A tempang day at the clinic…

I just realised it has been more than a week since I last updated my blog. Sorry about that. Ever since I injured my right knee during the run, I was sort of grounded. (sort of lah… you don’t really expect me to just sit down and do nothing kan?)

I reduced my voluntary work activities to wait until the knee heals. So I have not been visiting my clients, neither was I on clinic duty, so there wasn’t really much for me to blog about.

Well, right now my right knee is not fully healed yet. I still walk with a slight limp, but the pain is much more bearable. And since I was on clinic duty today, I guess I might as well get back to voluntary work mode.

So off I went to the hospital today, hoping to get a parking space near enough. Well, I didn’t get the nearest parking space, but it was still within bearable walking distance. But it was after all, the hospital that I went to, so I wasn’t the only one walking with a limp. Ramai gang!! :)

First thing as usual was, to go to the doctor’s room to inform the nurses that I was already there. ”Ni kenapa jalan tempang ni? Semalam engko menari disko ke apa?” Yeah sure…

Shila was in the room when I got there. Yes, the client who had been defaulting her appointments and stopped taking her ARV altogether. She finally had to go for her appointments again after being hospitalised recently. And being HIV+, her case was definitely referred to the ID clinic, and so, like it or not, she just had to see those same faces again…

Anyway, SN told me there were no new cases yet. I just told them I’d wait at the counselling room. I figured it would take some time before any case was referred, so I took out my netbook, but before I could even manage to switch it on, one guy came to me to ask if he could talk to me. He wasn’t referred to me by the nurses, in fact he was only at the hospital for his blood tests. I guess he had heard of us before, but never referred to us.

Yazid, 52, still single, and stays with his elderly mom. When asked if his family knows of his HIV status, he said they all do, but he wasn’t sure if they understood. He is already depressed with the fact that he is HIV+, yet his siblings left the responsibility of taking care of their overly-sensitive mom to him. He has 9 other siblings, and sometimes instead of offering to take care of their mom, they send their kids there when they need to go away for a few days. When the kids get naughty, Yazid would scold them, and when he does that, his mother becomes sensitive and thinks that Yazid was actually scolding her.

So Yazid feels all stressed out. Well, at least that’s Yazid’s side of the story. As usual, during first meets, I’d just listen and only offer my advise when asked. Yazid was asking if there was a home for PLHIVs where he can learn more about Islam since his religious knowledge is not that good. So I gave him the number of an Ustaz running a home in KL. I told him to call the ustaz and then decide whether or not he really wants to stay at such a home.

After Yazid left, a call came in on my handphone. A lady from PKI called to inform me that a PLHIV staying in Ipoh needs help and asked if I could do something about it since it was an Ipoh case anyway.

As I was talking to the PKI lady, I saw Mr K opening the door, saw me, and then I saw him turning and telling someone, “Ada.” Then I saw Mrs K opening the door for her little girl, telling her, “Tu ha makcik!” Next thing I knew, 4 year old Baby K came walking to me, salam, and then gave me a peck on my cheeks. Then off she went. Awwww…. my injured knee felt like jelly for a moment! Thank you little girl, you made my day!

The next person who came in specifically looking for me was Farah, the abused wife. She just wanted to talk. Her husband had not beaten her up since the last time we met, so she looked quite alright. He still does scold her quite a lot, but at least the scolding didn’t get physical. Farah still wants to go back to her hometown when she can, and I gave her the same advise I gave her before. I told her that without her passport, the best people to help her out would be those at the embassy. It is now up to her to decide when and how she wants to make a move.

As we were talking, SN came in and told Farah to wait outside the doctor’s room as her turn was coming soon.

SN then told me about Devi, another client who had just been discharged from Hospital Bahagia and is now staying on her own. SN’s main concern was that Devi needs to start on her ARV again, but staying alone, SN doubts Devi would be compliant.

Devi already has a buddy, so I guess I will just have to inform the buddy of Devi’s latest status. Let the buddy take over from there. I have enough clients of my own to think about.

By 12 noon, there were still no new cases referred to me, so I went over to the doctor’s room to check if there were any cases to be referred. There were none. “Kalau takde, si tempang nak balik dulu,” I said. The nurse’s immediate response was, “Ala jangan la cakap macam tu… sedih saya!”

Hopefully I won’t be as tempang in my next clinic duty…