Cattle Prodding

Early morning. Got ready and rushed out of home. In my best shirt and trousers. Always helps to dress better for a big day. Makes no sense to wear those special-offer shirts that look baggy and out of shape like pyjamas. Bus ride with 2 of my best friends, Talley and O'Connor again. The guy taking me for the practical test swears by that book I hear, so I had to get my steps spot-on. After 30 minutes of the 50 minute bus ride, I just slumped back on the seat, too frazzled to read 1 more word. For every new thing I learn off that book, another important fact gets pushed out from my memory. My brain felt like an open bucket filled to the brim. Lose one's balance and everything spills. Landed in NUH at 8.40am.

Paged the tester. Paged again. Arranged the time for the test. Changed the time again. And again, so the test ended up being scheduled at 2pm. It isn't all bad, at least I get to spend more time with my beloved pals who accompany me everywhere, even to bed - Talley and O'Connor.

==

So a word about practical exams. First of all, we have this thing called a long case, where we have 12 minutes to talk to a patient, get all the important facts about his illness/medical history/medications/social issues/family history. And after that we present the case.

In case you're wondering, yes. 12 minutes is insanely short. Especially when the patient tries to be helpful and talks on and on and on when you're just supposed to get a 1-word answer to the question.

"Mr Soandso, do you feel breathless when you climb the stairs?"

"Not really, it depends on how many flights of steps. But I think I'm alright. You know the train station? I am able to run up the - what do you call it? - escalator without problems, I'm not breathless. I don't know of being breathless, not that I know of."

"What medicines do you take for your high blood pressure?"

"I take this medicine called uh.... ah.... ABCDEFG. Haha I can never seem to pronounce it properly, everytime I fumble when I try to pronounce it. Also I take this pill, it's quite small, green in colour, but I don't know the name. Do you know what it is?"

*Looks at watch and sees the time ticking away and faints.*

If you really want to know, I didn't even come close to finishing that interview before the time ran out. But it wasn't that big of a problem eventually. Luckily.

==

Next comes 2 short cases. The tester goes "Examine the patient's gastrointestinal system." and I gotta execute a series of dance steps - greet the patient, introduce yourself, close curtains, switch on lights, examine the patient's appearance from far, look at the hands then the face for specific clinical signs, then jump onto the tummy directly, poking and prodding for masses, big livers, big spleens, fluid, et cetra.

I'm not too good at dancing I admit. But I guess I got through alright. The second case was someone with a one-sided coordination difficulty that caused him to have difficulty in walking and moving his leg smoothly. And I exposed my weakness at the understanding of the pathways involved in the brain. Oops.

It went quite alright I guess, as compared to my NIGHTMARE surgery end-of-posting test.

So that's one hurdle down, and there's the MCQ on Friday, which quite a number of people do fail. I hope I can get myself to do the practice questions soon enough.

==

And right after that is a boring lecture for the whole class. Since I had the test I went in through the back door late. Glad that a few of my friends were right next to the door so I sat behind them and we mused about our tests and stuff - while the boring lecturer droned on.

Sneaked out to get a curry puff. (I didn't eat any lunch.) Returned to the lecture hall, and was so bored, I was making snide comments at every slide. I'm very cynical when it comes to interpretating medical statistics, so I entertained myself poking holes at whatever was mentioned in the lecture and joking about them with my friends.

And then I got so bored I SMSed a few friends and stuff. Next came a stupid tutorial about the planning for the project that would come in a couple of months' time. Stupid cause only half the class turned up, and it was already almost 6pm. I didn't hide the fact that I was more concerned on whatever my pals were telling me on the phone via SMS. My pal was next to me and we discussed how he should do his end-of-posting test cause I know his tester's preferences and stuff.

Yeah. I'm a bad student. Cane me if you dare.

7pm and I lazily dragged myself to the bus stop. Went up the bus and dozed my way to Bishan. Ate dinner, and plonked myself in front of the computer. Dang. So tired. I can literally feel the waves of fatigue coursing through my nerves.

==

Oh and Tag-board is down. Bleagh. Still can't find a suitable tagging provider. And I suspect it's triggering a couple of popups. Need. New. Tagging. Provider. Cbox has disappointed me before so I'm wary, Flooble's style is a little too unusual for my liking.