How to annoy me 101

One of the surest way of annoying me would be to ask me for help in chasing after a girl.
I mean seriously.
What the heck.
Do I look like a playboy who has successfully chased after a million girls?
or a guy who has balls the size of texas and has managed to seduced and bed girls everywhere?
Obviously the answer for the above two questions are NO.
Therefore don't bloody ask me for help in chasing after girls.
I think it's quite pointless to ask somebody else for help in chasing after a girl.
I mean how the heck do you expect your friend to help you anyway?

Let's say for example you would like to know more about the girl you're after.
Go bloody find out about her yourself.
If you like her that much, you should just go talk to her and find out more about her yourself instead of asking your friend about her.
Don't you think it's foolish to ask your friend all about her, and when you actually find time to talk to her, you have nothing interesting to ask her since you already know all those information about her?? Wouldn't it be more interesting for you if you discovered the information yourself instead?
Another scenario would be, she might even think that you were stalking her or something if you already knew all that information about her without her telling you.

Another thing I would like to add is, I wonder why guys would want to find out about the girls' interests from her friends. As in, what if her interests were something different. So would you force yourself to have the same interests as her then? Or be interested in the same things as her?
Then wouldn't the relationship be based on a false foundation which would come crumbling to the ground soon enough?
Basically, just find out her interests for yourself instead of asking her friends. I mean it's definitely great if you have common interests, but it's not the end of the world if the interests are different, as each and everyone of us is a unique individual :) That's what makes us all interesting anyway.
And if it's not meant to be then it's not meant to be, so don't need to force yourself to like the same thing the person you have a crush on likes, cause you will just end up not being true to yourself. What's the point of that then?

Another question you might ask would be how you would go after the girl?
Like as if I would bloody know,
since I've not gone after any girls before.
I shall pardon your stupidity since you think with your ahem instead of your brains.

Well you can tell me who you like, but I am most certainly not interested in helping you attain your dream girl or whatever.
I don't even mind if you lament to be about your crush,
but I definitely cannot stand it if you ask me for help in chasing after a girl.
Wrong person to ask for help.

Honestly I think guys should actually ask guys for help instead of girls.
Duh.
I mean that's kinda obvious isn't it?
Guys would obviously have more experience chasing after girls.
since girls don't chase after girls.
Unless they're lesbian of course.

So yes, that's all for my rants today.

If you do find trouble chasing after a girl, I shall offer some tips and advices.

1. I think you can never go wrong with chocolates and teddy bears.
2. Be a gentleman to her.
3. Go talk to her. Msn, e-mail, facebook, SMS. Whatver I don't really care what method you use.
4. Shower her with lots of attention
5. Be nice to her
6. Ask her out
7. Try and look nice. For example: Gel up your hair, dress properly, shave, etc.
8. Be nice to her friends. This is quite important since girls obviously gossip amongst themselves.
9. I think quite a lot of girls are attracted to bad boys. Maybe it's their charisma, or perhaps girls always think that they can be the girl who changes the guy. Anyway who knows? I don't, so can't comment.

Okay I have run out of ideas.
Anyway that's the basic structure I think.

Ben and Jerry Cookie Dough Ice Cream

Teeheee
Do you not think this is the most heavenly ice cream ever?
yumsss
Vanilla ice cream with chunks of cookie dough inside.
Sweet smooth mouth watering ice cream, which send you up to heavenly ecstacy...
Went to Jeff and Su-yin flat and found it lying in the freezer, nobody wanting to claim ownership to it, and decided to adopt it into my stomach :)
By the way, the picture is not from the ice-cream which I found in their freezer. This one is from long ago. hehehe.

Sunday Dim Sum Brunch

Went out this afternoon with Wei Shen, Wei Phin and Jenny for Dim Sum at Phoenix Palace in Baker Street. I didn't want to go at first, as I have been spending a lot of money. Eating out practically everyday, thanks to my dear friends. But eventually I succumbed to their persuasive powers to eat dim sum.

