Things Are Getting Better...

Tuesday (12 July 2005)


while the whole of Singapore is concerned and talking about the NKF saga, i'm off to seek a 2nd opinion on my left ear's sudden loss of hearing at a specialist clinic at Mount Elizabeth hospital... the specialist was recommended by a colleague...

the doctor said the same thing as the TTSH doctor about my condition... It COULD be a viral infection... @#$%^&* please tell me something dat i dun noe lah... he said dat the critical thing to do now is to boost the recovery process which could take up to 6 MONTHS... wah piangz... *faint* doc prescribed some supplements of Vit B6, gingko pills, etc... bill came up to close to $200!!!!! dat's how expensive private clinics are... sigh...

anyway during the discussion, the doc remembered dat one of his patients also had similar problem and he recommended her to see dis other doc (by the name of Michael Ong) for some hyperbaric oxygen therapy... and she got her hearing back... doc made an appointment for me to go see dr ong immediately after my consultation... ironically, dr ong was in his hyperbaric centre in TTSH (the main office is on Camden Medical Centre, next to Tanglin Mall, where my ex used to work)...

dr ong explained to me the hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT)... in short, it's to put the patient in an oxygen chamber where 100% pure oxygen is pumped into the chamber that maintained at an air pressure of 15 metres under sea water... the usual treatment process is 15 sessions of between 90 to 120mins each... it will take around 10 sessions before any results (or improvement) could be observed... check out the website www.hyperbaric.com.sg for more details...

the critical thing was the cost of the treatment... each session costs $260, of which $100 could be paid through cpf medisave... which means i gotta fork out $160 for each session or a total of $2,400 for the entire treatment of 15 sessions... WHOA!! discussed with mum and decided to go for it... first session fixed for tomorrow, wednesday, morning...

reached home and mum came into my room with a $1,000 note in her hand... said dat she wanted to help me financially since the cost for the treatment was so high... told her i am doing ok... will settle the bill on my own... at least i can pay via interest free installment using the credit card... so at least it's not that big a burden... dis episode brought tears to my eyes again (for the "god-knows-how-many" times liao)... mum will always be mum... forever so worried about us...

after a day of rushing from one clinic to another, i was totally drained out... but still continued with my DJ workshop... i realised after the 2nd lesson dat it wasn't dat fun being a radio DJ cos DJs nowadays do not have the luxury of playing wat dey like... all the music r chosen and decided by the programme director and everything is computerised and programmed... hehe...

one interesting thing was Mark Richmond's session on voice control... did some silly things and had loads of fun...

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Wednesday (13 July 2005)

while the whole of singapore is still talking about the NKF saga, i'm off to my first HBOT...

reached the clinic at 8am... clarified some issues with doc:

DT: since it has been nearly 3 weeks since my loss of hearing, will it be too late for the HBOT???

Doc: it is not considered too late... late would be if u seek treatment after like months... although chances of recovery are higher if HBOT was to commenced immediately after the sudden loss of hearing occurred, it would still be ok for you to go thru' the treatment now...

DT: i saw from the website dat HBOT is still in its experimental state for treating sudden loss of hearing...

Doc: dat's only applicable in singapore... HBOT has been used overseas for treatment of sudden loss of hearing for years...

DT: okay... i'll go for the treatment then... like wat mum said, at least there's an avenue available now... we won't know if we dun go for it... money shouldn't be an issue here... getting my hearing back is of higher importance...

doc put me in the oxygen chamber lying down... reminded me to keep blowing my nose when the pressure is getting too painful on the ear... dis is like taking flights when the air pressure changes... the purpose is to balance the pressure in and out of the ear...

the session lasted about 2 hrs... by the end of it, with all the blowing of the nose, i was giddy and disorientated once i got out of the chamber... the nurse gave me some warm water to drink and put me on a chair to recover change in air pressure... rested for a while and i was feeling slightly better...

took the bus home and rested...

in the evening, went for day 3 of my DJ workshop... it was more fun during the 2nd part of Mark Richmond's voice control... Bernard Lim told us dat tomorrow will be the studio recording session for all of us... we're in teams of four (and further broken down into pairs) to host a time slot for the radio programme... each pair is to prepare 2 90-second talk sets... i was paired with dis malay guy called hady... he was previously in the TCS chinese sitcom called "七彩学堂" (translated to mean "colourful classroom")... the sitcom was a copycat of the english version of Mind Your Language...

emailed boss to inform her of the HBOT i'm going thru... needed to take 2 days of leave for thur and fri to get used to the treatment... else oso cant work feeling giddy and disorientated...

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Thursday (14 July 2005)

went for my 2nd HBOT session... it was the same process... dis time we started later at 9am... by the time the session ended, it was close to 11:15am... still feeling a little giddy after the session... but think my body is slowly adjusting to it...

at 4pm, met hady at thomson plaza to discuss on the 2 talk sets we were supposed to come up with for tonite's studio recording... some of the ideas dat came up:
1. NKF saga (cos radio must be up-to-date)
2. harry potter (cos today's life section talked about it)
3. nathan's running for president
4. celebrity birthdays
5. hollywood gossips
6. others...

decided on the NKF saga for the first talkset... hady's gonna pretend to be a special "uncle" on the show... as for the 2nd talkset, it'd just be celebrity birthdays and hollywood gossips...

reached mediacorp at around 6:30pm... the there were newsflash on the tv screens in the canteen... it was a press conference by the health (or hell) minister on the NKF saga (again?????)... hahahahaha...

the recording went alright... tho' we missed out some minor parts here and there... ended up our talksets were shorter than the given 90 seconds... it was perfect during our trial runs in the afternoon... hahahahaha...

after the recording, we had a tour of the 987FM and Class95 studios... Grace was hosting the Say It With Music segment at 987FM... she showed us the numerous machines a DJ has to meddle with... and how things can go wrong if she's not careful...

at Class95, Yasmine was hosting the late night show... she too showed us how she operates the machines... very technical, i must say... and of course the announcements to be made... the commercials (cos in terms of advertising revenue, Class95 has the biggest pie)...

