Nursing had long been misunderstood as a job that run after the patients. So I thought I shared some of my real life experiences up here. Please note that all names are highly confidential, and certain conversations and lines had to be edited for confidential and privacy of others.
NOTE: This post was originally written in the middle of April, but I hesitated to publish this because it's a little hard, and I feel upset and angry writing this, but you know what, let's do it.
If you think these happen in fiction, think again. This post touches on sensitive topics so feel free to skip it if you don't like it, although I'll try to make it bearable and light-hearted so that it's not all doom and gloom. Can you believe we are already survived past the pandemic one year? Erm, unfortunately, I still tend to get weird phone calls and enquiries, people never cease to amaze me.
Giving Up A Child
A colleague attended this case. This happened at close to midnight, my colleague was on duty that day and she received this whatsapp:
I want to know whether if (your place) can give up child.
Bloody hell. What the --
Abortion in Malaysia is mostly illegal except in cases when a medical practitioner deems that continuing the pregnancy poses a danger to the mother's life, physical health, and mental well-being. Abortion in Malaysia is regulated under Sections 312-316 of the Penal Code.
Good thing she immediately slammed the notion down. No, it is against the law. The only time when medical abortion is considered is when the mother's health is endangered. Even then, abortion is illegal. This wasn't even the first case I received. I myself had also encountered one person who wanted to abort their child. They tried to threaten me, but I put my foot down and told them outright, "Abortion is outright illegal. The only thing I can advise you is you may consult our gynaecologists and ask for their advice." Don't you dare threaten me over something illegal.
Egg Donors
This one made me a little blurry. I thought it was related to fertility or something. No, it's not selling eggs. I'm not that naive.
Source: Egg Of Thrones - Iron Throne Egg Cup (Found on February 27, 2019 | Filed Under: Collectibles)
Thankfully, I was on duty with a mommy-to-be, so I asked her, Lord knows I'm useless when it comes to fertility related stuff. She broke it down for me. Basically, egg donor means.... Let's say you have a same-sex couple, mostly guys. They are unable to conceive, so what egg donor usually means is you find a woman, the man donate a sperm, and ask her to conceive his child for him and his husband. I believe the proper term for this is called a surrogate mother...(I've seen this popping around whenever I'm doing research) After nine months, she bears your child and she gives it to you, usually in exchange for money. Oh yeah, I've seen this happens a lot in the United States, Taiwan, and some other countries. Unfortunately, here in Malaysia, we do not practice it, but I know in the United States there's plenty of cases like this. To avoid complications, it is best if you read up on the law of being a surrogate parent as it varies from countries to countries. Although you may read up on it in the internet, always consult a medical expert to get your facts right.
This tends to pop up from time to time. Someone will send us enquiries that they want to donate an organ. Being naive, I thought, "Oh, okay. Let's get you arranged with the donor coordinator specialist..." That's not the case. These are people who are....selling their organs. It's not a typo. This is real. One of the enquiry we received was someone who wrote "I want to donate my kidney." So we thought, oh, okay. That's nice. Let's help you arrange an appointment. Nope, the red flags started popping out when the person started saying they do not have money, and they want us to give them compensation. Oh my GOD!!!! They weren't the first enquiry we received, we also received another enquiry from another person. This one is a stubborn one, they persisted for compensation, saying they needed tips and compensation. Look, I get it. Times are hard, especially with Covid throwing everything into chaos, but it's ILLEGAL. We were trying to be polite but our hands were forced when they persisted for compensation. In the end, we have to write it out in black and white: WE DO NOT ACCEPT COMPENSATION FOR ORGANS!!! Thankfully, they backed out in the end. I asked my dad regarding this. He said in some countries, where people are desperate, yes, they do sell an organ to get money in return, but not here. If you come up to me asking about this, I will scream.
Give Me Your Balance
Desperate times call for crazy requests. I attended this case. Desch asked for covid vaccination. My apologies, you will need to wait for the government because I can't give an answer. The covid vaccine is controlled by the government, and the list in their hand. I cannot interfere, I can only await for their direction and guide accordingly. Umaro stated that they understood what I'm trying to say, but then they dropped this bombshell:
Desch: I know that you are carrying the vaccine at your place. Is it possible if you can give me the balance?
Me: I don't understand....
Desch: Well, the covid vaccine needs to be mixed right? And it can only last about 2 - 3 hours, right? I don't believe that you can distribute 2,000 a day.
Me: I really don't get what you're saying.
Desch: Well, let's say in your list there's 2,000 people who are supposed to take the vaccine. And somehow 4 people did not turn up due to some personal reasons. So you will have 4 vaccines balance, right? Can I take the balance and distribute it to the public instead?
OH. MY. FREAKING. GOD.
I try to minimize swearing but this is ridiculous. What in tarnation.... Thankfully, I told Desch, under no circumstances are we allowed to freely give the vaccine everywhere. No, no, NO! You can't do that! You have to wait for your turn, for God's sake! How did you come up with that brilliant idea of taking hospital's balances?! How dare you. I couldn't shake them off, so I have to get my MO involved. Thankfully, after a stern, no-nonsense talk to, Desch backed down. I'm not going to share further here because till this day, thinking about it made me so angry. The absurd length some people will go to.
FOMO
Fear Of Missing Out. Ever since the vaccine touched down to Malaysia, people have been bombarding us to release the vaccine.
I said it once, I'm going to say it again. WAIT FOR YOUR TURN. You won't miss out, provided you register your mySejahtera and check on it regularly, but there will always be some people who are just plain stubborn and prejudiced. Can you please stop condemning the government?! They are trying their absolute best to get everyone vaccinated, and manpower is now being used to battle Covid, and vaccine supply is limited. At the time I was writing this post, I wasn't vaccinated yet, but most of my colleagues had. There's a constant fear of going out lingering behind me because I was a casual contact at one point, which freaked me out so bad that I nearly couldn't come to work, no joke.
