Life as I know it has suddenly become almost to the point of being unbearable.
Another one of those days that are horrid even before you start playing it out. Have to endure yet another uncomfortable half hour of "breakfast" coffee, and there's that shitty clinic in the afternoon to run. I'd better disarm myself first - I might just break down and shoot that bitch multiple times in the head at close range. Another nasty event in the middle of the day, and it's even worse when you realise that your immediate superior really just couldn't care less. I.e., I'm facing it alone, and expected not to bunk it up.
I hate my job at this moment. I really do. It so matters who you're working with.
A late entry, but PHEW! Am I so glad the first of my 2 night shifts is over! It's pretty stressful at night, when you know that things can rapidly go downhill. On the other hand, the responsibility is so much less since you essentially only need to make sure they survive the night. That, and no pesky relatives at night. Quite liked roaming the hospital alone at night too.
Gosh, what a loner.
Anyway, it sure beats having to work like 36 hours at a go.
Starting a new job tomorrow, and with an EXTREMELY nasty clinic in the afternoon. Grossed out just thinking about it, really. Maybe I wont mind doing more night shifts, I was thinking. It's good $$ too. Just one more of those could buy me that camera i've been eyeing - it'll spare me those endless hours of torment beating myself up inside regarding buying it.
Made a new salad today that's pretty yummy! I've got the recipe up on the food blog, and will be experimenting with different salads soon, since mom and Yx are so enthusiastic about them.
Yx also made this yummy cabonara pasta .. oh yum. I'm starting to make loads of noise so that she'll make clam aglio olio the next time. Just had dinner, but I'm starting to feel hungry just by thinking about it.
Finally able to get through the entire night without feeling sleepy, and actually slept a whole 7 hours this afternoon thanks to YX.
Felt slightly annoyed last night though. How come the HOs nowadays are so slow?? In all seriousness, I do remember seeing 90% at least of cases before my MO even appears. Now, I get a text message regarding a new case, go there an hour later and the case is still un-seen. That is unacceptable. Oh, and they have the luxury of year 5 students tagging along, doing mundane bloods too. Ended the night with a big bang when someone spilt HIV+ blood all over my shoes - thank heavens for those Crocs!
Also, got quite irritated by one of those non-local people. The current system is as such - the half-call guy works from 5:30pm till 8.30pm, when he stops taking new cases. The rest of the next 1-2 hours, he spends it tying up the loose ends. So in the best case scenario, half-call person goes home at 8.30pm, though many of us have stayed till 11pm to finish up everything.
Now, I received a call at 8.35pm from the half-call, non-local person to hand over cases. And these included shitty things which could have been done if he had stayed to finish things up, as he should. Stuff like checking blood results etc. So that was peeve #1. Then at 9.30pm I got a call from him to make a referral for a patient. Apparently he had left, and the Reg called him up about it. Unfortunately for him, the patient was in my mother ward and my lovely nurses spilt the beans on him - he had rounded with the Reg barely 15 mins ago, and the Reg had asked him to make the referral then. WTF. Impression marks: zero.
Yep, it's 2:15 am and I'm still up, blogging away. Trying to get used to my new life for the next 5 days - work from 8:30pm till 8am. I might have to kip in my sister's room - it's the only room in the house that can get completely dark in the day. And of course, Brownie will be thrilled - and perplexed - to have me around in the daytime.
Had a great 2 weeks in Geriatrics. First off, my boss is fantastic. I come only 1 day each weekend, and I have anywhere from 1 to 8 patients. Plus, half the job is done by the lovely Geri Sisters - stuff like family background, home environment, and even stuff like mini mental state exam, residual urine and PR. It was useful for the delirium and dementia cases I saw too.
Did a trip down to St. Luke's Hospital with my boss last Thurs. It was such a thrill - we rounded 30 patients within the hour, and their rehab gymn is fantastic. Oh dear .. do I sound like I'm considering geriatrics as a career choice? My boss *did* bring up an awfully exciting, related field though. Related to both geri and what I originally wanted to do - a merger of the 2, if you like. Food for serious thought.
Saw this old couple at SLH. The man had a broken neck and dementia, and the wife was hale and walking about. They must have been like what, 80? It was such a sweet thing .. the man sitting in a chair with his neck in a stiff collar, while his wife was sitting right beside him, albeit nagging a little.
