it was an epic struggle in mind, to decide if i should go home after lecture today or stay on to clerk. in the end, my lazy/tired/zonked out mind won. when i awoke from my nap just now, i wondered how i have survived the full day clinics the past few months. heh.

saw this guy with a recurrent infection last week. apparently he had gout and concomittant diabetes, but he defaulted on treatment and turned to tcm instead. now, i'm not saying anything bad about tcm here, but in this instance, it was more of a detriment than a help to the patient. since he had joint pain, the tcm practitioner stuck a couple of needles into his shoulder, and it seems that he's got an infection. his upper limb joints are all hurting symmetrically, and there's a large, fluctuant mass on the dorsum of his foot. perhaps a healthy person would have fought off the germs, but after refusing meds for diabetes (30 years according to the notes), they can only load antibiotics into him and hope for the best.

there was also this woman who was newly admitted for a bad fall, and the ho told us to clerk her first while she sent another patient's bloods off, so the three of us set off to meet her. we said hi, asked her what was wrong, and she replied in cantonese. then suddenly, she began to speak a weird language, like she was speaking in tongues! no one could understand her, and her daughter told us not to listen to her. an indonesian maid taking care of one of the other patients in the ward said she claimed that she fell down because she was looking at a handsome man. heh.

talking about handsome man, does anyone think that it's weird for a guy to comment that another is "quite handsome"? i mean, just out of nowhere, to say something like that?

watched "pirates of the caribbean" over the weeked, and i must say, although it's a tad long, it makes for substantial entertainment. johnny depp is excellent as jack sparrow, but keira knightley and orlando bloom are disappointing in their supporting roles. fantastic eye candy yes, but when up against depp's wonderful sense of comedic timing, they might as well have been mute.

going off now for yet another "catch-up" dinner. it's the only secular thing i do that keeps me sane.