Threatening
I don't know about you, but ever since Miss Rona showed up and I shifted, I feel like I'm heading out to war and had to carry a riot shield, because I can assure you, getting threatened and hurled verbal abuses is almost a recurring thing for me, hence the riot shield. There is always that one person who will call or send an enquiry, and when you try to talk politely and explain to them kindly, they will outright attack you, calling you all sort of horrible things (Which will be in another post in the future, I guess, depending on my mood) and you can't do anything but swallow everything down because, like it or not, the customer is always right, but I do recall a doctor who kindly told me, "Sometimes, you don't have to take it all, but when they cross the line, you are allowed to defend yourself, but in a polite, kind way, not outright attacking them."
Define Emergency and Non-Emergency
I feel like this term is extremely used lightly. I kid you not, everytime when I work night shifts, I can get calls or enquiries at the crack of dawn (like 2 - 5 am in the morning), asking me for appointments, most of them follow up cases. When I ask them why, I tend to get answers like "Oh, I missed out my follow up"/ "My meds finished already, that's why I need this appointment now." Um, like why??? Who's going to open clinics in the morning? My doctors are asleep till the next morning, for crying out loud. Especially the follow up cases. Why would you contact our side? We are not a centralized appointment system. The reason why I always say we will follow back up is because doctors, especially those who does procedures or surgeries, tend to have things allocated, hence why we always need to clarify back. A good example is the obstetrician's side. Whenever a baby is coming, the obstetrician have to abandon his clinic to go and help the mommy in labour. You can't exactly ask the baby to come out after clinic hours right???
Another common answers I get is, "It is an emergency!" For me, emergency means go to emergency now without further delay. Or if you can't afford private sector, go to any 24 hour clinic or the government. Nope, I get yelled at again that they want to see the doctor NOW/ TODAY. I can assure you if I call my doctors in the middle of the night regarding this, they will come after me for disturbing their sleep. If it's life threatening, like bleeding, vomiting, diarrhoea, unable to breathe or chest tightness, just go to emergency for God's sake. Please value your life and health! You only live once.
Gave myself a scare. I woke up to nearly 3. Immediately went into panic mode, running about blindly in the dark because I did not set my alarm. Noticed outside was extremely dark, double checked clock. Oh, it's 3 am in the morning. Oops. Went back to bed but unable to because my mind is wide awake. Unable to sleep properly, so woke up at 7 am to cook some instant noodles. After that, went to do several things at home till lunch time.
Super excited to complete my second dose that I nearly ended up slipping down the stairs. Triple checked essential items such as IC, Vaccination Appointment Card, Vaccination Consent Form, and my Sejahtera app in phone. This time brought a small novel in bag and bottle of water, knowing that there's no water there.
Initially planned to go with a friend who has the same appointment as me. Went to find her, found out she's not at her department. Asked around, people said she has went up already. Oh well, went up after 1 pm, nearly went into panic mode when I found out mySejahtera app wasn't loading properly due to poor internet connection. Restarted mobile data and hook to public wifi, managed to get a small connection. Re-check back, managed to get the app working. Whew, close call.
Not many people around. Couldn't find my friend so ended up waiting for consultation (Said friend actually went to get lunch and went up, by the time I was waiting for consultation, she is at the queue outside waiting for registration), which took forever due to some issues, but it's about an hour. Consultation done, waited for my jab. Again, didn't hurt much, but after going back home, had some on/off migraines but didn't need to take any panadol and pain the injection site. Normal, completely normal.
Was tempted to get some food outside to celebrate but due to the pandemic, settled for comfort food from home. After that went for an early shut eye. Compared to the first jab, this round I had one side effect but not too bad, at least I don't feel a lot of arm pain so I could do some art, not wiring and typing (Still had pounding migraine at that time) since it was my non-dominant hand that got jabbed.
Besobeso from Shirobako
Conclusion, this pandemic is not joke, get yourself vaccinated, wear a mask, and wash your hands. As of writing this, it is already 20th May and cases are skyrocketing. Good God.
Few days ago I got my notification that I'm due for my first jab. Immediately clicked the link for confirmation. Heard a lot of negative news surrounding the vaccination, people telling me that they had severe side effects and etc. I beg your pardon, but a little side effects like nausea, fever, vomiting, migraine, fatigue, numbness are still considered okay. What is not okay is if the side effect is too much. Side effects are alright because it means the vaccine is working. (Four legged furry friends' vaccines included)
26th April 2021 (Around noon)
Went to line up early despite fatigue after four days of night shift due to whacky calls. Forgot to put a book into my bag so had to rely on mobile to keep me entertained. Queue was really long and slow, but it's okay due to large crowd that came early and some glitch in the system. My turn came without a hitch. While waiting for turn, people around me kept saying things like how they were scared of the side effects because they heard from others that some people were sent to the ER due to side effects. I did my best to block out all the negativity because out of all the bad news I have witnessed, so far only one person that I know of has an allergic reaction, unfortunate, but they are alright after a jab of anti-histamine, so not to worry.
Everyone told me it is not painful, and they are right. You only feel a tiny bit of pain when the needle enter your skin. You barely feel the medicine going in, but immediately after they took out the needle, I feel numbness around the injection site. It's fine, I was under observation for 15 minutes. Once done, I took a photo as a remembrance, I'm not going to put it up here, it's really ugly, and I'm not used to camera. The only time my friends managed to take photos of me are candid of shots, because getting me to pose takes forever, and I'm not photogenic, and I have another appointment date.
So far, overall, the experience is alright, don't believe what others say. As of today it's my second day post vaccination and I don't feel anything, except around 4 am when I turned during my sleep I jumped in pain because I accidently squished my injected arm. Again, it's normal to feel some numbness and a little bit of pain at the injection site. I encourage you to check you app daily, and just take the jab, for crying out loud.
