Migration

EC Family Clinic blog has migrated to blog.ecfamilyclinic.sg

Which one first, Hari Raya Haji or Christmas?

 

Tampines Mall is all ready for Christmas celebration (sale).

And Tampines Mall is just in front of EC Family Clinic @ Tampines Mall. So now you know where we are just in case you need any emergency medical care!

 

EC Family Clinic @ Tampines MRT

Random photo

Make a guess…where is this place.

 

All the prescriptive medicines are neatly organized on the shelf. This photo is taken at EC Family Clinic @ Tampines MRT.

 

Compare Costs of Parent Staying at Home or Going to Work

It’s quite a norm for children to fall sick every month if they attend whole day childcare/infant care. Most of these children are brought in by their maids for medical consult. Some parents ask me what they can feed their children with to boost up their immune system.

My answer is to take balanced diet.

And stop sending your kids to childcare/infant care.

I’m not prejudice against institution care but parents should have realistic expectation-that is, your kids will fall sick very often. This is because a group of kids is artificially grouped in the same room. Infection spreads very fast in this setting. Most childcare centres are air-conditioned, where infection can spread like wildfire.

When asked, working mothers often complain that they have no choice because

1) husband not earning enough to support the family, or

2) husband is not working, or

3) their children has special needs, hence need to spend more to send them to special school, or

4) they need to support elderly parents

5) …(you fill in yourself)

It’s a pity that working mothers have to work full time and, when they finish work they have to take care of children. If they’re lucky they have parents/in laws/ maids to help out.

Many couples are surprised to find that once all the costs are counted, they are not much better off financially when both parents work. It is important to sit down and make a list of all work-related expenses.

And do the calculations.

(1) The higher your income, the more taxes you need to pay. And the bigger your house, the higher your property tax.

(2) Childcare can be quite costly, especially those located conveniently at your office building.

(3) Ladies’ clothes definitely cost more than your children’s food combined with the cost of their diapers.

(4) You drive? Car insurance, maintenance, public transportation.

(5) Lunches out, eating at restaurants because there is little time to cook.

(6) Maids, housekeeping, additional pocket money for parents/in laws for helping out)

(7) Licenses, clubs, subscriptions

Subtract total cost from the total NET income will show what that second income costs you. The amount left over is the actual amount the second income will contribute to the household.

November 5 & 6

We are OPEN on Deepavali

Tomorrow, Hindus celebrate Deepavali. Deepavali is the Festival of Lights and on this day, Hindus light up their homes. We, at EC Family Clinic, will light up our clinics both at Eunos MRT and Tampines MRT.

We are open AS USUAL from 9AM till 11PM on 5th November 2010.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy Deepavali!

EC is NOT Emergency Contraception. Eunos Crescent Family Clinic!

Not long ago a patient asked me what does EC stand for?

Emergency contraception?

Argh!! No!

EC stands for Eunos Crescent.

When we first set up our clinic at Eunos MRT Station, there are already many established good clinics around that area. All Eunos-related names are being taken up. Eunos Road, Eunos this, Eunos that, etc. So we just take whatever that is left behind.

The community in Eunos and the nearby estate such as Geylang Serai, Aljunied and Kallang support us and we are very grateful that we have a large pool of loyal patients. Dr Heng and Dr Rachel (that’s me) both speak Malay very well, in addition to English, Mandarin and some dialect such as Hokkien and Cantonese. I heard Dr Heng speaking Teochew and little bit of Tamil too! Being multilingual is extremely important especially communication is the main core of a doctor-patient encounter in clinching the right diagnosis. Not only that, when we speak your lingo, you’ll feel more at ease. When I see my dentist for 6 monthly check-up, even though I’m a doctor, I feel fidgety too. Hilarous, but true!

We recently open another clinic at Tampines MRT Station more than a year ago. We decided to keep the name EC  to express our gratitude to all our patients in Eunos who support us all these years.

On a different note, I wish to blog on Emergency Contraception, a topic most women wants to know more but too embarrassed to ask their family doctors.

Alert!

If you are against Emergency Contraception or below 16 years old, please stop reading!!

Emergency Contraception

It is a form of birth control. You use this method if your regular birth control fails ie condom breaks or you forget to take your birth control pills.

