my first proposal

i was attending to a 3 year boy who had degloving injury over the right arm when the uncle over the next bed had a severe bad, productive cough. he was breathing harshly with polyphonic wheeze. he was still able to speak in full sentence. there was sputum on the anterior aspect of his chest. i attended to him stat, put my stetoscope deligently over his chest, straining my ears to listen to his breath sounds. he had prolonged respiratory phase with ronchi. he must be having an acute asthma attack. i put him in propped up position, ordered the nurse to nebulised him stat with ventolin.

Then, he was pretty much comfortable. i probed for more history and found out that he has LOW of 1.5kg, LOA and had TB contact. we did a mantoux test for him.

out of a sudden, he called me..........

patient : Dr, u sudah kahwin ke?

me : tak tau...................i don't want my patient to know anything about my personal life

patient : mari lah... Dr... kalau you belum kahwin, jom kahwin dengan saya

me : tak mau

patient : kenapa??????????????????????????

I ran out from the cubicle, stunned. when i read his social history. he is a 61 years old / malay / male who is unemployed, married, stays in an old folks home and has 4 children

how is he going to take care of me?

i am not that stupid to become a stepmother of 4 ok?

learning how to protect myself

I had never met anybody so mean before in my 3 months of working life. AL is just another lazy young doctor in the ward. To make matters worst, he is a 6th poster. All he knows is to order me to do something.

INCIDENT A

there was a patient who suddenly deconsented for operation due to depression. So AL went to pacify the patient for op. He must have been a sweet talker because patient agreed for op after that. i should have given him a pat on the back. so AL came to me..............

AL : Ann, can you call the anaesthetist now to inform them that the patient has agreed for op?

i was speechless. Hello!!!! do you know that anaesthetists are the scariest people in the whole hospital? they had no common sense. they devoid of feelings. all they do is to scream at HOs and make HOs look like fools. I don't blame them for their extreme craziness for they had no HOs under them to torture.

AND AL wanted me to call them?? I am not that naive to dial that number. First, i will be scolded and he will escaped. No way am i going to become his scapegoat. Only MOs and nurses are allowed to call those ferocious anaesthetists. Then, i came to my senses. why can't AL call the anaesthetists himself? Why must he specifically choose me? just because i am a first poster?

I have learnt to protect myself. I don't want to make AL angry because he is going to become my MO soon. i gave him that fake beaming smile and i told him this......

ANN : oh AL, i have things to do now. why not you try to call our MO instead? don't call the anaesthetists. let our MO inform the anaesthetists ok?

INCIDENT B

48 years old chinese uncle complaints of acute onset of right knee swelling for the past 4 days. there was suprapatella bulge, patella tap was positive, warm, ROM limited due to effusion. After the rounds, i pushed patient to the procedure room. did a knee joint aspiration for the first time to rule out septic arthritis. i knew that i have to send the synovial fluid FEME urgently because septic arthritis is an emergency. i ran the the lab myself and i saved one bottle of synovial fluid for the MO on call to inspect the fluid. I have learnt well. Dr L was once very unhappy with me when i told him septic arthritis is not an emergency. I kept calling the lab to trace the urgent FEME when AL sat at the counter gossiping with the nurses. It was his patient afterall.

then he saw me busy tracing the results. He came to me and asked me to inform the MO on call that i had saved a bottle of fluid for inspection. and... how he doesn't mind running to the OT just to show the bottle of turbid synovial fluid!!!!

Hello!!!!! why do i have to do the calling again? Dr K was the MO on call that day and he will be extremely mad if we call him for no reason. i don't understand why can't we wait for the synovial fluid FEME to confirm that there is pus cells / numerous leukocytes / increasing trend of ESR before informing the MO. i bet the MO on call was busy in the OT. i guessed that he wants to show the MO that he is hardworking.... he has been doing all the job, when he actually did NOTHING.... he just wants to get the credit

so, i gave AL that fake smile again

ANN : oh AL, why not we wait for another 30 minutes for the lab to release the FEME result? then you can run to the OT if you want to inform the MO?

i was complaining to cafu about how mean this 6th poster is.... he had always wanted me to become the scape goat..... Cafu said these are the kind of people who will survive.... I maybe gullible and tiny, but i am not going to let any 6th posters bully me....