i am algae (unofficial term for slave)

HAPPIE BIRTHDAY TO MY DEAREST SISTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! also currently known as "guano" -> bat's droppings. haha dont ask me why... heehee.

its our 3rd last day of SIP today. hmm. mixed feelings, dont really know what to day right now. brought my camera to sch hoping to take photos with all the nurses and the drs, but didnt have the chance! a very unexpectedly busy day...

Mdm SRF had to have a lumbar puncture today, and it turned out that hers was extremely difficult to do. adrian, leonard and dr raymond all attempted but failed. can see that she was in extreme pain, but was still trying to be brave and cheery about it! felt really sorry for her when she finally teared when they declare the procedure a failure and said they would not attempt anymore today. SIGH. poor thing. i would never want to have a LP done on me. all my adipose tissue would prob get in the way and i would end up being poked many many times. =P

today harry and dobby gave us tutorial! wah our mos are really nice lor. (except that dobby told us bluntly that we do not qualify as amoebae, we are only algae status) took us through two cases, one a pt with ascites and cushingoid features. diagnosis? chronic renal failure with renal transplant done, cushingoid due to steroids for immunosuppression, with gouty tophi as the impaired kidneys couldnt excrete uric acid. FWAH. *jaw drops* it's amazing how nicely everything fits in!! the 2nd case was a rheumatoid arthritis, and needless to say, yours truly has all but forgotten everything about RA. stress! did an extremely poor examination, haha oops! luckily they were kind and didnt lambast me too badly. wah but the way they presented the case was excellent lor. i think i may never get to their level. aiyo having a case of "i feel stupid" again!

as i went past the high-dependency ward today, i saw relatives crowding around a bed, sobbing quietly. one of them was a JC student. and it dawned on me that they were the relatives of the extremely ill Mdm E. sigh. i have never seen the patient awake and conversant before, so i guess subconsciously i didnt feel really upset for her, as in i feel pity but it doesnt really register that she had been a wife, a loving mother, a friend, a daughter, a sister, an aunt, to someone in this world. seeing them around her, crying, it really pains me. Mdm E was but 50 yrs old, and although i am but a student, i think her prognosis isnt that great. i can't imagine how i would feel if my loved one is the one lying there, fighting for her life. Life is indeed very fragile. We must all cherish the people around us.

On a happier note, we went out with the team today!!!! as dr teoh said," Slaves are seldom paid but are often fed," wise words indeed! dr teoh, liqi, adrian and leonard all went, and EN QY and I went as well! also had dr kanna (?), who is extremely funny although there were a few occasions when i didnt know if i shld laugh or "strangle" him... heh. quite sad that dr raymond and dr amy did not go though, sigh! nor did dr vijay. =((( but it was quite a lovely dinner, dr teoh brought us to Streeters on keong saik st, nice spanish tapas! yum. this first time i am eating tapas lor, it is quite delicious! supposedly this street has some brothels one. and thats when i realised my mos know quite alot about brothels!!! *suspicious* hah ok no lah it's because they were actually brought into the brothels as part of COFM in the med sch yrs! not fair! how come i didnt have! seems like an interesting thing! haiyo wasted. had a nice chat with the mos, and i discovered adrian and leonard were both from hcjc too! ha so qiao! must say they dont strike me as hcjcians though... and best of all, adrian gave us a ride home! luckily he stay so near, else i have to take cab back to celeb my sis's bdae liao! (but i feel bad; imagine a multicellular organism giving algae a lift...)

ooo ok. looks like i gotta sleep. hopefully we will get to go out tmr if the post-call ppl arent too tired!!! plsplspls dont be tired! ha. yay! next week go ktv with shi-fu! have to stock up on nin jiom liao...

of drunkards and amoebas

wah today has been a seriously atypical day! i am in shock. *resus trolley pls*

firstly, the extremely torrential downpour in the wee hours means that i was almost driving blindly, not a gd start to a day!

then, when we got to the hospital, it seems like the whole world is getting admitted into the neuro ward! never have i seen so many new faces streaming in, and two of them straight into high-dependency!

and almost everyone needed a CT or MRI scan, and miraculously everything got done today.

and for once, the cardiac centre didnt tell me my patient has been listed for a december echocardiogram, but instead gave me a date for tmr.

and the fish stall auntie piled egg and seawood into my bowl as if they were free; i think theres something about my face she likes today...

and the computer system sprang another surprise on us! now instead of the just having the extra trouble of keying everything into the computer, we have to go the extra trouble to print out special stickers to label the blood tubes!!! what the....! i am going mad. seriously.

and the most atypical thing was: i was verbally abused!!!! my god. at least the previous uncle who hurls abuse at the doctors was always cordial to me, this terrible drunkard (his name was listed as "unknown acs") actually scolded me when i tried to find out why he is in the hospital. he told me to go to hell!!! what the (%^@(#^%@%^#(@%#(%#!!

