It's 3am, mid-way through my night shift, and I'm officially miffed. The past 5 1/2 hours were perfectly okay, but in the past 30 minutes, I saw 2 cases who caused me a LOT of irritation.

Case #1: Indian male who's drunk, arrested for disorderly behaviour and brought in for blood alcohol levels. Very confrontational to the point of police officers not thinking it advisable to uncuff him for venepuncture. Before he's taken away, he lets loose on me ( apparently because I missed on the first try when poking him, but he was wiggling like crazy, which didn't make it easy ), saying, "I'll come look for you (someday)." in a menacing tone. Where the heck did THAT come from?! If anything does happen to me, here's a nice juicy suspect for you.

Case #2: Came right after Case #1, yeesh. Husband and wife. Wife having food poisoning, slumped in the wheelchair, refuses to open her eyes, mumbles when questioned. Husband not happy that he had to wait a total of 15 minutes , while I was sorting out a string of police cases ( 5 in total, including Case #1 ). When he walks in, I ask what happened, to which his reply is a rude "Look at her!" He then keeps quiet and gives me the "you should be able to tell just by eyeballing my wife" expression, which I don't get very often, I admit, but dredges up all sorts of horrible memories when it does happen. I set a plug for her quickly and shoo her off to observation. She'll most likely recover, but I don't expect any thank-you's from these two.

The nurses tell me that earlier this evening, a little girl was brought in for drowning. She didn't make it, and seems she lives just across the road from CGH. Her parents took it well, unlike some relatives who wail and turn violent. I've never been directly involved with a paediatric death. Even when I was in the paediatric oncology ward back in my houseman year, the kids in my care somehow stayed alive. I guess most of the deaths occurred in the intensive care unit, which had only medical officers and other more senior doctors in charge. I may have to deal with such cases when I go to KKH Children's A&E next. Not looking forward to it.

I've discovered how important sleep is to me. Snoozed as much as I could today, and still feel tired. Most doctors I've met agree that if they had to choose between sleep and food, they'd pick sleep anyday. My mom, however, disagrees, so she wakes me up to eat my 3 meals, whether I'm able to get out of bed or not ( I usually get up, mostly 'cos she cooks really well :)). I don't know how married couples with kids in my profession do it. I can't even muster the energy to play with my cat, let alone care for a husband and a child.

Just watched this week's episode of "C.S.I.", and wanted to talk about it a little 'cos it's my favourite so far, and extremely bizarre. The premise was that of a murder involving a man dressed in a meticulously hand-sewn raccoon suit, which later led the CSI team to a convention where lots of people dress up in animal costumes and partake in really weird activities, one of which is a "fur pile", complete with "scritching" and "yiffing". You can find out what yiffing means on Google. Can't tell you what it is here or I'll be accused of being obscene. :P

Anyhow, it was a real eye-opener filled with witty one-liners. E.g. "So we have to ask the perennial question: Why did the man dressed in a raccoon suit cross the road?", and "Shot then hit by a car. Bad day -- even for a raccoon." Well, it's funnier when you actually watch it. :D

Time for me to get some shuteye. Good night.