Holla!

It has been an eternity since I visited this blog! I'm glad however that it still exist :p
Wow so much has happened since my last post! I was reading a few of my old posts and couldn't help but laugh! I did sound very immature indeed! Lol It's funny how as a medical student I had a totally different perspective of things and how they have changed now that I'm a doctor.

So a bit of an update about myself, I'm more than halfway through my internship. I gone through general practice, rehabilitation medicine and I'm currently in my last week of emergency medicine (tomorrow is my last day!). Next stop: general medicine, which honestly seem very scary; but I'm sure it will be a rotation where I will be learning a lot :)

Well this is going to be a short post; I'm running out of words! Though I feel that I should be blogging more often.

Till next time!

Med School: Officially over!

Med School: Checked!

I can't believe that I've just finished 5 years of med school! It is so unbelievable that I won't be going back to school...

At the same time, I am excited about starting a medical career...Excited and very anxious as well! The whole load of emotions is very difficult to explain! It's as if I'm happy, sad, anxious, terrified, and in denial..all at the same time!

Honestly, if anyone asks what I do in life, I'm still going to say that I'm a student! Lol well at least until internship starts! Well I'm not a doctor yet and neither am I a student...It's just holidays for now!

To all of those who are still in med school: Good luck guys and enjoy it! Med school is awesome :)

Nostalgia...

It has been a very long while every since I actually wrote something on this blog... So much has happened and I don't know where to start!

Well maybe I should start by saying that I only have 4 weeks left in med school! Yes 4 weeks only and I really don't know how to feel about it! 

I am excited to finally be working next year, terrified about the fact that I'm going to make real decisions about patients, sad that I'm leaving med school and a huge load of different emotions!

5 years in med school and it'll be over soon... I just can't believe it!

I still remember the first day. There was transition camp which was supposed to help us making the transition to med school easier and also allow us to make new friends and everything... Oh the memories! How sweet they are :) Of course, there were bitter ones too but I am happily willing to let them go down the drain :)

I still remember the first time I had to do a power point presentation! I felt so proud of it after I spent hours on it and little did I know that I would spend the rest of my 5 years doing such presentations! And well, I'll probably spend the rest of my life making them anyway too...

I remember the time when I bought my stethoscope...Navy blue of course :) I went with the idea of buying a black one but when I saw the navy blue, I felt completely in love with it! I had to get it for sure and felt so happy just holding it :) I felt like a doctor somehow...

I remember the first time I step into the wards and into the OT. Well honestly, I remember more of the OT, it was a laparoscopic surgery and I had no idea what was the procedure called or even what the surgeon was doing but it felt so great to be just standing there with a mask! Typical junior medical student! lolz

There were so many first times in med school that I will always remember and unfortunately so many last times as well... Last time I walk from my studio to classes, last time I skip classes, last time I have lunch at zz, last time I go to the student doctor shop or the last time I see the hospital...

It will soon be time to close this chapter of my life and to start a new wonderful one but I can't help looking back and feeling sad that med school is indeed over! Most adults I have met have told me that uni days are the best days in one's life and they may probably be right...

I'll miss being a med student...

Confused

Today was one of those days that everything seemed blurry.
I woke up at 6 am and I thought 'Oh my, I feel as if I went to sleep only a minute ago'. I was so tired and somehow 'confused' that I actually took an earlier bus! I should probably be happy about that though...

So anyway...

I am currently doing my aged care rotation and medical students usually are responsible of doing MMSEs on every patient that gets admitted.
So, after lunch, I went to see my first patient and conducted an MMSE on her. She actually turned out to be more oriented that I was!

Me: What day of the week is it?
Patient: Friday
Me: Well, it's actually Thrusday
Patient: Oh really?
Me: Yes

It was only when I was writing her score down that I realized that it was Friday and not Thursday! I was so embarrassed...I quickly apologized to the patient and confirmed that she was correct.
She laughed and said 'I think you need one of those tests too'

It has been a terrible error on my part and could have led to:
1. A wrong MMSE score - meaning wrong assessment of the patient
2. Get the patient confused

In this case, it was fortunate that the patient was well oriented to person, place and time and had no cognitive deficit. If it was someone with cognition impairment, it could have led to more confusion!

