I seldom dream these days, since the narcoleptic that I am almost always just plops down in bed, falls fast asleep and wakes up the following morning, without any recollection of the previous night's events, much less falling asleep in the first place. I just open my eyes in a daze, and in chronological order, wonder: 1) What time of the day it is ("Is it morning yet?") while staring blearily at the alarm clock and trying to make something out of the blur of numbers. 2) Where I am, since I sometimes plop down at the foot of my bed and the bedroom looks different from that viewpoint. 3) What happened the night before, trying to recreate the events leading to my current state. After a while--a looong while--the clock's face and our room's interior finally come into focus. And the smell of unwashed hair and the uncomfortable stiffness of the previous day's med whites jolt me awake. It's another day.

But I digress. Anyway, the point of it all is that I barely remember the events of the previous night, much less the workings of my unconscious, the things we call dreams.

But last night I had a dream, and I remember it so clearly. In my dream, I was afflicted by a virulent fungus that was eating my face. Purportedly, I got it from a patient with multiple fluctuant masses on the face, on whom I performed an I & D to drain the pus out (it was a given, something of a flashback, but not part of the actual dream sequence). I wasn't wearing gloves and some of the contagious fluid spilled on my hands, when I accidentally scratched my face.

The lesions did not appear until several weeks later (and this is where my dream kicks off). I went to the bathroom to wash my face when I noticed a small mass on my R ear, just outside the ear canal. It was fluctuant, filled with yellowish fluid, and surrounded by erythema. It kept growing with each time I looked at the mirror. And then on my R lower cheek appeared a similar lesion. The 2 masses kept growing and they coalesced to form a fungating, fleshy mass (resembling a freshly extruded placenta, cotyledons and all), with black necrotic areas and with a most repulsive smell. I decided to seek consult at the hospital. I wore a bandana to hide the lesions.

The mass kept growing bigger, and by the time I reached the hospital, the fungus has eaten away half my face, including my R eye. Poline saw me in front of the ER's main entrance and asked what the bandana was for. When I showed her the monstrosity, she exlaimed, "Ewww... YAAAKKKKK!!!!!" (trademark Poline "yuck" ). I was mortified and hastily wrapped my face again. I entered the main ER lobby; Angie was at the triage table. The second set of doors (the one leading to the treatment areas) slid open, Harvey stepped out. He noted my bandana which was already drenched in blood. I entered the second set of doors, and into the ACU. It was a benign sight, and my intern batchmates-on-duty were congregating at the center table. RV and Marven were with Ophtha; Thea and Raoul, with ENT; and Mamay and Dee with Surgery-trauma. I approached them. And cried.

And then I woke up!

I have been lying on my right side the whole time, and that side of my face was starting to feel heavy. I was intantly stricken with panic, and the first impulse was to touch my face, anticipating the irregular surface of the mass. To my relief, it was just my face. And it was whole. I felt so relieved.

What a very very weird dream. Lol! The things that seep into my unconscious.
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I had a roommate in college, a Chemistry major, and she had a dream about being chased by an acetate ion.