(Just to clarify though - the title of this post just means that the father has only experienced fatherhood for 1 month and not a 1-month old who has fathered a child... ;p)

Have you ever had this feeling, that when you were cleaning the house, that you've discovered a dirty, dusty spot that has not been cleaned for years, and after you had cleaned the spot, you felt really good about yourself?

Well, I had such an epiphany (or sorts) recently, but with a piece (or maybe pieces) of ear wax. Recall my previous post, of how I was crossing into the new year uncertain about when a piece of ear wax was gonna come out of my ear?

Here's how the story continues:

The ear wax wouldn't come out for the next couple of days (on New Year's Day and the day after), but I kept my faith and continued to drip the ear drops to soften the ear wax. By the end of the Wednesday (also the first day at work), I've had enough of not being able to hear "stereo" sound and rushed to the doctor at the end of work (well, actually after the pre-natal class we were attending). The doctor looked into my ear, and wasn't too confident but decided to try syringing anyway (thank goodness he didn't ask me to come back the next day!).

If you were thinking ear syringing was done with a small syringe that's used for injections, then you'd be sorely disappointed. The doctor came into the room with a big-ass syringe, that will blow anyone's mind. ;p Here's a photo of what it looks like:

Ok, maybe it doesn't look quite so scary without a hypodermic needle at the end of it, but still it was pretty bad-ass. By the way. ear syringing works by filling up a syringe with warm water, and then flushing it through the ear canal to flush whatever shit in there out.

Anyway, the doctor proceeded to syringe my ear. After 1 attempt, he took a look into my ear to see the "progress". I waited with bated breath for the doctor's reply - since ear syringing is somewhat iffy and there's no guarantee that the ear wax would come out. So imagine the delight in me when he said that it's looking good, and we'll have to do it a few more times.

So again we went, 2nd, 3rd and 4th time. By the end of the 2nd syringe, my hearing was back to "stereo" and it felt really good. (Imagine pains and needles in your limbs going away... ;p) And the amount of ear wax collected in the liquid that came out of my ear was quite astonishing. I don't have pictures to show of it (and I don't think you'd be interested to see it anyway), but let's just say that I was amazed by how much shit wax there was in there. haha. For $45 to clean 1 ear, I'd say it was money pretty well spent. ;p

At the end of the 4th time, I had that wonderful feeling that I imagine anyone would have having been "disabled" for a period of time. I can only imagine how horrible it must be for anyone to lose their sense of hearing. I was partially "deaf" for a couple of days, and the feeling was killing me! And guess what the unintended consequence of ear syringing was - now that my right ear was spanking clean (if I could see the insides of it), my left ear was feeling dirty and blocked! It's all just relative. Urgh!

So I'm uncertain now whether or not I should seek the doctor's help to do ear syringing for my left ear! Advice anyone?

It's sort of become a tradition that I've got to write a post on my "New Year's Resolution" every year, so here it is!

As we leave 2012 behind and usher in the New Year, I've got to say that I begin the year with plenty of uncertainty - not necessary in a bad way I guess:

1. Uncertain of when we will move into our new flat! In case you've not read my previous post on our housing woes, you should! ;p We're keeping our fingers and toes crossed that we'll move in around the 20th of January.

2. Uncertain of my new "job". I think most of you will already know, but I'm moving to HQ next year to be a Special Pro-jects Officer - a bit of a change from teaching. For now, I only have a very vague idea of what I'm gonna be doing, so again I'm hoping that this move is for the better! (Not that I could have stopped it if I'd wanted to though...)

3. Uncertain of when a certain piece of ear wax is gonna come out of my ear! And yes I'm serious about this! 2 days ago, I went swimming, and ended up with a bit of a blocked right ear. And then I was so annoyed by it yesterday I decided to try and clean it with a cotton bud, only to push ear wax deeper into my ear! Spent 2.5 hours at the Polyclinic today to find out that the ear wax is now impacted (i.e. stuck) and I've got to come back for ear syringing (basically using a syringe filled with water to flush my ear). But well, the silly thing is that the appointment for the ear syringing was gonna be in a month's time! I think I can only tolerate a couple more days of bad hearing in one ear before I start pushing all sorts of stuff into my ear canal to take out the ear wax!