ARGH!!!! the GALL of this this this erm insane drunkard!!!

and to make things worst, he was obviously NOT drunk anymore. the emergency dept noted that he simply wanted a place to sleep... like hello! *roll eyes*

i was so mad i was ready to start screaming back at him (believe me, i erupt like a volcano in the face of unreasonable ppl). but of course, i recall that i am an amoeba in the hospital hierachy, so i wisely stuffed a fist into my big mouth and stalked out of the cubicle.

spoil my day. GRRRR.

sigh. but i guess i shouldnt be affected by idiots like that, it's their right to behave badly and all. i shall concentrate on the happier things, like some of the cute cute patients we have! Like the auntie who will wave happily at me and tell me it's night-time (when it's daytime) and actually recognises me! and our reluctant patient who always tell me how shuai my consultant is... and how she doesnt mind staying longer as long as he asks her to... HAH! and mdm S, a patient who was actually so sick at first that we werent sure she was ever going to wakey, but hey! just this week she opened her eyes when i called her and actually could understand what i was saying to her! i was so excited that i ran outside and shouted for the nurses, only to realise that she had been improving over the weekend. so heartwarming, really felt vvvvvvvvvvvvv happy for mdm S!!! *waves pompoms to cheer her on* jia you jia you! kind of miss my young patient who was discharged on sunday. hmm i may see her around my neighbourhood though, heh.

SIP is ending soon! i feel a sense of loss and sadness. i shall miss my ward 57, and everything that comes with it.

i shall miss my ho of course, my boss! so used to bugging her every now and then because there's still so many things we do not know!

the nurses!
huiling, the very first nurse who befriended us on our first day. Aka my shi-fu in blood-taking. hah except every time she is with me when i set a plug, it just cant go in! (i realised today that i will only succeed when i am alone. must be the stress!)
ivy, who feeds us haw flakes on the sly during ward rounds! hah she is really very ke ai...
syahida, who speaks mandarin!!! and she is soooo funny. ha will miss chatting with her during nitecalls about korean shows and such.
sew peng, who offered to let me set plug on her for 5 bucks then backed out... chey. hah
joyce who would go to the trouble of finding me blankets and pillows to settle down for the nite!
syaiful, the thorn among the roses! i seldom see him smile initally, but he is smiling more these days...
nur! the vvvvvvvvvvvvv pretty nurse!
and many many many more.

i feel v at home in w57. *beams*

oh and of course the team! will miss them. dr teoh (the dr my patient is gushing over) invited us to the team dinner tmr!!! OMG. what an exciting thing! but i gotta gobble up the food and hightail back home (my pigheaded sis's bdae!) harry and dobby are leaving us tmr! so sad! to think we wont be working with familiar ppl in our last two days of SIP. sigh.

am rather glad i went through SIP, and it really was good fun! and i got to know some of my clsmates better... like EN! haha never did have the chance to chitchat with her before, but now that i do, she is actually very expressive! *recalls her "disgust" when i told her a thought of mine today* hahah!

and of course i know qingyuan's dark secrets now. hah. tsk.

and shaun. ES=evil shaun. but he happily interpreted it as ES=extremely shuai. WAHHHH!!! *faintz*

ok i better conserve energy. tmr got team dinner and sis's bdae, thurs liqi bringing us out to dinner! YAY!! friday got nitecall.... fwah. looks like the zoo would have a new panda to stay soon..

a wonderful call

26th august'2007

POST WEEKEND CALL!!!!

haha yay! i survived the long wkend call. *gives myself a pat on the back* to tell the truth it was much more fun than wkday calls! i think having free dinner supper AND breakfast helps! =D

still feeling very woozy now... funny how i always dont wish to slp on nitecalls and yet zonk out once i get home! slpt from 1plus pm til 7plus jz now! still not enough. haah. pig is my middle name. (anyway i am born in yr of pig so i guess i am living up to my name huh!)

some things i learnt during my call:
1) Hepatitis A CAN be transmitted sexually, contrary to popular beliefs.
why? via erhmm oral sex. this piece of knowledge courtesy of my mo dr jimmy.

