My eldest son has his appointment with the eye clinic at KK Hospital this morning, after three to four months of wearing spectacles for refractive amblyopia in his right eye. He has what in colloquial terms is known as a “lazy” eye. In his case, the right eye is not short-sighted but simply having blurred vision due to less than optimal functioning.

Fortunately, the results of his vision test done by the optometrist this morning showed good progress for his right eye and thus the ophthalmologist decided to proceed with the patching of the good eye so as to “force” the weaker eye to work. She prescribes two hours of patching my son’s good eye every day for 90 days – after which she would decide on the next course of action.

My only concern is his self-control – would he be able to endure for two hours every day not being able to use his stronger eye? Boys at his age, five years to be exact, are cheeky, playful and physically active.

By the way, I found the tall and leggy optometrist (not the ophthalmologist) rather sexy. She walks with a gentle sway of the hips and speaks with a very strong Australian accent. I don’t actually fancy the aussie tone, but I suppose the combination of a tall, svelte and leggy Chinese with a caucasian accent turns it on for me.

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Sesaat yang lalu demam Irfan Bachdim dan Christian Gonzales begitu nyata di kehidupan sehari-hari. Program naturalisasi pemain bola yang dilakukan oleh Indonesia dengan heboh terhadap kedua pemain tersebut nampaknya berbuntut panjang. Karena Malaysia me`naturalisasi paksa` saya seperti terlihat di gambar diatas. Beneran nih?? Oh syukur tidak. Ternyata itu hanya kesalahan panitia workshop fetoscopy KK Women`s and Children Hospital Singapore. Saya sampai saat ini masih cinta Indonesia, dan masih memegang paspor Indonesia.

Saya tidak merasa sia-sia mengikuti workshop fetoscopy walaupun saat ini tindakan fetoscopy ini belum bisa dilakukan di Pekanbaru. Karena ilmu pengetahuan dan ketrampilan merupakan hal yang bermanfaat dan siapa tahu suatu saat tindakan fetoscopy ini bisa dikerjakan di Pekanbaru seperti halnya hysteroscopy yang sudah mulai bisa saya kerjakan di Pekanbaru.

Apa sih sebenarnya fetoscopy?? Fetoscopy adalah prosedur menggunakan alat endoskopi seperti halnya laparoscopy dan hysteroscopy, namun tindakan fetoscopy ini dilakukan pada wanita hamil dengan tujuan untuk mengevaluasi secara langsung kondisi janin, air ketuban, placenta dan sekaligus bisa melakukan tindakan tertentu seperti biopsi atau laser oklusi seperti pada twin-twin tranfusion sindrome. Workshop ini langsung dibawah arahan pakar fetoscopy yaitu Prof. Yves Ville dari Prancis.

Cuplikan video diatas adalah contoh bagaimana tindakan fetoscopy tersebut dilakukan.

I realised the following:

KK is not professional enough. Long waiting time = waiting for death for some. No guidance = wrong guidance

SGH (Dr Yu Su Ling)  surprised me with their ‘apple’ service from nurses. Shorter waiting time truly impresses me considering that I was already prepared to wait like half a day to see 1 gynae

Thompson Medical (Dr Yvonne Soong) was really professional, caring and gave good advice when seeking treatment. Made me felt really assured & in good hands regardless the results/operations required.

Unfortunately due to me not having enough moolah to pay $6k for a day surgery- removing a cyst & cleaning of womb…I had to depend on insurance which only covers govt hospitals – hence, SGH. Thanks to Markie’s company which pays the entire surgery amt. Unfortunately, my company does not have such privileges. (Then again, my company does not seem to have much privileges to begin with – sighz)

Went through a whole load of scans & tests – virginal, ultra, pap smear, blood tests, urine tests & start to realise how easy doc makes $$ how tough for me to spend $$. Every swipe on the card, I feel the prick somewhere – literally & figuratively.

After the KK incident (which I must have told like a gazillion people) & the fact that they pricked me so many freaking times to get 1 tube of blood out of me & told me my veins run around & not visible coz I had tons of fats (ok, the fats maybe exaggerated) but the other hospitals did a CLEAN job at the FIRST try. For a person who hates needles & has extreme fear of PAIN – naturally it was a torture to be pricked, poked more than 3 times! 1 nurse even tried to wriggle the needle to get to the vein! (&@#($&@

Total Bill – naturally govt hospitals are much cheaper. 1 visit to the private gynae = 3 visits to the govt specialists

SIGHZ…I need a windfall! & this is not the last…still have a couple more visits before the stipulated day surgery itself.

Not really looking forward to it & not having a choice makes it worse…oh wellz…life still goes on…but this mth of hospic is really a huge strain on my pockets…UPSET!

My cyst ultrascan – 5cm*6cm = bigger than womb

But before that, we have to get through the discomforts Mommy is having now, including indigestion, heartburn, lack of appetite etc. When the medicine from a GP she visited was not effective, we had to make a trip down to the 24hr Woman’s Clinic at the KK Hospital, where we spent the next 3 hours putting Mommy on drip and having milo and sandwich for dinner. Luckily, the doctor said she was alright except for some dehydration and indigestion. The next few days was still kinda bad for her but happy to see her appetite recover slowly.

myBenie, if you ever see this, you must remember that your Mommy had to endure all this to bring you into the world okie? Must be filial to her alright?

So you can imagine my delight at the brightly painted, wonderfully landscaped hospital that had shops and a children’s playground on the ground floor.

No smokers beyond this point

The entrance walkway

I even liked this spacious, green paved driveway

Hopscotch as we know it..

The aforementioned children's playground

Even a nice artistic installation at the lobby

Finally the reason to be in KK: praying for a loved one

Anw, we went for our consultation with another gynae at KK Hospital, and this trip turned quite to be quite pleasant. We opted to go to the Private Suite, where the counter staff are very friendly and patiently answer all our queries (forgive us, Daddy and Mommy are first timers to the hospital ) We arrived slightly earlier than the appointment and was promptly attended to and Mommy did her routine test soon after. Although we did wait for about 30 mins before we meet the gynae, the wait was quite alright given the comfy waiting area. It probably helped that we just borrowed books on pregnancy and used that time to start reading up. No prizes for guessing who’s reading what.

The appointment was with Dr Benjamin Tham, who cuts a very fatherly figure and is very approachable. We think he had a new ultrasound scan machine in his room which he is not familiar with and it was kinda amusing when a lady had to guide him along as he scanned Mommy’s tummy for myBeanie. And for the first time, we ‘saw’ myBeanie! We can see the head, arms and legs very clearly, and interestingly we even get to see a video of the blood pumping from myBeanie’s heart We get to keep a soft copy of the scan and the video, and till now, I guessed we had watched the video umpteen times and yet we are still fascinated by it. myBeanie is growing up strong!

Immediately following the consultation, Mommy had to go for a blood test at another part of the hospital, which is a two-part test for Down Syndrome. While the test is optional, we still went for it, albeit the safer though less accurate one, just to have peace of mind. The next part of the test will be an ultrasound scan, which will take place next Wednesday. With the two tests, there will be a 90% accuracy of determining whether the kid has DS.

On our next visit, we probably would need to ask Dr Tham whether we still can engage his as our gynae. Saw from his website that he is leaving KK Hospital to start his own private clinic from May 2010. Hopefully we still can have him deliver myBeanie.

Baby Livia Alene

It’s a girl! It’s a girl! I have a niece! She’s so adorable.

Weighing 3.1kg, she seems like a petite lady. The name Livia Alene from what i understood is something like a source of light or something like that…

now i cant wait to meet her after work… ok lah… bye. sian ah at work.