Some more pics that I dug out .. First off, the weirdest floral arrangement you'd ever find: Not the best of pics (taken on a VERY lousy phone camera) - YX's house actually has a KTV set!! It lists most of the new songs as well. Pity though, we're having a tough time fixing up the microphone. Hmm .. new hangout place, instead of spending $$$ at Kbox? ;) Time for plants. Sarracenia leucophylla "red tube" Sarracenia rubra ssp. alabamensis. This endangered plant remains extremely challenging for me. It tends to go into Sudden Death mode. But ooh, those golden-green pitchers! Nepenthes veitchii. Amazing pitchers, but yet another sporadic performer. Nepenthes bicalcarata - see those 2 fangs protruding from under the lid? Sunny side of the garden - a bright yellow Cosmos flower, with pink Vinca in the background. We discovered that YX is allergic to the Vinca (or periwinkle, as we learnt in Primary School under "Poisonous Plants") - she breaks out into a rash on contact with the leaves. Friend's apartment - how can ANYONE get a TV room, eh?? Projection TV, of all things. I see YX hankering after me about this one. Tonight - celebrating YX's brother's birthday. The little boy, with his ears held up and looking all foxy. Asleep on my bed, after flinging all his toys on it first. BTW, you notice that Doraemon has no eyes, or nose? No prizes for guessing who did that - on the FIRST day of getting the new toy. And that Wellington Bear used to have clothes on too. He's now working on getting the hat off. Molly (foreground) and Wally, cuddling together. It's strange, cos hedgies are not supposed to behave like that - they're pretty solitary animals. A shot at taking B&W photos - not too shabby for a first-timer with a prosumer camera! OK, I know .. not enough shadow details, yada yada.
OK, I made the hard decision of not submitting my forms when I had everything needed sitting in a file on my lap. Prudence should pay off, I think. =) There were like 3 hours left before the submission deadline came, and I went round looking for stuff to get busy with. Before I knew it, it was 5:05pm, and ooops. I haven't submitted the stuff. LOL.
Anyway, down with a very nasty cold now. Someone should come up with a polyvalent rhinovirus favvine or something. Granted, tens of other viruses can cause a cold, but at least we'd be spared the common ones.
Markets looking extremely scary now. Have this gut feeling that we're just sitting at the edge of a slope, at the brink of a free-fall.
Going to be stuck between nowhere today. Maybe I shouldn't have called up, but now some doubt has emerged regarding whether to apply for a traineeship position or not. First off, because of the darned national shit, my traineeship period only starts AFTER those 2 years. Yes, irregardless of how much time I have before that. And during the interview, I'm pretty sure they'll bring up the issue that I've never done a full posting of that specialty before. Eew, sticky. Maybe I should just go for 1 posting (the next 6 months), then apply during the next opening perhaps? After all the trouble I've gone through to get all the forms filled too!
Down with a bad bout of pharyngitis, resorted to antibiotics and serratiopeptidase to try and stave it off in time for Sunday's call. But TGIF. Having quite a lovely time in geriatrics now, but I still appreciate the time off on weekends.
Been having this very strange recurrent dream lately. OK, maybe not recurrent, but similar themes 2 nights in a row. It involves me approaching an old, run-down shack alone. Made of concrete and wood, and there's no one in there. It has like 4-5 rooms, one of which is perpetually locked. I'd be commenting to myself that there's this strange smell, and would inevitably try to peer into that locked room half-expecting to see a rotting body in there. Of course, it's empty.
Awfully creepy, isn't it? I'm quite sure it's something subconscious pinching at my mind.
It's an awful time to try and invest in anything I think. Every time you think it's hit a low, things slide a little further. Yes, even stuff like property (not that I can afford even a single room, lol). Oh well, shall just have to pry my itchy fingers off the "buy" button for now, even if things do look very attractive.
Got some good news last week, which essentially frees up my entire end-of-year period and allows for some holidays and planning. Pretty fun!
On the downside, the establishment has gone completely nuts. In this new system, you will find that: 1. MOs clerk every single new case 2. Registrars may have to review ECGs, set difficult plugs and attend to vomitting patients So what the hell do HOs do, you ask? Good question. I'm so against this new system, and it's definitely not because of some subconscious I-used-to-do-it-so-you-should-too mentality. A call for HOs if for you to learn - not textbook stuff, not consultant-level management, but how to survive. And this includes prioritizing between a new case of community-acquired pneumonia and a case of bleeding gastric ulcer that came in at the same time, while another one or two clowns decide to start vomitting after office hours, 2 plugs to set for antibiotics and bloods for cardiac enzymes. To me, that was part of the learning process - learning how to multi-task at night, and knowing who to see first, and what to do first.
OK, enough of grousing. Need to do some stuff now.
