Paeds @ HSNZ..

2 weeks of Paeds summary:

- made friends with medical students (from Polland, Ukraine & Moscow, and UCSI) and the HOs.

- was attached to a really nice Specialist who turns out to be my mum's 3rd cousin's husband (3/4 of people in Terengganu are related) haha

- had a rough session with the HoD in the ECHO room. Partly my fault because I didn't do a full examination on the patient but I had to present. Not my fault for always have to be the spoke person when there were other students there. My fault for not being well informed on Thalassaemia, when it is so common here in Malaysia. And not my fault for the HoD to have a bad mood that day after he scolded a junior doctor. Enough about that...

- I brushed up my Terengganu dialect, especially when conversing with the children and the parents. I know my dialect sounds weird, but hey, I'm trying! =P

- The majority of admitted cases were asthma, viral-induced bronchiolitis and nephrotic syndrome. Thalassaemia is the majority in day-care.

- I was the only student to hang around the ward until 5pm.

- I attended Thalassaemia workshop (by the request of HoD.. hehe) on my last day there, and it was on Saturday!

- it took me about an hour to take a full history, mostly due to my lack of Malay vocabulary. It is so hard to translate everything in my head before I can ask questions.. so a lot of erm, aa, hmm...

- some interesting cases, such as Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, Hand-Foot&Mouth disease, Focal segmental glomerulonephritis, and orbital cellulitis. No dengue fever in Terengganu!! =D

- building up my medical terms in Malay languange.

- had a good time playing with the children... =D

10C Ward, Selayang Hospital..

Who would have known, after finishing my attachment in Ampang Hospital, I spent 4 days in Selayang Hospital.

My dad wasn’t feeling well since last Sunday week. He was complaining of generally feeling unwell, fever, joints and back pain, as well as dysuria. So the next day, after endless coercing, he agreed to go to our GP. The GP then diagnosed my dad with UTI, and he was given ibuprofen, antibiotics and Urispas (which I don’t even know what that is). After 3 days, he still wasn’t feeling good. His dysuria was gone, but not the other symptoms, and it seems like he was getting weaker.

After another few bouts of coercing, he submitted to his daughters request to bring him to the GP again. It turns out he had haematuria (4+) and proteinuria. I was starting to worry for he might have some kidney problems. The GP wrote him a referral letter with query kidney stones. So we brought him to the ED, Ampang hospital and we had to wait for hours before we get to see the doctor. While waiting for his blood tests and x-ray results, he was under observation with 2 pints of normal saline drip put in.

Couple of hours later, an MO and 2 HOs from medical team arrived and reviewed him. I knew one of the HO and I’ve seen the MO before, and they recognised me. From the results, it turns out that my Dad’s platelet count was 19!! He was then straight away transferred to Selayang Hospital via ambulance as Ampang was full.  It was my first time ever riding an ambulance. The nurse kept asking my dad how he was feeling in the ambulance, he said he was fine. But I felt like telling her, that I was the one feeling sick to my stomach! And I was left with a major headache the whole night from the ambulance ride. Fuuhh…

So then my dad was admitted to 10C, where almost everyone there was diagnosed with dengue fever. Apart from the 2 cases of malaria (one got it from camping in the middle of nowhere and the other was an Indonesian who recently came back from his country).

Now Daddy is at home, safe and sound – but still feeling a little bit weak and his appetite is still not back to his usual. Alhamdulillah, he has no diabetes, no hypertension, and no heart problems. I’m just waiting for him to start his golf games, so that I know he is back to his usual self. =)