The Royal College of Radiologist...

People know me very well, especially my close friends. Am well known with my constantly-changing mind. Take my future career for an instance.

• Medical school time ---> Planning to proceed to become a cardiologist
• Early HO-ship period ---> Planning to become a radiologist
• Mid HO-ship period ---> Planning to become ENT surgeon
• End HO-Ship Period ---> Planning to become an emergency physician
• MO- ship period ---> Planning to become a radiologist, AGAIN!

So, my friends tend to just ignore my enthusiasm,because at the back of their mind, it's just for interim period. Well, i know that well too! But I stay positive most of the time. Changes happen.

Back to the aforementioned topic, I'd like to convince myself and everyone out there, that Am serious and 110% committed this time around. I want to be a RADIOLOGIST! Full stop. The reasons, well, I'll keep that to myself for now.

My enthusiasm made me email-ing my Med school lecturer and inquired regarding Master Programme and what does it take to be a radiologist. Then, she mentioned about The Royal College Of Radiologist (FRCR) exam. Meaning, I can be a Radiologist (Amin!) without entering the Malaysian Master Programme! Yess!

I considered it as a good news as I don't have to go for lectures and everything, but the downside is, no one to teach and show me things unless I ask them to. There are tons of things to ponder and considerate. But at least I can now see my options. Alhamdulillah!

I'll try my best. Guess I have lotsa readings to be done peeps! Toodles and Wish me LUCK!

Its the beach again!

When I have nothing to do at home or I'm extremely bored, there is one place you surely can find me at, The BEACH! Kemaman is definitely rich with beaches. If you planning to enjoy the breeze, you can just take a walk, and there you go, gorgeous beaches are ready to be explored.

So, yesterday, out of endless boredom. I drove my car to a beach called Pantai Che' Nik or sumting. The water was a bit cloudy. Maybe because of the downpour earlier. The waves were still strong and obviously not safe for the public. I enjoyed taking pictures and waiting for the sun to come down. Such a nice view, MasyaAllah

Add caption

Families enjoying the view. But please do not litter

The scary waves

Choppy sea

Its always raining!

Some random picture

I have no idea, what these sticks symbolized?

One of the biggest waves. RUN!!!

Proper 'Thank You'

I dunno what has gotten in to me today, but one thing for sure, It was a good thing. I opened my laptop today, soon after finishing everything in the ward, I started to write an email to my lecturer. I was a Thank You email!

It had been more than 2 years since I last saw and met my lecturers in Medical Faculty, UiTM. My email was actually meant to say and Thank You and to update her on my and my friends' progress so far. Are we doing good so far? Are coping well? Are we good doctors?

I just wanted to let her know that, whatever they did in Medical School was not fruitless. I am so sure that my friends are doing just fine everywhere. So, a proper Thank You letter (Email, in my case) was really necessary.

my batch

Well, its all about daddy issue!

I have been working in Paediatric department for, you know, not that long. Housemanship was 4 months, and now MO-ship about 4 months. And I have been taking history from countless daddies in this period. Guess what?! Most of these Dads suck! lol

I totally understand when Daddies tend to have NO IDEA about what's going on with their children as they are the breadwinner. They aren't at home, most of the times! Once they are, those children are already asleep. So, perhaps, that's the excuse for these encounters of mine:

Me: Anak sekolah darjah berapa?
Dad : Darjah satu doktor
Kid : Bukan la ayah. Dah darjah dua

Me: Azli (Not the real name) anak ke berapa?
Dad : Hrrrmmm... tiga rasanye. Eh jap, Dia ade 2 abang. Eh! Tak pasti

Me: Azli dah demam berapa hari?
Dad: Eh kejap yer. Saya kol mak dia dulu.. *calling the mom

Countless more stories. But, Dads are group of amazing people, loving men, and caring lots. So, some Dads are needed to pay 'little' attention about their children. Toodles for now!

Better watch out for angry Birds

Prego, Westin!

The food was awesome, the ambiance was splendid, and the Hospitality was welcoming. Those are few compliment words for Prego Restaurant, in one of the prestigious hotels in Malaysia, Westin Hotel. I was there after my cousin told the foods are Must-Try.

Well, I ordered some tongue-twisting named pasta with Plain water. And Ihab did some unknown pasta as well. And the Waiter, Anthony or something, was so nice and helpful. Guiding us through the menu and explain in understandable details about the foods.

After had decided on the food, we talked and talked and talked. Nothing, but about the chefs that we could see from the top level. Well, guess what! One of the chefs was my cousin.

The evening got better and better when we were served with a Pizza (I have no idea what Pizza was it?). And it was complimentary from the chefs and my cousin. Touched, are you not? lol

Hungry?

The pizza

Isn't it sweet, the chef came and asked about the food?

