Follow up visit…

By the time I sent Sofie back home after being discharged from the hospital yesterday, it was already 7.30 pm, so I didn’t stay long. I needed to rush for my Maghrib prayer so after leaving all her medication, I left.

Actually when I went to the pharmacy to get Sofie’s medication, I only managed to get 6 out of the 7 listed in the slip. I was told I’d need to come back again today to get the other one. But even the 6 was already A LOT!

“Yang ni makan sebiji sekali, dua kali sehari lepas makan. Yang ni sekali sehari. Yang ni satu pagi satu malam. Yang ni satu pagi 2 malam. Yang ni 4 kali sehari, tiap-tiap 6 jam kena makan.”

Aiyo… kenyang makan ubat lah like this…

Anyway, yesterday the letter handed to me for Sofie’s next appointment did not indicate the date of the appointment at the ID clinic as by the time Sofie was discharged, it was already after 5 pm. The clinic was closed so they couldn’t call to confirm the date. The nurse at the counter told me she’d call and inform me of the date later. When I said I go to the ID clinic quite often, she said then maybe it would be easier for me to call them direct to get the date.

This morning I decided to settle whatever outstanding matters. After first going to my old office to sign some documents, I headed straight to the hospital. My plan was to go to the ID clinic first to see SN or her assistant, and then down to the pharmacy to get the other medication Sofie was supposed to get.

When I got to the room, SN was going through all the files. She needed to prepare a report of some sort to be submitted to KL. As always, whenever she sees me coming not on a clinic day, she’d invite me to sit down and we’d have a chat, discussing about the various clients – who have not been coming for appointments… who have not been compliant with their HAART…

We share whatever info we have on the clients to enable us to do a better job. If the clients missing their appointments are mine, then I’d try to contact the client to find out why they have missed their appointments. If there are clients whom I’ve not been able to contact, then I’d ask SN if they are still going for their appointments. If they are, then I’d get the date of their next appointment so I can meet the clients when they come to the clinic.

After spending about 40 minutes at the ID clinic and after noting down the date of Sofie’s appointment next week, I told SN I’d need to go down to the pharmacy to get one more medication for Sofie. When SN saw the slip, she said she had some in her cabinet, so yes, I didn’t have to go down to the pharmacy. Yayy!

So this afternoon I went over to Sofie’s house again. I didn’t call to tell them before hand I was coming but I figured Sofie was too weak to go anywhere anyway.

Only Sofie and Ika were in. It’s school holidays for all 4 kids but the 3 brothers weren’t home. Azlan, the eldest, had gone to make some money by working part time during holidays with a contractor to build a house. Azman and Saiful were at a supermarket to buy some things. Saiful got some amount of money during his stay at the hospital with his mother. He got himself quite a number of abang angkat and kakak angkat who took pity on him having to wait for his mother at the hospital for more than 2 weeks, and they all gave him some amount of money. Being the friendly and talkative type (and small-sized to add, so an added “cute” factor), one of the kakak angkat even told him that even if anyone kidnaps him, they’d probably let him go because he tends to ask so many questions… :)

Anyway, Sofie was lying on her mattress in her bedroom. I went straight in as I didn’t want her to get up. Ika got worried when she saw me walk straight into the room. “Alamak, bilik sepah,” she said. I wasn’t bothered at all though, and Sofie was too weak to get up to be bothered by the condition of her room.

Sofie still looked very weak. Apparently earlier in the morning, she needed to go to the toilet but didn’t want to wake her children, so she got up on her own and ended up falling in the kitchen. The kids then woke up after they heard her shouting in pain. Looking at her condition today, I told her not to take the bus when she goes for her appointment next week. I promised to fetch her at home and bring her to the hospital.

Sofie also told me that they may move to another house soon. During Sofie’s 2 weeks stay in the hospital, her sister had been looking around for another house to rent. What they couldn’t stand was the ridiculous water bills they had been forced to pay by the landlord. You see, at present they’re renting a unit from a row of houses belonging to the same landlord. Each unit comes with individual electricity meters, so each pay for their own electricity bill. However, all the row of houses share the same water meter and so the water bill is divided amongst the tenants. Each month the landlord would just issue them some sort of a bill indicating their fixed rental amount and the amount they’d need to pay for water usage. And for the latest bill, they were told to pay RM100 for water.

It is not surprising that the water bill is high because at the moment the landlord is still building more units of houses to be rented out. But to charge out the bill equally amongst the tenants is totally unfair as the usage has been mainly to build the new units – not by the tenants!

According to Sofie, her sister has found a suitable house nearer to Ipoh, with an extra room but at the same rental rate with the present house. In addition, it is nearer to the bus stop and a pasar malam. In terms of facilities, it is definitely better. And more importantly, whatever utility bills they have to pay will be whatever they themselves use.

Sofie’s sister had just been waiting for Sofie to get better to show her the house. They may move to the new place after CNY.

I told Sofie to inform me if and when they move to the new house, especially if they intend to move before her appointment next week.