Because the mind - mine, at least - is rarely as idle as the physical body, it is only now I can put my thoughts on this virtual paper, mainly on Orthopaedics as a whole. Partly also because a few others have done the same, and there is no harm in jumping on the bandwagon...
So. MCQ was like a migraine attack, One Best Answer some sort of retribution, PMP was a breath of rather suffocating air, clinical exams was...is there a single English word or expression that incorporates the notion of what-have-I-learnt-all-this-while-oh-God-is-there-no-hope-for-me-at-all?
If anything, the finals had made me doubt whatever beads of knowledge that I have gathered during the course of this posting. Practically everything, from the site of pin insertion for skeletal traction, the antibiotic regime, and if I belong where I am.
But! One of the beauties of medicine is that we more often than not learn more than what is enumerated in the syllabus. It's not just about the disease - one must always treat the patient as a whole.
The ward is a good place to observe human behaviour, be it patients, visitors, doctors and fellow peers. When one is ill, that's when one either puts down all his or her defenses and pretences, and resolves to whatever solution - although the aptness of said solution may be subjected to debate *cough* - that guarantees escape from the predicament...which actually includes utter despair and surrender to whatever Fate has in store. Upon the infliction of pain, some would have no qualms to simply throw one's sense of self-reserve; others might even view this an opportunity throw their weight around.
And yet it is this same problem that can bring out the worst in people. I suppose in that aspect one would be forgiven in thinking that being in the wards would be no different from, say, driving on the road.
Yes, the wards, where one can see a spectrum of human behaviour, from the very good to the unbelievably bad.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Orthopaedics: Final Impressions
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Open Season in the Mountains
There will often come a time when we are stripped of our personal protection gear, to be held hostage or as an open target for others - more often than not, those people whom we are inferior to, and almost automatically cower in fear due to this vulnerability felt in their mere presence - to open fire at us, at least in the form of words. I say words, because "verbal abuse" would be too over the top, with no reflection over the true situation and, decidedly, very much unjust especially if said words are most deserving to the recipient. God Forbid notwithstanding!
Clinical exams are one thing, viva is another. Speaking from past experience in third year - not much, but sufficient to quote to prove one's point - as one stood with the examiner, it felt as if the rest of the ward melted away to a state of nothingness; a mere backdrop, and whatever sound, movements and hustling about faded to make room for the one who would decide if the student before him/her was competent and knowledgeable enough to pass and move on to the next stage. Although one may be able to still stand properly and tread away with a normal gait, these are no helpful indicators of the nervousness that permeated throughout one's internal milieu; indeed, tachypnoea, diaphoresis, tremor, pre-hypertensive blood pressure readings, chest pain, headaches, aberrant patterns on ECG, and some other deviation from the accepted standard of normalcy within the medical field may very well manifest themselves.
A form of adrenaline rush that had never failed to knock one over regardless of his or her own preparation prior to the event.
Friday, January 01, 2010
Doorbell
1. Days and nights, and its 2010 already! Is it just me or have I been too immersed with the past that the present is overlooked and the future forgotten?
Oh, well, happy 2010, people! Praying that whatever awaits us in this year is best suited for our cause and...meaning in life.
That aside, it means Ortho exams soon! *facepalm*
2. I doubt that I have any serious histrionic tendencies, but why do I get attention when and where I least want it? Argh.
3. Still indecisive about what case I should select for my fourth case write up.
4. Sherlock Holmes is epic. So epic that I see Avatar as secondary. The latter has mesmerising graphics even without the 3D feature, but Sherlock Holmes has intelligent story _and_ awesome action scenes. Compare the mystery to Avatar's a la Pocahontas-FernGully-hybrid story and any sane mind with genuine appreciation for story telling would know which to go for.
...then again, this Sherlock Holmes fangirl is already biased from the start.
Current Music: 21 Guns - Greenday featuring American Idiot Cast
P/s: Sherlock Holmes OST, me want!
