How I have changed
Almost 1/2 year down the HO road, I retook the
Medical Specialty Aptitude test:
Rank /Specialty
1 pathology
2 hematology
3 colon & rectal surgery
4 dermatology
5 endocrinology
6 neurology
7 allergy & immunology
8 radiation oncology
9 rheumatology
10 gastroenterology
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What a far cry from my previous attempts when I was a medical student.
29th Dec 2005Looks like I may spend my life looking down the microscope...
The List
In the surgical disciplines, the 'list' is the most important thing in the world.
At least for the houseman.
The 'list' is the first thing I see when I come to work and the last thing I do when I go off work.
Everything I do revolves around the 'list'.
And the aim of the house officer is to make sure everything on the 'list' is done, every patient on the 'list' is well taken care off.
And that the 'list' is short. Or as short as can be.
And that's when the MOs start saying that discharge planning is very important.
So we work hard and try to shorten the 'list' as much as we can. And when the list is sub-ten, we look at it with pride.
But come take-day, and the 'list' will be long again. The depressed look on the houseman is indicative of how long the 'list' is.
Almost like building a sandcastle, all the efforts will disappear when the waves come in.
We just have to enjoy building sandcastles over and over again.
A ramble in the woods
I seen to have lost the drive to exercise. Maybe it's the fatigue after coming back from work. Maybe there's no motivation to exercise anymore.
Nightcalls have been pretty bad these few weeks. Admission rates have been high and I've already broken my Ortho PB twice this month.
Have been surfing the net and coming across funny yet useless stuff. I really should spend more time studying or reading up on more serious stuff.
Chritmas is coming, really feel like going out but I've been on call the past few weekends. I really need a breather.
It really is time for a holiday. It's time for me to spend a little time on myself, for myself.
Solving the career dilemma
An epiphany just dawned on me a couple of days ago.
The solution to an age-old question revealed itself suddenly.
I've been pondering hard about this question recently too.
And receiving the letter for cluster confirmation made me think about it harder.
Which broad specialty should I go into? AKA Surgical or Medical or Public Health?
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The answer to that question lies in how you think about this event.
Imagine the event of a chicken crossing the road.
Now, what is the first question that comes to your mind?
1) Why did the chicken cross the road?
2) How did the chicken get across the road?
3) Why in the world am I reading this?
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If you are (1), you are probably Medical. You want to know the etiology and treat the root cause.
If you are (2), you are Surgical. You don't care why. You just want to know how to do it so that you can just do it.
If you are (3), you are meant for Public Health. You are realistic enough to know that there are better things to do in life than devoting your whole life to Medicine.
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Disclaimer: This entry represents the inane random thoughts of the author and is not meant to ridicule or criticise any profession or persons.
Routine
I haven't been blogging much recently.
There just isn't much to blog about.
Work has been more routine than extraordinary. Maybe that isn't all too bad, but I don't feel intellectually stimulated enough. Somehow this posting has not been very academic and after weeks of work, I still feel that my orthopaedic knowledge has not really increased much, although I can make a pretty good backslab now.
Private life on the other hand, has taken new dimensions and with it exciting prospects and the inevitable worries and planning.
Sports has taken a bad seat, although I'm up for the Standard Chartered run this December, I haven't been training enough. Blame it on the multiple nightcalls, which totally wrecks my training schedules.
My consultant said, "We should learn to not just treat the symptom but the cause." I have been keeping that phrase in my head, and have been spending more effort in my care for the patients. Finding myself more and more medically-phillic and surgically-phobic.
Missing all my CG mates. Really haven't seen each other for ages. Wasn't so bad in SGH, as half of them were in medicine. Anyone read this, please message me so we can try to organise a outing.
Halfway through. Hanging in there.
