Our Urologist Appointment

Thursday came and I headed to KKH with Jere, calling the dear husband before I left the house to meet me there as the last appointment, this doctor had threatened to have me up for neglect and abuse. Not that I am guilty as charged, but I don't quite enjoy being abused by her especially in Jere's presence as Jere is such a sensitive child that he knows when I am hurt.

I reached the hospital about 1215pm but Tim was still not there. I prayed that Tim would reach in time and the doctor would be kind. I sat down with Jere and fed him some cereal at the same time saying my rosary, as frankly, I know I can't get thru the doctor's office without God's protection.

After about half an hour, Jeremiah's name was called. I was a little apprehensive about going in there alone as Tim had not reach. Nevertheless, I went in.

Small talk
Me: (upon entering the dr's office) Hello dr. Jere, say hello Dr.
Dr Y: Hello Jeremy, How are you?
Me: (prompting Jere) Jere, HOW A....R....E YOU?
Jere tends to get confused between How are you questions and How old are you? :P
Jere: Good. Fine thank you.
Dr Y: How old are you now?
Me: Jere, HOW O...L.....D are you? (emphasising the OLD)
Jere: TWO.... YEARS OLD
Dr Y: No, la...You're more than that right? (flipping her case notes to check Jere's exact age.) So how mummy? Are you ready to CIC (Clean Intermittent Catheterisation)?
Jere looked a little confused. Come on Doc, give the child a break....Surely you don't expect the 2 yr old to tell you 2 yr 3 months right?
Dr Y: (at her nurse manager)Can you measure his head circumference? (looking at his head with disapproval as if it was really big)

Yeah... it was strange that a nurse manager was in the office. probably because of the drama the dr created last time threatening to have me up for neglect and abuse and i broke down so bad till Tim marched into the dr's office demanding to know what exactly she had done.)

Me: Dr, Dr Janice Wong, the neurologist is monitoring his head circumference and it's fine.

Dr Y: How long ago is that?

Me: It's really recent. Maybe just some weeks ago.

Dr Y: ( still quite unbelievingly flipping her case notes, looking at the june date) no... that's months ago...

Me: No Dr, I am sure it's quite recent. Please look properly. ( almost wanting to turn the page for her)

Dr Y: (turned the page) oh yes, just in September. 52.5cm. (looking at her nurse manager)

Nurse Manager G: Yes, 52.5cm.

Speaking Blessings
Dr Y: ok, can you put him on the bed for me to check?
Me: Sure. Jere, can mummy put you on the bed for dr to check?
Jere nodded.
I put Jere on the bed, took out his diapers and then waited for the dr to come over.
Then Dr Y walked over, looked at Jere.
Dr Y: Come! Let me see how bad you have become (almost immediately catching herself) I mean let me see how good you are.
Usually whenever our dear dr spoke a curse, I would correct her curse into a blessing. This time, the Lord went before me and blessed our dear doctor and reminded her to speak a blessing :)

Daddy arrives!
Just then, a knock was heard on the door and my dear husband Tim entered. THANK YOU LORD!
Dr Y: Hello Daddy! so how? Are you ready to do the CIC?
Tim: No Dr. but if we are ready when would it be?
Dr Y: (grabbing the opportunity immediately) OH DADDY! IT'S WONDERFUL YOU AGREED.
Tim: No! NO! DR, I HAVEN'T AGREED. I am just asking IF.
Dr Y: (looking at her nurse) DADDY HAS AGREED! (starts writing on her case notes Daddy agrees to CIC)
Dr Y probably never would have thought I would have remembered what went on in that room and document every part of it.
Dr Y: SO when you wanna start? now?
Tim: No, Dr. I am not ready. I will pray about it and when I have peace , I will let you know when the holy spirit prompts me.
Dr Y: No Daddy, you agreed. You just come in and we will train you. We will hold your hand till you are confident. what about next tues?
I glared at Tim.
Tim: No Dr. I am not ready.
Me: Well, Dr, I have seen how this CIC is being done. Maybe, we can arrange for daddy to see how it's done and we'll see?
Dr Y: Great! So when should we do it? Next tues? ok. I put you on next tues? Has Jere had any infections so far? Have you been giving him his antibiotics?
Me: No. no infections. Praise God!
Dr Y: (looking at her case notes) it's been a long time since you did a urine test. Shall we order for one now? How? You wanna do it now? or you wanna go home and catch it?
Usually last time, I would catch it at home and bring it straight to the hospital.
Me: Dr, since you wanna show daddy how to do the catheter, why don't you CIC out a sample for your test?
Dr Y: Great! That's a good idea. He has not had any infections right? You been giving him his antibiotics right?
Me: No. No infections.
Dr Y: When we start the CIC, you must give him the antibiotics properly coz higher chance of infection.
Me: (looking at Tim) means we gotta start giving him the antibiotics again? I have actually weaned Jere off his antibiotics for a good 3 months.

I did not like the idea of Jere being on daily antibiotics so I slowly weaned him off and just prayed for protection everyday. Yeah. Some of you probably think I am such a fool. But really, in the Lord I trust. If you asked me to take risks such as investing in stocks and shares, my risk appetite is not that great for that :P

Dr Y stared at me, quite shocked that I took such a risk.
Dr Y: then today we cant do the catheter since you did not give him any antibiotics.we'll just catch a mid stream and you come back later we will show daddy how to CIC.
Me: what do you mean? If you gonna show daddy later how to do the catheter thing, you might as well CIC the sample now to send for test and we need not come back later.

Just how do they work, I couldn't quite comprehend.

Dr Y: No no... come! (looking at her nurse) attach a urine bag for him to collect the urine sample. (looking at Tim and me) you guys go for your lunch coz the urine test will take about an hour. then you come back after your lunch and we do the catheter.

