On the Retroviral Uncle

"Got retroviral just say lah! Diagnosed already, what's the point of hiding like that! Frust frust frust!"

Kinda gave me chills when there's this voice full of blocked nose of a senior complaining about the case he clerked earlier I suppose. I wasn't sure whether it was his end of posting case or what, but it was quite obvious that he was pretty upset the patient didn't tell him he's got HIV.

"This kind of people also got. I asked so many times already still don't want to tell. I asked one by one the past medical history. Got hypertension or not? Got ischemic heart disease or not? Got diabetes melitus or not? Got asthma or not? Got any other things that I need to know or not? Still don't want to tell. What's the point of hiding? You already got it, so deal with it."

Some gibberish conversation followed suit, assuming it's from the other senior to whom this one was talking to.

"No, he's already 60 years old. Came in because of prolonged diarrhoea one. His HIV diagnosed 5 months ago already. Not like he didn't know about it. This kind of people also got."

I agreed it's pretty frustrating when you can't get that piece of important history. A patient who was infected with HIV would probably be susceptible to almost anything under the sun, which could probably explains the prolonged diarrhoea, despite most of the time it would be the opportunistic infections which normal healthy people wouldn't be infected.

But I totally understand what the uncle feels when he refused to tell about that part. Most probably the medical student would just prode more. Social history and such. Have he been having sex with men? Sharing needles? Unprotected sex with multiple sexual partners?? The stigma will always be present. If I were in his shoes, I would find it very difficult to share that piece of news myself.

What annoyed me was the tone of that senior of mine. The way he put it, it was as if it was all the patient's fault he didn't get that piece of information. He was annoyed and frustrated and plain bitchy about it. If anything, it's his own fault for not asking, "You got HIV or not?"

I empathied the uncle. No matter how he contacted the virus, despite it could show how 'naughty' he was in the past, it's still an incurable disease. Some might say serve him right for screwing around.

But I'll most probably just look at him and not say anything, hoping he'd be able to see how sorry I feel for him...



P/s: Got me worried of my own irritable bowel syndrome as well..
P/s/s: written 25/8/09