Gotta keep running

Injuries after another, both wrists seems to have recovered but my right heel is acting up again lately possibly due to the return to jogging. Apparently Achilles heels (Achilles tendinitis) is usually suffered by basketballers due to the high impact actions and landing. It hurts like hell, but I've gotta keep running.

Army's IPPT (Individual Physical Proficiency Test) is upcoming and I am embarking on my usual plan - an biennial suffering when I do my IPPT just before and then again after my birthday. This way I get into optimum physique just in time and can clear 2009 and 2010 cycle and slouch all the way till end of next cycle at 2012. Let's hope I never get to do RT (remedial training - heard it sucks up lots of after-office time).

I am injury prone

Ok read an article online which explains why I am injury prone.

Forbes.com ranked the top 10 sports using the estimated number of injuries for people of all ages. The rankings do not take into account varying participation rates, which partly explains why many popular sports yielded the greatest number of injuries.

The numbers show, surprisingly, that of all the activities you might participate in this summer, or throughout the rest of the year, basketball had the highest estimated number of injuries, with more than 529,000 during 2006, followed by bicycling, at over 490,000.

The injuries reported ranged from getting elbowed in the mouth during a basketball game to a fractured femur following an ATV rollover.

So my recent 2 injuries have been from the 2 most hazardous sports. Besides my finger fracture from a basketball game with colleagues 2 months ago; I was cycling in the park 2 weekends ago and got clipped by an idiot rental biker who tried to be Schumacher around a bend and decided to take me as a cushion. And left me a long skin scrape which now looks like a tattoo design. This adds on to the numerous scars and fractures I have gathered over the years from cycling, inline skating, basketball etc.

Now I know why I am injury prone, and being an avid participant in the top 2 most hazardous sports does make my life more rugged looking; and I thought rugby and soccer were more dangerous. Move aside faggots.

Medical expenses - thank God I am employed! Part 2

So that's my farking repackaged Thai pills. With freaking expensive rheumatism cream, and my X-rays in the background. Strangely, I realised if you ever have to wait for X-rays for a couple of days, its bullshit. I got it immediately and if you see a private consultant a Mt Alv or Mt Eliz, you can almost quickly jump queues at the radiology. And you get the X-rays within 5 mins. Anyway from dating someone from medical sales line, I came to know why doctors repackaged your cough mixture into bottles (which are sold cheaply by bulks like those cheap chilli sauces you get in squishy bottles at hawker centres instead of individually packed ones), and also pills which actually have their own boxes but repacked to you because some of them actually came in boxes that are labelled:



Imagine this. My doctor charges me $200 for a referred consultation for 10 mins. (If you came in without referral or in an emergency, the rates go up 50% more). That's $1200/hr!! Excluding the medicine he makes ripping me off with samples (ok fine samples basically means reduced pricing, so you buy 20 boxes of pills, and the sales rep throw in 5 boxes free, dropping their costs and effectively charging me at a 300% premium) ; I would say he makes easily $1300/hr. So compared to my lawyer whom charges me $400/hr ++, doctors are the men! And me being a employee of an engineering firm, draw a middle income sort of pay - that's what the govt stats listed pay percentile as. This pay basically suck as I put in more after office hours, and given that I work 12-16 hrs a day, I am effectively only earning $20/hr.. that is so lame and depressing.

Anyway do note that not all clinics in Singapore charges you at that premium pricing of each pill you take. You just need to check out the doctors' ride. If its a humble Toyota, your doctor has a conscience. If its a Porsche, and he just runs a normal clinic..well let's just say, it ain't from peddling fake sex drugs or DVDs..

I remember when the NKF fiasco came to light, we realised that they sold subsidise drugs to patients at a supposedly subsidise rate. Well, we soon came to know it meant, its not at cost price, but just that its cheaper than market rate and they still make a good 30-50% margin. So fine, everyone should make some $, but for a charity organisation, it just so sucks because they gather > $70 million in their coffers from public donations and still want to make a margin off their farking "subsidised" medications.

