Visit to DPH and Renci hospital on 17 April

Yihan and I visited Uncle Lee at Dover Park Hospice and Uncle Kng at Ren Ci Hospital yesterday.

When we stepped into uncle Lee’s ward, he was visibly unhappy and he told us soon after that he was suffering from constipation for the past 2 days and was feeling quite unwell. One of the nurses had just given him some constipation medicine, and he was waiting for the medicine to take effect. As we waited for the medicine to take effect, Yihan and I tried to converse with him but we soon ran out of topics. Uncle was also not in the mood to talk to us due to his discomfort. He still has breathing difficulties and the phlegm in his throat is still troubling him.

Yihan brought a few intellectual toys (the type where you need to separate 2 interlocking metal objects from each other) for uncle to play, and it turned out that uncle had played with these toys when he was 5/6 years old. Still, uncle lost interest in the toys after solving one of them in quite a short time.

While waiting for the medicine to take effect, one of DPH volunteers, Simon, counseled us on how to deal with patients at Dover Park. He taught us to not remind the patients of their conditions, to try our best to alleviate the conditions of the patients and make them happy, and to always be ready make some self-sacrifice whenever the patient requests us to do something for them.

We went back to uncle after the long talk by Simon and helped to feed him with some nutrient drink. The constipation medicine finally took effect, and uncle looked more relieved and happier. After the nurses changed his diaper, we went out to main corridor to sit and talk. Uncle tried another of Yihan’s toy and again solved it in a short time. Then, uncle passed motion again and had to change his diaper one more time. We bid farewell to him soon after, and left 2 intellectual toys with him. Uncle was more talkative towards the end of the visit and I believe he looks forward to us visiting him next week.

We visited Uncle next at Ren Ci Hospital. When we arrived, uncle was resting. He was slightly panting even when asleep. Uncle woke up and appeared to be in a daze. He recognized us after a while and we began talking. We let uncle choose between the star fruit juice and watermelon juice we bought for him and he chose watermelon juice. Uncle did not enjoy the Taiwan vermicelli that I bought for him from Yong He eating house in Geylang. Well, the vermicelli tasted quite horrible, as verified by Yihan and myself. We massaged uncle’s body (his leg muscles are getting smaller from lying on the bed all the time), as usual, to his delight, and talked about Jack Neo’s scandal. Uncle’s condition appeared to be better, but it seemed that he couldn’t see as well now. He searched around for his chopsticks when it was in front of him, and had missed the hole for the straw on the cup by 3/4 cm when trying to poke the straw into the cup. We bidded uncle farewell about one hour into our visit.

Tai Qin