Temptations & Ambitions

And today, we had a teaching with Mr Yusof, the Head of Dept. His usual teaching rounds. It was a hectic day while I'm still on a crash course to learn the computerized system and protocol. Feels more like a medical student minus the time to read 'em. I seriously had wished to be able to recall what I learnt in Yr 4 med student in Orthopedics. But then, I recalled. I didn't really learnt much. Crap~

Now I know how important it is of the posting. *sigh*

*Addendum:
But I do wonder if I would really want to go back to the med student years. Hmmm..

*Addendum:
Crap.. too much addendum function used in the wards.

*Addendum:
Don't worry, this is just an internal joke. Only people from Hospital Temerloh may know about it.

*Addendum:
Or maybe a few more hospitals, who may also use the shift system as of now. :P

I'm pretty sure I'll be getting tired of typing to blog, especially when it's gonna be part of my job. The difference is, I'm not going to tell anything about myself in my job. It's all about the patient's. Crossing my fingers in hope that I'll go through the learning curve smoothly of the computer system here.

Here I am, back in my own sweet home, before departing for Hospital Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah (HOSHAS), Temerloh. Yes, that is my next destination for perhaps, the next 2 years.



The 4-days camp was relaxing, because there weren't any BTN element. Although it meant no fun exercises in the morning, it also means there wasn't anymore blatant shouts from the occasional political failures. No more restriction on mobile devices for fear of BTN speech been recorded, because the contents are sometimes rather saucy.

Anyhow, the lectures were somewhat useful, although it may not be so now. Maybe it'll be in 2 years time.


Of course, the most useful information is about the payscale. 


UD41 for housemanship, UD44 for MO during compulsory service of 2 years. They'd promised UD48 for those who remained in government service after the 2 years of compulsory service, although it could be transitional in a matter of several months. But oh well, such payroll changes most of the time. It could even be different after a year or two (judging from the usual "moodswing" in the policies).

Besides, I'm not going to complain that my salary would not be able to feed my whole village. Some people take things for granted, hoping that the government will be paying them to feed everyone in their family, from Grandpa, Grandma, uncles, aunts, cousins, father, mother, brother, sisters, from that one single breadwinner. If that's the case, guess they hadn't learned about economics.


"Our wants are infinite, our resources are finite."


No one is ever going to complain about having too much money.


And similarly, no one will ever be satisfied regardless of their pay, when they couldn't take into account their job performances and capabilities.


It's rather interesting to see people from different walks of life, from various places and institutions. Most of us had different experiences to share, and seriously, 4 days wouldn't be enough to get to know all of them. We're going to be in a whole new environment after all, so a little larger network wouldn't hurt, nay?


So, here I am, packing for Temerloh, and staying at home while the clash of a new "religion" has occured. Believers and non-believers of Bersih 2.0. Anything that qualifies for endless debate with no finite solution would fit into the category. Oh, preferably with the essence of blind loyalty. It would not solve anything, but merely presenting an option of a different approach.

The verdict? My comment is just as sane as the protagonist of the novel "White Tiger" with his favorite remark of "WAFJ". Go and rally and vandalize all you want in your own states, oh dear hooligans. This is definitely not Arab Spring. This is no Aung San Suu Kyi's liberalism either (although some deluded person may want to liken himself to her). 


In fact, this felt more like Thailand's Yellow shirt and Red shirt demonstration.

And here I am, thinking that smart lawyers would have done better than using such desperate ways.

In the end, no one is a winner.


Of course, apart from those who were hired and paid for participating in the rally.


So, sit back, and enjoy a peaceful weekend. :)

My packing will be done soon.

I guess one should take a break, and reflect once in a while, such as to keep our sanity in check. And anger as well. Most of the time, whenever there is a PPD reflection, I'm sure most of us were tempted to put in a one-liner in the submission, such as "Please refer my blog" for fellow bloggers. Or perhaps for the most of us, it would be "Please check my FB/ Twitter status updates for an honest reflection of what I am going through". An emo update would indicate a depression state, or some it could be a mania state. But if you happened to see me publishing FB games updates on the wall, please ignore it. It wouldn't be me playing 6-7 FB games out of boredom/escapism. It wouldn't be me spending most of my time on FB for things like such. It could probably be a hacker playings games with my account, accumulating in-game wealth all for my sole benefit. I mean, our online activities clearly defines what we reflect anyway. Bloggers may include photos, which would decorate the dry "model essay" that we submit for PPD reflection everytime.


And to include some videos, like, what they have learnt in the posting, like trucut biopsy technique or the tool.



