Geriatrics was like a breath of fresh air… after the sandpapery feeling that ortho left in my mouth the past two weeks. (the only thing i like about ortho is the OSCEs)
As from the limited exposure to geriatrics personnel today (7 hours of lectures in Siberia), I’m wondering whether geriatrics is THE place for me…
For one, there was this female doc who was speaking soooo quickly and like a machine gun it reminds me of how i present cases or answer questions especially when i’m talking to a surgeon. (that’s provided i know the answers)
And another, there was this other female geriatrician from …. who made me feel like i was looking at myself in action 10 years down the road… -_-
Spot the similarities:
- speaking like she doesn’t need to breathe
- having constant flights of ideas that don’t stop, they really don’t stop.
For example, — “which is the group going to …? Only these three nice people? where are the rest? They din come for lecture? all girls only? they watch soccer all night issit? hey i also know the results leh. italy won rite? rite? then this french guy dunno why go zhuang4 something… anyway when are you all coming? oh tomorrow? so soon? (sticks out tongue) oh i won’t be around this week so i know you’ll be seeing the rest of the tutors first, and you’ll present cases. but please don’t present … because that’s the only thing that i know best and if i give you tutorial on that again, then it’ s like (makes face), so you must clerk a … for me ah!” and just barely drawing a breath, she launches back into her lecture again!
- constant state of mania (she couldn’t stop prancing around and couldn’t stop talking… even me, who can talk damn fast cannot catch her sometimes, i just space out. NOW i understand what a friend described himself as ’spacing out’ whenever i launch into vivid descriptions of something i’d bought/seen… i totally empathise with you now… haha)
- quite easily distracted. like she would be lecturing halfway and then suddenly pick on something totally out of the way to comment on.
- she loves using abbreviations like CMI and TTFN. hahaha that got the other geriatrician so confused…
- her kou3 tou2 can2 is CMI.
Then there was this other geriatrician from another hospital… who looks like KOIZUMI! lolz… i was mulling over it during his lecture… now i finally recall who he resembles! hahaha…
Even he presented with this really weird almost psychiatric symptom.
Eg. “So there are many causes of … we can classify them into type A, type B and type C. and oh, I sound like Rod Stewart today, only i don’t sing, i can’t sing you know, but i’ve been having this sore throat so now my voice is like Rod Stewart’s and (proceeds to unscrew his bottle of liang teh) i’ll have to yam seng you from time to time. (drinks from the bottle) and so, what are some of the screening questions you have to ask the elderly?”
And i was like, (shake my head), (shake it again), (hold my head with both hands) and wonder…. omg, what the heck is happening here…
I’ll think more about it after i step into the geriatric wards tomorrow. hahaha… i sort of know what to expect already though, given my elective posting was pretty ‘geriatric’.
