Archive for Well-being

Stop Biting My Nails – Gelish! (5th Oct)

If there was one way to stop biting my nails (something I’ve done since I was in my early teens), is a nice manicure and gelish – which is a gel layer on each nail that makes it very difficult if not impossible to bite.

There is still an opportunity to pick at the nail, and eventually peel of the gelish, but that’s quite difficult to do – and I decided to stop myself doing that.

After a few weeks, I will try it again, and maybe a third time, before I try it without the nail gelish.

Fingers crossed that this is the end of my bad habit 🙂 Must thank the G/F for this one!

Health Screening 2014

Every 2 years, I am entitled to do perform a health screening, covered by my work. I didn’t do this in 2013, so as I wanted to be able to claim the new bike purchase which I purchased a couple of weeks ago, I had to ensure that I completed my health screening in 2014!

I booked it a few weeks ago, and luckily for me it was just down the road at Mount Novena Hospital – in the Parkway Novena centre – near to the Novena MRT station. They tell you not to eat for 8 hours beforehand, but allow you to drink water (no alcohol though). They also needed a urine and poop test too – nice…so I decided to perform that duty in the luxury of my own home, rather than going at their centre – peeing in a bottle is easy, but pooping is more challenging – so I had to collect it in a tissue first and scoop it in…nice, hey?

Annyway, the test took about 2 hours – with a general check-up, blood test, prodding and probing and lastly breakfast. Phew!

UPDATE > I received the report a couple of weeks later, and it seems that am in the green zone for every category – except two areas. The only two related to my Hep B antibodies – which are not present, so I need to get myself immunized to avoid me getting this disease. Also, my blood haematology (red & white cells and platelets) is normal, except a marginally low haemoglobin level – on this one, I just need to monitor in during my blood test next year.

Also, it was good to finally recap my blood group – it is AB Rh positive. This basically mean it’s a mean blood group, cos I can accept any blood, but can only give bloody to someone who is also AB positive. So very valuable blood. Whoops! Haha!

Eye Examination – at Eagle Eye Centre (11th August)

In June 2013, at the height of the bad haze period, I suffered from a really bad eye infection (although I still am unsure if it was actually linked to the haze, or just a pure coincidence!?)

After a few weeks of treatment, I had scheduled a follow-up visit after 12 months, and today was the check-up appointment.

I went across to the Eye Clinic, at Eagle Eye Centre, at Mount Elizabeth Hospital – and went to see the specialist again.  I was hopeful that he confirms that there is no re-occurrence and that my eyes are back to 100% health again.

The great news is that he gave me the green light, but decided to give me a further prescription fo eye drops – in the worse case it reoccurs – this whole visit costs me another $90 odd dollars (ouch), but it is probably best to be safe then sorry – especially with my eyes.  He scheduled another appointment in 12mths time, but I will probably cancel if I don’t require it – as it is just costing me too much money now.

Luckily, I can claim the costs from my work’s medicare allowance 🙂

Dentist – Q&M Dental Centre Novena

Well it was that time of year that I should have a quick dental inspection.  I didn’t get around to arrange this when I was in the UK in March, and it has been over a year now, so hopefully there are no problems.

I passed a dentist which was in the nearby Shopping mall a few times, so decided to pop in for an appointment.  The good news is that work will cover the cost of this, as part of the healthy living programme, which is great!

The appointment was scheduled for 2nd April – and I went just after work at around 6pm, which was perfect for me to return from the MBFC office.  The check-up was fine, no fillings or anything, and a quick check and polish came up at around S$96 – I guess that’s the score for dentists these days (that is around £50!)   The only comment the dentist made is that I brush too hard and had damaged the gums around my teeth, even though I told her that I used the automatic toothbrush.  So I guess, I should just brush more gentler, as I know the motor goes pretty fast on those toothbrushes – haha!

Q&M Dental Centre
238 Thomson Road #02-01
Novena Square
Singapore 307683
Tel: +65 6251 3233
URL: http://www.qandm.com.sg

Eye Specalist visit – final visit this year…yay!

Well after my Langkawi holiday, I had one more appointment to see the eye specialist … Number 5 of this year.

I was hoping it was the last one having now been weaned off the inflammatory drugs and antibiotics for about 2 weeks, and it certainly was great to hear the words “all clear” from the specialist. Apparently the risk is still present, so any flu or virus might trigger a reoccurrence, but hopefully it will hold off for a while…well forever, ideally 🙂

Anyway, the next check-up is in a year, so August 2013. Hopefully by then, it will simply a quick check-up to confirm everything is a-okay.