Well, thankfully I also went to see a GP this afternoon, and we should be able to do some ear syringing on Wednesday. So even as 2013 has arrived, I've entered 2013 with blocked ears! And I've got to put this wax solution into my ear to try and soften the ear wax so that it's more likely to come out during the ear syringing! Brings new meaning to the saying "Happy New Year, Pull Your Ears!" haha!

But on the other hand, I also begin 2013 with something that I'm looking forward to - the birth of our first child! 2012 was indeed a life-changing year - what's with the wedding, our honeymoon, and now that Esther's pregnant, we are both looking forward to seeing our baby boy some time in early April! :)

So you might have heard, we collected our keys to our new flat in Punggol! That was on 8 Oct 2012. Fast forward to today (27 Dec 12), and guess what? Our flat is still not ready yet! Every time we visit the flat, we end up being frustrated, helpless, and dejected. "Why?" You may ask...

Well, we looked for our brother-in-law on 7 Sep to get him to design and do up our flat. The designs didn't come till mid/end-Oct. Well, we should have taken that as the first sign that things were not gonna come soon. But we were assured that the flat would be ready by mid-December.

In Nov, the designs were out, we chose our tiles, bathroom accessories, lighting. We even bought our kitchen appliances (stove, hood, oven), refrigerator, washing machine, dining table. To top it up, we even went on a 2-week holiday to the UK/France, and now we're back! And we have now bought a rice cooker, sound bar, vacuum cleaner, kettle, bedsheets and more. Oh, did I also mention that we had already bought our mattress back in April? And guess what? Still no flat.

Basically, we have planned to make use of this entire Nov/Dec holiday to move in and settle into our new flat, but let's just say that things haven't gone according to plan. We've spent days literally scouring the streets, and sitting at cafes watching time go by. We're sick of shopping for this and that, and then wondering where the hell to put all the stuff we've bought. Thankfully the big ticket items can be stored at the warehouses until our flat is ready.

We even had grand dreams of hosting Christmas parties (notice the plural form used here) at our new flat, as housewarming! But of course, grand as these dreams may be, they remained as dreams for now and we shall now hope that the house will be ready by Chinese New Year. (which FYI, is about 1.5 months after Christmas)

The progress thus far - tiles have been laid (excluding the vinyl tiles), the lights and fans are up and just today, the first coat of paint was laid. And that's all that's been done in the flat for now.The last we heard today, the carpentry work will only be ready 15 Jan, so after installation, the flat will be ready 20 Jan at the very earliest. If you are reading this, we're gonna need to borrow your fingers and toes to be crossed that it really will be ready by then..... :(

Esther and I are currently at Alona Beach, Panglao Island, Bohol, Philippines! Spending a few chillax days on the beach and learning how to scuba dive! Diving with Genesis divers, and staying at Peter's house - not the cheapest of dive shops but very professional. The accommodation is rather basic though. Not that we mind cos it's really cheap (only PHP600 per night or SGD18). There's no hot water, air conditioning or tv in the room, but I guess we'll make do with it. :) at least there's wifi available.

And I'm trying out the blogger app so this is gonna be a short post for now! :) Nitey Nitez folks... We've had our first open water dive today which was AMAZING... Doing two more dives tomorrow...

Today I went down to the Traffic Police HQ to meet the investigation officer (IO) for my case (Vilton).

I had called the day before to make the appointment to meet him at 2pm. I arrived in time for the appointment at 1.50pm. When I called Vilton, he asked if I was in a hurry. I said no, although my tone was to imply that I don't like to be waiting unnecessary. He said he will take about 30 minutes, and said he will try to get his colleague to meet me instead. I was told to wait at Level 2.

About 5 minutes later, I received a call from Vilton, and he said that his colleagues were at the blood donation drive at level 3, and will take about 30 minutes. I said, no worries, I will wait. (I mean I'm already there right?) I waited for 30 minutes. No one came. Another 10 minutes. Still no sign of my name being called. People around me came and left, after meeting with their IOs. I seemed only poor soul in the room who had noone tending to him. :(

By 2.45pm, I've played enough games of Bejeweled Blitz, surfed through enough Facebook profiles, read all the articles on the Straits Times app, and I thought I'd give it abit more time and "tahan" till 3pm before I called him again. Since I've already waited 55 minutes, another 15 minutes can't hurt right?

