Saturday, October 24, 2009
Time
Everyone wishes for more time. Yet its how we make use of the time we have in hand that really matters. Make your day meaningful. Get the most out of it.
Friday, October 23, 2009
A taste of things to come.
For the 1st time in my life today, I was allowed to scrub in at the OT and assisted in an operation. A patient came in for an emergency open appendectomy and the operating doctor allowed me to assist her.
I expected the surgery to end 90 minutes but things got complicated. A surgeon had to be called in and the surgery prolonged to slightly more than 3 hours.
Yet the experience was priceless. From scrubbing in, fumbling around trying to wear my sterile gloves with the "closed" method, to assisting an operating MO and finally a surgeon, it was indeed worth staying up till 3am in the OT. Being only in my 6th week of Clinical School and my 1st ever posting, i do consider myself lucky to be given this opportunity.
I did not have any major role. I was basically an extra pair of hands to hold retractors and pass instruments as well as an extra pair of hands to get in the surgeons way. hahaha Nonetheless, it was a great experience. Its like an introduction course to the life of a HO on OT call, somethings that I hope I will be doing in the not too far distant future. After the 6 weeks i spent in surgery, I am considering Surgery as my pathway in the future. I rank it 2nd to ObGyn which has been top of my list for many years.
To the doctors who granted me this opportunity, Mr Loo, Dr Tiong and Dr Jan Jan, thank you very much. Cheers.
I expected the surgery to end 90 minutes but things got complicated. A surgeon had to be called in and the surgery prolonged to slightly more than 3 hours.
Yet the experience was priceless. From scrubbing in, fumbling around trying to wear my sterile gloves with the "closed" method, to assisting an operating MO and finally a surgeon, it was indeed worth staying up till 3am in the OT. Being only in my 6th week of Clinical School and my 1st ever posting, i do consider myself lucky to be given this opportunity.
I did not have any major role. I was basically an extra pair of hands to hold retractors and pass instruments as well as an extra pair of hands to get in the surgeons way. hahaha Nonetheless, it was a great experience. Its like an introduction course to the life of a HO on OT call, somethings that I hope I will be doing in the not too far distant future. After the 6 weeks i spent in surgery, I am considering Surgery as my pathway in the future. I rank it 2nd to ObGyn which has been top of my list for many years.
To the doctors who granted me this opportunity, Mr Loo, Dr Tiong and Dr Jan Jan, thank you very much. Cheers.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
The truth about life.
Death. It is something that none of us can run from. We will all face it sooner or later.
Yesterday I experienced loosing a patient for the 1st time. A young man in his 30s came in with signs of MI and was in Ventricular Fibrillation. The MO and HO tried really hard to rescue him but was unsuccessful. We medical student help by doing chest compressions. Unfortunately. all available resources are eventually used up and the bad news has to be broken to the patients wife.
It was an emotionally intense moment. Of course it is. Imagine waking up one morning, all things well and suddenly you lost a loved one. One with no known medical illness. The truth would be hard to accept. When faced with this situation, I am reminded how fragile our lives are. In a second or two, we could lose everything we have, everything we are, everyone we love. That's the frangibility of life.
Don't take things for granted. Never waste any moment of our lives. Make the most of what we have and give every day our best we ever have.
To the patients wife, friends and family members. I wish you my deepest condolence. May you be blessed with the strength, love and support to get through this difficult time in your life. May you overcome this obstacle and may you be well and happy.
Yesterday I experienced loosing a patient for the 1st time. A young man in his 30s came in with signs of MI and was in Ventricular Fibrillation. The MO and HO tried really hard to rescue him but was unsuccessful. We medical student help by doing chest compressions. Unfortunately. all available resources are eventually used up and the bad news has to be broken to the patients wife.
It was an emotionally intense moment. Of course it is. Imagine waking up one morning, all things well and suddenly you lost a loved one. One with no known medical illness. The truth would be hard to accept. When faced with this situation, I am reminded how fragile our lives are. In a second or two, we could lose everything we have, everything we are, everyone we love. That's the frangibility of life.
Don't take things for granted. Never waste any moment of our lives. Make the most of what we have and give every day our best we ever have.
To the patients wife, friends and family members. I wish you my deepest condolence. May you be blessed with the strength, love and support to get through this difficult time in your life. May you overcome this obstacle and may you be well and happy.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Class starts at WHAT??
7.30am. That's how early we're expected to in wards every morning. The timetable says we only start at 8am, but there are many unwritten rules in clinical school. One of which is that we need to be in the ward for ward rounds. And since ward round starts at 7.30, that means we are to be at the wards by 7.30 every morning. Man, this ain't gonna be easy. O well, for the sake of my education, I guess a little bit of sacrifice is not too much asked for.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
PD
Im going to Hospital PD tomorrow for SOPD session. I wonder if there will be any sem 2 juniors there. hmmmmm...
Friday, September 11, 2009
Week 2
Week 2 of Clinical School has official ended. It sure was tiring. This week is more beneficial than last week for sure. We spent most of out time at the hospital in wards. Most of this week is clerking patients with 1 SOPD(Surgical Outpatient Dept) where we stood for hours and 1 OT session where we yet again stood for hours.
