Trust me, I am a Doc.

Haven't been blogging since i started working as a doc in UMMC. Life is hectic here. Last month i did 8 calls (on-call every 3 days), and i had to work everyday even on the weekends as there will be weekend ward rounds. If i m on call, i will need to continue my normal shift post call meaning i will be working about 36 hours berturut turut with probably 1-2 hrs slp in between.

It may sound very torturing but actually i think i am still able to gain some satisfaction from the work i did. As a houseman, my main duty will be taking bloods, setting lines, giving IV meds, and also requesting early radiology scans for patients. And as the first-line doc i need to jaga my patients and if there's any problems i need to try and solve them. If the prob cant be solved then i need to at least stabilise the patients b4 the arrival of help.

Ok la... need to go zzz d. will try to blog more when i have got free time.

Induction Week - Day 1

Finally i received the notification from the ministry of health to attend the induction course at Port Dickson, and this will mean that i will b starting to work as a doc after this event. First day of the course was relatively relaxing. It started in the afternoon with a short briefing, then we were given few hours break before we were given the appointment letters which told us which hosp we will gonna work in for the next 2 yrs. Thank God I was given my 1st choice. Most of the ppl actually got their top 3 choices. Then our 1st day ended with a 2-hr lecture by a state's deputy director of health which was about communication and leadership.

Let's hope tat everyday of the course will be this relaxing! Gonna slp now as tmr will need to wake up at 7 sth!

Weekend @ home

The recent w/end tat i spent in JB was probably the most relaxing yet 'productive' one that I had since I came back fr Cardiff. Finally I had the chance to sit down and had meals with family members as everyone was back during the Raya hols. I was surprised that I actually sat down and watched a chinese opera with my bro. Haha~

WEnt out with several frens and was glad that every1 was doing fine.

I finally received the letter that kept me so busy for the past 2 mths and it will keep me busy for the next few years too. Kinda excited but at the same time i just hope tat i can extend my break.

KB - KMN - JB

First of all, Selamat Hari Raya to my frens who celebrate it!

Spent nearly 12 hours on the road to travel from KB to JB, went to bed after the dinner and had a good slp!

Will stay in JB for few days to catch up with frens and family, hopefully. The next schedule after this break will be: JB-KMN-KB-SEL-PD-JB.

Petronas Merdeka Day's Ad

Still pending...

Due to the strict regulation of the provisional medical practitioner registration in Malaysia, I am still a jobless man 1 month post-graduation. My life now is stress-proof (apart from waiting for the arrival of the university documents which are required for the registration), but at the same time i will also need to rely on my savings until i am employed.

I discovered a sign board while i stopped at a traffic light junction in Kelantan. The title is "ingat 5 perkara sebelum 5 perkara" (remember 5 things before another 5 things). I am not a Muslim but i thought the 5 sentences written on the sign board are very meaningful:

1. Ingat sihat sebelum sakit.
2. Ingat muda sebelum tua.
3. Ingat kaya sebelum miskin.
4. Ingat lapang sebelum sempit.
5. Ingat hidup sebelum mati.

I was actually quite frustrated due to the delay in the job application process but now i think i will enjoy the wait before start to work as a hectic house officer.

My holidays

It has been a while since i last drove to a seaside, and today i managed to just spend half an hour at a seaside called Pantai Chahaya Bulan. (Pictures were taken with my mobile phone so the quality is a bit off. =P)

My room in Cardiff

I have probably a month's time to live in my present room as i will need to move out by 31 Jul. While sitting on the old but functional swivel chair that I have been sitting on for almost 2 yrs, i realised that i am actually gonna miss everything in this room a lot when i move out.

Gonna spent as much time as possible sitting/slping/eating in my room!

haha~

Post exam life

Don't really feel like writing in paragraphs so i m just gonna write in point forms:

- I went out to the town on almost every single day last week, bought some stuff and spent quite a bit of $$. Kinda like England's football jersey and feel like getting one for myself but at the same time i m still hesitating because of the hole tat i burnt in my pocket. Ouch!