So just before 3pm, Vilton returned with another colleague. (Of course, at that time, I did not know it was him). He went into his office and came out with my file and called my name. Finally. Instead of apologising for making me wait like an idiot for 1hr 10 minutes, he proceeded to settle the "paperwork" with me. "I need you to sign here and here for your to collect your bike. You can collect your bike from here. *gestures to map*" Facepalm man. Ok, I guess I was glad to be able to collect that bike at that time, so I wasn't really pissed. But thinking back, I think he owed me an apology and explanation for why he was so late. Refer to previous post for more descriptions on him.

Anyway, I also asked him some questions about the accident. Apparently, there was a witness - the pedestrian who was supposed to cross the road. He/She said that the other motorcycle had stopped, and I'd tried to stop, but didn't manage to stop in time and thus crashed into the other motorcycle. That's as best a description I could get about the accident. So basically my fault lah. But why I didn't manage to stop in time is a mystery. Also, guess what bike I crashed into? A Harley Davidson! I think maybe I was looking at the bike and didn't notice that he was stopping, and maybe I fainted after that in awe. Who knows. haha.

After my 5 minute encounter with my IO, I took a cab down to the Traffic Police vehicle pound to collect my motorcycle. I tell you, this pound is DAMN ulu! It's like right beside Paya Lebar Air Base, and the whole place is like a time-bubble of the 70s. I mean, it's almost like a kampong lah! And I saw a number of familiar faces at the pound too - familiar because I'd seen them at TP HQ earlier on.

After a 10 minute wait, I was asked to walk to the storage area to collect my bike. I was half-expecting to see my bike with horrible long scratches on the side or something. To my surprise, there was hardly any damage to it! Well, other than my headlight's cover which seems to have come off, it looks fairly unscathed.

The headlight cover came off, but easily put back

Seems like I was the only injured party in the accident. (Not necessarily a bad thing I suppose). It was only I started the bike that I realised that something was wrong - which is kinda strange - I hit another motorcycle, and the engine, which is in the middle of bike, and somewhat the most protected is damaged? I still managed to start the bike, and it could still move, so after signing the papers to collect it, I took it to my workshop to get it repaired.

Apparently my carburetor was broken or loose and needed to be replaced. Small problem I guess. Also told my mechanic to give it a thorough servicing and checking to see if there are any parts that needs to be replaced. And in about a day's time, I will finally be able to get the bike back.

Personally, I'm just glad that this whole episode in my life is over. Although there are some unanswered questions, I think at least there is some closure to this episode. What's left to settle now is the summon that I will receive for "careless driving" - comes with a penalty of $200 and 6 demerit points and also my follow-up appointment at CGH. I'm a little disappointed that I won't be able to learn scuba diving as a result of this injury (was supposed to do it in Cebu next week), but I guess life throws you a curveball sometimes and you just have to deal with it.

When you read the title of this post, you might be wondering, aren't all accidents unexpected? True to some extent, but I guess in my case, I didn't even see it coming! For example, if you were cutting fruits for dessert, you might accidentally prick your finger. Or a baby could have been created "accidentally". But in these cases, you kinda knew what was happening before the accident happened.

Well, to cut my accident story short, all I can remember was leaving my house on Tuesday (29 May) to go for tuition. I remember getting on my bike and leaving, and the next thing I knew, I was at the A&E ward of Changi General Hospital. I have no recollection of the events that happened in between. Scary you would say. I find the whole sequence of events a mystery as well. I'm not sure if I'd blacked out before the accident, and hence caused the accident, or that I had a concussion after the accident that led to me having some short-term memory loss, or that as my mother and one other patient in my ward told me, if it could be a case of 鬼遮眼。To be honest, your guess is as good as mine, as to what has happened.

Anyway, so here's the events that happened before and after the accident, in chronological order (mostly): [Warning: there are some photos of the wounds too...]

6.05pm - I'd left my house to go for dinner before tuition. It was a somewhat usual routine. I was looking forward to some "healthy" fast food at Vegan Burg (at Eunos) - you should try it if you haven't! They serve gluten free bread and meals. Very heartily wholesome!

