This morning I received a notification regarding a comment from a reader in Specialoid: When Patients Become Specialist. It has since been deleted by the author (NOT me). I assume the reader's Google account was hijacked thus posting a slightly provocative comment (...membuatkan diri ku ini terasa T_T).

Sometimes alternative medicine do work. Sometimes doctors suck. Lain la kalau specialist, leh caya gak. I always doubt doctor's diagnosis anyway.

Gulp, it was a bit hard to swallow! After a while I said to myself

Good riddance, one less patient to see!

But then again, I am a doctor. I am supposed to treat without prejudice! Even if others step on my head or spit on me, I will have to uphold my profession! This is exactly why there are so many doctors resign to look for greener pastures. Sigh....

I am sure most of my readers have encountered the full version of this letter. I am unable to verify the authenticity of this letter, thus I crossed out all the names involved. This letter should have been confidential in the first place. It is a good effort by the husband to uphold his rights as a husband. Although the words used may be a bit harsh with the emphasis on HALANGAN.

This post is a response to a comment by one of the readers in "In The News"

"Whether you guys (doctors) like it or not, you are public servants. So stop picking on the patient and continue to do your work....."

I am sure most of my fellow readers have seen this video. It was on Facebook yesterday. It's in Free Malaysia Today's portal yesterday. Despite trying to prove that they are smart by wanting to sue staff if anything happens, it clearly shows how idiotic ignorant these people are. These are the day to day things that medical staff have to encounter despite trying SAVE LIVES.

Dear Mr E, please don't compare your case of fever for one day with a disaster of 40 casualties in a bus. Do you expect the hospital director to initiate the disaster protocol for cases such as URTI, Soft tissue injury etc.? You should be very glad that you are not being seen IMMEDIATELY. That means you are being triaged as a GREEN case and is stable. RED means you are in serious trouble. Would you really want to be poked with at least TWO large bore branulas, a central line and a urinary catheter?!

I encountered this scenario while at work yesterday.
A young lady entered the consultation room. Wearing makeup, perfume and dressed to kill!

Me:     Apa masalah harini Dik?
A:        Saya nak MC harini
Me:        Apa?!
A:        Oops. Saya ingat doktor tanya apa tadi. 
Me:        Pastu? Awak ingat saya tanya apa?!
A:        Saya ada selesema, hidung sumbat sampai tak leh tidor bla,bla,bla….susah nak bangun                      tidur.bla,bla.

You don’t have to be a doctor with years of experience to know that she is trying to ‘kencing’ (local slang for a 'bluff') me.
Would any sane person give an MC for runny nose? The last time I checked, I didn’t have an ‘S’ on my forehead…not Superman but stupid. It didn’t help that it was 11 am and there were many other patients. Worse, my perut tengah meragam and had to visit the loo more than 4 times.


Would YOU, my dear readers, have granted MC for this girl?
This is a straight ‘face palm-super-fail’.

Specialist:  "frequently refers to an expert in a profession"
-oid:          "of similar form to, but not the same"

When the two words combine, SPECIALOID is formed. In my profession, a specialoid is a

patient who thinks that he or she is a specialist and all other medical staff should bow to his or her every need and wishes

Of course this is a rubbish definition I coined myself. But some how, Malaysia is churning more and more of these specialoid instead of specialist! It is reasonable for patients to engage in proper discussions regarding the management of their illness. I love patients who can recall their medications and exact dosages. I appreciate when patients and their relatives try to understand their illnesses. It helps in the management a lot.

Specialoids are unlike these good patients. I encountered one such patient today. Consider this scenario:

Middle aged gentleman with cough and runny nose for ONE day only. No fever, no shortness of breath. Vital signs was stable, no fever. Examinations were unremarkable. Lungs clear, throat not injected. 

Today, I will don a new outfit. Off goes the white coat and stethoscope and I have a pan in my hand. Instead of MOfrust, today its CHEFfrust.

What do you do when you are hungry at lunch and you are left with a car that is half filled with petrol (or half full), its raining outside and you have to get to work at 1.30 p..m. I posted yesterday about the need to reduce spending. I am now walking the blog!

What do you need? Anything that can be found at home. I found some chicken breast in the freezer, some spices in the spice jar, some pita bread, carrot,2 tomatoes and a capsicum. Equipped with a contraption called Periuk Ajaib (I really needed miracles to make sure it tastes good), I started cooking.

I went to my local AEON Mall today to get some medications from the pharmacy. I was quite surprised by the way things are. It's abnormally....NORMAL for a Friday evening. On Tuesday, the price for RON 95 and diesel was raised by 20 cents. Facebook was inundated with comments and posts full of anger and frustration. Fortunately, I managed to fill up my tank at 6 p.m. Way before the mad rush for petrol at fuel pumps. The dark force was really strong that day. Supporters of BN supported the move while supporters of the Opposition had a whole lot of "bullets" to use against the government.

There is a never ending debate on which system is the best. Before I discuss any further, let's go through some terms and definition:

On Call:
Despite "on" & "call" combined to make a word, it does not mean "turning on your phone and wait for calls from the hospital from the comfort of your home". It is common for people to get confused. Some fresh housemen seem to assume this is the actual definition.
On call-ers will be in the hospital through out the day, even after office hours. They are part of the team that keeps the hospital running at night. Usually there is a small room for doctors to rest at night. If you are lucky, HOs can get some amount of sleep. The job scope of HOs at night (at least back in those days) is take blood, attend to sick patients before help arrives, insert branula, clerk new patients and perform procedures. Usually its one HO per ward but it is the norm to have 1 HO covering the whole wing (5 floors of male medical ward)....back in those days.

Pre Call:
Pre call is the day before the on call day. On this day you get the sinking feeling of uneasiness. Simply said "malas". On this day, you try to get everything at home done. Munch on anything you can get & pack on the calories. Its the day you prepare for war!

Just stuff everything in!

I guess I have to postpone my intention to get myself a proper Bane mask for USD 99 on ebay. The price of petrol has gone up by 20 cents to RM 2.10. Soon, everything else will get more expensive. I can't afford any luxuries such as a decent Bane mask. I'll just have to make do with my crappy do-it-yourself mask. Maybe I'll become MO Frust Menonggeng.

I'm sure everyone else in the social network and media has TONNES to complain about. I'll view it from a different approach; what's coming!