The long and short of it without naming names is that the nurse from the community hospital informed me that the person who was in said institution was isolated due to a ``CP-CRE infection''.
``CP-CRE infection?''
``Yes, CP-CRE infection. It's garbled-text escholvvabacteria---it's a long name bacteria that exists in the gut when we tested person.''
``So, did person get this from the previous general hospital, or did person get it here?''
``It is normal to have it.''
``I know, but when person was at the general hospital, they were giving person antibiotics. I don't have the case notes that you do, and am curious about how this infection came about.''
``Sir, I think you should talk to the doctor. Doctor will do their rounds tomorrow, and I can get doctor to call you between eight and nine in the morning.''
``Okay, thank you Staff Nurse staff-nurse-name.''
That was Monday, after I had my eyeball examined under observation duty rules (I'm mostly out of the woods, and can re-start more vigorous activities like cycling---thank God; but Doc still wanted one more check-in in three weeks' time). I made arrangements to work from home just so that I don't miss the call.
Tuesday came. Eight o'clock came. Nine o'clock came and went. I was on tenterhooks, working fitfully, trying to be alert to the call, while also doing the myriad of smaller tasks that did not require a large block of uninterrupted time.
Ten o'clock came, eleven.
I was pissed.
A call was made to said community hospital, looking for the original Staff Nurse.
Original wasn't on duty. A different one took the call, and very lazily said that the doctor was still on rounds.
``I was promised that the doctor will call in the morning between eight and nine. I am working and had to make arrangements to receive this call to understand what's going on.''
``Oh... doctor can call you after lunch.''
``When's lunch?''
``Twelve-thirty to one.''
``Okay, thank you.''
Twelve o'clock, then one o'clock. The phone rang.
``Hi, I'm Doctor different-doctor-name.''
``Hi Doctor, I'm person's relation. I was told by Staff Nurse staff-nurse-name that person is currently isolated because of CP-CRE infection. I'm curious because person seemed well before the transfer, but the last I remembered before person was transferred that person was on some antibiotics. I'm not sure if that is helping with this infection, or if something else needs to be done about the infection.''
``Oh... it's not an infection. It's a colonisation.''
``Colonisation?''
``Yes, colonisation.''
``That's a helluva different thing. So person's not infected?''
``No, person's not infected. We were doing a routine test and found that person had CP-CRE colonisation, so we isolated person to prevent the spread to other patients in the ward.''
``I see... that was not what I was told yesterday by Staff Nurse staff-nurse-name.''
``Ah...''
``So just to recap so that I get the correct picture, person has a CP-CRE colonisation and not infection, and there's no need for us to do anything. person is currently isolated from the other patients just so that they do not catch the CP-CRE.''
``Yes, that's right.''
``I see. Thank you doctor! Sorry if I sound rough, but please understand that I had to make arrangements from work just so I could receive the call in the morning that Staff Nurse staff-nurse-name said would come, but didn't actually get that call till now.''
``No problems. Glad to help!''
😫
What the flying fuck man.
Look, I understand the need to dumb things down for the lay person when it comes to explaining complicated medical conditions, but what pissed me off was the sheer condescending nature (bad attitude, but not that big a deal) and the absolutely incorrect terminology.
- colonisation
- The presence of the micro-organism, but without pathogenic effects.
- infection
- The presence of the micro-organism that is actively invading the body, causing pathogenic effects.
If the staff nurse said ``CP-CRE colonisation'', I'd just go ``I wakaru, thank you for the information'' and not have to ask any of the questions that eventually led me on that absolute waste of a perfect morning waiting for a useless call.
``But MT, it was just the morning!''
I would be less angry if that were true.
The thing is, that was no social call I was expecting---I was steeling myself for the hard/serious questions regarding the treatment plan that the community hospital had for handling this infection. Being on hyper-vigilance to wait for the call saps spoons, and by the time it was all done, I was completely drained of spoons.
I ended up taking a half-day sick leave (no MC) just to reset my mental state. I was that drained.
I had wanted to go cycling, but didn't because (1) I didn't feel safe enough to control my body with my then-current mental state, and (2) I hadn't charged my GPSr-watch that I used for tracking distances and other useful metrics.
So I ended up doing some ``arts and crafts'' by restoring the colour of the carvings of the key/maker/poem on some of my dizi with the gold Pentel acrylic paint that I bought on Monday.
It was messy, but the mess was easy to deal with (relatively speaking), and the end results were pretty that it helped me to defray all that innate anger and loss of spoons.
There are more annoying and stupid things that happened, but maybe I'll reserve it for a different day. Maybe.
Till the next update.
No comments:
Post a Comment