Friday, August 10, 2007

Disturbing how it sounds like as I pee if you say it the wrong way

End of the first week of EssEyePea, and it's been quite the rollercoaster ride this week. I don't think the acclimatisation phase is ever enjoyable because learning curves are steep and you need to shoot up fast because people don't stand around waiting, nor should you expect them to. After that I've been quite enjoying myself. I'll just write whatever I can write without revealing too much sensitive information.

Well the acclimatisation isn't quite that bad for me as for others, probably, because firstly I'm in EssJeeH for the EssEyePea, a hospital that I've wandered extensively in my four elective postings and know quite well, while people who haven't spent much time in this place will find it confusing (as I did when I first started, and actually I still get a bit disorieted sometimes and take a wrong turn, especially when I'm thinking of something else) and not know how to get from one place to another quickly. Secondly I find myself ending up in the exact same team that I was in during my Neuro elective (I guess some people would call that lucky) so all the faces are familiar except the HO, and I already know the rough schedule of ward rounds and teaching sessions in Neuro, as well as how the team works, so it's all the more easier for me to pick things up quickly and get the hang of things. An unfair advantage, if you wish to call it that.

I guess I'm quite happy in Neuro, though I would have liked some exposure in another part of Medicine that I have never done an attachment with (so far, only Internal Med, Neuro, Gastro, and some Renal during Med posting), but I'm also glad that I have more exposure to Neuro because I can never learn enough neuro - things keep dropping out of my head after learning them. And most of the team has been really nice and supportive so far, so that's really great. And I'm quite liking the job - I have this mad obsessive-compulsive pre-occupation with discharge summaries because they appeal to my frenetic organisational side. Procedures aren't that great but they're a necessary part of a HO's job so we have to do them, not to mention they're an essential part of the EssEyePea assessment. Neuro has relatively less procedures though, so hopefully we will still manage to do enough by the end of the posting.

I'm starting to think if I could do magic, just one spell, then I would wish to be able to do a Summoning Charm - "Accio casenotes" during ward rounds would prove to be infinitely useful because somehow the notes always go missing no matter whether you leave them at the bedside or at the nursing counter. Come back half an hour later and they'll be divided into their component file, IMR and parameter chart and strewn at different corners of the nursing counter, obviously meant to make the process of finding them as frustratingly difficult as possible. I've taken to pulling out a trolley to put the case notes on so the nurses know not to divide them up and stash them in different corners, but even so my trolley gets mysteriously moved (though thankfully the notes are still there). I'm starting to understand the frustration of a nurse/doctor when medical students take notes and disappear.

Had my first night call on Wednesday, National Day eve, and converted it from a passive to an active call because the HO was so very nice and taught me quite a bit of very useful stuff, and also because I had to be in hospital for ward rounds on National Day anyway. Managed to do some procedures but somehow kept failing much more than I succeeded; the HO was nevertheless very supportive and said it's great to get practice now because at least I still have him to turn to, but when I'm a HO I can't possibly run to my MO with every failed blood. Quite amazingly I didn't feel very zonked out yesterday even though I had about 2 hours of rather fitful sleep, and even during the night I didn't feel very sleepy because the time seemed to zoom past.

My HO is on leave from today onwards, so it's left entirely to us to play the HO role, though the MOs are quite nice and help to do quite a bit as well. I'm going for rounds on Sunday while my fellow intern does the rounds tomorrow. That's already quite good because I fully expected going back both days (and actually at this point I'm feeling ridiculously enthusiastic enough that I'd happily do it if not for the reg insisting that we didn't both have to be around).

Lalala, I love EssJeeH.

(Wonder how convincing it is to take everything negative out of a story, post only the positive components, and expect people to believe it as the full truthful tale. Ha.)

I watch this horoscope show on cable TV (I mostly find it disturbingly accurate, like when they reveal one by one certain star signs that are associated with certain behaviour e.g. being a childish parent, being bitchy at work, I find myself being able to predict if my star sign will appear rather accurately) and according to it, my horoscope prediction for next week will be: I will be very hardworking, and also reap great benefits from my work, but this also means I will be very tired and exhausted due to work, often working overtime until late at night. Hmm, I could have guessed that. Haha. More EssEyePea for me!

Avaris / 8/10/2007 09:51:00 PM

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