My Operation in Singapore

My Tag

Mt Elizabeth Medical Centre

8 Mar'11
It's exactly a week after my operation at Mt Elizabeth Hospital by Dr T. Agasthian.
I had my white chest slit open, rib bone cage sawn half, the fragile windpipe cut & reconstructed, rib cage closed with tiny binding wires & my chest sew back with a long 1ft slit... body feels just like a Frankenstein.

8am - Before Going to Ops

Yeah, sounds like I went through a lot.
But I amaze myself judging by the rate of my recovery..... a week ago, I was in the operation theater for 4+ hours.
I came to Singapore very well prepared for this operation. Waited so long for it. After weeks of chemo, exercising & protecting the health of my body.


Come the day of the ops, both my wife & buddy, Yap Chee Send had accompanied me since 6am at the hospital. My special thanx to GH Ye (Han)  for sending me down to the hospital so early in the morning.
The moment I see anesthetist injects into one of my three IV(intravenous) lines (needle for injection, 2 on my left hand & 1 on my neck), I set myself to go through this courageously & I will see them all again. That was the promise to myself. I have set my subconscious mind to determine for any fight if it were to head my way.

Day 1 - HDU Unit

I was told by my wife that the operation went very well when Dr Agasthain & Dr Mark Chow were seen talking & grinning to each upon, pushing me out of the ops theater into the High Dependency Unit.
On that day itself, I had only open my eyes for 3 times. First was to see my wife & Chee Seng in front of me asking me everything went well. I was shaking all over at that time. I only had a vague 30sec memory recall on that day.
Second when I open my eyes to see my Cousin Kim & Roy. I just extended to a hand shake & slept again.
Third was when I saw Alan & Felicia in front of me. I waved at them & fell back to sleep again. 
I thank the miracles of the morphine, the pain killer & anesthetics for making all the pain bearable. Not forgetting the nurses whom had constantly taken good care of me during my critical period.

Day 2

On the 2nd day, I was transferred to the normal ward. Thank heavens I was allocated to a 2-person room even though I opt for a 4-persons room. I was bed ridden for 3 days without much movement.
On the 4th day, I attempted to sit up on the bed with the help of the nurses.
Needed to sit up & get some blood running down my head & shoulders. It was so stiff & it hurts especially with the long tube running in my chest while pumping the water out.
Mimiko helped to rub down some of those ache out of the feeble muscles.
Weeks of preparing the muscles was wiped out in just 4-days.
I lost about 2kg just on this ops.

Neck IV Line

Chest Tube

Apart from the big chest tube, I have 2 IV line on the hand & neck, & a urinal tube stuck onto my genitals.
The urinal tube along with the hand IV line was taken out on the 4th day. The nurse was ruthless when she pulled the long urinal tube out.
Believe me, it was definately a sharp pain & not just "going to be a little bit pain" as claimed by her.
Imagine the tube running from the penis hole right into the bladder.... just imagine how long the tube is.
The pain is like scratching your penis onto a fine sand paper. You can even see some dry skin after that on the forehead. Eventually I did ignore the pain as the chest pain was more painful.
The pain struck like a needle across the abdomen till the back of the shoulders.

Day 3

I was able to talk better on the 4th day once the morphine had worn down. The IV line was taken out.
Started to climb out of bed to pee at the toilet. Even though the toilet is located only 7-8 steps away, it took quite an effort to walk there with my chest drain box on my hands. It weights around 1-1.5kg but it was really quite a task to carry it around with my torn chest muscle.
By this time, my breathing got a bit steadier. My lungs & abdomen were weak & couldn't produce the oxygen which I needed. It was like running up a hill & having abdomen muscle cramps after the run.
I even had the experience of having an abdomen muscle spasm on the 2nd nite.
I just can't breathe & made several attempts to cut as many short breathe as possible. Got scared at that time when my body went cold with sweat. Luckily the nurses were able to calm me down & I managed to doze off to sleep.

