Life as a patient - (just over) 5 weeks since being discharged from the hospital.

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas! Today is the last official day of 2013, thus the last blog post for the year, haha. Sorry the upload hasn't been so regular this year. Perhaps it'll be a little different in 2014 - who knows?

Sorry this post is a bit late! Those who have my Facebook will already know that operation was successful and I'm on the road to a fast recovery! Sorry to those who're only getting my news through the blog. I'm doing absolutely fine! Just been a bit busy over the last month where I had limited access to internet whilst I was in hospital, and when I was out of hospital, my free time was spent either with my little cousins, reading or asleep (with the excuse that I'm still a patient thus I need lots of rest :P) and travelling too (was in a place called Daejeon, but now I'm nearer to Seoul)! The blog post had been delayed so much that now I'm at my last morning in Korea before getting onto the plane to leave for England in about 8 hours time (5 hours probably by the time I finish writing this - had a hiccup with laptop battery)! Meaning I'll probably be spending Korean New Years on the plane, but I shall be back in time to spend the UK's New Years Eve evening (and to watch the countdown) to spend it with the family! ;)

Haha, anyhows, this is just a quick blog post so there's some record when I look back later on of some things I patient-related things I want to remember and take with me, because it's been such a fun/interesting experience! :)

As some of you may know, I was incredibly excited when I was admitted to the hospital on the afternoon of Wednesday 20th November (wow, that feels like ages ago now!) - was pretty gutted when I couldn't log on Facebook to tell you all how excited I was to become "officially" a patient. I was given an order that I was to fast (no food or drink - not even a sip of water!) from midnight that night in preparation for the operation late morning the day after.

I was woken up by a nurse (who was really lovely, and took care of me like her daughter, after knowing that I was there away from family etc.!) very early the next morning (around 5:30am) to get changed into the operating gown and to get on some sorts of fluids, which I've now forgotten the name of (there should be a photo of it somewhere though! I did amuse myself taking photos of everything wherever possible :P). My operation was late that morning (just after 11am) :) I must say, being wheeled up into the theatre was rather fun! Everything is rather blurred, possibly because of general anaesthesia I've had, but the next thing I remember after that is waking up in the recovery room around 1:30pm trying to make out the conversation two of the nurses were having.

I was then wheeled up to my ward and transferred to my bed. At that time, I couldn't feel that much pain, so obviously I logged onto Facbook to post a status saying the operation had gone well and I asked my uncle (who was there as my carer) to take a picture of me on my phone as anyone who'd just woken up from an operation would do... :P

I was discharged on Monday 25th November, spending the weekend in hospital with two lovely ladies on my ward (has 5 beds in total; they try and discharge as many people as possible before the weekend). One lady, who was about 7 years older than I am, was on the ENT department with me and we had the same doctor (she had obstructive sleep apnoea; made me feel proud when I realised I knew what that was.) so we became really good friends, going down from the ward to go and see the doctor together etc :) The other lady was in her early fifties, in the O&G department, who took care of us both like her daughters. Most of the time on the ward was spent asleep, watching TV and at times eating ice-creams which my relatives bought for me when they visited because they were apparently good for me ;) (which I do agree!)

To those that are interested, my official diagnosis was Chronic maxillary sinusitis; deviated nasal septum; hypertrophy of nasal turbinates; and nasal polyp (unspecified - later turned out to be just an inflammatory polyp). The operation I had was endoscopic sinus surgery. septoplasty, both submecosal turbinoplasty under general anesthesia. :) Still not entirely sure what this all means, but I have a copy of my CT scan from my pre-op assessment as well as this diagnosis to revise over and see how ill I actually was, haha.

