A tale of two STROKE

A pair of White Lion Cubs

The 41 year old man, an Administrative Assistant at a school, one day told his wife that he was fed-up of taking medications daily for his high blood pressure. He used to attend a government clinic. Less than a month of stopping medications, he suffered a massive stroke, was in coma for two weeks and died without regaining consciousness. He died about a week after his wife delivered their second child. Being the sole bread winner, such an irresponsible act has deeply affected his family.

A 62 year old man was wheeled in today with signs and symptoms of a stroke. According to his children their father suffered from high blood pressure and had been receiving treatment on an ad hoc basis at private clinics. Without a regular review by a doctor, there is no objective way for a patient to know whether his high blood pressure is under control.

A regular review would entail keeping the present drug regimen or adding a new drug or increasing the dosage of currently used drugs. This is necessary due to the dynamic nature of the condition as one ages. Suffice to say that, an early death or physical incapacity due to stroke brought about by high blood pressure are preventable.

Gastric pain in Children

There are many cases of gastric pain in schoolchildren and upon further probing questioning, almost all of them admitted that they did not have anything to eat in the morning. Some even reported nausea and vomiting.It looks like breakfast is not considered important to go through the morning before lunch, that too if they do take lunch.

They come to the clinic hoping for an all-out cure for their malady and of course are duly informed that antacids would only give temporary relief. In this instance, the cure is the proper meals that they should have in the first place.

This morning a mother brought in two thin siblings, a girl of three and a boy of five. Both of them according to the mother, had been having "stomach" pain and vomiting for a couple of days but there was no fever and constitutionally, they appeared normal. Physical examination ruled out possible appendicitis but feeding history revealed that these two children had been left by the mother to fend for themselves at home. Nobody is looking after them as the mother only returns from work in late evening and the father works at odd hours. Obviously they did not have a proper meal and mealtime... poor kids!

The elder boy was so nauseous that he started to vomit on the clinic floor! Only liquid was noted.

It's hard to take those lifelong medications everyday.....

Chronic diseases such as high blood pressure (hypertension) and diabetes cannot be cured by taking drugs on a short-term basis unlike bacterial infections for which antibiotics are curative.

It is both interesting and at times rather frightening to see how these patients take their drugs, especially so when they have been prescribed with more than one drugs or those drugs that require to be taken three times a day like some of the antihypertensives and antidiabetics. Moreover some of the drugs have troubling side effects which need to be dealt with.

As they have to come to see their doctor at the clinic regularly these patients who do not take their medications regularly or as instructed would display some "manipulative behaviors" with the objective of pulling wool over the doctor's eyes. Some have not taken the medication for days but a few days before their appointment they would take the drugs so their blood pressure would appear normal and the doctor very happy... a few were caught because they think by taking the drug a few hours before seeing the doctor, their blood pressure would appear low but they did not take the day before, little do they realise that it takes time for the drug to act on the body to reduce the blood pressure!

These poor patients are only cheating themselves... these are the people who are likely to suffer from stroke and subsequent half body weakness (hemiplegia).

Some more "bizarre" medication-taking habits will be shared in later posting.

Pseudo-chest pain ... eight hours in the Casualty Dept!

At about 4pm, a man in his late thirties, came in limping and bent-over. His right knee joint was swollen almost the size of a football. He related how he went to the hospital emergency department complaining of chest pain and pain in his right knee the previous day. He was investigated for possible heart attack and was put under observation for about eight hours till he became so bored that he discharged himself!

One look at his face, his swollen knee and the way he stood coupled with the sorry tale of intense pain of his knee joint and inability to sleep, a trained medical practitioner would have concluded that his left-sided chest pain was in fact, muscle pain as the result of his abnormal bent-over posture to support his painful right knee and possibly aggravated by an abnormal sleeping position due to unbearable pain.

He diagnosed himself that he had gout, a painful swelling of joint due to high uric acid in the body. He even stated the amount of uric acid in the blood test ordered by his previous doctor without being solicited.

He was given the appropriate painkiller for "gouty joint" and at 3pm today he came walking normally with size of knee swelling much reduced and even managed to swing his right leg to show the nurse that he was fine, pain-free and yes sir! No more chest pain,(demolished by the same painkiller!).....by the way his ECG was normal yesterday itself.. no evidence of heart involvement.

Herbal remedies... sounds so good

Health seeking behaviours can be strange even among the educated, let alone the uneducated and the mentally challenged. This morning a lady in her early forties came in with swollen legs and feet, according to her, of more than one year's duration and what had she been doing about her aching and increasingly "fatter" legs during the long period? You are right... been using herbal remedies and she only came in when the swelling is so tight that her skin cracked and multiple oozing ulcers have developed.

Last week a man in his fifties presented himself with an unbearable back pain.No such pain before six months ago and when asked what he had been taking for the last six months? You are again right.. herbal remedies and this time from USA bought through a local direct selling agent. His X-ray shows stones in the kidney. Asked whether he could understand English, he replied in the negative... written clearly on the label of the tin of herbal capsules he showed was an advice to drink plenty of fluid when taking the herbal capsule as the calcium content was rather high.

A young newly married teacher had no menstrual period for some months after taking herbal remedies for fertility and similar outcome befell a pretty single executive who wanted to keep trim and took "Lansing alami" a herbal concotion from a neighbouring country.

Just the other day a 60-year old university-educated man with hypertension and diabetes argued that taking Bird's nest would improve his chronic medical conditions...The Almighty God, spare me!

A lovely surprise indeed!

Just when I arrived at my work place this morning, a phone rang and the voice on the other end gleefully wishing me a happy birthday, "Do you know that yours and my birthday falls on the same date?", Hah, that was the reason she remembered,anyway it is nice to have people remembering your life event, though I must admit at this age, many people would rather forget and tend to mentally bluff the aging cells and get on.
"Happy birthday to you too" I quipped.

I was having a teabreak when another phone call came in and the lady asked me to come up to the seminar room as some one wished to see me.... and you guessed it as I came up the door, they were all there, Maria,Pious,Susie,Zizah,Donny and male and female staff with two birthday cakes and fried meehoon and mee with eggs and all. I was very touched. They sang a happy birthday song and gave J and me a lovely bouquet of roses each...I returned to my room after just about an hour.

As I was admiring the flowers, I received yet another phone call wishing me a happy birthday.. this time from some one who I have worked with in a premier organisation and our collaboration had brought much benefit and whom I have not heard from for almost seven months after I left... good to be remembered and what a lovely surprise and thanks guys!!