Friday, April 22, 2005
Clinical visit no. 2
It was another unforgettable experience. I saw the usual wide range from gastroenteritis, to parkinsons, to a lady with subclinical fragile X syndrome, to HCOM ( hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy), to osgood’s disease, psorasis, sciatica made another appearance, to encopresis ( fecal incontinence in children) , to depression and anxiety, to abducent nerve palsy to calcified cyst in the ovary!!!!
Dr. TV was fantastic as usual. I got to perform the usual tests, give differentials, interview and examine patients on my own.. and YEZ. I gave the pneumococcal vaccine. The needle was bloody big. Bigger than life.. bigger than the arm that was being presented. The victim was a frail, but cheerful old Chinese lady. .
“ Gan gan da!!” she cheered me. “ Bu yong jing”
she was brave, she didn’t even flinch when I stuck that grossly huge needle into her arm. The guy I injecte dlater that day gave a large yelp when I stuck that into his arm. ( spraying the doctor in the process because I pressed the plunger b4 delievering the injection)
She was wonderful. Dr TV smilingly handed me her case file to write up the entire case because the couple spoke mostly Chinese. “ You be the doctor,’ he chuckled. “I’ll sit back .” So I actually managed to practise my Chinese med interview!!! Seriously, saying meningitis and pneumococcal in my supposed mother tongue took plenty of miming, plenty of broken chinese and plenty of smiles from both sides. It helped that her husband was a doctor in china so I just had to describe the vaccination given once every 5 years and he got the idea.
They were such a lovely couple. I actually got quite excited when I saw them in the waiting room. And before we saw them, Dr TV leaned to me and asked.. “ Do you speak Chinese well? Coz the next couple speaks in Chinese, and I hope you can help me out there.”
I was very very very delighted that I had to chance to interview in Chinese and they were really relieved that they could converse in their mothertongue.. Dr TV? He was super glad he didn’t have to ring the interpreter. I found it challenging… medical terms just didn’t seem to have an equivalent in Chinese.. I was searching for the word for phlegm, for sneeze, for amoxycillin … LOL.. but we got thru it fine. Dr TV was amazed at the differences in the Chinese dialects. “ During our morning coffee break, I told him of the different dialects and gave him a example of the same phrase spoken in canto, hokkien and Chinese. Yeah, pretty amazing how our mother tongue has dev. Into so many diff dialects.
“ Mother tongue,” Dr TV laughed. “ That’s what your mother speaks to you, not a designated language.” I was trying to explain the Singpaore education system to him. Well… looks like English is my mother tongue than.. LOL.
. Dr. TV may have been stumped by Chiense but he sure was great at other languages.. I knew he could speak both greek and Italian. What I didn’t know was he was equally good at Spanish. I couldn’t figure what language it was until I heard him say “ Por Favor.”
And there was this cute little old lady whom the doctor left me to do a health assessment on. Trying to interview her was an interesting experience. She kept delving into long stories.. but she kept me in fits… in the end, we ended up talking about chocolate.. LOL.. ahhh. The vices of womanhood. She kept ribbing the doctor, winking at me half the time.
I got to see more of the psychosocial side of med this time… I got to see a mother at her wits end at her child’s encopresis. I nearly cried actually, during that interview. She was really at the edge. Nope xL.. can’t get involved.. it’s a job it’s a job. If you can’t deal with it, you can’t do the job well.. but it was hard not to let your heart ache for what the young child was going thru.. for wat the mother was going thru. Dr TV was really the epitome of greatness. He was warm, kind, understanding.. he gave such wonderful advice! It wasn’t just med advice, it was that that came from a person who had seen the world and it’s ppl and who knew what the hearts of little old ladies, desperate moms and dads, and confused little children yearned for.
I got to see the depressed patient.. with parkinsons… whose wife was in hospital at death’s door, and who didn’t know how to cope with his disease and with just living.. Dr TV took me on that home visit. Looking at the poor old man shuffling with the parkinsonian gait, respond positive to a labella tap, and basically just crying with exasperation and sadness… I wished I could do more to help. But even tho’ Dr TV tried to persuade him to have meals on wheels, he still refused.
