Heart Sick (5)

My first appointment with the cardiologist at the National Heart Institute was scheduled on 2.30pm. While waited for the doctor, they did an echocardiogram on me, similar to the one I did while I was warded in Gleneagles. But I didn’t get to see the doctor till almost 5pm. It’s typical of how government hospitals operate I guess? But I thought they should know better not to stress heart patients…

Based on the echocardiogram, the reports from my previous cardiologist and the video of my earlier angiogram done at Gleneagles, the doc said he was quite sure an open heart surgery was my obvious option. He then wanted me to do another test, called Nuclear Viability Test (or Positron Emission Tomography, or myocardial perfusion imaging, ya lots of fanciful names but my guess is there are all the same), where a radioactive substance was to be injected into my vein, then a giant scanning machine will be able to produce 3-D pictures of my heart to determine if there is adequate blood flow to the heart and assess the amount of damage to the heart after the heart attack. The doc is to use this to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed by-pass surgery.

But I couldn’t take the test as yet, as it has a long waiting list; it was June and my appointment was somewhere in September… hmm… not sure if I could outlive the test date!

Luckily for me, as the doctor was kind enough to put me on ‘standby’ – I would have to be at the lab within 4 hours’ notice – I could jump queue if someone cancelled his appointment. Waited anxiously for 2 weeks and they finally called! It turned out less scarier than I expected (hey we are talking about injecting some NUCLEAR stuff into my body and go through a GAMMA RAY scan here!); I was given a shot of the nuclear tracer and asked to rest in the waiting room for 2 hours. They then made me lie on a bed and put an IV line on my arm, more wires on my body connected to some equipment, took my blood pressure… then I was pushed into a big scanner, with its camera kept moving around me for 20 minutes or so. Then it’s over. No pain.

They promised to call me once the report was out.

It cost me RM850 and 5 hours.

- HS

ASTRO MEASAT – ASS-TRO NIA-SAT

So they spent around RM1 billion to put a new satellite up there, and that’s supposedly a newer, more powerful one replacing the older ones and providing better services to ‘support the growing communications requirements’, blah blah blah…

What do I, as a paying customer, get out of it? FRUSTRATIONS!

Whenever it rains, even during drizzles, my TV screen will go cuckoo. It used to be like this only during thunder storms but now it’s almost impossible to watch any programs whenever it rains! One night a week ago, the screen went completely blank, only a yellow dot at the right top corner of the screen.

I called the Customer Service, and after instructed me to fiddle with the remote for several minutes to check on the signal strength, the voice at the other end concluded the diagnosis: “You don’t receive any signal. I will send a technician to check your satellite dish within 24 hours; but you must pay him RM50 service charge.’

Q: WHAT? I thought I read somewhere a Minister has said it’s wrong to charge the customers to rectify reception problems resulting from its migration to the Measat-3 satellite?

A: “That’s a different problem, sir. The problem now is something wrong at your side.” I hope she wasn’t referring to my head (or heart) and just how the heck was she so sure about that by me fiddling the remote?

Then miracle happened. The signal magically came back to life the following day; my TV reception was loud and clear! But it didn’t keep that way happily ever after… I still have to struggle with the interrupted transmissions whenever it starts to rain.

And tonight it happened again! BLANK SCREEN. This time I got a Customer Service Officer who couldn’t speak English, “Ini biasa, memang macam tu bila ada awan blocking. Measat 3 tu untuk extra channel saja, tapi kalau ada awan pun kena tunggu juga.”

So that’s how Malaysia’s fair share of bold and far-sighted entrepreneurs make money?

SPECIALIS REVELIO!!!


-HS

Heart Sick (4)

2nd Opinion

It was not that I didn’t trust my cardiologist or the surgeon in Gleneagles, it was more of me wanting to hear a contradicting report (“…nah, not to worry you are ok, no surgery needed, just pop this pill once a day and you are good!”); yes I know it sounds silly but I can’t describe how desperate, fearful, worried I was… I have gone through all the needles and syringes, x-rays and scans (even lung cancer marker and TB tests due to my bad coughing), tubes and all those cold-as-ice stainless steel equipment for the past week, and now I’m told it’s not all; I’m yet to go through the knife to get myself cut open and probably will die… It was just too much for me.

I felt awfully lousy, and weak. It could be psychological after all the gloomy thoughts of surgery, and medical bills; and also perhaps due to the effects of medications. Now I understand what it meant by “Health is Wealth”. I wouldn’t jump for joy even if someone had told me I won a RM1 million lottery. Just gimme back my heart!

Well I have to say it wasn’t all bad during my stay in Gleneagles; the doctors were good, nurses were caring and understanding. The nurses in the ICU even placed a TV with a VCD player in front of my bed (but only cartoons and comedies. “No World Cup recordings” I was told – yes the 2006 World Cup has just begun). Then I got a nice room after getting out of ICU, with a nice view of KLCC.

View from my room...

I didn’t know any doctor friends, so I didn’t know where to get a second opinion. Then I thought of the National Heart Institute (Institute Jantung Negara – IJN). Hey where else can beat a hospital filled with Heart Doctors? I told my cardiologist about it and she was so kind she referred me to a cardiologist in IJN and even made the appointment for me. I was discharged from Gleneagles after my 11-day stay, and had to wait for about 5 days before my first appointment with IJN. I was warned against going to work, drive, rock concerts, mountain climbing, F1 racing, etc. during may stay at home prior surgery. More medications.

Kept my fingers crossed while waited for the 2nd opinion…


-HS

Grumpy... I know...

There are advertisements everywhere, so much so half of the newspapers is filled with adverts and makes you wonder if one day it could get so bulky all of them will be given away FREE, and one only needs to collect it from the news stand and send them straight to the recycling centre or Paper Lama fella to make some breakfast money…

Whilst most of these adverts are quite creative actually and that makes the newspaper colorful and lively, some are just craps created by stupid bird brains advertising agencies and bought by clueless advertisers (how the heck these ppl get their jobs in the first place?!)

Case in point: how did this lady end up swinging her golf club dressing in a long skirt? The (so called) creative guy obviously knows nuts about golf, and didn’t even bother to turn on the TV or Internet to do some basic research! Of course you’ll need another nuts-head on the advertiser’s side to pay for it… Come to think of it, do you think he bothers to know what he’s selling?

I've even seen a huge poster in the mall; with a pretty face wearing micro-shorts complete with high heels, swinging a golf club!

Then this famous Telco's stunt: it may look funny at the first glance, but that’s not the right message; the Ang Pow is to be given with courtesy, as it represents well wishes, good fortune and kismet, etc. This fella in the pic clearly has no time for the kids and probably telling them, “just take the damned thing and get out of my way! I’ve got better things to do with my phone!”.

-HS