To the hospital – twice in 2 days…

As I was sitting at my work table on Wednesday, a call came in on my hand phone with the Mission Impossible ring-tone. That ring-tone indicated that the call came from one of my PLHIV clients. I tend to get a bit worried whenever I hear that ring-tone. More often that not, it would mean one of my clients was in some kind of trouble and needed help.

This time the call was from Sofie, and it wasn’t really too much of a problem. Apparently she had registered for a programme which helps the poor, and an officer from the said programme called her up to ask for details and what kind of help she was seeking. Sofie, being the type who prefers to be independent but still unable to, asked if they could help out with whatever equipments needed for her to set up a stall selling kuih near her house. The officer then said they’d be coming to visit one of these days and told her to get whatever supporting documents including a supporting letter from the doctor.

And since yesterday was a public holiday in Perak, Sofie called me and asked if I could arrange to get the letter from the doctor. I told Sofie she should call the clinic herself, and speak to the staff nurse, explaining why she needed the letter. Knowing SN, she’d usually want the patients themselves to call her personally if they needed anything from the clinic. I told Soife that I’d also follow up with SN, and I don’t mind getting the letter and send it to Sofie when the letter is ready.

Later the same day, Wani called me up. Wani is the one who works for a friend during Ramadhan every year, making a few types of cookies, to be sold for Raya. For the past 2 years, Wani had sought my help to get orders for her. I had given her the orders last week, and since she was coming for her appointment on Thursday, she said she’d bring along the cookies with her to the hospital.

So yep, although I wasn’t on clinic duty yesterday, I still went to the hospital. The day before being a public holiday, yesterday there were sooooo many people! I had to go 4 rounds just to get a parking space quite a distance from the hospital.

When I got to the doctor’s room and asked the nurses if Wani had come, together they said, “Ha, ni mesti nak ambik kuih raya ni!” Ah, they too had ordered some cookies from Wani…

SN also mentioned about Sofie wanting a letter from the doctor, which meant Sofie had already called her. The other nurse said, “Dia nak surat mintak doktor kata dia tak boleh buat kerja berat. Nak surat buat apa? Tengok rupa dia pun tau dah!” Oh well, the officer who called her had not seen her yet. But since the officer had already asked for the letter, might as well get the letter ready before they come visiting.

As I was talking to the nurses, Wani came to the room and then we went to get the cookies which were kept in another room, courtesy of the nurse. With my car parked quite a distance, I was supposed to carry all these?

Wani offered to carry the box to my car, but instead I told her to wait near the staircase downstairs with the box while I went to get my car. It was much easier that way. Nobody would have to carry the box that far. The moment I got there with my car, Wani was ready to put the box into the car.

This morning, as I was getting ready to go out and deliver the cookies to my former office-mates who ordered them, a text message came in from SN, telling me that the letter for Sofie was ready.

So yes, after delivering some of the cookies to my former office-mates, off to the hospital again for the 2nd time in 2 days, despite not being on clinic duty on either day. I guess the hospital has become some sort of office for me. Thankfully, today, finding a parking wasn’t too bad. All I wanted to take was just the letter… in just about a minute or so, I was out of there. It took me longer to walk from the car to the clinic.

I immediately informed Sofie that the letter was already with me and that I plan to visit her family next week to deliver some groceries and so I’d pass her the letter then.

Meanwhile, tomorrow I plan to visit Zainab. She has moved to another house (the former landlord wanted the old house back for her own family’s use) and had given me the new address. Tomorrow my friend Mrs G (for GPS) will have to show me the way to Zainab’s new place…