On the Confession

Went back to the ward the following day to check up on the patient admitted the night before. Upon arriving in the ward, he was sleeping curled up on the bed. He was started on some antibiotics before while waiting for his turn for MRI. Supposing the antibiotics didn't help much. He's blind for heaven's sake! He must be pretty upset and suffering.

So I went to flip through his notes. And there it was, smacked on the first page, on the right corner.

* Patient is homosexual, having regular unprotected intercourse with boyfriend*

Now that the new's out, I wonder if the boyfriend will still come visit? If I know about the news, surely the entire staff in the ward knew about it. What's more, it's an intensive care unit, there's not many beds, and each bed has got their own attending nurses, with a few odd job male nurses. It's mainly precaution I suppose, no one wants a needle stick injury here.

Sure enough, to have abscess in the brain, it's highly likely that his immune system is down the drain. Chances of him being retroviral positive is very high. Who else would he have contacted the sexual transmitted infection if it's not from the boyfriend? After all, he claimed that he didn't have intercourse with any other men. His boyfriend however, might not turn out to be as loyal as he thought he was.

And, he denied receiving any blood transfusion; and was not a drug user, as in the ones involving syringes. Recreational drug wise, hard to say.

Anyway, it only meant two things. 1) The patient confessed that he's gay. 2) The boyfriend revealed it, despite being all secretive earlier.

Which, got me wondering, would the boyfriend love him enough to brave the stigma from the staff in the hospital? Let's admit, like it or not, there's always a different look at homosexuals; whether or not we're abiding by the Hippocratic Oath in treating everyone equally is a different matter.

Personally, I admit I look at them differently. Not with a judging eye, but rather a very curious one. Lots of questions really. What's gonna happen next? Would the boyfriend dump him? Would the patient be sent back to his home country? Who's the other guy who came with the boyfriend?

Oh, and if you're wondering, yes, his boyfriend was actually quite a handsome man, and pretty well built. So does the patient himself.