~6.10-6.15pm - I apparently hit a motorcycle at the slip road from Tampines, going to the PIE. (I say apparently, because this is what the Traffic Police officer told me when he called me later in the day)

6.15~7.45pm - My mind was in a blur. I briefly recall someone telling me that he was an SCDF officer (i think my mind responded to the SCDF part instinctly), and I recall being taken to a CT scan at the hospital. I somewhat recall having a neck brace or something, which was then removed. I also recall being extremely apologetic at the hospital, saying "Sorry for the trouble" and "thank you" to all the nurses and doctors who were helping me. Don't ask me why - I think it was all out of my very polite subconsciousness. (My parents would have been proud) I'm not sure if I was "high" from the pain (which I didn't seem to feel) or from some painkiller drugs they gave me. But in any case, everything seems to be moving extremely fast (from my perspective).

7.45-8pm - I seem have regained consciousness around 7.45pm, although the memories are still hazy. I realised I was put on drip - my first time being on drip. In fact my first time being warded in a hospital. I recall giving the nurse my mother's contact number (Esther was overseas, and I didn't want her to be worried, especially when she'd only left the day earlier, after much preparation for the trip). The nurse, I think her name was Lei Lei, started to dress my wounds. I started to have a clearer picture of the injuries I had - although because I didn't have my spectacles, it wasn't so clear. I had some abrasions on my left toes (2nd, 3rd and 4th) - cos I was wearing slippers. Scratches on my right leg (cos I was wearing shorts) and an especially deep gash just below the knee. (It's a bit graphic to describe, but you could see the bone from the gash. Sounds horrible just writing it here, but somehow it wasn't so shocking when I saw it. And thankfully, no fractures)

8.30pm - My mum arrives to see the horrible state that I seemed to be in (with bandages all over my legs and face). She didn't seem extremely shocked, so I guess it was a good sign that my injuries were not too serious. (I say this because I had no idea how my injuries looked like)

This was how i looked after being bandaged

The investigating officer (IO) from TP called me to find out what happened. I told him I cannot remember. I don't remember much of the conversation but I remember that I didn't like the tone of voice he was using on me. When I told him I don't remember, then he said it's not to your advantage if you don't remember - or something like that. I mean, come on lah, if I cannot remember, it means I cannot remember! Are you trying to accuse me of lying to you? I had to ask him what happened in the end, and he said I had collided with another motorcycle which was stopping at a pedestrian crossing. In any case, he told me that his name is Vilton, and I should contact him when I get discharged. Well, I said thank you very much. I was thinking, he should have at least visited me at the hospital if he really wanted a statement from me, then he would realise that I really wasn't lying. Asshole!

(But I mean, if it was really my fault, and you want to charge me for careless driving, then so be it! At that point in time, and even now, I'm still trying to figure out what's happened, so shouldn't you be trying to help me figure out what's happened, instead of pointing the finger at me?)

I found out that the other rider whom I'd crashed into was discharged already.

~9pm - Around this time, I was taken up to the ward, since I was deemed to no longer require the services of A&E. My father had also arrived at the hospital. They met me at the ward. I was initially warded to Ward 47, Bed 32 - Class C ward. The nurse said she'd check what my civil servant benefits entitled me to, but never got back to me, but my parents were adamant that I should be upgraded to a B ward. In this end, they went to settle the paper work for me, while I sort of rested. My mind was starting to clear up, but still no recollection of the accident. I sent an SMS to my tutee and his mum to inform them about the accident, and that I was doing fine. They replied and said, they were worried, because I was never late. I was looking forward to some solid food, but was told not to eat and drink in case I needed to go to the OT. :( So poor Kenny was left hungry again.

~10pm - My parents are back with the documentation that said I would be transferred to Ward 37, Bed 16 - a class B2 ward. But I would have to wait for the nurses to send me there. In the meantime, I was supposed to wait for the doctor from orthopedics to take a look at my injuries. I sent my parents home to rest in the meantime - felt bad to have troubled them to come down after their long days at work, and for worrying them.

~11pm - No doctors have come to see me yet. Only a nurse who'd come to take my blood pressure and to check on my drip. I enquired about the doctor. The nurse said that the staff nurse had called the doctor when I first arrived, but they were not here yet. I was starting to feel sleepy. Whatever "high" I had from the adrenaline/pain/drugs was starting to wear off.

