Welcome to my post. Here, I share two stories of patients I recently consulted in my chamber.
Story One
One of the last patients of the day came with mild ankle swelling for the previous month. The swelling wasn't huge. On some days, the swelling was less, on some days, it was more! He was a hypertensive patient and on medication. There was no pain in the ankle joints. His urine output was normal. There was no facial swelling. I advised serum creatinine, one of the kidney function tests. Surprisingly, it was very high- 9.5 mg/dl (the normal upper limit is 1.4 mg/dl). The report didn't match his clinical condition. We repeated the test. It was the same result. We rechecked with a new sample. Still, it revealed the same result!!! The management of the case was beyond our capacity. I contacted a medicine specialist in a nearby private hospital (there is no nephrologist). He suggested either sending the patient to the government hospital or persuading him to return to his Homeland (considering the high cost in the government hospital). I explained it to the patient and he agreed to go to his Homeland!
Story Two
One non-Omani, an almost 60 patient, came with a wound to his right foot. He was a diabetic. Around 2-3 days earlier, he sustained a minor trauma to the affected area. Later, it turned into a pretty large area of pus-filled blisters! Being a diabetic, it was quite a dangerous wound that could spread pretty fast. I cleaned the would. The full-thickness skin was sloughed out already. After cleaning, I added some oral medications and asked him to see a surgeon for a second opinion!
I hope that you enjoyed the short stories. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.
Dr Hafiz