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.

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.

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.

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.

PD

Im going to Hospital PD tomorrow for SOPD session. I wonder if there will be any sem 2 juniors there. hmmmmm...

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.

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. ;)

Holidays.

Ever since the 23rd of May, I have been enjoying the luxury of holiday. After almost 2 months, I have another month more to enjoy. A very long break indeed. haha Well, since med school is on break, there have not been much updates but I have a feeling there will be some coming soon. Come back in September. That's when the new term starts. The start of a whole new beginning. Cheers.

SSD

Well, to those who do not know, I have been working at IMU's Student Service Department for about 2 weeks now. Im at Admission Office to be exact. Work has been rewarding yet tiring. More tiring that studying actually. haha Like what JG said, we're not part time staff, we're temporary full time staff. Nice one. ;)

O well, I guess this is how things is going to be from now on. Sremban, then HO, MO. haha It will be rewarding nevertheless. Rewarding.

Happy Birthday Dad

Today is my dad's birthday. We went bought a small cake and had Thai food for dinner. =)

Happy Birthday Dad!!

2012

Here's another movie to look out for. 2012. I just saw the trailer and it looks potentially good. It is by Roland Emmerich, who gave us Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow - 2 great end of world movie in my opinion. It is due in November this year. =)

So what's the deal with 1012 you say. I watched a documentary on History Channel last year. It was on Nostradamus and the book of and his many prophecies. Those who believed in his prophecies interpreted from his writings that the end of the world will be in 2012. According to what I read on wikipedia, the Mayan Calendar or Mesoamerican Long Count calendar ends on 12/21/12. Some have came to believe that this is because the Mayan believed that's when the world will end. There are other theory as well which you could google 2012 or click these links.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_doomsday_prediction

http://www.whowillsurvive2012.com/

http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/2012-roland-emmerich.html

Do you believe that the world will end in 2012? I sure hope not. I'm still too young. I would be 25 then and it will be my 1st year working as a doctor (I'm due to graduate with MBBS early 2012). Yes the world has been seeing a number of natural disasters but don't you think it's a little too soon for something catastrophic to occur? These things takes decades not years to happen. Anyhow, 2012 looks like something we could look forward to. It is potentially a good movie. Owh, perhaps we should start preparing for 2012. Can food anyone? Survival classes? Flying classes? =)

Target Acquired

I have in my hands something that will soon become almost priceless. 8 tickets to watch Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen. Hahahahaha

Yupe. That's right. I bought my tickets 1 week in advance. I anticipate demand to be sky high and all tickets to be sold out next week. Not wanting to wait any longer than I have already waited, I bought the tickets today. 7 days... 7 days... 7 days... hehehe

Pizza for everyone. =)

Not too long ago, I made a promise to myself. Actually it's more like a vow. If I do pass my EOS 5, I would buy some kids lunch as a treat. And that is the exact thing I did today.

I bought 10 boxes of pizza, 5 boxes of ice cream and dropped them off at Agathians Shelter, an orphanage at Section 8 PJ. Why did I do that? Well, I believe that when something good happens to me, I would like to share it with someone else. I will share my happiness with the les fortunate. As I have mentioned sometimes back, the joy of making another happy is much more than the joy of self indulgence. You know what to now. Go out and spread some happiness. =)

Gym. (Finally =p)

After months and months of inactivity, I finally went to the gym today. Not wanting to pay gym fees, I wnt to the one gym that I paid but hardly used, IMU Gym. haha Yupe. i finally got my lazy butt moving.

I also got a new pair of running shoes. Finally I got myself a proper pair of shoe. Not that my previous pair was bad, it costs RM60 and served me through semester 1-5. But, it is kinda old and does not support my legs well. i don't wanna injure myself and pay heavier consequences hence the new shoes. =)

I also watched X-Men Origins today. Yes its more than a month since its release. I was preparing for exams then and watching movie was way off my to do list. Moments ago, I finished watching Confessions of A Shopaholic. My sister asked me to watch with her. It's quite a good show. The evil truth behind credit cards.

By the way, what is the most powerful word in English. 4 alphabet. S-A-L-E. Don't you think so? It stands out, catches your attention regardless of what your doing and even have the power of making many people buy things they do not need. Impressive what 4 alphabets can do. Don't you think?

Around KL

I had some relatives from Sungai Petani who came over to Kl over the weekend. We took them around to some of the iconic landmarks of KL. I too tagged along visiting places I live nearby but never truly put much thought into.

Tugu Negara (National Monument)

It has ben at least a decade since I last went to the National Monument.

Galery Sri Perdana
The former residence of our PM Dr M, it has been converted into a archive. It's like a mini museum of the residence with some pictures and gifts he recieved as a PM. My 1st time there. Didn't even knew it exists. =p

The great view of KL from the residence

Some of his vehicles.

Thean Hou Temple

Door Gods - Protects the house from evil spirits

Zodiac animals. A favourite of young children

Palace

I have never been to the palace. I have countless times drove pass it but never stopped. It's ironic since I have visited the palace at England and China. =)

Changing of Guards

Petaling Street (Chinatown)

Steam Boat June 09

We had a steam boat gathering at my place today. Just a small one with sime close friends and lots of food. Scrumptious aren't they? Enjoy! hehe =)