Emerald Hill Series #2 - SOLD

"Emerald Hill #2"
24x36
Oil on Canvas
SOLD

This painting is one of five that I am doing for a private commission. Emerald Hill is this great little conservation area in the middle of the HUGE shopping district, Orchard Road. Luckily, I was able to finish this early in the week before other life things took over...

I've spent the better part of this week with a friend in the hospital here in Singapore. I'm totally not a natural care-taker - in fact, I'm a lot like a bull in a china shop when it comes to stuff like that. Nevertheless, none of us have family over here, and a lot of my friends aren't married, so they don't have a spouse to come and help them out, which is no fun. It wasn't anything sudden, she just had to go in for a fairly routine surgery, but it required staying overnight for two nights after.

If I have learned anything from this experience, it is that I definitely want someone with me if I ever have to go into the hospital abroad, especially Asia. Firstly, they are incredibly tight-fisted with pain medication over here. My friend came out of her surgery and they wanted to just give her Panadol (Tylenol) and Naproxen (Aleve). Seriously? She just came out of surgery, and you want to only give her Aleve?!?! I think the nurses are also less educated and empowered than the ones in the US. Quite often I've met nurses in the US that are way more on top of things than the doctors themselves. Not so much here. Every medicinal decision required direct negotiation with the doctor, and not just my friends regular surgeon, but the anesthesiologist. Is it like that in the US? In any case, luckily, her anesthesiologist was awesome, and made sure that she got the appropriate pain meds. It just took several hours of bullying the nurses before they were convinced to get her involved. Oh well, you live and learn!