Impotence

Impotence

This post has elements of Jun Beng ranting. No point for you to continue reading on unless you are keen to know what's going on.

A few days ago, the mother of a friend of mine who works at the place i am pursuing culinary arts accidentally slipped by the staircase and fell right under my nose. Initially, i thought what had happened and i stood motionless for a couple of seconds. She was yelping in pain and i guessed that she must have strained her leg. I rushed downstairs and wondered what to do. Although it wasn't an emergency that places the question of life and death at stake, that moment still struck me as i thought "What can i do? I am not a doctor. I have no idea of how to deal with this type of situation!"



The only thing i could do then was to bring her to the clinic close to my baking academy. Other than that, i am left helpless. What if there isn't a clinic or any health care service around the corner? What should i do then? Seriously, feeling impotent is the worst feeling for me. I would like to help people out when they're in trouble and my desire to be a doctor grew even more. Okay, i know that there are tonnes of other professions that help societies in different ways but that doesn't discount my urge for becoming a doctor (I am not going to talk about it in this post. Its really long). Anyway, realising the fact that i might not even be selected into any medical schools makes things worse. I know there's nothing that i could do now. But then again, impotence arises.



See, once in a while life will pour some situations whereby we humans will be left, impotent. For me, its like the time when both my grandads died, the time when my aunt died of cancer, the time when another of my aunt who had diabetes and there was a stage whereby it was critical, the time when i couldn't help my friends or those dearest to me in certain matters (this sucks!), the time when i am sitting here wondering whether i ll ever be accepted for medicine, the time when.... it's never ending and really, this post is nothing more than a post where i rant. But seriously, isn't it good to be in the know?



Anyway, back to the lady who slipped. Her name is Sandra. My friends from culinary arts brought her back up as she didn't want to go to the clinic just then. The boss of my baking academy, Liz insisted that she goes to the clinic and we sort of carried her there. She got really dizzy in the clinic. Throughout the way, all i did (as i thought it was right) was just being there, carrying her around from time to time, comforting her and asking her to relax.



Well, I know its pretty useless of me but just recently i managed to think of this (perhaps, just to give myself some satisfaction so that i don't feel useless). As Sir William Osler, Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford, noted that medicine is (this was taken from IMU's brochure by the way) "to acquire facility in the art of diagnosis....bla bla bla (its really long)... to conduct treatment that the patient may be restored to health... or, failing that, be given the greatest possible measure of relief"



I think that although i failed to treat Sandra's leg, at least i have tried my best to give her a measure of relief by being compassionate. Its a form of medicine in action (okay! this is so me giving myself some solace!)! By the way, i noticed that a lot of doctors these days are rather mechanical and robotic and some have money radiated clearly from their eyes and its not wrong cause everyone is different! But if i were to ever become a doctor, i most certainly will not follow their footsteps.