exercising my literacy

Fever!

The problem with doing med is that rather than becoming the empathetic individuals that society thinks we will be - because we've seen the worst of the worst - we're pretty unempathetic until you're practically at your deathbed.

For example, we always just ride off people with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. If you're unfamiliar with what that is, it's described as "having the flu all the time", and it's something you can get after a bout of glandular fever. It stays for ages and doesn't really ever go away. I was talking to a girl the other day who had Chronic Fatigue... she was my age and she's had it since year 12.

Now that I've got the flu, my head is killing, my muscles are aching, my throat is burning, my nose is blocked and I feel hot and cold at the same time, I really feel bad for people with Chronic Fatigue. I can't believe that this girl's lived this way for 5 years.

So then driving home today I thought of three things. One, how lucky I am that I'm still a student and can bugger off home when I'm sick. In two year's time I'd have to stay put and finish off my daily intern tasks before going home. You can't take sickies because, like I said, doctors don't give you sympathy unless you are going to die right now (even if you feel like you are).

Second, that I've grown really calloused. When people tell me they're sick, my first reaction is just "yeah yeah you'll get over it in 3 days..." But it is a pretty miserable 3 days for those people, even though we don't consider it a serious anything in our eyes. It's serious to them and I should be respectful of that.

Thirdly, I thought about the people lying on the east wing of the ground floor at my hospital. They're the ones who really are on their deathbed. If getting the flu feels this bad already, what must that be like? I really really can't imagine. I'm whinging about being flu-ish, but really I haven't even stepped up on the scale of human sickness and suffering.

Okay, back to sleep. I've got an exam tomorrow, I am so screwed...

I'll leave you with this song which I can't get out of my head. Apt I know, haha. But at least it makes me feel a tad more sexier than my current bedhair and pyjamas state... and hey, now I have the croaky sultry voice to go with it...

Never know how much I love you, never know how much I care
When you put your arms around me, I get a fever that's so hard to bear
You give me fever...
When you kiss me, fever when you hold me tight
Fever!
In the morning, fever all through the night.

posted by me. @ 7:10 PM