Orthopaedic Visit

Today I went to see a orthopaedic specialist, I want to make use of my insurance to find out if there is any abnormality with my knee because when I take the stairs, I have some minor pain in my knee. So the doctor refer me to take some X-Ray.


The knee is ok, there are still gap and ligament still there I presume.

On this one, if you click and enlarge the photo, you will see the knee cap is very close to the bone, according to doctor, this is what causing the minor pain. I told the doctor that I have started to take glucosamine, and wear knee protector 2 yrs ago. He said that it is a good thing that I have started. So I ask him back what is the solution for my case, you see, I love to play basketball. He said, he won't advise me to play too much of basketball because there a lot of jumping involved and I might shortened the lifespan of my joint lubrication. Deep inside my heart, I was like, 'damn... if I can't jump in the game, means I am totally useless in the team because I play the role as "rebounder' and that requires a lot of jumping because I need to catch the ball that misses so that my team can get a second chance to attack or control of the ball'. I earn the title "Rebound King" in several places, now the doctor ask me to start to think of my 'early retirement' in basketball. He also asked me how long I plan to play basketball? Hmmm.... isn't he suppose to give me a solution? Or may be that is what doctor do, tell a smoker to quit instead of presenting him with some anti-nicotine pills.

I told him that I have read some articles, a person who has some pain in his knee joint shouldn't stop his regular exercising, he said that is true also... alas, I just hope he can tell me more about something I don't know, or else Rm120 for consultation will be wasted.

The whole session takes me 3 hours because of their internal procedure that definitely need to be reengineered, 1 hour wasted on waiting for the letter of guarantee from ING. I finally lost my patient and ask the admin fella give me the phone and let me deal with ING directly, I also suggest the admin fella not to use fax as u will have problem like out of ink or fax machine ran out of paper. Don't worry, I am very nice to the both the admin fella and the ING lady, just like you have clear sky before the storm hits.

The poor admin fella was being polished by a customer earlier, the customer told him in a mean way, "don't tell me you are busy, I am also busy..., you just tell me whether I should pay here or my insurance will pay, cash or credit card also no problem, I just want an answer from you... " I don't think I want to polish the poor guy, seriously... that will made him a really bad day on Friday.

So the admin guy call ING # and pass the deskphone to me.

.... ....

Kwong: This is patient XXX, case number xxxxxx, can I ask when you guys will fax over the letter of guarantee? I have been waiting here for one hour already.

ING: Sir, sorry to keep you waiting, we will get back to you by 5 minutes.

Kwong: You want 5 minutes, I give you 10 minutes instead, how's that sound? So I will wait for you for 10 minutes ya, I hope that will give you enough time, I wait for your report later. Thank you!

Once I got the report in a few minutes time, the admin fella told me to wait for a while first, cuz the doctor went somewhere to do some operation, he need him to sign the document and then pass the document for me to sign. My first impression is "WTF?"

I told the admin guy, "Nevermind la, I sign it first, the doctor is here at the hospital the whole day, and I won't be here for the whole day here waiting for him to sign my document, I sign first, you pass it to him later. If not, I authorize you to sign the document for me. You see, I didn't owe you any money here right? So that means I can go right?"

... He let me sign the document... I told him that luckily I went to collect my supplement at the pharmacy counter while I am waiting for the letter of guarantee from ING, or else after I get the letter then only I go to collect my medicine, I will end up wasting another half an hour there. Damn... so inefficient la these people! You tell me how to compete globally if run things like that?