And the drama continues in neurosurgery

Day 3

Assisted while the resident performed a lumbar puncture on an elderly lady, supervised by a registrar.. It's good to see her smiling again at me, after an agonisingly long wait for the painful procedure to be over.. Got to practice my blood taking skills again with the pathologist, though one patient was swearing and cursing away at us (he can't move, but he felt the pain).

The resident I was shadowing left her jacket at the bedside, I grabbed it for her, and her handphone fell out of the pocket onto the floor, and the cover came off. Ooops..

We learnt suturing.. on pork bellies. The other supervisor from cardiothoracic asked us to join his teaching at 1 of the labs, and when we opened the fridge, phew!! Full of pork in cling wrap (and maybe a few hearts and livers also).. duno how many years have they been there :p I suggested maybe we should take some home for good old 'Bak Kut Teh'..

Day 4

I never liked radiology, looking at CT scans and X-rays.. so during today's neuroradiological meeting, I was trying very very hard not to fall asleep, despite the coffee.

Today bumped into a big-shot, the Professor / Head of Neurosurgery at the clinic after he came back. My consultant supervisor wanted me to clerk and present to him (duno why he like to make me suffer in funny ways :p). Clerked the patient anyway, one with sciatica / slipped disc (ie back pain), and she kinda got offended when I touched on her unemployment and asked her family history regarding her mother with dementia, whom she was taking care of full-time at home. Anywayz, cleared her case with one of the registrars, since my consultant was busy.

Next up, clerked a patient with neck pain radiating to the right arm. It's a challenge clerking patients in Australia, coz they don't answer questions in the format you wanted them to (in Malaysia, doctor ask 1 question, patient answer 1 question). Here, they will either scold you if they feel your questions are irrelevant, or go off tangent when answering your questions, which was exactly what happened with this old lady. But I do sympathise with her in that she had titanium inserted into her cervical spine C5-C6 for ACDF (whatever that is), then she shared about her abuse by her ex-boyfriend who assaulted and kicked her in the neck and head, and how she is discriminated by her boss due to her lack of interpersonal skills (I think she almost wanted to cry already). But something is not right, how can neck pain C6 present with tingling sensation all over right arm and forearm.. I think the nurse who chaperoned me do a full upper neurological examination also quite horrified with the way I made this lady turn her neck and move her arms up down left right (can hear abit of crepitus).. I asked my registrar to come and see her, and after asking a few questions, took her hand - positive Tinel's sign. Diagnosis: Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Pfft.

Next up, helped a resident to run and errand by collecting a radiological CD from the emergency department. Got delayed, since this guy at the department got abit overexcited and was trying to show me around where they did the MRIs and CTs. It's already past 6pm, and when all the registrars and consultant have left the ward, the resident said, "Oh dear, we forgot to send Gary home." Latest I have ever finished. Arrived home at 8pm.