Next rotation.

Assalamualaikum and hello peehpuls.

This post will be a salad of thoughts, just because.

If once upon a time I spent a huge amount of time grooming and updating this blog, now it's just a side dish of my daily life. Because as you grow old everything you did are either boring or uneventful, and mine is mostly not worth a share hahaha. Sorry little bloggy, you know I won't abandon you forever.

Anyway, it's unbelievable how fast this term has been, before I knew it I'm now left with the remaining 5 weeks of GP (general practice) rotation. And God-willing if all iz well, this coming September we'll all be final meds. Gulp.

So far through my medschool rotation madness;

- Medicine; done and dusted.
- Surgery; done and dusted.
- Forensics and Legal Medicine; done and dusted.
- Psychiatry; done, results pending.
- GP; currently on.
- Obs and Gynae; next semester.
- Paediatrics; next semester.
- Public Health; next semester.
- Professional Completion Module; next year.


I'd say this semester is the loneliest I've ever been in. Most of my times were either spent cycling alone or travelling on my own to the hospital. Because everyone else is currently on a different rotation and although I have Akem on board the same rotation, still, he's mostly placed at a different hospital.

But that's ok. I guess at this stage, we're all used to loneliness. I prefer "independent" rather than "lonely". Oh yes, I am independent. *cries*

A little bit of me-time won't harm anyone, it gives you time to think (a lot) while looking outside the bus window. I normally thought about how comfy my bed was. And food. Lotsa food.

This morning I went to my first placement on this rotation. Lovely place on top of a hill surrounded by trees and overly green fields. Actually I think it's a bit sad, as if you're sick and then sent over to an isolated mansion to recover. After an hour of introductory lecture, I decided to just roam the wards and grab a patient for history. Everyone else dispersed into pairs so le selfish me wanted to get things done quick so I went on my own.

It's been a while since I last took a medical history. 6-weeks of psychiatry previously  were mostly probing patients with "have you heard any voices," "how's your mood," "have you ever tried harming yourself," all of which left me even more depressed.

I talked to Mr S, an 86-year-old lovely gentleman who's recovering from a stroke. He sat on the wheelchair and the nurse warned me, " Do you have a lot of time? Coz he sure talks a lot." Apparently, Mr. S wasn't as talkative as described, although he did engage cheerfully to my questions.

I took a short history, Mr. S went, "Thank you for talking to me.You didn't overdo it. I have a young man a couple of weeks ago and he asked me tonnes of questions, almost 40 minutes." He said with an exhausted sigh.

And then I realized, there might be a patient complaining of the same thing about me too.

I couldn't imagine myself patiently answering meticulous questions like "do you smoke?" "how many a day?" "do you drink?" "who's at home with you?" "do you have diabetes?" "high BP?" blablabla like they're a bunch of answering robots. May God bless all of the patients who willingly spare some time for lousy medical students like me.