Casualty Ward, Medical Trust Hospital, Ernakulum, Kochi, Monday 4 March.
U-Turn attitude towards use of antibiotics.
Junior doctor who seemed to be conducting all that was going on in Casualty was a tall, chubby faced fellow. I didn't even have to wait to see him.
He asked me a few questions, and in between a whole host of medics, nurses, trainee doctors coming up to his desk, where I was sat on a stool, he eventually got me to stand and examined my lungs with the old stethoscope.
Diagnosis: Lower Respiratory Tract Infection, Secondary to Viral Infection. Basically, I've got acute bronchitis. Never in my life have I had bronchitis. Why now? In India of all places?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lower_respiratory_tract_infection
I asked him to write all this down, as I'd never remember. I was feeling pretty spaced out. Again, almost at the end of my tether. But trying not to be so defeatist. [Boy, I haven't even told you about the hotel: rat on 3rd floor, cockroaches galore in Room 230. Mr Spud U Like, I can't believe I ended up staying in your terrible Chinese dentist joke: Tooth-hurtie.]
No wonder I'd been feeling so terrible. I'd been to see the Ayurvedic doctor 2 days beforehand, and thought it odd that my cough was getting worse. Also, I have this pain just under my left boob - particularly noticeable when I hack like a 75 year old rickshaw driver on beedies. To be honest, I haven't seen many rickshaw (auto, pronounced like the German: Ow-toe) drivers who smoke at all.
Doc: Ayurvedic medicine is prophylactic. It's preventive.
(Doh, I thought it was a bit like homeopathy, or like Chinese medicine. Oh, what the hell do I know?)
Me: I don't like taking antibiotics, doctor. I dislike them intensely. I'm sure I've taken too many of them in the past. Can't I avoid them?
Chubby face doc looks straight ahead, as I sit perpendicular to him: Well, of course it is entirely up to the patient what they ...
Me: What would happen if I don't take them?
Still looking straight ahead of him (who knows, maybe he was keeping his eyes on a young boy who was lying down in that direction and crying a lot, now that I'm thinking back? He probably had his eye on a few different cases while talking to me.) You'll get pneumonia, he says with a very satisfied, happy demeanour. Dropping his shoulders in time with the pronouncement of the prognosis, elbows out then down with glee.
Me: How can you sit there and look so happy about about such an prognosis, docotr?
Doc: It's because I like to my patients to be as well-informed as possible!
Me: i Ok, doctor. I'll take the antibiotics. Thank you.
Eventually, tears started to roll down my face. Yes, it is a bit of a bummer that I have acute bronchitis - and I have been ill the whole time I've been in India. But I'm crying because I so dislike antibiotics. I just hope that this doctor has chosen the correct ones. Viral infections are pesky little things that jump around and mutate, I think ...
Doc: Calm yourself [tapping me gently on the shoulder as he gets up to see to another casualty on his ward}.
I'm thinking, a.
U-Turn attitude towards use of antibiotics.
Junior doctor who seemed to be conducting all that was going on in Casualty was a tall, chubby faced fellow. I didn't even have to wait to see him.
He asked me a few questions, and in between a whole host of medics, nurses, trainee doctors coming up to his desk, where I was sat on a stool, he eventually got me to stand and examined my lungs with the old stethoscope.
Diagnosis: Lower Respiratory Tract Infection, Secondary to Viral Infection. Basically, I've got acute bronchitis. Never in my life have I had bronchitis. Why now? In India of all places?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lower_respiratory_tract_infection
I asked him to write all this down, as I'd never remember. I was feeling pretty spaced out. Again, almost at the end of my tether. But trying not to be so defeatist. [Boy, I haven't even told you about the hotel: rat on 3rd floor, cockroaches galore in Room 230. Mr Spud U Like, I can't believe I ended up staying in your terrible Chinese dentist joke: Tooth-hurtie.]
No wonder I'd been feeling so terrible. I'd been to see the Ayurvedic doctor 2 days beforehand, and thought it odd that my cough was getting worse. Also, I have this pain just under my left boob - particularly noticeable when I hack like a 75 year old rickshaw driver on beedies. To be honest, I haven't seen many rickshaw (auto, pronounced like the German: Ow-toe) drivers who smoke at all.
Doc: Ayurvedic medicine is prophylactic. It's preventive.
(Doh, I thought it was a bit like homeopathy, or like Chinese medicine. Oh, what the hell do I know?)
Me: I don't like taking antibiotics, doctor. I dislike them intensely. I'm sure I've taken too many of them in the past. Can't I avoid them?
Chubby face doc looks straight ahead, as I sit perpendicular to him: Well, of course it is entirely up to the patient what they ...
Me: What would happen if I don't take them?
Still looking straight ahead of him (who knows, maybe he was keeping his eyes on a young boy who was lying down in that direction and crying a lot, now that I'm thinking back? He probably had his eye on a few different cases while talking to me.) You'll get pneumonia, he says with a very satisfied, happy demeanour. Dropping his shoulders in time with the pronouncement of the prognosis, elbows out then down with glee.
Me: How can you sit there and look so happy about about such an prognosis, docotr?
Doc: It's because I like to my patients to be as well-informed as possible!
Me: i Ok, doctor. I'll take the antibiotics. Thank you.
Eventually, tears started to roll down my face. Yes, it is a bit of a bummer that I have acute bronchitis - and I have been ill the whole time I've been in India. But I'm crying because I so dislike antibiotics. I just hope that this doctor has chosen the correct ones. Viral infections are pesky little things that jump around and mutate, I think ...
Doc: Calm yourself [tapping me gently on the shoulder as he gets up to see to another casualty on his ward}.
I'm thinking, a.
No comments:
Post a Comment