gibberish

Here's my MRI report, reproduced (almost) verbatim. Now only if I understood medicalese.

HISTORY
Right knee MCL sprain and medial meniscal tear. Twisted right knee in 12/04. Tender around joint.
Open in valgus stress 30 degrees.

REPORT
Multiplanar MRI of the right knee was obtained. There was no previous study available for comparison.

Full thickness cartilage defect measuring 1.2 cm in size is present at the lateral femoral condyle (series 1 image 12). This defect extends into the subchondral bone, with evidence of bone marrow oedema.

Fluid underlies the superficial medial collateral ligament and this suggests tear of the deep medial collateral ligament.

Small knee effusion is present.

Foci of increased signal intensities are present in the medial and lateral menisci. However, they do not extend to the articular surfaces and are compatible with degeneration.

The posterior cruciate ligament, anterior cruciate ligament, lateral collateral ligament, popliteus tendon and muscle are intact.

CONCLUSIONS
1. 1.2cm full thickness cartilage defect extending into the subchondral bone at the right lateral femoral condyle associated with bone marrow oedema.
2. Suggestion of deep medial collateral ligament tear.
3. Small right knee effusion




Anyone fluent in dry medical terminology? Your assistance is much appreciated!

(bad) things happen in threes.

noticed lately that stuff tends to clump together. whether this is and advanced application of newton's law of gravitation or some yet-unknown phenomena of the quantum field, these two weeks have been very busy and rushed.

first. the table-tennis inter-formation. that didn't go too well. we managed to lose to airforce 2-3 which meant that we didn't make the semis. oops.

next, the pass machine working. the backlog of about 200 passes cleared. which meant that we needed to update our records and issue the passes to impatient people, some of whom have waited a month and a half for them.

third, the new pax coming in when nobody expected them. which means i have to babysit.

and all this in addition to routine duties.

bleah.

babysitting

another batch of MP basic have come in. that means that for the past 4 days (monday being a public holiday of sorts) i have had the dubious pleasure of babysitting 21 new guys and 4 new specs who have joined our happy community at work. besides organizing their lessons and generally making sure that people are where they are supposed to be at when they're supposed to be there, i've had to stand in for lecturers who are either on leave, sick, or too busy or not bothered enough to be there for their lessons.

ah well. people don't appreciate that if there isn't a co-ordinator for these events the whole week falls apart. lecturers don't show up on time or at all, nobody gives a hoot about the new guys, and everyone wonders why things are so screwed up. at least now that i'm co-ordinating this, it becomes my fault if it goes pear-shaped. bugger.

another take on SW3:ROTS

The New Yorker

--

Guardian UK

the end of the beginning which is the beginning of the end

watched SW3:ROTS today. Good visuals, as one might expect, but crummy dialogue. I mean, who writes the dialogue between mr and mrs vader? i won't ruin it for people who haven't seen it yet (why haven't you?) but it's a cringe-fest whenever mr vader talks to the missus.

the lightsabre scenes weren't as cool as SW2 though. maybe i just miss the spectacle of yoda with a lightsabre. he got his green ass kicked this time, though.

also looked at the Creative Zen 20Gb. the new one, sized somewhat halfway between the old zen/zen nx and the new zen touch. black or white, together with the same design as the zen touch, with 20Gb and 12h battery life. thought that the batt life was rather disappointing, as 12h did not improve at all on my existing zen nx, and 20Gb is the same. having said that, it does have built-in fm radio, voice recorder and Plug-and-play HDD capability, so will be looking out for it next week at the creative fair. at $449 during the creative fest, it looks like a steal. probably won't get it though, it's only about 20% smaller than my nx and the features are about the same. will await apple's 20gb ipod mini! now only if such a thing existed. steve jobs, over to you.

A tribute to Mum.

Dilbert!

Best Dilbert comic in a while....

Dominant Intelligence

Your Dominant Intelligence is Logical-Mathematical Intelligence

You are great at finding patterns and relationships between things. Always curious about how things work, you love to set up experiments. You need for the world to make sense - and are good at making sense of it. You have a head for numbers and math ... and you can solve almost any logic puzzle. You would make a great scientist, engineer, computer programmer, researcher, accountant, or mathematician.

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

sometime this week, due to the President's Challenge or other equivalent event, Boss' (PS) Boss' (PC) Boss' (OC) Boss' (BC) Boss' (HJO) Boss' (DJOPD) Boss (CDF) encouraged all in SAF to donate generously to the cause.

So Boss' (PS) Boss' (PC) Boss' (OC) Boss (BC) strongly encouraged all in GB to give. Now as we all know, Boss' (PS) Boss' (PC) Boss' (OC) Boss' (BC) suggestions carry the power of a direct order from waaaaay above. So the translation of that (as we received it) was that Boss' (PS) Boss' (PC) Boss' (OC) Boss (BC) ORDERED all of us to contribute, with an alleged minimum sum of $10.

