The Surgery

Me on the hospital bed!

For all those who don't already know, I went for a surgery to get my back fixed. I've already had a bad back for the longest time - I've been diagnosed with a posterior prolapsed disc in my L4/L5 since 2004. Earlier on, with a combination of Physiotherapy and alternative Chinese treatment, I managed to recover and not have any symptoms for an amazing 7 years! Also I went for Yoga and swam often until I started going deeper into work and stopped those yoga and those swims.

Some time this year I had to chase after a cab (because I left my laptop inside) and then I attended a party where I danced just a little bit too much which aggravated an already bad back after the aforementioned cab chasing incident. I busted my back VERY badly. And off to the doctors I went. After countless consultations, the doctors at NUH recommended surgery to fixed my back. However I wanted to seek a 2nd opinion and by pure serendipity, I managed to get hold of my first doctor from 2004 - he has since become one of the best spine surgeon here, winning many awards! This doctor (Doctor Hee Hwan Tak, now in private practice at Paragon Medical Center) also recommended surgery but his opinion was that my other disc, L5/S1 has also degenerated, so he recommends a disectomy of 2 discs and also to insert a silicon space in the L4/L5 region to make sure that in the future it is not likely to recur again. Now that's a good doctor that thinks long term, like 30 years and more kind of long term.

So a decision was made and off I went to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital on 21st December 2011 for my surgery. And it was the best decision I made to go there. The nurses were THE BEST. They are always cheerful, very attentive, very helpful and always there to take care of me, and the other patients in the ward. I think it is very rare these days, hearing so many stories from my own relatives. These nurses always ask after us, when they had to inject, they are empathetic, saying that they understand that it hurts and comforts the patients, telling them to bear with the pain. The hospital itself looks like a condominium or a SOHO apartment. Beautiful. Food was actually nice and delicious with at least 10 choices for me each day, for patients with dietary restrictions, they also had choices, how rare is that!

The view of the hospital. Does it even look like one?

The QR code tag!

Needless to say I enjoyed my stay. And the love from friends and family are just overwhelming. Too many to name, but really every one made me feel so loved. Thank you to Huiyee, Jeth and Jiahui for being there when my eyes opened, I remember asking for Bak Kwa the moment I spoke. Hahahahahah. Thank you to J-en who accompanied me for many many hours and chatting with me and make me laugh over and over again. Thank you to Lynette for stealing a slot in the afternoon to visit, to Peiling and Xuan for taking that long cab journey over during lunch time, to the Flamingoes for bringing so much joy to the ward, to Seraphina, Leon for making all of us laugh our pants off. To Alexis and Gabby for staying late with me and keeping me entertained with the OK magazine. To Mark and Eunice for the thoughtful homemade cookies. To Joanne for the absolutely cute Giraffe, to Joot and Shaun for the Balloons. And of course to my family and all their love! And finally to Fabian, who despite being so so far away, kept me company and all hours of the day, and for the endless love and missing from India! I miss you BB!

The skunk that kept me company!

Me again!

I can now walk slowly and shower and do all those things myself! Here's to a speedy recover to me!

*note to self: Swim more and go for Pilates or Yoga soon! The physic said the biggest mistake I made was to stop exercising, resulting in a weakened back!