To show you that I'm perfectly fine, I did two drawings while listening to rock songs, my first attempt at using waterbrush pens which I never had the chance to use till now. (I just draw as a hobby)
Self-explanatory
Flower art inspired by @owley_artistry
There's that, nothing to be afraid of, although of course I'll be monitoring myself closely. Stay safe and drink plenty of water.
Do you ever feel at times that no matter what you do, people always seem to nitpick things and find petty things to complain about? I can't tell you the number of times people had complained about petty things such as just coming into the clinic and going when can I see the doctor (when they had just appeared five minutes ago), we explained in detail regarding where to go, yet people still go wrong and blame us.
Ever since I got shifted, I feel like we are in an all-you-can-eat buffet, meaning everything comes to us. I don't know why people can't comprehend that yes, we can help you to a certain extent, but after that you're on your own. You can't expect us to hold your hand all the way from A to Z. Before whatsapp and online services had even came up, what do we used to do last time? We called the clinic repeatedly till we get our appointment. I can't tell you how much I'm nearly in tears repeatedly telling people nicely to call the clinic directly to liaise with the clinic nurses because cases like obstetrician and gynaecology, oncology, child developmental growth, geriatrics and psychiatry are so sensitive (Or you can just throw everything in, but these are the ones that are considered sensitive) that the clinic nurse in charge has to ask them some personal questions, which we do not wish to invade because we are like a third party, and this should be attended by the clinic nurse in charge and their respective doctors. I find it ridiculous just for the sake of an appointment you have to jump through 3 or 4 different channels, where the simplest solution is to call the clinic directly and get the appointment.
The same goes for cancelling appointment. Sure you may think it is cute to just send a message to us and expect us to do it, unfortunately we are not currently overwhelmed by too many enquiries that we may overlook or tend to miss out. At the end of the day, we are all humans, and there's only so much we could do. "Oh, but it is just an appointment, surely it is not a big deal..." This nonchalant attitude makes my blood boil, because I used to have that mindset, but then a specialist pulled me aside one time to give me a talk. They knew me well enough not to bite my head off, but there are some who did. They told me, for clinics such as psychiatry, oncology and child developmental, the slots are so limited because these are the clinics that need to spend a lot of time in helping the people. Let's say if you don't turn up and did not bother informing, you ended up wasting the specialist's time, not to mention the slot could've been used for someone who truly needs it. Now I get the saying why business-savvy people had often said time is money, but for the specialists, when you do not even have the courtesy to make a phone call and inform, "Hello, I need to cancel/ postpone my appointment," you ended up wasting the slot for someone who truly needs it, not to mention the specialist's time, time which they could use to go for surgery/ ward rounds/ or they wish to go back early for a little R&R due to being exhausted. Would you like it if you have made an appointment with someone and they did not even have the courtesy to inform you that they can't make it, and you end up foolishly waiting for a long time to the point when you finally call them and they went, "Oh, it must've slipped my mind. I thought you knew. Anyway, have fun on your own." Why do I know this? Because I was one of those people who had often been left out of plans and appointments like that, so yes, I understood how tiring and painful it is. No one is asking you to do anything, just pick up the phone, give a dial, and just have the courtesy to inform someone. This is called courtesy call, it's a no-brainer.
Of course people tend to bite your head off. "You are a servicing line! It is your job!" "How unprofessional!" "I'm paying you for you service!" Again, I'll repeat my statement, yes, we can help you to a certain extent, but at the end of the day, you are the one seeing the specialist, hence you will need to know how to navigate your way. You are not going to expect me to hold your hand into the clinic. Furthermore, as I often have stressed, it is your body, hence you will know better. An example I always give is I have knee pain, but I refused to talk for whatever reason, so my parents will talk on my behalf.
"Where's the pain?" At the knee
"Which part of the knee? Left, right?" I don't know, just the knee, there's only one right?
"How's the pain?" It's very painful.
"Can you describe to me further, like is it a stabbing pain, like an electric shock, is it dull, or is it radiating to somewhere else?" What do you mean? It's just painful, surely it is good enough, right?
"Have you done any scans, blood tests at any outside clinic?" No, should I have done it?
"Are you on any medications?" I am, but I cannot remember the name. All I can tell you it is white in colour and it is round.
It's frustrating, and tiring for the person who is going to treat you. I had no idea that the above mentioned is a skill that you learn in communications. Of course people just laughed and brush it off, but if you don't put in your words properly, you will never be able to get a proper answer. If the specialist write so vaguely in the form such as BD Panadol, Arcoxia 120, X-Ray Leg, it will cause a whole lot of confusion. This is why the staff at the other end often have to call to double confirm the Doctor's orders to avoid causing a mistake.
One thing that we commonly get is due to the Rise of Covid, there is a large surge of people who are panicking due to causal/ close contact. They have done their swabs, great. Did they get their results? Due to technical glitch, minor error in keying in their email and contact number, they are unable to get their results. So what do they do? "Excuse me, can you give me my results?" The standard answer we give is please contact the relevant department to get your results. Some people had attacked me outright for not being helpful. "It's just a small thing!" No, it is not a small thing as you have claimed. It is P & C. If the results happened to fall to the wrong hands, it ends up being a legal case. The same thing goes for your medical records. You may think, "I just want this record, surely you can help me with this one small thing?" Again, the answer is no. There are certain procedures to go through, not to mention that there is a consent involved. If things goes wrong, then it ends up being a legal case.
By the way, please keep in mind, just because we have brothers and sister branches doesn't mean everything is the same, not to mention we are not allowed to access in other people's system. Please understand if you have liaised with Branch A, you will need to get back to Branch A, not Branch B. An example is I often have to go Branch B to pick up certain groceries because Branch A for some reason doesn't seem to hold them, so there you have it. Again, it is not a small thing. The things we do are P & C, a mishap can endanger someone or worse, get dragged into a lawsuit.
