Danceforme

To awake with vague recollections of being described as Cushingoid has to be rather distressing.

And in all honesty, I ain’t quite sure what perturbed the most: obesity, having an unknown tumour within, or being unable to recall the causes of Cushing’s Syndrome. Or, being referred to a fellow classmate who has had relative success in combating the obesity of Cushing’s (not that she is obese in real life, but she probably has the management on her fingertips).

Nightmare or not, it’s time for some serious mugging (and gymming sessions).  

so that’s the last of clerking great ones, saviors and assassins

and the end of the bizarre medicine :)

Odd it is, that I’d turn to blogging again when I’m stuck at home with tons of patho notes to mug peruse. At least it’s pots, slides and the bf tomorrow, and then the exam next week.

And no more mugging this CNY =p
The sun still shines on a gloomy day!

caught a nice bit of sky when doing the P.M.S photoshoot

“Some monkeys keep setting new bench marks and gold standards or re-labelling them for the rest with strained resources to chase and copy, often blindly or for the wrong reasons.”

I think I quite like psychiatry now, with quirky quotes as such.  Now shoo and go read up on the oedipal complex. Psychiatry’s where normality’s the anormaly.. Hah!

Me so dumb. Gonna fail end-of-posting test. Me sad. =(

Labour Day and I'm at home recuperating. The travelling's wearing me thin but apart from the distance, CGH isn't quite that bad (plus I get to see YC all day hoohoo!). A refreshing change, really, finally doing something more interactive and being reminded why we all wanted to do med so badly then. 2 years of intensive lectures had somewhat dulled the aspirations; for quite some time, my ultimate aim was just to do reasonably well in school, and a far cry from what it started out to be.

And now for a brief writeup.

Day 1: Introductory lectures in school and then trooped down to CGH in the afternoon for more introductory sessions. Allocated lockers. =) Less stuff to carry around. And first bus service 95 reaches the mrt bus-stop at 7.15. Not very useful if you want to reach school before 7.

Day 2: Reported to specialist clinic F. Spent the morning standing behind a grumpy consultant who couldn't quite be bothered with us. Observed piles cases in excess (guess that's what got him grumpy). Got quizzed unexpectedly about the arteries of the leg and then discredited by whatever little information we could recall from our anatomy days.

Day 3: Tagged along the HOs and MOs for morning ward rounds. They could all speak Malay! Got acquainted with the cases, looked through some case sheets, caught a MO to help us interpret the pneumothorax chest xray. Consultants weren't too friendly. Thought Dr G looks cool with his goatee. And he was affable when he took us for cranial nerve tutorial, despite seeming a little stern when we first met him during the ward rounds in the morning. Some pretty interesting cases seen but not writing about it – Patient confidentiality.

Day 4: Back to school and then NUH for our communications module. Got a tutor who kept harping on Dell's service training. Met up with counsellee and more counsellors for dinner. Heard loads of scary hospital stories from greatgrandcounsellor. Oh mama, hope he was exaggerating.

Day 5: Mask-fit. WY took especially long since it seemed none of the masks fit him. Down to CGH again. Had lunch, went up to geriatric ward to attempt clerking patients with whatever little dialect we knew. First time speaking Hokkien, Mummy would laugh if she'd heard me I think. With an odd mix of dialect and mandarin we managed to get quite abit out of the old lady. Victory! Whoo!
General med tutorial didn't go quite as well. Tutor took us for an abdominal examination session. Initially we approached this elderly lady. But she wasn't too comfortable being examined in our presence and kept drawing up her pants. So in the end we found this other elderly patient who didn't have the ability to object. Our prodding woke him up from his slumber, yet he couldn't do much apart from stare blankly into space. Got some of his drool on my sleeves while palpating his neck. Eugh, no more long sleeves! And loads more practice required. I can't hear anything when i percuss. =( More practice more practice. Hurhur, YC here I come! 

How aptly-put, the reason we chose the profession.

The bf and I had a discussion the other day. Overly enthusiastic parents and applicants at the open house, it seemed, had pestered those at the medicine booth for answers to the interview questions. The bf didn’t think much of the issue. It’s just the additional bit of effort one makes to ensure a greater chance with the application. Nothing wrong with the extra preparation.

Yet knowledge of the assortment of underlying reasons an applicant heralds peeves me; Friend A thought it a good way to defer national service, Friend B applied since the girl he fancied did so. Hence, a stringent selection process is required to sieve out the insincere.

The interview is a straight-forward process any bona fide applicant easily passes. How daunting a task is it for one claiming medicine to be his calling to explain his passion? Pre-empting questions and rehearsing for them is perfectly acceptable. But to request for tried-and-tested solutions to disguise ill-intentions is unscrupulous.

Med school is one long arduous journey of boring facts. It isn’t mere intellect that carries one through, but knowledge that any minute description you pick up along the way could someday save a life. Moreover, I want to work amongst competent individuals, not those whose passion and sympathy fade even before we graduate, which I think it applies for the rest of us too.

Ultimately, it is simple and innate. If you’ve got it, good. Otherwise, you’ll just do better in another profession.