Wednesday morning, my mum and younger brother left the house before I woke up to go to Bali.
I had a little difficulty in breathing at first. I hesitated again but decided I should take more rest at home instead of destroying myself at work. I went to see the doctor at the Outram polyclinic finally.
The checkpoint outside the main door was cleared. There was only a poor guy standing inside near the queue ticket machine, asking everyone if there was any symptom of flu, fever or cough. Then, a couple of old people bothering him over the queue machine in quite a rude tone, which I thought was so silly and ridiculous.
After putting on the mask, I realized my breathing had improved somehow. My queue number was F009 and it was not very long before I went into the consultation room. When the doctor was checking my throat, she said it was very red inside and that made me very curious. I remembered when I was in the army, I went to see the doctor for diarrhoea, and I was told the same thing. I was not having a sore throat that time and thus I took it lightly until the next day, it started to hurt.
I was given two days medical leave by the doctor without asking for it. If I were to tell her about my occupation, she would probably make me stay at home until the next Monday.
After reaching home, I dropped a couple of emails. I was planning to go downstairs to buy lunch before my elder brother’s girlfriend offered to do it. She went alone to help me get my wantan mee.
It was a lazy afternoon for me and I spent lots of time lying on the bed.
In the evening, the food delivery man interrupted my sleep. I checked my phone and realized my brother had informed me to wait for the food because his girlfriend could be asleep. My brother got home soon and we shared the two packets of food.
On Saturday, I started the morning earlier than usual. Just as I was enjoying myself in the C&C game, my mum asked me if I wanted to go and visit the doctor. I went alone to the Chinese physician for the first time, having a long queue outside.
After that, I went to the POSBank and was punished by the extremely long and slow queue. When it was my turn, I told the lady I wanted to change my ATM card and she claimed that I had to foot $5 for it. immediately, I asked her to upgrade my card to the “Go!” card and thus, the fee was waived off. I wanted to do it since long ago but I did not have a more complicated signature. On the spot, I had to come out with a new one, which I could have forgotten how I would sign it in future.
Before I went home, I went to find my hairdresser to book a schedule at 5.30pm. I had some naps before I went down to get my hair trimmed neatly again.
In the evening, I went for a jog towards my favourite place under the dark sky. I was probably insane to proceed in my body and the weather’s condition. I dragged on my injured right thigh and ankle, struggling since the start of the trip; the past few days of working-out had almost drained my energy completely. One of the greatest problems was that the Chinese medicine seemed to create stomachache for me to release all the toxic inside my body and I felt so uncomfortable throughout.
It started drizzling when I reached the place where there were many coaches around to fetch tourists. Though I took 31 minutes from Shenton Way to reach there, the sun had almost set off since I started off late. Kite-flying was as usual, together with large groups of people. There was a birthday celebration among a group of people, girls wearing gorgeous dresses and the guys seemed very fortunate. There were families and couples but no lonely soul except me.
The journey back took me even longer, increasing the timing by another three minutes. Luckily, the rain did not pour heavily on me. I was famine on the way but there was nothing much I could do. The jog was a test to my limit and I knew I should continue to push myself in all aspects of life. I could do it.
After reaching home, my mum was the only person around and she started nagging that my brothers and my elder brother’s girlfriend had gone out for dinner despite she had cooked porridge with lots of extra ingredients such as bean curd and mushroom.
Last Saturday, I finally revisited the Chinese physician for my weak stomach. My mum wanted to go for acupuncture and thus she remembered that I needed to go back to get medicine. I was quite busy but also lazy to go back before that.
I was stunned when she went to my neighbour right before going to the lift. We had to wait for a while for this auntie who often dialed my house’s phone early in the morning even though she was staying only a few doors away.
It was a pathetic wait this time. Every old people seemed to be early and I suspected they waited at the door before the operational hours began.
It took quite some time for the acupuncture and the heavy rain stopped for us. Other than buying food, my mum also did some marketing and I had to accompany her.
Last Friday, I went back to Outram Polyclinic again. The queue was short and I got to see Doctor Alfred Wong very soon, which was one of the fastest ever.
