Medical Centre Blues

To the casual observer, life in the medical centre appears to be pretty chill: medics just sit at their tables nonchalantly gossiping amoungst themselves, not really taking note of you the patient who has been waiting since morning for your turn to see the doctor; when you finally finish your consultation it took another eternity to get your medication; inserting the IV needle into you without giving much heed to the fact that you are wringing in pain, all the while not needing much exerting much phisically at all. Well to those of you out there who think this way, trust me when I say I understand your frustrations. I've reported sick too. It is not that we are being unprofessional, for the truth is that we are not professionals. With the limited training and manpower available to us, we are expected to take care of enough patients that would overwhelm any other similarly manned and equipped civilian institution. And that is not to mention the various administrative matters that the medical centre is expected to perform. We too are stressed as much mentally as you combat types are physically. Medics and MO's need some love too.

Maybe my view of MC's may be coloured by the fact that I work in a 24hr medical centres in the midde of one of the bigger camps in Singapore. We get tons of report sick patients from within and outside the camp, while at the same time everyone expects us to provide medical cover for all sorts of nonsense. This is while the MC itself is severely short-handed, with us only having so many doctors and medics. If you would realise, in any normal GP it quite some time just to see one patient, so a few patients would seem to take quite long. Imagine just one or two doctors many times the number of patients at a normal GP and you can imagine the delays and problems that will be involved. Furthermore spend too little time and patients would consider the MO unprofessional, spend too much and the queue just builds like no there's no tomorrow. Compound this with the stress involved in dealing with crabs and stars and you can imagine how much frustration the MO builds up.
So please stop asking none stop if its your turn yet... We are trying our best to get rid of you too.

Another problem that also constantly arises is the fact that way too many people take the term 24hrs medical centre way too literally. For the information of the clueless out there, it merely means that after office hours we only see emergency cases ONLY. The problem here though is that everything seems to be an emergency to the commanding officers, for do not want anything to happen to their charges lest it will affect their career prospects. (Some on the other hand refuse to let ther charges come report sick lest is affect their career prospects... a strange world it is, but that's another problem.) You also have enciks who send patients over so that the MO can charge them for malingering at some ungodly hour. For pete's sake it is not that easy to charge someone as the patient must at least enjoy the benefit of the doubt. All these just points to more work for the hapless 24hr medical centre medic.

That said however, I can say that when I think of some of the cases that come in, I can't help but be throughly amused by them, though unfortunately I would not be able to talk about these cases openly. Just say that human stupidity is really a wonderfully amusing product of nature. It is also immensely satisfying when someone express gratitude for what you are doing for them. So please note that a simple thank you can go a long a way in keeping the medics sane enough not to purposely miss your IV to vent their frustrations.

Quote of the day

"Get happiness out of your work or you may never know what happiness is."

-Elbert Hubbard (1856 - 1915)

Really Surreal...

I think that my desire to get a girlfriend is sapping way too much of my mental energies. I know many a love sick soul find themselves spending most of their day thinking about this person that they are secretly in love with. This is not the case with me though, for I have way too much nonsense to deal with on a daily basis at work to seriously give much thought to my love life, not that I have much of one in the first place that is. The girl of whom I have mentioned before I was intersted in? Apparently she may already be attached. Couldn't know for sure though, as I was stuck in the SAF after all. It was frankly quite devestating at first, since it has been quite sometime since I have felt so strongly for someone. In the end though, it was embaressingly easy for me to get over it. Guess I did not really invest as much of my mental and physical energies into this person of my desire as I imagine initially. Just a childish one-sided infaturation with a lady who thought of our relationship in terms of a platonic friendship I guess... and that would be the end of it.

This morning though, I woked up feeling utterly emotionally drained. Not that I had been crying my eyes out the previous night, since I rarely cry. It was this surreal and yet strangely compelling dream in which I manage to have an entire relationship with the lady mentioned before. Not that it was much of a relationship, or even a very interesting one to say the least, but it really felt real. Can't remember clearly much of the details, but it goes something like this:

It was at one of those gatherings of common friends, where people met simply to catch up with everyone else. Not intend raising anyone's suspicions that I am be interested in this particular lady, I simply interected with her what social ettiquete would deem appropriate when the matter of fact was that I was actually quite annoyed at dealing with anyone else but her. Pity me the coward with no courage to even hint at my affections and the fool with no intelligence to overcome this weakness. It was becoming another social occasion where nothing dramatic is expected or happens.

When I was about to resign myself this sad fact, something miraculous happens. The lady actually makes the first move to engage me in a more intimate conversation, and if I were to believe it, was actually openly flirting with me! The heavens must have taken pity at this miserable soul! All my subtle flirting with shy eye contacts and polite smiles may actually have worked! Before long a date was agreed upon, and I felt as if I was already in seventh heaven.

As luck would have it, she would be cooking for me on the first date. If that is not a sign of better things to come (if you catch my drift), I don't know what is.

In a flurry of activity however, somehow I ended up terribly late for what has to be one of the most important days in my life. The lady was visibly upset when she berated yours truely for being so ungentlemanly late... That was not that bad though, for she sooned turned diplomatic... As anyone with any knowledge of girls, is the beginning of the end of any potential relationship.

Within the twitch of my closed eyes, I was already back in my bed, without any tears to wash my sorrow, without the lady of my dreams.

This dream to me seem to be a reflection of how my relations with girls are: It starts with potential interest, the girl would hint at some interest for me, but in a blaze of activity it would end as if nothing ever having happened. Hopefully this dream does not ever repeat itself again in my real life...

Quote of the day

"Sometimes when you look back on a situation, you realize it wasn't all you thought it was. A beautiful girl walked into your life. You fell in love. Or did you? Maybe it was only a childish infatuation, or maybe just a brief moment of vanity."

-Henry Bromel, Northern Exposure, The Big Kiss, 1991