The Joy of Medical Practice

A Nun with a Sexually Transmitted Disease I first met Sister B. when she was working as a floor nurse, taking care of my father-in-law during his hospitalization for intractable pain from metastatic prostate cancer and a related depression. She was a very efficient, attractive, no nonsense young nurse who swore like a trooper if an IV infiltrated or some piece of equipment would not function properly. I did not know, at that time, that she was also a nun. She was usually dressed in scrubs with no name tag, nurse’s cap or habit. She was not the picture of solemnity that I associated with nuns. She came to the room one day to say good by to my father-in-law, saying that she would be leaving the medical floor for another position. She explained that she was specialty trained as an Obstetrics/Gynecology nurse and had been transferred to that service to be the head nurse of the maternity suite. The nun who had supervised that service for forty years had finally retired. Several years later she came to see me professionally because of a chronic conjunctivitis (pink eye). She had been seen by a local ophthalmologist who had treated her with various topical antibiotics and topical steroids. The red eye continued unabated, so she was sent to see me. I examined her and found significant follicular reaction in the conjunctiva in a distribution which told me that this was Chlamydia conjunctivitis rather than a bacterial infection. Unfortunately, treatment of Chlamydia with topical steroids tends to nullify the antibiotics and modifies the infection so that it takes about twice as long as usual to clear completely once the correct treatment is instituted for the Chlamydia. I explained all of this to the Sister and started her on the combination of sulfacetamide eye drops in each eye and oral tetracycline capsules. I asked her to return in three weeks for me to check her progress, but I explained that it would probably take six weeks or longer to clear since she had been on the steroids. The following day, I received a phone call from the Mother Superior of the convent. She was very upset with me and wanted to know how I could possibly diagnose a sexually transmitted disease (Chlamydia) in one of her nuns. I started to explain that Chlamydia could be spread by eye to finger to eye contact when I remembered that Sister B. was in charge of the maternity suite of the Catholic Hospital. I asked the Mother Superior if Sister B.was still in charge of the delivery suite. She replied that Sister B. was indeed in charge of the obstetrics unit. I then explained to her that the Sister was repeatedly checking women in labor and could have easily contracted the disease by careless handling of the surgical gloves or other contact with the women in labor. I also explained to the Mother Superior that I had never suspected that Sister B. had experienced any heterosexual contact in contracting this disease. The Mother Superior thanked me profusely for explaining this to her and ended the conversation by saying that she would have to hurry to tell the other nuns in the convent what I had said. Apparently the word about Sister B.had spread throughout the convent. The Sister was an attractive, younger nun with a rather free spirit for a nun. I guess the other sisters were not too hesitant to believe in the possibility of other ways she could have contracted the Chlamydia. She did take eight weeks to clear her conjunctivitis completely and had no further recurrences in the subsequent years that I continued to follow her. I certainly learned from her that all nuns are not alike. This was before I spent 13 years working at St. Francis Medical Center with nuns. I also reaffirmed the notion that it is good to know more about your patient than their chief complaint and physical findings. She came to me professionally wearing the Habit of the Order, but I remembered her from her care for my father-in-law. In retrospect, I should have anticipated the possible repercussions of a nun with a sexually transmitted disease. Perhaps, because I knew that she probably contracted the disease in the line of duty, I assumed that others would know the same. Obviously they did not.