COAMS #12- Bell's Palsy?

(April 16, 2006 at 10:57 PM)

Destiny is not a matter of chance,
It is a matter of choice,
It is not a thing to be waited for,
It is a thing to be achieved.
(W. Bryan)

My consultant, Dr Hamidon, said the line above. He’s a nice funny guy.

2 weeks of clinical studies have past. So, much had happened lately that I’m not sure what to blog. My ‘interesting’ wards meetings? How I met my previous boss at the orthopedic wards? How I had cramps on both legs and almost drowned? How we got miserably caught in the rain at pasar malam? What I bought at pc fair? Preparation for AMSC Hong Kong? etc… (that could take a few pages..)

ok, let me just share with you my clinical studies, you could skip the boring lines, of course ^_^. For the first month, we were divided to 4 different systems, one system each week- CNS(central nervous system), CVS(cardiovascular system), Respiratory system and the Abdomen. So, I had my CNS lessons on the 1st week, CVS on the second.

During my CNS posting, I met a patient who had Bell’s palsy, which was quite an interesting case. For the benefit of non-medical students, I’ll explain about Bell’s palsy. Bell’s palsy is a paralysis of the cranial nerve 7- the facial nerve, the essential nerve for facial expressions. Which means, to perform an examination on the 7th nerve, we need the patient to perform a series of ‘face exercise’(which was quite funny).
1. without moving your head, look upwards
2. screw or squint your eyes
3. puff your cheeks (the examiner, with his index fingers, will attempt to pop the air out of your cheeks)
4. show your teeth (grin)
Good job! I see you had excitedly examined yourself. Good, you have great facial muscles. Ok, let’s go back to the patient : Because the nerve is only effected on one side of the face, you would only see paralysis on one side of the face (eg:left side). You can obviously see the asymmetry- drooping of eyelids, drooping of the corner of the mouth, flattened nasolabial folds, smoothing of the wrinkled forehead… The patient is OK now, you can’t really see the weakness of facial muscles unless you observe carefully and perform the facial examination.

I was happily following my consultant on the wards one day when I heard someone calling my name from the back. When I turned my head, I was like –OH MY GOD! Remember I used to give tuition lessons in Rasah Jaya during my form6 break? Well, that was my boss, Mr Raj. He was admitted to the orthopedic department, MVA(motor vehicle accident) 6 years ago, now he’s back with complications-infection. He had 5 fractures and had a graft. Serious case, almost had his leg amputated, but the doctor managed to save his leg. The kid that ran into him only had a RM300 summon, while Mr Raj had suffered for years, and still is…it’s a sad world… It’s funny though that you can actually meet people you know at the hospital. It was fun chatting with him though… He was telling me how the consultant shouted at the students, and I can’t help thinking that I might be one of ‘the students’ some day … *siGh *…

Did I mention that there’s an Olympic size swimming pool at the stadium opposite my school? It’s something like the one in S2, only that it doesn’t have a deep and a shallow area. Yes, it’s deep all the way, but if I hop on my toes, I could almost emerge. Swimming was fun, it helps me think (the way writing helps me think).. except the part when I had cramps on the back of my calf, first on the right leg, then the other. The pain was so sharp, radiating upwards. I could not even bent my knees! The funny thing is, my friend, im sing who attempted to save me, grab my hand and I was like ‘let go, I can’t swim without my hands’ –haha! Oh boy, she was scared alright. CONCLUSION : 1.never forget to warm-up before swimming, 2. sexy, good-looking lifeguards are only found in Baywatch.

P/s: I was lucky I did not get admitted to the A&E department this time. Hopefully, when I left KL campus, I left the curse behind as well. The last thing I need is to be clerked by my own coursemates! *sigh *…