Specialist #2

1 December 2023

After the visit to the first specialist, we pretty much decided there wasn't any point continuing.  However there wasn't any improvement in the situation.  SE was upset at being asked to eat/drink and being monitored to do so.  While she agreed gaining some weight would get people off her back, her behaviour was obviously the opposite - exercising a lot, drinking a lot of water, preferring plain and low-fat food.  Hubby urged me to take her to another doctor while my parents had the opposite opinion.  They thought that doctors wouldn't be helpful, that was better to monitor her at home and not subject her to more medical visits. 

After some weeks, there didn't seem much choice as the situation wasn't improving.  I made an appointment with a doctor at Sunway Medical - her next available slot was weeks away so we had to wait.

Waiting

Our appointment was at 3pm, we arrived early but only got to see the doc after 4pm.  

Doc chatted with her for some time, asked her what book she was reading, things like that.  Quite nice compared to the usual way of asking what the problem was.  Eventually she asked SE to go with the nurse to take her weight.  And immediately told me SE's condition was not good.  She said that overseas, people like SE would be hospitalised already.  She advised to stop school, not to have any physical activities.  She said she would need to work with a dietitian on this so we later went to consult the dietitian.

We left at 630pm.  It was a long day with a bad diagnosis at the end.  I had clung on to a shred of hope that the situation wasn't that bad and this hope was totally dashed.  Despite that, my dominant feeling was relief.  I had answers to my questions.  And I had the feeling that we were in good hands, that we could trust these people and all we had to do was follow their advice.