50% of final exams...

it has not been an easy journey to today...
we've had 3 episodes of 8 weeks of postings then end of block exams for obs and gynae, then paeds, then psych. seniors have told us before that the POP exams in 4th year were the toughest to survive. i used to doubt that, i mean, can it seriously be worse than the absolute final exams?
what i didn't know was that since we had a BAO in addition to our MBBCh, it made up a quarter of our exam marks. then another quarter was shared by psych and paeds. while med and surgery made up the remaining 50%. essentially, 6 months from my graduation, i would sit for exams that would determine 50% of my graduating grade!

it was difficult to shift gear from women and babies, to children (their mini-human sizes belied the amount of material of stuff that could go wrong with them! from infants to toddlers, to even teenagers, every aspect!) and my final posting was Psychiatry (never could i fathom the real power of the human mind. speaking to those patients, it was pretty overwhelming, not only what was wrong with them, but more their conviction. and the more time one spends talking to them, one can't help but pity them cause if i had that kind of fixed beliefs, or if you were to see certains things, that won't go away no matter what, i'd be reacting much worse than them!

my end of block exams involved a manic patient(their mood is totally opposite to what you'd expect a depressed patient to feel)... he kept saying he wanted to marry me and kissed my hand when i thanked him after that. it's not an uncommon thing, it's quite an ego boost actually.. eheh in a distorted way. but i find that it's more scary to face the wolf whistles of guys that you see (and try to ignore) by the sidewalks of shops, on the way to any kedai runcit, or at shopping mall entrances. why?
well, the patients at the ward have a diagnosis, and they are being treated, regardless of their compliance. while these maniacs are running loose, possibly maybe even probably with a mental disease of their own, in contact with people everyday...
furthermore, if anyone were to flip thru a psychiatry book, i'm pretty sure you'd find one or two disorders that you might suspect you have... the difference being whether it affects our lives adversely. some ppl live to ripe old ages with everyone seeing things in their personality that is sooooo wrong, yet they are scot free... quite an intriguing subject, but gosh, after clerking and speaking to one or two patients, my mind is too tired to do anything for the rest of the day!

as if shifting gear from one rotation to another wasn't hard enough, we had an exam schedule that went something like this:
paeds--> psych--> paeds --> obgyn --> psych --> obgyn
then initially it was supposed to start on monday, dec 1, they stole my one weekend and brought it forward to the thursday before that!!
i had a very rough start to the exam... but it ended well... 70% thru the exams, i started drinking essence of chicken, and i really regret not drinking it right from the start...
i was most afraid of my very final paper- OBGYN clinical long case, it made up 50% of the entire exam, which, once u do the math, is exactly what the entire paediatrics or psych was worth!!
to make matters worse, we had two options of either being sent to the Penang maternity hospital 5 mins from my house, or the mainland hospital, half an hour away! yes, i got the mainland one!
but when we went there, the nurses helped us initially by telling if we were getting either an OBS or gynae case. i had gynae. then in the waiting room, let's just say, we had an idea of our case! in the clerking room itself (we chatted and examined the patient for 30 mins, was question for another 20), it was airconditioned, and i practically had my own consultation room all to myself! i completed the history taking in 15 mins, and used the remaining time to tidy it up.
Initially i was supposed to be examined by Dr Kieran, an internal lecturer of PMC who said he was going to pass EVERY candidate he examined. :-) so i was relaxed. but they brought me to a White external examiner with our dear Dr Bala from SJH. :-) i actually had fun during the exam... :-) the white examiner, after asking me basic questions, looked like he was having fun posing questions, which according to him were honours questions, which, i didn't manage to answer! :-)
dr bala kept trying to cheekily mouth the answer to me. but it ended with him saying i did well, and he told me to go HAVE FUN!!

so that's what i'll be doing.. more posts and photos to follow!!!
thank you Jesus!!