- Almost watched every matches of the world cup during the group stages but suddenly my world cup fever is marked reduced over the last few days. Not sure why though.

- Pulled my neck muscle yesterday due to bad slping posture (not sure why also). Yesterday was one of the most terrible days i had in my life so far as the pain was killing me! Feel better now, but still feel achy. Really dun 1 2 experience this for another time.

- Tmr is my results day. Wish me luck!

- Gonna start packing as my family is coming in few days time. Gonna be away from cardiff for a few days before the convocation. =)

Post exam period

Finally the boss stage is over. Now it's the time to look for the list of things that i wanna 'settle' during this break.

First thing first, change the layout of my blog. It has been quite a while already since i last 'renovated' here so i decided to spend some time to give it a new look. I quite like the new look of it, very refreshing. =P

Anyway, time to do some cleaning now. Will blog when i m more free.

=)

The Boss Stage

Finally it will be the boss stage after 5 yrs. 5 stations tomorrow followed by another 10 on Wed.

Will do my best and will definitely look fwd to the break after that!

=)

Experience

Experience is what you get if you don't get what you want.

An MSN display message

Saw a friend's MSN display msg today and i thought it was quite meaningful:

"Life is like a rainbow. You need both sun and rain to make its colours appear."

or perhaps in a simpler form: "no pain, no gain."

Need some rest

for my ears,
for my mind,
and for myself.

A blessing in disguise

Tackling problems that occur in life can be very tiring sometimes, especially when one has other commitments to handle at the same time. However I consider myself quite lucky to be able to be in difficult situations. Don't worry I am not insane. It just that I realised I actually made unexpected gains from going through those difficulties. First of all, I nvr fail to get the supports from my friends and family. Then i learn sth new everytime i deal with difficult situations. If i manage to solve the problem, i will be more confident in handling similar situation in the future but if i fail to solve the problem i will still gain the experience and learn to take things easy.

Indeed, taking short cuts can save you time and effort. However you will lose the chance to appreciate important lessons that can be learned through the hard way.

I shall end this short entry with one of my favourite quote by Prof Randy Pausch:

We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.

Life support

I just attended a 2-day Advanced Life Support course and passed the test. It was definitely one of the most splendid experiences that I had in my final year. All of us passed the exam despite it sounded quite tough to most of us.

I was shown 2 video clips during the course and i thought they were very interesting so i decided to share them here, just to tell u that medical students do have a life. haha~






Of coz, dun ever try what was shown in the mr bean cpr video clip unless u r Mr Bean. =P

(I am missing those days when I attended the St John's Ambulance first aid courses with my friends...)

Final MB

Just one more day i will be sitting in the exam hall answering the 2-hr paper testing my amalgameted medical and surgical knowledge of the past 5 yrs. Another paper of data interpretation will follow on the next day. Practical exam will take place in 1 mth's time.

Good luck to myself! =P And good luck to you too if you are having exams at the same time as i do. =)

Something that you can't lose

Temper is something that you cannot get rid of by losing it.

Good learning experience

I still remember that I received a comment from a surgeon that goes like this:

"so much ignorance, so little time"

I was quite surprised when i read his comment on my feedback form. At that time i thought maybe he was strict in writing comments and had too high expectation on me.

(1 year later...)

Just attended an external 2-day revision course over the weekend. I was amazed by the experienced lecturer who managed to highlight most of the important parts of the undergrad curriculum and i also realised that, after 5 yrs, i still have lots and lots of thing to learn. Well, with finals approaching, i guess i will have to utilise every single neurone in my brain to learn and remember facts and techniques that should be known to a final year medical student.

"so much ignorance, so little time"

Now I know why...

Before i started my final year project, the registrar told me that i should start doing my data spreadsheet at the same time when i collect the data. I kinda 'ignored' his advice as i thought it wun be too difficult just to key in some data...

... and now i m suffering from my ignorance. it is definitely not not not easy trying to sort out tonnes of information from the data i collected thus far.

