~JcZw

Attachment.... I guess its different... Also can't write too much about it cos I'm not sure whats bounded by confidentiality and what is not?

I guess I was excited but scared of the attachment. Excited, cos although I've treated about 3 people who've ended up in hospital as an SJer (and countless others in training situations), I never got to really see how it was like on the other side. Scared cos... Well, I'm not the least clumsiest of people, as Jonathan ChuaH would be happy to tell you... If I knocked over something, they would kick me so far I'd probably hit the MRT line or AHS.

8.15 found me at the Clinical Staff Office of CGH, right above the training centre where our first aid people had our briefing. There were three of us...

Me, Jonathan, Year 1, VJC, Fencing, attached to ORTHOPEDICS
Derek, Year 2, RJC, Fencing, attached to ENT (I was shocked and very happy when I discovered he was also an epeeist!)
Hanjie, Year 2, HCI, Canoeing, attached to SURGERY (so cool lar!)

THEY were shocked when they found out I was year 1. Apparently most people do these attachments when they're Year 2! Funny, I thought it was always the opposite case, while the year 2 hols were for dying hair and training for NS. Not surprising they were both from either RJ or HCI

We found a Miss Kamisah at the Associate Dean's Office, where she issued us the stuff shown above. One nametag, card key for access to restricted places and a locker key. The locker quite zhai. By zhai I mean narrow. But my bag could still fit

My mentor, attachee, whatever you called it, was an Orthopedics Surgeon, Dr KC Chong... He's friendly and does a lot of explanation on the various X-rays, body mechanisms etcetc... Had a lot of interesting posters on his walls too... But I think I was too tense and awkward to fully take advantage of this =/ Combined with my lack of sleep yesterday bleah. Saw a few patients at his clinic first... Haha as expected, his EQ is high n he interacts well all that!

AND after listening to the cases I was convinced I was NOT the clumsiest person in the world anyway =)

Had lunch (The ban mian at the houseman's canteen is nice) then went to the wards to find a Dr Aaron Chia, the houseman on call or something... means he has to stay overnight in case something happens. He said "If you're the kinda person that needs a lot of sleep, reconsider your choice" Uhh oh.

Saw a lot of people taking blood... Takes a certain skill to find the vein n all eh? Saw one case of taking blood from the artery too... n hey there really is a distinct diff between the colours. Of course, the warning of the infection control dinned in my head "Stay away from used needles unless you want Hep B or HIV". Anyway, non-med students are not allowed to touch anything or go into the operating theatres.. My usefulness was limited to helping the housemen carry files.

And my goodness!! They speak so many languages! Malay, Chinese, Hokkien, Indian, Teochew, Cantonese... As in, they're really multi-lingual lor.

On the more sobering side... I've seen hundreds of fractures, bleedings blahblah... But almost 90% of them were of plasticine and food colouring. Yesterday was the first time I had seen so many genuine injuries in one go. Its just scary how the human body can be bent, twisted, contorted by various incidents. If there's something which would cause me not to be a doctor, it would be that inevitably I would have to hurt the patient... Either while checking for injury (when the patient suddenly goes 'ow') or while treating. Blood... I'm still ok with blood, so long as it doesn't get INTO me.

Met 2 Year 3 Med students there... One of them knew my sister... Both were very nice... The guy from ACJC and the girl from RJC.... Kept me informed of what was going on, e.g. translating all the medical terms and all that... I admit FA knowledge did help, but only to a certain extent.

How many cadets can tell me what a "Distal radius" fracture is anyway? I can't

Anyway thats all for now... There's still much more to write, but I've 4 more days to go to write it in... And I have to meet Dr Chong at 7.30 to walk around the ward with him (super early... even more so than VJ).. Take care all!
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I had that dream again. The same place, the same people. Of people and painful memories and beautiful memories.