Agony of patients..Doctors need to know this...

It’s a prevalent and largely true fact that doctors have a pretty tough life, with their duty calling at any time of the day. Very often we see articles written about Doctors’ plight, about how patients’ senseless questions haunt them, about how they have to compromise with their personal lives, etc.

But I am writing about the other side of Doctors, which says about the frustration and agony that one experiences on visiting doctors. This is on the basis of what I noticed and experienced over the last one month, which was full of visits to doctors to get my left toe treated.

There are a lot of complaints against doctors. But unlike customers to any other service industry, patients cannot be impatient, and they cannot bargain with the doctor. Whatever the doctor says, prescribes, is God’s word.

1) Doctors value their own time over the value of patients’ time. No patient likes to arrive on time for an appointment, only to be left waiting for half an hour or longer. This way the patients’ frustrations only grow stronger.

2) Doctors often rush through the appointments, not even listening properly and leaving too little time for a constructive conversation. They cut the patients short when they are speaking, ignore what patients tell, and rely on charts instead of preferred one-to-one communication.

3) Doctors often preemptively mix-up and generalize the patients’ cases with some other previous case histories, and lump them with the generalist prescription only to regret later and correct the mistake.

4) Unnecessary prescriptions, be it for medicines/drugs or laboratory tests, is what most doctors give. For them, it is a means of showing how learned they are. But another reason is that most doctors are entrapped in a vicious circle of gifts and inducements. (Thankfully, the law has now started prohibiting such transactions between doctors and other related medical/pharmacy agencies.) But eventually it hits mostly at the pockets of the patients, instead of the disease or ailment.

This all at times makes me question, that what is it that Doctors don’t know? And the immediate answer which comes to me is ‘Almost Everything’. It is high time they realise this.

Painful one month...

I recently got my left toe operated again for some infection and nail deformation. Possibly because of tight shoes while playing football, the nail of my left toe got deformed and it started penetrating the skin creating a pus, and developing a huge swelling. This started in October 2009, and I first got it operated in Mumbai in November. All was good for a few months, but the problem re-appeared, and this time it was more severe, with the skin flesh getting infected and unbearable pain. So had to again visit the doctors.

This post describes the pains of last one month (not only the physical pain of the wound, but the mental stress on visiting the doctors).
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May 1, 2010 (Visiting a doctor in Indore): The appointment was for 5.30 PM, and I reached there at 5.20 PM. I and Dad sat in the waiting area, and the time started. Half an hour passed, and we called the doctor, who said he is on his way, and would be reaching in 5 minutes. The clock was still running. Probably his watch was running a little slow. He eventually arrived at 6.30 PM; checked the swelling of my toe in 2 minutes; concluded that it would have to be operated, but he can’t do it that week. WOW!! I spent an hour to hear this, when I was leaving for Pune the next day. He gave me some painkillers and ointments to keep me going till I could return and get it operated.

On reaching Pune, i got busy with work, and so thought that better to see a doctor there and get the problem resolved there itself.

May 10, 2010 (Visiting a doctor in Pune): My cousin took an appointment with the doctor for 6 PM, for which I left office early, and reached the clinic on time. Like the previous time, the time flew. The doctor came in late, and his assistant gave the shock that the doctor would not see patients on the basis of appointment, but on the basis of who came when, and what is the level of urgency. (Now who decides that, I have no clue.) My turn came at 8 PM. I told the doctor the entire history of the wound, the earlier operation and what the doctor in Indore had suggested. But he said that there is no need for a surgery. Just take the medicines (a pretty heavy dose, and damn expensive medicines), do the dressings and I would be alright in a week.

I followed what the doctor prescribed. The pain was lesser (because of the effect of the painkillers), but the wound was getting bad.

May 17, 2010 (Follow up with the same doctor in Pune): This time I knew I should get as early as possible and be in the FIFO line. Thankfully, this time I had to wait only for one and half hour as compared to two hours last time. When I told the doctor, that the pain is a little less because of the medicines, but otherwise it isn’t much better, he had a look at my toe that why am I saying that, because according to him it was good. I asked him to turn on some more lights and look better, pointing to the infected area on my toe. His next reaction was, “Oh! I did not notice that pus getting created. It has to be operated.” What the *@#$. Did not notice? Is he a doctor or just a chemist writing medicines? I kept my cool, and asked him when he could operate. He told me Friday, and gave me a long list of tests to be conducted (as if it was some major operation I was undergoing, with tests like Australia antigen, HIV, Urea, etc.)

