Post Op: Day #10

This week I am back at the office even though I am on MC. Have some work with hard deadline to meet.

Anyway, took off in the afternoon to go back to NUH to remove the staples. After a loooong wait, it is finally over. Staples removed, dressing changed, I am now officially metal free! (Sorry, no pics cos I didn't bring my camera)

The doc gave me an "open date" for the next appointment. What this means is that I do not need to go back to NUH Clinic B anymore, unless (touch wood) something goes wrong.

Total "downtime" is from 28/06/05 to 25/10/07, which works out to be 850 days or 2 years, 3 months and 28 days.

Post Op: Day #3

Just came back from NUH after the first review. After they removed all the dressing, I realised that I was not totally free from all metal yet. They used staples instead of thread for the stitching. Cool, haven't seen staples up close. Too bad I didn't bring my camera.

Anyway, the staples are supposed to be removed only after 10 days, so the next time round I'll bring my cam.

After examination, they dressed up the wounds again, this time a much more simple affair, without too much gauze and cotton wool.

Now I am not using any crutches, I can walk again! (slowly ...)

Post Op: Day #2

Its approximately 60 hours since the operation now. Tomorrow there will be the first post-op review. As such, I will be going down to NUH tomorrow afternoon meetup with the orthopaedic surgeon.

Anyway, the pain is getting less now, it usually comes when I stand too long and when the leg starts getting swollen. I am down to 1 crutch today, and hopefully by weekend it will be no crutches. I have tried walking around without any crutches just now, was ok but can't do it for too long. Think I have to be patient. Will post an update tomorrow after the visit to the hospital.

Weight Reduction Op: Day #0

It has been over 2 years since THIS happened to me and they had to fix it like THIS. The orthopaedic has finally given the thumbs up to remove my steel implants in my left Tib/Fib a couple of weeks ago and yesterday was the Operation.

Arrived at the NUH Day Surgery Centre (at the newer Kent Ridge wing) at 0715 but it was already pretty crowded. My number was #016 and they were only serving #005. It was almost an hour wait before my turn. After settling the registration, we (wifey and I) were asked to go inside a second waiting room where we waited for about 5 minutes. After that I was given a bed and explanation on the admin procedures. The staff were friendly and professional. They went through the checklist (i.e. my name, NRIC, what op I was doing) at least 5 times by different people at different stations.

Anyhow, I was assigned OR1 and had GA administered there probably around 0930. After that I was KO until when I was in the recovery room. By then, the op was done and it was about 1130 when they wheeled me from the recovery room back to the day surgery ward.

Check out the hardware that was removed. If you look closely, some of the parts still has bits of blood and bone stuck onto it. :-)



I will be on MC for 14 days, resting/working at home. I am on 2 crutches now. The pain is not great but can be a bit uncomfortable if I move around too much. Will probably go back to office next week when its less painful to walk.

Overnight Laundry

Just came back from Newton catching up with old friends over drinks and some nibbles. Can't believe that we've known each other for 24 years already.

Anyway, after coming back, went to take a drink in the kitchen and realised that my neighbour (and maid) are still in the yard doing their laundry ... kinda creepy as its 1:30 am in the morning! eeeks!

Cold Rock

Went out for lunch today at Holland Village at our favourite Ipoh Hor Fun place. After that, dessert was ice-cream at Cold Rock. It was raining and the weather was cool, perfect for eating ice cream! Basically, what the concept of Cold Rock is ice-cream with various kinds of "mix-ins". You can watch their video HERE.

Verdict: Nice but a bit pricey.

Domesticated

Went to Takashimaya yesterday intending to get one of those garment steamers, something like THIS. Anyway, there was a pretty helpful sales person there which introduced us to "system irons".

Basically, they are steam irons. The difference between a system iron and a garment steamer is that the steam from the system iron is pressurised while that of the garment steamer is not. Also, the difference between a system iron and a normal steam iron is that in the system iron, the water is stored in a seperate tank (not in the iron itself), and the iron is able to emit pressurised steam for normal ironing or vertical ironing (like a garment steamer). The demo done by the sales person was pretty convincing. The demo set was a model costing almost S$700, with fancy LCD panels and controls. We ended up buying the most basic set. Even so, the most basic set cost almost half of the expensive one, luckily, I got some Taka Gift Vouchers ... :-D

The model we bought was the Philips GC 6360 steam/system iron. It is able to emit steam at up to 4 bar pressure. Tested it out today and it really works. Cut down ironing time by more than half (according to wifey).

Can't find much info on the Internet in English, but it looks like this:



Also tried to look for a cordless vacuum or electric broom. The electric broom demo was disappointing and the cordless vacuums don't have sufficient power for cleaning the floor.

So end of the day, "uncle" Koosh only got the iron ...

Hair Removal

I just discovered that an epilator is a torture device consisting of no less than 10 spinning tweezers looking to grab at any hair (or skin) that they come into contact with! Ouch!

New Office

After months of planning (or not), we finally moved into our new office on October 1st 2007. The move wasn't the most organised, but still it went pretty smoothly.

By the looks of it, our new office is smaller. However, it is conveniently located on the first floor and parking is much less of a problem than our old office. But for those that don't drive, it may be slightly inconvenient as there isn't an MRT station within walking distance so many of them have to take buses.

We retained our old cubicles (to save cost) but they were laid out differently. Our cubicles have almost next to no partitioning (i.e. super low). In fact, it is more of a "space" rather than a "cubicle". Because of this, one can almost see the whole office while seated. From where I am seated, due to the direction I am facing and the 2-3 huge pillars in the room, I can only see less than 20% of the entire office (i.e. the entrance, meeting room doors, document/printing centre and 2 other cubicles). The rest of the cubicles are behind my back.

Wasn't really too used to this because you never know who is behind you as 80% of the office walks past/near you to reach the entrance or to the meeting rooms. There is a sense of lack of privacy and the unknown. Anyway, to "cure" this I have consulted some "feng shui" sites:

http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesArticle/id-1113.html
http://www.effectivemeetings.com/design/workplace/fengshui_part2.asp

For now, I have made up the following shopping list of essential items to put in my cubicle:

1. Mirror
2. Plants (odd number)
3. Picture of flowing water (waterfall or river)
4. Personal non-work related picture
5. ???

So far, I've got the mirror, will install it tomorrow and see if it works! Also, have printed out this picture of a waterfall as well as a personal photo.