On Saturday, her elder daughter was with her waiting for the specialist. Since morning, they waited until lunch time, then at around 2.30pm they were told that the specialist had left the building! Her daughter who is a sales executive with enough experience dealing with other establishments, blew her top and scolded the nurses that the place was no different from a government hospital. Anyway, the specialist managed to see the patient and arrangements were made for laser treatment of her bone spurs in her spine, on Monday.
We arranged to meet for dinner at Tuck Kee restaurant in Pasir Pinji. Just when we sat down, her daughter saw a familiar face outside waiting for take-away service. She met her cousin and they had a chat and discussed about her mum's medical problem. It so happened he had similar bone problems and sought treatment from a Chinese physician in Lumut and was cured! This made the patient more unwilling to go through the laser treatment. We discussed about the implications with regards to her change of mind, like the charges and whether those would be covered by insurance under such circumstances.
The patient confided to us about her horror when she was about to go for MRI scan earlier. She said the tunnel of the machine when she was pushed through reminded her of a coffin being pushed through for cremation! With such horrific images and her fear of being paralysed in case of any untoward accident during treatment, she was telling herself not to go through. Therefore, the chance meeting with her nephew and his encouraging story about the alternative treatment, convinced her that she should try it before going for the laser treatment.
After dinner, we headed straight to the hospital to ask for either postponement or preferably cancellation because of her indecision. Anyway, my wife said it is better to seek a second opinion.
This morning, my wife took her to Lumut for the treatment. They have just been to our house in BG and she said that I would not believe how fast was the treatment. 'Your wife went to the toilet and came out, and it was done!' The Chinese physician even looked at her knee problem and did something to it. When she asked whether she need to come back for further treatment, he was slightly offended and replied that if he did not say so, then there is no need. He said some would rather delay recovery and make more money in the process. Cost of treatment: Rm80!
So we are now waiting to see whether she has been cured because she had a painkiller last night and she should know by tomorrow morning whether she feels any pain without the painkiller. I wish her all the best.
3 comments:
I am skeptical, KS.
I can't wait to know by tomorrow whether she is feeling genuinely well without the painkiller. Will keep you posted.
Bayi, I did not get to know what happened until evening. The patient felt pain early in the morning and contacted my wife to send her to Lumut again. The sinseh checked again and said he had corrected the problem but commented she had 'too much wind' in her body! They had lunch and while waiting to see my sister-in-law (doctor) she decided to go back to Camerons by the 3 pm bus. This morning, she called and said she is not feeling completely ok but presumably bearable. My wife thinks her problem is partly psychological and stress because she could not let go of her restaurant business even though it is well managed by her husband and sons! So I don't really know what to make of it!
Btw, at a house-warning party, we related this story and someone said he knew of a friend who was treated unsuccessfully by the same sinseh and went through a successful operation at another private medical centre in Ipoh. So each case is different and there is no straight forward answer.
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