Look, life is hard, seriously, especially with Miss Rona hanging over our head like an ominous cloud, but we should be more understanding with each other instead of bursting in with guns blazing. Sure it works at time, but over the long run, you'll only end up making everyone ticked off because you tend to force your way through. One thing life taught me was keep you cool and stay polite, usually someone will make an effort to help you, but treat people like rubbish and karma is going to get to you.
Enough ranting, back to work.
*Today's case: 2,340 (Ah geez)
PS: If you do not hear back from the other end, keep trying till you get them. I can't stressed how often I've sent emails regarding my tax income since I had to get it done during the pandemic where most offices weren't open. No one answered the phone so I've sent emails every week or two and finally got an answer. Happy tax filing.
Terrible news. My supernatural demon slayers sequel file died... The 70 percent edited version. I'm such a fool for putting so much faith in a closed someone, who was unsympathetic because they yelled at me for forking out the money (few hundreds) to buy the original Microsoft license product. Well, the IT guy called his Microsoft engineer and said that my license expired 2 months ago, even though I have bought a license online because I blindly trusted them who bought it for rm12....online. This just shows I should just follow my gut and buy original things especially for Microsoft, because do you really want it to happen again? Do you want my whole file to die off again, especially when I got stuff lined up to tackle ? Anyway, I managed to save a complete unedited, raw, copy (500+ pages) in my external drive but I'll have to start all over again for editing. Most likely I'm going to put it out for free because it won't be as good as the original.
I'm not going to lie, I cried every day since it happened. I kept thinking if only I had been more careful. In other words, I'm going to have to change up my routine of 13 years because I do not want a second time to happen. I don't think I can cope a second time.
Usual routine: 1)Write one chapter each in new file. (Editing as I go)
2) Compile all into one manuscript (New file again)
3) Edit (Saving every six months into external drive)
4) Final checks, edit, save
5) Final, final run through and publish
Number 3 is going to have to be save everywhere, every minute, every hour.
Don't tell me to relax and get over it, because it's too raw for me. One of a writer's biggest fear is losing a whole manuscript, especially one that is about to be completed. No wonder why I have seen writers and manga-kas throwing in the towel when their entire story goes missing, but I'm trying not to, since I got a raw manuscript in my hand, I'm going to try and edit it once more, but as mentioned, it won't be as good as the original, so I'll most likely be giving five-fingers discount (It definitely won't be in Amazon, because till this day, they refused to allow me to put things for free, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it), because it wouldn't seem fair to ask people to pay.
Sorry for disappointing everyone.
RIP my 8-year-old baby.
PS: Next time I'm getting a new lappy or something, I'm going to make sure someone installs a fully licensed Microsoft product into it. Take my money, I just don't want the same fate happen to my other manuscripts.
PSS: Someone told me to write my other manuscripts, I tried. I couldn't. I am crying too hard to even think straight, not to mention I'm not how I once was, able to juggle many projects at once (due to demanding workload and because it was taking a toll on my mental health, especially the last major novel I worked on because I was spending sleepless nights to get the story done before the deadline), because this manuscript is something I have been working on for years, and it's the conclusion to my Supernatural series, which means I may not be writing it anymore (Who knows? Lloyd and I have been together since early 2008. I say it's high time he deserves a break...)
Source: donald smack, published on 8th February 2010 by Capripcorn21
Same, Donald, same. I wish I could do the same to some difficult people, but you know what? This is part of the package in servicing line, let's go. We will be using Final Fantasy characters' name again.
I Want to Get Admit NOW
For some reason, whenever I'm alone because at one point I was covering after office hours. and Jesus Christ, the public demanded that we have to get them admitted in NOW. The reason why we try to do it within office hours because we have sufficient manpower. When you tend to come in after office hours, we do not have sufficient manpower, meaning the potential of encountering emergency is plain scary. A recent event scared us where Kain nearly ended up fainting due to not having enough carbs and sugar. It's a good thing we have alerted the emergency team down there where the team immediately hooked Kain with an IV Drip.
Wow, The Virus Sure Spread Fast...
We have families who came in by the drove. One person gets it, chances of other family members getting it are also high. I have encountered patients who went, "Huh? I tested two days ago and was negative, but I tested today and it came out positive." Well, yeah, this is why whenever someone calls up to query if they should do a covid test. I say, do it, especially if you are a close contact. Don't take things too lightly. Get yourself checked for a peace of mind.
I Have The Money, Give Me The Vaccine NOW
Ever since the covid vaccine touched down in our country, I kid you not, we got every Toms, Dicks, Harrys and Karens coming in demanding for the vaccine. When we said we have to await further instructions from the Ministry of Health and government, that the first phase is only for frontliners and that the public has to wait for further instructions. Good God, let me tell you the common stuff I hear from the phone calls, whatsapps and emails coming in.
"When will we get the vaccine?"
"How much are you charging for the vaccine? I'll pay you, name you price."
"I don't want to go to the government sector, I trust the private sector!"
"What mySejahtera? I refuse to register because I don't want to go to the government!"
"I want to be put on a waiting list, I don't care! Put me on the waiting list!"
"You're hiding the vaccine! Release it to the public!"
Created on 17/02/2018, 23:06:50 by Unknown Creator
Look, I get it that you want the vaccine. Everyone does, but at the end of the day, I'm just like you. I haven't got my vaccine, neither of us have it yet, yet everyone is pointing fingers at us, coming up with various conspiracy theories. I'm sorry, but the government had already stressed from the moment the vaccine first touched down, the first phase is mainly for frontliners. Majority of the enquiries that came in weren't frontliners, just people who are scared of missing out. This is why you need to keep yourself up to date with the government news. Do not give us that bull that you refused to use the mySejahtera because you don't want to go to the government sector for a jab. And let us be frank, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter where in the world you are, everyone is getting the covid vaccine. Furthermore, the government aimed to vaccinate at least 80 percent of the population. Keep yourself up to date, and don't listen to the crazy rumours floating around. Here's where you can keep up to the up to date news: https://www.vaksincovid.gov.my/
I Need My Results TODAY (Because...)
