Today Gio called home and asked me to meet him at the hospital as he was concerned about his foot. Wait. I should give a little history here first...
Thursday morning Gio woke up and was barely able to put any weight on his left foot, as his ankle was very swollen and painful. Now, we have no idea if he twisted it during the day, which he does not remember doing, or if he slept on it strange and hurt it during the night, which he has done before (by the way, it is difficult to show the appropriate amount of sympathy when someone hurts themselves in their sleep). So he went off to work. Thursday afternoon he visited 3 different doctors to try to gleen more information on his injury. None of the docs actually touched his ankle but all pronounced it to be sprained and recommended RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation). However, no one was able to help with the compression aspect, as no doctors kept bandages in stock, he needed to go to the pharmacy. Anyway we get supplies to wrap his foot and ankle and spent the weekend primarily on the couch. Over the weekend the pain seemed to shift from the outer ankle into his foot and became worse at work this morning thereby leading to the trip to the hospital.
Gio tells me to meet him at Mount Elizabeth Hospital. OK. Knowing the cabbies here, and that you usually need to be prepared with at least 3 different ways of explaining where you need to go, I proceeded to do a google search for the hospitals address. What I found were these directions:
Mount Elizabeth Hospital is located near Jalan Lada Puteh; near Mount Elizabath; near Jalan Kayu Manis; near Jalan Jintan; near Jalan Elok; Mount Elizabeth Hospital is geographically located at latitude (1.3053 degrees) 1° 18' 19" North of the Equator and longitude (103.8354 degrees) 103° 50' 7" East of the Prime Meridian on the Map of Singapore or JB.
The locations related to Mount Elizabeth Hospital are represented by the path the bullet takes from the muzzle of the gun to the target and may not be nearest by road. For example, Mount Elizabeth Hospital is located 0.1 kilometre from Richmond Park. Mount Elizabeth Hospital is located 0.1 kilometre from Elizabeth Towers. Mount Elizabeth Hospital is located 0.2 kilometre from The Esquire. Mount Elizabeth Hospital is located 0.2 kilometre from Somerset Compass Residences. Mount Elizabeth Hospital is located 0.2 kilometre from Tong Building.
Wow... helpful. Hey Uncle, just take me along the path of the bullet!
Anyway, I met Gio at the Hospital and he was on the phone to HR figuring out the puzzle of what doctor/GP/specialist to visit with his insurance coverage. After a few minutes of back-and-forth, we went to a GP to get a referral for the Orthopedic Doctor. The GP didn't even touch the foot, just asked a few standard questions and then sent us back to the 16th floor of the hospital. There we waited for 30 minutes until Gio went in to see the doctor, two minutes later he came back and had to go back down to the first floor to get xrays. It was at this time that I realized I was getting into one of my "lack-of-food moods" so I had to eat so while Gio got the xrays, I went to grab a quick bite and as it turned out, no need to rush as Gio was 45 minutes waiting for his turn.
Five minutes later, we are back on the 16th and the doctor looks at the xrays, no broken bones but potential ligament damage is a concern, so we have to wait for the swelling to come down before he's sure. No athletic activity for a week, Gio laughs, I shake my head... of all the comments, no athletic activity... he's still going to do his sit-ups and arms though :-)
Crisis averted and RICE is still in full effect, at least its not broken!
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