I woke up this morning with a blocked ear. This does happen to my left ear now & then due to factors unknown to me. I've learned to live with it. The ear blockage would normally go off after a while. But this time, it lasted the whole day. It became unbearable as there was echoing & I could not hear properly.
It started to get worse in the afternoon. I was attending a meeting in the office from 2-4pm. But midway through the meeting, I began to feel breathless. My left ear was becoming more blocked. This time, my nose seemed to be blocked too. I found myself having to breathe very hard. I began to feel weak & giddy. I sought excuse to leave the meeting explaining that I was not feeling well & needed to see the doctor immediately.
I rushed to the hospital in a cab. While waiting to be attended to, I quickly sms-ed an urgent prayer request to my contact persons in BSF & DG. Through this prayer chain, I was assured that many would be praying for me. A nurse did an ECG test on me & then wheeled me in. A young female doctor attended to me. She asked a few questions & then went off. At this time, about 4.20pm, I noticed that my ear blockage suddenly disappeared. I found myself able to breathe normally again. I knew it was the power of prayer. I felt so relieved & whispered a prayer of thanksgiving.
The young female doctor cleared me of lung infection after looking at the x-ray. I told the doctor I did ECG, not x-ray. She asked again. I repeated the same answer. But the doctor insisted that the nurse had done an x-ray on me earlier. I was confused. The doctor was not listening. She did not even try to verify my statement.
I was discharged & reached home about 7pm. At 7.40pm, I received a surprise call from the doctor. She inquired how I was, whether I was still having breathing difficulties. I said I was able to breathe much better now. I thought she was such a caring doctor but when she started to apologise, I knew something was wrong. She apologised that there was a mix-up in the x-rays. She asked me again if I had taken xray. I said I had told her a few times I had not taken any x-ray & she had confused me by insisting I had done the x-ray. She said I would need to return to A&E to do an x-ray. As I was too tired to go back now, she arranged for me to go back at 8am the next morning. But before she put down the phone, she repeated for a 2nd time that should I encounter any breathing difficulty during the night, I should come down to A&E immediately as it is open 24 hours a day.
While preparing dinner, I felt no peace. I thought, "What if I suddenly become breathless in the middle of the night?" A voice kept telling me to go back to SGH now....."call Irene". It was then 8pm. I hesitated. But the voice said again, "call Irene". I called Irene Tan. I told Irene about the x-ray mix-up. I was so touched when Irene agreed to drive me to SGH without hesitation. I was so thankful that God already knew about the mix-up & had arranged for Irene to be my angel that night.
It was a different doctor who attended to me this time. Apparently he had been briefed about the "x-ray mix-up" fiasco. He apologised profusely for the mix-up & said that an investigation was under way to find out what went wrong. Thank God for Irene who helped to "fight" for me, saying that my life could have been put to risk by the careless attitude of the other doctor. What if I had collapsed on the way home? How could the doctor not listen to the patient? He said SGH was also very concerned about this matter & would do its best not to repeat the same mistake again.
So I spent the night doing the x-ray & re-doing the ECG test as it seemed that the ECG I did earlier had also gone missing. Probably another mix-up again. Both the x-ray & ECG tests showed no sign of any lung problem. This was all that I needed to see & hear. I knew I would be able to sleep with peace of mind tonight. And I did.
Lord, thank You for sending Irene as my angel tonight. Thank You for watching over me in my coming in & going out.
tsk tsk
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