urn run - the first leg

 

My anxiety had growth over the waiting period; my shifts were packed as usual as I need to do 20 shifts in 25 days before I hit the airport. I later found out that the window I had planned was within the  school holidays and it also collided with Hari Raya Haji. No wander the flight ticket was expensive and hard to book.

After reminder from my dad about the holiday matter 3 weeks before the journey. I had to discard my plan of doing a last minute hotel booking. The best choice was hotel around the Mid Valley Mega Mall. The drive should be 20 mins or less; I had wanted to get something nearer preferably breakfast not included but yet it was not a good area for some food apparently. I had to settle with the Cititel Hotel which came with breakfast. 

During the scarce off day Ving and I had gone to IKEA and bought a basket made with rotan. It would be my container to hold the urn during the drive. I had done some math and estimated that the basket could hold the urn properly and could be secured with the safety belt on the back seat without any difficulty.

I had packed a simple luggage and booked the connecting flight from JB to KL 2 weeks before the journey.

Ving, dragon cat and I left home at 10am. It was a smooth drive and we reached the airport by 11am. I kissed Ving good bye and headed to the double A counter. The queue was long even with the frequent flyer lane.

I managed to check in my luggage after 40 min of lining up at the counter. The security and immigration check was fast though. In no time, I was patronizing the free duty shop and trying to get a cask strength whiskey for my brother.

My brother was lucky as I had managed to land my hand on a Omar Shirley Cask Strength produced by Nantou Distillery which he had sourcing for sometimes.

The boarding was smooth and I had fallen into dreamland as usual before the flight take off.

The Pak Nasir nasi lemak was tasty as usual; it had been 4 years since I had it. Not surprisingly, the ‘not enuf’ sensation had emerged when I swallowed the last piece of it.

Peace was with me as I closed my eyes and flashing back of what had happened since the CNY trip…Everything was in order and yet I had prepared for the worst as anything could go wrong especially when one is dealing with the dark side…..

The flight had landed uneventfully and I was greeted by my brother at the exit. 

We had had dinner at the Nine dragon ice shop where we had noodle and red bean ice campur(HK style of course). Nice meal but expensive though(no the price only, but later both of us had suffered from diarrhea the next day).

We had arrived late at the hotel  and enjoyed a sip from the whiskey which I purchased few hours earlier....

Misuse

 

I had this medical certificate request placed on my desk 2 weeks ago. I reviewed the medical chart grumbled a little while I figured how to write down the diagnosis.

There medical certificate here is something different than the Bolehland. During my service with the MOH, medical certificate a.k.a MC served as a permission for sick leave. It was very crucial for those people especially the laborer group. There were tons of reasons asking for one. It could allow them to take a day off either for rest or run some errant. The issuance of such MC had truly test the wisdom of the relevant MOs.

The medical certificate however was something more like a medical summary with a column for diagnosis and another column for comment. I had always been cautious to write down the diagnosis as it is an official document with possibility of landing into a medico-legal swamp.

The case of a bed-ridden patient who was brought into ED by ambulance for generalized weakness. I attended the patient 10 mins before the end of my shift. I reviewed the chart and found that the patient was seen in our ED the day before for head injury due to fall cause by weakness and poor intake.

The patient was alert on arrival with no sign of cerebral injury. I did not repeat the CT scan but order some blood test before I passed it to my colleague.

The patient was later discharged after 10+ hours of retaining in ED by the day shift physician. A diagnosis of R53.1 (Weakness ) was placed as diagnosis by the physician who discharged him.

The blood test came back normal and the reason of weakness was poor intake….

I was reluctant to issue the MC upon request but had to do so as my named was put under the attending physician column.

Few days later as young lady came and asked for my explanation about the diagnosis and content of the certificate. She identified herself as the daughter of the patient. Judging from her outlook, she appeared to live in urban area.

She had queried about the decision of discharging the patient. The conversation was not a comfortable one as she had a misconception regarding patient discharge. From her point of view which was based on common sense -> all patients discharge should be able to walk out from the hospital without aid. She had questioned our decision of letting a bed-ridden patient to leave the hospital.

She had expected a very detailed medical summary on the MC and asked us why we didn’t write any plan nor detailed instruction of discharge. She had barked on me claiming that she as scolded by my colleague who had discharged her father on that day.

I had asked around later and found out that an unpleasant conversation had occurred between the lady and my colleague. The daughter had requested an admission and was turned down; the reason of admission was that she was busy and she had wanted the hospital to act as an interim care node for temporary settlement. She was offended by the conversation and later she had come to us requesting medical certificate. After obtaining the certificate, she had utilized the diagnosis and the simple notation on the paper to query our decision; stupid but effective one.

The beat up and no retaliate strategy had worked out though and the daughter was in no ground to proceed as I had avoided the provocation by the relative.

The feeling was a strange one, I felt like a ghost being hit by a truck; no scratch over the body. However part of my soul was engulfed by something which I cannot describe.

It was difference from emptiness resulting from a successful striking back. Frankly said, I don’t like both of the feeling; but I need to make a choice…