who let the dogs out?

Dear readers,

I'm sorry but you have to get used to my new retrospective style of writing. The next few posts will revolve around events which have happened weeks ago and this is the first one.

Clinical Phase really is challenging. It's good that I worked in a Microbiology lab previously. At least, I've experienced the worst. Now I know I can face almost anything. King's Mill Hospital in Mansfield is quite good. I love my room although the bed is springy. I'm so going to cook salmon for dinner soon since there are no halal butchers in the city of Mansfield. Now, let's move on to my story..

At The University of Nottingham (you can see that I'm typing the proper name of my university since I was trained to do this as a student blogger, haha), 3rd Year medical students would have to produce a 2000 word report and a 7 min individual presentation (finally! my favourite type of assessment) for a module known as CFU - Community Follow-up. 

In CFU, we have to follow-up a patient for a period of about 1 and a half years. Then, we'd write a report about the patient so we can score high and get a good job after graduating. 

On the 13th of February (the day my result was released), me and my friend went to see our patient at his house for the second time. And then, there's his dog. During our first visit, he put the dog in another room which I was so relieved at that time. But this time around...

Patient: "Are you alright with dogs?"

Friend: "Yeah"

Me: "No, I'm scared of dogs!!"

It's a tie, so the patient decided to let the dog moving around the living room while we interviewed him -_-"

Okay, truth be told, I'm really not fond of dogs although I do think some of them looked very cute. I just can't stand them in close proximity. It kept moving around and my friend gladly stroke her (it's a female dog) head. I don't even want to touch it. When I was a kid, I wouldn't even stroke a cat or even a tiger. I wouldn't even touch a chicken. It's just a general feeling of not liking to touch animals. Haha. But dolphins are fine cause I can wash my hands afterwards since if I were to play with dolphins, I must be in water. Maybe because, I need to wash my hands after each time I touch an animal. OCD maybe :P

And then I remembered my first encounter with Charlie in my 3rd Year. I know, a lot of people in Dunkirk already met the cat in their first year but I only had the chance to play with it this year. When I was walking around Highfield Road, I suddenly bumped into a very cute cat. It was so chubby! And then I remembered Lut said that if you call his name, he would come towards you and rub his fur on your legs. So I tried, "Charlie!" and he came towards me and started rubbing his fur on my legs and I was starting to make a run for it. This is of course due to my nature of not liking to touch animals. But then, I think it's time for me to embrace animals and so I tried letting Charlie rubbing his fur around my legs for a few minutes. And I actually enjoy it. That was really a night to remember.

This is Charlie!

Ok, so let's talk about my patient's dog. I had a hard time focusing on the interview since she kept sniffing my legs. I know she was trying to ask me to pat her but I just can't. I knew that I had palpitations for a while during that time, haha. And then I said to myself, "Ok Adlan, I think it's time for you to let dogs into your life. You gave cats a chance. Now let's embrace some dogs". I know, lol. So, I calmed down and let the dog sniffed even more. I actually find it cute that the dog loves sniffing people. No, I didn't pat her. I wasn't ready for that step. Mind you, it took me years to pat a cat. One animal at a time people.

 This is the the breed of my patient's dog - Doberman. Picture courtesy of Dog Breed Insight.

So yeah, sometimes..you need to find the willingness to make the change. If you don't, then you'd be stuck on the same spot forever. The change starts from within, it starts from you...