More of this and that...

When Sofie called me on Wednesday, she sought my favour to get a referral letter she had asked from SN. SN was too busy to prepare the letter there and then. By 5 pm, SN sent me a text message telling me the letter was ready.

So, yesterday afternoon I went to see SN to get the letter. And as usual, whenever I get to see SN, we'd usually talk about other patients as well.

There was one particular case SN wanted to refer to me - of a Thai lady married to a Malay man. The lady found out about her HIV infection recently when she was hospitalised for TB. This lady actually stays with her husband's family, and the moment they found out that she was diagnosed HIV positive, ALL of them including her father-in-law went for blood tests to find out if they were infected as well! Apa ke hal???

However, the family was understanding enough not to shun her or anything like that - probably because they figured it was her husband's doing. The husband it seems is an active IVDU - but claims that his blood tests showed negative results. The lady claimed her husband went to do the tests privately. SN said she wouldn't believe it until she sees for herself the test results. The husband never came along during the lady's hospital appointment, so it is hard to tell. I don't believe him either. Chances are the whole family except the lady's husband went for the blood test.

I took down the lady's details. She stays in the same town as Sofie, so I thought when I go to visit Sofie this week, I'd visit her as well. But she doesn't have any phone, neither does any of the family members. I cannot simply visit her without even talking to her yet. Like it or not, I'd have to wait until her next appointment at the hospital which is in 2 weeks time - the same day as Sharifah's appointment.

--------------------------------------------------------

This morning I received a text message from Shila.

"Kak, saya nak tanya boleh tak?"

Sigh, why lah these people like to waste their money sending unnecessary text messages? She could have just asked me straight away and whether I'm able to answer or not is a different matter lah!

Anyway, her question was...

"Boleh ke saya sambung makan ubat kalau saya dah lama tak makan ubat?"

I had to reread the second message - I had told her time and again not to make her own decision to stop taking her medication for whatever reason. I told her before more than once that she should call SN if there is any problem regarding her medication.

Naturally I didn't answer her question straight away, instead I asked her why she had not been taking her medication. Apparently she was unwell, down with asthma and all, was coughing and had sore throat, and when she eats anything, she'd cough and blurts out whatever she consumes. So she decided not to take her ARV medication temporarily. Hish! This woman! This was not the first time she did this. Dah naik berbuih mulut ni (tak lah sampai sawan pulak) telling her not to pandai-pandai sendiri stop her ARV medication for whatever reason. She has SN's number - just call lah!

I told her while she should continue taking her medication, since she had not been compliant, there is always the possibility that the drugs may no longer have any effect in compressing the virus, and as such, depending on the result of her next blood test, she may need to change to a new regime of ARV drugs. And if that happens, she will no longer get them free. She will have to pay, and the cost will come to hundreds.

Shila replied, still giving me excuses...

"Bukan saya tak nak makan ubat tapi bila makan ubat mesti tersedak habis ubat semua keluar. Macam mana lagi nak buat?"

I told her that while I understood her situation, she still should have called SN first to seek her advise; not decide on her own to stop taking the medication.

Guess what? Shila still had another excuse for not calling SN...

"Saya batuk kuat sangat kak, sampai suara pun dah nak hilang. Macam mana saya nak cakap dengan dia?"

I finally replied with just one short sentence...

"Keluarga pun tak leh cakap juga ke?"

Finally she ran out of excuse.

Shila... Shila... she wanted to avoid talking to SN because she was afraid she may get scolded by SN. In the end she got a few doses of SLS (short leter service) from me instead.

Tak pasal je kena leter pagi-pagi Jumaat...