Saga begins...
Me: hi, my mum's is suffering from serious case of chicken pox and she have been running high fever for a week already. Is it possible for her to cut the queue to see the doctor?
Clinic Assistant #1: Errr.. errr.. How about you registering first?
Me: How long will it take so that I can bring her down?
CA #1: Now number 7 right? *look up* ya.. number 7. 13 loh!
I agreed and took out my mum's IC. The next moment, a lady walked by asking for the kind of transaction available and walked away. CA#1 called her back and did her registration instead. She totally ignored me.
I saw CA #2.
Me: sorry, can you help me check with the doctor if he will refer my mum to A & E or will he prescribed any medication for chicken pox as she have been running high fever for more than a week and she's not feeling very good.
CA#2: Chicken pox is like this one. No medication.
Me: Can you please just check for me because the fever won't subside?
CA#2: Chicken pox will keep running high fever one laH.
At this moment, she really pissed me off. I insisted her to check with the doctor so that I will not waste time waiting at the clinic if ultimately he will refer us to A&E. She went in after a long while, insisting that she cannot go in as there was a patient.
CA#2 after talking to doctor: *grumpily* Doctor say go A & E.
Why, why does the clinic assistants react to this situation like this? Are they like this for all cases? Do they think that I am exaggerating my mum's situation?
Why are health professionals the people that care the least?
CA#2 obviously did not pay much attention to my words and body language. As a result, she might interpret my intention as exaggerating the situation. Thus coming out with the judgment that all chicken pox case are non threatening as in her memory, majority of chicken pox case are non threatening.
CA#2 most probably had seen cases of chicken pox as non threatening. It usually happens in children and young adults which obviously is non threatening as they have better immunity. But it never occur to her that my mum is approaching her 60s and she had a bad case of dengue fever before. Her immunity is obviously not as good. Priming effects had thus causes CA#2 to generalize.
Anyway, we went to another doctor. He gave my mum the medication for chicken pox, yes, there is medication for chicken pox that alleviate the condition.
My mum is definitely better now.
PS: My mum's chicken pox case is really serious. She had fever of 39 degrees for almost a week. Fever comes and go with help of many paracetamol. Don't ask my why we did not send her to hospital earlier. My mum is a strong woman who thinks she can take it. Maybe we should analyze her behavior.
To end, something relaxing