2) It helps to have supper to look forward to, it REALLY brings morale up!! YAY! joline brought nydc pizza and cake for us in the middle of the night, so sweet! aw. i really feel like a pampered child! i think our hos probably spend all their earnings on us while we are doing SIP lor... the pizza is gd. YUM!

3) Lionel has tapeworms. HAH! sorry i made that up. Cos he is perpetually hungry! its quite funny to watch him eat and eat and eat... wonder why he isnt fat? blame the worms!

4) HOs may turn hysterical in the middle of the night. Lionel and Joline started laughing non-stop in the midst of clerking a patient!!! Luckily the pt zonked out (she was sooooooo tired and sleepy that i was surprised she didnt try to sweep us out of her cubicle when we tried to examine her!)... Lionel totally lost it, had to get out of the cubicle a few times to laugh. haa. i think... he made friends with the drug addict in his ward.. =P

5) I can't read ECGs. So demoralising! the number of things i can't do and don't know seems to be PILING UP! GULP. But luckily i think i sort of understood how to approach the ECG after some pointers from my mo and ho...

6) My memory cannot make it. Long-term storage seems to be missing! HELP!

7) Liqi is so evil! Msged me "auntie" just before she slpt! I protest!!!!!!!! I AM NOT!!! haha but ok lah, the yummy donuts she bought for us made up for it... i want more! *greedy*

8) Qingyuan is a teeny-bopper. HAHA! The singers he like are sweet young things and boybands heehee. sorry qingyuan, i am destroying ur reputation...

9) I love my ward nurses!!!! I want to hug them and tell them how great they are lor. Joyce gave me tonnes of blankets and pillows and Syahida was chit-chatting with me when i was wandering around in the night! sigh. i shall miss them so very much.

best call ever!

yay! i am sitting comfortably in ward57 resident room now... its 11pm! wow. i am actually free. not bad!

and *gasp* i realise i have a comment from EN! omg EN u put me to shame! i am a really incompetent person. serious. i cant read ECGs, i cant take a good and fast history, i cant read doctors' handwriting, i cant set plugs!!!!!!!!!!ARGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so pls dont say i am competent. i want to bury my head and hide. but anyway, it's nice of u to say this, though i really dont agree. hah. aww.

today is my first wkend call! and the longest call so far... spose to start at 11 but i only joined my ho at 2pm... my ho is lionel, and he is SUPER nice!!! feel safer taking bloods knowing that the ho would be on hand to help if i screw up... (which er is quite often i think. sigh.) and we had a resus case! ok not really resus lah, no need to intubate or CPR, but this is the closest i have ever gotten to see a "A&E" case! but luckily the patient was stabilized... then sent to ICU. whew. i sure hope he does ok!!! poor uncle. had to fluid resus him which means he was poked multiple times by different people... in the end he had 4 drips running at the same time!!! and he was writhing and groaning in pain all the while too... poor thg! it must have come as a shock to his family, cos he was supposed to be well enough to go home today... hai. jiayou uncle!!!

ooo and i think weekend calls allow for more bonding time with ur ho and mo... somehow for me nitecalls always pass in a blur! everyone just wants to chopchop get thgs done and go slp... so no small talk/chitchat/laughter. so it was pretty fun today! the mo jummy relegated me to do PRs... i think i convinced him that i was too lousy at taking bloods.. hah! so i did two or three rectal exams lor. sigh. cannot make it right... THEN! this auntie called out to us when lionel and i were done seeing a pt...

"auntie! auntie ah!!"

i shook my head. tried to clear my head. all the while thinking i must be hearing things.

"auntieeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

lionel inched forward. i hung back.

and she ignored lionel, looked straight at me, and called me right in the eye; "AUNTIE! wo ai ga li gong wei!!!"

MY GOD. i am soooooooo traumatised.

i am an auntie at the ripe old age of 23!!!!

no wonder i have no bf.

time for cosmetic surg. er, dr woffles?! haha

sheesh!!!! thanks ah po. and my ho was totally unsympathetic! argh. thx lionel...

