On doctors...

When I had trouble to pee a few months back, I went to Asakusa Hospital. I must had been the youngest patient of the day that particular day because all around me, I only saw obaachan and ojiichan in their golden- if not platinum- years.


I didn't have to wait that long to see the doctor. Answered several questions and the doctor told me that I was suffering from "chi". I knew that chi is blood in nihongo, but I didn't quite understand this other "chi" the doctor was talking about. The nurse who was assisting him quickly went in search of an English-Japanese dictionary while the doctor began to explain 'chi' in greater details, using a small anatomical model to help make things clearer for me.


It wasn't long before the nurse returned with a dictionary and she showed me the word "hemorrhoids". At the time I was not familiar with the word, but thanks to the doctor's explanation using the anatomical model, I understood that I was having trouble due to poor muscle tone in the southern region, which might be due to increased straining during bowel movements, and that this is rather common for pregnant women. I was given some cream, and advised to drink more fluids, eat more fiber and practise Kegel exercise.


Later, when I consulted Ailin (a doctor who is on unpaid leave, accompanying her husband doing his Master in Tokyo) I learned that hemorrhoids is what we call buasir in Malay, also often referred to as 'piles' in Malaysia.


Despite language barrier, the doctor went to great length to explain the symptoms and causes of piles to me, until he was satisfied that I understood his explanation. Although I am sure that he must had been rather frustrated that I did not immediately grasp the meaning of his explanation, he never once raised his voice to me. He treated me with respect, and I found comfort in knowing that the doctor cared enough to explain things in details, that he is well qualified to properly identify and respond to my specific needs.


#####


Fast forward two months later.

I found myself in PPUM's Paediatric Emergency room, being talked to as if I was daft for bringing Humaidi to get stitched up.


Well, Humaidi accidentally hit the edge of the bed last week, causing a rather nasty cut on his left eye. Our first response was to clean the cut on his left upper eyelid with minyak gamat and cover it with a band-aid. Hubby and I took him to see Dr Johari, my family's trusted GP right after his clinic was opened, at about 9 a.m.


Dr Johari cleaned the cut and changed the band-aid with a more proper dressing. He advised us to go to the hospital if we want the cut to be stitched up, so that there'll be less chances of infection, but he doubted that Humaidi would be stitched up since the cut is on the upper eyelid and needed very fine needle which is often reserved for plastic surgeon and Humaidi's case is not an emergency. He tried to connect the cut together with a tissue glue plaster - which Humaidi managed to take off as soon as we reached home.


Mak and Ayah did not want to take any chances - Humaidi hit his eye on the edge of the bed, and for all that we know, that might cause some delayed effect on his vision. We called up some relatives, and one of my uncles got a recommendation from an expert paediatric to call up Dr Razak, a paediatric surgeon in Damansara Specialist Hospital. Called up Dr Razak's clinic and we were advised to bring in the child to the hospital's ER, where they could call up Dr Razak on his handphone to attend to Humaidi.


But by the end of that day I was not feeling well, and hubby too was suffering from toothache, so we postponed taking Humaidi to the clinic.

First thing the next morning, I went to see Dr Jo again - this time because I was down with flu. Right after that, Ayah drove me and Humaidi to see Dr Razak in Damansara. Dr Razak checked the dressing on Humaidi's eye, and already there was some whitish infection on the cut. It was quite a struggle for the doctor to check on my son's eye, but he managed it despite Humaidi's gelupur.

The doctor's advise - to minimise risk of further infection, it would be better to get the cut stitched up. But in order to do that, the doctor would have to make another cut, clean the current wound and only then stitch it up. They will need to put Humaidi to sleep for about 45 minutes using anaesthetic, thus will need the operation theatre to perform the surgery. The doctor was even willing to circumcise Humaidi for no extra charge too, but they need to get the boy admitted for the surgery.

The cost?
Dr Razak estimated it to be around Rm4000 - RM5000.

