I just finished my last presentation in my pediatric
placement. Three more days and I'll
say goodbye to the sweet babes and to traveling between 2 hospitals.
Working
with children is really rewarding. It tests your ability to adapt, tolerate,
hold your tears & sometimes to
fight the
urge to slap the shit out of few(didn't had such moments, yet). Their innocence
made the strict working environments, the crazy reading materials, the unbelievable
number of procedure & reflective writing bearable. I truly enjoyed this placement.
I worked really hard ( I usually work hard in the first 2 weeks, then let's say
I just work.)..
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| A good reason to keep disinfecting our stethoscopes |
Here is a glimpse of what a normal day looked like:
_ wake up at 5:30 am, pray, shower, read and get
ready.
6:30
_ am take the bus
7 _ am
( or 7:30am in the 2nd hospital) reach the hospital and have
breakfast there (but not in the 2nd one)
_ 7:30 to 8:30 am morning meetings where
special cases and new admission
discussed.
_ 8:30 to 9:30 we
clerk patients to present them in the rounds (or not
,
if they were in hurry)
_ 9:30_11:15 ward rounds, where we join the
consultant and his team, get quizzed here & there (in the best of days) or just get ignored.
(Then 15 minute break where we rush to cafeteria,
library or go check patients )
_ 11:30am_ 12:30 bed side teaching. Where
a group of 4_6 students(under the guide
of consultant) torture a poor kid by practicing physical examination in turn (
not that bad). Then we discuss his/her condition in details, including
management options.
12:30 _13:30 pm lunch break.
13:30_15:00 pm presentations or seminars.
_ 15:30 pm
the bus take us home. Or we can stay on call and return home at 22:30.
That was my 3rd rotation (after Family medicine & psychiatry) in clinical years.
It hugely differ. But a good advice is
to read about the condition you see, presentation you have i the
bed side in the same day. Yes, you will have no social life, but for 2
months only. ( I start studying around 4 pm and hit the bed
at 22:00 or 22:30). Also, take each chance (even in the rounds or bedside to
make a procedure & get
it signed immediately). YouTube is of great help esp. if you want a break from
reading. Pretest also is a good way to motivate you to concentrate and to test how
much you know and it is educational!
I obviously wrote
that weeks ago. I am clearing my
overloaded desktop, so I post it for you guys ( yeah, you are welcomed hehehe)J
In the clinic, I saw plenty of
keratoconus. A condition in which the cornea thins out and replaces its nice
curve with a cone shape. Sometimes it is severe enough to be seen by naked eye.
The lower lid also form a V shape while looking down (munson sign). In slit lamp the cornea shows vogt's striae
which are stress lines from stretching the thin cornea . Occasionally the
cornea stain olive (feischer ring). Patients suffer from blurred vision, photosensitivity
and poor night vision. It can be treated by hard lens to correct the refractive errors, corneal
collagen cross linking or corneal transplant if very severe. 
Last night I had a sleep over . My graduated friends' internship orientation
coincide with the beginning of our school. I feel lucky they were here because I
was really feeling low. Yesyerday was thier last day. So we spent the night
together. Will I was holding my book trying to read most of the time. It was
nice feeling they were nearby.
"I
don't trust myself. I feel it is hard to do so when I feel ill. I have a bad
history with depression. It presented itself initially, like most cases in the
east, with somatization. Every time
I feel sick, I think it is a relapse. I ask myself what happened, is there
anything that possibly made me stressed & depressed? Am I eating enough?
Healthy? Exercising? And the most difficult one; do I go out enough? As a
medical student this is hard to answer. Am I truly busy studying or am I
avoiding getting out. The idea of going through that hell again is a pure
torture. 
