The Other Side
I've been working in theatre for most of my adult life--have seen thousands upon thousands of people being cut open, stitched together and sent to post operative care knowing that we have provided the best quality care we could provide.
I've been a patient myself on some few occasions but it doesn't really count when your dad is the surgeon, your uncles the anaesthetist, radiologist, pathologist and whatever medical speciality you can think of. I didn't quite get the whole nine yards of the patient journey cos like everything else in life, you can also take shortcuts in medicine and they dont always have to result to some publicised medical blunder. I never felt how it was to be a "real" patient until last Thursday.
What I'm trying to get at here is that for the very first time, I have experienced how it is to be a regular patient. (Disclaimer: Alright, maybe not so regular as I might have pulled a few strings to get prioritised, seen by experts and operated on the quickest time possible. )
It felt almost regular. Almost insignificant.
Point is, I was like every other disheartened person who goes to a&e. Patient X gets seen, given the wrong diagnosis, becomes suspicious and gets a second opinion from an expert. I went through the whole process and felt the frustration of having to wait for ages only to be told nothing was wrong. I was told I didn't need any follow up and to come back not earlier than 2 weeks if I felt other than okay.
I couldn't wait 2 weeks knowing there was something wrong so I consulted someone else. Bear in mind this was only a few hours from when I had the accident and been discharged to be "fit and well" in A&E.
Thankfully, working in the most brawn-draining field of theatres has it's perks. I was seen a few minutes after walking into ortho theatres for a casual visit; examined, diagnosed, and booked for all the necessary diagnostics in the same time it took for me to catch up on all the work gossip i've missed while I was away. A day after, I had my preop work ups, history taken, starved and was at the door of operating theatres at dawn the next day ready to be put to sleep and cut open. An hour and 3 screws after, I was groggy in recovery trying to get the anaesthetic out of my system.
48 hours was all it took from the accident to post op recovery. Had I been like every other patient needing urgent care, It would have taken me AT LEAST 7 days until I could have come back to be allowed to be seen again as they wouldn't see any immediate change from my initial complaint. I'm now on the 7th day post injury and I am well on my way to getting better. Trusting my gut and knowing the right people definitely were cards well played.
Going through this whole journey just made me realise how frustrating it is to be a patient with no connections. Or just any person in the world who doesn't know the right people when something important life event happens. There were times in the past I got so frustrated with being in a profession that is underappreciated, overworked, underpaid and has the least benefits. But actually, being medical has the best work benefit one could ever ask for -- quality of life.
I may not get free tickets to the best concerts in town, or meet the hottest people in the crowd. But i can tell if there's something wrong with my body, know the implications of it and consult an expert I know even before anyone else could. I may not have a lot of freebies or get invited to socialite events but I can sleep well knowing that the people taking care of me would never do a disservice to one of their own. Tangible things come and go but I can only get 1 chance at good health and i'd take it any day.
Im not implying in any way that patients who come into hospital dont get high quality care. I give my 200% to every single patient that's wheeled through our double doors. I guess If there was a better way of putting it, everyone can see a great show but not everyone can go backstage to meet the actors when the show ends. It just doesnt work that way for everybody.
Conclusion: stay healthy, dont break bones. Dont break hearts. Just dont break anything. Live in a bubble.