Wandering in the Ward

I am a medical student aka ward wanderer.

Attending morning ward round is one of many routines that I have during my term time.

(The other routines include:
1. waking up late and intoxicate my brain with lots of caffeine
2. rushing to the ward while putting on my name tag, tie, stethoscope, etc
3. feeling relieved yet frustrated when I am the only person in my team who arrives at the ward ie the other docs are late for the round ie I could have stuffed a slice of toast in my stomach if i know this earlier.)

During the ward round, the consultant will see the patients, say hello to them while the junior doc will write the important observations and management plans on the patient's note, often they write so quickly that no one including themselves can read the writing afterwards. I don't blame them because they really have very limited time for this as they still need to fill out lots of forms and occasionally need to answer their bleeps.

Some of the patients that I met during the round were like staying there forever. They often came to the hospital with 1 illness but then they were suffered with more infections while staying in the hospital. When they recovered they still cannot be discharged as they haven't got any 1 who can care for them so they will prolong their stay and eventually they become permanent residents in the hosp. It's sad but true.

Wandering around the ward doesn't just give me the opportunities to learn about medicine but it also stimulates my thinking about how the social issues can give rise to physical diseases and mental illnesses.

Bless them.

A Sick Mother

After a hectic year as a 4th Year medical student who spent his time running through different medical and surgical specialties, I finally passed my exams and now being 'promoted' to a final year medical student. Currently I am doing a 7-wk placement in a friendly hospital which is situated in a small lovely town called Abergavenny. I just finished my medical rotation and I am now doing my rotation with a general surgeon who has an interest in breast operations.

One of my routine weekly activities is to attend my tutor's breast clinic. As you can expect from the name of the clinic, some of the patients who came to this clinic had breast cancer. So, it was not unusual to see patients crying in the clinic. However, today i had a slightly special experience which i would like to share with you.

An extremely lovely lady who is in her 80's has a lump in her right breast was told that it is very likely that the lump is going to be malignant based on the clinical and radiological examinations. However, the diagnosis can only be confirmed once the lump sample is analysed histologically. So she was given an appointment to come to see my tutor when the result is ready and she was advised to bring a family member along. Then she started to be a bit emotional and tears began to flow from her eyes. My tutor tried to reassure her that he will do his best to help her as he thought she was worried about the condition. However, she then asked if she can come alone on the next appointment as she doesnt want her children to be upset and worried.I was very touched when she said this and I thought she must be a very good mother as she tried to face the problem on her own and did not want to worry her children, even she knew that she might not cope with it. I really wish her all the best and hope she will survive the disease.

In less than 2 weeks time I will go back to Msia to meet my family. And I hope I can spend more time with them when i get back.

Learning Good Lessons from the Bad News

It's the 3rd week of being a 4th Year medical student. And I am currently at the mid point of my Respiratory Medicine block before moving on to the next block.

One of the activities that I did in this block was to attend my consultant's clinic sessions. I had attended two of those sessions so far. These sessions were however different from the other clinic sessions which I had gone for over the past 3 years. They were unique as i have never seen so many patients crying after attending the clinic. They cried as they had got bad news from my consultant who runs the Lung Cancer Clinic on Mondays. They were, unfortunately, diagnosed as suffering from lung cancer. Most of them were at the end-stage of their cancer as lung cancer tends to be detected clinically only at the late stage. In other words, most of those patients suffered from a disease which could not be cured.

I had participated in several seminars on breaking bad news to the patients in Year 3 but I have not encountered any real cases in the clinical setting. This placement gave me the opportunities to observe how the doctor informed the patients about the diagnosis of their cancers which could be a very challenging task even to an experienced doctor. Normally, my consultant would get a nurse to come in while he told the patient about the bad news. Most of the patients, and even their partner, would cry immediately after knowing the result. Some of them would be calm after a while but some of them would be in denial state and even refused to receive any treatments. I would not be surprised as it's normal for anyone to break down when they know they have got an end-stage cancer.

There were some instance which I really had some tears in my eyes. It is such a difficult task to tell your patients that they only have months to live while remain calm. However, i think this is an essential skill to learn as a medical student so I can handle such situation after I am qualified.

Hopefully I will not have to break too many bad news to my patients next time but when I really need to do so, I hope I can manage it well.

A quote from a medical student

I came across with an article written by an american medical student who reflected on his decision to study medicine and whether it was a right choice for him. It was a good article and i would like to quote a small yet meaningful part from it:

"... I think I have found a source of inspiration and motivation. It's not about the prestige; I don't think all the training is worth what prestige is left in the profession. It's not about the money; there are easier and shorter paths to earning a decent living. It’s not about being your own boss; the current medical system has made that terribly difficult. It's all about the patients."

My Year 3 SSC project

I am now doing my SSC (student-selected component) project which will last until the last day of my Year 3 calender. The main topic of my project is " Urological problems in patients with spinal cord injuries", or in a simpler term, urinary system problems in patients who injured their spinal cord. I will be working under the supervision of a consultant urologist at my university teaching hospital for 9 weeks.

It's now the 2nd week of the project. I had attended some operations in the day surgery unit as well as clinic sessions. Majority of patients with urological problems due to spinal cord injuries are incontinent (passing urine unintentionally) and more prone to urinary tract infection. Therefore, the main care provided by the urologist for the patients with spinal cord injuries is to preserve the function of the urinary system and to improve patient's quality of life.

My supervisor has yet to decide a specific topic for me to research on but so far the clinical experience that I gained from the operations and clinic sessions are very useful. The doctors whom I spent my time with were very keen to teach me about the basic knowledge and clinical skills in urology. I am indeed very lucky to be allocated to this project because not only the topic (a combination of urology and neurology) is interesting but the teaching staffs are very willing to deliver quality teaching.

Hopefully i can perform my best in this project in the remaining weeks and to gain deeper insight into the specialty of neuro-urology.

Why I chose to read medicine?

First, I have an interest in reading medicine. And I still love it now.

Second, I wanna help the patients in terms of disease prevention, medical condition monitoring and symptomatic relief.

Third, I want to be a good doctor due to the 1st and 2nd reasons.

The introduction

Hi! My name is Wei Kang. I am currently a third year medical student in Cardiff University, UK. While I am at the mid point of my 5-year undergrad training, I feel that it might be a good idea to blog about my life and experience as a medical student. This blog will serve as my diary, and hopefully, as a platform which I can interact with the visitors to this blog to exchange views and share opinions on medical and non-medical issues.

I started blogging since a couple of years ago so this is not the first time I call myself a blogger. I am, however, still trying to improve my writing skills so hopefully i will be able to produce some good articles through blogging about my life.

Enjoy reading! =)