Me: (still not quite understanding) WHY? WHY CANT YOU CATHETER NOW THE URINE SAMPLE? DADDY IS HERE AND HE CAN SEE YOU GUYS DO IT AND YOU GUYS GET A CLEANER SAMPLE.

DR Y and the nurses: NO NO.... almost echoing each other.

They sent us to the treatment room and there they started to attach the urine bag and told us to either wait there for Jere to pee or go take a walk till he pees. I then asked them again why can't they catheter straight and they just refused me. I surrendered. I went to get Jere water to drink to fill his bladder so that he would pee quickly for them as i was almost starving as It was already almost 2pm. The nurses walked out of the room. Jere then tore out the urine bag and peed out of the urine bag. Oops! I shouted for the nurse and the nurse came back to re attach the bag. It wasn't long before Jere peed. Then we left for our lunch.

I told Tim let's get out of here for lunch so we headed to Novena Square. Just as we were in the middle of our lunch, my mobile rang. It was about 3.30pm.

Nurse: Mummy, Jeremiah's urine test is not so good. You guys must come back for us to catheter another sample.

Me: huh? what do you mean? how come just now ask you all to catheter, you all don't want and now ask me to come back to catheter?

Nurse: errr... mummy, you just come back for us to catheter, the dr will explain to you. ok. just come back as soon as you can.

the line went dead.

I looked at tim.
Me: Did you hear that? the urine test is no good and they are asking us to go back to catheter a sample now. I just don't understand why they just wont catheter in the first place just now.

Tim gave a resigned shrug.

I quickly finished feeding Jere and we headed back to the hospital. We headed straight to the nurses' office.
When I saw the nurse manager, I asked her why didn't they do it earlier as I requested and she looked at the wall, looked at the floor, looked at the ceiling but just refused to looked at me, giving me a sheepish answer of.... "yes yes... wait wait we will do it."
I was a little miffed and asked again " I AM ASKING WHY YOU GUYS WON'T DO IT JUST NOW AND NOW YOU WANNA DO IT? WHAT'S THE REASON MAY I ASK?"
The dear nurse manager walked off, saying, "We'll call you when we are ready to do for you."
I was left stranded there carrying Jere.
Finally after a good 20 minutes or so, one of the nurses came out of the room and said, "ok we'll catheter him now"
I carried Jere in and continued to ask the nurses. There was was one senior staff nurse, one nurse and one manager and all of them just simply ignored my question.
Finally, I gave up and said, "I wanna see the Dr. I wanna know WHY JUST NOW I ASKED YOU GUYS TO CATHETER YOU REFUSED AND NOW YOU ASKED ME BACK TO CATHETER. IS THERE ANY SPECIFIC REASON."
The senior staff nurse then said, "Ok, we will get the dr to speak to you"
We finished the catheter session and waiting another good 20 minutes or so, we were back into Dr Y's office.

Me: Dr, WHY JUST NOW I ASKED YOU GUYS TO CATHETER YOU REFUSED AND NOW YOU ASKED ME BACK TO CATHETER. IS THERE ANY SPECIFIC REASON?

Dr Y: Oh... we were afraid to scare you off then you would not return for us to teach you to catheter....

Me: No, Dr. I asked you several times to straight away catheter so that we need not return.

Dr Y: I know you are very scared of the catheter so I don't want to scare you off.

Me: What are you talking Dr? (getting a little exasperated) I gave permission just now to catheter. Why didn't you all do it straight? Instead you wanted to use the urine bag and asked us back to catheter?

Dr Y: (flipping her case notes) The last times when we did the urine test, you did not do catheter and the tests were fine so there's no necessity to do a catheter.

Me: (getting a little confused) then why do you ask me to catheter every 4 hourly?

Dr Y: I asked you to catheter to drain the bladder.... not to get a urine sample.

Me: but since you wanna catheter, why can't you catheter to get the sample?

Dr Y: oh ok. if that's what you want next time, we will catheter ok?

Me: Dr, that's not what I am asking for. I am asking why? the reason WHY JUST NOW I ASKED YOU GUYS TO CATHETER YOU REFUSED AND NOW YOU ASKED ME BACK TO CATHETER. IS THERE ANY SPECIFIC REASON?

Dr Y: The last times when we did the urine test, you did not do catheter and the tests were fine so there's no necessity to do a catheter

Me: No Dr. THat's not what I am asking about.....

Dr Y: okok i put a note here... next time we want a urine sample, we catheter....

Me: That's not what I am asking about.... I am asking why? the reason WHY JUST NOW I ASKED YOU GUYS TO CATHETER YOU REFUSED AND NOW YOU ASKED ME BACK TO CATHETER. IS THERE ANY SPECIFIC REASON?

Dr Y: The last times when we did the urine test, you did not do catheter and the tests were fine so there's no necessity to do a catheter.

Me: (giving up) Arrrrrgghhhhh.... forget it! That's a lame and definitely not a reason. You are not answering to my question.

Dr Y: ok mummy. I gotta double you dosage of the antibiotic now. if there is any fever, please come in straight to the A & E. we will then put in an in dwelling catheter and.....

Tim: (cutting the dr short) IT WILL NOT HAPPEN.

Dr Y: ok, please go and ask the pharmacist to calculate for you how much of the antibiotics you must take now. We will trace the next urine test. This urine test shows a high white blood cell count of 500 plus when usual level should be 0-10. We will call you tomorrow or sat. If it's good, results should be out tomorrow. if not good, maybe sat or next tues. we don't work on sunday and monday. if any case just come in straight to A & E. hopefully the antibiotics would help.

Me: Please call us no matter what is the results.

The nurses agreed.

Not quite convinced, I got their number.

We left the room and headed to pharmacy.

Please pray for Jere's white blood cell count to return to normal.