Either way, this visit lasted for 5 minutes and cost me another S$88 bucks again…ouch! I definitely miss the NHS when one is ‘ill’!! Then again I would prefer to be healthy rather than ill no matter where I am in the world 🙂

Eye Specialist Treatment – Getting Expensive :(

Well having had a GP appointment and 4 follow-up eye specialist visits – and a fifth (and hopefully last) visit in mid August, it turns an eye infection can be quite expensive 🙂

The total charges for all of the visits to date are just over S$600 (approximately £300), and I am expecting the final costs to be about $680 (~£340). Luckily I have company mediguard insurance, but unfortunately, this only supports claim of $400, meaning I will still be out of pocket by around $240 but the end of the treatment…hopefully there are more specialist visits after the one scheduled in mid-August.

Hey-ho – there are always times when you recognise the positive notion of the UK National Health Service (NHS) – but you do have to pay a hefty tax rate to support it though…

Eye Infection – Worrying!

It started around Friday 14th, when during the day, one of my work colleagues ask whether there was something wrong with my right eye – I said why, and she said because it seems quite red.  I didn’t think much of it, but washed my eye with water and hopefully whatever foreign object that was in the eye would wash away.

I continued to relax over that weekend, and I started to notice that the redness got quite sever on the Sunday, 16th June – so much so that it started to be quite painful to close my eyes and to blink.  I didn’t rub the eye, but I started to think something was wrong.  I went to the local pharmacy, and brought some saline eye drops to hopefully clear it up.  I previously had 4 bouts of an inflammation, in 2008 when I was working in Latvia, and 3 other occurrences since then, but those were in the left eye – this was the first time it was in my right eye – and I felt it was the worse occurrence this time around.

I then decided to visit the local GP at the Mount Elizabeth Hospital 24 hour Walk-in Clinic (part of their A&E department) – luckily for me this was in the vicinity of my apartment in Novena.  They advised me that it looks like a bad inflammation, and gave me a prescription of eye drops and eye ointment.  The GP also signed me off for 2 days on medical leave – providing me a medical certificate (MC) – she also told me that if things don’t improve to see an eye specialist – and she gave me a referral in case I needed it.  I went to work on Monday, finished off a few e-mails, and then decided to go home on leave for the Monday and Tuesday.  The Singapore Haze/Smog was getting progressively worse, so I knew I had to stay out of it to avoid any further infection to my eyes.

I returned to work on Wednesday, but the eye was not getting any better and remained very red and blurry.  I decided to visit the Eye Specialist on first thing on Thursday morning.  I visited the Eagle Eye Centre also part of the Mount Elizabeth Hospital complex – and saw one of the Eye Specialists.  The first reaction was quite worrying, in that it was not just a inflammation but a severe eye infection, which if left untreated could cause permanent damage to my eye and vision – it had impacted to the Corneo and Iris/Lens now, so it needed urgent treatment.  The doctor prescribed me a number of eye drops, tablets and ointments that I had to take intensively over a 2-day cycle, and then signed me off on MC for a further 2 days.

The treatment was as follows:

  •  GUT PRED FORTE – 5 drop each hour (1 drop / min for 5 mins ): Reduce Inflammation
  •  GUT CRAVIT Ophthalmic Solution – 1 drop every 3 hours: Antibiotics
  •  GUT ATROPIN – 1 drop 3 times a day: Anticholinergic and aids Dilation
  •  OCC MAXIDEX Ointment – apply once at night: Anti-Inflammatory
  •  IBUPROFEN – 2 tablets 3 times a day: Anti-Inflammatory
  •  FAMOTIDINE – 1 tablet twice daily for a week: Gastric Protection
My 2 Days Drug Store

My 2 Days Drug Store

He told me that there is no one cause of the infection, but likely to be caused by some other underlining issue – flu, food posioning, some other infection etc – and the eye just reacted to it accordingly.  But I didn’t have anything previously, so it was very strange.  He also said it was strange that only one eye was involved, as he would expect both to be affected (luckily it wasn’t, else I would be totally blind!)

Eye Comparison

Eye Comparison

I returned to see the Eye Specialist on Saturday morning, and the goodness that the intense treatment seemed to be making a difference.  The redness and inflammation had subsided, but the eye remained very blurry and he told me that I had to continue the treatment for the next 2 days, but if with a lesser dose of the eye drops – moving from 5 drops an hour to 1 an hour.

So hopefully, this treatment can really hit the spot and ensure the infection goes away.  I hope the blurriness stops – but it’s difficult to tell whether this is the infection or the eye drops causing it.

Either way, another visit on Tuesday afternoon – and hopefully I will know more.  The good news is that the infection is reducing – and I can return to the work on Monday (if you consider this good news), but the bad news is that he told me that the chances of a reoccurence in the future is relatively high – hey-ho, at least I know how to react if I start feeling issues with one of the eyes.

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