MCO Entry #1

Author's Note: Because during MCO our side is relatively quiet, I'll be brief.
                        Most of the things really did happened, but to protect my colleagues' and patients' privacy, I edited a few things here and there.

1st Week of MCO
Place was insanely quiet. Once our minister announced the Movement Control Order (MCO), everyone immediately cancelled appointments and stayed home. Before this, we often dealt with patients/ customers with this line:

• "You don't understand. I need to come now!"
• "Please, please, I need to see the doctor urgently. It's an emergency."
• "I'm already on the way. Please don't let your doctor go off."
• "Eh, I walk in, can accept?"
• "I don't have an appointment, I got referral letter. Can accept?"

       I came out off home at my usual time to find the whole road empty. There's no one at all, not even a car at sight. It's like everyone disappeared overnight, like something out of a sci-fiction novel. It's a nice change of pace.

       Day started out like normal, except everywhere is quiet, you could roll from one end to the other end and no one would step on you. We did get patients, very few, mainly urgent cases, or people who can't wait anymore. Had to keep the sanitisers and masks out of sight because everywhere was stocked out. If you remember from my previous entry regarding the MCO, there was a mad rush for masks and hand sanitisers. Pharmacies are tapped out, online platforms are sold out, so what's the next best place? Why, the hospitals of course. Surely they must have plenty of stock.
        Sorry to burst your bubble. Previously we used to give out masks for free at our nurses' counters, but did anyone want them? No, they just treated the thing like it's obsolete. Now with COVID upon us, people started grabbing things by the handful. Masks gone, hand sanitisers bottles uprooted from their holders. The hospital is a huge building, and everyone needed to wear one. So... say you have 1,600 staff working in the hospital, and you need to supply masks for everyone, everyday. Yep, we were on shortage as well.
         One lady came up to us around 9. She already had a mask on, yet demanded for one. Her reason: "I need one." My colleague politely told her we cannot simply provide masks. We can only provide for those who really need it, like immuno compromised patients (Eg. Elderly, cancer patients, people who are showing symptoms like flue, cold, cough, fever) , plus our doctors and clinic assistants are sharing with us. The lady refused to budge. "I need one! What is wrong with me asking for one?" Again, colleague politely told her we cannot provide her with one. By the way, her mask looks brand new, and it's a 3-ply. Furious, she yelled, "What kind of hospital are you people running? 5-star? Stupid service!" She left, but at the same time telling everyone how our service is terrible and how selfish we are. Devils, she called us.
          A patient and his son came up to me to do catheterization. At that time, we ran out of masks. Really, so I wasn't wearing one. I was waiting for my colleagues who ran to the store to get more supply. Since the patient is here, I thought I'll just bring him in and lie him down, just get him ready. I was about to push him into the room when the son stopped me. "Miss, why are you not wearing a mask?" So I honestly answered, "I'm terribly sorry, sir. We just ran out of masks so my colleagues are now in the store trying to get more supply." This is what the son answered, "My father is 70+, and he has heart problems. I cannot let you come near him without a mask." I'll let you know at that time, I had my temperature checked (No fever), signs and symptoms of COVID (None). No, the son refused to let me come near his dad. Shaking my head, I went to the doctor in charge and explained the situation.

• Me: "Doctor, I can't prepare the patient because the son refused to let me come near him without a mask."
• Doctor: "You tell him I ask you to do it. If he refused to let you bring the father in, then I won't do the procedure." 

