Cough Cough! Oh My God! Did I cough out some of my Lungs?? Just joking.

These few days been feeling very sickly, malaise, lethargy, whole body muscle ache, sore throat, flu, cough, mysterious tiny ulcer on tongue. -_- Tried to take all sorts of remedies to reduce the pain. Lots of water, honey, rest and light food. The best is MC. Instant cure and relief. You are ensured of a good day's rest without any worries and stress. Went to the clinic and got a bag full of medications and lots of good advices. I wonder a lot about MCs. Last time people just need to call in sick but now why must we have a MC? Just to prove we are sick? Sometimes a simple cold the best medicine is bed rest and lots of water it will be cured by itself. Is it necessary to see a doctor for every single tiny illness? Nowadays with so many drugs is that good? I wonder.

Anyway, dear me is taking in 4 types of drug, mucolytic, NSAID, antibiotic, antihistamine. That's quite a mouthful to swallow.


That reminds me of the other day...Hospital Attachment~
Here is our lecturer Dr M telling us about precautions to be taken in TB wards. Wear mask, glove and don't be too near to the patients etc...



Me with Tan in the background.


My patient Madam A. She is a very tiny small cute orang asli patient. She has recovered from Pulmonary TB. We have observed left lung collapsed in her X-ray and on auscultation. Her trachea is diviated to the left side too! Ok...for us it is always a thrill to see, touch, observe the real diseases outside of text books. (ps: She agreed to be photographed and appear in publication.) It has always been a great experience to work in close contact with patients. The secret to successful patient-doctor communication: smile,greet, joke, relax, speak their language and thank them. A lot of my guys friends find it really difficult to get histories out of patients. I notice that they all stand so tall with such a serious face and deep voice. All the patients scared already. Just greet them, smile, introduce yourself, ensure and inform them what you are going to do. Some time joke a bit, it will loosen the patient up. Or else sometime the patients see us and gone into tachycardia and rapid breathing with accessory muscles due to anxiety. We can all see that and sometime it lead us to the wrong diagnosis.

Tuberculosis ( TB for tubercle bacillus ) is a common and often deadly infectious disease caused by mycobacteria, mainly Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs (as pulmonary TB) but can also affect the central nervous system, the lymphatic system, the circulatory system, the genitourinary system, the gastrointestinal system, bones, joints, and even the skin.

A brief History of Tuberculosis

Mycobacterium tuberculosis has been present in the human population since antiquity - fragments of the spinal column from Egyptian mummies from 2400 BCE show definite pathological signs of tubercular decay.

The term phthisis, consumption, appears first in Greek literature. Around 460 BCE, Hippocrates identified phthisis as the most widespread disease of the times, and noted that it was almost always fatal. Due to common phthisis related fatalities, he wrote something no doctor would dare write today: he warned his colleagues against visiting cases in late stages of the disease, because their inevitable deaths might damage the reputations of the attending physicians.

Exact pathological and anatomical descriptions of the disease began to appear in the seventeenth century. In his Opera Medica of 1679, Sylvius was the first to identify actual tubercles as a consistent and characteristic change in the lungs and other areas of consumptive patients. He also described their progression to abscesses and cavities. Manget described the pathological features of miliary tuberculosis in 1702. The earliest references to the infectious nature of the disease appear in seventeenth century Italian medical literature. An edict issued by the Republic of Lucca in 1699 states that, "henceforth, human health should no longer be endangered by objects remaining after the death of a consumptive. The names of the deceased should be reported to the authorities, and measures undertaken for disinfection."

In 1720, the English physician Benjamin Marten was the first to conjecture, in his publication, A New Theory of Consumption, that TB could be caused by "wonderfully minute living creatures", which, once they had gained a foothold in the body, could generate the lesions and symptoms of the disease. He stated, moreover, "It may be therefore very likely that by an habitual lying in the same bed with a consumptive patient, constantly eating and drinking with him, or by very frequently conversing so nearly as to draw in part of the breath he emits from the Lungs, a consumption may be caught by a sound person...I imagine that slightly conversing with consumptive patients is seldom or never sufficient to catch the disease." For the early eighteenth century, Dr. Marten's writings display a great degree of epidemiological insight.

I am really glad that TB is no more such a life threantening disease and there is a cure for it. Or else in the olden days it is almost a sure death. Meanwhile I am going to rest.


Tiffany resting in the chair, coughing and trying to watch some Korean drama to relax. Stress has been catching on with her.