long time no update!
am sorry :( hope this post finds you well!



have started OB/GYN rotation. is hell on earth.

actually, i do love OB/GYN. it's really really fun and interesting to boot. however, the early hours and the countless tests are driving me up the wall, coupled with the huge amount to study and the fact that in 4 weeks time, i'm going to be sitting for a BAO (bachelor of obstetrics) instead of the usual end of rotation test. it's a degree!

and that is enough to freak me out.

BUT i love what i'm doing, i love seeing patients, i love the surgeries despite how bloody the c-secs are, i love deliveries, i love gyn onco, i love urogyn. everything else is passable.

in short, i'm having the time of my life. except for the studying. ah.

i faced the dreaded OSCEs!

hopefully i'll wrangle a pass somehow. over here i'm not quite sure if failing one station means an overall fail even if we pass the rest but i'm really quite hopeful i'll make it. failing this means failing this rotation in ortho and means having to forgo my electives next year so i'll really be quite devastated!

i'm pretty certain i passed 4 out of 5 stations, the 2nd station being a very big dubious question mark. our OSCEs this time round concentrated on clinical examination in ortho, namely the knee, hip, spine, hand and shoulder exams.

spine station was easy, PID/DDD no questions asked. patient (all patients are actors by the way) was perfect, giving positive signs and cues without my even asking at points. but managed to piss examiner off with my bowstringing test, apparently the examiners don't quite concur?

hip station was horrible. the patient complained on hip pain. and i have not a clue on how to do a hip exam. thank goodness my tutor was in the room and greeted me cheerily when i entered. as usual, i managed to bumble the exam by starting on the pathological side first (a BIG no no - always examine the normal side first!). patient wasn't as helpful, but very obliging. tutor even went," oh just skip that part" when i was spouting my usual drivel about wanting to fully expose the patient, saving me time. BUT i forgot Thomas' test (which is very very VERY impt in hip exam) and i almost forgot to measure limb lengths until my tutor pointedly asked," ditzy, are there any more tests you wish to perform?" TWICE. and he had to discreetly point at the measuring tape too. OMG. if he wasn't my tutor, i think i wouldn't have half a hope in hell of passing this station. this is definitely one dubious station. i hurriedly diagnosed the patient as having secondary osteoarthritis likely due to his fall on his buttocks many many years ago. geee.

shoulder exam was mostly alright, except i misdiagnosed the patient as having an impingement syndrome rather than a partial rotator cuff tear. hope that didn't count too substantially!

hand station was fine, carpal tunnel syndrome with split sign on ring finger. positive tinel's easily faked by patient, but she gave positive phalen's in BOTH hands. eh? nevermind. the prof was super sweet and let me off real quick after i cursorily tested for intact radial and ulnar nerves. i quite adore her!

knee exam is usually my best station, but this time, i bungled it up. didn't test range of motion, didn't test fixed flexion, forgot my sequence, didn't test fot collateral ligaments. luckily tester was a fairly nice and jovial prof who hinted broadly at my missing tests, but i didn't have time to complete the examination.

sigh.

well, 4 out of 5 isn't too bad! hopefully my overall score will pull me through.

it's really funny. i usually have no love for ortho, but when i was studying for this OSCEs, the unbridled thought of : oh, i LOVE ortho! came to mind, for no rhyme or reason. strange. maybe i really do love ortho after all!

it'll be sad to leave this posting, i had fun for the most part. but there's still more OSCEs to come at the whopping end of rotation test in 2 weeks time with long and short cases to go. hmmmmm.

i'm nearing the end of orthopaedics! it's been surprising, but i do appreciate the straightforward nature of it all.

the standing in clinics though, is wreaking havoc on my poor back. i have paravertebral muscle spasms! i really need to learn to change my horrible posture.

meantime, tomorrow we're off to the cerebral palsy association. it makes me sad to see CP kids. they're really, awfully, terribly sad, especially the quadriplegic ones. there was this quadriplegic CP kid i remember seeing in paeds who was abandoned by his family. no one even came to visit him. i remember standing by his bed watching him and trying not to cry whilst he rasped for breath, his stridor audible through the ward.

CP. so important to know to pass paediatrics and MBBS, so devastating to the kids and family (depending on which type it is - some are near normal!)

but i believe all these children are in God's hands, as am i.

trying a random test online from xavier's blog! :)

so which specialty am i most suited to?

