it has begun!

and so, with nary a peep, clerkship has begun for real. to be fair, it actually started last week, but what with finals week looming over us in all its ominous glory, there was barely a soul with his heart into hospital affairs.

afterall, i was in -pathology-... and with the exception of us pricking holes into each other and drawing test tube after test tube of blood with great finesse, there was hardly any hands-on exposure. what WAS available though, was hour after boring hour of somnambulistic lectures on how to pack samples, which bottles should go where, yadda yadda. information which, unless you ARE staying at the TSGH, is completely useless.

so perhaps it was good news that while we had to endure the week-long lessons, while other people were let off early to do last minute studying, we weren't missing out on the GOOD STUFF, so to speak.

unfortunately, i fell victim to terrain of our infamous tennis court and ended up with a foot resembling the likes of a pork trotter. raw, mind you, not one of those german pork knuckle kind. massive ecchymosis aside, the swelling made for good simulation of pitting edema, and it would altogether be quite funny had it not come at such a bad time and err, well if it didnt happen to me. heh.

so, it was with such an awesome appendage that i dove headlong (or.. lung?) into the respiratory ward (i have -no- idea what some of the chinese terms mean, translated into english), into the world of COPD, pneumonia, TB and puffing ventilators. to a universe dominated by s. pneumoniae, h. influenzae, acinetobacter, mycoplasma, chlamydia, legionella, and the occasional m. catarrhalis, klebsiella, and pseudomonas aeruginosa. and err. scabies. (as discovered today)

i am of course, now the smallest of fry, the phytoplankton of the deep dark sea of medicine. except that unlike the phytoplankton, i dont actually -contribute- much. but foodchain-wise, yep the phytoplankton and i, we're right there at the same level.

though, i must say that i am learning at the speed of light! visual input, verbal exchanges, and the occasional handson experience (try not to move, mr!) all makes for great neuronal stimulation! i can feel those pathways forming arreddddyyyyy.

as it is -rather- late now, i hope to do a more detailed to account as to what exactly ive learnt so far... in the near future. tomorrow will see me doing my first ever night shift. whoopeedoo?