Why I want to be a doctor (reflections)

Why I want to be a doctor (reflections)
Was reading through my blog just to remind myself of who I was. Essay test is tomorrow, or you could say today, since its past midnight. Don’t want to talk about the interview too much. That will be a separate post.
My first encounter with medicine came when I was in Primary school. My brother got a stethoscope as a birthday present. I got a box of jenga blocks. Being a jealous little kid, I often took the stethoscope to play when he was not looking. I was innately curious and would place the stethoscope on everything just to hear how things sounded. Yeah, even my Eevee I think. Maybe that got me interested in being a doctor. I’m not quite sure. But I did want to know how a stethoscope was actually used and why doctors kept listening to your heart beat from your back when you had a fever. I always thought they should be checking my head instead since that’s where the pain was. Later, I found out they were listening to my lungs instead. Reasonable after all, since the fevers I got often stemmed from infections in my respiratory tract I believe. My fevers were often accompanied by sore throats and lots of thick yellow mucus.
Later in upper primary, I read about Dr William Tan, the paraplegic doctor who went round the world doing ultra marathons breaking world records. His determination to succeed in life despite his disability greatly inspired me to work hard. At the same time, his charitable acts reminded me to use my skills to serve the community with a heart and to remember to always give back. Until today, his quote, “there is a giant in every one of us,” still resonates with me. Still, I was not sure what I would do with the rest of my life.
NUS High School made me more focused on what I wanted. As a year 1 student, I was exposed to talks and research my many scientists. I also had the chance to build my own things (music instrument project in year 2 and projectile in year 3), and carry out experiments. I found most of it very interesting. By the end of year 3, I was certain I wanted to do something science related. As part of the BIG, and highly influenced by the Christmas Island Trip, ecology seemed like a very tempting field to study. After all, I reasoned, who would not like admiring nature as a job? However, as I ventured and explored ecology further, I realized being a researcher in such a field was not always so certain and results could not be concluded properly most of the time due to many variables affecting the measured results. Cue headache doing ARP that required multiple regression due to the high number of environmental factors affecting the abundance of picplankton. (my interest in ecology sadly waned over time  )
My interest in medicine started when I was in year 4. In june, BIG had to carry out a workshop on dissection for primary school kids. Somehow, I was in charge of the smelliest dissection, the mouse dissection. Interestingly enough, that sparked my interest. When preparing for the workshop, I cut/examined at least 3-4 mice a few days before. I realized that each mouse was slightly different when cut up. Each mouse seemed to have a different spleen colour making me realize how dynamic the human body was. During the workshop itself, I enjoyed poking around the organs with the primary school kids (those that were not grossed out) and explaining to them how the structure of each organ and their function. Some questions they asked me were silly, but some I could not answer due to my lack of knowledge. That incident made me start to read up on various organ functions. The organs of a white mouse are rather similar to humans in the sense that it too has a 4 chambered heart, and a complete digestive tract just like us. So very conveniently, I read up on human anatomical function as well. Thus my passion in medicine started.
Why was the heart self excitatory, how in the world could we breathe without killing ourselves? What contributes to muscle soreness? It was highly enjoyable to read up and learn about such things. Around the same time, I started training more in track and learning about the various exercises to strengthen the body as well as techniques for stretching and recovery when injured. Being a keen running enthusiast and trying to be helpful, I started using what I had learnt to help those with injuries and attempt to help people pass 2.4km during NAPFA. I taught my mum, who had a slipped disc, exercises and stretches that were not too demanding to help her strengthen her back and showed people who suffered cramps during PE how to stretch. Sometimes, I would try to diagnose conditions my friends had due to sports injuries too. Haha Janice the self proclaimed aspiring sports doctor.
And, the rest is copied from my personal statement
As I read up more, I became deeply drawn into the doctor profession. After enquiring widely, I landed an attachment at Gleneagles Hospital to the clinic of one of the top liver surgeons in Singapore. Shadowing the doctor made me realize how hectic a doctor’s life could be. However, shadowing the doctor in his daily work was an eye opener for me. I was fortunate to be able to witness a liver resection on a liver cancer patient, as well as a living donor liver transplant. This gave me a greater appreciation on the liver diseases I had read up on previously. It was inspiring too, to hear about how the head doctor pioneered living donor liver transplants and how as a medical team, the clinic treated each and every patient with care and concern. In one of the cases, the patient unfortunately had end stage liver cancer and was rushed to the hospital only the night before due to severe abdominal pains. Although the patient was certainly going to die, which might affect the doctor’s reputation, the doctor did not reject the patient but instead prescribed pain management treatment and calmly discussed care plans with the patient’s family members. This taught me a great lesson on true compassion a doctor should have.
Later in Year 6, I had the opportunity to represent my school in various biology competitions. One of the most memorable ones was the Singapore Biomedical Olympiad. The sheer amount of content on the circulatory system and the gastrointestinal tract made me realize how little I actually knew about Medicine. The judges’ sharing on views about the topics and medicine in general were also inspiring. The most memorable sharing was about the case of why many diabetics were not as susceptible to losing their limbs as before. Certainly, much improvement to medical procedures has been made over the years. However, the solution was simply to ensure the diabetic patients wore covered shoes reducing the possibility of getting cuts on their feet. I realized that while medical knowledge can be complex, the application of the knowledge to help improve patient’s well-being need not be complicated; sparking my interest to want to study medicine deeper.
Another time, I volunteered at a free dementia screening clinic from 30thMay to 10th June 2011. As a screener administering the test, I learnt the soft skills of patience and listening. While the end result was to get the most people screened and those with problems referred to doctors as fast as possible, I found meaning and purpose in interacting with the patients. Small things, like providing a listening ear or greeting every patient with a smile, made a big difference to the elderly screened. Many gave feedback that they felt more comfortable and at ease during the screening when we smiled and greeted them warmly. That reminded me once again that medicine was not about treating illnesses but improving the patient’s holistic well being.
From these experiences, I discovered that my passion is not merely grounded in intellectual stimulation, but is driven by a desire to see the knowledge applied in daily life to benefit those in need. My short encounters working with doctors have been deeply inspiring for me; I want to be a good doctor who is able to earn the trust of my patients and am committed to serving their needs.
If only someone form YLLSOM can read my whole story. Hmmm… I really hope I get in. it will be the biggest dream come true for me.