Frustration

Am I an FON-attracting magnet, &*$%#@??? ( FON = Full Of Nonsense, almost always applicable to patients +/- their annoying relatives or friends ).

10 minutes short of 3am, and I'm faced with another patient who isn't happy that she had to pay $65 for Nothing. Nothing, I presume, means (1) no medication, (2) not enough attention from the doctor, and (3) less than 15 minutes of chat-time.

Young woman in her early 20s, already seen twice by her GP for the flu, then developed an ?allergic reaction to "some pill". Claims it manifested as facial swelling, but during her first visit here yesterday night, she didn't bring the culprit medication, couldn't even tell me its name, and had completely normal vitals and physical exam. I told her to go to her GP later this morning because he'd already seen here previously, and is obviously more familiar with whatever meds he prescribed.

Patient returns at 2:30am, this time lugging a small plastic bag of meds and asking to see me again. I gamely go through everything and find out that Voltaren ( an NSAID ) is the main suspect, but that she'd already been instructed to stop it almost 2 days ago. The GP had even started her on the correct dose of Prednisolone for her allergy. Her friend kept insisting the patient's face is different from before, even though she's always appeared round-cheeked ( I looked at her IC photo, for pete's sake! ). Again, I advise them to see the GP because he saw her before the "allergy" set in, and is the best person to gauge how severe the "facial swelling" is. They kept blaming the GP, saying his medicine is lousy, etc. I told them they were wrong, that he's started her on the appropriate treatment and so on, but they didn't seem to care.

Finally, they hinted that they wanted a refund of the ER fees. I just refused to comment, after which they stormed out, with the friend saying "Hospital doctors are useless."

Complaint #2 on its way. Watch for it.

Which reminds me, I still need to answer Complaint #1.
Weak Humour in the midst of... I don't know anymore. Haha.