Tuesday, October 18, 2005
The Case of the Embedded Fishbone
It's been exactly 1 week since i got a fishbone removed from my poor throat by a doctor in a polyclinic....!
It began 2 Sundays ago, when i broke my fast wif Nasi Lemak and Otak-otak. I remembered feasting on the delicious Nasi Lemak which had fried mackerel, or ikan selar kuning goreng. Then I also remembered checking for bones before putting the meat into my mouth. At the same time, the otak2 eaten wif the nasi's sambal was also power! So in the midst of the meal, i got a bone stuck in my throat.
Mom n Dad told me to get rice in a ball shape, to be swallowed, in an attempt to dislodged the bone from my throat. It's part of the old people's advice dat also includes swallowing banana to get it out! i heeded both advice but to no avail. I tried using my fingers to fish it out, but ended vomitting on my own bed! And so i decided to see if it'd get dislodged by tomorrow.
I woke up still feeling the bone inside, except dat dis time, it hurt more. The more I tried to eat food to get it down my gut, the more hurt it got. Even turning my head caused slight pain n discomfort. By monday night, i got feverish n had to take panadol to relieve my 37.5 degrees body temp.
Finally, after my exams inviligation on Tues, I picked up the courage to drop by Bt Merah Polyclinic for a checkup. I had fears dat the queue would be long. I did go to my private doctor the day before but he didn't seem to be able to extract it using his scissors-like tweezers.
The wait wasn't dat long, alhamdulillah, but the doctor warned me if he couldn't extract it out, I would need to be referred to SGH Accident and Emergency ward, to have a probe inserted for a more complicated process! I was oredi thinking, Ya Allah, if dis oso cant do, then I just have to endure a day more to get it out ah..
I was told to go to another room for the extraction. Gosh, there were a few nurses looking at me, i got a bit paiseh ah. They must've been thinking wat kind of eater i am, till i could get a bone stuck! Then came dis Doc Ong, the same doc who checked on me earlier. At dat time, he told me he couldnt see anything clear, just some fine thing in my inner throat. Then he began to use the same scissors-like tweezers dat my private doc used. In my mind, i was like going, oh nooo, wat if he fails oso since he's using the same equipment! I had to open my mouth widely, and said "aaaaaaahh...". Next, I felt the pain i had when my private doc tried to remove it. The next thing i knew, i saw the whole bone on the tweezers!!
Doc Ong told me dat he could only see a small part of the bone on my throat lining. The rest of it was embedded inside!!! I was really surprised. I didnt have to pay anything since I'm a Govt Servant, n left the place wif the bone in between my two fingers.
As i took a more serious look at the fishbone, i discovered dat the bone was indeed very very long... at least 1 cm long!! I concluded dat the bone could only come from the otak2 i ate dat day.. its quite impossible to have such a long bone on the small mackerel i ate wif the nasi lemak!
Moral of the story: Eat only fish FILLETS!!! ;)
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