So I went back to the son and told him in politely what the doctor has said. Seeing no other choice, he let me bring his father into the treatment room. Perhaps feeling a little apologetic, he rummaged in his bag and produced a mask. "Here, miss, you can have one." I'm not mad at him, just to let you know. I told him it's okay, that he could keep it because my colleagues should be back anytime now with the supplies, but he insisted. "No, it's okay. I still have a lot. You can take one." I did, in the end, and then he was telling me nicely how nurses are wonderful people who help patients a lot.
          Since we are ready, I called the doctor (NOTE: Male catherization is done by male doctors only, and vice versa) Still no signs of my colleagues yet, so the doctor went ahead with the procedure without a mask (He's healthy and fit as well, yeah. He had to rush for a surgery so he can't wait anymore). It took roughly 5 minutes, and the son was watching us the whole time. For a second there, I thought he was going to do the same thing to the doctor, but then I pushed the thought away. No one would be so foolish to go against a doctor. True, he kept silent the whole time. When the doctor had to rush off for his surgery, he asked me, "Why is the doctor not wearing a mask? I felt like asking him but it would've sounded rude." No comment.
           Colleagues finally came back with the mask supplies. There wasn't a lot so we had to use sparingly and wisely. You know the old sayings that goes, "We can never have nice things, because people take advantage..." Same thing happened here. Most of our staff are alright, they know to only take one for each day (one for their doctors as well), but there are one or two who take advantage, saying they want two (Their doctors took their masks elsewhere, so they basically are giving themselves double)
            Wanted to get away from the stifling silence, so went over to the grocer's nearby during lunch hour. Long lines, new MCO rules implemented. Wasn't that awful to be honest. Healthcare workers get to go in early. Shelves all empty, instant noodles, rice, junk food, biscuits, chocolates, flour all gone. Let's be honest here, things in packets and instant food are like a staple item right now. There were news going around how people bought a year or two supply of instant noodles. Junk food in packets last long. Usual flavours like cheese and original are gone, leaving flavours like spicy, BBQ, tomato, malt vinegar...Things that you usually wouldn't touch. Wanted to get a cheese-flavoured mission nachos originally. Disappointed, but I managed to find a Tokyo Shoyu ramen. So I'm happy. DIY was closed, so can't get stationary and tools for my craft. Bookshop closed down, so nowhere else to go.
            That concludes the first entry.

Pain and Madness

Note: Some of the thoughts here are my own and are not meant to be offensive, it's just for sharing. Take it with a pinch of salt.

I intended to insert the during MCO entry but instead, I'm going to share with you today's entry. It was my half day on duty, which means I clock out...half-day. I was a little tired to be honest because for some reason I couldn't sleep. So I ended up looking a little bit like a zombie, but still throwing myself into work. Don't worry, I did not yawn or look sleepy. That's a big NO-NO, but you can see it's obvious that my eyes are tired.

          I already knew that we're going to be busy, because since from the weekend itself, we already got our patients lined up for today. A few major dressings, a lumbar puncture, injections, IV antibiotics, few rigid sigmoidoscopy. Just your typical Tuesday.

       First dressing of the day, recent cyst removal. Not that exciting. It's just the second day of dressing so you won't see much progress yet. Wound was a little too dry, my friend wanted to put something like duoderm gel to get it moist, but you know...different doctors, different preferences. Old ways, modern ways. Ours leant more on the old ways, and he's what a friend of mine calls a type A, meaning old school surgeons/ doctors. He's not unreasonable though, he's a nice man, but it takes some time getting through him. In the end, we settled for good old debridement (you can never go wrong with it).

         Injections in between, mainly hormones. Don't ask me why, I'm still trying to figure it out. (I asked the doctor, but he refused to give me a straight answer, instead he asked me why I used a pseudonym and a pen name for writing)

        Come during the peak hour, we got hit by the usual things: Vital signs taking, temperature taking, directions, you know, I have to switch from nurse to directory to customer service to translator, depending on the situation. Don't get me wrong, if I hated the job, I would've left long time ago, but throughout MCO, we've been working non-stop. (Don't worry, I will update the entry in future) 

            One day I may have to list out what patients ticks me off the most, which could be forever, but I'll say it out now. After working for years, I really...really...get pissed off when patients tend to intrude into my personal space. This includes disturbing me during before or after duty (Picture yourself: You come in early to get your things ready so that you can deliver a smooth service and someone disturbs you just to ask you for direction, or better yet, come and yell at you to serve them 'cause they are running late.), break time (It's the only time when you can relax and unwind, you don't disturb the doctors when they are on break, so why are we always an exception?) and taking photos or videos of while we are doing procedures. They are not even subtle about it. They just whip out their I-phones, smartphones and start filming and snapping photos. When you confront them about it, you will always get these answers (either one or a combination of two or more):

a) I'm just filming for my own personal record. 

b) I just want to make sure that you are doing your job right. 

d) Eh, I didn't know that I'm not allowed to take photos or videos.

First golden rule in hospitals : DO NOT EVER TAKE VIDEO OR PHOTOS. Seriously, before you even step foot into the place, the sign is there for crying out loud! It's the same for cinemas and court cases. Why would you take a photo or videos just to spoil it for everyone? (Look at Avengers Endgame, the Head, CEO, everyone had to plead not to spoil the movie.) It's the same for hospitals. Would you like it if someone is filming you without your consent? Doctors were complaining that their faces are somehow plastered in social media without their knowledge. Please, please, please, do DO NOT EVER TAKE VIDEO OR PHOTOS of us. It's plain rude, and furthermore... 

