please pray for me...

this week, i was meant to have started my first job as a house officer. by now, i shuld have had a few days of being on the job, learning first hand wat it means to be a doctor. i was meant to be enjoying this wkend catching up with frens, exchanging stories of wat's been going on in each other's hospitals. i shuld be attending a fren's wedding today, in fact my first fren's wedding, but instead here i am at home, lying in bed, typing on my laptop, trying to deal with wat's been going on in the past week.

for those who don't kno yet, ive got erythema multiforme, a skin condition dat u can google. cos i really cant be bothered explaining the minute details. but basically, i had been feeling unwell since last friday after the TI dinner, and no, not from the aftereffects of alcohol. i blame it on lack of sleep and crazy weather. it was the day when the weather was incredibly hot and i actually woke up having a headache. since dat day, hadnt been feeling 100%, with headaches and being feverish and occasional nite sweats. then when i moved to timaru, i knew i wasnt feeling dat great but i thot it would just go away as viral illnesses do. so i managed to turn up on day 1 and lucky it was just orientation but by the end of dat day, i was knackered and slept the rest of the day. on day 2, i was hopeful dat i could possibly make it to hospital but was quickly stopped by my flatmate who agreed with me i had a rash on my face. dat was the beginning of my nightmare.

so now i have this crazy rash all over my body. it started mainly on my face and neck and has since spread everywhere else, sparing my hands and feet. it looks the worst on my face and neck. the rash has been crazy itchy but has since calmed down from using a combination of antihistamines and calamine lotion. calamine lotion by the way is the most amazing thing ever! im also now on prednisone to help reduce the inflammation. the worst part of it now is the blistering over my lips and the hypersensitive mouth, which means it's really hard for me to eat and im on a baby food diet. which sucks majorly. cos technically i want to eat and ive been craving all different sorts of food, but anything dat i drink or eat stings my mouth really badly. it's the worst part of this condition and id so rather have the flu 5 times than to have this ever again.

this is probably the worst thing dat has ever happened to me medically. the funny thing is ive always heard abt this condition but never seen it in real life, whether it be in the hospital or even in GP land. and yet, i get it myself in my 1st week of working as a doctor. i hadnt even had the chance to properly enter the wards yet. sigh. the other things i can remember being quite bad was being down with gastro in nepal for a week. and also having a "flu-like" illness back at the end of 2nd yr med during exam period. dat was bad.

now im just hoping dat the rash will clear up by graduation which is in 2 wks time. ive worried abt graduation for the past 3 years, worried i wont be able to graduate with my frens. and each year as i pass the exams, i feel the relief. now dat ive finally cleared all my assessments, im struck with this disfiguring illness. yes i kno im being silly for placing a big deal on grad, it's just dat ive already put so much effort into this particular day and if the spots don't clear by then, ill be uber upset and totally disappointed. so now im just praying really hard dat the rash will clear up by then. so if u have a single ounce of goodness in u, please pray for me dat i will be able to attend grad, without the rashes. so yea dats the story so far. thanks to all who have been sending good wishes so far. :)