What a mouthful.
I walked up the the receptionist at Guy's Hospital enquiring where the OGD suite is and he looked at me blankly.
So I tried to say it.
Oesoph...mumble... jumble... scopy.
I looked at him questioningly with a slight hint of arrogance.
If I could raise one eyebrow, now would be the perfect time to do it.
Unfortunately, I cannot, so I half pretend to, peering down at him under my lashes, head cocked to one side, looking as haughty as a UK tax payer with no confidence in the NHS can be.
Yes, I work as a doctor in the NHS so don't bloody judge me.
It pays my wages, I am happy(ish) with my job so I am allowed to comment.
Said receptionist (must be Filipino in origin) looks back at me with a look of confusion.
"Oesopha... You know... Your OGD suite!"
Same blank look.
Now, in my personal opinion, Filipino nurses that I have had the fortune to come across working with are normally top of their game.
Smart and conscientious enough to be doctors in my opinion and not afraid of doing extra work at any one time.
But this blank look from the receptionist about the location of a freaking OGD suite is not helping.
At all.
And I was already running late.
"Do you not have a oesopha...mumble...scopy suite????!!"
His look of confusion is replaced with a sudden light that can only mean a bulb being turned on in his internal hospital directory pages.
"You mean the ENDOSCOPY suite, maam. Yes down the corridor, Tower 2, 2nd floor, blue zone"
Right.
Endoscopy.
I will use this general term next time. (If I can remember it)
I am a doctor.
I am precise.
OGD is precise.
I track upstairs looking for the place, going over in my mind my choice of using the anaesthetic throat spray over sedation.
About April last year, during my A&E stint, I started developing severe retrosternal chest pain. Belching, early satiety, regurgitation of acid when I lie down.... all points towards a self diagnosis of acid reflux syndrome.
A severe one.
I attempted all sort of anti acid pills from omeprazole to pantoprazole to esomeprazole.. They gave me partial relief but the symptoms came back with vengeance the minute I stopped popping the pills.
November came and I decided it is probably time for me to have this investigated.
So gastroenterology clinic review and OGD arranged.
And this has led me to Tower 2, 2nd floor, blue zone.
A nurse comes to take my blood pressure and oxygen saturations and I changed into one of the blue hospital gowns.
Avant garde fashion.
She asks me what have I chosen for the procedure and I quickly pipe up - anaesthetic throat spray.
I would have preferred sedation ultimately, but that means I will need someone to come collect me as I am deemed to sleepy to make my way home safely, I will also have to lie quietly in the department til I am awake enough to leave, and in the end, that would mean a out-of-action Rachel for the rest of the day.
No way Jose.
Firstly, I have no one to come get me.
Secondly I have no time to sit and sleep in the endoscopy department.
And thirdly, I have a karaoke session that night.
Chop chop hun, no time for wasting with a bit of Midazolam sedation.
So I went all gung-ho and had the banana anaesthetic throat spray right into the back of my pharynx.
"Do not swallow for 10 seconds," says Filipino nurse No. 2 while he sprayed away.
No chance.
Cough, splutter, choke, I teared IMMEDIATELY.
Isn't an anaesthetic spray suppose to take away pain?! No, they cause pain first.
I should know this. I am an anaesthetist. Local anaesthetics are my playground.
But nevertheless, the sting and shock of it still hurt.
I was then told to lie on my side while a mouth guard was fitted in to prevent me from biting down onto the scope. Filipino Nurse then put a hand on the side of my face, physically holding me down so I do not raise my head above the bed.
Urghh.
An OGD is a mighty unpleasant experience.
The feel of something akin to the diameter of planet Earth shoved down your throat makes one drool, buck, gag and retch.
The worst thing is there is nothing you can do about it.
You cannot pull it out, you cannot puke it up, it is just THERE.
I can vouch for the fact that the banana flavoured local anaesthetic did toot all.
4 biopsies were taken, and I could feel each one being clipped out somewhere at the back of my chest wall.
I think my heart rate on the monitor must have gone up to about 500. Tears kept coming despite myself and.... you know what, next time (no more I mean) I will go for sedation.
I then had to wait for 1 hour for the results - and they were as I expected, oesophagitis, nil else.
Well, I left the department, mind as sharp as ever and had the best karaoke session that night.
At least now I know I am not brewing some nasty cancer nor have my stomach lining eroded away by vicious H.Pylori ulcers.
I guess I really am getting old.
Oesophagogastroduodenoscopy
Visiting Greenwich on Halloween
Well, this did not happen exactly on Halloween.
It was 2 days before, but we shall consider it the same.
Since it was a day out and also the fact there was a party that same night AND coupled with Liwan's generosity of giving me a whole box of contacts (those eye enlarging ones) - FREE! I decide that I had to use them; my first ever contacts wearing experience ever.
I had some help of course, namely from the other half instructing me how to balance the perfect ellipse at the tip of my finger and to Keep It There as I angle it towards my eye.... and DON'T BLINK!!!!! being yelled numerous times as I tried push place the lenses.
Managed to accomplish the mission in 10 minutes with only 1 wasted lens.
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| Behold the BIG right eye and the smaller left! |
Definitely 1 step closer to be America's/Britain's/Malaysia's Next Top Model.
Only thing left is to gain that model body.
Now, THAT might be an actualy limiting factor.
I guess it is back to being a doctor until that day arrives.
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| Both lenses in! |
The lenses were super comfortable and I could not feel it whatsoever. Acuvue brand I believe.
On with the adventure of the day.
You know how when cheese is added to anything, it immediately tastes better?
O M G.
Have you ever tasted something so good??
Gooey, cheesy, meaty .... dripping with calories and fat...
Intravenous statins stat.
Yes, a bit further away from my modelesque body.
