l.u.t.u.t.
When I saw Micheal Owen crawled to the side line the other week, I could feel his pain... the pain I was so familiar for a number of years.It was back in 1991 when I first collapsed in front of the goal mouth one afternoon, after only a few minutes of ball kicking with fellow archie-mates. It was my own fault, I didn't warm-up. That afternoon alone, it happened 3 times, and everytime my knee gave way... I went out and rested at the sideline.. then went back in again... and it happened again... and again, and again. At the end of that afternoon... I had to be carried back to the room by friends and spend the night crawling in agony.
The next day, I went to see the doctor at the clinic... and he gave me 'ubat sapu'... yes, the 'minyak panas' one. "terseliuh" he said, duh! [doctor ayam tul la mamat tu].
But, that minyak panas didn't do a thing; I repeatedly collapsed during tennis games and finally decided to retire from any sports whatsoever. Or, as a friend said, "sports yang geli-geli boleh lah".
It was only when I came to the City of Dreaming Spires, finally I had a more sensible guy-in-white at my alma mater who sent me to the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre for some serious sorting out on my wobbly knees. Soon, I had my torn meniscus removed, and the year after that, my ruptured anterior cruciate ligament was reconstructed (using a ligament on the side of my calf). I was told, they used 2 little metal pins to initially secured the ligament to its place, before it developed itself and naturally attached to whatever/where ever it needs to lah.
When I came out from the operation theatre and was fully awake, the nurse briefed me on a few things, but the thing that I still remember was that big cylinder attached to my bed, near my head. It was the pain-killer morphine. I was told to administer it myself, whenever I had to, by pressing a button placed close to my fingers. For whatever reason, I didn't press it not even once. The next day, she came around and said, "you're such a brave man. i don't think you need this anymore", and took it away. And guess what.... that evening, I was so in pain that they had to gave me anyway, haha...And my housemates would sneaked into my ward late in the evening... and stealthly passed... "atok, ni ada nasi goreng", or "atok... nah, nasi + ayam. aku chow dulu". The ward was like a temporary cabin-like building and my bed was the first from the entrance door, way before the nurse station... and the door was never locked. Kelakor...
It was the years when IRC was the big thing; we used to 'berjuang' all thru the nite until the rooster came out... normally chatting with fellow malaysians across the Atlantic. Hence, my nick was 'lutut', and my first email was (still is, albeit rarely used) 'lutut@hotmail.com'. That was the good old days... when saturday nites were 'ronggeng' nights at the union bar.
* about 3 years ago, I had another operation on my other knee. but my worst experience was in 1991 when i had appendicitis. at klang gh, they tried to put me on local anaesthetic... but after 7 painful injections on my spine... it failed to get to the nerve, and i was put on general. my back was black and blue. "ilmu apa ko pakai?", they asked. ilmu apa!? korang yg tak cukup ilmu... nak inject tu pun failed.
posted by Atok @ 12:52:00 am