Before we left, we over to Jeff's flat and said hello to Jeff, Yu Jin and Anna. I think they were making ice-cream or something with Jeff's ice-cream machine. Haven't seen Yu Jin in ages and he asked me how Aberdeen was, and I told him that I had just finished my exams.

We then took a bus down to Baker Street, and along the way, they showed me Tottenham Court Road and where the new University College Hospital was located. It's this fancy glass building. Very pretty. Apparently Imperial wanted to join with UCL because of their fancy hospital. haha If I was a patient, I would so want to be in that hospital.

Walked into the restaurant and was greeted with fancy Chinese decor and a place brimming full of people sipping chinese tea and dipping their chopsticks into a bowlful of goodies on a Sunday afternoon. Absolutely loved the vibrant and lively atmosphere of the place. I have been deprived in Aberdeen & Inverness!! Realized that I have been missing out on a lot.

Wei Shen and Jenny

Delicious egg tarts

Yummy Siu mai!!

London has the yummiest food ever!!!
Loving the life here :)

Lectured Wei Phin on how he needs to study hard in IMU, so that he doesn't flunk and also get to the partner medical school of his choice. Basically there is NO easy way out and the key to doing well which I have now learned is to glue your ass to the chair!! the whole day, all the time and study, study, study. He says I'm like his grandmother lecturing him. haha.

Later on, went out window shopping with my brother and walked to Covent Garden. Lots of people around caught up in a last minute christmas shopping frenzy.

Walked to Oxford street after that to look for my friend.
He is working for one of the starbucks along oxford street,
but there are so many starbucks along oxford street.
So there I was outside one of the starbucks looking in trying to look for my friend.
And then I thought I saw him bending down to get something so I knocked on the glass window.
Then he looked up.........
Oh no!
It was the wrong person!
So embrassing!!
*quickly runs away*
Okay to be fair he did kinda look like my friend.
Tall, fair looking chinese dude.
Anyway continued my journey walking along oxford street, spotted another starbucks along the road, and went in, and did find my friend in the end.
Went to say hello and ran away after that, cause he was busy working.
hahaha.
The end of the story of how I found my long lost friend.

Bah

Gawd. I am feeling extremely annoyed again.
I HATE Aberdeen, there I said it.
I don't think it would come as a big surprise to anybody.
I've already mentioned it in passing before, just that you might not have taken me seriously enough.
FARK
hate Aberdeen!
my fuming anger which seems to be on the brink of spilling over and releasing my utter abhorrence at the place.

For goodness sake, please do NOT talk to me about how much you like the place, cause you're just pissing me off a whole lot more.

Respiratory Ward

I just remembered some silly things which I did whilst attached to the respiratory ward.
Was looking at an X-ray of the patient with Ade the FY2, and it showed a large consolidation, and both of us were wondering why she had deteriorated so fast whereas the patient still looks quite well. Then finally Ade realised that we were both looking at the wrong chest x-ray of another patient. hahahaha. Lesson learned is one should check the name before looking at a chest x-ray.

Another time was when one of the FY1 asked me to take bloods from one of the patients. So I went in and took bloods from the patient and stuck a label onto it and sent it off in the tubes. Later on in the afternoon, the results came back and the FY1 was writing down the blood results into the folder. Then the patient who was supposed to be well, suddenly had deranged blood results coming in, and we finally figured it out that I had took bloods from the correct patients and had stuck the wrong labels on it as there were two patients with the same name in the ward and I had totally forgotten, and just look through the folders and had pick up the labels without checking properly that it was the other patient. haha sounds confusing eh?

I miss the FY1s in the respiratory ward, Ryan, Elizabeth and Andrew, they are soo nice :) I followed them to x-ray meetings, and Friday teachings and Thursday FY1 teaching with them. Speaking of X-ray meetings, the meetings in Inverness are really good, definitely worth attending. The radiologist explains quite thoroughly all the things you can see on x-ray and the other doctors bring quite an interesting array of different x-rays for show.

