Another form of virginity lost

In spite of the asphyxiating exam stress, I'm perfectly okay. Get to see lots of awesome things for the first time.

There's nothing extraordinary about multiple gestation. It's not uncommon. There're quite a few of them in the ward with twin pregnancies. We do get cases of multiple pregnancy in our obstetrics short case or long case examination at times.

But then, I saw a girl with monochorionic triamniotic triplet pregnancy in the ward yesterday. Now, this is something we don't get to see every day. She's got 3 babies in her womb! Awesome. The chance of having a triplet pregnancy is 1 in 6400. I had the honour to clerk and examine a lady with a triplet prengnancy for the first time in my life. I was jubilant.

She's only 20. She gave birth to her first child at the age of 14. Unbelievable.

What was I doing when I was 14?

When I was 14, I had a crush on classmate named ZZ. He's adept at playing tennis and had represented our state on numerous occasions. We didn't have much in common. But, I always offered to help him academically. I remember he's bad in Maths. You know, sometimes, when you fall for someone, you do lots of ridiculous things and sacrifices just in order to win his heart or get closer to him. Nothing he does is nasty enough to infuriate you. You become unusually accommodating to him and at times, to avert an altercation, you're willing to bear the grudge and have your ego punctured. Well, I have to admit I did these too when I was 14. Too bad, ZZ's straight.

Apart from that, I think I was mainly studying and mugging for exams when I was 14. Yeah. I was so nerdy and bookish. When I was 14, I contemplated coming out to my mom but didn't managed to pluck up my courage in the end. When I was 14, it was the ICQ era and I started making gay friends online.

Alright. Sorry for veering off the main topic. Though it's exhilarating to see the girl with triplets, I couldn't help but to feel apprehensive. There're 20, 000 complications that can happen in a multiple pregnancy that she seemed to be oblivious to. I didn't tell her about the woman whose twins died in-utero in the gynaecology ward in 4th floor. Hope she'll be fine.

Oftentimes, in the ward, not only do you learn medicine, you also gain fascinating insights into people's lives. Different patients regale you with different stories and you will realize how others' lives can be so different from yours.

In addition, I saw this for the first time in my life today.

Saw that thing protruding from the vagina? To put it in a way you understand, it's uterovaginal prolapse, which is a very common condition and common exam question.

Gynaecology is unlike other specialties because you're dealing with someone's private part. For ethical and medico-legal reasons, you just can't simply do whatever you like or behave frivolously. You have to be very tactful and take into consideration the feelings of your patients.


Me: Sorry ah auntie.Err.... Nama saya Lucifer. Saya pelajar perubatan dari... Univerisiti X. Boleh ka saya ....errrr..... tengok kamu punya....err....itu? ...supaya saya dapat belajar. Saya tidak pernah tengok dan periksa.... Boleh kah?


Auntie: Boleh ba kalau kau. Tengok ja. 

I feel an eternal gratitude to the lady who gave me an opportunity to gain such an invaluable learning experience. She gave me the permission without the tiniest bit of hesitation. She even allowed me to examine it with my hands. Not every patient is that easily approachable.

Sometimes, it's things like these that keep me going and raise my spirits when I feel demoralized. It's marvelous to have the chance to see so many things for the first time these few days. Feel as if another form of virginity of mine is lost. :p