Saturday 3009006

Went with the Mrs, Bambi and Michelle to Pierce for this weekend training run. Michelle brought her 2 kids along so I played baby-sitter. The kids are so lovable and friendly very unlike my 2 who will not warm up to strangers.

The ladies are doing very well now. They complete the 11km or so run up the nasty slopes in a fairly good time of 1:25 mins without walking the slopes. Very good indeed for people who have never ran there before.
Had roti-prata at the relocated and renovated Casurina Prata House together with Michelle's hubby, Notme who had ran 30km earlier with the Animiles. Thanks Yu (pun intended) for the breakfast.

I have now been cleared by the doc to go without the brace and to use 1 crutch. It is so much more convenient. Also started cycling at CSMC at yesterday physio. Cycled for 20 minutes. Tried to swim today but rained out after 10 minutes. But the 10 minutes felt good. Will try and do 20 laps today.

Training for the Marathon

Sunday at East Coast. Training for the marathon but not me - the Mrs and the ladies from VRP and Chris. They are doing the half for the 1st time and training hard. With 11 weeks to go, they are doing 12km today (14km for the Mrs). All of them finished in good time (1:18 - 1:34). Target for them is to complete the half without walking in 2:30 minutes, an achievable target I think.

I managed to walk 4km in a record time of 1:01 minutes :(. Came back to the start point and was doing some exercises when saw some sgrunners going past. Managed to stop quite a few for a chat and a drink. They were running from Changi Village in what is known as the 'Demoralising Run'. Wished I could have joined them. The last time I ran with them on this route was only up to the mid point of the runway. This time round, they were running to Bedok Jetty and for I think - Teelee, Real and Dream, even further. Didn't expected so many to be doing the full 28km distance though. Pretty soon, ran out of drinks for them. So paiseh. To those who didn't managed to get a sip, next time I bring more supplies.

This Week

End of the first week back at work. It has been an interesting time moving around on crutches in public places and taking public transport. Now I understand why the handicapped keep on complaining about the lack of empathy by the public and the people in charge of transport and buildings.

At my office, to reach the lift there is a flight of steps no bid deal to the able bodied but to the disabled, it is a mountain to climb. As my cubicle is on the 2nd floor and the pantry is on the first floor, everytime I need to replenish my drinks, it is either go down 2 flights of staircase on 2 crutches carrying the bottle or take the cargo lift which means I have to exit via the back door to use the cargo lift and logged in again at the main office entrance to reach the pantry - no mean feat balancing bottles, ID passes and crutches and rushing to open the door after keying in the key before it shut down again. Interestingly, 2 colleagues offered to get the water for me and both are not from my dept. Not wanting to make my girls feel bad, I turned down their offer.

On the train, it was even more interesting. First day home, nobody gave up their seat to me. 2nd day a lady restored my faith in Singaporean by jumping up almost immediately when I got in the train. 3rd day I was off so nothing to recount. Thursday the train was quite empty so no problem getting a seat myself. Friday morning ha - at Tanjong Pagar MRT was waiting at the lift. There was already some people in front of me waiting for the lift. When the lift came, all rushed in. Nobody seemed to have seen me. Nevermind, since I was behind them, waited for the next lift to come. Then the trains came and discharged another load of passengers. So many moved to the front of the lift door and again I was crowded out. Same thing happened the third time and I finally gave up and walked to the escalator. Maybe I should be in a wheel chair?

Anyway, I am thankful that mine is a temporary problem but for those who are genuinely physically disabled, I now fully understand how they feel and their frustration when they go out. I will consciously ensure that I never behave like these boors and will be gracious and helpful in whatever way possible.

As for those boors, I pity them cos I am temporary partially disabled but for them, I think mentally they are truly disabled.

Back to Work

Sigh, just when I was enjoying myself at home it's time up to go back to work. No more Justice League, Superman, Martin Mystery, Drake & Josh..... No more waking up at 9.30, going to an empty gym in the afternoon for nice quiet workout, no more pampering from everybody at home.

The nice folks back at the office has cleared everything for me. For once, no coming back to a desk full of piled up overdue work. Whew and thanks everybody!

The office folks had a mini wager whether anybody will give up their seat for me on my way home via the MRT. Do they really expect our practical stressed Singaporeans to give up their seats to anybody? After all, they paid the same fare so why should they be deprive of a seat? So as expected, no seat for me even though everybody can see tall old me standing with 2 crutches. Or maybe watch too much cartoons and somehow managed to turn myself invisible so nobody saw me. So got to stand all the way from Tanjong Pagar until Kembangan before getting an empty seat. Wonder who won the bet in the office?

Math Answers

Got this absolute real gem via email.

Question 1:


Question 2:

Question 3:

Question 4:

Hopefully my kids don't answer their math problems like that tho.

Recovery

It is the 11th day since the operation.

