We brought Zarif for his Cleft appointment at the Dental Clinic of PPUM. I was hoping to meet Dr. Siti but there was another doctor there. Kak Zuraini was also there since it was a Cleft Clinic Day. Cleft Clinic is open every first friday of the month.
My impression when I met this doctor named Dr. Aung was not so good. Anyway, he gave us an appointment for the surgery in September cos before that he won't be around. We also yet to go for an appointment with the Plastic Surgeon. So we told him that we have an appointment with the plastic surgeon. Then only we know that we can choose either him or the plastic surgeon to perform the surgery. One of the nurse, discreetly whisper to Kamal recommending us to go for plastic surgeon since Zarif only has a cleft lip problem.
After our appointment with Prof. Alizan, the Plastic Surgeon, both Kamal and I were very pleased on how he explained about Zarif's cleft problem and the corrective measure. A good doctor took half of the worry away ok!! We can't help but to compare between him and Dr. Aung. Prof seems to be more communicative and comforting. He is also a very fine looking man hahahhahaha... oooppss! ;p
Prof. Alizan arranged for an appointment for us to meet Dr. Aung again with regards to Zarif's lips. He wanted to bring down and make the left lips nearer so that it would be easier for him to do the surgery. The very next day we met Dr. Aung. Hmmmm.... sorry to say, his muka ketat already make me feel want to leave. He said, he find there is no need to do whatever thing requested by Prof as it will not help much. Anyway he asked us to wait outside while he tried to call Prof himself. There was a small incident happened, when he asked us to wait outside, I couldn't hear him so I said, "Sorry what did you say" and he gave me that look "itupun tak faham ker" and the nurse explained to me in Malay. I can understand English perfectly!! I just wasn't able to understand him!
While waiting, we saw Dr. Siti. Thank God!! Well of course she gave her point of view etc etc... She is a very pleasant lady... but with everything in our head we were confused, who to chose and on what based should we make our decision.
So, our helpline was Kak Zuraini of CLAPAM!! She said, since it is only cleft lip, it would be best for the plastic surgeon to do the surgery. Kak Zuraini is an angel... when I was calling her, she was actually driving. She told me she will call me in few minutes so that she can park her car and talk to me!
Anyway, coming back to the issue, Prof insisted us to meet up with the orthodontic Dr. Way. We managed to get an appointment with her. She asked us to do what they call it as "strapping".
It is not and will never be easy to see your baby like this!! So, if you feel like crying - go ahead!! Cry and let it out. Being strong didn't mean you can't cry.
Strapping is not painful for the baby. When the first time the doctor did this on him, I cried. I thought he would be in pain. Then Dr. Way told us that, it is not painful for him, it will just make him feel uncomfortable. Actually, after few days, we can see the result. His upper lips seems to tone down since their muscles are still soft and tender.
There are few things that I realized after meeting few doctors (either related to this issue or not) :
1. They love to use their medical terms when talking to the patient. Seriously, either incidentally or not, it is a bad habit. Unless of course your patient is from medical background by all means please go ahead. The purpose of explanation is to let the patient (from ordinary background) to understand you and their sickness. As such, kindly use the layman language here.
2. Doctors deal with sickness / cleft issue everyday as such it is a small matter to THEM but not to the parents. It may be a small thing to doctors but for us as parents, to put our child under the hand of the doctors, we need to be able to relate to him/her. It is no small issue here.
3. Play safe - in the process for us to make the decision who to chose from, the doctors didn't really gave us the ground base on what base should we look at. They love to tell us "up to the parents". From the parents who has no medical background we do not know how to decide. Would there be any wrong decision? What is best for our baby? In my case here - we are lucky to have Kak Zuraini!!
4. Be communicative! It is very important. I have high respect on Prof. Alizan, Dr. Siti & Dr. Way (orthodontic). They make us feel very comfortable to ask even we think it is a silly question.
Well, may be it is easy for me to say all this as I am not a doctor. May be doctors have more problems and worries to think about rather than comments like this by me.