Oh yeah, thanks to Andrew in the respiratory ward for teaching me how to take arterial blood gases. Took so many of them in one day. Did my first ABG, and I couldn't get it when I first inserted the needle in, and he told me to slowly move the needle up and down and try to locate the location of the artery, was ecstatic when the needle finally started to fill up with ruby red blood :)

Anyway my heart is too weak, can't stand pricking and poking around with the needle looking for the artery when the patient is in so much pain. I feel so cruel for being the bringer of pain. I can feel the tension and the stench of sour sweat of the patient drifting to my nose as I palpate the wrist to locate the radial artery whereby I then proceed to thrust the sharp needle into the wrist hoping that I managed to get the correct location and wait whilst the blood is slowly sucked up into the syringe.

okay enough of that. I have turned into a vampire, keep taking bloods from all the patients. I am better at taking venous blood compared to taking arterial blood. The patients are so nice! When I managed to get their blood, they usually go like "good job". And there was this once when I had to insert a cannulae into a patient, and I actually forgot to release the tourniquet cause it was covered by the sleeves of his shirt, and blood was pouring out from the tip where I had to insert a top to cover it, and I had to clean everything up. But I did manage to get the cannulae in with no problem. But strangely in the end he was thanking me profusely, and once when I was walking outside and saw him smoking outside, he still remembered me and said thanks to me.

London-ing

Arrived in London last Wednesday morning.
Had to wake up at 5am to pack my stuff for my flight here.
Kinda panic midway as couldn't find the flight tickets I had printed out. I was frantically flipping through my folder filled with dozens of notes searching for the flight tickets.
*Ah finally found it*
Managed to grab hold onto it after I realized I had taken it out of my folder and left it on top of my drawer so I would have an easier time looking for it. silly me!
Managed to get my things in order, and rolled my bag over to Shiao Wei's place to call her.
It was already 7.10am by the time we left Shiao Wei's place and we had to get to the airport by 8.15am to check in.

Both of us were rolling our bags in a hurry to the bus station. The night's cold frozen air attempting to numb our faces with only the weak yellow glow from the street lamps and the luminous moon to light up our way. Dawn beckons as the city awakens in a somnolent state and slowly stirs to life to begin a new day with the growing murmur from the sidewalks slowly filling up with people preparing to get to work, and the low rumbling of the cars making their way across the roads.

As we make our way there we lose our way, as we had taken a different route as we figured that we should follow this well dressed old man also rolling a luggage along and we thought that he would be heading in a similar direction as us. Turns out, he was actually headed to the train station. Not to fret, the train station is actually next to the bus station. Had to ask for directions along the way. In the end we managed to find out way to the bus station and by 7.30am, but apparently the bus only leaves every hour, and we had missed the 7am bus! By that time, sweat was pouring out of our very pores, furthermore the extra layers of clothing we had don to protect us from the cold, now felt suffocating and I felt trapped inside the sweltering heat. I loosen my scarf which allowed cold fresh air to fill my lungs and numb my senses.

The bus driver mentioned that there was another bus coming along the way on another road, but by then Shiao wei was too apprehensive and she suggested that we took a taxi instead. I glanced at my watch, the roman numbers gazing at me with a cold hard stare penetrating my heart and jolting me to my senses with the sudden cold realisation that I might not make it to the airport in time just because I wanted to save a few pounds by waiting for the bus.

In the end, we decided to take a taxi. As we arrived at the taxi stand, there was already a long line of taxi snaking its way though waiting to pick up passengers and drop them off. The next taxi in line was a white Mercedes taxi, and I went up and asked how much it was going to cost to go to the airport, and I was quoted a figure of 16 pounds. I thought it was going to be more expensive as it was a Mercedes taxi and to the bewilderment of the mercedes taxi man I went to the taxi man directly behind the white mercedes taxi and ask for the price to the airport, and the man quoted me the same price, and said that all taxis are the same price regardless of the type of cars they were. Also another mistake which I made was, I was actually supposed to sit in the taxi which was first in line. No wonder the two taxi men were looking at me strangely!
Anyway we got into the Mercedes taxi and sped off towards the airport. Such big comfortable seats but at a cost obviously.

