Ouch!

Last Friday night, just about 9pm, before I left office, I felt a needle-poking pain in my left heel. I didn't bother, cos I thought maybe it's just a small pebble or something else. It went away, and then came back at an unpredictable timing. So when I removed my socks, I tried to look at it but it is at an area very difficult to see. I told myself I guess I gotta go back home, go in front of the mirror and dolit do it.

So after I got home, I took a pair of tweezers and a blade and went in front of my toilet mirror. And what the hell I still can't see that thing properly. I contemplated going to SJMC, but was a bit lazy, cos it's almost 11pm and I had a 10am flight to JB the next day. After talking to my darling, I decided that I had to go SJMC, in case it get infected or worse. And it is definitely NOT FUN to experience needle-poking pain now and then while walking. IT SUCKS BIG TIME!

So after waiting for the MO at SJMC for about 30mins, the Indian lady MO took a look at it and told me I would have to come back Monday morning and have it removed by an orthopaedic. She said currently, they can remove it but would have to do "exploration", which, in layman terms mean cutting and digging for the foreign object. According to her, if I have it removed by the orthopaedic, it would take less than 15mins cos he/she has the special equipments to do that, and less damages to my heel. I was thinking... WHAT THE? Wait until Monday??? And definitely the bill will be higher lor, if see the ortho specialist eventhough my company's paying for everything. So I told her I will take the risk of more pain and more damages to my heels and have the thing removed there and then and not wait until Monday. And guess what? She so irresponsibly pushed my case to another doctor on call that night, Dr Chew, a Chinese guy doctor. I heard what she said over the phone - I have 6 cases waiting for me now... bla bla bla... and dunno what nots lah. DUNNO HOW TO DO or LAZY TO DO tell me straighforwardly lah! Apa lah... Somemore I was charged RM50++ for MO services (her part) in the final bill. What crap huh?

When I was directly to the ER where Dr Chew is on call, I was number 4 in the queue, so I waited and waited and waited lor. There were 2 emergency cases - a childbirth and a lady claiming she vomitted 5 to 6 times in the past 1 hour. Eventually, it turned out that I was the last case for the night. So at about 1:40am, I was attended to by Dr Chew. Quite a nice guy, seriously, and very professional, unlike the urgh... whatever.

So after he took a look at the thing (Can you see it? It's the reddish area with a black colour thing in the middle):

He told me what he needs to do. He will at first apply local anaesthetics, to numb the area, before beginning the "exploration". Ok, I said, no problem. Big deal, I thought, until I saw the needle and the syringe! Man! How BIG could a needle get?!?!? Ok, nevermind. Be brave, John, BE BOLD AND COURAGEOUS! So he poked the needle deep into my heel, about 5mm below the foreign object. And dunno what he did, he sort of moved the needle sideways and lifted my skin up with the needle... Yah, I know..... OOOOOWWWWWWW! Well, I didn't cry out lor... in fact I didn't even make a sound, except for my leg that was twitching, because of the excruciating pain OK! It was amazing I managed to mantain my cool through out that needle experience. After like a few seconds, he said don't look, testing ah... so I looked away, and he asked... feel anything? I said no, and a few more times. Wow, that was fast, I exclaimed. The anaesthetics worked damn fast lor. The circular area around the object was totally numb.

Ok, here comes the bloody part. So he took an evil-looking size 11 blade and made 2 incisions and afterwards tried to dig out the object. Of course blood oozed out easily from the incisions. I think I must have lost around 12ml of blood. Anyways, he said oh, look, the thing is breaking into smaller pieces. I was like, oh shit... more digging??? Anyways, no pain lor. But thank God the longer piece was eventually taken out. So what was it? Here is the pic I took:

It certainly looked like my hair... black in colour, size almost the same like my hair, but how could my hair get underneath my heel's skin??? Weird... so perhaps it's a metallic black-coloured brush from a shoe brush or something like that lah. But I was wearing working shoes and socks wor... and I had not brushed my shoe for like ages... Dunno... weird... And that little thing costed my company RM160++...... supposed to be only RM110++, if minus out the unnecessary "costs".

So the final part was to stitch back my incisions, and he used 2 stitches to seal back the opened skin. So finally, this is how my heel looked like (pic taken just a few mins ago - see the black colour threads?):

And I am not supposed to apply pressure on that area for at least 2 to 3 days. It's not like I had a choice anyway, cos the bloody area hurt like mad after the effects of the anaesthetics waded off whenever I accidentally applied pressure on that part! $%^$%£$^ the $^%^£$^ It's so bloody painful ok! So I had no choice also to limp, by walking with 1 and a half of my heels only. Damn troublesome!

So when I finally reached home, it was 2 something. And another thought raced through my mind. What about my event in JB? I am having a Round Table Talk at a Chinese restaurant in JB with 7 Paeds and 1 O&G. Honestly, I didn't feel like going lor... Imagine how much walking I have to do! Walk to the check-in counter, walk to the plane, walk to the taxi, bla bla berlalah! And it is also the first time I am conducting a RTT... usually, I will do a CME, which is like no sweat for me... but this is a first loh... Besides, I hardly knew any of the Paeds or O&Gs in JB loh... Sigh... decisions... decisions... even at 7:30am, 30mins before the taxi driver show up at my house, I was still contemplating on go or no go. Finally I decided to go lor... better be responsible... and suffer a little bit lor...

I wondered how did I look like... John the Limp... sigh... but that was a totally no fun experience.

The RTT went well. Most of the doctors were friendly... and everyone is still discussing about Datuk Chua... I heard a lot of juicy stuffs that you don't get on the news... but for Datuk Chua's sake, I think he has received enough of the consequences of his actions. Let's not continue punishing him, shall we? Do I think he's wrong? Of course he's wrong for having an affair, but you don't have to keep unearthing his sin that is already buried and covered when he had already admitted and apologised for it. We don't have to trust him and accept him now, but doesn't mean we should continue to make fun of him and criticize him. The man made a mistake. David made a mistake. Abraham made a mistake. Let's move on. And I definitely have no interest in looking at that hotel rendezvous between a 60 yr old man and a lady half his age. It's sick ok. I dunno what kick people get out of watching things like that... sick bastards.

Anyways, I almost missed my 7am flight back to KL this morning! Thank God the taxi fellow waited for me. I told him 6am and I only woke up at that time! I managed to pack up, check out and leave at 6:30am. Thank God for the INEFFICIENCY of MAS, when I arrived at Pintu 1 at 6:50am, they have not even announced the ready-to-board yet! Phew...

After reaching home at 9, took a nap till 11, and still managed to attend the 2nd service limpingly... phew...... Thank You Jesus for such an eventful weekend! Thank You for a great week ahead and thank You that it's only 8 more days to see my darling again! Yay!