There are 2 types of Emergency Contraception.

1) Morning-after pill

2)intrauterine device placed in the uterus/womb. This is not commonly practised in Singapore.

What is morning-after pill?

Morning-after pill is taken in two doses. It is best taken within 72 hours after having unprotected activity. The second activity is taken 12 hours after the first.

How does it work?

The morning-after pill can do 3 things

1) Prevent ovaries from releasing an egg

2) Prevent an egg from being fertilized by sperm

3) Prevent a fertilized egg from attaching itself to the wall of the uterus.

Emergency contraceptive pills is NOT the same as “abortion pill” which is taken in the early weeks of pregnancy to end the pregnancy.

Emergency contraceptive pill can’t end a pregnancy ONCE a fertilized egg has attached itself to the wall of the uterus/womb.

How effective is emergency contraception?

If used within 72 hours of unprotected activity, it can reduce the risk of pregnancy by 89%. Of course, the pills work best when taken as soon as possible after unprotected activity.

Side effects depends on individuals. The most common I see in clinic is bloatedness.

Some patients request to buy morning-after pill in my clinic without consulting me. I’m sorry I’ve to reject such request. Morning-after pill is a prescriptive medicine and can only be taken under doctor’s supervision. I was told that contraceptive pills are sold at pharmacies in some countries. Well, we’re in Singapore now, so we have to follow strictly to our MOH’s guidelines.

Your child needs Prevenar 13

I wonder there is a need to write on this now that patients can google on this.

Maybe I should. At least you know I’m a real doctor and I’m giving free medical consult here. If you depend solely on google to quench your thirst on medical topics, I’m afraid you get even more confused.

Prevenar 13

This is a pneumococcal vaccine that contains extracts from 13 of the most common types of Streptococcus pneumoniae. Never mind about this fancy name. Just remember that Strep. pneumoniae is nasty and it can cause pneumonia, blood poisoning and meningitis.

Ok, this bacteria is nasty. But my child is very healthy! Why would she/he need this?

Remember our good old friend H1N1? H1N1 virus is capturing much of the public’s attention. Pneumococcal infection is also an all-too-common complication of any type of influenza, especially H1N1.

By the way, this pneumococcal vaccine is now part of the childhood immunisation schedule.  If your child is not a baby but still under 5 years old, your child can benefit from Prevenar 13. Children under 5 is at risk of getting dangerous complications from pneumococcal infection.

If you are above 5 years old, you should get Pneumovax instead. I’ll leave Pneumovax to my next entry as for now lets focus of Prevenar 13.

What is inside Prevenar 13?

This vaccine contains inactivated-bacteria vaccine that teach the immune system to recognise and fight active bacteria.

What is Prevenar 13 for?

Ok, I’ll summarise here.

To prevent invasive pneumococcal disease

1) pneumonia

2) acute middle ear infection

3) meningitis

4) blood poisoning (sepsis)

in childred 2 months old – 5 years old

Who should get this vaccine?

Children should receive 4 doses of the vaccine, one dose each at the following ages:

1. 2 months
2. 4 months
3. 6 months
4. 12-15 months

What are the side effects of Prevenar 13?

Any injection given intramuscularly can give you similar local side effects such as pain, swelling, redness or hardening of the skin at the injection site.  You may expect the following as well: fever, irritability, crying, restlessness (I observe these behaviour in my own children even BEFORE they got this injection. I wonder why)

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There are three important criteria in deciding the location of a clinic.

1) location

2) location

3) location

Yes, nothing matters more than a good location. A good location near to all the food you want to eat! Running a clinic can be busy at times. Hence, I have to reward myself to good food.

I’m mad happy when McDonald opens McCafe just OPPOSITE my clinic!

I have the best job in the world. Running my clinic, hop across the road to enjoy a cuppa of coffee when I’m bored. Life can’t be better than this!

If you are a locum, you should work in my clinic,

If you are my patient, you should use my clinic service.

If you are my clinic assistant, you’re lucky to work in my clinic.

All because my clinic is in the centre of  ”Orchard Road of the East (of Singapore)”! haha!

Enjoy this beautiful view from EC Family Clinic @ Tampines

A Walking Can Drink

I saw this at Tampines MRT station. A walking can drink.