~JcZw

Well physio posting at SGH is over.... It was quite informative and less sian than last year actually haha... Everyone was happier in general, but maybe its cos physiotherapists are not under as much stress as doctors... And physios also work shorter hours, more or less, unlike the housemen who have to stay on call sometimes....

Nevertheless, saw the spine dept, the sports physio (which is the field of medicine which I'm interested to go into) on the first day, and the ortho diagnostic centre on the second day, where my mother was rehabilitated after her herniated disc, and the satillite gyms in the wards...

Also saw the dirty side of physio... A young man who was involved in a traffic accident riding a motorcycle and had broken many of his major bones, including his skull and spine, and was in a semi comatose state... When he breathed sometimes it sounded as though he was gargling water, much like how Chong should have been breathing when he faked his epileptic fit... never going to get a motorcycle... I mean, like he was not much older than myself and his future has probably been snuffed out, or at least put on hold... No matter what, all the best to him...

Saw patients who had had strokes, parts of their skull removed and so on... Also met an Indian man who had Parkinson's, so although his mind was alert, his movements, facial expressions and speech was impaired.... But when the nurses asked me what school I was from and I said "victoria jc", he got very excited... So the physios gave me a chair and had me sit down n talk to him...

Though his speech was very muffled, through a long process of listen-repeat-and-watch-him-nod, I gathered that he was a student / teacher at VJ (I said "VJC or VS?" and he repeatedly muttered "VJC" so that's confirmed) under Mrs Lee Phui Man (cos he was repeatedly saying "your previous principal", after I told him our present principal was Mrs Chan)... he also asked me if we still had celebrations in school, to which I replied yes, and to which he seemed to smile a little =) Evidently the VJ spirit is hard to forget! We had quite a pleasant talk, although at times he seemed to get depressed and I had to use the TLC learnt in St. John to reassure him....

But at the end of it, before he was being wheeled back to the ward, he surprised me by asking "Are you a Christian?", to which I replied "yes", and then he proceeded with "which church do you go to?" "Christian Community Church"... Then he motioned me closer and gave me this verse

For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them
-Matthew 18:20

More or less word accurate! Then he shook my hand and left... I was quite stunned at first, but the nurses said that given that he was quite educated, maybe he could have converted? Still, it was a hmmm moving? is that the word? experience... Anyway if I have an opporunity to run into my chinese teacher in VJ again, I shall ask her if she knew him... But if he was a Christian, maybe he took comfort that we two were "gathered in God's name", and for that, I would be happy...

Anyway, thanks to the physios Brenda, Jennifer, Mic, Edwin, Sulyn, William + staff, Adon + staff and the physio students Zhi Fen and Shafawati whom we met on the first day, and, like Belle and Julian last year, gave me a lot of useful information on the course etc..

After the posting, I could then be free to return to fencing and FM... my third home-away-from-home, but I shall save that for another post... Cheerio!