Reason why we always encourage you to come straight to the hospital to collect your covid results or provide a proper email is because we do not want your results to go to the wrong hands. Hence why we stressed for you to contact the relevant department for the proper information instead of bouncing around. Furthermore, not to sound paranoid, but anyone can cheat their way online. It's plain scary.
People Chasing Us For Medical Claims --
Contact the Medical Records Department for God's sake. You may laugh and think, oh, it's just a piece of paper. That piece of paper can land us in a lawsuit if we don't have a legal consent, furthermore, I'm sure most of you have heard of the tragic case of Jacintha Saldanha back in 2012. If not, here's a link of the article. (TRIGGER WARNING) Suicide of Jacintha Saldanha - Wikipedia
No matter it's a phone call or to claim your medical records, please go through the proper channel, sign a consent and we'll handle the rest.
I Need To Fly Today And I Need To Do The Swab Test NOW
Not to be judgmental, but if you planned to fly, do not do your test last minute. The accurate results will take at least 24 hours. This is why before you buy your plane tickets, get to know your flight policy and guidelines to avoid taking the covid test last minute. The only time that is forgivable is when you have to fly back last minute due to unavoidable issues (Eg. family matters, funerals)
Emergency? Eh, I Can Wait
Do you know how many calls or whatsapp we received at night? High fever, sudden bleeding, sudden infection, choking on a fish bone, chest tightness, all those are alarm signs. We tend to take things seriously but you will be surprise how most people are nonchalant. I can't stressed how often that the moment something doesn't seem right, please, I implore you to seek treatment immediately. You may think that it's a small matter, but things can escalate to disaster fast.
Added by Keltainentoukokuu Posted in Warrior (Final Fantasy X-2)Paine/Gallery
This is basically what we call a double-edged sword, and this relates to the point above. As mentioned, you have no idea the amounts of enquiries we received on a daily basis with the above mentioned scenario. Here are notable examples which I handled:
Luneth contacted at midnight to make an appointment. They contacted again to switch their appointment after office hours. I checked the system to find Luneth's name in the system. When they gave me radio silence, I prompted them is it because they wish to reschedule. That is when Luneth mentioned they have an infection and wish to come in tomorrow. Of course, I send them a message politely that we will get the person in charge to contact them tomorrow. I was shocked when I received this message back in return.
"Again and again. It is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to make sure that my request has been followed up. Do NOT give excuses that you are busy."
Here is when I felt like giving my two cents. If it's so urgent, why didn't you make an effort to call? Why did you wait till after office hours? Or send a message at midnight? This is what irks me. I would also say it goes both ways. As a patient who often have to go for frequent follow ups at one point, it is MY RESPONSIBLITY to make sure I fixed my appointment, not to mention if I can't make it, to give a courtesy call that I can't come to the appointment and reschedule with the person in charge, because it is my health, my problems. I cannot depend on others regarding my own appointment, furthermore, doctors can only do half of the work. The other half comes from you. Long story short, we settled the case. I wasn't upset that Luneth won the battle. I'm alright with it, I just hated it when you try your very best to be polite, people tend to bash you. This is why I often try not to lose my temper because no one likes getting bashed. Furthermore, on that day unfortunately, we were too busy running after so many enquiries that we overlooked Luneth's. Moral of the story: D.I.Y
Someone contacted me at 3 in the morning regarding their child, who is less than a year old, having high fever and diarrhoea for days. With the current pandemic, we are not taking anything to chances. I begged the person on the other end to please seek treatment at the government sector emergency department. Their answer:
"I do not trust the government sector. I only trust the private."
Okay, I begged this person, let's call them Rubicante, to bring their child now to the emergency, and to give me the details so I can get the team ready downstairs. I nearly feel like screaming when I received this message:
"You don't understand, I want to wait till morning to consult the specialist on call."
Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Here's my take: If it's my child having symptoms of suspected covid, I will hightail to the nearest emergency screaming for help. Don't jeopardize your child's life.
I'm flying to another country. Is it recognized by the overseas government?
No matter how much I tried to convince Cagnazzo that our test is basically recognized by the Malaysian Ministry of Health, they seemed to have a ton of conspiracies. Look, just to cover everyone, this is why there are always DISCLAIMERS...
"Please help, my dad has chest tightness!"
Why are we sitting around whatsapping for? GET TO THE NEAREST EMERGENCY RIGHT NOW! Our conversation went back and forth, but the family claimed that the Emergency Department is full of covid, and the Medical Officers are inexperienced. I beg your pardon, Medical Officers are still qualified doctors. They studied hard to work where they are. Do not look down on them just because they are Medical Officers. When I started working with them in November, I realized that they were often put down just because they weren't specialists. And I hate to burst your bubble, but covid is everywhere. The air has been contaminated, it's just whether your body immunity can fight back or the virus happen to invade your body. I have calls and enquiries coming in where people claimed they have not get out of the house, and they still get covid. Look, it happens. It's okay, we're here to help, we'll do our best to guide you, it's not the end of the world. But it irks me to no end the various storied that pops out. "My friend said this and said that."
Apologies for going off topic, anyway, we booked an appointment for Relm's dad, and the next day, when we contact them to ask if they are coming so that we can alert the relevant party, this is what they said, "Oh, he's alright now."
I - I - Alright, next.
"I'm having a serious acute condition. I'm based in outstation and I want to come now."
