whassup with tagboard man?

did my last night call for this medicine posting over the weekend. saw one patient with some very unusual disease but whose presenting complaint and physical exam were rather unremarkable. later we went into the isolation ward to examine a patient who was a case of suspected TB. that was the first time i had to don a mask to protect myself; the last time i needed to wear a mask was to visit a patient with stevens-johnson syndrome, so we wore paper masks to prevent us from making the poor man worse.

anyway, after that patient, the ho had to check on this patient who had just passed away. it was surreal, going into the room, seeing the ho check for pain and visual reflexes, and watching him arrange the bed nicely so that it would be easier on the relatives. the few of us medical students (yes there were four of us last night, much to the amusement of dr d and z) walked out of the room, and strangely, i didn't feel upset or anything like that at all. perhaps it was because i didn't know the patient, or that she was old and so it was "expected" (like how it was when my grandpa passed on), or that it was simply a defence mechanism kicking in. we hung around the nurses station while the ho did some paper work, and we started going through the list of differentials for hemoptysis and hematemesis. just like that. whatever the case, i still think that night duties are good opportunities for us to learn more stuff, especially the practical part. realised last night i'd better brush up on my clerking, especially "speed clerking".

watching the seniors follow the house officers around has made me think of elves and santa. heh. and this year's national song is waaay better than last years.