Surviving at 820 Thomson road

Dear Diary,

I had one of my worst day at 820 Thomson Road.

My ultrasonic scaler was down and my patient has already hopped onto my chair. It was known since yesterday but no one reported, did any repair work nor reassigned me to another operatory. I was waiting for help - for the assistant to bring me the portable unit from the x-ray room. I used the manual handscaler while at it. It certainly brought me back to the agony of the school days to test my manual dexterity. And if it isn’t torturing enough, I had to use my injured fourth finger as the finger rest. The skin along the side of my nail has peeled, leaving an open wound which stubbornly refused to close. It hurts every time I were to rest my finger. My assistant came back without the unit, claiming that it couldn’t be dismantled. I had to drop what I’m doing, try and be a hero/handyman, in order to finish up my job.

I saw another patient, and she kept getting up to rinse, fear of choking. It was close to, what, 20 times? At this time, I was yelling in my heart, KILL ME!

The next patient after lunch was a paeds, my boss asked me to see. A grand-daughter of a medical doctor in the hospital. 1 year old ‘strong-willed’ with the history of crying, wailing. GOOD GAME PLAYED ah, boss. True enough, she screamed and cried for an hour, with nothing done. At the expense of causing my next patient to wait. And all that for a no-charge case.

The last patient of the day - almost drowned a few times and had to rinse. At this time, I don’t know if I should blame on my bad luck, my assistant, my patients or myself.

I am just glad that the day is over. The sun shall rise again.