new new!

frontier psychiatrist is a "newcomer" to the blog scene (meaning i haven't read his blog before this).

his site is pretty interesting - read the parts on "things that have given psychiatry a bad name"!

the part that freaked me out the most was the one on lobotomy:
(http://frontierpsychiatrist.co.uk/things-that-have-given-psychiatry-a-bad-name-1-lobotomy/) <--- i need help on how to hide this link please please?
and it's accompanying article. so brutal!

anyhow just helping to drum up support, and no, i'm not getting paid. hahaha!

internship coming up

posting results are out today! i have gotten one of the postings of my choice, and i'm right pleased with it :)

OB/GYN, coming right up my way! :) 4 months of women and babies, i think i'm going to love it to bits.

the people posted there with me are mostly nice, all aquaintences (but then again, given my reputation for being gossip girl, i think there's hardly anyone in medical school whom i don't at least say hi to), well, minus ONE person who has an incredibly bad rep.

let's call this ONE person Prawn. he's arrogant, pushes people around, and doesn't ask for things nicely. he takes on responsibility and runs from it at the last minute. he has grandiose ideas and comes across as really impressive but in reality, he can't carry them out.
but he also has some good points, like being generous, i have to admit.

we'll see how it goes, hopefully he'll have turned over a new leaf!
but i'm not going to let that spoil my enthusiasm for OB/GYN. it's time to dig out the books for some refresher courses on how to read a CTG and what to do if there's primary PPH etc.

EXCITING! :)

ps. i'll be moving over to ditzydoctor.blogspot.com soon :)

i passed! :)

title says it all - i'm super relieved and happy given that an unexpectedly large amount of my classmates failed this round. shockingly large amount, in fact, and amongst them many whom we thought were far from failing!

i guess i'm a doctor now, and i'm torn between being extremely happy and being terrified of having patients lives in my hands. but it's what i've always wanted, so here's to more medical education! :)

just back from grad trip, had a blast! :) hope you all are well!

surgery clinicals

surgery clinicals today, hopefully i'm a clear pass!
couldn't have asked for nicer examiners (well, except one).

tired, more to come but thanks a million for all the good wishes!!!! :D

final clinicals on sat and sun. 4 more days!

week 2

week 2 is down, we've trolled our way through another 3 horrifying papers plus a communications skills OSCE of 10 stations worth.

medicine essays were alright for me, but mcqs were again another horror. this time, i fell asleep despite during the paper despite drinking coffee in the middle of it and 3 toilet breaks to wash my face :\
plus i'm pretty sure i got a lot of questions wrong so that was even more :(
eg: young girl who is febrile, signs of SLE, renal punch +. what is your first step in mx?
others: RESUS
me: give iv ABx. :( OMG! :(

but at least i made one lucky guess - entacapone turns your urine ORANGE :D
go me, i am the queen of ridiculous answers.

modified essays were a HORROR. it's an evolving scenario but you just can't be sure of what they're asking for.
plus the questions were really really BAD.
eg: using a bone marrow aspirate to diagnose TB
eg: managing a patient with status epilepticus complicated by anaphylactic shock to phenytoin
eg: reaching a diagnosis of an elderly man who has just travelled overseas to a rural place infamous for having CSWs (commercial sex workers) with his family, and is now feeling malaise and has a fever, and you get ONE investigation. lovely.

and you know the best thing? our "lovely" prof even commented on someone's facebook note: i think all the papers to date have been fair.
FAIR???? far from fair if you ask me. give ANY ONE, including profs some of the questions we had and see how they do before you tell me it's fair.

osces was like a game, i zoomed in and out of stations and talked alot of rubbish, thankfully mock patients were nice. my hands shook so badly when i was suturing that the examiner laughed at me!
and i've never removed staples before so my prof even showed me how to do it in the middle of the station whilst saying:"girlie, it's obvious you've never done this before yah."
to which my meek reply was: " err, not really prof". duh.
at least osces was alot better!

clinicals are coming up - rumours abound about weird cases aplenty eg. von Hippel Lindau syndrome, charcot marie tooth (HSMN1), osteogenesis imperfecta etc.
i have no clue what to expect, but hopefully i'll recover from this beating by the medicine theory papers to face the clinicals with my head held high!

mbbs, 1

day 3 of exams has ended, and i'm exhausted. i've averaged 4 hours of sleep a night (my usual is 7! AHHHHH). my skin is sallow and my eye bags are HUGE. a friend who doesn't study with me had a big shock on seeing me today in the exam hall and said i looked terrible.
i then got a further shock on looking at myself in the mirror. OH MY GOODNESS :(

the things stress does to you - i forgot to eat breakfast before my exam today! :\ thankfully i was saved from hypoglycaemia by the sweets i sneaked into my pencilcase throughout the 3 hours. gracious.

exams so far have only been surgical theory papers, but oh my goodness they seem to be going from bad to worse.
doing 180 multiple choice questions with tricky tricky wordings and double negatives made my head spin. people tossed coins, fell asleep during the paper, and headed for plentiful toilet breaks. MY GOODNESS.

and me? i had diarrhoea through all my papers. WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME????
thank goodness i sit in front of the toilet in the exam hall!!!!

2 more weeks!