Day 2: Looking at the world with one and a half eyes

The swelling on the eyes subsided today but I soon find myself getting blurred vision on the left. Most likely the Mak Cham has burst and pus came out. Then I realised that I kept tasting something bitter in my throat, especially after I applied the eye drops. After a few tries, I confirmed it was the eye drops that I tasted! I was stupefied as to how it travel from my eyes into my throat?!

After doing some checks with my colleagues and the world wide web, it turns out that the throat is indeed connected to the eye. When I blinked my eyes, the eye drops get forced into lacrimal canal, then into the nose, then into the back of the throat. So the best practise is not to blink. Just close your eyes and use a tissue to wipe off the eye drops.

I double checked the bottle. It says "FOR EXTERNAL USE ONLY". I wonder how true is that.

Hopefully my eyes get better tomorrow, otherwise I would be tasting eye drops for another day.

Looking at the world with One and a half eyes

Over the weekend, my left eye got swollen and like any man, I delayed seeing the doctor, until I could barely open it when I wake up to see the beautiful world on a monday morning. Ok, that was bullshit, I had to travel (almost) half way across the island to drop off my son at my mother-in-law's house and then zoom to my office at 100 km per hour to attend a (*%$#) 9 am meeting with an external consultant.

I made an appointment with my company clinic before I left my mother-in-law's house, thinking that I should be pretty early in the queue.

"15", the lady said.
"Bugger!", I cursed.
"Next time I will call at 6am," I said to myself.

After 4 phone calls and getting numerous replies such as "Doctor not in yet", "X more patients to go sir", I finally sat in front of my regular company doctor, and was told me I had 针眼, again. For the heartlanders, its the infamous Mak Cham. Literal translation is needle in the eyes.

"Too 'heaty'," the doctor said. (Thank god he didn't tease me, but guess that would be very unprofessional)

Now not many non-TCM doctor will say such things, but I choose to believe him (not that I had a choice). I was prescribed with an anti-bacterial eye drop (not the Eye-mo kind, only got saline inside, he said), some anti-biotics (not again!) and a piece of paper that most employees in Singapore would die for - MC (Medical Certificate, ;-)).

As usual, when I told my colleagues and friends I had Mak Cham, they all go like "Beo too many gals lah!" Beo is Hokkien for ogling at gals. Now, if that was really the cause, I think the hospital and clinics in Singapore would be thriving with business! As usual, I shrugged off every jest I received, with the belief that they meant "Take Care and rest your eyes" actually.

For the "uneducated and ignorants", Conjunctivities (yes, that's the medical term), aka Mak Cham occurs due to a few reasons:

• Irregular Lifestyle
• Late nights
• Unhygienic habits
• Peeking at gals showering
  

As a result, the eyes got infected with bacteria and these pimple-like Mak Cham starts to manifest, causing itchiness to eyes, red eye or swelling of the eyelids. It could grow from anywhere around the eyes to underneath the eyelids. (By the way, that last reason was totally untrue. But I decided to list it down just to humour folks who believe in such myth)

So advise to all, wash your hands regularly, sleep early, and guys, don't beo too many gals! ;-)

Bird Flu (禽流感)

Bird flu has been on a rampage lately, with 17 outbreaks in China to-date. Europe was not spared this year. The last time it strikes close at home was back in 2003. At the time, poultry import from Malaysia was suspended by the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA). Prices soared sky high, and supermarket ran short of eggs. Singaporean (Young and old) felt the impact of it on their livelihood. It was no longer just a piece of news on TV.

The first human death due to the H5N1 virus was in August 1997 in Hong Kong. In that outbreak, 18 people were infected, six died and 1.5 million chickens were put to death. Since then, the world has been on the lookout of this virus strain.

I happen to came across an article on the net about the virus which had a medical definition of the H5N1 virus. Here it is (in Chinese):

H5N1禽流感病毒属于甲型流感病毒的一个高致病性亚型，其中的H和N分别代表病毒表面的两种蛋白质。
　　H是血凝素（hemagglutinin ) ，就如病毒的钥匙，它能打开和侵入人类或动物的细胞。
　　N是神经氨酸酶（neuraminidase)，其作用是破坏细胞，使病毒在感染者体内自由传播。N蛋白共有9个类型，分为N1—N9，H蛋白有15个类型，即H1—H15，不同的N蛋白和H蛋白结合，组成不同的病毒类型，毒性和传播速度也不同。
　　H5N1病毒就包括了H5蛋白和N1蛋白。H5N1病毒1961年首次在南非被发现，病毒的毒性很强，病禽的死亡率可达100%。


Source: zaobao.com

Let's pray and hope that it does not turn into an epidemic like the Spanish flu.