Ayah and I looked at each other. That's a big amount for us. Ayah thanked the doctor and told him that we need to discuss this with the boy's dad first. I knew that hubby would never agree to pay that much for a 'minor' surgery, so I suggested to Ayah to try going to a government hospital. Ayah agreed, but by then it was nearly Zohor, so Ayah brought us back home first, for lunch and prayer.

It wasn't long after Ayah sent me back home when Mak returned from Huzaifah's playschool and asked me to quickly accompany her to the hospital. Huzaifah had an asthma attack!

On the way to PPUM, Mak briefed me that the playschool management had called her up to come and pick Huzaifah since he was wheezing. Probably from eating too much rambutan. There's a rambutan tree in the playschool's backyard and Huzaifah has been asking the teachers there to get him "buah mbutan" all the time. (The first time, my jakun boy actually ate the whole fruit, pit and all - to his teacher's amazement. They quickly pitted the fruit for him first after that). Huzaifah has no problem with eating watermelon or ice, but I forgot that eating too much rambutan could trigger an asthma attack, so not only I did not warn the teachers at his school, my parents and I in fact bought him a lot of rambutan over the weekend after seeing how much he enjoyed eating the fruit (and Huzaifah has always been a fussy eater). Only after he got the asthma attack that we remember how hazardous rambutan could be to an asthmatic child (and since then we have substituted rambutan with canned longan)

Mak left Huzaifah and I at the PPUM's Paediatric Emergency area, at which he was quickly attended to. I didn't have to wait at all as the doctor in charge quickly asked the nurse to prepare the nebulizer. For the first time, Huzaifah was very cooperative in using the nebulizer. Probably because he couldn't wait to 'attack' the playhouse available in the waiting area. (Which he did even before the gas was not quite finished but he has stopped wheezing, leaving my lap, insisting to be allowed to go "main-main")

Mak returned back with Ayah and Humaidi - to let the doctor take a look at Humaidi's eye. By then I managed to perform my Zohor solat, but hadn't pick Huzaifah's prescribed medicine yet. Turned out Mak had already briefed the doctor in charge (a different doctor, not the one who attended to Huzaifah, I guess his shift was already over by then) , so the doctor wanted to check on some details with me.

I was far from happy with the tone that the doctor used.
Apart from repeating "awak faham tak..." as if I was daft, he was not keen to listen to what I have to say. But I said it anyway

"Look, I know that my son is not in dire emergency need. I know that his cut might already started healing. But I also know that there are chances of infection happening. It already happened earlier but a doctor cleaned his cut this morning. And I am worried that such infection could occur again and somehow affect my son's vision. It is not so much the scar that I'm worried about - it is his vision that I'm most concerned about"

The doctor went quiet for a while.
"Okay, let me consult some eye specialist then," he said.

When I returned to the waiting area after getting Humaidi's registration process completed, Mak told me that already there were two doctors who came to check on Humaidi. They were away to consult an even more senior doctor.

The eye specialist that I met was firm and kind. He explained that since Humaidi's cut was already more than 24 hour old, the healing process has started so it would be difficult to stitch the cut unless they make another cut on top of the current one. But it would be more a plastic surgery rather than a necessary one and they would need to use the operation theatre to do that and well we all know how the operation theatre is needed for more urgent cases. Even a tissue glue could not do the trick because the eye would be bunched up weirdly.

"He will be okay, the cut will heal on its own, but there will be a scar" the doctor assured me.

"I'm okay with the scar. After all, he's a boy" (Boys and scars - inseparable)

The doctor smiled.

"What about chances of infection?," I queried

"We will prescribe an ointment for the eyelid to help prevent infection."

I nodded my head.

"And if you are not happy with the progress, I can arrange for an appointment in the eye clinic next week," he said further.

#####

A week has passed.
Humaidi seems to be healing well.
Huzaifah too is back to his old jumping-there-climbing-here self

But the memory of being treated like I was daft by a doctor lingers on...