HSB

Today is our routine visiting schedule to the district hospital. It was my turn to do the service. The journey took near an hour drive with many turns and twists heading to this one of the southern parts of the state.

Yet another boring day of consultation. Boring in the sense that, it was another day of being a "dispenser" for me. The "doctors" were, non other than these chronic unappreciative eczematous Penangites, who only knew how to tell what medicine for me to dispense.

I partly blamed what my predecessors had done, for trying to behave as some generous welfare doc (or dogs?). So, it seemed that my only job today was to continue passing out "goodies" to all these hungry and greedy ghosts.

I had this irritating lady who kept insisting that I gave her vitamin C and B-complex, because that were what the previous doctor used to give her. When I looked through the whole pile of case notes, there was not a single word of vitamin "B" or "C" written on it. So, was this lady trying to bullshit me or was it the previous generous doctor too demented to note it down after giving out this miraculous drugs?

But the last patient actually saved the day. This was the mother of the last patient who appeared totally unconcerned about her appearance other than her child's minor itch in the leg. She had her face full of acne; comedones, infammed papules and some pustules.

Curiously, I asked how long has she suffered from such lesions, just to generate some response. Unsurprisingly then, she started to relate to me about her life-long enduring with this very common, aesthetically debilitating but potentially curable disease. It was sad to note how concern of her about her acne but she had very limited knowledge about the various availability of treatments.

So then, started my long and meaningful consultation, in trying to educate her and at last managed to convince her to start systemic treatment with oral antibiotic. I did really hope I had done an incredible job today and hoped to see some encouraging result in months to come.

We ended today's doggy session with the above stomach-watering Char Koay Teow prepared by the hospital's kitchen.