One thing is for sure, I could not write
for a living because I cannot find the energy or motivation to sit down and
write about all the things that I often think about or experience.
This blog, for example, has languished for
some time. I could claim that there is a hiatus in Lin’s follow up care which
is true because he is in between check ups (thankfully he gets his port-a-cath
flushed without event).
We are thankful that he is in fine health.
More recently I got to know more about a
different illness and treatment; this time it had to do with an abscess of the
liver.
My brother called me one Friday evening to
say that he was running a high fever, had chills and a bad headache but would
wait until Monday to visit his GP.
He called me on Saturday afternoon to say
that he was feeling worse and was going to the 24-hour clinic and
Accident/Emergency department at Gleneagles, a nearby private hospital.
I insisted on driving him there and before
too long the duty doctor examined him and suggested a blood test to check for
malaria, dengue or something else. Rather than wait there for hours we went
back to his apartment.
When the results came back the diagnosis
was a bacterial infection and my brother decided to wait until Monday to see
his regular GP – who also did some more tests.
In the meantime he was started on a course
of antibiotics and felt a little better. But at my prodding he spoke to a
friend at the National University Hospital (NUH) who happened to be flying out
that night for a medical conference but urged him to go to the walk-in A&E,
which we did after dinner on Wednesday night.
Until then I had no idea that Singapore’s
government hospitals were overloaded. Not only were patients waiting to be
examined, there were announcements over their public address system to say that
they were experiencing a shortage of beds.
At about 3:30am we drove home – he had
been examined, prodded and poked. Blood was extracted for testing and he was
given medicine via IV. There was still 100 patients waiting to be seen by the
two doctors on duty!
Perhaps that was why the doctor on duty
that night was curt to the point of being rude. The first thing he said when we
walked into his room was “name” and then he pointed at the only other chair in
the room and said, “sit down”. I stood the whole time, trying to pretend I was
an IV stand.
Being me, I waited until we were ready to
return to the waiting room and asked him for his name. He gave me the shortened
form and as I had not come across such a name I asked him to spell it.
“J-O-C-E” he said. I later found out it was Jocelito.
Overworked or not, he had no excuse for
being so rude and offhand with any patient, but I guess the patients were all
too ill to notice.
Anyway, my brother was asked back the next
day for a consultation with a gastroenterologist and the upshot was that he was
asked to check in. But no beds were available so he went home to wait.
Later that Thursday night he was checked
in and antibiotics were administered intravenously for his liver abscess and an
infection.
However, what he at first thought was
prickly heat from his rather warm, non-air-conditioned accommodation turned out
to be a severe reaction to one of the antibiotics. By that time they had
managed to find him an air-conditioned room and he was much happier.
Because of the allergy they pulled the IV
and gave him oral doses of antibiotics instead. And decided to wait for some
improvement in his skin condition before they introduced a needle through his
abdominal wall to drain the abscess.
This meant more waiting and, finally, on
Wednesday after the dermatologist had given the OK, the abscess was drained.
By the next day he felt much better. Three
days later (Saturday) I think he
will be allowed home soon – after they have removed the drainage baggie.
Needless to say, every morning I would
“WhatsApp” him and bombard him with questions, some of which he would ask the
doctors - the doctors being fortunate not to have their visits coincide with
mine!
The drug allergy is a mixed blessing. While
he does not have to live with an IV for six weeks while antibiotics are pumped
into him 24 hours a day, he still has to take six weeks’ worth of antibiotics
at timed intervals even if it means waking up to take them.
After this, he will be quite healthy and
bacteria-free. And he is going to be a teetotal purveyor of wines until the
doctors give him the green light to resume imbibing wine!
What I have learnt from this is to suffer
any headaches and fever combination until such time as the doctors have been
able to take blood samples and culture them for bacteria.
This would enable them to target the type
of bacterium and administer the appropriate antibiotic.
Otherwise they would have to throw the
kitchen sink at the infection which could be caused by any or a combination of
the usual suspects -including streptococcus and staphylococcus (real nasties).
