Now I Know Why They Said It's... - Episode 1

The tension starts to rise around me...

Fourth week of pediatrics, my first perception was so wrong.

It was MIX subdivision, consist of Nephrology(kidney), Neurology(nerves) and Nutrition. This week there are 11 co-ass(med students) submitted in this subdivision, and that number is more than enough to handle the only two patients of Nephrotic Syndrome.

So I took it for granted.

I came later than usual, about 20 minutes later that we're supposed to be.

I spent most of the times in the co-ass room, the discussion room, the canteen, the policlinic and other places rather than the second floor's 'meja batu'(co-ass’ station).

I read for a glance about Nephrotic Syndrome and Acute Nephritic Syndrome, but didn't make the time to read the patient's status.

At that point, I started to hate MIX subdivision for being so boring and giving less motivation for me to study. I need something adventurous, something much more demanding, and much more interesting to pump my excitement to learn.

Then on Thursday afternoon while hanging around at the 'meja batu', suddenly Dr. Hery came and asked us about our patient. He asked us, but his eyes are focusing on me. I felt cold. My mouth made some move, but there's no sound coming out. Other people kept on answering the questions for me. It was not obvious, but it's so embarrassing for me. It's too disappointing.

He left after giving some advice to study and learn the patients' status. That was like an alarm waking me up. I NEED TO STUDY!!!

With the new spirit burning inside me, I went home and planned to study. I made a simple slide for the next day's presentation, and that night I brought my laptop to my night-shift on-call, with the intention to study.

Again, I was asked to be in PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit) for the 5th time, this week only. FYI, being in PICU means there's no sleep while you're in there. Rest is possible if there's no patient to be follow-up every 15 minutes which is very uncommon. So taking care for PICU patients at night-shift is actually a nightmare for most of us. But as a co-ass, what else can you ask for?

While in there, I managed to study a few slides and learned a lot from a nice discussion with Dr. Hery. At 2.30am, I left PICU to exchange shift and move to follow-up in Lontara 4(the 3rd class pediatric ward). I planned to study the nephrology patients but I don't seem to have the time with all the follow-up and the decreasing of the waking mind.

At 6.30am, I left to clean and change for office hour.

Now I'm starting to feel the pressure. This morning it was planned that I need to present the presentation about Macronutrient which I have the slightest idea of it. Moreover, I heard the doctor that will be the moderator likes to point to anybody to answer any question. Having the thought of it only made me feel nauseous. I keep on reading the nutrition book my friend brought, trying to memorize every important detail.
There’s:
essential amino acids,
non-essential amino acids and
conditionally-essential amino acids.
So essential amino acids needed to be taken because they’re not produced in the body, while the non-essentials are.
But what does conditionally mean???
And there’s phenylalanine, arginine, glycine, glutamine, lycine…
But which is which???

At the same time, I realized that the residents will ask about the mix patients. So I tried to read the status but my mind felt too saturated. NS and ANS become too confusing.
NS have proteinuria.
ANS can too.
But NS's is massive.
How would I know if it's massive or just more???

The more I read, the more confused I became. : (

Then suddenly we had ward round for mix patients. This time, I was the focus of arrows. The questions were all aimed to me, and I hesitated. I managed to answer some, but failed at most.

Oooh...this is bad.

Tomorrow I'll be going to Rumah Sakit Bersalin Fatimah, and I know too less to be near ready.

Now I'm too tired, but I really need to study.
Oooh...only Allah knows how sleepy I am rite now.
I know what I need. I need sleep.

IMAN NAILAH 2008

noradrenaline2001@yahoo.com