had dinner at kopitiam, sigh i seriously wish there were smthg new to eat! i am having loss of appetite from eating the same old food! and ooo my ho treated me!!! feel v bad, all the hos always treat us! they teach us, treat us, and all we do is give them trouble. haha oops. and i realised lionel is fr rv and hcjc too! were exchanging stories of infamous teachers... and the highlight was: we saw the auntie who famously offered lionel ginseng tea! gosh. auntie killer, this one... he tried to shove some money to the auntie, then the auntie resolutely got up from her chair and came to find him! like playing hide and seek lor, cos then he went running... haha! so the auntie pounced on me and forced the money on me! (i feel like the coconut tree... imagine two indians dancing around me... *starts growing leaves and coconuts*

and now qingyuan aka m5 and me are holed up in our w57! (i am so evil, qy is "scolded" by liqi for fighting for the sofa with me! though i am the intruder! cos i am not covering this ward one haha =P) ooo and we bombarded liqis blog and started talking rubbish! haah so fun! YAY liqi is bringing us donuts tmr! yumyumyum. my tummy sure overnourished this few weeks lor... morning teas, nice buffet lunches, liqi bringing us out this thurs, suppers sometimes when u have nice registrars who buy BAGS AND BAGS of mcdonalds for EVERYONE, and hos who treat u on calls! ok. gotta settle my cholinergic urticaria thg SOON and start jogging!!!!! hello fats. byebye waist.

and i am so jealous. liqi is off today and she wrote a nice long blog on going to orchard. WAILS!!!

i am torn btw liking SIP and wanting to be a carefree student. dilemmas dilemmas!

ooo i am bored. i hope theres smthg to do soon!!!

(qingyuan is glued to the comp watching.... TAADAA jolin tsai and rainie!!!! gosh. tsk. and boybands lor. hah)

clumsy oaf i am

wah!
i hate technology.
this blog ate up my last entry!!! which was painstakingly written during a nitecall while i was using toothpicks to open my eyes. SIGH!!!
nvm.
one shall look ahead.

oooo. i see that my friends are enjoying my bloodthirsty blog entries! ahah.

its the end of my first week with neuro stroke team!! sadly, dr vijay has left! (alas. i have nv followed his team before, but he is always so nice! he even taught me once! jz happened to see me loitering around and he started talking to me! awww. such a nice dr!) but anyway! i still love the team! dr seet, also popularly known as AC raymond, is very nice too! at first i thought he may be quite strict, but hey! he's actually very easy to talk to and he even gave us an impromptu tutorial! (despite the fact that a weird patient scolded him for no concrete reason and kicked up a big fuss over his "forced" discharge!) and dr adrian, who likes to teach, makes a good pair with dr leonard! (nah i dont mean that kind of pair, i mean they have alot of mo-qi!) their play-acting of harry potter and dobby really tickles me alot... mauahahah =D

and i am finally working with liqi! YES! no more wondering around in strange wards alone to do discharges! i am safe, cosy and happy in w57! i love having a ho to leech on to! cos i dont feel so lost anymore. heehee. YAY!

and i realise the nurses in my ward are FANTASTIC. my gosh. they are like angels lor, so very nice! quite unlike some of the nasty nurses i have met before as a medical amoebic student! am beginning to remember most of their names... aha. and they taught me how to set plug today! so touched can. but of course i was so stressed by the fact that three experienced nurses were watching me and the fact that the patient is the wife of someone impt that i failed. SPECTACULARLY. ahah. and in comes huiling to the rescue! within 5 seconds the plug was in! FWAH. *dumbstruck* idol! (sets up fan club for huiling) haah =P and then we adjourned outside, and she demonstrated how to set plug using one hand.... our model? an inflated glove. heehee

so i took home some gloves and started jabbing at them maniacally just now. maybe, by some miracle, i would have perfected this technique by tmr! (yar right)

okies
nite call tmr, my first wkend call! and my 2nd call of this wk! no wkend liao. boohoo!

night owl

0415 hrs
haha i am awake! today is my second night call, and i just had my dinner. i am surprised i have not yet fainted from hypoglycemia yet (last bite of food was around 1.30pm, not counting the life-saving mentos my ho gave me).

not a particularly fabulous day, as usual started at 7.30am, then had two hos teaching us at 6-8pm, THEN went up to the wards to help take a blood culture, THEN bumped into the ho i am following and just didnt have time to eat dinner. had many many many admissions today! i think my ho was rather exasperated haah and seemed rather agonised that so many people were getting admitted to the wards he's in charge of. but it's been an exciting night for me!!! my ho jieli was really nice, so i got to do the many procedures that have eluded me for the past weeks. i did
1) my first ever blood culture
2) my first ever ABG (femoral and it was successful! YAY!)
3) my first plug for this SIP posting.