He gave me the impression that he was from overseas, or rather, used to work as a journalist; he simply reminded me of a colleague. Anyway, he insisted there was nothing wrong with my eyes except for the recent virus attack, which had subsided since a week ago. Regarding my gum, he was certain that it was probably due to the gum had overgrowth and thus it was “back to normal” after I had some bleeding months ago; he was definitely a moron and I regretted telling him about the problem in the first place. Maybe he was shortsighted that he could not spot the difference.
Nevertheless, I was given two bottles of same artificial tears, which was quite helpful in relaxing my eyes.
Since the beginning of the week, my throat started to irritate me. Somehow, my eyes were very tired and I could not stop myself from nodding in the afternoon no matter how much sleep I took.
The weather was intemperate and the office was full of sick workers. I could no longer withhold the virus and flu started to emphasise my body by Wednesday. The cough managed to keep me awake for quite some time on my bed.
A visit to the Outram Polyclinic was a new experience during this Swine Flu period, where screening of temperature was done outside the entrance. All the visitors with symptoms such as fever, cough and flu are allocated to a different queue.
I was among the outcast group to be attended within a room. The pharmacy took over the original reception counters and even took my identification card, which was probably used to call up to check whether had I gone overseas within the period.
It was a long wait and Doctor Tan Kai Hui Colin attended to me. I was surprised over his friendliness, which was rare among the polyclinic doctors. He assured me of my condition was normal and gave me MC (medication certificate) to excuse me from work for two days. It was the first time I was given two days of MC in the polyclinic without having to debate with the doctor.
I went home to swallow the disgusting cough syrup, flu pill and sucking the lozenge. Soon, the power of the syrup and pill put me to sleep.
I could feel myself floating at night. My body was warm and I knew fever had joined in the fun. The first thing that came to my mind was I did not have any medicine for fever since my temperature was originally 36.2 degree in the morning. My mum gave me panadols to resist the fever before I went to bed.
My temperature fell between 37.4 and 37.9 degree throughout. I could feel my entire body torching and aching. I predicted the weekend would be wasted.
I pinned high hopes to get some vicks or strepsils from the Co-Op in the yesterday morning. It was over 10 AM and after looking at the notice on the door, which “9am to 4pm” was written, I happily went in to get my lozenges. The girl at the cashier was asking me what I wanted and told me it was not in operation yet.
It was so ridiculous to have the operating hours indicated at the door and yet the shop was still not opened an hour later. I supposed none of the retail shops out in the market would do this. The excuse was that the girl in charge, Colin, had not arrived yet and probably due to some traffic jams. Her working hours were supposed to be 8 AM to 5 PM and yet the traffic jam could actually cause her to be late for two and a half hours. When the shop was finally opened for business, I realised none of the lozenges was on the shelves anymore and that the excuse given was that it was coming to the end of the semester soon.
I had lunch at the Tradehub with Baey, Joy, Alfni, Alex, Hasnah and Bernard. I ordered a plate of chicken rice for $3 and the can of carrot juice cost $1.50. The meat seemed to taste quite good with the gravy and nasi lemak rice, but I was unfortunately having flu and thus did not get to enjoy much. I did not join in the conversation often since I had to handle my runny nose.
I almost finished a packet of tissue papers in the afternoon; it was a tough afternoon for me.
Was it so difficult to follow instructions when the speaker was not right besides you? Was it just because of your self-discipline problem that your attention was diverted away once nobody was right besides you to monitor you?
This afternoon, I repeated my words many times and did as many times debugging as well.
As I was rushing off from work, Bernard offered to send me to Dover MRT and thus saving me lots of energy and time. I was more appreciative of the companion.
I took the wrong exit out of Outram Park MRT, having to make a detour. As I was asking for Dr Sally, the nurse at the counter disappointed me by telling me Sally was on leave. I had not met her for years and she was one of the best doctors at the polyclinic.
The waiting time was in fact, quite short, at four PM. I got into the room right after around two patients. Dr Ho in room 2 looked quite stylish. My main purpose for visiting the polyclinic instead of a Chinese physician was because I wanted to ask about my swollen right wrist and freckles on my shoulders but she did not seem to be able to help me at all. I was then prescribed the usual flu tablets and cough syrup, and she asked if I needed any lozenges, which quite stunned me since she was the doctor. The short consultation period cost me $9 together with $4 of medicine. I was wondering if I could get better medicine if I were to pay more than thrice the amount in a private clinic.