“ we can’t force them to,” Dr TV said, as we drove away..” We can advise them to, force them to accept treatment only when they’re deemed mentally incompatent, but if they are mentally sound and refuse treatment, you have to let it go.”
“ Been to Preston market?” he asked.
“ Huh?” I looked out of the window.
“ Goodness!! You’ve never been to preston market???” He turned into the parking lot.
We left preston market a while later with me happily munching on the sushi and rice paper roll he bought for me. We discussed communist politics on the way back to the clinic.. “ good system, “ I commented. “ idealistic but it never works..no motivaton for the ppl”
“ All man are equal,’ he quoted.” But some more than others.”
The afternoon continued with even more fascinating cases. Guess what time I left. 8pm. Yeah. Crazy. But I really couldn’t draw myself out of there. And it was worth it!!! Because the last cases were craizily interesting.
The abducens nerve palsy was freaky. The doctor told the pt to head for st vincents IMMEDIATELY. The lady had a protestic valve in too.. I was trying to describe the heart sounds to Dr TV.. “ Er.. Lubbbbbbb dub .. luuuurrrrrrrrrrbbbbb Grrrrrrrrr dub.” The patient was pretty amused. HCOM showed up the last.. I think I heard enuff weird heart sounds to last me the day. “ Lub.. swish! “ “ Lub swish!” The gal looked at me quizzically as I ‘lubed “ and “swished” my way through that description.
Dr TV gave me a lift back to the city. When I thanked him for it, he said.. “Gosh, it’s the least I can do afte ryou stayed back so late.. “ He even offered to come for my performance on Sunday..
I’m gonna miss clinicals sooo bad.. I wanna go everyday… 3 times is waaaaay too little.. ahhhhh… Waaaaaaaaaahhh. I love Dr. TV, his patients and the practise manager sooo much.. all his patients kept praising him. One pt summed it all up. As she walked towards the open door, she looked gratefully at the doctor and said to me.. “ This Dr T, he doesn’t just heal your body.. he heals your soul.”
It was another unforgettable experience. I saw the usual wide range from gastroenteritis, to parkinsons, to a lady with subclinical fragile X syndrome, to HCOM ( hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy), to osgood’s disease, psorasis, sciatica made another appearance, to encopresis ( fecal incontinence in children) , to depression and anxiety, to abducent nerve palsy to calcified cyst in the ovary!!!!
Dr. TV was fantastic as usual. I got to perform the usual tests, give differentials, interview and examine patients on my own.. and YEZ. I gave the pneumococcal vaccine. The needle was bloody big. Bigger than life.. bigger than the arm that was being presented. The victim was a frail, but cheerful old Chinese lady. .
“ Gan gan da!!” she cheered me. “ Bu yong jing”
she was brave, she didn’t even flinch when I stuck that grossly huge needle into her arm. The guy I injecte dlater that day gave a large yelp when I stuck that into his arm. ( spraying the doctor in the process because I pressed the plunger b4 delievering the injection)
She was wonderful. Dr TV smilingly handed me her case file to write up the entire case because the couple spoke mostly Chinese. “ You be the doctor,’ he chuckled. “I’ll sit back .” So I actually managed to practise my Chinese med interview!!! Seriously, saying meningitis and pneumococcal in my supposed mother tongue took plenty of miming, plenty of broken chinese and plenty of smiles from both sides. It helped that her husband was a doctor in china so I just had to describe the vaccination given once every 5 years and he got the idea.
They were such a lovely couple. I actually got quite excited when I saw them in the waiting room. And before we saw them, Dr TV leaned to me and asked.. “ Do you speak Chinese well? Coz the next couple speaks in Chinese, and I hope you can help me out there.”
I was very very very delighted that I had to chance to interview in Chinese and they were really relieved that they could converse in their mothertongue.. Dr TV? He was super glad he didn’t have to ring the interpreter. I found it challenging… medical terms just didn’t seem to have an equivalent in Chinese.. I was searching for the word for phlegm, for sneeze, for amoxycillin … LOL.. but we got thru it fine. Dr TV was amazed at the differences in the Chinese dialects. “ During our morning coffee break, I told him of the different dialects and gave him a example of the same phrase spoken in canto, hokkien and Chinese. Yeah, pretty amazing how our mother tongue has dev. Into so many diff dialects.