I'm not trying to be mean, but the current MCO has clearly stated no interstate travelling unless it's urgent. Furthermore, acute condition such as shortness of breath, suspected covid symptoms, chest tightness, suspected symptoms of stroke and bed-ridden condition such as traumatic spine injuries...You can't drive four to six hours here, furthermore, it is unethical of us to torture you for the sake of coming here. We are not heartless monsters, and depending on where you stay like the northern or southern peninsula, or across the ocean, we will advise you to head to the nearest clinic or hospital for treatment, whichever is convenient.
"But I'm fine! I want to come to your place! I trust the doctors there!"
Please, I know you do, but your condition is unfit for travel, furthermore, the roadblocks may not be forgiving. Please just go to the nearest healthcare facility for help. Stop being so flippant, nonchalant and ignorant.
In the servicing line, it is expected to treat everyone like kings and queens, in other words, the best experience. I won't condemn that, treat others the way you want others to treat you, as the old saying goes, but there comes a time that you can't expect everything to be handed to you in a silver platter. Sometimes you have to take things into your own hands and just do it. Don't send enquiries and expect everything to be at your beck and call. Want to see Dr Edge? Get the relevant information, get your phone out, find the appropriate number, give a call, and liaise with the person in charge. Don't depend on a third party. This applies to everything in life.
Self Diagnose
I naively thought this happens only in fiction books. How wrong I was. Rydia sent us an email that they have diagnosed themselves with a neurological condition via some internet self-diagnose site. Why would you do that??? It's like a slap in the faces to the doctors who have studied hard to earn their qualifications. Five minutes in the net and you are an expert? Please, don't do that. Of course it's good to know some information about your condition, but please do not dismiss the doctors' opinions when you see them.
Five Finger Discounts
As a wise man once told me years back, nothing in the world is free. I'm sorry. No matter how much you demand, beg, I can't give it to you. I have no right, neither of us has the right. You are not going to go the St Regis with just ten ringgit in your pocket, and you are not going to go to Tony Roma's with ten dollars in your pocket. If you can't afford it, then don't buy it. Again, not trying to be judgmental, but I have went to government sector for treatment and it wasn't that bad, it's only the waiting time, and the extremely strict rules that tends to make you shake your head, but each company has their own policies, and we have to follow it, like it or not. The public always seemed to have the perspective that all of us are wealthy because we could afford private sector care. Let's be for real, if we are not covered, we can't afford the healthcare costs. This is why I rarely use my staff benefits until the last resort, meaning when my condition is extremely dire. Don't take things for granted, and certainly don't misuse it.
You Are A Scammer
Are you kidding me? This is getting old. Why would I want to scam you? Whenever I used the hospital line to contact some people, they claimed they wouldn't answer my phone because..."It looks like a scammer calling." I - I just -
I will be honest here, this post is pretty depressing, I'm sorry it upsets you. I'll admit, I haven't been getting enough sleep, and I feel that I'm on the verge of a mental breakdown. I came back home crying most of the times thinking where did I go wrong, not to mention whenever I come home, I barely had time to read, write or draw. Coming back home means sleep, get up for work, grab a meal and that's it. That's my life now. I'll share more when I have the time.
*The stories are rather vague because I was nitpicking to avoid crossing the line. As stated in my blogs, all stories are edited to protect everyone. The names you see does not define their gender, hence why I often use they.
I've been mainly on evening due to shortage of staffs. Let's go. This time we are going with Final Fantasy character names.
*This post is going to sound a little depressive and negative, hence why I'm throwing some humour here and there.
Feeling Like A Fool
I received a phone call from Cyan, claiming that they have read something from our website regarding EECP. I was super confused at first because when I accessed the site, I don't see anything. The most I saw was a heart screening package, but no EECP. When I tried explaining to Cyan, they insisted that it was on the website. What makes it worse they called just after office hours, which is really tough if you get tricky stuff like this. I was lucky that that Cyan is a nice person, because they were patient because the previous few whom I encountered were not friendly. ("You should know everything!!!!")
*Enhanced External Counter Pulsation (EECP) is performed as a non-invasive treatment to lower the number and intensity of angina episodes.
After office hours, I called up a few departments whom I know usually stays up a little late. None of them could give me an answer. I even went as far as to call other hospitals, nope. Zilch. So I prayed to my lucky stars and hoped the doctors whom I on good terms with answer my phone calls. Thankfully they did. They were laughing good-heartedly at my dilemma and told me that no one does it here, but to divert them to the government hospital. They were nice about it, caught me off guard by asking me the general line of the place. I gave it to them via my directory. Then they asked me whether I know anyone there. What??? Sorry, I don't.
Mr Google Says It's Contagious
The internet is really a double-edged sword. I used it mainly for research, but not for medical related. I received this call from a family. They were just discharged from the ward and forgot to ask Dr Locke regarding H.Pylori. I don't know why didn't they bother asking the ward but they called my side, and I answered the call. I'm speechless when they asked me out of the blue. "Is H.Pylori contagious?"
Me: Before I could dive in any further, could you please share with me a little background here?
Edgar* (not their real name): Oh, my child was admitted for H.Pylori treatment and was just discharged. We forgot to ask whether the disease is contagious.
Me: What makes you say that?
Edgar: Well, I read about it in Mr Google that H.Pylori is contagious.
Me: (Mary, Mother of God, ARE YOU KIDDING ME???) Unless you share contaminated food.
Edgar: Oh, you mean I can't share food with my child?
Me: No.
Edgar: Oh, I'm healthy, can I share food with my child then?
Me: No.
Edgar: Oh. Then when can we share food together?
Me: Mr Edgar, I presume that Dr Locke gave your child some H.Pylori medications right, roughly about 2 weeks worth?
Edgar: (sounding surprised) Yes.
Me: I would suggest that you get your child to complete the medications first, follow up with him then only you can share your food safely. (Besides, with Covid on the rise, you shouldn't even be sharing food with anyone)
Edgar: Oh, okay. Thanks for the advice.
