My dad went for an eye surgery yesterday. He had cataract in his left eye and the doctor performed a Phacoemulsification to remove the cataract as well as replace a new artificial lens. (My dad was tested today morning and now have almost perfect vision, better than mine. Damn)
Me being a harworking and enthusiastic (=p) medical student requested to watch the procedure. My dad's Opthomologist Dr Hardeep Singh agreed to allow me in. IIt was a long wait and a short procedure. There were many other patients waiting and my dad was the 2nd last patient for the day. What I noticed while waiting at the waiting area was the average age of the other patients was 20 years more senior than my dad. haha I guess my dad's considered the junior huh. =p
I changed into scrub suit and as always I stood beside the doctor careful not to touch anything as he went through the procedure. Everything was done under a microscope. I only saw his gross movements and only had a slight idea of what he was doing. The procedure is conducted under topical anaesthesia. The lens is broken into smaller pieces (emulsified) with vibration and then aspirated via suction. An intraocular lens implant is then placed into the remaining lens capsule. This is a modern method of removing cataract. An older method would require a large incision in the sclera or cornea. It is still indicated for patients with hard cataract.
As I was sitting in the waiting area before and after the procedure, I realised that many of the patients were Chinese who speak little English or Bahasa Melayu. One might wonder, how does this doctor communicate with his patient? Why do so many Chinese speaking uncle and aunty choose to see a Singh doctor? I found out that Dr Hardeep speaks Chinese. Well, that sure is an advantage don't you think? Many Chinese cant even speak Chinese and we have here a Singh who can. Remarkable isn't it. In fact this is not the 1st time I met a Chinese speaking non-Chinese doctor. I met a MO during my clinic visit to Jinjang Community Clinic as well as an ENT specialist in Jln Kuching (I can't recall his name) who also speaks Chinese. And by speak I mean fluent, not just being able to scold foul words.
Then it occurred to me. Hey, I need to learn more languages. Our country consists of a multi racial community. We have Malays, Chinese and Indians comprising the top 3 races. I spent 11 years in a Malay school so my BM is quite fluent. English is my 1st language, no problem with that. Chinese. hmmmm... I consider myself fluent in Cantonese, okay in Mandarin and able to communicate sufficiently in Hokkien and Hakka so that's quite okay for now. Still need to work on that though. haha
Quite a linguistic huh? Nope. I don't think so. I'm still missing out 2 major groups. The Indians and the Deaf. Thus, I decided I will expand my spoken language to cater for the major groups in Malaysia. Starting June 13th I will be taking a 10 week course in Sign Language. I have always been fascinated by the ability to communicate with facial expression and hand signs. I hope I will be able to communicate and hold a proper conversation with Sign Language. Perhaps this will work to my benefit in the future as I will be able to communicate with deaf patients as well as help intemperate for the Deaf.
Me being a harworking and enthusiastic (=p) medical student requested to watch the procedure. My dad's Opthomologist Dr Hardeep Singh agreed to allow me in. IIt was a long wait and a short procedure. There were many other patients waiting and my dad was the 2nd last patient for the day. What I noticed while waiting at the waiting area was the average age of the other patients was 20 years more senior than my dad. haha I guess my dad's considered the junior huh. =p
I changed into scrub suit and as always I stood beside the doctor careful not to touch anything as he went through the procedure. Everything was done under a microscope. I only saw his gross movements and only had a slight idea of what he was doing. The procedure is conducted under topical anaesthesia. The lens is broken into smaller pieces (emulsified) with vibration and then aspirated via suction. An intraocular lens implant is then placed into the remaining lens capsule. This is a modern method of removing cataract. An older method would require a large incision in the sclera or cornea. It is still indicated for patients with hard cataract.
As I was sitting in the waiting area before and after the procedure, I realised that many of the patients were Chinese who speak little English or Bahasa Melayu. One might wonder, how does this doctor communicate with his patient? Why do so many Chinese speaking uncle and aunty choose to see a Singh doctor? I found out that Dr Hardeep speaks Chinese. Well, that sure is an advantage don't you think? Many Chinese cant even speak Chinese and we have here a Singh who can. Remarkable isn't it. In fact this is not the 1st time I met a Chinese speaking non-Chinese doctor. I met a MO during my clinic visit to Jinjang Community Clinic as well as an ENT specialist in Jln Kuching (I can't recall his name) who also speaks Chinese. And by speak I mean fluent, not just being able to scold foul words.
Then it occurred to me. Hey, I need to learn more languages. Our country consists of a multi racial community. We have Malays, Chinese and Indians comprising the top 3 races. I spent 11 years in a Malay school so my BM is quite fluent. English is my 1st language, no problem with that. Chinese. hmmmm... I consider myself fluent in Cantonese, okay in Mandarin and able to communicate sufficiently in Hokkien and Hakka so that's quite okay for now. Still need to work on that though. haha
Quite a linguistic huh? Nope. I don't think so. I'm still missing out 2 major groups. The Indians and the Deaf. Thus, I decided I will expand my spoken language to cater for the major groups in Malaysia. Starting June 13th I will be taking a 10 week course in Sign Language. I have always been fascinated by the ability to communicate with facial expression and hand signs. I hope I will be able to communicate and hold a proper conversation with Sign Language. Perhaps this will work to my benefit in the future as I will be able to communicate with deaf patients as well as help intemperate for the Deaf.
Next, I plan to learn Tamil. If all goes well, I would like to learn Tamil. There are more than 2 million Indians in Malaysia. I believe the main spoken dialect is Tamil (please correct me if I'm wrong). As a future doctor, I will be seeing quite a number of Indian patients and there will be some who would prefer to speak in their mother tongue. Knowing their language would therefore improve communication as well as build patient rapport.
That would be my plan. Hopefully I would have the time in Clinical School to fulfil my plans. =)
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