Been in and out of hospital this year

I been in and out of hospital every now and then this year for various checks. The cause of all these? To determine if I am still fit for running 2.4KM (for the IPPT).

I had a few episodes of pneumothorax during NS active days and the experience isn’t really good. All those pains, inconsiderate peers, superiors who think you are chao-kenging, SAF medical officers who thinks you are chao-kenging, officer who don’t wish to do the injury report.

Because of pneumothorax, I have asked for a medical review to be excused from the 2.4KM station, which my previous storeman was excused from (due to his myopia, which is near-sightedness). My storeman is a martial art practitional and I don’t know why he can practise martial art and not do 2.4KM due to his myopia. Another reason for me to ask for excuse is that I get chest pains from jogging. As it is a well known problem that SAF don’t really care for its soldier so it is bettery that I take actions to protect myself. Reasons for me to say this? There are cases of NS Man getting paralysed due to heat injury and SAF issued him a CSC card with allowance of SGD$500 per month. Another life got owned by SAF. News of NS Men collasping and die during running sessions. I am not sure if these people have voiced out their problems or not. Or was it the case of them voicing out and SAF says, “GO RUN!”. From my experience during the two years and four months, you don’t get recognised for the work you do, so it is better to take care of your own self and learn to be selfish in SAF where taichi practitional rules. Ah, I digressed. Back to story, the medical centre actually scheduled for a consultation with the SAF Medical Officer.

The consultation was earlier on this year and they arranged a for a lung functionality test. Well, almost failed the test, but isn’t one of the best either. As SAF Medical Officer actually referred me to NUH for check of my lung function and chest pain. Since I got recurring chest pain, the kind specialist of NUH actually arranged for a heart echo and mibi test. Couldn’t do the full test for mibi as there are some problems with the ECG and they don’t wish to continue. Had a MRI as well, arranged by the specialist again. From the MRI, they discovered that I have got enlarged aorta root (44mm). As I exhibit some marfan syndrome symptoms during clinical analysis. They referred me for a checkup in the marfan’s clinic.

All the while, the cost has been beared by army. The phrase “marfan symdrome” is not foreign to me as during initial medical checkup before enlisting into army. They suspected I have got marfan syndrome and did some brief checks afterwhich they dismiss that I got marfan syndrome. Now NUH is conducting a more indepth test. Ah, now I really wonder do I have marfan syndrome. If there is, why the brief check on SAF side? And is this the cause of the enlarging aorta?

Got to go down to camp soon again. Sigh.