My lovely patients

Although I've only been in this line for a year, I have met a variety of patients.

Some gets on my nerves, some bosses me around like as if I'm their slave, some are over-inquisitive, some can't be bothered abt their illness, some are patronising, some are weird, but there are also some who cares abt my well being, makes me laugh, respects me, treats me like their daughter/granddaughter.

I have days when I do feel frustrated, but sometimes, at the end of the day, it's the patients who make me smile and laugh all over again.

Introducing some of the lovely patients I have met...

Mrs C is a lovely lady who has been having multiple admission with diarrhoea. Each time she got admitted, she gets told that there's nothing wrong with her, and she gets sent back home again. Finally, after thorough history taking, I diagnosed that her diarrhoea was due to an anti-diabetic medication she has been taking. After stopping that medication, her diarrhoea resolved. I remember how miserable she looked when I first met her, but now that her diarrhoea has resolved, she's all happy again. Every morning when I'm doing my ward round, she would be happily smiling while sitting in her little corner, waiting for me to ask her my daily questions. And whenever it got to questions abt her bowels, she'll happily tell me that it's resolved. She's also one lady who loves taking walks, hence, I'll always find her strolling around the wards using her walking stick. She never fails to say "Hello Doctor" with a motherly smile whenever she sees me too. Because she's so petite (much smaller and shorter than me), she's like a little girl to me. I remember having to coax her to let me do blood tests on her one afternoon, since she claims that her body will run dry of blood with such tests being done regularly. "Your body will not allow you to run out of blood" I said to her. It was only then she looked at me like a scared innocent child, slowly putting out her arm for me to draw her blood.

Mrs A is a patient who has poor control of her diabetes. As a result, she has recurrent infections and blood flow problems in her foot, which is so bad that amputation was the only option left for her. But she has repeatedly refused the operation. She looked really pitiful when she asked me what she should do about her foot. I explained to her the options, bringing up the option of amputation. As expected, she objected and told me the reason why. "Let me show u what I can do now" she said. She pushed herself slowly off the bed to get onto her wheelchair, and then pushed herself up slowly to get onto the bed. I could tell that she was very proud of what she could do. "Doctor, without the amputation, I can still do this. But if I have an amputation, I might not even be able to do this again. The surgeons said they can give me an artificial leg, but they also mentioned that there is no full recovery and there are complications with the surgery too." she said, while tearing and massaging her infected leg. I could tell it would kill her self-confidence if she loses that leg.

Mrs T is the typical granny with a hunchback. This morning, she was sitting at the doorstep of her single bedder, smiling. "U look happy." I said. "I love sitting here, because I can watch people walking past and being busy." she answered. And when she got bored in the afternoon, she went to the nursing bay and sat behind the nursing desk. She was looking really cute with her smile. She was to be "Ward Clerk T", our ward clerk for the afternoon. She seemed to enjoy a lot sitting there, while I do my writing next to her. She also decided to pick up the British National Formulary to read, and when she realised that she didn't understand anything, she just threw the book aside with a frown.

Mrs W is a confused patient who gets lost in the ward all the time, but everytime, she would still get up from her chair and mobilise around the ward with a walking frame. She isn't very steady on her feet, hence, she has the tendency to fall when she's not careful, resulting in bruises on her face. But because she's so confused, she never remembers what has happened, and would wonder all the time where she's got the bruise from. She's also the vainest patient I've ever seen, despite being in her 80s. Everytime I see her, she would be combing her grey curly hair. She's also fussy about her dressing. She's never in hospital gown, but in proper quality sweaters, skirts and stockings (she insists that it must be from Marks & Spencers). She also makes sure that her clothes matches well with her shoes.

Mr W is a patient who has visual hallucinations, which is due a psychiatric disorder. He has this pair of eyes, which made me wonder if he was a looney when I first met him. But with the appropriate medications, the hallucinations are now gone. Every morning when I see him, he would be happily sitting on his couch, enjoying his cup of tea. I could tell he was one happy man who loves company and visits, because he never fails to talk non-stop whenever I'm on the ward round. It does make me feel bad each time I have to stop him from going on forever, since I still have patients to see.