Our attention then shifted to these little fried balls that claimed it was stuffed with rice and a choices of fillings ranging from spinach to bacon.
Dry rice, cheese that tastes like...well, NOT cheese and ...
Just
Do
Not
Buy
It.
Our last food purchase of the day was churros.
Who can ever deny churros? Every time Mr TD and I see someone selling churros, we cannot help but shell out cash to sink our teeth into the Spanish creation of crispy dough coated with cinnamon sugar and dipped with chocolate. (In Spain, churros is eaten for breakfast with hot chocolate - or so I rememberd when I went there ages ago, but in London, it is sold everywhere as street food)
The churros sold at Greenwich market is manned by one guy who had to mix the dough, knead it down, let it rest, roll it up again, put it into the machine to churn out its cyclindrical shape and fry it.He then had to coat them in sugar and fill their centres with either your choice of praline and chocolate, and process the fee with a little cashier's register at the back of the stall.
Well, the dough was all ready made.
But the wait in the queue was so long, it might as well be that he had to prepare everything from scratch.
 |
| Filling the middle of it with praline and chocolate. Yum! |
Took a picture of this pretty stall that was selling rather useless items:
 |
| The woman was shocked. Clearly. |
Only to be told that no pictures allowed.
Oops. Sorry.
Bet if I bought something you would allow me to snap a photo right!
We then walked on and came to the National Maritime Museum.
After much drinking in of what we can regarding the history of said navy men, we moved onto our final destination which was the Meridien Greenwich.
Only to arrive at 4.01pm and to be told that last entry was at 4pm.
Brilliant.
Grrh.
That means I have to come back at some point in the near future again!
Still, the place gave great views of London.
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| Canary Wharf in the distance |
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| The walk up the hill |
Yup, final picture for effect.
Dressed up and all ready to go out as Ms Krueger and Count Dracula.
Happy Halloween!
Maze @ Gordon Ramsay
Since I have come to London, trying out new restaurants have become an exciting new hobby. The only limiting factor of this lifestyle modification is clearly the pricetag that comes with it. And I have to say, London IS expensive. Not the regular Edinburgh life I am used to, where I can get by a whole month spending less than £200. Everything in London costs money. The minute I step out of the house, I start paying. Legs aren't enough to get you from point A to B, no, it's the public transport you have to rely on.
But the up side is there is endless deals available online, new dishes and restaurants sprouting up every minute, and if you are smart enough (or kiamsiap enough) you can get away with trying a lot of things for a non extorbitant amount of money outflow.
Toptable was doing an offer on Maze (Chef's Ramsay's latest sensation; French cuising infused with an Asian flair) - £25 for a 3 course meal. So book I did and dine I did with Mr C.
There are 2 parts to this restaurant, one half is Maze itself and the other Maze Grill which is joined to the Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square.The Toptable deal was for the Maze restaurant itself and I was shown to my table which was squashed between another 2 tables which in turn was squashed between the adjoining tables which in turn...you get the picture.
I put it down to maximal business use per inch square of the area as they are doing a deal on toptable at that time, but surely on a normal day one wouldn't expect to sit like sardines in a can? Who knows.
The menu was understandably a set menu to choose from and with enough choice variation.
Unfortunately, for the life of me, I cannot remember the names of all the food we had, so a short description of what it is will do.
Starters:
All in all, I probably wouldn't go back to Maze as it wasn't a memorable experience nor was it too exciting food. It was cheap though, £25 for 3courses in a fine dining restaurant is an amazing deal. I suppose being Asian myself doesn't help when my palate is used to Asian food and I found the dishes not as different and tasty as I had hoped it would be.
Lake District
One last trip with Mr YaoHoong before he leaves to Hong Kong; earning big bucks along the way and making his name on to the Forbes 100 Richest list.
Lake District.
We stayed in Ellerbeck Manor which is situated in St Bees...
There.
Next to Whitehaven, 1.5 hours drive from Carlisle railway station.
At the edge of the map with what we were hopeful of... close to the sea.
Or so we thought.
A double bed room apartment but can sleep up to 6 with a sofabed in the living room. The description online says, near to white sandy beaches, with under floor heating, en suite toilets...
Sounds amazing.
Not so, as the double beds in the rooms are more like 1.5 of a single bed, the en suite bathrooms are built in a way that when one showers, the WHOLE damn bathroom becomes wet, and no, we did not utilise the underfloor heating.
The rest of the crew went up 2 days before me as I had to work freaking royal wedding Friday and could only train up that evening itself.
Lonely train trip up to Carlisle.
Carlisle.
That is like the town at the edge of Scotland. I had a friend in university from Carlisle. It is 1 stop away from Glasgow.
That's like.... AGES away from London.
And to Glasgow I almost went to as someone whom shall not be named decided to tell me that I had to taxi all the way to St Bees by myself as the rented car had broken down.
Luckily I am smart enough to sniff out a conspiracy theory especially when it is targeted against me.
Knew I was built of good stuff and I had my transport all ready and waiting for me to board it the minute I stepped out of the train station.
Finally got to Ellerbeck Manor after an eternity of travelling by multiple modes of transport and spent the next few days exploring Lake District.
There was the pebble beach, oh yes.
The Rape Seed fields.
The cycling trip at Windermere and crossing the lake to the other side.
Picnic by the lakeThe horses belonging to the owner of Ellerbeck Manor.
They eat Polos straight off your handsThe farm where we attempted to fish, only to spend the whole time trying to untangle the string that jammed the fishing rod, and no fish caught obviously.
Seriuosly fishingThe same farm where we did clay pigeon shooting.
Oh boy, oh boy!
Women with ammo
Boom! Rachel's score: 4/10 clay pigeon hitAnd finally, the good food and company that came along with it.
Holidays?
Love them.
