Tuesday, September 25, 2007

ah, post-call state this is

Do you have a boyfriend?
No, good friends.
Well then I don't know what he's doing not proposing you. He's missing something great.

Not my conversation don't worry.

This was mine.

You're very lovely.
Ah thanks, you're being nice.
No I mean it anytime.

When you hear this from a stranger in the middle of the night; after been working more than 20 hours, in your sloppiest state (eye bags, skewed tudung, scrub suit), it just left you in great sublimity. Make sure you're not hallucinating though.

I learned a lot from my patients. At present we have 3 patients with lung cancer. One of them held my hand today and asked, how long does he have more to live? What do I say? What would you say? Another one deteriorated badly after thefirst session of radiotherapy. As if something's gonna happen, she was holding tears when she said her biggest thanks to the team for taking care of her since admission.

Another lady I met in the endoscopy suite while preparing her for bronchoscopy. She was the happiest person I've ever met going for the procedure. She whispered to me about 'the shadow' Prof found on her chest x-ray, hence the bronchoscopy today. Her children asked what was it about. She answered it's nothing, and she'd be fine. I made a joke about the possibility of her being in denial state. She said, yeah, but she'll fight whatsoever.

So much for the school of life.