The food was awesome and my pasta were superb! I love the cream. I love the Pizza. It was a great experience, and surely we'll make a comeback. Prego, whats your next complimentary food then?

Once its gone, the bitterness of the pain becomes sweet memories

The title might sound a bit, you know, romantic I must say. But am not gonna talk about romance here. Well, sitting here, early in the morning. Doing nothing in the ward (Thank God those babies and kids are all fine). It made me reminiscing those hectic days as a houseman.

Tears streaming down, growling stomach cried for food, stinky shirt, eye bags after sleepless calls, cramps muscle. Those are pain that we suffered throughout 2-year training in non other than, HTAR.

Look at the Logo, it shows someone is helping a collapsed guy. Guess what, that collapsed guy is one of the HTAR HO. lol

And am not embarrassed to admit that, once in Medical posting, I almost called it a quit. I was oncall that night, when everything bad happened. I was oncall alone and had to take care of almost 50 patients. With 10 unstable patients and endless admission. Extension beds were everywhere. While clerking this aunty, I asked the staff nurses to perform ECG on her. While waiting for the ECG, I took a short nap on the clerking desk. Then the aunty came back with her ECG after merely 5 minutes. That was all my sleep for the day!

After endorsing her medications, one of the nurses called me. "Doctor, I think you better go and see the aunty behind there"

I ran to the aunty and found no pulse. She was cold! The nurses pushed the Crash Cart while I performed CPR. I called out "Please call MO!!" After few minutes, my MO came and I blurted out the patient's history. We performed CPR for more than 30 minutes but the aunty could not be saved.

After settling the burial permit and talked to the family, I ran to my cubicle for morning rounds. After hours of rounds, there were thousands of blood investigations to be traced, liters of blood to be withdrawn and multiple scans to be done. At the same time, I had to perform Pleural Centesis, had to accompany patients to Sri Kota Hospital for CT scan (Ours was broken that day). It was 6 PM and I had not have anything in my stomach yet. Let alone to sit or sleep.

Depressed.

It was unbearable and it made me calling my mum and telling her how much I had suffered. No food, dried throat, extremely knackered, No shower for 48 hours. My mother understood and said that it was okay to stop.

So, that night, I went to the hospital. My intention was, to finished up all my Discharge Summaries which piled up with my name on them! Then, I met my friend, Vijay. Thank God he was oncall that night. I started to pour everything out including my intention to stop and let everything go. I was literally depressed.


Then, he said to me.
"I know it's stressful. I have been there. (He was my senior in medical posting for 2 months). But, you should never let people know that you have chickened out. You have to be strong"

Then I asked him whether, at least I should take Emergency Leave on the next day. He said "NO! Just come tomorrow and showed these people that you can do this"

The next day, I came... With the remaining energy left in me. And Vijay smiled at me that morning.
Things get better after that day, not that our workloads were lesser, it was just that, i got stronger and stronger. Every time a big wave of depression came, I kept reminding myself, "I HAVE GONE THROUGH WORST THAN THIS!" 
Kudos to all my friends who were succeeded in their Housemanship training

Well, the survivors. My friends and I during our O&G rotation. FUN!!

I have recovered back then. O&G friends!!!

Paran was expressing his anger! Well, he was one of the HTAR'ians

Our mysterious Vijay is revealed. Thanks Vijay for everything

Between Life And Death, An anecdote of a doctor. Where is he now?

I was bored to death one day and I decided to browse through some blogs. And I googled this, "TOP 10 MALAYSIAN DOCTOR'S BLOG"


One of the blog was this

BeTWeen LiFe & DeaTH

  Well, here's the thing. The introduction did catch my attention first. It was cunning and utterly funny. Here's the blog description the writer used "Hold the line please. Our doctors are currently busy attending other patients. You will be intubated shortly. Thank you" 

  Brilliant isn't it? (Am that easy to impress, am i not?). So that beautiful evening, I fully dedicated to this doctor's blog. I read from one entry to another. His entries amused me. He didn't talk about 'How to end up a relationship in a painless way' or 'The history of World War II' like others did. It was basically just anecdotes of a man who's living and working in PJ (I just quoted him).

  I love the choice of words. Well, his English is simply superb.

  Unfortunately, his last entry was 3 years ago. I bet he's a specialist now, no more leisure time for blogging. I just hope, he'll continue blog!

http://drfrappucino.blogspot.com/

Blog away!!!

My first business class ticket!

It happened many months ago. Every year, all the government workers from Sabah & Sarawak, who work in Peninsular Malaysia, are entitled to get one free return ticket to their respective state. No exception, I got one of those generous offers as well. Me being smart, I decided to use the ticket for AidilFitri since airline people aren't generally helpful during festive seasons.

