Three wishes
This is a story during my week of attachment with the Paediatric Outpatient Clinics… (names anonymized, of course)
Clarice’s aunt was her carer. She had brought Clarice in due to concerns about her oppositional behaviour at home – trashing her scooter into windows, hitting her brother, skipping school, coming back home late without informing her aunt, and so forth, according to the referral letter.
But walking into the room was a surprisingly rather demure young teenage girl, dressed in pretty pastel colors with a little flowery handbag on the side. Perhaps she was just more reserved around strangers, especially before the doctor?
Her mom was in prison for drug abuse. Her dad had been gone for several years to somewhere nobody knew. Her aunt was single, but was taking care of two more children in addition to Clarice, all whom had to be taken away from their parents for child protection issues. She was really running quite tired, she said in our discussion, coming to her “end of wits” in trying to manage the behavioural problems in her house.
But we didn’t think that Clarice had any “medical problem” such as ADHD that we could address with medicines. The most we could do is to recommend her to give counsellors and child psychiatrists another try. I felt a little bad for what seemed to be like pushing the onus away, but it was perhaps the right thing to do.
At the end of the consultation when interestingly not much else could be said from us, the paediatrician turned to the teenage girl sitting quietly on her seat. “Clarice,” she said, “if there were three wishes you could make and they would come true, what would they be?”
“That I could have a hundred wishes more,” Clarice replied without too long a delay, but she laughed when she realized it was a silly answer.
“Um…, that I would never grow old,” she added with a self-conscious grin, “andddd….”
“… And that mom, dad and I can be together…,” she said after a pause.
Tell me what you think.
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oming to you
from a junior doctor who is color-blind, cleft-lipped and left-handed — this is where
I largely write about my
somewhat weird and wonderful encounters in Medicine. I wish,
though, more often than not,
that I could rather spend my days
drawing colorful pictures and bringing stories to life...... -
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Hey! Nice. Well it’s awesome hearing from you!
thanks for reading, and thanks for leaving a comment!
i was caught up with other stuff for quite a bit but now i plan to update more often!
You make me think how fortunate I am. No complaint from now on. :)
it’s good to give thanks to the Lord in all circumstances! (1 The 5:18)
thanks for commenting
I always look forward to reading your posts.. They always remind me to be grateful for things I might’ve otherwise forgotten about or make me smile and be thankful..
Thanks for posting~
wow, thanks! yea, it’s good to count our blessings and be thankful for them. take care
Hi Joseph,
Thank you for sharing your experience. It was enligthening. We need to count our blessings and it will surprise us what the Lord has done. Happy Chinese New Year! And may the Lord continue to grow in us more this year.
Kathleen Ling.
whow, are you the kathleen ling i think you are? since when did you read my livejournal? i’m honored, haha.
happy CNY too yea. i think you should have graduated by now, have you? are you still in Aussie?
Yes, i am that person. Haha. I’m doing my fifth year dentistry now. Graduating in December this year. Hope that you are enjoying urself there. It’s super hot and dry here, 40 degree celsius!!Maybe i should consider working in NZ next time, haha. Take care.
it’s been hot here too… but only < 25 deg C haha.
i’m leaving for Uganda tomorrow. i plan to update this LJ along my trip so keep in touch ya.
take care.