I was already thinking whether to get these tests done or not, that the doctor gave the final punch saying that the operation would have to be early morning, and he can’t wait for my parents to arrive. And it was over for me. I went back to Indore that weekend, to get the toe operated (from the same doctor whom I had visited earlier).

May 21, 2010 (Operation Day): In the morning, straight from the bus stand, I went to the hospital, and into the Operation Theater. The docs gave me a full anesthesia (thankful to them for this), and I did not even know how time went by and the operation was done. After a few hours, I was allowed to go home, but advised not to walk or put any load on the foot because the stitches might break. I had to come back the next day to get the dressing changed.

May 22, 2010 (Visiting the doctor for change of dressing): As usual, the time given was for 6.30 PM, and the doctor did not come till 7 PM. Till now, I had no clue what all was done to my toe. But when the dressing was opening, I literally felt nauseating. Half the nail taken out from the root, the skin cut on the sides and 3-4 stitches to wrap it back. Gosh. To add to it, the gush of the pain from the toe to the entire body when the pressure was released on taking out the dressing, sent me into a black-out and I fainted. The doctor then asked me to lie down for some time, and changed the dressing.

Now that the operation is done, I am still feeling the pain. I can't keep my foot hanging or put much load on it for at least one more week, and then I have to get the stitches cut.

The pain was before, the pain is still there. Soon it will subside. But the entire month has been such, that I can never forget this painful one month which also made me realize what pains others go through. Experience is the best teacher, for knowledge as well as empathy.

The changed face of friendship...

I am not a fragile character, and do not get the paranoid feeling that people are talking about me and laughing behind my back. But still I feel like writing this post because I value true friendship a lot.
Friendship can be a wonderful relationship that serves to support, encourage, and entertain. But It’s unfortunate, but some friends tend to take more than give and might need to be cut out of your life.
This is going to be an honest, at-your-face kind of post. I will say what I want to and I don’t care what others would think because barring a few people, I don’t care anything about anyone. I don’t want to indulge in humiliation and become what I don’t want to, so will avoid taking any names directly.

It must be pretty clear that what I am getting towards is describing what two-faced friends are. The friend who says one thing and does something else or the friend who is nice to your face and then talks badly about you behind your back is a two-faced friend.
In front of you they act all sweet normal and nice but behind your back they are the exact opposite making fun of you, spilling your secrets and talking bad about you. They usually do that if they are jealous, to get attention, be more popular, and they are millions of other reasons but it depends on the person. And at times their actions tend to be more severe than the typical casual gossip common among friends; their actions are purposeful, hurtful, and continue regardless of your objections.

Making fun or jokingly pulling leg directly is something different and can be easily understood. But if it becomes a third-person talk, the gravity and seriousness of the issue increases.

Another variety of such species include those selfish people who show that they share everything and would be together to travel light years with you, but who won’t tell what they are doing so as to remain ahead of you. Befriending others for personal gain has become a common phenomenon.

When you have your true friends around you, you might not be able to identify any of such backstabbers amidst them. But it is better that as soon as the realization comes, such friends need to be dumped, because they aren't your real friends just someone who will use you to do or get something for their benefit.

To sum it up, I am quoting a poem after modifying it suitably…

When you didn’t speak to my face,
And went behind my back,
I stood shocked in anguish,
When I came to know what you quack.

I never thought you'd be,
So mean, so cruel, so rude.
But since this you have showed me,
That this is the true you, so shrewd.

You lied to my face,
And talked behind my back.
You thought I would not trace,
That it has been you, the one to attack.

You will now have to see,
That this is the end.
Stay rest assured I would not wail,
Over such long lost friend.

It is time to say goodbye,
And I don't want it to end,
But I cannot take another lie,
From a lying two-faced friend.