So, after a lengthy discussion with the HTAR clerk, I chose the dates that I wanted to fly to and back from Sabah. Having clumsy and reckless as my middle names, I forgot to bring the booking paper back to Sabah. The journey back to Sabah was uneventful, but the trip back was a gigantic hassle!

Having the wrong date in my mind, I went to the check-in counter on the presumed date, only to be told by the counter guy, I just missed my flight the day before. To make it worst, the next available flight was gonna be in a week time. My heart stopped! Oh God!

I called my friend, Azmi coz he's the master of all mishaps. He suggested me to try on the next available flights, if there was any. I begged the counter guy with all sort of dramatic excuses; My boss is gonna kill me if I dint show up tomorrow, I have no one here... But to no avail!

I was extremely exhausted and ran out of option. Then I approached the MAS counter and the guy in-charge suggested to me. " Why don't you try a business class seat instead? But, it's a bit pricey". And I was like 'Dear Lord! Why didn't you suggest it earlier'

Then he calculated the whole thing, I needed to add RM 960.00 more to be on the next plan which was scheduled the next day. I could not care less, even it meant, I lost almost 1K to a flight that was supposedly be free. I blamed myself for my reckless and stupidity.

But looking at the bright side, it was my first experience to be on a business class seat. The differences? Well, food, comfortable.. I guess thats all.

Oncall rates Increment!

Good news for all government doctors, the would be an increment on Oncall rates starting on September 2011. So, all those money for last month's call will be given lump sum! Warning to all boutiques, you will be expecting influx of doctors to your store soon.

Well, the increment is not that much but I, personally am grateful since it's so difficult for me to go out and do Locums. Am the lazy type, just so you know.

Here's are the new rates for Medical officer:

• Active calls         ---> RM 200 (weekday) RM 220 (weekend)
• Passive Calls      ---> RM 140 (Weekday) RM 150 (Weekend)

So let's work harder!! 

English and its usage?

It always has been a bickering topic for everyone. Should we emphasize English? Should we make it compulsory for our children to master English in order for them to pass the exam? The answer, is glaringly 'YES'. No one should come forward and say otherwise.

The only question that should be taken into account is, 'Are those children ready?' It's extremely easy for those who grew up chatting and writing in English. We are not talking about them. But, how about those children, who spending his/ her entire childhood using their own dialect to communicate. And to be one of them, I would say, it damn Hard.

My personal experience.
My parents don't speak English at home. We talk in our own dialect, which I assume, my friends could not understand, especially those from peninsular. My parents never instilled the English spirit, so called, in me. Which, I never blame them, because in those old times, English was something you could survive without.

But today, English is medium for everything i.e Education, entertainment, social, business etc etc. In other word, English is synonymous to IMPORTANT! So, what we should teach these kids is, Love English. It's not merely a subject to pass, but instead its an important medium of conversation. Make them imagining, talking to their favourite football star (for example) without the hassle of having someone as a translator.

I have this thick book, which I used to jot down all the new vocabularies that I stumbled upon, or heard someone's using them. I took one hour to memorize those words and tried to use them in my writing or daily conversation. Trust me, it was not an easy process. I am still learning, and always will.

Check out my new RIM people!!!

Lotsa accidents, lotsa bumpers. In the end f the day, what did u get? Well, of course damaged rim. I had no idea, as usual, that my rims were all f**ked up! And according to the mechanic, it caused me the whole tires.

After so much contemplation, I decided to just changed the whole rims. New one, cool one. Argghhhh!! Excitement and anger of losing so much money!

Lucky! Or just a complimentary drink?!

Walking into Starbucks, everything seemed normal. Same Barista, Same Drinks, Same Cakes, Same old magazines on the shelf. Basically, same old same old!

Ordered my drinks as usual, then the Barista told me, "U are our lucky customer! Here free drinks for you. But You still have to go to our website and bla bla blaaaa..." I dint hear the rest. I was so overwhelmed by the word LUCKY. Trust me or not, I have never ever won any lucky draw in my life, EVER. No Lucky Customer, No Scratch And Win, nothing wutsoever.

Getting it was like, my first and I was all excited till today!! Yatttaaaa!!

Talk That Talk By Rihanna

After having her previous album, LOUD, as one of my collections, I'd prefer to continue listening to her songs. She produces good songs, that I can tell. Her stereo voice is a bonus. So, the moment she released her new album, I was all prepared to get a grip on her new product.

Talk That Talk is one of her best albums to date! Great voice, as usual. Fantastic music. As usual, I have to tell u my best song. Well, it goes to Where Have You Been And Talk That Talk, Obviously!

Check it out!!

01. You Da One
02. Where Have You Been
03. We Found Love (featuring Calvin Harris)
04. Talk That Talk (featuring Jay-Z)
05. Cockiness (Love It)
06. Birthday Cake
07. We All Want Love
08. Drunk on Love
09. Roc Me Out
10. Watch n’ Learn
11. Farewell