Financial Freedom SG

It has been a long while since my last update. I was hospitalised with persistent high fever that did not go away with panadol or paracetamol.

I was first warded in the Accidents and Emergency ward just after midnight and the fever was under control at about 4am. After I went home, I had high fever of about 40 degrees again around 11am and decided to go back to the hospital's A&E ward. When the doctor asked me if I wanted to be admitted for observation to look for the cause of the fever, I decided to do so.

After a battery of tests- blood, urine, x-rays, ultrasound (always thought that was used for pregnancy only) and that big scary looking machine that turns when you are horizontal, the CT scan. It was found that it was a 5 cm abscess of the liver that caused the body to go 40 degrees to fight the infection. I was put on a drip of antibiotics and saline solution to hydrate my body after the bouts of high fever.

While warded, I saw patients sent to nursing home, some died in the ward or intensive care room in the ward. I also saw small petite nurses handle all the tasks of cleaning up, turning bed ridden patients, feeding some patients and feel that their jobs must be one of the hardest to do.

During this period, I did not have access to the internet at all. The amazing thing was that even after being deprived of internet, when I was home for a few days after being discharged from hospital, I was not tempted to go online to see what was happening on the internet.

When I finally did, I found that a person can die from liver abscess which was a shock to me because I thought it was a minor infection although I was warded for two weeks. I continued treatment going back to the hospital daily for a dose of anti-biotic medicine delivered through a tube that was inserted into my vein before I was discharged.

I was in Ward 8B of Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) and the OPAT clinic in TTSH. I would like to praise the dedication and professionalism of the nurses in this two places in the hospital who went about their thankless tasks with grace and in good humour.

To quote the opening stanza of a poem that I first saw on advertising rails above the passenger seats in the light rail in Kuala Lumpur:

To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.

William Blake (Auguries of Innocence)

The nurses and staff at TTSH practise and live that everyday.