Just because a property is open to the public doesn’t make it public property. Military bases, crime scenes, airports, museums, energy installations, courthouses, public hospitals, and certain government facilities — while technically property owned by taxpayers — may also be physically (and sometimes photographically) off limits to photographers or subject to significant limitations for security, privacy, or logistical reasons.* Back to the story at hand, this lady, younger than me I might add, wanted to buy things for her boyfriend. Because I didn't know what was going on at the time (We were all rushing and being overwhelmed by our duties), I went to the doctor to clarify his orders. Once done, my friend who first attended the lady quickly went back to her, leaving me free to attend a major dressing case. As I was waiting for the patient to register, the lady walked right around our counter and stood there, causing my friend to tell her calmly, "Please stand in front of the counter." The lady's reply, "Why? I need to make sure you're giving me the right things."           In the supermarket, do you ever stand in the cashier area? You don't. Same things goes for the nurse/ clinic counter.

            Last procedure of the day before I wrap up: Lumbar puncture (AKA spinal tap). I just love the procedure (Not sure why, just like it), it's almost like bone marrow aspiration, except this one is where you insert a spinal needle into the spinal canal to drain out your spinal fluid (AKA Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)) for diagnostic testing. Where to begin the drama that started...

       First started out we needed to get midazolam (a sedation that you typically use in short procedures like in endoscopy). Due to some issues, the drug ended up being delayed. This was around 1030hr, where some patients had came for injections and a patient on a 10-day course antibiotic. MO inserted a line for her on Saturday, but I don't know... Quality seems to be going down. You know sterile gloves, the one that is hard to tear no matter how much you tug it? One of our doctors was trying to do a catheter insertion and he just put it on after washing his hands...Riiiip. "Girl, get me a new pair. Quality nowadays is not good." (Oh dear) 

             Sorry for running off topic, back to the story, my friend hung the antibiotic diluted onto the stand, and --

               "Your line is blocked."

          Oh Lord. So we have to wait for the MO, who is busy in ER, at the same time, we got bombarded by many requests. The rooms were occupied, so we can't slot in some injections cases. At the same time, people were demanding for their vital signs and temperature to be taken. "It's just a few seconds! Why won't you attend to me?!" "What kind of service is this?!" "Your doctor hasn't come yet, do me first!" I wish some things were that simple, but when your doctor is coming in anytime, when he has gone back and forth looking increasingly annoyed... In the end, we got anclinic assistant to help out.
                In between waiting for the MO, the medicine, procedures... It's like juggling several balls at once, and you cannot afford to drop even one. It was around 1130hr when we finally got the Midazolam. This young lady is strong by the way. One shot of midazolam can immediately knock me out for couple of hours. The young lady, she's still awake and alert. You can't do lumbar puncture when the patient's all awake, no way. It hurts like mad. No, we refused to serve another shot, so we waited. It was around 1200hr when the sedation finally kicks in. Even then, she's still slightly awake.

"Miss, are you still awake?"

(slightly confused)"Eh, I came here to see Doctor So-and-So."

:) It worked, took a while, but it worked.
                Into the procedure we go. It took forever to collect the fluid, because it dripped slow. Doctor aspirated few times with the syringe to collect some amount, still slow. It was around 1300hr when we finally managed to get enough to send for a diagnostic test.
                   Because it was a crazy day and I ended up overtime, I gotten the department (and myself) some ice cream to spread some cheer. Despite the sore muscles, at least we managed to get our job done and safely.


*Source: HTTPS://WWW.CLICKINMOMS.COM/BLOG/STREET-PHOTOGRAPHY-AND-THE-LAW-7-THINGS-YOU-NEED-TO-KNOW/

            

Before the MCO

It was in February, near the end of my Chinese New Year week. I was in outstation at the time. Who doesn't know about to CORONA VIRUS. It has been around since late 2019. At that time, I was doing a three month ortho-in house course. No writing, no going out for fun. Everyday I was hitting the books and trying to remember all about the bones, muscles and diseases (Who knew just a single bone you got to talk so many things about it?). Fast forward to January, I sat for the final exam, did okay for theory, struggled in OSCE, but managed to pass. Oh joy.