~12midnight - I decide to walk to the counter to ask the nurse if I could be transferred to Ward 37 already, and if the doctors had arrived. To my relief, the doctors had arrived, and were busy typing away at the computer - probably trying to find out my case history. I was relieved, and was sent back to my bed.

The doctors (Dr Jonathan Tan, who was a house doctor, and another lady doctor) came. They removed all my bandages to take a look at my wound, and said that I'd need to go to the Operating Theatre (OT) to clean the wounds and get it stitched up. However, there were some life & death operations going on in the OT, so I had to wait. (I guess this was a good sign that at least they considered my condition to be non-critical).

After the doctors left, I was put on a drip pump to increase some sodium/potassium ion in my blood so that I'd be ready for the General Anaesthesia (GA) for the op. I swear this drip pump was more painful that all my injuries combined. I promptly pressed the call button to alert the nurse, who reduced the flow rate for me, and gave me an ice pack. The pain was so severe initially that my entire left arm started to get numb from it. She reduced the flow rate from 50 to 20 to 15. And even at 15, it was still painful, just not intolerable.

I fell asleep soon after with the ice pack on my arm.

~1.30am - I got roused from my sleep. I was wondering - is it time for me to change wards already? Or is it time for me to go to the OT? To my disappointment, I was roused to go for an X-ray of my toe, to ascertain that there were no fractures there. I was wheeled to the X-ray room and back within 10 minutes. I enquired if my bed in Ward 37 was ready and was told to wait for a porter to take me over.

~2am - The porter had finally arrived! Hurray! I was wheeled to Ward 37 - which in my opinion, I could have walked there on my own, since they were really just next to each other. Or that the nurses could have just taken me over on their own. But perhaps there's some "politics" between the wards, or some "caste" system in place such that nurses from a certain class ward was not allowed into another class' ward. But whatever it was, I was glad to finally have a most restful sleep.

When I got to ward 37, the nurse hooked me up to the same drip pump thingy, and I had to ask her to lower it again. But I tried to increase my pain tolerance to cope with a flow rate of 20 this time. Pretty painful but I was tired, and I fell asleep soon after with a new ice pack.

~6.15am - Morning call! Or maybe not... I was woken up to get changed into surgical gown so that I could go to the OT. I remember going to the toilet to pee - it's amazing how much water goes in via IV! And I remember the nurse giving me a disposable underwear to put on ("Do I wear anything in the surgical gown? I take off my underwear also?") cos she thought that maybe I was "shy". Well, perhaps I was.. haha..

6.30am - I was wheeled by 2 ladies to the OT on Level 3. I still remember the route from my days doing my hospital attachment at CGH in the first year of my JC days. The chinese lady told me that I shouldn't ride a bike.

I arrive at the OT and I remember it was freezing! The nurses were nice though - they gave me ample blankets to keep me warm. I had to wait for a short while before it was my turn. Once I got wheeled into the OT, a certain Dr Kenneth came to check on my details (He said, "You're Kelvin, is it?" Not sure if he was trying to check my level of consciousness or if he'd really thought I was a Kelvin... ;p), and explained that he was gonna adminster GA on me. He explained the risks to me - there's a chance my blood pressure will drop, and I can suffer a heart attack, etc etc... but as if I had another choice! In any case, I was soon transferred to the operating table. My first time in an OT, and I remember the room was spacious and there were many lights on the ceiling (pardon my observations. one can only observe so much when he is lying down... ;p). Soon came the gas mask - I remember the gas mask from the time I had a toe fracture in Sec 4 and had to be sent to KK hospital. But that's a different story. Anyway, the doctor said I would soon fall asleep, and asleep I did fall.

My only regret was that I'd wanted to say Thank You to the surgeons before the operation began, since I knew after the operation, I would be asleep for quite a while more. But they were too efficient for me. ;p

After the op - I'm not sure what time, but when I was being wheeled back to the ward, I remember feeling extremely nauseous - one of the side effects of the GA. And I puked twice (or thrice) on the way back to the ward. You can't really blame me though - the nurses were pushing me so fast on the bed, that I was getting motion-sickness! (Ok, from my perspective anyway)

10am - I awoke around 10am, back at the ward. I think I was awoken by the nurses taking my blood pressure. (Remember my blood pressure might drop suddenly? so they have to monitor it on an hourly basis, which meant I was woken up every hour for my blood pressure to be taken) From this time till around 12 noon, everything was hazy again. But this time, at least I know it was the effect of the GA.