Needless to say, we were all see beh too lan. I mean, we're all national slaves servicemen, already underpaid and overworked as it is, and now you're making us give out of our meagre allowances. allowances, not salaries. i mean, why not give as you feel led to? for NSF, $10 out of an average salary allowance of $500 is like 2%, but the recommended donation (see there's even a recommended donation) for regulars was $30. Out of a salary of say $2500. Oh that's 1.2% for those who are counting. Oh and regulars can contribute out of their flexi accounts or something like that.

So ends up with all being forced to give, and a lot of disgruntled people around. i mean, left to my own devices i probably would have made a contribution, but it's not nice to force people to contribute to charity. i know i won't like being forced to contribute to, oh, say, the NKF.

Meandering off, let's take a potshot at the new high-tech ration indenting system S4 has tried to implement. instead of ordering slightly more food to insure against hungry soldiers, now we have to order exactly enough, which leads to all kinds of difficulties for the people involved in the actual ordering. after a week or so of complaints that there was not enough food, we are slowly seeing the system phased out. oh, and my cq has stopped complaining too.

the week in short

this week kinda flew by.

due to the inexplicable timing of everything seeming to happen in an instant, i will recant as many things as i can recall happening. not in chronological order though.

first of all. mr choo a.k.a. heavenly water drain chicken trying to weasel out of buying me a present. be warned, mr choo. i know where you live. =P

next, the table-tennis team involving poor little one-legged (effectively) me. apparantly the handicap of having only one functioning knee doesn't quite hold water with the team manager, and so i am playing for the team, albeit as a reserve.

now i've been stuck with the task of finding t-shirts for the team, which means that if the team winds up looking like morons at the closing match, it's my fault. nevertheless, i've managed to choose an eye-catching (to me) black number with cool (also to me) design, and i'm trying to get the corporate logo printed. and all that for $15. at least i have a contact for that.

this week also found us realising that the current contractor we have for printing booklets of slips is overcharging us by about 270%. I mean, what's with the quote of $3.70 per book of 100 slips (a7 size) when another company is quoting $1. yes, $1. looks like the $3.70 company has seen our last order. that is, unless they show remorse and quote $0.90 for the next time.

SGH is hounding me for payment. i've repeatedly told them about my national slave service full-time status and told them to go screw ask MINDEF instead. A friend who is in the mirror situation of myself (i.e. he's got a busted left knee compared to my busted right knee) is also experiencing difficulties with SGH and payment. he has also repeatedly told them to hound saf. "sorry ah, miss, i'm doing my national service ah, can help me bill to saf hor, velly solly." he also has an email from the finance people claiming that "everything has been fixed" and that "his account has been re-activated". that was 4 months ago, and still it is not fixed.

which leads me to how i met up with this friend. you see, the gahmen wanted to see if its scholars are psycho(tic) or not, which is why they summoned us all from the corners of the island to take a psycho(metric) test. then we started talking. ah well. wonder how long SGH is going to hound me for my medical bills.

on another note, i've found a re-compensation scheme in the SAF. it's called USMS, which stands for something i never really bothered to find out. the perks in this scheme are that everytime you submit a "worthy" suggestion, they give you money. anywhere from $2.50 to $25. most suggestions are worth $2.50, but i've had a few $10s so far. not enough to get rich by, but certainly worth pursuing. and it's all legal. =P

happy mudders day

to the mudder who:

brought me up
took care of me when i was ill
spanked me when i deserved it
supported me in my decisions
guided me towards the right paths
and much much more.

thank you.

gombak base 17th anniversary

[in the interests of not getting sued by the government, civil service, or other members working for such agencies or thereof, this blog entry has been removed]

the saga continues (part 3)

for all of you out there waiting eagerly for the next installment of the story of my knee, wait no longer! it is here.

for those who are waiting eagerly for something else, keep waiting.

went to the MO to submit the speciallist letter on thursday. meniscus tear. or something like that. i didn't ask, and i couldn't read the doctor's handwriting. anyway, i have a MBBIA (medical board, board in absentia) coming up soon (figure a month to three) who will decide my fate (recommended downgrade to C2L2) eventually.

anyway, to cut a long story short, people aren't too thrilled about losing a manpower. so i'm hearing lots of stories about how to "tell" the doctor to write the letter so that i don't have to downgrade and can stay on and do their work for them.

so i listened politely and nodded during the breaks in their long tales, but hey, it's my life and my knee. thank you very much for the information, but i'll let the speciallist do her work and write her letter, and whatever comes, comes. i'm not going to try to meddle about in medical stuff which is way over my head, just like i do not expect people to mess in my security stuff which is way over their head.

'nuff said.