Thursday, January 27, 2005

the hospital trip

what's wrong with some of the doctors in singapore? are they having a really hard time or what?!

the 1st incompetent fool was this geeky-looking idiot who made no effort to conceal the fact that he had absolutely no interest in my injury, whatsoever. so he was checking my foot to see where it hurt, etc and then he told me after 5 mins that i actually have no fractures in my foot. i was completely in joy - i mean - i felt a little stupid that i've had to hobble around difficultly for the last 2 weeks, but hell, if there was no fracture and it was "only a muscle contusion" like he said, i could jolly well go swimming tomorrow!

and then i remembered what someone (who's got tons of experience in broken bones - collar bone, hand, reconstructed knee, etc) said last night about getting x-rays. so i actually REQUESTED for an x-ray. the fucking moron said - well, you could get it in 2 weeks' time when you come for your next appointment, or if you want to, we can also do it today. luckily for me, my "aiyah, since you have so much time, just get it done today and confirm you have NO fracture so you can go out and play!" side made the right decision and i got the x-ray done. after an hour or so of waiting (and having to put up with this old guy's really nasty cough which made me want to give up smoking), i returned to the clinic with my x-ray. the incompetent fool had gone off to fill his stomach, and i got another doctor.

this second guy (ok - not incompetent, but nonetheless, couldn't be bothered) declared so matter-of-factly, "there is a fracture in your foot". all my exhilaration gone, just like that. in those few words. i'd say - having false hope is worse than having no hope. what's worse is that there has been no healing since when i first found out i have a fracture. this worries me - the doctor said it can take anything between 6 wks to 3 mths to heal.

so i got nagged to death by a friend over dinner, and then more.

but i must say that it was quite nice being wheeled around at the hospital. i got sent an sms that said "how's yr crack?" which immediately cracked me up because i was thinking "butt crack". everyone at the waiting area must think i'm a lunatic because i was laughing my head off. and then at the pharmacy, this guy who was waiting next to me started talking to me - it was nice because he could see that i was really down and he made a genuine effort to cheer me up and he was telling me how his wife broke both her ankles, one after another.

in any case, if anyone has any special recipe for quick bone recovery, plesase let me know. i'm desperate for my foot to heal. and yes, it *does* hurt.

1 Comments:

At 28/1/05 02:26, Blogger wahj said...

Most doctors are not healers: they view the body either as a mass of organic plumbing to be fixed (surgeons esp) or as a bag of chemicals to be balanced. Modern (Western) medicine tends to ignore the fact that healing is a process that involves both the physical element (antibiotics for germs, plaster casts for fractures) as well a mental/psych/spiritual element. As a result, they fix the plumbing, but tend to dehumanize and depress the patient. The elderly especially feel very bad when treated this way. Which is why I hate hospitals.

 

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