the harm of help

so someone you care deeply about is struggling with something which you are well-equipped to help them with. how much help would you give? would you just sit back and wait till they ask for help? what if you know that they won't ever ask. is it more morally questionable to watch them descend deeper into the abyss or to swoop in and start directing the set? and then there's the issue of feelings. how do you extend a helping hand without hurting the person's ego and stuff? and when the person takes your hand but is unable to get a firm grip because of distractions, how far would you go to hold on to them? would you risk making the person momentarily unhappy for happiness in the long run? if so, what if the person doesn't see what you see in the 'long run'?

love is tough. but isn't tough love tougher?

how much is too much?

HOSPITAL CHART BLOOPERS

(Actual writings from hospital charts)


1. The patient refused autopsy.

2. The patient has no previous history of suicides.

3. Patient has left white blood cells at another hospital.

4. She has no rigors or shaking chills, but her husband states she was
very hot in bed last night.

5. Patient has chest pain if she lies on her left side for over a year.

6. On the second day the knee was better and on the third day it
disappeared.

7. The patient is tearful and crying constantly. She also appears to be
depressed.

8. The patient has been depressed since she began seeing me in 1993.

9. Discharge status: Alive but without permission.

10. Healthy appearing decrepit 69-year old male, mentally alert but
forgetful.

11. Patient had waff les for breakfast and anorexia for lunch.

12. She is numb from her toes down.

13. While in ER, she was examined, X-rated and sent home.

14. The skin was moist and dry.

15. Occasional, constant infrequent headaches.

16. Patient was alert and unresponsive.

17. Rectal examination revealed a normal size thyroid.

18. She stated that she had been constipated for most of her life, until
she got a divorce.

19. I saw your patient today, who is still under our car for physical
therapy.

20. Both breasts are equal and reactive to light and accommodation.

21. Examination of genitalia reveals that he is circus sized.

22. The lab test indicated abnormal lover function.

23. Skin: somewhat pale but present.

24. The pelvic exam will be done later on the floor.

25. Patient has two teenage children, but no other abnormalities

Random updates

So I'm 6 weeks into Semester 6/10. You might have realized that already from the date of my last post. Between then and now, quite a few things have happened:

1. I flew back to aussieland on the morning of 12th of July. Arrived at night to find rat poo greeting me on my bed. And the carpets. And toilet. And closet. And clothes. And kitchen. And living room. And on the sofa. To say it was everywhere would be an understatement. Because it was EVERYWHERE! Yucks. And there was no hot water because while we were on holiday, our boiler decided to do the same. Thank God for Kerf who braved the howling wind and cutting chill to coax and cajole the boiler back into service. Armed with hot water and disgust, we mopped, scrubbed, vacuumed and washed the house till 5am. And we didn't see a single rat all night.

2. Gran passed away 4 days after I got back here. She deteriorated really quickly and when I got the call that she was critical on the 14th, I flew down to the Gold Coast the following night where I got to see Gran for the last time (and she got to sniff me for the last time because she never opened her eyes while I was there). At 5am on the 16th of July, I lost the only grandparent I've ever had a decent conversation with. I was pretty upset that when she left, none of her family was with her. My aunts and uncle had gone to bed from sheer exhaustion from looking after her in hospital for the prior 2 weeks), I contemplated staying up the night but when I checked on her at 1am she seemed stable (and I was exhausted from the past few days) so i went to bed. I've known Gran for ages but I never knew she was so big on the whole 'dying-before-breakfast-to-leave-your-family-3-meals' thing. I didn't even know it existed! =( We had the funeral 7 days later, which wasn't really a good idea as we realized on the 7th day.

3. 1 rotation down, 3 to go. I completed my respiratory rotation 2 weeks ago. It was pretty good - the registrar was big on teaching, the patients had lungs which played music, and ward rounds started at half past 8 =) Started Aged Care/Gen med which is good too with ward round actually worth going to.

4. Watched 2 movies recently: Million Dollar Baby and Juno.

I love Hiliary Swank, but I would never have watched Million Dollar Baby had I known how acutely depressed it'd make me. Seriously, I felt like I needed morphine after the movie!

Juno on the other hand was a darling. It made me realize the importance of sex-education (as in teaching kids about sex, not having sex while being educated.). During this scene where Juno goes for an abortion, she meets a schoolmate camping outside with a sign saying 'Every Baby Wants to be Born'. They chat, and the girl randomly tells Juno that fetuses have fingernails. On hearing that, Juno flashed a pensive look at the camera, but went in nonetheless. Only to come racing out minutes later, telling her best friend that she couldn't do it, citing, amongst other reasons, the fear that the fetus would scratch her vagina with its' fingernails if she aborted it. I wouldn't have bought that if say Jessica alba had said that, but coming from Ellen Page's mouth, it sounded 101% believable. I'm officially a fan.

While chatting to a close friend the other day, I randomly asked her how happy she was. Being med nerdballs, I turned our Pain scale of 1-10 into a Happiness scale. She rated 5/10. Then it was my turn. I chose 8+/10.

Sometimes it takes a simple question from someone to make me realize how much I have to thank God for.