Saturday, June 04, 2005
it has been a very hectic couple of months since the 2nd professionals ended.
csfc has been a totally new experience for me. pretty exciting actually.. felt almost like half a doctor.. the white coat, the stuffy long sleaved shirt, the stethoscope (never mind if i still can't make out the difference between a PSM and an ESM, let alone a MDM or a EDM.. damn sometimes i can't even hear s1 and s2..).. well cheap thrill.. after a while the thrill of looking like a doctor wears off.. and the reality of me sweating profusely under the white coat and the long sleaved shirt sets in.. and the inadequacies of my 2 yrs of medical education are fully exposed when u can neither make head nor tail of the confusing constellation of signs and symptoms you are bombarded with.. and the blank stares and puzzled faces when asked for the causes of cyanosis and the side-effects of digoxin and the different causes of jaundice.. and you finally realise you still have a long long way to go..
if there is one most valuable thing i picked up from the course, it will have to be communication skills. it is something i have dreaded in the past, speaking to strangers and relating to them.. but surprisingly, i now find it quite a joy to talk to patients and finding about their conditions and how the patients feel.. especially the older patients who are often more than willing to share with you their life experiences.. it is very funny when you ask them one thing and they can veer off track to talk about something totally unrelated.. but i think being there to just listen is already a great comfort to them.. and it does brighten up my day too when i see them smile.
of course the language barrier has been one problem we constantly face when we talk to patients.. in fact more than half of the patients i talk to are non-english speaking.. speaking in mandarin is okay, in fact i find myself more comfortable speaking in mandarin.. but hokkien is something i need to work on.. many times i find myself stuck when i want to ask a question or say something in hokkien, especially when it comes to the more technical terms.. malay? even worse.. my understanding of the malay language is limited to simple verbs and nouns like saya, boleh, sakit, makan, minum, baik, barek etc.. trying to pick up words here and there but i still can't form a sentence in malay, let alone hold a conversation.. wonder why no one ever told me that it is important to know my dialects and malay when i enter medicine..
sigh i have been posted to surgery alexandra hospital.. so far except for 2 forgiving souls who told me that the tutors there are very nice, everyone has been telling me it is the worst possible place one can be in for surgery.. i really do hope it wont turn out as bad as they say it is.. i dont want to fail my first posting in yr 3 and go for a reposting.. maybe mugging the whole of bailey and love might help haha..
anyway next sat is church camp.. my first ever.. held at putra jaya, near kl i think.. i hope it is fun.. going to be involved in the games committee and one of the songs sessions.. pray for willingness to serve others and for good fellowship with the punjers.. looking forward to it!
i'll worship You, my God; 12:06 PM
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