Sunday, March 11, 2007

To start the chemo or not start the chemo, Why is this a question?

As a fresh graduate I started working in the King Hussein Cancer Center. One day we admitted a lady (I'll call her Fathiyyeh) with colon cancer to the hospital and we were about to start her regular cycle of chemotherapy.

Before starting the chemo we had to check a few blood tests. I checked them and they were OK, so I wrote an order to give the chemo to the patient and told the nurse about it. That was just before 7 pm and the nurse shift changes at 7pm, so I told the nurse to pass it on to the next nurse, Layth, who is a very pleasant and hard-working guy with some sense of humor. I wrote the order in the chart to make sure it would be done.

I left the hospital and it was Thursday night, I went home really tired, and at about 10 pm I got a call from Layth the nurse.

Layth, "Dr. Faris regarding Fathiyyeh the lady with the colon cancer, shall we start the chemo tonight??"

I said, "Yes, I checked her labs and they were OK, so start the chemo tonight"

Layth, "So you're saying her labs were OK? Start the chemo?"

"Yes, they were fine, I wrote the order in the chart, it should have already been started..... start the chemo now, start it now"

Layth, "Do you want it to be started tonight or tomorrow?"

"No, tonight, we have to start it tonight, start the chemo tonight, START THE CHEMO TONIGHT"

Layth, "OK, I just wanna tell you that we already have started the chemo at 7 and she is tolerating it well"

"Then why did you call me??"

"Well it's Thursday night and you are probably out with your friends and I thought you'd really feel good if your friends around you heard you screaming on the phone to start the chemo now and yelling on other people"

I got the joke, then hung up and went back to watching, alone, the football game in the second division of the Sudanese league.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL, that was funny.. The title attracted me, I thought it will be a medical issue regarding cancer, since my grandmother is refusing her chemo therapy and we are backing her up, but that nurse is something, he is funny :D

M Kilany said...

Great post... unlike maioush I found it a bit sad...

Anonymous said...

M Kilani: it is sad that the woman is sick, and I can relate to that, because as I said my grandmother is suffering from cancer for a while, and I fell trouble about it :( , but I liked the joke that nurse did.. I thought it was cute a cute joke :) .

Anonymous said...

yes, it is a funny joke :) good to have some humour when you are working with cancer patients ,,, or may be essential, if you come to think of it !

7aki Fadi said...

Sudanese league??????

Ayman Elkholi said...

OMG *ROFL*

Layth is an awesome dude!! wished I had a nurse like that:P