Visit to the ENT

I’ve been having an enlarged tonsils since July and finally last month in late August I decided to have it checked out wanted to just check it out at a Government Hospital first but before I could even get to see the ENT (Ear Nose Throat) specialist, I had to get a referral from a Polyclinic, well I’ve got my referral done and 3 weeks later it was time to see the ENT guys at Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

Got there at my appointed time and the wait started. About an hour later it was my turn to see the doctor. Got called in and the doctor asked a few questions about my tonsils. He did a look at it and then he also had to do a quick scope to see what was behind my throat. Not the best of experiences when you have a torchlight shoved up your nose, it feels like when you have too much wasabi. Everything seems clear doc told me it could still be left in there but the decision was up to me. I said it was time to get it out now as I have been having issues talking and sometimes when I eat it feels like I’m choking. The doc then went on to check on my sleeping patterns as it seems that could be affected and I may have to see the sleep centre if the problem was bad. As it turns out not an issue with that. There was a quick discussion with the senior doctor (I suppose that was him) where I overhear the them saying that the tonsil were big “4+” I assume the scale was a 5 point scale so I guess that would make it big. In the end the ok to get my tonsils removed was given. Next I had to get an appointment.

But before that I had to go settle some bills for the checkup. Well that scopey thingy actually cost extra (the doc did tell me) but the subsidise rate was manageable. So there was the wait for my name to be called for billing. After which another wait for the appointment.

A very nice elderly nurse was at the appointment station I think she was the friendliest of the lot. Once I got my name called met up with the nurse and after some debate on when was the earliest date. I just wanted to get it out as soon as possible, as it turns out the surgeon would be away and the earliest was a month from now but as it turns out there was a heavy schedule on his operating days (only on Mondays in this case) so in the end it would be on 9th Nov 2009 when my op was scheduled. I had to come in 2 weeks prior for some checkup with the anaesthetist. Actually the date that was given was pretty good as it would be after the REAL run and I should have recovered in time for the Marathon at the end of the year.