Supraspinatus tendinitis

As a medical student, I have a morbid curiosity of the various physical signs that manifest in disease, even if it happens to me. As in, moi, mich, yours truly.

Apparently on Tuesday I strained my shoulder while doing chin-ups, and had a twinge of pain which I didn't really care about. Come Wednesday, and it hurt like a mother when I woke up.

It made putting on a shirt difficult. And it's really painful when I lift my arm to the side, between the angles of 60 to 120 degrees. i.e. the painful arc that I had learnt about in my orthopaedics posting. It's sorta amusing how classic that painful arc I had was.

You know, in medical textbooks they talk about all sorts of physical signs with long names attached to it. And in reality, they're way milder than described, and sometimes hardly ever seen. But as for this painful arc, it's so classic, I can't help but to go on MSN proclaiming my finding to all my fellow classmates doing their orthopaedics now.

Diagnosis, supraspinatus tendinitis. I'd strained some tendon in my shoulder and now that the inflammatory reaction had kicked in, it hurts.

Treatment? I rummaged through the fridge, looking for the Ponstan (a NSAID, a drug that relieves pain via reducing inflammation) that I had hoarded from a few years back. Near-expiry, but yay, it still doesn't smell funky yet.

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In other news: school's interesting. But it's one of those postings where classmates become gung-ho and become type-A personality maniacs who are more willing to push you aside and trample on you and leave you behind in a quest to feed their education. Hey dudes, don't become the very assholes you'd hate just because of your enthusiasm. Competition won't magically create more resources for us. Things gotta be shared, no?

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I suck at school. At times I feel useless, unable to fit in because I'm too inept. And that ain't entirely untrue, because I simply don't share the kind of energy and enthusiasm as them.



I pick things up really slowly. And I suck at my non-English languages, which makes me a total moron when it comes to doing patient interviews in Chinese, and a lobotomised, post-head-trauma, sedated cretin if I even try to speak in dialects. If it's any consolation, I guess I'm still marginally better than those who are studying overseas.

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But it's all right now, in fact, it's a gas! But it's all right, I'm Jumpin' Jack Flash, it's a Gas! Gas! Gas! I might be a mediocre image of mediocrity, but I have the right to be happy because of whatever makes me happy. Not because of whatever people believe that people should be happy about.

So what if I spend my life distracting myself from reality? At least I'm happy.



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In YET other news:

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