During the journey, I discovered that we had both forgotten to bring our passports along, and I enquired with the taxi man whether a passport was required at the airport, and he replied, "Did you not bring your passport?" I was like oh no...Felt like my heart was sinking into the pit of my stomach. Anyway crossed my fingers and hope that they would accept our student IDs.

Along the way, some of the roads seems to be jam and cars were lined up bumper to bumper due to the early morning traffic of people rushing to work, and you could feel the nervous tension in the air hanging there like a heavy cloud of mist. I kept checking my watch over and over again to make sure we were not late yet. Thankfully we had not bothered to wait for the bus, as the taxi driver said that it would have taken even longer, as the bus takes a longer route and stops at various points.

Finally, reached the airport!!! It was already 8.10am.
Shiao Wei gave her final 16 pounds she had left in her wallet. Whereas I had 0 pounds. I'm not in the habit of carrying money around as I have a morbid fear of being robbed.
Rushed to the easyjet counter, and managed to check-in just in time, and yes they did accept our student IDs.
Heaved a sigh of relief finally.

Then had to queue up to pass security, where got into a bit of a scrape. When I passed the magnetic machine, it started to beep incessantly, causing me to be stopped by the security guard, and checked from head to body. Then discovered that I had left my handphone in my back pocket. My luggage bag was also opened up to check, as it contained liquids inside. My empty bottle of Avian water was confiscated, along with a bottle of mayonnaise. haha I forgot that I had brought it along as I had switched off the electricity supply to the fridge at home.

Had to wait a long while before we could board the airport. I wanted to take a picture of a plane taking off, but got stopped by the security guard. I think that they are quite fearful of the terrorists. Apparently not supposed to take pictures of the airport.

Finally settled into our seats, and the flight took off.
It took about one and a half hours to reach our destination.

We were expecting it to be warmer in London, but soon realised that the air was just as cold as in Aberdeen.

Managed to catch an earlier bus to London town which took ages as it stopped at every single stop. Along the way, this elderly man with a white beard carrying a newspaper came on board, and I nudged at Shiao Wei and told her in Mandarin that he might be carrying a bomb to bomb the bus, but then she said that I was just being paranoid. At some point during the journey, he turned around and started chatting with me and mentioned that he had been in China for a year studying chinese, and I was thinking oh crap to myself. But then he didn't bring up anything which I have said, and was going on about how we should learn and speak English being in UK and all.

We got down from the bus at Marble Arch station, and Shiao Wei was in the middle of the busy street rummaging through her luggage looking for her oyster card.


She thought that she might have dropped it when the security guards were going through our bags looking for the liquid stuff. Anyway as she had no oyster card and we had no money, we decided to walk from Marble Arch to China town. We had no idea how to get there, and along the way we kept stopping to ask for directions.

Split up with Shiao Wei along the way as had to meet my brother and she couldn't find her auntie's shop. Met my brother in Leicester square, and went looking for Shiao Wei again.
Went to her Auntie's restaurant and had lunch there.


Was so tired, so we headed back to my bro's place and Shiao Wei used the internet to chat with her bf, whereas I fell asleep.

Busy busy!

I just realized that my whole week is so packed with meeting up with my old Concord friends.
Meeting somebody different everyday.
Super busy!
London is so much fun!!
So many friends!!
Hehehehe
Exciting!

London

Anyway an update folks,
I'm in London right now.
Arrived on Wednesday morning, and have been lazying around ever since,
I can't even get my ass off the bed to visit my friends who I have not seen in ages!
bleahs.

Exams over!!

Hurray!
Dreaded December exams are finally over!
Had written paper on Monday,
Half of which I didn't know the answer to.
Especially the true/false questions where entails much detailed knowledge, which of course I have a severe lack of.