My mum was cooking dinner when I got home. I took my meal earlier than normal. I finished the last episode of the “Ten Brothers” online, which I missed it a day ago on channel 8, before swallowing a flu tablet and dozed off shortly.
I woke up feeling more feverish than before. My body was weak and the joints were aching. The sore throat resided for a while like the day before but the flu did not stop.
I was so terrified of myself whenever I recalled being inside the class, having to move to the back to sneeze badly. When the fluid tried to drip down from nose, it was really gross. I wanted to maintain a clean sheet record but it would certainly hurt my conscience if I were to spread the virus to others.
For the first time since the first day of my work, I went to see a doctor for medical certification. I preferred Chinese physician but it was too bad their certification might not be recognised.
The polyclinic was crowded and I waited for around forty people before I got my queue number. Doctor Sally was busy as usual and when I asked about Doctor Kok Leong, the nurse at the registration counter was stunned and told me that he had been transferred to the headquarter. She checked my record and realised my last visit to the polyclinic was in year 2006, which was more than a year ago.
Surprisingly, I needed not wait as long as the usual two plus hours to get everything done. The doctor, Doctor Mark, assigned to me was from Ireland. I managed to get to see him quite soon with the absence of two to three patients who were not around after their numbers were flashed for minutes. He seemed to be having flu as well. It was a common infection inside my body.
The medicines prescribed were: Loratadine 10mg Tab Glycerin Thymol CO Gargle 100ml Dequalinium CL 0.25mg Loz Promethazine Codeine Co Linctus Amoxicillin Cap
As usual, for as far as I could remember, the doctor asked the same question, “Do you need an MC for today?” – How about the next day? The medicine prescribed would definitely cause drowsiness and how could the virus be wiped off within a day? Since I did not want to miss work longer, I did not try my luck.
I spent yesterday lying on the bed, having too much sleep to doze off again.
I was waken up by my phone at around nine o'clock in the morning. The nurse from "Tanjong Pagar Medical Hall" called me to inform me that the Chinese physician was there already.
My brain was numbed in the morning's laziness, dwelling on the bed. The next thing in mind was that I had to get better soon to embark on the last two months of terror.
I was second in the queue. Just as I was telling the physician that I had been chewing on VapoDrops, he was shocked. In fact, I had missed out the instruction on the label like most people would do, that I was supposed to take only one to two of them as needed. The physician told me that overdosing would cause giddiness and also breathing difficulties, which I had and was encountering.
The physician told me that I had overworked and the memory of the long working hours for the past few weeks flashed through my mind. I sighed for the regrets. I was issued three types of medicine and that I had to take a total nine pills each time for twice a day.
The most shocking thing was when I was collecting the prescription, I realised the price was thirty bucks; it was more than four times the price I paid years ago. And it was more expensive than visiting a normal clinic. Nevertheless, I still prefer Chinese physicians.
I never like western medication for the cough syrup is too sweet and most of them, including the tablets, cause drowsiness. Panadols are somehow harmful to the body. Anyway, Chinese medicine somehow works better for me.
It was Friday and my best chance to visit the Chinese Physician. After fighting for more than a week and eventually losing the battle, to realise that eventually I had no time to seek for help, the arrival of Friday was so much of a relief.
Why do you bother so much when some people are even taking the days off simply for their own enjoyments?
I did have chances to leave workplace early since Tuesday to visit the doctor but my persistence to keep up with work halted my plans. Some people asked me why I did not want to take a day off instead and the reply was the same – I did not want to burden others by taking over my job and also, I need to get things done.
It was exhausting to reach home under the moody sky every evening. The hardship was never worthwhile when some morons thought everyone's life was as free as them after so much work was done for them.
Was it so difficult to judge a sick person or was it because he fought too hard to put on a good upfront so that others would not be worried? Most people were too insensitive perhaps.
At the final moment when I could almost reach the safe zone, the physician was out. The five days of waiting to end the torment did not cause as much disappointments as the unappreciated effort.
