148th Blog Entry for 2008

This is the last day of 2008. In fact, the last 2 hours...

On Jan 15, 2008 I started this blog after my sinus surgery. I heard about blogs, read a few blogs but could not tell it apart from normal websites. Inspired by Paul Levy, the CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre after I met him at the Harvard Advanced Management Programme in May 2007 and learnt about his popular blog www.runningahospital.blogspot.com, I decided to give it a shot. My main motivation was to write about my experience before, during and after my sinus surgery. Being rather uninventive and thoroughly excited about my recovery (i.e I can smell and breathe again), I named my blog www.icansmell.blogspot.com. Yes, I can smell!

It is liberating to write and express my thoughts, my encounters, my learnings and yet I had to be careful about what I write least I am taken out of context. My blog is a conversation with myself but now I have come to know that many of my friends and colleagues are following it - perhaps just for the heck of it. My wife and kids read my blog. They liked what they read and as a result know even more about me and my days. In a strange way, we communicate via my blog as well.

I close 2008 with this 148th blog entry, satisfied that I have not just started something and left it uncompleted but am confident of following through with it.

2009 will be an exciting year for me. I plan to document my journey as I lived it along with many ramblings and rants. Hopefully, in my own little ways, I will make healthcare in Singapore an even better one, where the needs of the patients come first.

Happy new year!