fear in them.
So my friend agreed to go through with the surgery. After the surgery, the doctor was still not sure of what was causing the problem. But he did remove my friend's appendix while he had the intestines out... consolation prize I supposed.
In my opinion, I think my friend was being insurance scammed by the doctor. These doctors prey on you when you are at the weakest and vulnerable, capitalizing on your fears and of loosing your love ones.
Since I was 16years old, I have had a three difficult major encounters with doctors, GP or general practitioners in general.
Stomach Upset? My Ass!
The first was in 1979. One night, I had major abdominal pain. My mom took me to see a doctor in the little town in Sibu, Sarawak. The doctor quickly dismissed it as normal stomach upset and sent me home with a couple of medications. I suffered throughout the night with the pain spreading throughout the abdomen. Did not sleep a wink! The next morning, my mom took me to see the doctor again. This time, he pressed down hard on my lower right abdomen and held it for a while before letting go. I felt a sharp pain. The doctor quickly told my mom that I had severe inflammation of appendix and quickly told my mom to admit me to the old Sibu General Hospital for immediate surgery.
When we reached the hospital, the bloody bastard at the admission counter told an orderly to sit me down and wait after viewing the papers from the doctor. It must have been more then 30 minutes and I think I almost passed out from the pain. A passing orderly or was it a doctor noticed me and quickly call out to someone and wheeled me into the emergency area. While semi conscious, I noticed someone shaving my pubic hair and cleaning my abdomen. Next thing I saw was the operating theater multiple lights above me before I passed out.
When I came through, I noticed that I was in one of the ward filled with other patients. I was in and out of consciousness, probably stoned out from the amount of morphine I was getting... LOL. I remembered by mom and grandma sitting by my bedside. With my grandma holding on to my hand, it was a great great comfort to me.
I was told that I had severe appendicitis and would have died within the next hour if I had not gone in for surgery. MF!
When I got well, I ran through the whole ordeal in my head and came to a conclusion that doctors are just idiots like the rest of us. They read more, enough to get a medical doctor title, and then they qualify to diagnose from the symptoms that they see and make educated guesses.
When you were a kid, in a small town like Sibu, doctors, teachers, parents, polices, etc. were treated with great respect and widely admired. I came to a different conclusion that day. Fair or not, as far as doctors were concerned, they cannot be trusted, especially with my life!
Just A Little Yellow Urine, Drink More Water!
My second major encounter with a doctor was in 1991 in Petaling Jaya. At that time I was working for Parkson Grand. I was a buyer based in Subang Parade. One day, I noticed that my urine was very yellow. This continued for a couple of days. I went to see a panel GP in Subang Parade. And typical of a GP, she just prescribed some fucked up medication, advise me to drink more water and sent me home. The yellow urine persisted and I felt very tired and I developed serious itching on my elbow and knee. I went to see the GP again and was given some crap medication again and more advice to drink enough water.
Not the one to trust what a GP said, that night I went to my friend's house and decided to look up those symptoms in an old Reader Digest Medical Encyclopedia. I searched for "yellow urine" which led me to read the section on jaundice and the excessive bile (yellow color) secretion in the urine, thus leading to yellow urine. Next, I followed the related sections on hepatitis and itching, and found the link to the liver diseases. I read up on hepatitis A, B, C, D, E and G. Boy, I was really worried and vulnerable then. Almost in a state of panic!
The next day, I went back to the GP and told her, "Hey, you might want to check and see if I have any liver disease?" "Bingo!" I could almost see the bulb lighting up! Bloody MF! Immediately, she wrote a letter to get me to go for a check-up in Subang Jaya Medical Center (SJMC).
I went to SJMC and when my blood test result came out, I was immediately admitted. I stayed there for two blissful weeks. My job grade entitled me to a twin sharing room. Each day I had to take these green capsules at every 4 hour interval and that was it. I had a menu to select what I wanted for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Each visit by the doctor consisted of him reading the chart and only sometime he would ask a question. I found out later that I was billed RM80 for each visit.
Anyway, the good thing was that my urine returned to normal and I felt great! Later, I found out that, I had contracted a severe case of Hepatitis A and that I had nothing to worry about. On top of that, I have natural immunity against Hepatitis B. When I asked about the green capsules, I was told that they just helped to strengthen my liver.
Every Breath I Take Reminds Me Of A Pair Of Forceps
My third major encounter was self-perpetuated. For the longest time, I could not breath properly. My sinus was acting up constantly since I came back to Malaysia from Canada back in 1987. I could not taste what I ate nor smell anything. My nights constantly consist of blocked nose and the morning was followed by constant sneezing.
It was in 2006, when I decided to do something about it. I went to see a Ear, Nose, Throat (ENT) specialist in Petaling Jaya. He diagnosed me with severe sinusitis and I had a lot of polyp growths which blocked by nasal passageway. The only way to remove these polyps was to go for surgery.
Of course, my cynicism for doctors' diagnosis precedes me. So I decided to consult my good friends at Google.com and Wikipedia.org, leading me to tons of reading materials on sinusitis and nasal polyps.
Satisfied with my own findings, I checked myself into Sunway Medical Center and went for surgery. The polyps were removed and my sinus cavities were widened. When I woke up from surgery, I felt extremely uncomfortable as it was still bleeding and the bandages were soaked with blood, and I was in pain as well. When the ENT specialist visited me, he told me that one of the forceps broke during surgery and he wants me to go for X-ray to see if part of the forceps was stuck inside. WTF!!! That was some fucking news! Oh... and the reason he gave was, "It is required by the manufacturer to submit a report when the forceps break under use." WTF do I care? He offered no apologies whatsoever except, "I am not charging you for the x-ray."
Anyway, the good news is that the X-ray result showed that there was no forceps parts in my head! But I could not help it but felt that maybe, just maybe a metal piece could be stuck in my head!
The recovery was a torture! I had to breath through my mouth all the time until the bandages were removed from the nasal passageway (must have been about 2 meters worth of bandages stuffed into my nasal passageway). To make things worse, I must not leave the house for a month. The reason being to reduce the chance of me getting an infection. If infected, I would have to go surgery again, which I was determined to avoid at all cost!
Now I can breath easy and my sinuses are clear. All in all, it was worth it. I was also warned that the problem could recur in future. I don't care, I can taste food and smell the flowers now.
I hope if anyone is reading this post, my message to you is to wake up and smell the flowers too. Don't trust the doctors (or anyone) completely (especially when you are feeling vulnerable and weak). Always get second opinions. My favorite places to get second opinions are my good friends at Google.com and Wikipedia.org!