My sister once suffered H.Pylori years back. I was with her with the doctor at that time. He told me on no circumstances I'm allowed to share food with her, and H.Pylori is passed through saliva, vomit, fecal matter, not to mention if you are eating contaminated food or water (And you wonder why Gordon Ramsay is being such a jerk for screaming at people, well, contaminated food kills people faster than anything else, besides the usual fatal wounds). Hence why I said STRICTLY NO SHARING FOOD. Which is why I feel like screaming my head off. Don't believe Mr Google for God's sake.
*Not a fan of him, but I respect the man's integrity and morals.
Covid, Covid, Covid
Not sure what's with my luck lately. Around 6pm on the dot, I will always get Covid Enquiries. Reason why I didn't like it is 1) No backup 2) I'm just a lowly nurse 3) Due to my position, I can't just call specialists out of the blue and go "Whaddup.". Yes, there are some doctors whom I'm friendly with, but at the end of the day, I'm not in the same ranking as them, and some...are just downright mean. And most of them won't attend to you after office hours because they're humans. They have lives outside of the hospital. To be honest, I won't disturb them either unless it is a life and death situation. Some of the calls I get were downright pushy, as in: ''I want to get admitted NOW." Sorry, but the process is ridiculously long, not to mention there are several legal paperwork(s) involved. And most of the staff are office hour so...Just be patient okay. I once called the Emergency for help and let me be frank, they weren't amused. I can hear people yelling in the back and I was like, "Look, I just want someone to help go through with me regarding the legal works..." But no one was listening. And who could blame them? The Emergency Department is like a warzone. Scratch that, hospitals are a warzone.
Chinese ONLY Please
This...needs to be abolished. I don't know what's with people lately. I really don't. The first thing you answer the phone is people talking to you all in Mandarin/ Cantonese/ Hokkien, whatever Chinese speaking dialect you can think of, but mainly Mandarin. It makes me sad that our own people, not China Chinese, mind you, can't even speak basic Bahasa Malaysia or English. I'm not talking about fancy, flowery proses here, I'm talking about basic conversational stuff. I don't even know how school children who are practically learning Bahasa Malaysia as a compulsory language, can come up to me and said with a straight face: "Oh, I don't speak Bahasa or English." This is why I respect the Indonesians, Japanese, French, Dutch, Polish which I'm listing off my head, because they speak their mother tongue fluently. I will admit, no matter how awkward my Bahasa is, I could at least hold conversations and communicate with the locals. And as I have said so many times in the past, our surat rasmi, anything official are all in Bahasa Malaysia. The daily covid news report by the government: Bahasa Malaysia. Anywhere you go, what do you see first? Bahasa Malaysia. Please, let's get out of the Dark Ages mindset already.
This mindset has also got to go. We are not in the Dark Ages anymore. If anything, I would say the government side of things are on par with our treatment. The only issue as I have mentioned before were the waiting time. Besides, our government setting friends are busy fighting the pandemic first. We got complains from the patients saying that no one attended them. It's overexaggerating. We are very sure that they come to you at least once for morning rounds. And may we remind you that we are busy fighting a pandemic? They wouldn't have time to attend to you since there are plenty of people who needs help. Please be understanding.
"What would you all know? You guys are private!" We get that a lot. People always claim because we are private, we get private care. I mentioned this before, if my insurance doesn't cover me, I will go to government without question, because not all of us can afford luxurious five star pricing. I did scaling for my teeth and it cost me me a mere RM3, including registration and doctor's fee. If I go private, you know how much it costs? Roughly RM 100++. But wait. "Their things are filthy. They're never clean." Um, I saw their tools and they are all pretty shiny... If it's filthy, they will be having the Department of Health knocking on their doors pretty soon...
Fun fact: Before doctors come over to private practice, all of them work in the government sector first. It is a requirement. How come you never hear them saying the government sides are filthy? I only hear that they don't have time because everything is fast-paced and you don't have time to rest. Once you come in, everything comes to you.
Selective Hearing
Working in servicing line for a long time, patients tends to be selective to what they hear. I once quoted a person AROUND RM3,500 for a procedure. I don't know how it became RM 3,500 NETT. The person, let's call them Kefka, went yelling into my ear on how I was a liar, how the price ended up being slightly higher due to some things. This is why I never liked talking about prices, because this is not a supermarket, where the prices are all fixed (even then, I will still recommend you to go to a price scanner before making a payment to save yourself a ton of headache) This is why record logs are extremely important. It's the same for everything else. When I said: "Come before 12 because doctor So-and-So may need to send you for scans and blood tests." People showed up at 12 on the dot and lashed out: "You said before 12, so I came at 12. It's not wrong!" Mmhmm. Next.
Agents Are Not My Cup Of Tea
Never did liked most insurance agents. I remembered a long time ago, we all have a friend who will call you to meet up at Starbucks, out of the blue. Why would you think it's suspicious? It's your friend. When you come up, you were somehow shoehorned into a sort of MLM scheme or forced to buy insurance for them to meet their quota. This is why friendships turned sour very quickly. It's pretty much the main reason why I never liked marketing in the first place. You have to be charismatic, not to mention with an edge to get people to buy your products. Eh, this is why I'm a lousy marketing person.
When Someone Mispronounced Something...
A colleague attended this call. The person on the other end muttered something about their nose hurt when they are looking at the PC and their phone. I didn't understood it. My colleague asked if there's such a thing. Not that I know of. I asked is it related to vertigo? They said no. Sounds weird, but if it's a nose problem, just refer to the ear, nose, throat doctor. I'm sure they can figure something out. So my colleague called to make the appointment. Few seconds later, the person on the other line said: "Nose? Why would I need to see a nose doctor?" My colleague repeated their complaint back to them and the person went, "Oh...Actually it's not my nose. It's my nerve."
