So, I mentioned in my previous post that I was recommended to do a D&C in JB, Malaysia.
Considering the costs and under the reassurance from Angela that I will be taken good care of, I went for it. By the way, Angela has also a clinic in JB, Malaysia housed in Johor Specialist Hospital. So, considering the fact that I’ve been to her clinic here in SG, and that she chose to have her clinic in that hospital, it can’t be that bad (although I was still very worried because there were just too many scare stories I’ve heard from people who visited public hospitals in Malaysia). Johor Specialist Hospital is not public, it’s private so as with all privatisation, it’s more expensive hence should provide better quality healthcare. I was really skeptical throughout but I chose to place my fears aside and trust in her.
Angela usually accompanies her patient but unfortunately in my case, she was unavailable on the day of my operation. Never mind, I thought. At the end of the day, her presence may add on reassurance but also pressure. There’s also nothing much she can do except for being there as she will not be the one carrying out the op. I arranged for my mum to go with me instead.
Once I decided to go for the op in the hospital in JB, I had to produce a copy of my passport as well as my blood test report – the one you would have to do anyway before you embarked on IVF. It was scanned over to the clinic and I had to go in one day before the operation to register. Angela’s staff have experience arranging for these trips so just do as you are told and everything should work out well. (Fingers crossed – You can’t really be sure about things being done in Malaysia…)
On the day prior to the operation, Mum and I took the bus in. The customs was packed as usual. We cleared it (after a 2-hour wait!) and checked in before we went to the hospital for registration. We stayed at KSL for the convenience – it was 5-minute taxi ride away from Johor Specialist Centre. The operation at Johor Specialist Centre actually included an overnight’s stay in the ward and you can even opt for a family member to stay with you through the night but we preferred to stay in a hotel instead. After all, I would not be able to choose who’s my neighbour in the ward and although it will be a all-woman’s ward, it’s not the maternity ward. On the day of registration, I was actually freaked out seeing 2 cockroaches in the room where I took my blood pressure, height and weight. The cockroach crawled out from nowhere and then crawled back under the wall. Mum joked that the cockroach came to see the doctor too. When I told this to Angela, she mentioned that we should have complained. I did, to the nurse who tended to me, and she gave me a weak smile. Maybe it was her pet.
On the day itself, I reported to the clinic at 7:30 am and they brought me to the bed that had been allocated for me. I changed into the surgical gown and waited for the doctor as well as the surgical theatre to be available. At about 9:00 am, Dr. Mohanraj Krishnasamy came to have a few words with me before he went off to get ready for the operation. At about 10:30 am, I was pushed in a wheelchair to the operating theatre. By the way, Dr Mohan does operations only on Thursday but I could only make it on Friday so special arrangement was made hence the long waiting time – I was slotted in on the Friday schedule at 11:00 am.
When I reached the entrance of the operating theatre, I had to get on a surgical bed from my wheelcar instead and was pushed into a waiting area. The anesthetist came to check on me and not long after, I was pushed into the operating theatre. It’s pretty spacious and looked sterile (the typical whitewash walls and filled with equipment). I was pretty annoyed though, that the anesthetist did not do a good job putting in the IV line the first time that he had to take it out and do it once more, causing a major bruise on my hand.
Of course, I did not have the time to get angry or complained because before I knew it, I was knocked out.
When I woke up, it was already 12:30 pm and I was back at the waiting area. The nurse came over to check on my blood pressure twice and once she’s certain that it’s alright, I was pushed back to the ward.
As I woke up pretty early that morning, I went to sleep and woke up about at about 2:00 pm. The doctor came around that time to tell me that the operation went well but as the entrance to my uterus has been microscopic, he did all that he could in his means to carry out the op. It was my first time hearing that kind of description and honestly, it made me doubt the doctor’s ability. I haven’t had that kind of feedback before but as I mentioned previously, anything could possibly happened in Malaysia.
Thereafter, he mentioned once I’m fully awake, we can check out of the hospital. We had made arrangement with Angela’s recommended driver to leave the hospital at 5pm but the service after my operation has been nothing other than slow. At 3pm, my mum asked the nurse if we could leave, only to be greeted by puzzled faces. I changed and got ready to leave, whenever the nurses come back with a definite reply that I can go off. One of the nurses then came back to inform us that we need to make payment at level 1 before going off. We then went down to Level 1 make payment at the cashier, only to be told that they have not received any notice of payment from the wards or doctor.
Mum pressed on and insisted that they contact the ward for the notice of payment so that we could be in time for the vehicle. She even went over to the next room to collect the medication for me in the meanwhile though the nurse was pretty reluctant to release the drug without the receipt from the cashier. The whole chain of work flow is super inefficient. By the time the notice of payment was finally received, the cashier who was attending to me had a bad news for me – the operating system was down! She had to restart the system and get another of her colleague to attend to me. I was just dumbfounded at how slow and inefficient things can go… Finally, we paid and managed to get on the car just in time. In fact, we were told to hurry if we want to avoid the jam.
Johor Specialist Centre was only a 10-minute drive from the causeway but because we clashed with the crowd leaving JB, we only cleared customs at 6pm. It was not bad by the usual standards but if we had spent less time at the cashier waiting, we could have reached home earlier.
All in all, the experience was mediocre. Unimpressive but acceptable. At least the operation went well, there wasn’t haemorrhage post-operation and the cost is one-fifth of what it would have cost me in Singapore – The total sum that I paid was about RM 2,500 (~850SGD) but it would have been close to S$5,000 in Singapore.
Here’s a rough estimate of the amount of the procedure if it’s done in Singapore:
Doctor’s Fee: $1,000 – $1,800
Hospital Charges: $1,400 – $1,800
Anasthetist Charges: $350 – $450
Inpatient Fees: $200 – $300
These charges exclude the free one night stay that’s also included in the package price I paid.
Hope this post has been able to shed some light for people who are keen to go for a similar op in JB.
twoweekswait 