A 17-year-old patient wif cerebral palsy & a 42-year-old female wif advanced breast carcinoma..

Oh ya. 4got to mention tat i'm now doing family medicine posting. Entering 4th-week of the posting soon.. stil have lots of things to catch up on. Case summaries, MCQs, need to find a new patient for my CFCS and redo all the reports. Arrgh! Sometimes i reali wonder, "does medical student have a life??"ha.:)

Went to KKS as usual yesterday. As we had no clinic teaching, chia ying and i wandered around the KKS and ended up in the physiotherapy unit. We saw a 17 year old male, having air splint around his hands and feet. We tried to talk to him, and noticed that he has slurred speech. His dad who was by his side, told us that his kid has been having cerebral palsy (CP) since birth. The poor kid loses control over the major part of his body. He is on wheelchair, needs spoonfeeding, and cannot control his urination and bowel movement as well. It's a very saddening scene. I cant imagine how the kid has gone through his life for 17 years. In spite of this, he looked optimistic and couldnt stop smiling and laughing all the time. Can see the tight and intimate bond between him and his dad. His parents must have gone through lots of difficulties and hardships, both physically and mentally in taking care of a child wif CP. That shows how great parents are. Always sacrifice for children willingly, without asking anything for return..

Then, we proceeded to treatment room. A 42-year-old female came in and she looked pale, cachetic, depressed and was wearing a cap. As she unbuttoned her shirt, we saw a large bandage covered over her left breast. The nurses took out the bandage and to my horror, there was a large fungating mass beneath! i couldnt believe my eyes. It was the LARGEST, REDDEST, "BLOODIEST" fungating mass that I could ever imagine seeing it in a real walk-in patient. As the nurses were doing dressing for her, lots of blood coming out from the mass. I can see that the patient was in great pain but she never uttered a word. I noticed that the right nipple was affected as well and mayb the Ca has spread to the opposite side of her breast. There was gross lymph nodes enlargement. I cant stop feeling sad for the patient. She is only 42..how her prognosis would be? How she goes on wif her life..

This reminded me of a patient who I met in a private clinic where i did my GP posting during sem2. She too, had a fungating mass over her left (or right?couldnt remember clearly) breast. That time my medical knowledge was too little to realise that it is actuali a fungating mass from an advanced breast Ca..I was stupid enough to think tat it was due to some kind of bacterial/fungal infection..