Tuesday, February 26, 2008

RUNNING INTO OBLIVION

A doctor cum blogger friend related to me an incident which prompted me to write this entry. A husband and wife (patients) sought treatment at his clinic and remarked that he looked uncannily familiar and upon epiphany, they realized that they had seen a picture of him at his blog! The couple, too, happened to be bloggers. Now, such coincidences can be utterly embarrassing especially for us doctors. Imagine having patients coming to you and say, "hey I know you! You run that so-and-so blog isn't it?"

It's a bit like being superstars and having fans stalking you up, only that you're not artists but just someone whose profession requires you to mingle with people, all kinds of them. We've read how artists loathe the idea of their fans wanting to pry into their private lives, their personal day to day activities. No doubt, we, doctors, do not run our lives glamorously, but still, we have patients who think doctors as super humans, who do not get sick as it's beneath them if we, who treat their illnesses are not immune from them either!

Once, when I was working in a relatively remote area in Penang, I managed to get one of the kampong ladies to cook for me. She was a bit daunted initially. The reason being that she had this naive notion that we, doctors ate a different kind of food to delight our palates, compared to lay-men! When I told her that I actually took rice as my staple food, she relented and it vanquished her preposterous idea!

I've had patients who upon consultation on the methods of contraception would at the end ask me whether I practice any contraception myself and what was my choice! Blimey! These people are so blunt to even think that I would divulge such a personal info to them, lest the news will spread like instant bush-fire: "do you know that Dr A uses IUCD and Dr B had just gone for a tubal ligation?" So each time I get such tactless questions, I would dodge them or just answer obtusely that I don't practice contraception and let nature takes its course!

What's worse is when a male patient puts me similar queries or making remarks that can make me awkward, like :" You've lost weight doctor, taking slimming pills eh? Reductil or Duromine? or " Look at how the doctor maintains her figure, you should follow her", a male patient telling his wife who has grown rotund through out the years I've known her as a patient.

You see, in a doctor-patient relationship, doctors are extremely privy of many of their patients' personal issues, be it health, emotional etc. As doctors, it's a medico-legal crime if we expose a patient's info in whatever form out of the four walls of our practice. On the contrary, patients are not obliged into any oath in keeping whatever info they have about their doctors, confidential.

So just imagine, if these patients of mine, get to know about this blog. Essentially , they would be reading stuffs relating to my personal feelings, opinions and routine activities which I prefer to be under wraps. Next thing you know, they'd be referring my cats by their names! So should at any point, I get patients coming in and telling me that they read my blog, I'd then seriously consider to cease blogging or blog incognito! If one day, on typing my blog's url, you get a 404 error return, you know why! I'd probably then blog as 'drWho?' , with a blog named "Running Into Oblivion"

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

ha,spouses si bloggerpun kena tempias juga.some bloggers just write without thinking the consequences.PArt of what they write may not be sensitive to them,but not to their other half. KAdang-2 gerammm...

Anonymous said...

Ala Roza, apa yang takut sangat?

Many of my cancer patients nowdays straight away said, "Prof, I read your blog"

And from counter stats, I know many searched me via my name, ada yang try to give a subtle message, ha ha ha, dia ni cari guna "hasanah psycho", kesian dia, silently stalking and trying to communicate with me, silently. I hope dia dapat hidayah yang dicari.

Bila patients kata dia dah baca blog saya, ha senang cerita, tak payah la saya membebel fasal kena jaga pemakanan, senaman dan kerohanian.

He he he, yang belum baca my blog, is my hubby, but then originally, the reason why I wrote the blog is for him to have something of me retro, when I am no longer here. Then, he came with cancer also and now both of us live everyday being aware of our mortality. It is very good. Sorry panjang pula membebel kat sini.

IKHWANI said...

hehehehe....never had that chance people pointing me and say "hey, you are OO kan?" but of course I'm not a doctor and in my line of work, I seldom meet other people..like what kak has said here, ada pro and cons..sometimes nak sangat tulis yang personal issues tapi I know i can't . In the end I create private blog which only me can read the content.

Sis EZ, kdg-kdg ada baca wonder jugak..ehehehe..

dith said...

Easy- hmm..lain kali buat pact. Sebelum dia submit, let you screen the entry first and edit mana yang patut.:))

Has- Dont tell me, up to this day DH tak tahu pasal blog?

Has, you takper, orang popular, hehe

Onde2-buat blog baca sendiri eh? :))

mad redo1 said...

hopefully the 404 error would never appear when I click to your link doc, I need the prescriptions every now and then... hehehe...

IKHWANI said...

kak, sort of diary - ada public and personal jottings :-)) after all, I used to keep diaries since I was 13 and still keep ones after I found how to blog in 2004. But 2 years afterthat, I dah tak tulis diary dah..hence bila rasa nak betul-betul lepas tension and write something too personal for for my own record, kena lah buat private blog pulak. Macam daunting lah pulak nak tulis guna pen :p dah senang guna keyboard dah.

Anonymous said...

alamak....hahaha....I need a doctor to stictch my burst tummy. Maybe I should surf the blogworld!

Jamil said...

Well if it ever comes to that, just remember to include a forwarding address so that we know where to find you.

Anonymous said...

salams,
first of all, i dont know why my google reader didn't detect your updates. im lagging behind by two entries now. ish2 google reader ni.

secondly, i have to agree. even if im not a doctor, i still prefer things to be like this

i) you can read my blog and know me in real life if you yourself blog (and if we have previously mingled through blogs)
ii) surprise identification makes me want to run into a cave and pull the plug on blogging. its almost like being spied on or something
iii) if you don't blog, but read blogs, and anonymously too, don't ever think of identifying a blogger in real life. its quite rude.

then again, i just made those up as i typed. hehe. i suppose, for me, it depends on the situation. and if im ok with so and so, there really is no restriction in them reading blogs and identifying with my real life as well. but thats just me lah dith.

at any rate, should you ever go MIA via drroza, and decide to go under another name, don't forget to inform your loyal readers ye. :D

simah said...

stop blogging? akak..dont u dare!
where will i find such refreshing sweet stories that i can only find from bloggers like u?

pycnogenol said...

dr Who? - Ifos has finally updated after a month of silence. Well, at least she has the excuse of hibernating over the winter months. What excuse do you have for not updating yours?
InsyaAllah, I’ll update mine end of April for reasons already known to you. ;)

Anonymous said...

muahahahaha..... almost everyone not updating their blogs.

oh well, so you folks better not hounding me again.

pycno, good to see you again.

Anonymous said...

Hello, as you can see this is my first post here.
In first steps it is very nice if somebody supports you, so hope to meet friendly and helpful people here. Let me know if I can help you.
Thanks and good luck everyone! ;)

Anonymous said...

hey your blog design is very nice, clean and fresh and with updated content, make people feel peace and I always enjoy browsing your site.

- Murk


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