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Friday (15 July 2005)

TGIF... and life goes on for me... 3rd HBOT session dis morning at 9am again... feeling and coping better dis time after the session... think the body is accustomed to the changes in pressure...

took the bus to bugis to meet mum... we're heading to the Ma Kuang chinese medical group... the main centre at middle road... i requested to see the physician Zhang Ji Qiu, as recommended by Jensen... so far the physician is the only reassuring one cos she said dat with acupuncture and medications, my condition will improve... it's only a matter of time... had my first acupuncture... near the ear... 4 needles in all... will have to do it twice a week... on tuesdays and fridays...

SMSed kerry to tell him about it... he asked why do i mix chinese and ang moh treatments together... how to know which is working... i replied dat at dis stage, i dun care about which is working, as long as dey are working... hahahahaha...

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Saturday (16 July 2005)

today is the all-important day for the singing competition at our company's dinner... decided to go ahead with the competition cos didn't want to disappoint all those people who have been supporting me... first of all, christina... then jun, pat, mary, etc, etc... was kinda angry with chris yest when she told me dat she could not make it for the event... how could she not turn up to support me since she was the one who's getting me into the competition... later i heard from jun dat chris had not been well for the last 3 days... then my anger disappeared... and i was even more determined to do my best...

reached the venue at 4:45pm for my sound check... all went well... except for the "Jiang Nan" (林俊杰 - 江南) song... i'm still not very familiar with the lyrics... and i must say it was a very difficult song to sing well... decided to give it a shot somehow... just that i gotta lower the key further to reach the higher notes...

by the time the sound check ended, it was close to 6pm... decided to stay in the restaurant to wait for the event to start... everybody was kinda excited about my taking part in the competition... shared with them the difficulty in practising with only one ear working... no stereo sound... cant really hear the music when i sing (cos i gotta hear myself and the music at the same time to catch the tune and the tone and the pitch)... and of course, my unfamiliarity of the song...

philip was the first from our department to arrive... updated him on my condition... next came sophia... say kwang, gerry and elsie were next... sandra was late... hahahahaha... some of them were quite excited with my performance later... will do my best, guys... hahahahaha...

takako heard dat i'm in the competition and gave me her best wishes... thanx, gal...

dinner started at around 7:30pm... the first round of the singing competition started at around 9pm... i was number 7... of course, some contestants were really CMI (cannot make it)... some were quite good...

my turn came... waited for a while before dey got the song ready... went on stage... before i began my song, i specially thanked chris for all that she had done for me for the competition... cos she's the one who did the registration for me... selected the songs (which i agreed to)... sourced for the karaoke discs of the songs... submitted the discs to the organisers... checked my sound test timing... and the audience just went "oooh"... hahahahaha... btw, we're not romantically associated lah... it's just dat without her, i wouldn't be on stage tonite...

did my Li Ke Qin's Yue Ban Xiao Ye Qu (李克勤 - 月伴小夜曲)... wowed the audience away... mary, pat and lisa came on stage to give me flowers... so farnie... at the end of the song, one of the male audience ran onto the stage to hug me... caught me off guard and it was such a surprise... i was glad and at the moment, i knew i was through to the next and final round...

results... and as expected, i was through... together with me are 2 ladies... doreen (who has a voice of anita mui singing anita mui's qing mi ai ren (梅艳芳 - 亲密爱人)... and cecilia (who did a remarkable job with Elva's Zui Shu Xi De Mo Sheng Ren (萧亚轩 - 最熟悉的陌生人))...

sms came from chris to congratulate me on getting into the finals... mary or pat must have smsed her... told her it's a difficult task to get 1st, considering doreen's performance earlier...

the final round... i was first to sing... went on stage... thanked chris one last time before i began my song (and the audience went "oooh" again)... so farnie... about 1/4 through the song, i forgot my lyrics... stopped for a couple of seconds, quickly turned around to look at the screen and continued with the song... nearly 3/4 through and i blundered again... at dat moment, my heart sank... but went on to finish the song...

one of the judges commented dat i did better the first round... but added dat i had showmanship... hahahaha...

doreen was up next with yet another anita mui's song... or rather a medley... when she finished her number, i knew dat the title is gonna be hers... she did a wonderful job...

cecilia was up next... she, too, forgot her lyrics... but somehow i felt her earlier song was much better...

results... and as expected... doreen was crowned the champion... i still managed a 2nd... hahahahaha... the $700 cheque is gonna come in handy to settle part of my medical bills... hahahahaha... of course gotta bring chris out for dinner to thank her for everything...

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Sunday (17 July 2005)

a day of rest and relax... tuition was cancelled cos don was having a fever... will start next week... dis time it's gonna be marathon tuition of at least 4 hours at home on sundays... we couldn't go back to braddell KFC since i cant handle crowded places...

i could now feel some vibrations when i talk... and i'm hearing the loud noises as well as high-pitched ones... dat's a very good sign...

will continue to stay hopeful and may my hearing be back soon...