Busy day at the clinic

Originally I wasn't supposed to be on clinic duty today. Based on the duty roster prepared by our HIV clinic coordinator, my team is supposed to be on duty in 2 weeks time. However, since the team who's supposed to be on duty today had other matters to attend to, they asked to swap. The other 2 in my team are trainees, and so they left the decision to me.

And so yes, I was at the HIV clinic today - and it was quite a busy day too. I'm glad we swapped duties with the other team. You see, I got to meet quite a number of my clients today including one whom I have not met for quite some time.

I got to the hospital rather early. After leaving my file in the counseling/support room, I walked over to the doctor's room to inform SN that I was already there. That was when I saw a familiar looking lady - it was Nuri! I haven't met her for more than 2 years! Yes, we did speak to each other on the phone, but Nuri being the type who's not too keen on meeting up with other people, never wanted to join in any of our activities and neither did she want to call me whenever she's in Ipoh for her appointments. She's the "tak nak menyusahkan orang" type who felt that she'd only trouble me if she called me.

I noticed Nuri had lost some weight, and so I said, "Dah kurus!" To which she replied, "Akak pulak nampak dah berisi!" Aisehman... she's not the first person to say that to me this year...

While waiting at the counseling room for the other 2 volunteers to come, SN came over with a young Chinese guy. At first I thought she brought over a new patient, but instead of coming into the room, she called me out. Apparently the guy is a student at a private college here in Ipoh who went to see SN to ask if she could help them with an HIV/AIDS exhibition and a talk on the same topic some time mid July. Not that SN did not want to help, but noticing that the event is only 2 weeks away, and knowing that if the guy wanted to seek help from the hospital there'd be various departments for him to go through, SN recommended to him to seek help from Buddies instead. Coincidentally I was on duty, and so SN just introduced him to me.

So yes, I told the guy to just fax an official letter for our records and I'd take it from there. I assured him I'd help to get the exhibition materials and arrange for the speaker.

Actually this is the college where Sharifah used to study. The same place where Sharifah faced discrimination the moment her friends knew she had HIV. Ever since that incident I had always wanted to try to arrange for HIV/AIDS awareness talks at the college. So when this guy came to me instead, it was pucuk dicita ulam mendatang. I jumped at the opportunity straight away. If I couldn't arrange for any other speakers, I'd do the talk myself.

But I did manage to find another speaker to give the talk, so I think I'll mingle with the students at the exhibition instead.

Anyway, the first case referred to us today was Ah Mei, a lady in her 30's. My other colleagues had not arrived yet when she was brought in to see me, and I noticed she didn't feel too comfortable speaking in Malay. English worst still. Thank goodness, soon my Chinese colleague came in, so I asked her to continue while I copied down whatever necessary details from the lady's medical file.

After the lady left the room, Murni came in with her 1+ year old daughter - not to see us, but to see the pharmacists who share the same room with us. Her cute little girl was rather playful, not afraid of people, and so I had a good time playing with her while her mother talked to the pharmacists.

Just then SN came in with Geetha, a young lady and her 2 kids - 1 year & 2 years old. She had been frequenting the HIV clinic for quite some time (ever since she was pregnant with her 2nd child) but only now referred to us because she's having some marriage problems. Her husband, who is confirmed HIV positive but still denies it, has been having an affair with another woman of late. (Oh great, now he's gonna pass the HIV to another woman!!) He used to give his wife about RM2,000 a month for household expenses, now he gives only RM200. The rest of the money Geetha claimed went to this other woman. Geetha herself doesn't work, so she had to depend on her husband for household expenses.

We couldn't talk too long with Geetha as her younger son was already crying - he was sleepy and hungry. But his milk and other stuff were in the car. The car? Ah yes, the husband did come along to bring them to the hospital, but simply refused to go up to the HIV clinic. Whaaat lah! I promised Geetha I'd get one of our volunteers to call her soon.

Then Asiah came into the room to see the pharmacists. Yes, Asiah... remember I mentioned in my earlier posting the one who just recently found out she was pregnant? The one who asked ME how come she got pregnant? How on earth was I supposed to know what she did with her husband?!! Well, Asiah had already started on her ARV medication earlier, but now that she's pregnant, the doctors had to change the combination of ARV drugs for her.

After Asiah left, SN referred one last case to us. At first I thought we had a third woman referred to us for the day. Oh well, at least this person was dressed as a woman. It was only when I heard the deep husky voice did I take a look at the file and saw the IC number ending with an odd number instead of the usual even number for females. As far as I can recall, I don't think we've had any transexuals amongst our clients. We have gays, but not TS. Well, this one agreed to be assigned a buddy but asked for a female buddy as females are better for him/her (sorry, I'm not sure what gantinama to use) to talk to.

Yes, all 3 cases referred to us today agreed to be assigned buddies.

Before we left, SN passed to me the letters needed for Sharifah to do her blood tests before her next appointment in Ipoh in early August. The blood test is usually done 2 weeks before appointment with the doctor. Cek Mek's MyKid is supposed to be ready this month, so we figured might as well get Sharifah to go to JPN to get her little girl's MyKid on the same day.

I do hope Cek Mek will come along. Ni kes Opah rindu kat cucu!!! (Oh don't worry folks, I'll get over it...)