NS Medical Screening

Being 18 for a man in Singapore means that it is time to get ready for NS… I signed up with two friends for the same NS Medical Screening slot, 3rd June 8am.

We arranged to meet at Redhill MRT station at 7.30am to take a bus to Central Manpower Base. But argh, one of them was late (which I actually expected he’d be), so we eventually reached quite late. The security there was tight. When we were at the entrance, we had to go through the metal detector as well as had our belongings checked using the scanning machine. Then, we were given a key to keep our handphones in lockers of the same size as one’s fist, haha. After that, we walked a distance to the CMPB, and that was when the whole screening started.

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My first station was the hearing test. I was seated in an enclosed room, facing the examiner through a glass window. Wearing a headphone, I was supposed to raise my hand as soon as I heard a sound. Thanks to my (perfect) hearing, my hand kept going ’cause I heard every single tone at its lowest (or close to lowest) intensity, haha. It was a PES A.

The second station was the one I feared the most, Blood and Urine test! For the urine test, I had to pee on the different coloured pads on the urine test strip given. Although I drank some water earlier on, I found it hard to get the urine out, haha… But luckily, I managed to get it done. It was then quite funny that I had to stand in a box marked out on the floor a distance away from the examiner when showing him the strip, haha. I got a score of 23, which doesn’t really tell me anything, haha.

After that, I queued up for the blood test. While doing so, I was observing the two guys who were conducting the test. One of them was a fine young man while the other was an uncle. The young man was much faster as he did everything systematically and quickly without being bothered about the person’s well-being. The uncle, on the other hand, was more humane – he slapped the person’s arm repeatedly to enhance blood flow, and talked to the person while inserting the needle to divert his attention – but his productivity was, I think, half or even less than half of the young man’s. Eventually, argh, I got the young man. With such a bad first impression, I was, well, a little scared. But I put on a smile and hoped for the better. To calm myself down, I listened to what the uncle was saying although he wasn’t talking to me, haha. :( Luckily, it was not very painful so I didn’t cry or scream.

Next station, eye test, with the same procedure as in primary school’s health checkup. I did a colour blindness test by identifying numbers of a different but similar colour to the background. Then, it was the normal myopia test where I had to read letters on the wall, haha. That was when I found out that my right eye (which was initially better than my left eye) had worsened, which I assumed to the same degree as my left eye. I was given a PES A grade! Haha.

The next station was dental check. While waiting for my turn, my attention was on a small compartment in the room. It was meant for some X-ray scanning of the teeth, I think. It seemed so scary… because when the X-ray was activated, the light above the door would light up to warn people not to enter… :\ I observed that some people did not have to do the scanning, so I really hoped I did not have to. The dentist was a young girl who was wearing a mask. She had long silky hair and looked quite good, haha. When it was my turn, I lay on the seat with my mouth open, and she started saying stuff like “3, 8 missing” to the recorder. Hmm, I wonder if that meant  my teeth 3 and 8 were not there? But I didn’t have to do the teeth scanning and I got a PES A, haha…

Following that, it was the X-ray test. When I entered the room, I was to take off my shirt and queue for my turn. It was even scarier. When the X-ray was activated, the door would be closed and the light above the door would light up as some motor noise would be coming from the machine… I started imagining that those who did the test would start vomiting, haha, because the X-ray room seemed to be like a nuclear reactor, lol! My imagination went wild because of a very disturbing movie shown during Nuclear Physics reactor in which men entering the nuclear reactor unprotected came out puking and died within a few hours. :\ Finally, it was my turn. I was supposed to stick my chest and elbow to the screen. Then, when the X-ray was activated, the staff ran off, while I had to face the music, or rather, the disturbing motor noise, haha.

The next station was the electrocardiography (ECG) screening. I had to take off my shirt, socks and shoes, and keep them in the locker provided, before I went to queue up for the screening. I really hated this station. When it was my turn, I lay on the bed, while the examiner put a few adhesive electrodes on my chest in a downward sloping curve. Because it sticks to the body, it was quite ticklish, and I thought it made sense not to laugh, so I had a hard time holding it back… The examiner was in charge of two machines, and I thought he was focusing more on the other machine. He kept asking me to take a deep breath and hold it, but because he was more occupied with the other machine, he activated the machine only when I couldn’t hold my breath any further. So I had to redo… and this kept happening such that the people who were queuing after me had already finished while I was still lying on the bed. -.- After what seemed like ages, I got a decent reading from the machine.

I proceeded to the height-and-weight and blood pressure station. Woo, my height was 176cm and weight was 64kg. Perfect, haha. But argh, my height was supposed to be 178cm according to the measurements taken in school early this year… Somehow the blood pressure machine showed my heart rate – it was 104. How fast… haha.

That was considered the last station because thereafter, I took a queue number and waited for my turn to enter the room where the medical examiner was. Apart from my two friends who came with me, there were other fellow schoolmates around too. They decided to put on their shirt, so I did the same thing too (luckily).

When it was my turn, the first thing the examiner said when I entered was “stand in the box, take down your shorts and underwear”. Hahaha… So I stood in the box located a distance away from him, and did as told. Luckily I had my shirt on, if not I would be totally naked, hahahaha. Then, he took a look and told me to put it back on, lol. After that, he looked at my ECG reading and told me to retake… :\ So I did, and it was a success at first attempt, lol. The examiner looked at it again, and used stethoscope to listen to my heartbeat… and said something shocking. He said there’s something wrong with my heart, so he would arrange for me to go for a heart scanning in July. So, my eventual grade was a PES D, which means temporarily unfit for grading, sigh.

After that, I proceeded to the computer terminals to do the vocational test, which took about 2 hours. There were many sorts of questions – vocabulary, pattern sequence, number sequence, physics and arithmetic. The pattern and number sequence ones were the most difficult. There seemed to be no relationships between the patterns/numbers at all… I love the arithmetic questions since Maths is after all my best subject, hahaha. It was a tiring 2 hours. One of my two friends (he got PES B) was doing his test right beside me as we started at the same time but was much slower than me… I guess I was too impatient. The other friend was nowhere to be found… I think he got held up at the medical screening.

Anyway, right after I finished, I went to take a photo for my SAF card, and stoned for quite a while until I saw, gasp, my friend who was nowhere to be found entering from outside. Apparently, he got seriously held up at the medical screening because he had to do a backbone test due to some back problems, so he went for lunch first as there was no unoccupied computer terminal. He was also diagnosed to have some heart problems like me, so he has to do a heart scanning next month.

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After the friend who was already doing his vocational test finished, we went for lunch at 12+pm at the staff canteen. Woo, the food there was quite cheap. I got some mixed vege rice and the auntie was nice enough to call me xiaodi (boy), ’cause er, some time last year, I was greeted as laoban (boss) when I was buying some food at some hawker centre. Hahaha… My friend was ogling at the nice-looking ladies around us… -.-

Then, we left CMPB at 1+pm. I went to school because I wanted to study (for CTs, yup!), but argh, as soon as I got there, I felt like going home, so I went home to have a good long nap, haha. Quite stupid to make that decision only after I reached school. And wah, my friend who got held up at CMPB left at around 3.30pm. That was soooo late… I seriously pity him for wasting 7-8 hours there, hahaha!

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