I remember a speech therapist (Raymond) came by to "test" my memory. He asked me some questions and showed me 3 photos and asked me to remember the sequence of the photos (clock -> toothbrush -> bird), and he said he'd come by the next couple of days to see if I'd remember his name. He never had the chance to come back to test me, cos I was discharged the next day. If I can give him any feedback, it would be "DON'T TEST A PERSON WHO HAS JUST WOKEN UP FROM GA! It's really hard to concentrate when you're groggy!)

I also remember a doctor came by to take blood samples for Renal tests (kidney functions). I remember that the extraction of blood wasn't painful at all - perhaps because of the GA. And I remember telling the doctor that "That was fast!" (the blood extraction that is).

I also remember the orthopaedic doctor (lady one) came round to check on me. And so did this big sized doctor, who I later find out that he's the senior consultant for Orthopedics - Dr Chua (which I'm told is quite a senior post). I told him I was feeling nauseous. He said it's normal.

It's funny looking back at this period, but I remember I asked almost every doctor/nurse who came by to do some test on me what time it was. I was disappointed that only 30-60 mins had passed in between each "test".

12.30pm - My father arrives with my uncle. My father had not been working that day. (not because of me though). I asked if he could bring my iPhone charger. Also, I tried to drink milo, and promptly regurgitated it all out.

1.30pm - My tuition kids (Justin & Joel) & their mum came by for a visit. I think they felt bad that I got into an accident while I was on my way to their place. But I guess, it really could've happened anytime. They were nice enough to have gotten my Brand's essence of chicken, as well as Vitamin K to help in my recovery.

2.30pm - My dad returns with my iPhone charger! I am reconnected with the world! Or actually not. I was still too drugged from my GA to comprehend what was going on around me. In my mind I only wanted Sleep Sleep Sleep! I was worried that Esther would be worried cos I hadn't messaged her for the day, so I had to come up with an excuse that my phone battery had died cos i hadn't charged it properly the night before. I guess this shows that my brain function was still doing well. :)

3.30pm - zzzzzzzz. More blood pressure taking

4.30pm - zzzzzzzz. More blood pressure taking

5.30pm - I finally wake around 5.30pm, feeling refreshed and no longer nauseated! (which is a great relief!) Now I know how it feels like to have "morning sickness". Anyway, I was looking forward to dinner - which would be my first solid food since 10am the day before.

Dinner was served around 6.30pm, and it was Japanese Curry Rice with Pork Chop! And I would say it was really yummy! But I might be biased. It was my first proper meal in 1.5 days, so I'd have found anything delicious. ;p

Anyway, I shall stop writing here. It's tiring to write about 24 hours worth of events in 1 hour. The summary of events that happened after was that I got discharged the day after (hurray)! My colleagues (Melvin, Shi Ru and Georgina) came to visit me too. I received a fruit and flower basket from my school. I made a traffic accident report with the police. And since then, I had been resting at home and playing Diablo 3 and sleeping.

I guess I'm lucky cos it's the June holidays now, so I don't have to go back to teach. (although Melvin had to cover my lessons for the June study camp). I'm also lucky that my injuries were not too severe, and that Esther wasn't with me at the time of the accident. And many things to be thankful for too.

Here are some photos of the injury, taken 1 week after the accident... (mostly for myself to remember... ;p) You can see that the wounds are healing quite well, many thanks to all the fish essence that I've been drinking... :)

Abrasion on the left knee

Injured toes on left leg. Fake toe nail on left 4th toe with 3 stitches

This is how the stitches on my right leg look like.. 9 stitches here

Anyway, as a footnote to my wife Esther, sorry that I hadn't been careful enough and had gotten into an accident, and sorry that I hadn't told you about this earlier - I didn't want you to be worried during your OCIP trip, especially when you had only left the day before... If I had told you earlier, you'd have been really worried, and I wouldn't have wanted you to fly back cos of this, so you'd just have been worrying the whole time. Know that I did this because I love you! :) And remember our marriage vow says,

"....In your sickness and your health.... I promise to cherish you"

So you'll have to still accept me even though how horrible I may look when you see me.... ;p