Moral of the story is: never ignore the advice from a wiser person.

=(

A Sunday Movie

I just watched a hong kong movie online: 爱出猫 (Trick or Cheat). It's about a group of students who love street dancing who are forced to get good grades in their exams in order to get the permission to perform their dance during their graduation ceremony. As most of them were below average students and they resorted to cheat in the exams with many funny ideas.

I love this movie. It is not just a simple comedy which makes u laugh only. It is a comedy that makes u laugh and learn at the same time. It talks about friendship and life as students. It is the kind of movie which I like. =)

Suddenly, i am missing everyone back in msia. My family and my friends. I just wanna catch up with them about what had happened to me and them in the past 5 or 10 years.

I wanna have a family trip which i always wanted to have.

I wanna paktoh with my baobei everyday. Haha~

I wanna talk to my parents, just those kind of talk between parents and son.

I wanna talk to my bros and (also tease) my sis. =P

I wanna drive the kancil back home. Just like those days when I drove her to my school.

I wanna ride a motorbike, and get wet in a sudden rain as wat I used to hate before. And of course, wanna give my baobei a ride and make her scream loud loud. Haha~

I wanna wake up in sunday mornings and go out for a bfast with family, all squeezed in a car like how we did b4.

I wanna take a stroll at Pantai Lido. Lookin across the sea and realise that Singapore is actually just few km's away from where i live.

I wanna watch channel 8's dramas and variety shows. Wanna listen to FM93.3 while driving along the busy roads in JB.

I wanna meet up with my St John's teammates, boasting about how many pumpings and sit-ups we used to perform easily, and how we used to be tortured by our seniors in trainings, how we used to jog to the girl school next to ours and how we shared the toughest yet sweetest time during those days.

I wanna meet up with those Chinese Society friends to remind myself of those days when we planned and organised activities for the fellow members. I wanna meet my ex teammates in the debate team, and then talk to them throughout the nite like wat we did last time just before the competition.

I wanna play bball with my bball friends. Although i am nvr a good player but it is actually my favourite sport. =)

I wanna meet up with my student reporter friends. And just have some very lame but entertaining talks with them.

I wanna meet up with my primary sch frens, and talk about everything and anything.

I wanna have a good look at the starry sky at night after dinner, just like how i used to do at home.

And i think i m gonna miss Cardiff and the people here very much few years later.


It is tough to miss everyone and everything that i mentioned above but it is even tougher to not missing them at all.

=)

For you, Bao Bei

Bestest placement ever

Today is the last day of the bestest hosp placement i had in my entire medical sch life (it is also the last hospital placement that I had before the final exams).

So i had the bestest GP placement during the 1st block and now I just finished the bestest hosp placement in the 2nd block. Hopefully hopefully i will have the bestest project experience in my last block.

Finals are just around the corner.... =P

Invictus by William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Something about my blog's background picture

I actually took this picture when I went to Swansea with my gf 2 years ago.

And now i m actually doing a placement here in Swansea again and the seaside is only about 100m from the place I am staying. Amazing!

I am kind of a 'sea person'. I was born in a hospital which is just 10m from the seaside. Then I lived for almost 20 years in a city which is very near to the sea. My university is also located in a city next to a bay. Now I am doing my placement in a hosp which is very near to the sea too!

It's nice to look at the sea when I am down. It just makes me feel very relaxed and I can breathe more easily while looking at the sea.

Hopefully next time i can still live in a place which is not very far from the sea as sea is not just sea to me, it is part of my memory.

Reflection

Not a good day for me. Made a mistake and had to pay a price for it. Fortunately, nobody suffers any physical injuries from it but unluckily it burnt a hole in my pocket. Well, just need to be extra careful next time.

I had done 50% of my last clinical placement before my finals. This means:

1. I am closer to the finals
2. I have less time for revision
3. I am gonna be working, not immediately, but soon.

Need to find a way to expand my medical and surgical knowledge exponentially, and need to store more energy for the upcoming late-night revisions.