I haven’t been blogging because I was hospitalized for a severe bout of gastritis (inflammation of the stomach) and needed a gastroscopy to ensure there were no stomach ulcers. Without going into medical 101s here let me just say that it was (and still is) a painful experience and there are some lessons to be learnt here.
1. NEVER underestimate the corrosiveness of painkillers. All I did was two 4-day dosages of painkillers for my sprained wrist and tada there goes my stomach lining L Stupid doctor didn't tell me to take them with antacids to reduce the acidity and impact on the gastric.
2. This next point is my bad – When taking painkillers, avoid taking tea and coffee. I was washing my painkillers down WITH my morning cup of coffee. Having my breakfast sandwich at the same time was probably the only saving grace from burning a hole in my stomach.
3. Make sure you are adequately covered by insurance. My A&E fees, the hospital stay (2-bedder, private hospital), stomach scope, sedation, and gastroenterologist fees came up to a bill of more than $3k! Medisave only allows claims up to a max of $800 a day. Luckily for me I recently just topped up my insurance coverage for emergencies like these so if nothing goes wrong the balance of the bill should be covered by insurance.
Doc says I have to watch my diet for the next two weeks, but I'll still post any good food deals I come across! Sigh I can only 望梅 止渴 for now.