Morale of the story: Be focused on what ever you do and always check the date and time before doing an MMSE.

Being on time

I think my previous blog post totally jinxed my day in the OT! From non-happening to completely happening...

It started all well, I woke up earlier than planned, grabbed breakfast and headed up to the OT. But then...I got scolded for being 3 minutes late... Sweet...
Don't get me wrong, I do understand the importance of being punctual and I actually put a lot of emphasis on it so I guess instead of finding 101 excuses of why I was late, I should just accept that I was slightly late and make sure that I arrive earlier.

And for some weird reason, I had decided to not properly fill my logbook and yes I got a bit scolded again! Totally my fault that I did not properly record the procedures correctly on my log sheet.

Anyway since I did not record that I performed bag-valve-mask during the days I have been in the OT, I was asked to do so on the patients who came in for ECT. I guess I should somehow be thankful because I finally managed to learn (under pressure) how to properly maintain an airway and manually ventilate a patient.

The rest of the day was quite normal if I may say so.  I observed an epidural being done and had an opportunity to observe how the anesthetist manages a patient with multiple co-morbidities, which was interesting and confusing at the same time.

My anesthesia posting is not so bad after all!

Anesthesia

It is ironic how every time something interesting happens, I think about writing it on the blog but by the time I reach home, I’m too drain out to even type it out.  And eventually, this poor little blog is left neglected.

Well anyway, I am now doing anaesthesia and I’ve been meaning to share with you my thoughts about how I am finding this new rotation.

Even before starting anaesthesia, I had this voice in my head telling me that it was going to be a boring two weeks in the OT but I had to remind myself to stop being judgemental and to give it a chance.

I must say that it was one of the few rotations where I got a proper introduction by the clinical supervisor and later on, we attended a small clinical workshop on intubation. I have had three days in anaesthesia so far but I haven’t had to chance to intubate any patients yet. I hope that I will have the opportunity to do so later on in the rotation.

How the days go about depend entirely on who I am attached with. There are some doctors who are enthusiastic to teach, others who happily answer all of my silly questions and then there are those who do not want to be disturbed and who don’t want me to touch anything at all.

Sometimes I take a small stroll out of the OT and go observe the ECTs that are being performed. I think that my love for psychiatry takes over me from time to time and I think it is pretty obvious at times. One anaesthetist turned to me and asked ‘Are you interesting in psychiatry?’ and I happily nodded of course!

I usually spend the rest of my time in the OT reading my book and asking questions if the doctors are willing to answer me. Otherwise, I stared at the GA machine or watch the surgery, wondering how long did the surgeons trained to be where they are now.

Anyway that is how my first three days in anaesthesia have been so far.  I hope that I will enjoy myself during the rest of the posting.

Do not guess!

After a patient was stabilized in the red zone, the ED physician gathered all the students around and asked us to interpret an ABG.

A simple answer like metabolic acidosis was not enough... I forgot to add with hypoxia! And being dramatic in nature, the tutor sure had his way around making us (or at least me) feel like a total idiot. He kept on questioning us about different aspects of an ABG as well as how to deal with a patient with acute pulmonary oedema. Unfortunately, we all made the biggest mistake when answering some of his questions: GUESSING!

Anyway after what seemed to be a lengthy bedside tutorial with him, one of the main message was:
When you are in the ED and you don't know something, say you don't know and do not guess as this might lead to the death of your patient!
He added that if we were in the medical wards, we could go ahead and guess and come back one month later and change the diagnosis....as I said, he is a bit dramatic :p

Well, lesson learnt! I think that as a medical student, even when I am not sure, I either tend to guess things or say what I am thinking.
I think that this has both its advantages and drawbacks.
Speaking your mind during a bedside teaching is actually beneficial in my learning process and it also shows that your mind is working rather than just nodding like a parrot.  But in some instances, especially in emergency cases, guessing would probably lead to the death of the patient!

I think the message he really wanted to bring out was to know your limitations as a doctor in terms of knowledge and abilities and to accept the help of more senior personnel when you are unsure about what to do.