Saturday, August 04, 2007

Update on hating kids...

I am halfway through my two week residency period in paediatrics and I'm finding it has its ups and downs. The medical officers and house officers are nice but the nurses seem permanently in PMS and menopausal status mode, with very labile mood and a high irritability status. Most of the time the kids are nice but when they are bad, they are bad. Crying is the thing I cannot stand. My nerves shatter quite easily and at times I just want to shout at the kid, "Stop crying! It is no use crying! Just learn to grow up!"

I am also not a great fan of bodily fluids. I can handle blood - that's not a problem for me - but anything with a distinct smell is where I draw the line. Two instances come to mind. The first was when I entered the ward in the morning a few days ago and I was hit by the stench of crap that was filling the ward. Turns out that one of the kids who was mentally retarded had shat himself. If I thought it was bad, think about the other kids who had to live in the ward. The second instance was today in Neurology OPD. We had a kid who kept drooling and it smelled big time. I was constantly having to wipe the kid's mouth but it had a really bad smell, which is difficult to describe.

Anyway I should be revising but I'm just too tired. For the past week I have been finishing off my case report and discharge summary which has kept me up until 2 am at times. Also I have been on duty, clerking cases and following ward rounds, which leaves me little time to revise.

I really need to get back to looking at my notes and practising for my counselling test...

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