14th December 2006 - My attachment here at HKL ended on a "low" note. The 3rd posting was pretty disppointing, to say the least. Got posted to a surgical ward, as you might be aware by now....and frankly speaking, I did not learn much, as opposed to what I got from my first two postings. The number of cases at surgery weren't many, hence there wasn't much I could learn....apart from a couple of "lumps and bumps", acute abdomen (read: acute appendicitis) and peripheral vascular diseases. Ward rounds were much quicker as well; whilst rounds could last up to two hours at Paeds and Int. Med, the surgical rounds normally ended in 40 minutes. And as for the surgeons and MOs.... lets just say that they left a pretty bad impression (to me, at least) after "hanging out" with them for a week. ><"
Sigh.
However....
With the amount of "free" time I had while at surgery, I went back to Paeds and Int. Med. Departments whenever I could. Boy, was I glad I did...the environment was definitely a welcoming change from what I experienced at my designated ward. And yup, I saw a couple of interesting cases too, thanks to my UPM friends [especially Wing Nung who alerted me most of the time =D], which included Henoch-Schnolein purpura, pulmonary atrioventricular malformation, hepatoma secondary to hepatitis B, Corrigan's sign (I swear, the carotid pulse was visible even when I stood approx. six feet away from the patient!!!), cerebellar degeneration secondary to chronic alcoholism and hepatic encephalopathy. =) So hey, things weren't so bad after all!!! lol.
I'm not sure if I'd like to be a surgeon in the future though.... o_O