Here are the three points I would like to take on with me as a 'highlight' of my patient journey so far:

1. Not to underestimate the pain that the patient can go through.
   There were two occasions when I really kind of came to question 'life' because I was in so much pain, haha. Now that was an interesting moment in my life :P
   Firstly, I was on strong painkillers (on a drip - which I could control) after the operation. Because of its side effect, on the first evening after the operation, I found myself too dizzy to even get up or have dinner so I ended up turning it off with the nurse's help. Didn't feel like eating so I tried to get some sleep. The dizziness had disappeared, which was lovely but then I was in much pain, which I can only describe as it being like hit on the face with a football, but continuously :P so I would fall into deep sleep and waking up, thinking the night has passed when actually I was waking up every 50mins or so all through the night! Think that was the lowest point in my patient journey :) I was saved when the nurse came to prepare one of the other ladies in the ward for an operation that morning (around 5:30am). I asked for help and she turned my painkillers back on (I didn't know how to at the time, and it didn't occur to me that I could have pressed the emergency bell to ask for help, but I don't think I wanted to in the thought that I didn't want to bother the nurses - but they were there to take care of me, haha). Since turning it back on, pain stopped and I was able to have a good few hours rest! After that, I learned to be in more control of the drip, turning it on/off depending whether I felt its side effects or was dizzy.
   Secondly, couple of days after the op, on the morning of Saturday 23rd November, I was having the gauze up my nose removed (from the operation - these were the non-dissolving ones). That was surprisingly a very painful procedure, apparently because of the pressure difference up my nose. I hadn't expected it to be that painful so I came out crying (haha) and the lady (from my ward, who was at ENT dept with me) bought me a box of tissues - a true essential if you're having going to the ENT dept for an operation. (Funny moment though, I had tears coming out from my eyes all the time I was in hospital just because my tear duct was being rather sensitive).
   But yeah, the pain I experienced on both occasions made me think of lots of things, including "if childbirth pain is described to be the  most painful thing ever, and I'm already in so much pain from an operation on my nose, how painful is that really going to be (Thank-you Mum, I love you.)" as well as  what being "healthy" really means and being more appreciative of what it is like not to be ill. :P
2. How tricky it can be to continue taking prescriptive medication every meal time!
   So at the hospital, one of the nurses would come around every meal time to give us our medication. (The hospital food wasn't so bad at all, by the way!) I had about 4 to 6 tablets to take (depending on whether I had painkillers, slightly stronger steroids or whatever) and thankfully in Korea, they split it all in small packets as "per meal" for you, which makes it easier to realise when you think you have forgotten to take your tablets. But yeah, outside the hospital, I realised it is quite hard to keep up with it especially if you're eating out - even if you know the importance of it, as my tablets include antibiotics! You have to reorganise your life, centring more around health, medication as well as hospital appointments (I had to go to hospital to clear discharge up my nasal cavity about once/twice a week.) This has made me more appreciative of not being ill too.
3. The real importance of the relationship you build with the nurses and the doctor whilst you are struggling as a patient.
   This I think is what I appreciated the most whilst I was at the hospital. Yes it's lovely to have friends at the ward and having family visit you, but the effect of care you receive from the nurses and doctors are rather extraordinary! I knew the importance of this from lectures anyway as well as patient visits, but having experienced it myself, I appreciate it so much more! Nurses who took care of my like their daughters were really lovely, checking up on me every time to make sure I wasn't in much pain. My first impression of my doctor wasn't great to be honest (he's not exactly the really friendly type), but as the time went by, we got talking a bit more (he got to know I was a medical student on an intermission) and the little encouragements he gave, like "it'll be fine" etc., really did get to me when I was in so much pain! So yeah, I don't think I could have asked for better nurses or doctors! They were just all so lovely. :)

I think the whole experience has been valuable asset to my life in general, as well as my studies to become a doctor. :) My writing skills probably hasn't been quite enough to describe my life as a patient in a way that I want to share it with you or record it, but I have God to thank for this opportunity - seeing as it's not an experience you can have just because you want to have it, haha. Still have some more treatments left to go when I get back to England. Will post soon. It's been great to come to Korea again, but I can't get wait till I get back and get on with my internship again! I miss working. :)

See you soon England! Happy New Year to family and friends all over the world - wishing you all a blessed 2014! :) x

Just a casual update (from the other side of the world).

It's officially winter in Korea! We had our first snow yesterday (Monday) and that was pretty awesome, though it didn't settle enough to make anything! First Korean winter in 11 years, and I'm feeling quite excited to what it will bring!