As I mentioned before it was near the end of my break, and my phone has been buzzing like crazy from my workplace. They were saying that soon we are going to be in a lockdown. At that time, China has already closed off all borders. No one can get in, no one can get out. Flights has been cancelled. Workplaces and shops (except for the essential business like healthcare, grocery, pharmacy, food (only for takeout)) are forced to close to contain the virus. It's already starting to impact our side. That's when the government had said we will be going into the MOVEMENT CONTROL ORDER. Kind of like a lockdown, but it's not. We can still go out but only limiting to one person to get essentials, and for people like us (Frontliners, certain food hawkers, grocery workers, pharmacists), we can still go to work, but we need to wear masks and the one important thing everyone will tell you: WASH YOUR HANDS!!!

Due to the sudden shortage of masks and hand sanitizers, please make sure to keep your department's stock sufficient. We have received complaints of people taking our hand sanitizers and masks... 

I predicted that it would happen. My family scoffed when I said that. "No one would take those. Don't be so negative." Sorry folks, when things goes down, they go down for real.

I came back to work to find it like a warzone (figuratively). We have people coming up to us demanding for masks and hand sanitizers. Their reasoning...I'll list it out here for you. I kid you not.

• "There's no more stocks out there. "
• "Hospitals are filthy rich. You should have plenty of stocks in your store." <== Most common 
• "I need to protect myself. You should supply me several."
• "Do you want me to die from the virus?"
• "Come on, I just want one. Just one..."  
• "I NEED IT..."

At that time, we had a sudden shortage of supply. No hand sanitizers, not a big issue, we still have the old water and soap combo (Also my preferred method. Hand sanitizers sometimes makes my fingers blisters, but depending on the situation, if you have no time to run for the sink, just a quick squirt of hand sanitizer will do, but still, WASH YOUR HANDS WITH WATER AND SOAP) but masks were a huge dilemma at that time. All of us have to share a box (Doctors, nurses, clinical assistants etc) so it means we have to use it efficiently. Once in a blue moon, you'll get someone coming in with a broken mask (unfortunate, but we'll help where we can)

Anyway, when you tell people that you have no supply, you know what happens? We get called names. Really. It ranges from SELFISH and DEVILS, and those are the most mild ones. We haven't even gotten to the worst name calling yet which involves a lot of cussing and complaints ("I'm telling everyone your service is terrible! No masks!!!" "I'll rate you one star, stupid service!!!") I swear, after working in healthcare for so long, I never knew how people can just be so plain...mean. (Of course I had my fair shared of troubles, but this is out of my control)

As expected, business dropped rock bottom. Not just us, but everyone. The whole economy went plummeting. The only people who came were really bad cases, like appendicitis, unable to go to the washroom, bleeding, cardiac arrest, trauma cases, but even then most of them ran to emergency. My side are mainly post-op cases and uro cases, people who were due to change their catheters. 

So as I said, my side, we're not so busy, but government hospitals was like a warzone, because they were taking all of these cases, and because it's affordable. I myself had went to government sometimes for certain things because as mentioned, cheap and affordable. With the MCO looming upon us, I'm going to have to save every money I got in case of emergencies. 

All in all, not that much exciting. I'll try to put up the next entry soon. I got the ideas whirling in my head, but I'm also juggling several projects, not to mention my most important job.  

It has been a long, long time...

Due to many personal reasons, and those were the days when my internet connection is slow, ridiculously slow to the point when at some point I tried to post, everything goes missing in cyberspace. For writers, it's a huge dilemma. Imagine when you typed several chapters and tried to save, and say...A thunderstorm cut off your power before you could hit the save button

              

Whar's been going on? Well, I've been busy. Back in 2018, I entered a crime fiction competition with only a six-month deadline. Now, keep in mind if you have been following me throughout my blogging days, I have NEVER, ever written a crime fiction novel. Uh-uh. Nope. Nada. Zilch. 

(Even as I'm writing this now, my net threatened to cut off...)

So with six months in the deadline, I got to do RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH. Writing crime is a different thing altogether. I wanted to break a little of the norm, I don't want it to be the typical crime novel with the detectives and all. And I already got one out back in 2012 that involves supernatural. Long story short, I submitted it, didn't win, but I self-published it in print form. I'll share the story up in my website, because this is not the place to post about it.

 Fast forward to 2020, it was supposed to be Wawasan 2020, but the CORONA VIRUS (If you have been living under a rock, go and google it right now or just check your local news) had hit the world hard. Most of the world is in a lockdown, and that includes my side in early March. A lot of people had requested me to upload a diary throughout the lockdown journey, which I hesitated. Because it's been a long time since I uploaded this blog, and I'm thinking, who on earth would want to read about it? But after much requests, both in email and in person, I thought...Well, I can just give you the brief idea. It's not exactly blood pumping, because my side is rather silent. 

Without further ado...