Down with Flu

Assalammualaikum wrt wbt.

18 more days. 18 more days for my final exam, the exam that is gonna test the knowledge I accumulated (and kept in an unknown area of my brain) throughout these 5 (5.5actually!) years of medical school.
I hate this kind of exam. Why can't they give us exam after each posting? Like a lot other med schools, the exams will be held after the posting hence we need to gobble up all the topics in that block only.
In this exam of mine, I need to revise every little thing from acute asthmatic attack to myocardial infarction (heart attacks), to premature birth, to soiling in children, to menopause, to intrapartum care (care of the pregnant lady in labour), to taking cervical smears and swabs to administering oxygen, performing ECG and prescribing medications!
Such a wholeee lot of things to revise! Thank God they won't be many questions of the basic biochemistry; Kreb's Cycle and all. I cant even remember them properly now.

And I've been down with flu since like, 3-4 days ago.
It started with simple sore throat which progressed to blocked nose, some sort of sinusitis and headache and stomach "dizziness" today.
Most of the people in my house are walking around with rhinorrhoea (read: running nose, and we have to catch them). One of them asked me, "Could it be because we did not take the flu jab this year? Did you take yours? I didn't"
And I can't help but to doubt that could be the contributing factor.
As someone who works in a hospital, my friends and I are always offered free flu jab as part of the occupational health "requirement". I've never taken one, for the past 3 years. I can't remember if I was down with flu as well last year. But another of my housemate, the only one who took the flu jab this year, is not walking around with nasal voice and blocked nose. She's studying happily comfortably. And I had to drink litressss of water to "flush everything out" of my system and of course, run to the toilet several times during the day.

I've been reading a lot of headlines on vaccines these days, with one of my teachers being one of the most influential anti-vaccine person in my life. Hence, I always doubt vaccine that's why I did not take them for the past 3 years. And to be honest, I haven't read in detail about how vaccines are dangerous to us, but I can understand the fact that they may not be that beneficial to us, the pharmaceutical company may be just making money out of us.
I did read however about the autism and MMR vaccine, and that the link was apparently made by a doctor who published a fraudulent paper in The Lancet. I had to read that article because I need to convince mothers that vaccines are very good for their children. It came out in my mock OSCE that day! I can imagine how much my teacher is gonna hate this kind of station; brainwashing future doctors to brainwash future parents and damaging future children.

Since I have not read any further about any other vaccine (because...I have so much other things to readddddd~ *facepalm*), I cant really say much. If vaccine is not that beneficial, why bother injecting something that is potentially dangerous in the kids' bodies? But why have they been telling us that the incidence of certain diseases have remarkably reduced after the introduction of vaccines? Haemophilus influenza B, the causative agent of acute epiglottitis being the most "sold" to us. Acute epiglottitis is a very dangerous condition where the child can lose his/her airway at any time but thanks to the Hib vaccine, we don't have them that much anymore now. Paediatricians sell that stories to us. "I've been working for 10-15yrs, I've only seen 1-2 cases of it"

Anyway, I gotta get back to my notes (and water) now.
Enough of rantings.
Bye!

-Because life is a test-

-AkMaR-
http://nur-akmar.blogspot.com