3am Monday morning, and it's like the calm before the storm. Ssshhhh, mustn't speak too soon. :) There was a spurt of activity earlier, and as expected, loads of NS boys came with complaints of pain here and pain there. There was also a significant number of assault cases, with people getting beaten up by unknown assailants. Heck, just last night, I saw a poor guy who was slashed on the face by some knife-wielding crazies on a rampage, and had a 15cm gash across his right cheek. The paramedics thought his teeth were exposed at first, but a closer check revealed that the cut hadn't gone through and through after all. He was warded for repair under GA, but is going to have to live with a big scar. This occurred in the Pasir Ris area, so be careful if you're there during the weekend.

Saw a couple of other strange cases as well. There was a lady in her early 20s, whose boyfriend ( who may or may not be married ) is in his late 40s. When she first saw me, she was alone, and had made a police report after being assaulted by this boyfriend. He punched, slapped and kicked her, and she looked really dejected. After discharging her, a couple of hours later, I saw her attacker for a totally unrelated complaint -- he fell off his buggy during a round of golf and hit his chest. The only reason I made the connection between the two of them is because the woman accompanied him into the room, and I recognized her. They were holding hands, so I guess they made up. *scratching my head*

Then there's the other lady, who's in her late 30s, and whose husband stepped on her chest while she was sleeping in bed, after an argument earlier that night. I felt really sorry for this patient, and she was trying hard not to cry. I just don't understand how some men can be so violent. Who knows, he may even get away with it, 'cos she hadn't made a police report when we saw her.

And last but not least, my shift yesterday ended with a case of severe pneumonia in a middle-aged man, who returned from Chicago a week ago and has since been having fever and breathlessness. He has no direct contact with anyone with SARS, but then, he stopped over in Frankfurt for 14 hours during transit, and who knows who else was there -- I have no idea how stringent the temperature checks in Frankfurt are. His white cell count was only marginally elevated, and he was subsequently admitted to an isolation room. I haven't had the chance to find out what happened to him as yet, but I admit I couldn't really sleep last night 'cos I was wondering if he could have atypical pneumonia. I didn't have to intubate him, but then, I've already tubed 2 patients in the ER in the past week, one of whom also had pneumonia. I had the space suit on, of course, but blame it on paranoia -- I'm still scared, darn it!

Just admitted yet another pneumonia with a totally normal blood count. There seem to be a lot of these floating around. Or maybe they just gravitate towards me. Oh well, just have to wash my hands as often as possible, and hope my mask fits tight -- it still fogs up on and off, and is wreaking havoc with my breathing, but anything beats gearing up in the C class wards.