Temptations & Ambitions

Being in med school, physical examination is a must. I have yet to do a proper one after 6 weeks. What could be the problem? Lack of patients? Yes. Laziness? Yes. No "interesting" findings? Yes. Hmmph.. perhaps it's time to get "physical".

With time running short, slacking is not an option. I've done both of my case write ups, so all that matters now is the long case. All I need to do is to clerk a patient, get 'physical', and present to my supervisor. Of course, we'll have to make do with the investigations, diagnosis and treatment, in short. 2 more weeks to end my 1st posting of the year. By the time the 1st years finish their orientation week, we'll be having holidays, so I guess it's time to visit the old campus.

Being in the hospital is not always a pleasant experience. With thousands of potentially harmful microorganism flying in the air, waiting to infect someone at each single opportunity. I sometimes rather trade my place with the US army in Iraq. At least, they die of something larger than the minute organism. And the threat is much lesser.

Every morning, the hospital would be filled with the stink of shit and urine, especially when the janitor is cleaning up the organic waste for disposal. What a day to start fresh. That is when we start scourging for patients to clerk, and believe you me, any patients staying more than 2 days in the ward would be sleeping all day long. Reasons? They've enough of medical students. You can never wake them up, as the saying goes, "You can't wake a person who is pretending to be asleep." Sometimes, you might catch a glance of some patients who scamper to their bed in an attempt to snuggle under the bed when they hear the approaching footsteps of the medical students. To them, life must have been hard like a refugee.


Well, not all ends up like that. There are certain few who were willing to be clerked.

"Must let you all clerk, so you all can learn mah, next time you can be doctor and treat other patients."

I tried hard to hide my grin.

Because they are those that had just been admitted for a day or two.

They haven't seen REALITY.

In 2 days time, they'll have to scamper just like the rest, being afraid of the students. VERY AFRAID. Or perhaps VERY ANNOYED.

We can ask you the same questions thousands of time. Different people, same question, every 10 or 20 minutes. We can even train you to be a medical student in the process.

Plus if you don't mind the agony of stripping over and over again for physical examination.

The wrath of interogation will prove too much, unless for "some".

Well, I forgot to mention that those "some" who survive the wrath are those who are depending life-support. Severe cases. We wouldn't want to send them afterlife any faster.

In the end, no one would really like to come here. I don't blame them.

By the way, I'm not one of those who did the above cruelty. Maybe that's the reason I do at most 15 patients in 6 weeks. Not 50-60 of them. So, the next time you're here, don't worry. Call me to attend to you fellow readers/bloggers. I'm more than willing to help.