I have gone off the pain killer totally although there is still some pain now and than but nothing unbearable. I am now able to walk and bent the leg a bit but under doctor's order, still have to use the crutches. The physio has promised that when I can bend my legs to 80%, I can start going on the stationery bike. Right now it's about 60% so am working hard to reach that.

Went out for the 1st time other than to the hospital on Saturday to Raffles City. The Vitamin Research girls are having a relaunch of their shop. There is a small crowd there. Their business seems to be doing well although I don't really understand their concept. Who do they sell to? They are not retail based although they have a retail outlet. To clinics? Do clinics dispense the supplements they sell? They also don't really promote their bio-testing aggressively. I guess being in the financial line make me real curious about how people run their business. Ayway, all the best for the relaunch.

On Sunday, went with M to East Coast Park. She is training for the half marathon for the SCSM this year end. Got her to just do a 10k run whilst I walked for 25 minutes - for a total distance of maybe 1km? A record for me! Followed through with all the usual leg and core exercises to strengthen the leg while waiting for her to return. Feeling very good.

Tomorrow, will move on to the next phase of exercise to get back in shape.

1st 5 days of MC

It's been 5 long days of pure torture - it's so freaking boring staying at home Already finished all the movies borrowed from Eric, made a mistake and borrowed 1 whole lot of John Grisham's books and find that I don't like his style of writing. Got so desperate yesterday that I decided to play the Xbox but old already don't know how to use the controller got fadup of crashing the cars after 10 minutes switched to Halo and after 10 minutes of walking around gave up and went to sleep again!

Really looked forward to today physio - anything just to go out for a while. Stayed at CGH for 4 hours before reluctanly returning home. During the physio session, got some bad news - seem instead of being out for 1 month - I am unlikely to be able to run or even swim for the next 6 months because the surgeon did an additional procedure on me - ie. microfacture of the bone. That was what was causing the pain and also why I'm not allowed to bend my leg.

Came back and read the doctor notes again - hell - he did 3 microfactures, 1 resection of the Medial Plica and the repair of the Meniscus. ...What the ... Oh well, it's time to sleep again!

Post Operation

29 August 2006

9.30 am Checked myself into CGH. Feeling very hungry. No food since 11pm the previous day. Operation is schedule for between 9.30 am to 12.30 am. Stayed in the ward waiting for my turn. Getting hungrier and hungrier and also thirsty.

12.30 pm The guy next to me got his lunch. Where's mine?

12.45 pm Finanlly! they came and pushed me to the operating theatre. Must lie on the stupid bed and get pushed down by the amah. Why can't they let me walk by myself?

1.00 pm. Told Dr Chang I am dead hungry. He said he already pushed me up by 1 patient.

1.15 pm The anesthesist asked me to breath in oxygen and than I zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

4.00 pm Woke up to see Dr Chang standing over me. He flashed some photos and started explaining what he had done for me. Too groggy to understand what the hell he's talking about. Than he gave me a small bottle. Fluid from the knees

4.45 pm Pushed back to the ward. Now damn hungry. I could eat a bear!. The Mrs is waiting for me. Took a sip of water and promptly threw up. What happened? The good old Doc conveniently didn't tell me that due to the effect of the anesthesia, I wouldn't be able to eat for some time.

5.30 pm They put a CPM on the bed and put my leg inside. It's supposed to stimulate movement but it's so damn uncomfortable. I can't turn with it and can only sleep on my back.

6.00 pm Dinner came at last - now I can eat! Took a bit of the kiwifruit and threw up again. Sigh. There goes dinner. The plate of pasta is untouched.

6.30 pm Had a surprise visit from Aileen, Bey and Yee Mun. Got me a nice flower basket with 3 bears.

7.45 pm Decided to eat the papaya left over from dinner. Stil no go. This is a PB for me - no food for more than 12 hours.

8.15 pm Needed to pee. Nurse said cannot get off the bed and handed me a bottle. Er how to pee lying down on the bed with 1 leg sliding up and down? Er with much difficulty and fear. Luckily in the end never spill anything on the bed.

30 August 2006

8.00 am. Breakfast and at last stomach is okay. Wolfed down the hard bun and the three small pieces of sausages.

9.00 am The doc came said I can be discharged yipee but need to remain on crutches for 6 weeks? omg! That long. I expecting only 2 days on crutches.

9.15 am The nurse came and changed the dressing. Finally saw the cuts. It's only 3 small holes.

11 pm Got some practice on using the crutches.

2.00 pm Discharged and home sweet home.

Never realised how difficult it is to be a handicapp until you loose the use of one limp. It's so difficult to walk. But at least now I can go to the toilet and pee! It's is so difficult everything got to depend on someone to do for you. The pain has finally set in after being absence for the past days. Not allowed to bend my leg more than 30 degrees so cannot get the chance to even twist it a little to alleviate the stiffness and pain. What did I got myself into?