Ahahaha. I know, this blog thing isn't quite going as planned - those who've read my last post and doesn't always see what I put up on Facebook may be slightly confused to why I'm talking about Korea when this post should really have been about my life of being an intern at Filton Community Church (so far 7 weeks completed - and it's been really great! Inspiring and challenging!), especially about all that happens in the Foodbank side of things.

Well, the truth is, I have planned the whole post on Foodbank and have been meaning to write it for the last few weeks but it's just been really difficult to sit down, write it and click "publish" because it's an issue which has been in the media a fair amount recently and I wanted to get it right. On top of that, there had been some sudden decisions made which led to me flying out to South Korea on Monday 11th November, arriving on Tuesday after an 11 hour of smooth flight (Thank God!), which meant that trying to write about an issue I may already be "out-of-date" on didn't quite make sense.

So I thought considering this blog should be telling you about what I'm up to during my year out, I thought I'd take this quick opportunity to tell you why I'm here and what's currently happening.

For those of you who aren't familiar/may have forgotten, I'm on an intermission for "health reasons" - being stress and nasal polyps. Nasal polyps were diagnosed during my trip to Korea this summer just gone (quite unexpectedly, actually) and the plan was to go back to the UK and get them treated after my resit exams. However, the lovely NHS was being complicated (despite the efforts of my loveliest GP) and if I was to get an access to the ENT specialist, I would have to wait till end of January 2014 - which considering the waiting times I hear about these days, and the fact that nasal polyps aren't something that counts as an "emergency" in the medical field, appeared to make sense and normal. But, because of my circumstance, my parents and I preferred it if it could be solved a bit quicker (than waiting more than 3 months) so it gives me some space to recover and get back to doing the internship and normal life/work. We therefore decided it would be better to fly out to Korea and get it solved there. I did have a diagnosis in Korea when I was about 12, saying the inside of my nose is a bit oddly shaped (and will need to be operated on when I have 'fully grown') and empyema in the nose, so it kinda made sense if this could be further explored at the same time of getting the nasal polyps removed. It does seem a little ironic that, as a student studying to be a doctor, I'm 'escaping' the waiting times many patients have to undergo, and I am thankful that I have the option to 'fly out'. But overall this decision to take the opportunity to fly out seemed to make sense considering the circumstance and I shall not forget the issues of waiting times! I did have call from the NHS saying that they could move me to another health centre but the earliest I could see them was mid-December, and because by then we had already booked the flight, it didn't really help (plus, mid-December still felt like a little too far away). 

  Korean healthcare works a little differently - it's not like the NHS, where GPs refer you to specialists. Here, you go directly to the specialist, which I guess is why the process is much quicker. I had my pre-op assessment type thing last Friday morning, where I had a CT scan followed by various other tests to check whether I'm fine for general anaesthesia (I'm not exactly sure of the details - I just did what I was told to do!) The CT scan was pretty cool, I admit. Never had one before, and though I've seen the CT images before, seeing my own head made it come alive. ;) The image re-confirmed the existence of nasal polyps, as well as the fact that my case of empyema is apparently quite bad (I'm not even sure if I'm using the right medical word here - just translating the Korean diagnosis as best as I can!) and that I do indeed need an operation. One of the structures in my nose appeared to be rather bent too; I'm not sure whether something's going to be done to it though... think I need to check an anatomy book or something and see what it's meant to be shaped like, haha.

So yeah. I'm being admitted (is that the right word?) to the hospital sometime tomorrow (Wednesday) before 3pm to get ready for the operation on Thursday morning (Wednesday night UK time, probably). :) It should last about 1.5-2 hours, the doctor says. I'm feeling cool about the whole thing, haha. I've never been on the operating table (as far as I'm concerned :P) but have been in some watching them, so I guess it'll be rather cool to experience the whole process myself. ;) Maybe the whole situation will hit me when I get admitted or even when I have the general anaesthetic, haha! But yeah, overall it's all cool and I think things are progressing just fine!