Mr S is a patient in his 40s, but due to an extremely rare neurological disease, he is no different from a 12 year old child. His disease is genetic, and his mum died at a very young age from it. Apparently, the descendents of patients with this rare disease will die at an even younger age compared to their parent. There is also no cure for this illness. In other words, he's just waiting for his time to go. But he's still happy everyday. Just by watching him, u will realise how life can be happy with even the simplest things. He would be in joy when u say simple things like, "Wow, that's a very nice t-shirt u've got on". I feel small about myself whenever I think about how much unhappiness I have created for myself with my needs/wants in life. I was asked to do a mini mental state examination on him, and honestly, I hate doing this test on patients because they take a long time. But when the nurses went "Pleeeeeaaaasssseeee", I couldn't bring myself to reject. Just to make the test look less interogative, I sat on the mattress next to Mr S and told him that I shall play a game with him whereby I will award him points for getting answers right to the questions I will be asking him. "OK!!! I LOVE PLAYING GAMES!!!!" he replied excitedly. It made me laugh many times while doing the test on him, because he looked really lovable when his eyes would look up into one corner when he's thinking of the answer. He loved the maths component the most. "I'm good at Maths!" he exclaimed. Obviously, he wasn't with a score of only 1 out of 5. He was disappointed at the end since he only scored 13/30, but his smile still told me that he had enjoyed this game session. And I also enjoyed myself as well.

Mr B is a psychiatric patient who got kicked out of a home because he had beaten up another patient there. Hence, he has been waiting for months in the ward for a suitable placement. He definitely looked like a looney with his messy hair, weird way of walking, and dirty clothes. I was scared when I first met him, but with time, I realised he was like a little boy who loves curling up on his bed when he's bored. He would also come out of his cubicle to look for the nurses when he's feeling lonely. And if u buy him something really small, he will give u a very bright smile, and love u to bits.

Mr W is a demented patient with weird habits. My Registrar told me that it is highly impossible for a person to hyperventilate for a very long time because it tires a person out. But Mr W is someone who manages to do it without getting tired. He just does this without a reason/cause. He also loves to cough and gurgle, and for those who have never met him before, would panic and think this little old man is choking. Even I got tricked many times. He's prone to getting hospital infections, which accounts to why he's often in an isolated room. But he doesn't know that he's got an infection, and continues to come out of his isolated cubicle all the time. And I often have to chase him back into the room. "Why can't I come out?" he would often ask, giving me a puzzled look of a 5 year old. I would then have to lie that there's a lot of infections going on outside his room, so he has to stay in the room to prevent getting infected. "Oh!" he would say, and then hurriedly shuffle himself back. Little does he know that he's the source of infection on the ward.

Mr E was an elderly gentleman whom I pulled out from the gate of death. His condition was poorly despite me reviving him, and honestly, I had never expected him to last very long. But things started picking up for him. I never though patients would remember me if they haven't seen me for a long time, but when I went up to his ward to insert a venflon, he smiled when he saw me.

Mrs X was a middle aged patient who had bleeding from the back passage. She had a phobia for cannulation because of bad experiences when she went into labour during her younger days. A nurse had to talk to her to distract her attention whilst I inserted the cannula. It was success at my first go, and before she knew it, I had finished cannulating and taking bloods. She was so pleased with me that she praised me during the Consultant ward round. The Consultant on call then said, "Looks like she did a good job. Shall we let her do your colonoscopy later?" Mrs X was really happy when she heard that, and did ask me later if I was going to be the one doing the procedure. "If I were to be the one doing it for u, it will not only be a failed procedure, but I might even make u end up in ICU" I told her. She was a bit puzzled, until I told her that I'm too junior to be trained for this.

Another Mr E was a patient with an irregular heartbeat. He was difficult to cannulate, and many have failed doing it on him. However, I managed to cannulate him at first attempt, accounting to why I would always be looked for by the nurses whenever he needed a new venflon to be sited. I was still a green doctor when I got to know him, and wasn't very confident of myself. But he placed a lot of faith and confidence in me, and I have never let him down by succeeding to cannulate him at first go everytime. On his birthday, I also performed cardioversion on him to revert his irregular heartbeat to normal. This was also successful, and he gave me a big hug when he woke up from the sedation.

Mr L was a patient with depression. His wife and him would always want to speak to a doctor for their queries, and I was always be the one speaking to them. Many times, I would stay after working hours to talk to them. I must have gradually formed a bond with them, because he had asked if I was willing to be his god-daughter before he was discharged.

Mrs Y is a confused patient who has been to every ward in the hospital except the Children's ward, HDU and ICU. Another social case. She's extremely deaf. U have to write on paper to communicate with her. Shes loves her food very much, especially on Fridays where she'll be served Fish & Chips. She would always offer me a Chip when I'm doing my ward round during her lunch time.

Mrs J is a heart failure patient. She enjoys guessing which country I am from, but always gets it wrong. Being determined to make a correct guess, she made her husband buy her a world map, which she will spend time referring to daily. It's quite pathetic that she still couldn't get it right after a long time when there were only that few countries in Asia. I had to tell her where my homeland is, and from then on, she never forgets.

These are only some examples of patients I have met who have made my life in the hospital interesting.

