Pediatrics: Happiest Place in Hospital

Whether or not you have some knowledge of music, human beings are designed to be aware of baby cries. After all it's one of our primitive reflexes - to recognize another vulnerable human being in danger. In pediatrics we are surrounded by baby crying all day all night - infants who don't know how to speak express their anguish, despair, and call for help through various crying patterns; and it is worse if someone he knows is there. Children who know one or two words (around 1 year old) cry while uttering Mama or Papa, and you know they're just pretending to cry when there's no tears - crocodile tears. So that makes one of the fun lists in pediatrics.
Second fun thing - when they are not crying, children and infants make good company. There are a dozen cool reflexes one could indulge with them - Moro's reflex and the parachute reflex being the coolest of all. And just for medical students only, the Babinski sign is VERY obvious on infants - once you observed it on babies you won't want to see it again in neurology. I personally think children are good patients because they are so straightforward. They have no hidden feelings - making faces in front of them will send them into giggles, while an otoscope or pen light will send them straight into tears. Needless to say syringes and vaccines - don't let them even see you or else they'll remember you for life - childhood traumatic events.

Third fun thing, even though they throw a havoc when swallowing medicine, or fun faster than the Olympic gold medalist when a synringe was flashed in front of their visual field (I actually saw one the other day, took 3 nurses and his mum to surround him and carry him a la hunted down game back to ward), they are a symbol of the future - of hope. When pediatric patients got discharged it's always a blessing - we wish them all the best, they have a future ahead of them. Unlike, say, oncology, nephrology, or endocrinology - a discharged patient only means more work in the future. And believe it or not, no matter how you bullied and abused your patients, they will still bid goodbye to you when you wave your hand to them - the age of innocence and ignorance.

Of course there are sad cases as well - 10-month old boy who just suddenly turned black - sudden infant death syndrome - a reminder to all of us that science and medicine is not invincible just yet. The art of talking to patients, revealing reality and harsh information while making sure they're really listening, is something like kung-fu. I gradually come to know medicine is not the cold hard science, but a living spirit and a form of art that indirectly shapes humanity and the community. No wonder we called it a "practice" - lifelong learning.
2 weeks more in pediatrics - hope I can complete all my work before rotation ends, and make lots of new friends and lots of knowledge that stays.