*smirks*
happy. =) maybe now i can psycho myself into thinking i am not that bad at taking bloods.

ooooo yes i have to praise the hos who taught us today!! joline and lionel (i think). i am really very touched that our seniors are so nice and willing to share their knowledge with us! especially the ho lionel, i heard he was post-call yet he stayed back til 8pm just to teach us! i doubt i will be so wei-da next time... sleep is going to feature really BIG in my timeline. hah =P not teaching bratty juniors. (so evil rite)

have to wakey at 6.45 to take more bloods, i better dive into my makeshift bed for the night!

YAWN. SIP is actually quite fun. =P

2am on National Day

time-check 2.07am, i am stoning in NUH doing my first night call.

zombie-fied.

my HO is Dr Khine, a very nice doctor from myanmar (got conversational topics since i have been there before)... she just told me to come and rest ahah =P

third day into SIP and i feel... very out of place still. it's really very tiring to start your day at 7.30am and leave the hospital at 7pm. AND you practically stand the WHOLE day. my god. can you hear my feet screaming... have worn flats and not heels and yet i feel like i just want to walk barefoot to save me from the agony of trudging around in my shoes. URGH. (by the way, i think the friction has rubbed off all my skin from my two last toes. i am officially as skinless as the plucked cooked chicken on the table).

the neuro team is a rather nice bunch of people, and i especially adore my HO liqi! she is really very willing to teach and ever so helpful, always making sure to check on me when i set off to take blood alone. and i realise another trait about the hos; they seem to have mastered the art of not going to the toilet and not drinking water. they are like pseudo-cacti! at the end of the day i always feel as dry as a bone. dehydrated, wrinkled, shrivelled. maybe our bladders wisely expands themselves when they realise the day is too short for time wasted on toileting.

have yet to do any successful procedures other than venepuncture. =( although so far it's rather heartening that none have failed yet! did an ABG just now, failed to draw any blood. my heart sank. aha especially since there were four pairs of eyes (patient's and relatives') staring at me while i tried to do it. witnessed a blood culture, looks really tough to do! and i have yet to set a plug. GAH. at this rate i am never going to fulfill all the basics...

my ho just informed us today that we have to come back weekends. byebye lovely saturday and sunday. i shall become a SIP slave.

ooo. it's freezing in this room. and there's no bed to sleep on. and i haven't bathe. life is sad. my hair is greasy, my eyes are puffy, my tummy is rumbling, my lips are cracking, and i probably smell nasty. pooey.

a "Do Not Resuscitate" patient passed away just now. it's terrible watching the grief of the relatives, no words of consolation come to mind.



brrr. freezinggggggggggggggggggggg freeziiiing freezingg freezinnng frozen.

pre-internship

yahoo!

starting my internship tomorrow, at a neurology ward in NUH.

time to drop off the surface of the earth for the next 4 weeks!!!! having FIVE night calls!!! (OMG) will be post-call on national day so at least i can go home after 2pm i think... SIGH. what a sad national day!

pretty excited now! but i bet i would be crying before soon... ahma told me she cried post-call because she was just sooooooooooo tired! and didnt manage to eat both dinner and breakfast too! wah. (looks like it's time for me to slim down haha)

welllllllllll, fervently hope that all the procedures i do like blood-taking and catheterization would be successul! i don't want to traumatise any patients! and i don't wish to be scolded!

i know nuts about neurology! hah. although i did three weeks of neuro in scotland and it was really very interesting... shucks! hope the consultant don't think i am stupid or what. trying to cram neuro knowledge into my tiny brain now.

ok! i shall read this post one week from now and probably wish i was back right at this moment. haha =P

NUH here i comeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! (byebye earthlings cya in 4 weeks)

hmm i wonder what the world is coming to!!! what with news of bogus charities canvassing for funds from unsuspecting kind-hearted people and the Taleban detaining and killing off big-hearted korean missionaries who wanted to HELP the Afghan people...

SIGH.

depressing.

they are on a killing spree eh? a second korean has just been killed. and he's only 29 years old. sigh.

i wonder why cant the Taleban regime sees sense. do they really want to be alienated from the rest of the world, including those who wish to lend a helping hand? it must be so hard for the victims and their families, a long 13 days it has been. and who knows what may happen next. i can understand the government's reluctance not to bend to Taleban's demands, as it would only set off a bitter vicious cycle of more kidnappings to bargain for the release of Taleban members. yet, i can't bear to see these young, compassionate beings being slaughtered senselessly in a war which does not concern them.

the greatest loser? possibly humanity. that we have to resort to this mindless killing of the innocent to attain our goals.

i am not a christian, but i sure feel like praying for their safety. it could easily have been anyone of us, each one of us who have ever ventured to foreign lands to lend a helping hand.