Time in Korea so far has been good! It's been really nice spending time with the extended family. Jetlag hasn't affected me too much... Staying at my little cousin's house at the moment, which is really fun, and I went and saw my loveliest grandparents' down at the countryside last Saturday - they were doing some farming work, collecting harvest. I wasn't much help seeing as I had no idea what I was doing, but I did take some pretty pictures to show you, like this one:

A sweet persimmon, ready to be harvested.

So yeah, hopefully the next update will be something along the lines of "the operation was successful" kinda thing ;) Thank-you for your prayers, loves and thoughts as always! Trusting God's got it all and hopefully I shall be back in England around mid-December (as the doctor suggested I really ought to stick around for 3 weeks after the operation to make sure it's all fineee).

Hope all's well on the other side of the world! :) and hopefully, I shall be back on track sooooon (can't promise when now) with the blog as well as my not-so-little post on Foodbank. :)

Introduction

So... how do you start a blog?

I actually set this up few days ago, meaning to write in it as soon as possible to share with you so you know where to look for if you ever wondered what's happening in my life... unless it's already on Facebook of course.

However, it turns out blogging is rather challenging, despite not being my first attempt at it! Took me a while to even get the blog description phrased right - oops?

Anyhow before I talk about nothing a little too much, let's get to the purpose of this post - which I guess is to inform you about the purpose of this blog... which is basically the blog description really: to let you all know about all the exciting things I'm doing this year, as well as my life in general and all the potential thoughts and issues I'd love to chat about!

I have no idea who will be reading this, but assuming that you all know me in person, you will probably know already that I am taking an intermission from studying Medicine at Imperial College this year (reason being health interruption) and because I've failed my first year exams, I will be returning as a fresher (again!) in Autumn 2014.

The most exciting news you are probably yet to hear is that I will be spending that year, not only studying and learning how to drive (maybe, hopefully?!), but also as an intern at Filton Community Church (FCC), which my family and I are part of. I am personally very excited about this! Having officially started last Tuesday, I'm currently midway through my second week - enjoying it very much so far, and there's still more exciting things to come!

Being an intern at FCC means, as well as church-related things, I will also be involved in Revive Charity Shop (run by FCC) and North Bristol Foodbank (partnership of FCC and other local churches). They are are both really about meeting and connecting with people and being involved within the local community - I have learnt so much already with what I have seen and experienced, and I am very excited to see what God has in store for me this year!

To tell the truth, I am really thankful for this year out. I honestly believe that it's a God-given opportunity. That's not to say that God is 'responsible' for the results of my exams, because, simply, that's not what this is about - for me, it really showed God's love and grace for me as He took my failures and weaknesses and turned it around into such an amazing opportunity, where I could really learn more and get back to the basics of why I wanted to become a doctor in the first place. Of course it would have been amazing to pass first year straight away and I do miss all the lovely friends I met during my first year (praying & thinking of you guys!), but, at the same time, what could be described as a little 'pause' is perhaps necessary in my life's journey, so I can really grow! (Though unfortunately, probably not physically, haha.) I know God's got it though. :)

So, here it is. I would write more, but I probably should go to bed (before midnight - I know right? Something's definitely changed there!). I shall write more of what I've been doing and what I will be doing soon when I get around to posting again. Have a feeling that the next post will probably be on Foodbank.

Thanks again to many of you for your love, thoughts and prayers. It's all very appreciated, and I would love it very much if you in your spare moment could pray that this "year out" will in fact be a year with God, so that I can grow and develop in many ways and go back to university next autumn feeling refreshed and perhaps a little wiser too.

I'm really looking forward to spending more time with family and friends back home, and enjoying Bristol, so I'm sure you'll here of something of that soon too.

Will keep you posted. :)

Much love! x


P.S. You can check out my other blog here, which contains experiences of couple of friends and I doing the Tearfund Water Challenge. (It's great fun, and you should so try!) Slightly amusing note to add though - just tried googling Tearfund Water Challenge and it came up with a webpage from Tearfund containing my name/interview! Feels a little odd seeing my name in a public webpage like that, haha.