med school mumblings...

Friday, October 27, 2006

well well well. first they change the name of our school, then they decide to tear down the library, and now guess what? they've removed systemic patho from the second year curriculum.

like, wow.

i don't know what to say, since i doubt very many people in our batch ever feedbacked to the department that systemic patho was useless in second year. it was a mad cram before pots yes, but it formed the basis of our understanding of diseases. without patho, what significance does an enlarged liver have? i'd feel rather lost during clinicals if i were them. man, this is so weird.

have gone into a book buying spree over the past two weeks. gotten several books, including one by amy tan and another by roald dahl. i've just finished john grogan's marley & me, which i bought on friday. it's a lovely book, and is a must read for dog-lovers. i'm glad that i've read it, because i seem to be buying more books than i can read. i always tell myself they're holiday reads, but when the vacation rolls along, i can't bring myself to pick up a book, even if it has got nothing to do with medicine.

dancing has just become more exciting. my teacher announced yesterday that she hopes to teach us ballet at intermediate foundation (inter-found in balletspeak) level. this is big news, for me at least, because inter-found requires pointework. one of my biggest regrets in quitting ballet as a kid was that i thought i would never ever get a chance to do pointe. well, never say never. if all goes well, i'll be en pointe in a few months' time. whoot!

and so i plod steadily along towards the year end holidays. psychomed has been interesting thus far. the psychiatric ward is so different from the other wards. there's an odd serenity to it, none of the hustle and bustle of a general ward. it's so quiet you can hear the fans whirring, and when you step inside it feels like an empty classroom with the lights and fans on. clerked a schizo patient there, who at first glance seemed pretty normal, but who later began to talk about how he could hear the people at the coffee shop below his block speaking ill of him. he knows he has a mental illness and is hurt when he "hears" neighbours whispering amongst themselves about his condition. he's 40 years of age, has a dad who's got schizo too (which ups his risk to 6%), and hasn't been able to hold down a job since, in his own words, his "breakdown" 12 years ago. he knows he's on risperidone and an antidepressant, and claims he is compliant with his medication. riveting, no? one thing about psychomed is that every patient has a long story to tell, and it's fascinating trying to understand what's going on in their minds. intriguing.

Sunday, October 22, 2006

new layout. i'm not very impressed by this design actually but i was really itching to change it and this was the most appropriate one i could find.

psychomed starts tomorrow. i'll be in a new cg, of which i'll be the group rep. the other five members of the cg are interesting and wacky people, to say the least, and since we'll be together for the next one and a half years, i expect exciting things to happen. heh.

i'm so glad for this break, even though it was just for one week. did a fair bit of shopping and got my much needed dose of retail therapy. also got a chance to hang out and let loose on friday night at dxo, something which i haven't done in a looong time. i think i gotta do this on a regular basis man.

and, i finally got my jazz dance started. it's great to be in a proper class with syllabus and structure and an exam to aim for. half a year of open ballet and jazz classes got me nowhere, but after three lessons in this class and i can jump better. love it.

anyway, i've had to change from tagboard to flooble. can someone tell me what happened to tagboard? has it been taken over or what? i've never used any other message board; might change to tag world or shoutbox because the advertisement at the bottom of the flooble chatterbox is kinda irritating.

Saturday, October 14, 2006

the end of surgery has come. wow. it was a really uneventful last day actually. grands, then morning rounds, having one final tutorial on tubes and drains, and trying to fill up my silly very important logbook so that i could hand it in to the office. there wasn't a chance to say goodbye to the team cuz they disappeared into the ot immediately after grands to begin a 14 hour operation. oh well.

these eight weeks i've learnt a lot, and i can say it's more than just clinical skills i learnt. i've seen good medicine being practised, i've heard the doctors' stories, and i've discovered more about myself and my direction in this chosen career. i've seen two patients, both of whom reached critical points in their conditions, but having the joy of watching only one patient climb back from the edge at the last moment. he went from grade one hepatic encephalopathy to sitting up in this chair and smiling and laughing and thanking us profusely for our care and concern. the other is slowly slipping away, severely jaundiced, ascitic and dyspnoeic, partially due to the fact that he has opted out of the hota act. he was the last patient i saw before leaving the chalet hospital yesterday. he was slumped in his bed, and a family member was holding his hand and leaning forward to speak to him. it's an image that will probably stay in my mind for a long time.

two months here and i'm beginning to appreciate what favour is. it was only in the last week that it dawned on me how blessed we were to know the people we knew - mr teddy bear, mr longan aka la bi xiao xin ( i swear i didn't come out with that!), mr r-, mr pck, mr army boy ( whom we found out on our last day that he's got other talents besides playing computer games) and the nicest ho to date.

ah, how i will miss chalet surgery. but i look forward to the change in subject, and also to redoing the layout of this blog. a change is as good as a feast, is it not?

Friday, October 06, 2006

can't believe i'm week away from the end of surgery posting. it's gone by so much faster than medicine. will definitely miss doing surg at chalet hospital. heh. according to the various schedules which came out this week, my next posting is psychiatry at the western hospital. ugh. that's so far away from my place! and to think i'll be back to do emergency medicine there too.

after two weeks of urology, i've decided that uro so isn't my thing at all. i was quite enthusiastic about the subject since i thought it'd be a change from gs, but man, i just couldn't bring myself to like it. the team was nice though. they're a bunch of funny guys who made us laugh.

since my surg test is over (hurray!) i spent nearly the whole day in the ot. saw a myriad of cases, from a sebaceous cyst to a radiofrequency ablation. it's the longest i've ever spent with the team, and seeing them in their element in the ot was quite an experience. some of us got scolded, for different reasons, but one of these scoldings produced an unexpectedly funny line from an unexpected person. it instantly diffused the situation and is easily the most memorable quote from a doctor at chalet hospital. heh heh.