Specialist Appointments

It was thus, on the Wednesday following that weekend of double trips to Changi Hospital, I accompanied my dad again for his appointment. This time, it is in preparation for his upcoming prostate cancer procedure. Basically, the nurse explained to us about the things to do before and after the surgery, including stuff that we need to take note and be careful about in order to ensure a speedy and non-complicated recovery.

Apparently, the surgery may have up to a 60% effect on sexual performance. So my dad had to fill in a short survey on his current sexual health. There was a brief moment of contemplation, as I had to translate the survey questions from English to Mandarin. Hmm… actually I do not remember ever having that all important talk with my dad before…

The most important point of the visit was actually for my dad to learn the Pelvic Floor Exercise for men. According to the pamphlet that was passed to me, the man’s pelvic floor supports the bladder and the bowel, and “the urethra (urine tube) and the rectum (back passage) pass through the pelvic floor muscles”. Hence, the muscle could be very much weakened after the surgery and requires constant strengthening exercises to bring them back to their former glory, aiding recovery of the strength of the pelvic floor muscle after the operation. Anyone who wants to learn this exercise can ask me for instructions, at least from what I read.

So that was the quick and cheapest trip to the hospital.

Then two days following that on Friday, we headed down again, this time for the gastro appointment (not related to the prostate condition) with the specialist. We talked and relayed the entire history of the initial GP visit, a Chinese doctor that my father visits and the two A&E visits, that finally led to this appointment. I was made translator between my dad and the doctor who spoke close to no Mandarin (which later we found out was because she had been practicing medicine in London for like decades).

The doctor made some simple diagnosis, then did something to my dad behind the curtains, and then she explained to me the endoscopy procedure and what were the risks involved. Following that, some blood samples were taken and we had yet another appointment the following Monday for the endoscopy.

This visit cost us $250+ which could not be paid using Medisave, nor claimed against insurance and what-have-you. The price of “jumping the queue”, in exchange for peace of mind.

Thus on that early Monday morning, we headed to the hospital again. We were ushered to a room with two beds, the other which was occupied by another patient, supposedly for the same procedure. The facilities at the specialist clinic were pretty neat, and they provided newspaper for me to read. The staff were generally quite helpful. My dad had to be sedated, and first we waited for the doctor to prepare for the anaesthetic. Then we waited for him to be pushed in for the procedure. Thankfully it was a quick procedure in less than 15 minutes, and after that, it was the boring part of waiting for the anaesthetic to wear off.

That was when my dad rested while I started checking if I could get WiFi in the hospital. Hey presto! I could log on to Wireless@SG and the first thing I did was to log into Facebook. That was when I updated my status and said I was “bored stiff in hospital”, and later friends commented on my status asking if I was alright. Sorry for the scare friends . Actually my dad woke up in less than 1 hr and he was the one who was bored stiff. He just laid there, we spoke occasionally, he rested and kept thoughts to himself, and finally the nurse came. She explained the findings, passed me some prescriptions for collection and off we went.

My father had this germs called Helicobacter pylori (or H. pylori) in his stomach that caused inflammation of the stomach walls, as well as some gastric problems that caused the acid to rise up, which probably causes the heartburn. If left untreated, it could develop into something worse like ulcers or cancer. Thus more pills were in order, and my dad should be a happier man after this episode.