And so to talk about Peds posting, perhaps we should have a recollection of Year 4. The zest and ambitions that failed to materialize:

If there is a shopping that I love to do, it would be for medical books. I have only a few photocopied books, which half I had the original ones as well, particularly the new Pre-Test series. But somehow I got myself the most number of books for Pediatrics, which I did not fully utilize because there's too much to read and also because I slacked off. 

If you'd think that Pediatrics is just a happy place where the cute kids and toys are, you would suck in all the happiness as well, you must be dead wrong.




But oh well, everyone has a different perception, so I'll leave it to you guys to determine yourself.



And so, I was chosen and sent to a rural area which requires 2 hours of sampan upstream, 5 hours of walking with no electricity and clean water supply from SYABAS Hospital Slim River for the 1st 2 weeks for attachment. I must say the hospital was quite decent although I can't say so for the accommodation.




The best thing was, I was sent there on my birthday. For that, I had to celebrate my birthday in Zeuk Slim River with my fellow group mates. They were very kind indeed. I got elected as a leader on that day with my %$# good luck in drawing lots. And it was also my 1st 24 hours on-call.




But oh well, we'll make do with what we had. Chin Kimg and Zi Teng helped celebrated my birthday in Slim River. Of course, my dear had celebrated with me on the weekends prior to going to Slim River. I had a nice golden tie, but I don't do much camwhoring lately. Thanks dear. And yes, I would like to take the opportunity to thank them (CK & ZT) as well.






If you think we had any enthusiasm, it must have been brought from the feel good effect of Surgery posting. Of course, some had very high hopes when we were there.






The problem is, everything there is just too slow-paced. We were just sucked into the trap of softwork (the opposite of hardwork?) And so, every single piece of optimism was sucked out of us before being sent back to UKMMC. 


Fortunately, we picked up the fast-paced lifestyle in UKMMC despite some initial difficulties. Perhaps it was the reverse-Midas touch that I had during our senior's convocation. We were back in time to be there, at least for a while if not the whole event.


The gold medal was a source of inspiration and dream for most of us. An elusive dream. I would really want to molest have a feel of it and gained some of its blessings. Fortunately, there weren't many of us, so I had a bigger portion of the blessings the opportunity to feel and have a closer look. And this may be our only chance since we'll be too jealous to touch our coursemate's gold medal by the time of our convocation. :P


Enough said. That was just a side story to introduce the rare and shiny gold medal along with the recipient, of course:




As for the Peds posting, life goes on as usual, apart from the too many MMC medical students hogging the patients in Peds, while awaiting their professionals exams in UKMMC. I mean, Peds has only 1 ward with max 28 patients. We had 30 UKM medical students at one time in the wards, along with almost 20 more from MMC. Overcrowdedness is an issue. Another issue was some of them had a longest case exam style. They can take 4-5 hours just to clerk a patient. Maybe that's the exam style in China or that particular Uni. -.-"


As I have Assoc Prof Dr Raja Juanita as my supervisor, Peds wasn't that torturing, as she was one of the few doctors who were more benign.


We even have time for the occasional adventures.




Yeah, it means no more jam in the town trying to grab a bite in a place with a rather high crime-rate in Jalan TAR.



And on the last week of Peds posting, we had skills lab, supposedly to hone our skills.
But we used dummies for skills lab. The "fake" feeling is still there, just like how fake boobs would have feel like. It's just not real.


And here is an extra one. To prove a point that it's just hard to take from a dummy, and the unreal feeling.


Overall, I am satisfied with the posting. Partially because I put in more efforts than last year in Peds. Partially because the sense of redemption was there. I read more to cover what I have not in Year 4. I worked harder but may not achieved what others may have gone through, but that's alright. Paying back my karma in Year 4 would be enough, and what matters the most is that I am better than the me yesterday. After all, I just need to compare with myself. :P


P.S: The anticipation of O&G posting would be reserved for another post. (Should there be one)

Big Cinema in Teluk Intan. VERY BIG......

Library in Hospital Teluk Intan (HTI).. a moment of silence..and also a form of "Sleep Study"... zzzzz

Another moment please...

The famous chicken in Gulam Rasul, Teluk Intan

Not to be missed.

Dishes in Sze Chuan Restaraunt.. This looks good, but it wasn't

The other dishes

The building I've contributed RM10 to, by forgetting to put up the parking coupon.

The interior of the building. They have one of the most advanced facilities and best services, mainly because those who came are those who contributed towards the comfort of this place.