1 urology
2 radiology 41
3 pediatrics
4 obstetrics/gynecology
5 gastroenterology
6 colon & rectal surgery
7 ophthalmology
8 general surgery
9 dermatology
10 med oncology
11 radiation oncology
12 orthopaedic surgery
13 plastic surgery
14 hematology
15 emergency med
16 anesthesiology
17 physical med & rehabilitation
18 otolaryngology
19 family practice
20 infectious disease
21 neurosurgery
22 rheumatology
23 endocrinology
24 cardiology
25 nuclear med
26 thoracic surgery
27 aerospace med
28 pulmonology
29 nephrology
30 general internal med
31 allergy & immunology
32 neurology
33 psychiatry
34 occupational med
35 pathology
36 preventive med

hoho how interesting! those in bold are those i'm interested in. rather odd! but it's only a test after all.

and i'm highly please that GS has made it into the top 10. but as much as i know i love surgery, i know that the lifestyle is crazily crazy, and it's not for me. so for a while now, my top choice has been urology, and i think the test all but confirms it. :)
suffice to say, i'm very happy! but that doesn't mean i'm discounting other choices as well, of course :)

so school starts again, back to the wards we are!

and i'm doing orthopaedics now. grumble grumble grumble. (instead of OB/GYN as orignially planned due to a stupid mix up in the admin department) i should really have lifted weights over the holidays in preparation for gruelling exams on knees on guys twice my size.

and i can forget about wearing dresses and heels this rotation because orthopaedics requires sheer brute force :\
at least i still get to wear make-up! unfortunately the early mornings have all but killed my affinity for my make-up bag, and as a result, i look hideous. i'm too lazy to even wear my contact lenses!

it's the first week into my rotation, and i have already:

- cursed my medical school for mixing up my rotations

- been scolded for not knowing anything (many many times)

- impressed the prof by knowing what "orthopaedics" means ("straight child")

- diagnosed a ganglion (purely by hearing what it is from my friends and having no prior knowledge)

- been labelled an airhead by 2 tutors at least (not a good sign obviously)

- fallen asleepy in a tutorial (of which i thought i was doing a good job hiding it, until my tutor pointed out that i was very obvious, much to my mortification)

- sat through a sodding boring lecture that was accompanied by a wonderful free lunch (thank you drug companies!)

- been coolly backstabbed by my best friend of 9 years, who feigns ignorance

- managed to perform knee examinations 3 times, all of them wrong ("you're not giving him a skin massage!!!! grab his tibia!")

- become utterly dependent on coffee for rounds at 730 am. (sigh eyebags)

- memorised my way around the hospital (go me!)

as you can see, i'm the proudest of the last point.

but still, it's great to be back in the OT. i live for the OT, i love scrubbing in, i love breathing the sterile air. first OT day is tomorrow and i'm really really pysched up! :D

which reminds me that i need to buy OT footwear. the present ones in the hospital are really disgusting and smelly, i doubt they've been washed in yonks. ewwww.

now, to learn fractures and knee/hip replacements!

ortho is wayyyy harder than i thought it would be. sigh.

so the much awaited holidays are finally finally finally here! (and did i mention FINALLY)

and against my better judgement, i gave in and went for hip-hop class. thank goodness i did, i never enjoyed it as much as i have that night. some play music, others play computer games, some sing, some run, some dance. we all de-stress in our own ways :)

and realising that i'm one of the best in the class made me so high (ego trip! ego trip!) that it even spurred me to open my big fat mouth and shove my 2 big feet right in by offering to teach them jazz as well, to widen their dance perspective. now, i do NOT do jazz well. i do NOT do jazz! so why am i offering. the only thing i can do is cheerleading, which is NOT jazz, it's not even dance! cripes :( but i've made my bed and i'll have to lie in it, so i'd better quickly go grab one of my jazz-dancing maniac friends and learn something more substanstial. oh dear.

going to the home to teach the residents dance woke me up from my priviledged life, if only a little, but i can safely say that i'd like to continue. and now i'm shopping for a street jazz class :)

and boy, have i indulged myself. gym sessions, waking up late, massages, endless chocolate and non-stop playing of csi, house, greys and ER. this is life!!!

so as i'm off to camp (groan groan groan) with a bunch of kiddos in a futile attempt to play mentor to them, i wish you all fun too! :)