THE LAUGHING DOCTOR

"Help, help" cried Screaming Sylvia to me this morning, as I was busily replying to some e-mails from another department.

"What's up?" I enquired enthusiastically.

"I think I have blood coming from my anus" SS added.

"Huh? Is that serious? I mean, like what happened?" giving a puzzled look.

"I'm NOT sure, but its like painful and yet it has blood oozing out!" sighed SS.

"You have hemorrhoids?" I replied.

I know why she had run to me on this. A year ago, I had this unfortunate problem and it affected me so much that I had to go for a minor surgery, which I had documented it in my earlier blogs. So, when Screaming Sylvia ran to me about this problem, I know for a matter of fact, she was trying to get more information on this.

Calmly, I asked her all the symptoms related to the hemorrhoids and she began to explain in detail of the pain she was suffering. For a minute or two, I was like the GP at duty at my desk; and when she had finished describing to me, I told her to go to the doctor immediately. If the problem was as serious as what she described to me, then I guess, some form of medication to ease the pain should be taken.

Apart from that, I also told her the importance of having heaps of fibre, fruits and vegetables in her diet. In addition to that, drinking fluid also helps tone down the temperature of the body, since Chinese will always believe that such things are usually caused when the body is "heaty". After a good twenty minutes of explaining to her the causes and also reassuring her that she does not have to go for any surgery, she went back to her work station, and I continued with my work. I did also reminded her the importance of seeking the doctor but she told me that she would go after work.

So, this evening, SS called me on my cellphone. Thinking that perhaps she might be on MC the next day and she wanted to inform me since I was the team leader, I picked up the call and asked her how it was.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

"Yes, I'm fine" SS replied.

"So how did it go?" I enquired further.

"Hmm, you know, I went to 4 panel clinics!" SS complained.

"Why on earth did you go to 4 panel clinics? Are you paranoid?" I said with a hint of direct sarcasm.

"No, the other 3 clinics all had male doctors on duty, and I did not want to go to a male doctor, so I went to the 4th clinic and, luckily, it was a female doctor" SS explained.

"Everything went well, I suppose" I added.

"Oh, that bloody clinic! The doctor did not even checked on me, just asked me what happened, and I told her and before you knew it, she was already prescribing me some anti-biotic and also a tube to be inserted in my anus. The worst part of all this, the stupid doctor and her merry jolly nurses were laughing sheepishly at my predicament" SS screamed on.

"What? They actually did that?!!" not believing that this happened.

it's rude to laugh at other people's misfortune...

For a fact here, this poor girl was in pain and the least those in the clinic should have behaved more prudently than go about laughing at someone's misfortune, is something which I strongly cannot fathom! I mean, you are suppose to be in the health line and suppose to be upholding your Hippocratic Oath and not being hypocrite about it. I'm not sure, perhaps the very value in people to uphold all these moral good deeds have since surpassed and our fellow humankind has progressed to a level, that I can only word it as despicable?