First time in my life today, I went to two medical institutions, consulted three doctors and burned up a total of four hours of my time. The process of going through all the hassle and inconvenience really bored me but being able to get a two-day MC at the end of the day more or less made me forgot about all the trouble.
Visited the Sungei Gedong Medical Centre for the first time this morning. Met Teck Cheong there by coincidence and it turned out to be even more coincidental when I discovered that both us were there because of our eyes. The medical officer was sort of helpless plus hopeless because he instantly referred me to NUH without even looking at my eye thoroughly.
I headed back to the medical centre at 1.30pm where I will be driven to NUH. We were supposed to set off at 2pm but ended up leaving the camp only at 2.30pm. If you were to ask me which department is the most screwed up in the army, I wouldn't hesitate to pick Medical Services as my first choice. The journey was a long plus uncomfortable one as military vehicles can only travel at a certain pathetic speed and there was no air-con.
By the time I sat down to wait for my queue number at the A&E, it was already 3.15pm. The waiting time was unexpectedly much shorter that what I dreaded and within half an hour, I was already in a doctor's room. However, that was not the end of the story, it was just the end of a chapter. Like the medical officer, the A&E doctor was unsure about what to do hence, I was referred to an eye specialist.
A nurse brought me to another corner of the hospital where the eye clinic was. Over there, I was asked to take a refraction test, the one where you are tasked to read out alphabets of different sizes while having one of your eyes covered. I find it rather pointless. If I am able to walk properly, I don't see why I need to waste time undergoing that test.
The entire waiting area was made up of mostly banglahs, some pinoys and senior citizens so I looked quite out-of-the-place since I was the only Gen Y Singaporean there, not to mention that I was in army fatigues. Almost thirty minutes (seems like thirty years) have passed before I finally heard my legendary name being called by one of the nurses. I was so happy at that moment like I was the winner of Singapore Idol.
The eye specialist turned out to be another female and she spoke in such an ang moh accent that will make Channel NewsAsia's newscasters look plain. Fortunately, I was still able to understand her as we both communicated in medical language instead of English if you catch my drift. She prescribed Fucithalmic for me and told me not to use that (lousy) Chlortralim again.
I was always given two boxes of eyelid wipes for cleansing. The counter girl at the pharmacy looked a little impatient when I kept using medical terminologies instead of layman terms to converse with her. After collecting my medication, I had to walk a big round back to the A&E department to acquire my MC due to renovation works. I was wondering how do those with walking problems survive the long distance.
Anyway, the feeling of booking out and breathing fresh air is still the best.
Visited the Sungei Gedong Medical Centre for the first time this morning. Met Teck Cheong there by coincidence and it turned out to be even more coincidental when I discovered that both us were there because of our eyes. The medical officer was sort of helpless plus hopeless because he instantly referred me to NUH without even looking at my eye thoroughly.
I headed back to the medical centre at 1.30pm where I will be driven to NUH. We were supposed to set off at 2pm but ended up leaving the camp only at 2.30pm. If you were to ask me which department is the most screwed up in the army, I wouldn't hesitate to pick Medical Services as my first choice. The journey was a long plus uncomfortable one as military vehicles can only travel at a certain pathetic speed and there was no air-con.
By the time I sat down to wait for my queue number at the A&E, it was already 3.15pm. The waiting time was unexpectedly much shorter that what I dreaded and within half an hour, I was already in a doctor's room. However, that was not the end of the story, it was just the end of a chapter. Like the medical officer, the A&E doctor was unsure about what to do hence, I was referred to an eye specialist.
A nurse brought me to another corner of the hospital where the eye clinic was. Over there, I was asked to take a refraction test, the one where you are tasked to read out alphabets of different sizes while having one of your eyes covered. I find it rather pointless. If I am able to walk properly, I don't see why I need to waste time undergoing that test.
The entire waiting area was made up of mostly banglahs, some pinoys and senior citizens so I looked quite out-of-the-place since I was the only Gen Y Singaporean there, not to mention that I was in army fatigues. Almost thirty minutes (seems like thirty years) have passed before I finally heard my legendary name being called by one of the nurses. I was so happy at that moment like I was the winner of Singapore Idol.
The eye specialist turned out to be another female and she spoke in such an ang moh accent that will make Channel NewsAsia's newscasters look plain. Fortunately, I was still able to understand her as we both communicated in medical language instead of English if you catch my drift. She prescribed Fucithalmic for me and told me not to use that (lousy) Chlortralim again.
I was always given two boxes of eyelid wipes for cleansing. The counter girl at the pharmacy looked a little impatient when I kept using medical terminologies instead of layman terms to converse with her. After collecting my medication, I had to walk a big round back to the A&E department to acquire my MC due to renovation works. I was wondering how do those with walking problems survive the long distance.
Anyway, the feeling of booking out and breathing fresh air is still the best.
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