For those who are not from my army unit (medical classification centre), I am actually on 6 weeks Medical Leave, post-surgery recovery for my left eye. That explains why I started this blog - cos it's certainly a time killer! I am bored to tears! ha... my eye looks much "straighter" now, so I don't think the word "squint" would be used together with "Joel" for a while from now (at least that's what my goofy but friendly surgeon said).
Well, being the avid science student you know I am, let me explain what happened to me. I have a condition known as congenital esotropia. That means I am born with my left eye globe misaligned, deviated inwards (see picture below). How does this arise? The muscle (there are 6 pairs of them around each eye globe if I haven't mistaken) on the inner side of the left eye is pulling the eye globe too far inwards. So docs at SNEC (Singapore National Eye Centre) recommended a Squint Surgery.
27th SEP was the day. On arrival, I was put through pre-op assessment where blood pressure and other readings were taken. The nurses helped change me into a blue colored clean gown and disposal underwear before I was brought to the operating theatre (OT, they call it) wearing slippers provided. The place was freezing and immaculately clean, with trailing smell of antiseptic. They put me on a bed in the middle of an array of medical equipments (looks somewhat similar to those in the show ER). The nurses hooked me up to all sorts of equipments, to monitor pulse rate, BP, and thankfully, a heating mat around my thighs to keep me warm. When everything was done, my surgeon arrived in surgical outfit. She tapped me on the shoulder as a sign of encouragement - I had so much adrenaline then that my pulse was racing at approximately 105/min!
We waited for briefly before the anaesthetist arrived. He introduced himself as Dr Yong. Shortly after his arrival, he started getting into his work. This room was completely silent except for the beeping of the pulse meter. Dr Yong inserted an Intravenous (IV) Catheter into a vein on the left forearm (ouch!), through which he infused a colorless liquid. He started asking me a series questions which I had greater difficulty in answering as I grew drowsier by the seconds. The last line I heard him saying was "I am a Mindef reserve MO...", before I slipped into a world of oblivion.
I woke up with a spiking pain in my bandaged left eye and a horrible stench of chemical in my respiratory tract. I felt really nauseous and weak. Shortly after I gained consciousness, I felt a tap on my shoulder and Dr Yong came into view. He gave me his well wishes and left soon after. The nurses then wheeled me into the recuperative ward where I could recover from the anesthesia before the second part of the surgery. The after-effects of the anesthesia actually caused me to throw out twice before I was wheeled up to Dr Chia's room to do the fine adjustments before the stitches were tied. The whole process was swift and painless (I was on localised anesthesia) as I cooperated with Dr Chia. At the end of the process, I was given instructions on post-operative eye care and told to rest well, without strenuous activities for 6 weeks.
The few days following the operation were harder to get by due to the pain, and bloody discharges from the eye. The operated eye was sensitive to bright lights and painful with too much movement, so I had no choice but to stay in bed.
2 weeks down, I've regained my normal eye functions except with the remaining redness which is expected to fade 1 month after the operation.
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