An outdated post

Happened to find this when I was stuck in the airport, with a lesson never to be late for flights cause there is a possibility of missing flights :) just thought I'd post this up here, as it is long overdue..

Musings

It’s been a month since I left behind the cries and amusing antics of children behind in the paediatrics department. My last few weeks in paediatrics was like a journey downhill after climbing up a steep mountain – increasingly exhilarating and enjoyable – in view of more people being in my department to share the workload and calls, and also because I had finally begun to enjoy working with children.

One of my memorable moments in general paediatrics would be of a 5 year old child with recurring leukaemia, who insisted that I took his blood for him, and even managed to remind me to be humble in the process. I had thought that after pricking so many kids at that time, that I would actually know which needle size was best for him. He said he wanted the “baby” needle and I told him gently that I am going to use a slightly bigger one because it’s just too difficult to get his blood with such a small needle. He gave in to me after I promised I would only try once.

I pricked, and he held himself steady. He squirmed a bit when I started poking around the obvious vein which was not giving me it’s contents. Bewildered, I finally gave up and removed the needle with no results. I swallowed my pride and asked him if I could try again, this time, he would show me how, and I would follow.

We did it his way the second time.

And no sooner had I inserted the “baby” needle, his blood flowed happily into my awaiting test bottle.

I later bought him ice cream as a gesture of saying thanks for teaching me to be humble and to listen to my patients more!

There were other memorable moments as well. Like the tim

e, I had to wake one of my long term patient to take blood at 5a.m – another 5 year old boy, who astounded me with the way he took his medications: No fuss, no crying, just drink it all up obediently, and then follow me quietly, even holding my hand, as we walked to the treatment room to have his blood taken. He even shows me which vein to take from, and sits down quietly beside me with fascination as I prick him and milk his blood into the test bottle.

I remember secretly wishing my kids would take their medication as well as he does in the future.

Then there were other kids who liked to play with my stethoscope, announce me as “doctor saya” proudly to the world, pat my leg when they needed attention, or simply did amusing acrobatics out of boredom.

There was one time, I was on call and doing my rounds in the ward. I had finished seeing my patients in the isolation room, and was writing down my entry at a table. I could see my patient, a 10 month old girl, amusing herself in the cot through a glass window. As I was writing down the vital signs, I almost had a heart attack because I saw that the student nurse had written her blood pressure as something like 50/30 mmHg, with a pulse rate of 120 beats per minute.

I stared for a moment trying to comprehend what stupid person would write such a thing and not inform anyone, my thoughts already in a whirlwind of what I’m going to say to the student nurses, and I happened to look up and saw my 10 month old patient doing acrobats, literally in her cot.

She was looking at me upside down and smiling, with her back in an arch like some gymnast, both her hands holding on to the rails. And the thing which made me laugh despite my annoyance was that she was licking the rails in a very funny manner, like she was having icecream.

Needless to say, I went and put her back properly, and then went to deal with the nurses, because another 5 year old patient of mine also had weird blood pressure reading. But I had a smile on my face as I was telling them where they went wrong. They repeated the blood pressures of the children of course, which turned out normal. Some times I cannot help wondering about the level of intelligence in my generation – is it really that hard to record what a machine says properly?

My first day in the emergency department was like myself being freed after serving a jail sentence. I felt so liberated and free, and for the first week, I couldn’t help smiling, and my colleagues said I had this glow on me. I didn’t even mind wearing lab coats again!

All in all, I had a great time in paediatric department and I learned a lot, not only formally but also informally about how to deal with young patients and their parents. It was an eye opening 4 months for me, and I really thank God for bringing me through despite the uphill climb.

However, I really enjoy working shift in emergency department, and I really hope and pray that someday, every single department in the ministry of health will encourage us to have shift system so that we can have more time to spend with our families and loved ones rather than work – there’s more to life than work! I like this 8 hour work thing, and on calls where we work from 8a.m to 5p.m, go back home and come back again at 10p.m to do our call till 8a.m the next morning.

Why can’t every department be like this?

I guess it’s because we don’t have ward work to do, which makes working easy because once we finish shift, we just pass over the rest of the patients to our colleagues. We can’t exactly do that in wards I suppose, or some unscrupulous people will be taking MORE advantage of other people (it’s common now anyways..).

Time in emergency department is flying by fast. I’ve already been in this posting for a month, and I’m enjoying my work, except for when I’m in the green zone where I get irritated by people coming with all sorts of nonsense and asking for medical leave certs from me, just because they have a cold or flu-like symptoms, with no fever.

Really learn how to be patient with patients here. I understand how general practitioners feel after this, and that’s why I don’t think I can ever open my own clinic cause I’d just kick anyone who comes in asking for medical certs from me for no reason.

I’ll continue my musings another time cause I’m off for on call in a bit.