UGLYM3N

what a day today… man… today is such an experience i wont forget…

last nite, after our wonderful jamming at jelutong studio, my upper left ankle felt some pain. why? well, it's an old sport injury that i picked up 19 years ago in 1987. before i became a world class crap rocker, i was a world class martial artist practising tae kwon do. i was so good at being wallap by my schoolmates and famous for being a punching bag for people to bantai me, ouch! during one of the sparring sessions, i kicked my partner a few times using the ankle side of my left foot. it's called the “turning kick”. i was so good that i injured myself rather than my partner cause he blocked all my kicks… sigh… that's why i dint complete my black belt but stopped short oh being a blue belt practitioner. i always liked blue… blue sky, blues music, nissan bluebird, blue film…

anyway, when i reported work at my customer site (which is a hospital in penang) today, i felt the pain to be unbearable until i have to limp when walking around the floors at the hospital. never felt so painful. i asked around the customers that i'm supporting and they recommended me to a doctor, dr S – he's an orthopaedic surgeon. he's a person who is a specialist of bones. i registered myself at the registration counter and the person attending to me is the assistant director of nursing. when she saw me limped, she asked me whether “do you want a wheel chair”. reality struck me. i'm a patient that can't walk. just like most old folks or people we see whom can't walk but need wheel chair. i felt afraid, very afraid from then on… i said “it's ok, no need, i can still walk”. but i limped like a dog being crashed by a motorbike.

i went to see the doctor, he was nice. we chat a little bit while i disclosed to him how i ended with the injury. he told me to lie on the bed and i removed my stockin. the moment, he touched my upper left ankle with his 2 fingers, i SCREAMED so loud he got shocked. there's no blue black mark, no discoloration of the skin and only a small hump. he told me “i dont know what's wrong with you”. i can't believe my ears… cause if an expert can't tell what's wrong with you, u r in DEEP shit!

“i need you to take an xray”. so i went to the xray room to take 2 shots. brought back the photos and the doctor said “there's a little hump in your bone and tissue. the bone humps a bit but not sure what is the rest of it”. he added “i need to clearly examine what is inside there”. leh mak leh… my face turned pale. “i want you to go thru CT Scan” said doctor S. my face became numb. i can't describe it correctly but CT Scan is a 3D scanner that is able to scan your whole body from head to toe, from bones to nerves, from muscle to arteries and it's a big machine that you see on any space adventure movie where people sit in a special chamber. this big machine is made by toshiba where it has a small bed with a big round “ring” enclosing it. the “ring” scans your body. i lied down the bed, my body strapped and both my toes tied up. the feeling WAS HORRIBLE. the atmosphere was so scary and so quiet… i tot i wanna die already. look at the machine!!!

 

i got the feeling that i'm a terminally ill patient with my days numbered and as if i'm having a severe cancer and i'm just waiting to be tube-feed. also on my mind, the thing that worries me is the BILL that's gonna charge me. ARGH!!!! i was afraid, scared and lonely…

i start to think of “well, working 16 hours every day and being scolded by people are NOT bad at all”. things came to my mind as if it's the end of the world… what will happen to my family if i'm not there tomoro OR what will happen to uglymen band cause they depend on me ALL the time AND who can play my crappy guitar parts? bwahahahahahahah :p (please vomit if you have to… kekeke)

i went thru the scan. the bed tilt upright to about 30 degree. then the bed slid into the “ring”. loud space-ship noise emitted from the machine… wah lau eh… nearly peed in my pants. then the guy who operates the machine came to see me. we can only see your bone but can't see your foot's tissue. we like to give you an injection so that the machine can pick up your tissue. my eyes popped out from the sockets, what the… they asked me whether i have any allergy to seafood or i'm ashmatic. i told them i got no allergy. they injected my right arm with “contrast” – a blueish fluid that when injected into your body will be easily scanned by the machine.

result out after an hour because they need to process the films. my name was called into the doctor's room again and he said “there's nothing wrong with you and i'm going to give you a swell-suppresion medication”.
- medication
- consultation
- x-ray
- registration
- CT scan
= RM700+ (i cry and cry…)

and i realized that i had this injury for 19 years and why suddenly i had this problem bugging me. then i think again. actually, during weekend, i did a lot of long walk and on monday i ate something i never had for more than 10 years (i think) – Kiam Chai Th'ng (sour vegetable soup). old injuries to the bones are usually referred to as “hong sip” (hokkien) OR “fong sap” (cantonese) OR “angin” (malay language); in plain english, it's called “wind”. proper medical term is called rheumatism

. according to chinese and malay culture, people (or old folks) with “wind” should avoid “airy”-inducing food such as:
- bamboo shoot
- sour vegetable soup
- very spicy/hot food
- jackfruit (nangka)
- kangkong
- ku chai

if i go to a chinese doctor, he'll probably say i have “wind” (hong sip) and asked me not to eat hot and sour stuff and probably charge me RM5 for a packet of panadols… sigh.

i was given medical leave (absence from work) until the end of the week… yahoo~~~