"Sleep Study" being done in the staff room in Surgical ward

"Sam Siu Ye" (3rd Young Master). The alternative for Jalan Hill's mediocre chee cheong fun. If you'd asked me, the chee cheong fun here are "must try" because they are famous here, not because they are very delicious.

"Muka Stress" trying to study... so "yeng".. :P

Posingly stress??

This guy trying to practice some guitar to entertain his gf. n_n"

The secret of Sam Jo Ee's study regime. Must study like this only can be successful. :P I know, it looks gay.. -.-"

Another day of presentation for bedside teaching. No one says the bed must have patient. :P

The taller he gets, the more "torticollis" neck the rest have..

Eager minds trying to be 100% attentive

Concentration drifting into the horizon

Drifting...

All down the drain.. Note: The doctor is just sitting in front of Sharen.

Roasted pigeons would have tasted nice...yummm....

It has somewhat come to an end, my surgery posting. All in all, I've been through 15 weeks of Surgery, if I am to count from Year 3. There are of course, ups and downs, some hardworking moments, some lazy moments, but I'd pulled through the 1st posting of Year 5. In one piece. I thought I would have developed some form of avulsion towards Surgery, but it seems kinda okay now and not that horrible. Perhaps I had to go through Pediatrics and Orthopedics to understand how interesting Surgery is (In relative sense). Now, I find the core postings rather interesting, from Internal Medicine, Surgery to (the most fearful) Obs and Gynecology. 


Clinical proficiency test (CPT) was done 2 days ago. We came all the way from Teluk Intan for it and had to return to Teluk Intan on the same day itself. Of course, I drove myself there, so I had an extra day off for myself before coming back to TI yesterday. That's how useful a car can be especially in final year. CPT was only 20 minutes, and it was somewhat not worth the journey to and fro. We were given 20 minutes to take history and do physical examination. The usual in the professionals for long case would be 45 minutes, and an extra 15 minutes of preparation (Or so I heard). So the time given was rather short for us. Of course, some may argue that targeted history taking and PE would only take 15 minutes for example in Family Medicine, but there's no referral to higher center, and you'll be the "final destination" for the patient. Plus, the spectrum of diseases may vary from center to center.


I started as one of the first few early candidates. After given the bed number, we were to rush to the beds to start our allocated 20 minutes session. I was having bad luck with Prof Ramdzi messing with me, with his usually undecipherable one-word conversation and also to ask me to present to him after that. Then, I arrived at Bed 15, with no patient. It was an empty bed. Cursing my luck, I panicked for perhaps, a few seconds and hasten my way to the invigilator to inform about my situation. I was directed to another bed, which had the case notes on the table. I flipped it over to avoid having a peep on it, and started my "mission". Throughout the session, there were at least 2 interuptions from the female house officer and a staff nurse for me to assist them in their ward work. Never mind the staff nurse who got the hint and walked off quietly, the new house officer was being rather rude in her approach. She demanded me to follow her to another bed, and I told her in a nice way that I a test was undergoing. Refusing to listen (maybe she had impaired hearing), she demanded again in a harsher tone. That was the last straw where I told her sternly that I was having an exam now, while giving a glare that I could eat her up if she kept insisting. The glare must have worked before she realized what was going on and she apologetically walked off. 

The 20 minutes session was not really well spent. It took around 10 minutes for my history of presenting illness before I realized that I was running out of time. Finished history taking in 17 minutes (I think), before proceeding to one of the most modified physical examination of the abdomen which would have gained at least a yellow card. Examining the hands while taking the pulse rate and breath rate, and a rapid palpation of the post-surgical site abdomen (after a proper quick glance of the whole abdomen, of course) while standing, before I realised my mistake and did it while kneeling down. It wasn't really a complete one, but I did what I could before Mr Christopher Ho entered. I knew I was lucky because Prof Ramdzi was not my examiner. All I knew next was I was presenting and answering questions in almost one breath. There were flaws in my presentation, of course, especially when I was not reading from my clerking sheet, using it only for occasional reference (A bold move when this was the first time of me doing it). Maybe the "no pause" moments gave way plus, Mr Christopher Ho was a nice and kind examiner. Hence it went rather well as compared to some of my colleagues who had examiners who are more malignant.  


Whatever it is, I'm just glad that it's over. What I'm looking forward to is Pediatrics, where I'd flunked last semester along with Orthopedics. It took much more courage to go over something you would dread to do, so I'm trying to be all optimistic. The next 2 weeks, I'll be in Slim River, so I'll be having a total of 5 weeks of nomading. Driving is really tiring at times, but I guess home is a place you can truly rest. Until then, I'm looking forward for a nice break this weekend.


P.S: I'll post some pics in the next post. :)