How, how did this happen? At least that makes sense. I don't know how nose became nerve. There's a big difference, and we refer them to a neurologist in the end.
Last Minute, No Problem!
I received an email early in the morning on how someone demand to do a Covid test now to get onto a flight due at evening. You're expecting miracles here. I called our lab to enquire about the time. Knowing that we are the same, my colleague on the other end says, "Assuming we can speed up the process, it will still require a minimum of 6 hours. And they are not the only ones who are doing the test. We get thousands of sample coming our way, and all of them are equally important." I thought so. Don't expect miracles to happen. If you are flying the next day, please get a Covid test done before your flight, because it is impossible to get a last minute test. I replied to the email as polite as possible and gave them the fliers on how they can make an appointment and go for the test. Hopefully they did it.
Everything Is 24 Hours
We are not robots. This one is related to the case above, except the person has booked a flight on another day and expect to do a Covid Test during Chinese New Year. Sorry, our staffs are not on duty on that day. The argument was: "All hospitals are 24 hours. I assume that you all will be on duty." See, don't assume. This is why always double confirm early and get your facts ready before booking a flight.
Here's a story that somehow links to this. A colleague had a phone call around 5am regarding their condition, which sounds quite serious, so my colleague direct them to go Emergency now. The response: "I want to see a specialist, why would I want to go to Emergency?" Um, because they mentioned that it's serious in the first place. So my colleague said since it's 5 am, no one is in work yet and it's best for them to go to Emergency where we have our team on duty. Instead, my colleague got blasted over the phone on how they didn't want to go Emergency and wanted to come and see a specialist NOW. They couldn't even be bothered to wait till office hours. Good grief. Please, don't do that. In the end, we contacted them around 9am and all's well, ends well.
Reluctant To Share Information
Someone sent an email and complained that it is weird that they have to call to make their own appointment. (Isn't that the point?) To avoid complications, I called the sender several times but they refused to answer. Unsure, I dropped them several messages via phone. I immediately got tons of messages coming my way. The person, let's call them Strago didn't read the information on the site properly before this and assume everyone does teleconsultation where it is written clearly that they don't. So they weren't happy about it. I send them the ones who are doing it and advised them to kindly share their history so that I am able to direct them where to go. Instead, I got tons of messages that says whether their privacy will be breached since they sounded convinced that someone else is reading our phone messages. I assured them several times that the only people who will know about their history is the relevant party involved. I kept asking them to share their history but they outright refused, dodging all my questions and countering with questions of their own. It's like an endless game of ping pong. The ball is at your court. If you refuse to throw it back, your loss, not ours. In the end, we gotten nowhere and I closed the case.
Silver Platters All The Way
I asked a senior staff for advice on how to deal with difficult people. The short answer: "They expect to be treated like Kings and Queens." Who doesn't? But if I want something to go smoothly, I would rather go hands on, if you know what I mean. I'll give a non-medical related example here. I want to write a book, I have the idea but I don't know how to execute it. So I get a ghostwriter to write for me. I don't bother to check. Why should I? I know the ghostwriter will do a good job. What happens if the story doesn't happens the way you want it? Are you going to blame the ghostwriter? This is why it's a writer's job to make sure everything goes smoothly before publishing/submitting their works. I hope I got the meaning across. Don't expect things to be handed to you on silver platters.
Mayday, Mayday
*conversation is slightly edited to simplify the points across and for privacy
Me: "Hello?"
Setzer: "Hi, my family member was diagnosed positive and they are on the way to your place now."
Me: "Beg your pardon?"
Setzer: I called up few days ago. My family member was diagnosed positive and your colleague says they can come in anytime.
Me: (Don't like where this is going) Where are you based from?
Setzer: *mutters*
Colleague: (They have been listening the whole time) Give me the phone. Call Emergency NOW! (passes the phone over to them) We need the car license plate and model now!
Me: (The same thought has been going through my head cause my fingers were dialing Emergency) Pick up, pick up, pick up.
Colleague #1: Hi.
Me: Get ready NOW! There's a Covid positive heading your way.
Colleague #1: WHAT?!
Me: There's a Covid positive heading your way. Get ready!
Colleague #1: How did this even happen?
Me: JUST GET READY NOW! GET YOUR TEAM READY!
Colleague #1: On it.
Colleague: *mutters car model and license number*
Me: Colleague #1, here's the car license number and model.
Colleague #1: We just saw that car turning in! They are heading to our parking bay!
Me: What now?
Colleague #1: Hold tight, we're getting someone to intercept them now!
You're probably thinking, what's the issue? Well, if we haven't warned the team downstairs, the person would've ended up endangering everyone unknowingly. The security, the customers, the staff, the entire building. Long story short, the person was admitted in the end. Sometimes it feels like we are doing mission control here because we have to coordinate everyone, otherwise there would've been chaos.
That Crushed Feeling
I attended a call regarding positive cases. It involves three children who are really small. The relative called us for help to admit. I wish we could, but we can't accept their cases because we are not equipped for the job. Not to mention it tore me on the inside because I couldn't help them. I felt helpless. And the relative was begging me to help, and just for the sake of recording, I took down the history, but even after I took the record down, I know in my heart I have to turn away the case because there's no choice. They had multiple symptoms, and judging from the history, they could turn serious anytime. The whole family would've slowly turned positive because you need to stay with children. If they are teenagers, maybe...we could've help, but children who are not old enough to know better...you can't leave them alone. I had to beg them to go to the nearest government hospital emergency and pray for the best. Not going to lie, I took some time to compose myself.
Happy Chinese New Year Happy Niu Year to those who are celebrating. Let's hope for an ox-picious year ahead. This year's the Year of the OX. Stay safe, stay healthy.
Here's some relaxing lo-fi music to listen to. (I don't know the name of the song, but I loved it so much that I just play this video just to listen to it)
?file=Paine_Transformation1.gif){kind=link}