Some of my batch mates took turns to draw blood from each other. Count me out of that. As it is, I am not fond of needles. In the hands of inexperienced 3rd year medic students is a NO NO for sure.
Today was my 1st A&E on call session. Just like the rest of the week, I felt out of place and clueless of what was going on, what I can do and how to do it. The MO asked us to do something something something (ie I had no clue what he said) and the thing I kept doing was call for Leong (my sem 8 senior). I did help out in plugging in the ECG leads though. That I could do, though Im sure a 8 year old who can differentiate red, yellow, green, black, brown and purple can do as well. hahaha
Then came in a case where I could actively assist. A patient was brought in to the A&E in cardiac arrest. We were summoned by the doctors to assist in chest compressions (CPR). It was my 1st time doing CPR on a real person (ie not on a modal) and it is way harder than it was during practices. We had to take turns among the 6 of us present and thankfully, the patient gained back his pulse. He is still in danger though due to the long transit to the hospital post cardiac arrest and have been moved to the ICU. Nevertheless, it was nice to have made myself useful and not just a moving obstruction in other people's way. hahaha
I like being in hospital. To me the way to learn medicine is by being wit patients and doing things hands on. If only there was no theory test, I would be spending my entire day and night at the hospital. =D Speaking of, I need to get past year papers from seniors. Still quite lost on what the ICA will be like. Cheers.
Some of my batch mates took turns to draw blood from each other. Count me out of that. As it is, I am not fond of needles. In the hands of inexperienced 3rd year medic students is a NO NO for sure.
Today was my 1st A&E on call session. Just like the rest of the week, I felt out of place and clueless of what was going on, what I can do and how to do it. The MO asked us to do something something something (ie I had no clue what he said) and the thing I kept doing was call for Leong (my sem 8 senior). I did help out in plugging in the ECG leads though. That I could do, though Im sure a 8 year old who can differentiate red, yellow, green, black, brown and purple can do as well. hahaha
Then came in a case where I could actively assist. A patient was brought in to the A&E in cardiac arrest. We were summoned by the doctors to assist in chest compressions (CPR). It was my 1st time doing CPR on a real person (ie not on a modal) and it is way harder than it was during practices. We had to take turns among the 6 of us present and thankfully, the patient gained back his pulse. He is still in danger though due to the long transit to the hospital post cardiac arrest and have been moved to the ICU. Nevertheless, it was nice to have made myself useful and not just a moving obstruction in other people's way. hahaha
I like being in hospital. To me the way to learn medicine is by being wit patients and doing things hands on. If only there was no theory test, I would be spending my entire day and night at the hospital. =D Speaking of, I need to get past year papers from seniors. Still quite lost on what the ICA will be like. Cheers.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Clinical School Begins
After a long 3 months break, class has started again. This time, I no longer report in at Bkt Jalil but rather IMU Clinical School Seremban.
It has been 1 week since I went from senior in Phase 1 to super noob junior in Phase 2. 1st week was orientation aka briefing briefing briefing and more briefing mostly about ethics and professionalism.
Then yesterday, class proper started. Day 1 consists of clerking patients in wards. Today we spent some time at the Surgical Outpatient Dept (SOPD) where we saw a Tru Cut Biopsy and FNAC. Since the SOPD focuses on breast and neck today, I had the opportunity to palpate breast lumps and neck lumps.
After that it was back to wards again to clerk patients. I guess that's how Clinical School will be. Spending a lot time in wards and with patients. I'm not saying its bad. It's good to spend time with the people we will be serving and doing what we joined this course for.
Yet a question lingers behind my mind. Everything here is self independent. We even get to choose when and what topics we want to do for CSU and TBL (the Clinical version of PBL) as well as the lecturer. My question is, How Do I Know What I Need To Know??? I'm lost and confused. Not to mentioned other things like CFCS (Community and Family Case Study), Research and a few more other things that is running con currently.
Hopefully things will settle down soon and I will get a grip of things. Or else......
On a lighter note, I finally got my Internet connection in Seremban. hahaha Life was tough last week without it. ;)
It has been 1 week since I went from senior in Phase 1 to super noob junior in Phase 2. 1st week was orientation aka briefing briefing briefing and more briefing mostly about ethics and professionalism.
Then yesterday, class proper started. Day 1 consists of clerking patients in wards. Today we spent some time at the Surgical Outpatient Dept (SOPD) where we saw a Tru Cut Biopsy and FNAC. Since the SOPD focuses on breast and neck today, I had the opportunity to palpate breast lumps and neck lumps.
After that it was back to wards again to clerk patients. I guess that's how Clinical School will be. Spending a lot time in wards and with patients. I'm not saying its bad. It's good to spend time with the people we will be serving and doing what we joined this course for.
Yet a question lingers behind my mind. Everything here is self independent. We even get to choose when and what topics we want to do for CSU and TBL (the Clinical version of PBL) as well as the lecturer. My question is, How Do I Know What I Need To Know??? I'm lost and confused. Not to mentioned other things like CFCS (Community and Family Case Study), Research and a few more other things that is running con currently.
Hopefully things will settle down soon and I will get a grip of things. Or else......
On a lighter note, I finally got my Internet connection in Seremban. hahaha Life was tough last week without it. ;)
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