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.

=(