“ Mother tongue,” Dr TV laughed. “ That’s what your mother speaks to you, not a designated language.” I was trying to explain the Singpaore education system to him. Well… looks like English is my mother tongue than.. LOL.
. Dr. TV may have been stumped by Chiense but he sure was great at other languages.. I knew he could speak both greek and Italian. What I didn’t know was he was equally good at Spanish. I couldn’t figure what language it was until I heard him say “ Por Favor.”
And there was this cute little old lady whom the doctor left me to do a health assessment on. Trying to interview her was an interesting experience. She kept delving into long stories.. but she kept me in fits… in the end, we ended up talking about chocolate.. LOL.. ahhh. The vices of womanhood. She kept ribbing the doctor, winking at me half the time.
I got to see more of the psychosocial side of med this time… I got to see a mother at her wits end at her child’s encopresis. I nearly cried actually, during that interview. She was really at the edge. Nope xL.. can’t get involved.. it’s a job it’s a job. If you can’t deal with it, you can’t do the job well.. but it was hard not to let your heart ache for what the young child was going thru.. for wat the mother was going thru. Dr TV was really the epitome of greatness. He was warm, kind, understanding.. he gave such wonderful advice! It wasn’t just med advice, it was that that came from a person who had seen the world and it’s ppl and who knew what the hearts of little old ladies, desperate moms and dads, and confused little children yearned for.
I got to see the depressed patient.. with parkinsons… whose wife was in hospital at death’s door, and who didn’t know how to cope with his disease and with just living.. Dr TV took me on that home visit. Looking at the poor old man shuffling with the parkinsonian gait, respond positive to a labella tap, and basically just crying with exasperation and sadness… I wished I could do more to help. But even tho’ Dr TV tried to persuade him to have meals on wheels, he still refused.
“ we can’t force them to,” Dr TV said, as we drove away..” We can advise them to, force them to accept treatment only when they’re deemed mentally incompatent, but if they are mentally sound and refuse treatment, you have to let it go.”
“ Been to Preston market?” he asked.
“ Huh?” I looked out of the window.
“ Goodness!! You’ve never been to preston market???” He turned into the parking lot.
We left preston market a while later with me happily munching on the sushi and rice paper roll he bought for me. We discussed communist politics on the way back to the clinic.. “ good system, “ I commented. “ idealistic but it never works..no motivaton for the ppl”
“ All man are equal,’ he quoted.” But some more than others.”
The afternoon continued with even more fascinating cases. Guess what time I left. 8pm. Yeah. Crazy. But I really couldn’t draw myself out of there. And it was worth it!!! Because the last cases were craizily interesting.
The abducens nerve palsy was freaky. The doctor told the pt to head for st vincents IMMEDIATELY. The lady had a protestic valve in too.. I was trying to describe the heart sounds to Dr TV.. “ Er.. Lubbbbbbb dub .. luuuurrrrrrrrrrbbbbb Grrrrrrrrr dub.” The patient was pretty amused. HCOM showed up the last.. I think I heard enuff weird heart sounds to last me the day. “ Lub.. swish! “ “ Lub swish!” The gal looked at me quizzically as I ‘lubed “ and “swished” my way through that description.
Dr TV gave me a lift back to the city. When I thanked him for it, he said.. “Gosh, it’s the least I can do afte ryou stayed back so late.. “ He even offered to come for my performance on Sunday..
I’m gonna miss clinicals sooo bad.. I wanna go everyday… 3 times is waaaaay too little.. ahhhhh… Waaaaaaaaaahhh. I love Dr. TV, his patients and the practise manager sooo much.. all his patients kept praising him. One pt summed it all up. As she walked towards the open door, she looked gratefully at the doctor and said to me.. “ This Dr T, he doesn’t just heal your body.. he heals your soul.”
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