No more paeds!

Finally realised I'm definitely not cut out for paeds. Well not that I was anyway, especially since like more than half a dozen tutors in NUH paeds are President Scholars...

Anyway sometime during this wk, one of the patients I saw was this 6 yr kid that had some extent of developmental delay (or in layman/unpolitical terms, retarded). This kid beats all others I've met so far in terms of annoyance. Man. No words can describe the amt of loath I haf for the kid.

Guess some ppl may (like my mother) invoke the "but you are a doctor!" phrase and question my basic virtue of sympathy (which by the way is juz a poor excuse for attempting to emphatise).

"That kid is mentally handicapped! How can u expect him to be nice and obedient?" Well that thought did cross my mind, but mind u he isn't that mentally impaired. Maybe it's kinda due to an unconscious mental remodelling that I've experienced in that I dun really feel (at least according to my mum) for patients, especially those who are impaired in various manners...

My question is, weren't we taught not to treat them as handicapped individuals but as normal individuals? Isn't according them special privileges and attitudes, beyond those which enable them to cope and function as "normal" as society deems, a form of pity (or sympathy... same difference)? Pity, as I recall, is not exactly a particularly enabling attitude to the handicapped (or for the obessive freaks, impaired).

Anway, seems none of my frens have the same loathe for the kid as I did. (well maybe it stems more from the fact that he totally drained the battery from my toy, abusing my sketchboard, snatching my toys and books from me) Which reminds me... Eh CG mates, how come u all not bringing toys ah? Everytime we clerk I end up entertaining and playing with the kids. Which also accounts for my extremely high "Oops-I-made-the-kid-cry" count (currently stands at 3!)

Guess bottomline is, dun think I'll make a gd paeds doc. Gotta say sorry to my "idol", the reason why I entered med sch, Prof Quek. Heh.