A Brief Entry

three weeks of final year have gone by, just like that. we're less than 9 months away from the big M and there's much to be done.

paeds posting
having a posting at the big kids' hospital has been pretty good, even though it's been fairly dry this week. heard from my classmates in the other paediatrics department in singapore that one ward there has been closed temporarily, making the patients in the remaining ward all overclerked. we've been blessed with nice tutors, especially the registrars, who are super busy but are so willing to teach. we'll need to make better use of our time next week though - much of this week was spent wandering around trying to source for cases instead of actually focusing on work.

"all in a day's work" at the hospital includes helping parents babysit cute infants, playing with nai (non-accidental injury) kids, and comforting a mom who blames herself for her child's condition. that last one...was tough. mom showed no signs of grief until we reached the part regarding initial presentation/birth history. then she wept and blamed herself for "ignoring his high fever for many months till he fainted". she wailed and we felt the eyes of the other parents on us. my cg mate comforted her, and we made a quick exit.

we were pretty stunned, and went through the notes to try to piece the story together. the cause of his condition was neonatal (ie approximately at birth and not later as she mentioned) and i doubt any child could have survived a high fever (t max of 40 according to her) for such a long time. i'm not suggesting that she's lying, but it's clear that she's under lots of stress. someone was suggesting we write in the notes but of course we didn't. maybe we should have written something like ?carer issues, and hope that somebody picks that up.

life
one week to the break. woohoo. am really looking forward to it, not just for the hiatus, but for the jam packed weekend schedule that i already have. lots of meet ups with old friends, meals, performances...yay!