Remember that Nintendo Family Computer game we used to play as kids called BATTLE CITY? (Yessssss... I'm sure you played FamiCom games too! I am NOT THAT OLD YET! LOL XD) Well, to my delight, some wiseass actually decided to nickname the PGH Pedia ER as BATTLE CITY! ROFLMAO XD
I was Pedia ER reliever yesterday. It was actually my second time to relieve those Pedia interns on actual ER duty, but since yesterday was a weekend, I has to go on a 13-h reliever duty instead of the usual 9-h weekday reliever duty. My partner Rona and I dreaded going there so much, but duty calls forced us to go. And upon arrival, BATTLE CITY DID look like BATTLE CITY, with so many wailing kids and yakking moms all over the place. We were immediately greeted with a pileful of lab requests for gadzillions of blood extractions. Woohoo. T.T
So like the tanks in the BATTLE CITY game, Rona and I "fought" our enemies, "blasted" those tanks, "moved" around the place and "protected our camp" (translation: we argued with mothers, hooked IV lines and extracted blood like crazy, hurried all over the Pedia-ER to monitor those yapping kidz, and made sure we completed all our tasks). We fought hard and long (from 2pm to 3am), and we were badly beaten and bruised till our bodies went numb from head to foot because of the extreme physical pain and emotional drain. I was amazed that at 2AM, Rona still had the strength to smile sarcastically at the complaining father whose son we were poking with a gauge 23 needle. I was already so tired and so pissed off. I no longer had that patience. If Rona didn't keep her cool then, I would have probably done two of these things:
1. walked away without saying a word,
2. poked the damn needle on that ranting dad and tell him to shut up.
I'm still in my right mind though. I would do option #1. But good thing Rona was there, and we eventually completed the task of extracting arterial blood from that kid.
*deep sigh* I AM PEDIA INTERN!! And I hate it so much!!! If you go back to around 1 year back, you’ll be able to read the part where I broke down during my clerkship year. And that was during my Pedia rotation. u_u
It’s not that I hate kids. I think they are cute and all. But I don’t like them when they are sick. I don’t want to line them. I don’t want to extract blood from them. Because those are two of the most difficult things in this world to do! And in addition to that, you get a ranting mother (or a hard-headed grandmother or a nosy neighbor) at your side, going all hysterical and blaming and pressuring you for inflicting pain on her child. IT’S NOT LIKE I WANT TO DO THIS, DAMMIT! T.T That’s why I will never go into Pediatrics. NEVER. Absolutely ZETTAI NEVER!!!!!!! I don’t want to treat patients I don’t want to treat. Children should never be sick in the first place. Sometimes, it’s the irresponsibility of parents which leads to such unfortunate consequences. And those are the parents I'd just love to poke with a gauge 23 needle and yell, SHUT UP!!!!
After this week at the OPD (plus one more ER reliever duty this Friday), I will be Pedia Ward intern already for the next two weeks. Good luck to me cos I’m the Hema-Onco intern, one of the most detested posts, which means all my patients will probably need blood extractions day and night. On top of that, I will be celebrating (as if there’s a cause for celebration) my birthday in the ward, because I happen to be on 24-h duty that day and, as if life just keeps getting better and better, I will be endorsing the entire Ward 9 the next day during the conference. And if I survive that, I will catch babies for the next two weeks in OBAS/LCB/Nursery, then the last two weeks will be my REAL fight in BATTLE CITY. Yes. The final two weeks are my official Pedia ER duty schedule. And we will have NO MORE RELIEVERS by then, which means the battle is all ours.
*tone dripping with sarcasm* Yehey. How exciting. I just can’t wait.
Trina forwarded me this quote from Grey’s Anatomy. I don’t watch the series, but I can truly relate to this:
“The key to surviving medical training is denial. We deny we’re tired, we deny that we’re scared, we deny how badly we want to succeed. And most importantly, we deny that we are in denial. We only see what we want to see and believe what we want to believe, and it works.” (Meredith Grey)
It has to work. Or else no freaking person can ever survive this kind of horrid lifestyle.
Sometimes I wish I was just an “ordinary” person. Nobody told me I need to be a superhero.
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