Day 5

The following days went by as I get lesser sleep & spent more time walking around the hospital & reading a book.
I still need to be careful with my neck & not make any sudden jerks or movement which might hurt the reconstructed windpipe. My head was kept down for the first few days & was very careful with it. If it breaks, it will mean another round of ops just to mend the connection again. With the head bowed, it looks odd & feels just like a turtle.

The Daytime Nurse Team at Mt E

Sometimes, I would just wake up at 4am or 5am to walk around & talk to the nurses.
It seems the nurses were either Malaysians or Filipinos. All of them were very friendly & had helped me alot.
Drinking the cordyceps which my sister had bought for me & forcing myself to have have proper meals, I healed very fast & it feels great upon discharging on Monday, 6days upon my admittance to the hospital.
Being in the hospital is getting on my nerves & my neighbor had given me 2 sleepless nights with self murmuring  in the middle of the night. At one time, I had to get out of the room & the nurses urged me to go to one of the empty beds for 2 hours sleep before the next patient comes. Thank goodness for it.

 

Day 6

Now, I can see the long slit on my chest, with a bit of yellowish bruise on the top which is the most painful part. I hope that it will develop into a good scar to remind myself of the events & continue my drive for awareness.
Still very short of breath, couldn't walk 10m without having my lungs pumping for air. Stamina & concentration are at all time low. The bald head of mine keep spinning at certain times... after watching a bit of TV or lap top or anything which runs in motion.
Its very tiring & I'm glad its over. I just need to proceed with my next challenge.

Fr Left : Audrey, myself, Dr T. Agasthian

Since the 1st chemo & ops went very well, the doctor advised me to for another 2-3 rounds of chemotherapy. He had arranged to meet the oncologist at SDMC again next Friday.
This was rather surprising as I thought all was over. But if it acts as an assurance and my body could take it, why not?
Anyway, I have faced the worst of it. Just a bit more before I can share my experience on this war & proudly say that I had seen it & lived it.

I just booked my flight back on this coming Thursday afternoon. Need to go home & get proper rest.
Can't have it neither at the hospital nor hotel. Kept having fictional dreams which disrupt my night rest.
The body is really drain of energy now. Small coughs & sneeze tears at my chest whenever I have it.
It takes some seconds to calm the pain down.

Right from the start, Mimiko had been beside me to take care of my every needs & I'm very very thankful for all the sacrifices made for me. My son is in KL waiting for us to go home. Both my parents & in-laws are helping me to take care of him during his school days.

My sincere thank you to Dr T. Agasthian whom had given me a new lease of breathing organ in my body.
Not forgetting nurse Audrey whom had helped to arrange the details in admission & discharge from the hospital.
My thanx to Dr Mark Chow whom had administered the anesthetics & thanx to the other members of the operating team during my ops.
Thank you nurses of ward 6A(not forgetting food auntie/lady) whom had see to my every needs during my recovery.

Alan & Felicia

My special thanx to my buddy, Alan Tan & Felicia, whom had helped to cook all the delicious good soup, porridge, tempura for Mimiko right after I was discharged from the hospital.
They have really helped me a lot during this stage and I'm thankful to have friends like them. Couldn't ask for anyone better.

• Chee Seng & sister

Thanx to my school buddy Chee Seng, for being there on the ops day & all the help extended to my wife.
Thanx to my buddy Han for ferrying me to the hospital.
Thanx to my buddy David for the soup & ferrying me to the follow check-up & to the airport too.
Thanx to all the family & friends whom came to visit me during my stay in Singapore.
I'm truly blessed  with so many of you all.

Mimiko at the Airport

Well, Its not exactly a perfect vacation but still a happy "Medical Vacation".
Mimiko loves Singapore as well... so convenient, safe & well oriented with proper planning.
Would surely love to spend a few nites there vacationing again.


Need to rest now.. feel so giddy.