My mother could easily qualify herself as the best prospect for doctors. She has no qualm at all in seeking all kinds of medical treatments; apparently, she finds solace in doing so. Of course, medical expenses take its toll on my father’s financial reserve.
I could not recollect when was the first time I accompanied my mother to seek medical treatment. According to her, she said she had five major operations. However, while writing this post, I realize it is more than 5 times. Let me chronicle her whirlwind tour in the medical eco-system.
The first operation was something to do with the eyes. She was hospitalized in General Hospital, Singapore. At that time, my credit card was not honoured as the expected medical bill exceeded my credit limit by a large margin. Luckily, it was rescued by my uncle. She spent slightly more than a week and the bill ran into the higher end of the four figures.
The second operation was done on her urinary system. Apparently, there were some blockages in her ureters. Well, it was done in one of the private hospitals in Johor Bahru. I could not remember the cost as it was fully financed by my father.
The third operation was done in the USA. Why USA? Well, it was more of a coincidence than pre-arrangement.
Many months prior to this operation, the cancer marker showed that she might have some cancer cells in the alimentary canal. This discovery triggered a series of unwanted and redundant medical investigations and examinations.
First, the doctors from General Hospital, Johor Bahru carried out a procedure on her called colonoscopy. To perform this procedure, she was required to cleanse her colons with liquid laxative. I remembered she had to drink about 5 litres of such liquid. She complained of the pain induced by the laxative. Anywhere, the mind-boggling part of the procedure was that the person(s) who performed it could not administer the endoscope , thus it resulted a failed procedure. She was again required to consume another 5 litres of the laxative in preparation for the next colonoscopy. Fearing that my mother would not be able to withstand such procedure, we decided that she should be discharged from the hospital.
The next day, she was transferred to one of private hospitals in Johor Bahru. They did an endoscopy on her, but could not deter anything – NAD ( No abnormality detected.)
Notwithstanding the litany of medical tests and investigations, the result of the cancer marker still bothered us, we decided to give mother a last straw. This time, it was handled by the top specialist in gastroenterology in Singapore. He did colonoscopy and MRI. Again , the final result still ended with NAD.
We felt that since my mother had gone through so many medical investigations, we should not subject her to further agony of medical procedures.
A month later, she went to visit my siblings in U.S. While she was there, my brother took the initiative to refer her to one of his colleagues, a surgeon. The surgeon did a laparoscopic surgery on her, puncturing only two holes on her abdomen. To his surprise, my mother was suffering from appendicitis. I did watch a video recording of the operation, the infected appendix was surgically removed and placed inside a zip-lock bag and subsequently retrieved from the inner body cavity. The operation was done in the morning and amazingly she found herself shopping in the afternoon, what a medical feat.
My mother was examined by two top-notched surgeons, both in Malaysia and Singapore, both of them failed to detect the presence of appendicitis, not forgetting the battery of tests. What can I say?
The fourth operation was cataract surgery. Again, it was done by one of the private ophthalmologists in Johor Bahru.
The operation was done in a haste without taking her sugar level into consideration. As expected, her eye did not recover as expected.
The fifth operation was on her left eye. It was done in General Hospital by the Chief Ophthalmologist. This time, the surgeon took the pain to monitor my mother’s sugar level. it was after few months of controlling and monitoring that my mother was given the OK signal to be operated. The operation was a success.
The sixth operation was done in University Hospital, PJ. She suffered from a mild fall and the pelvic bone cracked. So a metal implant was introduced to link the pelvic and thigh bones.
Four weeks ago, she was referred to consult a kidney specialist in Johore Bahru as her level of creatinine was three times higher than normal. It could mean that her kidney is operating at about 5% of a normal person. In other words, she may have to go for dialysis. After two consultations, the doctor did not give any conclusive decisions. Instead, my mother was given erythropoietin therapy. My mother is 80-year old and lives in a very quite kampong and my father is a first class husband, why the doctor had to ask for HIV test.
Two weeks ago, she complained of the pain coming from the metal implant. So, we took her to an orthopedic clinic in Johor Bahru. The surgeon did not comment anything about the metal implant but pointed out that lumbar vertebrae ( L2, L3, L4 ) had degenerated so much that they are actually touching each other. Due to her age, surgery was not an option. So, the surgeon could only prescribe pain killer and bone enhancing tablets.
Two weeks after the orthopedic consultation in Johore Bahru, the radius of pain had extended and I promptly received a call from her. She told me that she had to seek a second opinion. Well, the nearest clinic is in Kluang.
The pain was in fact caused by the failure of orthopedic implant. If you look at the x-ray shown below, the main part of the implant had no support whatsoever and it became a moving part.
My biggest disappointment was why the surgeon in Johore Bahru did not detect this defect, even without this x-ray taken few months ago.
Instead, he conveniently diagnosed the pain to be originated from the lumbar vertebrae.
Prior to the operation, the anesthetist gave me a long catalogue of warnings and asked me to sign the letter of consent. The biggest complication in the surgery could result in a heart attack. OMG, I was conveniently given to shoulder all the responsibilities should the operation fail. To be or not to be, it was a decision that you wished that you never had to make especially when you were out on a limb.
Despite her age and diabetic condition, in the throes of making a decision, my mother took a gamble on her life and went along with the operation. The operation took two and half hours to complete, replacing the old metal implant with a new one.
For the curious readers, the new implant looks as follows.
My mother was discharged after 7-night stay at the hospital. Now, she can walk much better than before with the help of the walker.
After the pelvic surgery, she is on a 3-month Forteo ( teriparatide ) program, why the doctor still prescribes calcium supplement. This is another soul searching answer?
As you can see, they are competent and non-competent doctors. Even if they are competent, they do draw the wrong conclusion. There are so many unanswered questions why the doctors chose to take certain decisions and actions, their conducts are moot, do they have a special axe to grind? I am not discharging a deluge of complaints and belittling the conducts of doctors, but just stating the facts, I hope the learned readers could read between the lines.