Anyway from this experience, I realised the government can actually defray the increasing healthcare costs easily, by controlling the price of medication instead of allowing profit margins to furnish Ferraris and Porches to doctors akin to Golden taps and first class flights of Charity CEOs.

Oh and another revelation...I start to earn more per hour by working less hours a day!! No wonder recent news showed a decrease in productivity! Inflation up, so we feel poor, so work less to earn more!

And yeah you are farked if you earn < $20/hr in "Sunny" Singapore!

Medical expenses - thank God I am employed! Part 1

Well a follow up to my fractured finger led me to more revelation on how lowly paid I am, and it's silly to pay to $ for silly fractures if you are unemployed and earn less than $20/hr.

Seriously I did not know private healthcare is so expensive. Luckily I am employed and have excellent medical coverage paid by my company. My bill came up to $388, out of which I detected $10 overcharging, and bargained away another set of inflammatory medication which was charged to me over 300% the selling price to doctors. I refused to pay that (strange b'cos I get full coverage, but the frugal side of me just think its absolute daylight robbery) and also because I still have some at home, so cutting the bill down to $315 of which $200 was for the 10 mins of consultation to tell me repeatedly "don't worry, you will get better" and that I am now suffering from volar plate tear injury.
Anyway how I know I was overcharged is because I used to date a medical sales rep. And what I am about to reveal here will soon allow you to understand why healthcare is so expensive in Singapore. So stay tuned.

Oh yeah and I was prescribed some cheap Thailand shit (which costs under about $0.67 each) and I get billed $1/pill for don't know what reasons I should be taking it for. Because I used to take the set of inflammatory medicine without this cheap Thailand shit which the doctor now prescribed and the receptionist over the counter said it is a must to prevent my tummy from going bad...duh..I think I just got conned.

Anyway the medication is called Xanidine and it is supposedly used for treatment of duodenal and gastric ulcer, oesophageal reflux, Zollinger-Ellison syndrome. Ok so why am I taking it? Damn, I hear someone shouting idiot in the background.

Gotta head out soon, so return for more of Part 2. With pictures and update on my freaking finger fracture and more inside news of medical care in Singapore.

X-rays

Do you see it? Apparently it is small avulsion fracture at the 4th middle phalanx. Well I don't see it...I squinted my eyes till they popped - I still don't see anything!

So what the hell is that? So need to read up more so I can figure out when I can start balling or wakeboarding again...


What is an avulsion fracture?

An avulsion fracture is an injury to the bone in a place where a tendon or ligament attaches to the bone. When an avulsion fracture occurs, the tendon or ligament pulls off a piece of the bone.

What is the treatment of an avulsion fracture?

Most often, an avulsion fracture is treated as a soft-tissue injury. If the fracture is small, it is usually sufficient to treat with rest and support bandage

So I can't do anything about it but rest and keep wearing my finger guards. WTF!

Ouch!

It has been more than a month since I injured my finger, and I have to be constantly on a finger guard, even at home. So finally finding some time to get some rest from a flu and get some medicine and some scolding from my doctor. The doctor sent me to have an X-ray on my right ring finger, and even called me when they immediately have images that I have dislocation + mild fracture(Will post up my X-rays once I get it). This is my 2nd time trying to act brave; the other time was when I was 18 and I fell down hard on my wrist, thinking it was nothing wrong for 3 months, I had permanent ball joint stress fracture. Which led me to my downgrade in Army from Pes A to Pes C1 - many have said it was my Karma from laughing at the "chao keng" soldiers. Bummer, and my lunchtime trainings for 1 year in JC was futile. It wasn't easy building up to 20+ pull ups at a go!! Argh

Anyway will have to undergo physiotherapy at a hospital nearby my place soon, and no more bball for months to come as well as my newly picked up wakeboarding. No wonder I found it hard to grip the cable and do a 180degrees flip turn (YEAH RITE! - excuses).

Looks like I can finally indulge in more cycling and blogging crap for now. Oh yeah and back to partying...