Not again, unstable internet again. I used my phone data but it's also unstable. I'm using the old method of writing this in Microsoft Word and pasting it here. We writers tend to have PTSD if our writings get lost in cyberspace or gets corrupted, not to mention there's a thunderstorm outside so I'm praying hard the electricity doesn't jump.
Slow day, but a lot of appointments enquiries. Not too bad. Few patients made me feel a little weird. One person called up on behalf of a closed one regarding that they are feeling uncomfortable and pain for few days and their appointment is in few days time as doctor is on leave. I advised them to go to emergency immediately since they are in pain despite taking pain killers. What I could never understand was they asked me for my expertise over the phone. You can't ask me to judge based from a phone call. Best way is to get to the emergency, get the Medical Officer in charge to have a look, and page the relevant doctor in charge. B-But what about covid? The healthcare facility is already taking so much precaution to prevent the spread of covid. Please just come now.
There's a reason why I always ask if you want a physician or a surgeon, because not many people like surgeons. A good example is between the gastroenterologists and the general surgeons. They are more or less the same, except one treats with medicine and non-invasive treatments, whereas the other does invasive, meaning, they make an incision. I used to refer people straight to surgeons, but then some people voiced out that they are uncomfortable. Certain fields such as orthopaedic, urology and vascular surgeons, yes they are surgeons but they will usually try conventional methods first, and when all fails, then yes, surgery will be considered the last option.
Very interesting few cases near end of the shift. We got one regarding sarcopenia (Loss of muscle mass and function due to old age) The first thing in my mind came was the orthopaedic doctors, but then when you're talking about old age, you think about geriatrician as well. Just to be safe I took down the details and made several phone calls. Since today is the weekend, no one is going to entertain me much, not to mention everyone is busy with their work. In the end after several attempts, I managed to call a few orthopaedic doctors whom I closed with, and they told me they don't treat this type of cases. Then I went to pretty much like last hope who is the geriatrician, and let me tell you, there's only a handful of them, same like the child developmental specialists. It's really hard to get appointments with them, because Lord, you have to keep calling till you get them. Thank the Lord the geriatrician accept the case. Next.
I spend hours on this one. This one really put me into a corner. Let's see, a clinic shoved this case to us, claiming that we are a vaccination centre, and that we should handle this. Seeing there is no other choice, I took the call. This person is calling on behalf of someone regarding their post vaccination on how they developed severe reactions. The weirdest part was the caller had called several places and everyone had given them a different opinion, still not satisfied with the answer, they called the clinic, and when the doctor isn't in, they have given the advice on whether to go or not go, but they are still unsatisfied. Long story short, I made several phone calls, talked to the doctors, at the end of the day, we gave our advice: There is no harm in taking the vaccine, HOWEVER, you are family, so the final decision still falls to you, the family. We can only give health advice so far, but the one who is getting the vaccine is the patient. No one can predict what the vaccine does. I was scared too, but my doctors told me the good things about it. My dad was scared too, but he still took his dose. None of us had severe side effects. I don't want to get into the whole story due to P&C, and to be honest, it's really long. Short version: I gave them a letter, prepped the team to standby and advised the person to decide. They threw a question back to me before we hung up. "If you were in my position, will you do it?" Without hesitation, I said yes. "You're not scared that you'll die?" Well, it's like the doctors jokingly told me early on in the year: You take the vaccine, you die. You don't take the vaccine and get covid, you also die. At the very least, get yourself vaccinated to protect the people around you.
I'm going to run now because now we got raining hailstones. God, it's so loud.
Today's case: 5,911 (Follow the Yellow Brick Road)