It's meeting these people that makes me feel at times that it is worth putting myself through the hardcore training in med sch, and slogging my ass off at work.

Lunch of the UK Doctor

No doubt free lunches are provided by drug reps and during weekly teachings, but with the same type of food everytime, there must come a point where we get sick of it and subsequently develop a phobia.

Having spent so many years in the UK, western food has become something I'll violently object to if someone suggests it when taking me out for a meal back home. I know it's rude to go "Can u not have western food pleeeeaaasssseeee?" if someone's treating u, but with sandwiches like at least 3 times a week for so many years, I can't put myself through swallowing more of the gunk. Fortunately, Dearie HATES western food, or else it'll be a torture having him bringing me for western dinner with the typical thought of ppl these days that it's meant to be high-class and romantic. I think I would rather find a plate of roasted chicken rice and a glass of soya bean more romantic that slicing up a steak.

It sucks when your tummy is grumbling during the ward round, and u're kinda losing it since your brain has decided to go on strike frm starvation, your legs are sore frm all the climbing of stairs n endless walking (if there's a walking competition, doctors r bound to win), and your patience is put to the test with a patient screaming. The ONLY thing that gets you excited is a nice lunch, only to realise that it's "Sandwich Day" again.

Then u decided to be cheeky, and skip teaching to avoid sandwiches, happily going to the canteen, hoping to find something nice to fill the tummy. And...

TAaaaaaaDaaaaaa!!!!

In front of u is a menu with a list of sucky food that honestly, isn't appetising and not really fit for proper human consumption. Makes me wonder how the British live with food like this for the rest of their lives. Do they even care abt what goes in? Or food is just.....foood?

I can just about imagine how overjoyed I'll be when I get back to Sg. At least having fishball noodles for lunch everyday beats having the crap I'm eating here.

How not to get depressed in this place huh? How can I even put on any weight here?

Last on call in the UK!!!!

WooOoHoO..!!!!!

Finished my last ever on call in the UK. Ha! Makes me wanna laugh my head off thinking abt how I'm not going to receive rubbish calls from the wards after hours to review looneys, to pacify little old ladies and men to take their medications, to catheterise male patients (I'm really bad at pushing back the foreskin for elderly gentlemen), to review poor mobility patients who insist on getting up on their own feet without assistance, to do venflons (three cheers for this!!!!).

Reckon I'll have more of this shit when I go back home to work, but I'll wait till then...hehehehe.

I've been working so hard, and here's the evidence...

Hahaha...my torn and tattered ugly shoes (what u expect when it only costs 9 pounds..bought it cos it's comfy) decided to split into half.

And my socks decided to turn "holey" as well.

The Registrar on call today made me laugh with something he said...

Me: *sneezes* Excuse me..

Reg: Bless u

Me: Thank u..

Reg: Never say thank u when someone says "Bless u" after u sneeze

Me: Why?

Reg: U'll kill an angel when u say "Thank u". And u've just killed one.

Me: Really?! Where?! *amazed*

Reg: There it is. *points under the table in the corner*

Me: *looks under the table* Hahahaha...yeah right..

It's brilliant having nice Registrars around :)

Introduction

After much thought and encouragement from friends, I decided to set up a new blog to purely document various happenings of my life in the hospital.

It is a regret that I have only decided to do this after I have graduated from medical school, and will be finishing my Housemanship in less than 2 weeks' time. Throughout my years in medical school and my year as a Houseman, there were many unforgettable memories, many of which I still remember very clearly, but have not documented faithfully into my own personal blog.

Being a doctor has been my childhood ambition, and I love falling ill when I was a little girl, as it gave me the excuse to see a doctor. I would then entertain myself by admiring the white coat, stethoscope, syringes, colourful pills and xrays. Medical playsets were my favourite toys. When my aunt was a medical student, I would often go to her room to mess around with the skull model (it was a real one!) in her room, enjoy letting her examine me with her various fanciful medical equipment, and amaze myself with the colourful photos in her medical books.

To me, doing Medicine is fascinating. And I often asked myself when I was young what life is like being a medical student/doctor. The typical answer I got was "Tough life", but no one had actually spent time telling me what it really is like whenever I asked. I only got the answer when I became a medical student and later a doctor, myself. And I'm still in the midst of discovering further.

I assume there would be many out there who are just as curious as I was before, and hoping to find out more. Hence, this blog is set up for this purpose; to serve as an entertaining (I hope!) read for the curious, and a diary of my days revolved around Medicine.

This blog is open to anyone who is interested, so do feel free to share the link with your friends.

P.S.: Unfortunately, I will not be able to give daily accounts of my days in medical school, but I shall post up an entry giving an overview (but not too brief) of it soon. So stay tuned!