I spent the night at Tan Tock Seng Hospital A & E Department last Saturday. It all started on the way home from tuition that afternoon when I found my body shivering and goosebumps rising from my skin in the barmy 33 degrees weather of Yio Chu Kang. Entering the MRT was like walking straight into a refrigerator, to which my body reacted by shaking uncontrollably. There was no mistake that I was running a fever. During the rest of the journey I was trying hard not to appear as if I was having fits.

I got home, took a quick shower, popped some panadols, went to sleep and woke up three hours later to the initial relief that the fever has subsided substantially followed by the horror of discovering rashes all over my body. Yes, vaguely visible rashes that were causing my body to itch very badly. So my mom being my mom became all antsy and quickly brought me to the nearest clinic. The doctor was pessimistic about my condition and referred me to the hospital. Next thing I knew, I was on the taxi ride to TTSH A & E Department, where I suspect I was labelled "seriously ill patient" or something so they decided to attend to me on priority, hence I managed to jump queue and got to see the doctor without much waiting, contrary to A & E horror stories I have heard of.

The doctor diagnosed my condition as infection caused by allergy to drug and told me I might have to be hospitalised (drug allergy is no joking matter). The first thing that came to my mind upon hearing that was "I have driving lesson in less than 48 hours! Cancelling the lesson means putting my slot on try-sell and if it turns out to be unsuccessful I will lose $58.80! And how about my tuitions? I cannot spend the rest of the week in hospital just like that?" This is ridiculous, I ought to be worried about my health instead, or how much hassle it would cause to my family! 13 years ago when I was put in hospital (the cause of which was some illness of the lung infection variety I think) I remember my reaction was "Whee! Can skip school!" Equally ridiculous. Anyhow, I lay on the bed as told and the doctor proceeded to take my blood sample and then gave me an injection of very potent anti-inflammatory drugs that I could feel spreading quickly through my veins, putting me in sleep mode almost instantly.

I spent the next couple of hours bed-ridden literally. The nurse pushed me to the observation ward like a patient bound for the operating room and I rested there until the blood test results came out. Thankfully, nothing went wrong with my kidney and heart functions so I was discharged at midnight, armed with a range of medicine and four days worth of MC. The next day I turned up for tuition as per normal.