Adrian and my mother-in-law commented that Louisa could have some hearing problem in one of her ears because everytime she's on the phone, she'll complain she can't hear. So I rang up her Paediatrician at Mt Alvernia to see if I can get an appointment. As expected, he's fully booked for the whole of this month so I'd been advised to go as a walk-in patient and was warned about the waiting time of approximately 2 hours. We went anyway. The clinic was packed with parents, children and newborn babies (so cute!). We didn't wait 2 hours. It was a long 3- hour wait. The Dr couldn't see anything wrong with her eardrums so he referred us to a Ear Specialist. As we are in Singapore for only a short period of time and being the nice doctor that he is, he personally rang the specialist and asked for Louisa to be seen today. I was pleasantly surprised when we weren't charged for the consultation. Perhaps it was the long wait, I don't know. So we rushed over to the other clinic in Orchard Road. The referral letter had the address on it and it was at Paragon. Even though I know the parking charges there are sky high, I couldn't think of anywhere else to park especially since it was raining. I didn't expect the wait to be as long and had even planned to bring Louisa to Bakerzin for cake and hot choc. Boy was I wrong!
First when I got to the unit number, I realised it wasn't the right place as that wasn't a clinic so I asked a person inside. He told me the clinic had been relocated to Mt Elizabeth. Luckily Mt E is just next door. As I don't know the unit number of the clinic, I checked on the directory in the lift lobby. Found it and took the lift up. Got into the clinic and was happy to see no patients. Showed the receptionist the referral letter and was told the clinic's on another level. How do I know there's 2 almost identical practices. So we had to go down to ground floor to take another lift up to the 12th floor.
Finally, we made it to the right place. It was very posh but there were quite a few people waiting. We sat down to begin our waiting game again. I read magazines while Louisa read some books and did some drawings. (Thank goodness Lavigne didn't go). About 1hr later, we were seen by the doctor, another very nice man. He looked into her ears and we could see the insides on 2 monitors. Louisa was enthralled. Her eardrums were intact and looked normal with no fluid so he sent us to Lucky Plaza for a hearing test - the only place we didn't need to wait. We sat in a soundproof room and Louisa had to put on one huge headphone. Everytime she heard a 'tink', she had to raise her hand. The test didn't take very long and we went back to the specialist with the report.
Waited more than 30min before we were seen. By then, Louisa was getting hungry and cranky after all the wait. But I just ignored her and let her whinged. The doctor's diagnosis was Louisa has mild hearing loss in her right ear. Her left ear's fine but something happens to the sound travelling between her middle and inner ear. When sound travels into her ears, both eardrums vibrate so they are not the culprit. The possible reasons are a bone right inside the ear may be deformed, a damaged nerve or a growth in the ear. He explained that the likelihood of all these are very low as the test she took today might not be 100% accurate since she's still very young and she might not get the hang of it. She doesn't need treatment now and will have to take another hearing test in 3 months' time so that there can be a comparison. If it remains the same, treatment can be in the form of surgery which carries the risk of total hearing loss or having a hearing aid fixed. He doesn't forsee her undergoing these treatments as her hearing loss is very mild. He even shared with me that of all the places he had lived in, UK was the only one where he encountered racism. Hmmmm.... Oh the damage for today? $180 for first consultation and hearing test and almost $20 for parking at Mt Alvernia and Paragon.
So yes, since Monday, we'd been seeing doctors everyday. The girls on Monday for their cough and cold, me at KKH on Tuesday, Louisa today and tomorrow will be me again at KKH. I feel so broke!
First when I got to the unit number, I realised it wasn't the right place as that wasn't a clinic so I asked a person inside. He told me the clinic had been relocated to Mt Elizabeth. Luckily Mt E is just next door. As I don't know the unit number of the clinic, I checked on the directory in the lift lobby. Found it and took the lift up. Got into the clinic and was happy to see no patients. Showed the receptionist the referral letter and was told the clinic's on another level. How do I know there's 2 almost identical practices. So we had to go down to ground floor to take another lift up to the 12th floor.
Finally, we made it to the right place. It was very posh but there were quite a few people waiting. We sat down to begin our waiting game again. I read magazines while Louisa read some books and did some drawings. (Thank goodness Lavigne didn't go). About 1hr later, we were seen by the doctor, another very nice man. He looked into her ears and we could see the insides on 2 monitors. Louisa was enthralled. Her eardrums were intact and looked normal with no fluid so he sent us to Lucky Plaza for a hearing test - the only place we didn't need to wait. We sat in a soundproof room and Louisa had to put on one huge headphone. Everytime she heard a 'tink', she had to raise her hand. The test didn't take very long and we went back to the specialist with the report.
Waited more than 30min before we were seen. By then, Louisa was getting hungry and cranky after all the wait. But I just ignored her and let her whinged. The doctor's diagnosis was Louisa has mild hearing loss in her right ear. Her left ear's fine but something happens to the sound travelling between her middle and inner ear. When sound travels into her ears, both eardrums vibrate so they are not the culprit. The possible reasons are a bone right inside the ear may be deformed, a damaged nerve or a growth in the ear. He explained that the likelihood of all these are very low as the test she took today might not be 100% accurate since she's still very young and she might not get the hang of it. She doesn't need treatment now and will have to take another hearing test in 3 months' time so that there can be a comparison. If it remains the same, treatment can be in the form of surgery which carries the risk of total hearing loss or having a hearing aid fixed. He doesn't forsee her undergoing these treatments as her hearing loss is very mild. He even shared with me that of all the places he had lived in, UK was the only one where he encountered racism. Hmmmm.... Oh the damage for today? $180 for first consultation and hearing test and almost $20 for parking at Mt Alvernia and Paragon.
So yes, since Monday, we'd been seeing doctors everyday. The girls on Monday for their cough and cold, me at KKH on Tuesday, Louisa today and tomorrow will be me again at KKH. I feel so broke!
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