I'm at this point in my life where a single mistake can mean catastrophic outcomes. I'm halfway through the second week of Summer break and I haven't gotten to homework and revision yet. I would say that I was busy, but honestly that only applies to the first week when I was on internship. Who knew clinic internships could be so fun? I learnt so much in that week and to my greatest relief I did not dislike what I saw and experienced. Many minor surgeries here and there, which only served to pique my interest more - And I'm more certain that I want to be a surgeon next time! However there is a sliver of desire to become a GP, because the 'friendly-neighbourhood-doctor' experience is truly something that cannot be extracted from the role of a specialist. Bye-bye, neurosurgery? I find myself standing at crossroads. Not that I shall have to make a decision soon, but my personality urges me to make up my mind soon. All the pre-course reading and research shall have to be prepared!
As enriching as the internship was, I had to face one of the worst aspects of being a doctor - falling sick. Maybe it was the germs in the clinic; or maybe it was a random uncle who sneezed into his hands and wiped it on the door handle - who knows? The past few days have been horrible due to a stubborn high fever that just wouldn't come down. I was already feeling rather unwell on Wednesday last week, but I never thought that the fever would worsen that much. On Sunday night it was a mere 37.8, and I thought, meh, low-grade fever, maybe I'll just sleep early! Then all of a sudden I woke up in cold sweat and I was convinced something was wrong. Took my temperature, and whoa in just under an hour the fever had risen to 38.8. Feeling extremely lethargic, I called my dad who was at a dinner and when he came back he contemplated bringing me to the A&E since it was so late at night. In the end we didn't go there because I felt that it was a waste of money. The days went by and by Tuesday the fever was constantly above 38.5, even remaining above 39.0 in the night. I felt like my head was going to explode! I had HMFD last year and it wouldn't even come close to this.
Finally yesterday the GP referred me to the A&E for an X-ray and blood test under the suspicion of Pneumonia, although my lungs were clear on Tuesday evening. I had to be on the drip for nearly three hours because my veins were too small and the two bags of IV solution just couldn't drain into my body. How nice. Meanwhile I was feeling so uncomfortable and quite possibly I was looking the most ill amongst all the other patients in the IV drip area. This cute ahma kept looking at me because I kept coughing and whining (?) and whenever I looked back she would smile as if to say 加油 :)
Anyway, true enough, I had Pneumonia and the reason why my lungs were clear the previous night was because the germs had only just settled in (!!) The primary diagnosis was a viral throat infection but seemingly it progressed to a secondary bacterial chest infection a.k.a bacterial pneumonia. I can only be grateful that it is not a viral infection anymore because if it was it'd probably take a longer time to heal, seeing that viruses are usually stronger than bacteria... with the exception of meningitis. Speaking of which, I'd better read up on why bacterial meningitis is worse than its viral counterpart. Seems like an interesting read to me.
My fever has since gone down and I hope to get back to studying if my fever doesn't go back. Weirdly all the other symptoms are still persisting such as cough, headache and my indecisive nose alternating between being runny and blocked. I also woke up with a stiff neck today! Please I hope this all ends soon - I WANT TO STUDY!!!
P.S. I know I've been a horrible blogger. Who takes such a long hiatus? Many mini posts up soon - I've got many virgin experiences to share!
No xoxo today cause I have germs to spread
Valerie
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