That's my right hand when they first opened the bandage up for cleaning, after I had to go for a debridement due to an infection I got from having an IV drip plug.
Cool right? I could see right through my skin and down to the cartilage.
Hahahaha!!!
Now, I've a got a 3 inch centipede looking scar on that hand and some loss of sensation on my ring finger.
Damn!
Anyway, it's 8 days to D day.
No, I am not talking about the US presidential election (according to SNL, Obama will win definitely) but my triple CABG lah! Kekeke...
According to Wikipedia -
Coronary artery bypass surgery, also coronary artery bypass graft surgery, and colloquially heart bypass or bypass surgery is a surgical procedure performed to relieve angina and reduce the risk of death from coronary artery disease. Arteries or veins from elsewhere in the patient's body are grafted to the coronary arteries to bypass atherosclerotic narrowings and improve the blood supply to the coronary circulation supplying the myocardium (heart muscle). This surgery is usually performed with the heart stopped, necessitating the usage of cardiopulmonary bypass; techniques are available to perform CABG on a beating heart, so-called "off-pump" surgery.
Triple Cabbage
Huh? Bypass?! What happened? I thought only old people have to go for bypass?
SHHH!!! You ignorant people! Go and take a number and join the line! I'll answer you when it's your turn. Hehehe..
There are still many, MANY people who have very simplistic views about A LOT of things, so it's forgivable. =P
Well, I too once blamed my poor father for my poor health, asking why I inherited a defective gene and all that.
BUT I have learnt, that a lot of times, people with Type I Diabetes may get it due to a multitude of reasons.
My best guess is -
1) I was predisposed to it genetically
2) I was an overweight child and
3) I must have been exposed to some bacteria or virus that made my immune system attack various cells in my body, including insulin-producing cells.
A Turning Point
I can still remember vividly, when I was barely in my pre-teens, a blockheaded 13 year old still reveling in street soccer and hanging out with the boys. I didn't care about studying, managed to scrape through PSLE with a pathetic 226 average, and struggling through Secondary 2 (or was it Sec 1?)
Suddenly, I was losing weight rapidly (more than 20 kg I remember), not eating lunch at the school canteen, was constantly craving for fruits and ice-cream (basically sweet stuff), urinating frequently, and falling asleep as soon as I reached home from school.
Then my father got worried and brought me to SGH (I think) and the doctors said if I was brought in two days later, it'd have 2 days been too late.
??!!!!
ps Do you know that there so thousands of children, some as young as TWO, in the world who have Type I diabetes and have to be injected with insulin everyday like I do?
Moving On
Sometimes it is sad to know that people are not really educated about their own-selves, their own bodies, their own existences.
It's sadder to know that people continue to live in ignorance though.
I must admit, that the human body is an extremely complex mechanism, a design of mind-boggling physical and mental structure. A human organism is very advanced indeed.
The human adult alone has about 10 trillion cells in its body.
It's really tough to also know that diabetes, particularly Type I diabetes, has a lot of complications accompanying it, more so if it's poorly controlled.
All these complications arise from events that happen at the cellular level, a lot of it hard to control because you don't even know what's going on. Some complications only show symptoms when a particular organ is down to its last 40% in function, like kidney disease.
I mean, if you don't study medicine, how would you know these kind of things?! =(
So, a lot of people rely on hearsay, from the mouths of equally-blissfully ignorant people, and form dangerously simplistic ideas about life, and its dramatic tragedies.
THANK GOD FOR THE INTERNET..
... and Wikipedia, of course! =)
Well, even the doctors can be wrong sometimes. I was initially diagnosed as having Type II diabetes and was given metformin, but I guess they performed some albumin or C-peptide test and subsequently I was put on an insulin regime.
I Will Prevail
Well, I am coping better with the thought of having to undergo 6 hours of an open heart operation, thanks to all my wonderful friends and family who have assured me that everything's going to be all right.
I know I am still extremely worried about my current stage of CKD (Chronic Kidney Disease). It is currently Stage III, as in borderline kidney function. Read more about the renal function here...
I am definitely NOT looking forward to having to go for a dialysis of some sort maybe 3 years down the road.
Contrary to popular belief, a kidney transplant is not really the way to go either.
You'll have a really hard time with your immune system trying to fight and reject the new organs, anti-rejection drugs will cause you to fall sick more often and more easily and you have to take these blardy expensive drugs for the rest of your life, and a typical lifespan of a transplanted kidney is said to be 5 years.
Right now, the kidneys don't feel too good. In fact, I have been worried since the renal doctors ordered a coronary angiogram to find out why my heart ECHO shows only 25% LEVF function. In fact, the latest creatinine level in my body was an alarming 267 μmol/L (110 is the normal level for a healthy adult male), after the angiogram. I hope my kidneys don't give out soon. The contrast agent (iodine in this case) used in angiograms have a high risk of rendering the kidneys totally non-functional, and permanently. =(
Well, yes I know the only way to go is to have a positive and healthy mind, to go on a strict diet of healthy food and to exercise but I am currently finding it extremely hard to balance a positive mindset while knowing all these facts about my conditions.
And I still have to contend with people blaming government bodies and pharmaceutical companies teaming up to bleed money, huge amounts of money from the sick public, and rejecting new applications for new studies into new therapies that may hinder these corporations from making more and more money! Gosh! Read more about this here..
Ok, ok, everybody dies. That I know.
The thing is, I am not afraid of dying.
If I die, I will no longer have to bear all this pain and worry and mental stress, and I will know for sure if Elvis is dead or still alive somewhere out there in Vegas and performing to unsuspecting audiences. Hahahahaha!!!
But it will be really nice to still continue to live, be with friends, share my experience, be a living example to many people, while hopefully be in better health that now.
With new and promising experimental treatments on the horizon, like the Islet Cell Transplantation, I really hope to contribute to society by taking part in these clinical trials, all in the hope of cure and prevention of diseases in the human race.
So, there.. I am not in a quest for immortality but it'd be really nice to live long enough to travel and see more of our beautiful earth, meet more nice people (not only pretty girls ok) and make new friends.
Sure I wont be able to eat as much wonderful food but life will be too irresistible for me to compromise for just food!
=)
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