Lost my way walking to Hui Sian's place for OSCE practise and called Shi Xian who passed the phone to give me directions and screamed at Ne Jia as was lost, hungry and frozen, and did not understand the directions he was giving. Managed to find the place at long last, where the lovely seniors gave us tips on how to answer the questions especially tricky ones involving X-rays which might trick you into thinking that it was lung cancer when in fact it was only a pneumonia. Not forgetting the breaking bad news station which is inevitable in the OSCE exam. I suspect we've all become mini-experts at breaking bad news, after Fiona's constant coaching in the extra communication skills classes she cooked up for us i.e. the transfer students from IMU. The constant drone of "Good morning, as we haven't met before, what would you like me to call you" and etc running fervently through my mind half the time causing me to nearly splutter it out of my mouth whenever I meet someone new. Also discovered that Ne Jia bought a coffee machine maker off ebay, and he certainly does make the loveliest coffee ever.

I think I have gradually become increasingly addicted to coffee since Inverness and the Respiratory ward round coffee breaks where they bring out the "good stuff" to make coffee. Not forgetting Andrew who makes lovely lovely cappuccino too.

OSCE on Tuesday was alright. I think that my performance in OSCE has probably improved since my last OSCE exam. Not as nervous and forgetful as before. The breaking bad news station took us a bit by surprised, as we were supposed to relate to the patient's relative that the patient had a heart attack instead of the usual scenario we practice of telling the patient that he/she had cancer . The physical examination stations were alright, but I think I fumbled up a bit in the communication skills stations of taking a history from simulated patients. Not quite used to be observed while taking a history.

Was overjoyed when exams were over and went cavorting around town to celebrate. I met Yoke Sin along the way but went out separate ways after awhile. Thaven also accused me of ditching him. I think I'm not very good at going out with people, I always seem to ditch them. Then, I went over to Clarks to look at the red pair of flats which I had seen in the shops the other day, and have been wanting to purchase it since the first time I saw it in London when it was immensely overpriced, and had now dropped to about half it's original price. Finally decided that I could do without it as I have an extensive collection half of which I don't have the time nor appropriate occasions to wear.

Later at night, went over to Tony and Deacon's place to cook, as I think it would definitely be too heavy for me to bring a cooked pot of stuff over. Party was fun. Had a lot of good food to eat. Seniors e.g. Sam, Yi Wei, Herbert came over too. Sam fried some mushroom stuffing which was utterly divine, and the fried prawns with mayonnaise courtesy of Shiao Wei and CK was deliciously scrumptious.
There on the left is the Chinese chicken wine which I cooked, I got the recipe from Yoke Sin. I was supposed to debone the chicken initially, but found it too much trouble as the scissors in Tony's kitchen was blunt, and the chicken was frozen and had to stuff it in the microwave for ages!

Yoke Sin and Kah Fai came over a bit later bearing a tray of delicious goodies. Meringue from Marks and Spencer completed with a delectable tiramisu topping, the sugary sweetness melting into the tips of your tongue sending us into fits of ecstasy.



Hui Sian and Esther were the last guests to arrive as they had spent most of their evening carefully preparing fried rice and sushi!! Yummy! I absolutely relish the fine taste of irresistible sushi! I completely enjoyed myself wolfing food down at the pot luck party :)


Got totally hammered towards the end of the party downing shots of vodka. Received a text from S midway causing me to laugh insanely after reading it. I think the rest thought I had gone mad or something. Thaven, Esther and the gang went off to the medsoc party at the pearl lounge to continue partying. I wanted to go at first but thinking of the flight to London which I had to catch the next day, thus better judgment prevented me from doing so. Also uttered some nonsense to people in my disinhibited intoxicated state. At last, was accompanied home by Shi Xian, Shiao Wei and CK, how nice of them :)

Posts

Okay kids,

NO MORE POSTS TILL AFTER EXAMS ARE OVER!!

It's study time for me!!
My next topic would be about Why I do not have a boyfriend.
hahaha.
I promise it's going to be interesting :)
and also some stories about my oncoming trip to London :)
10 more days to London!!! Heeeheee!!
and 7 more days to mock exams. *sobs*

Deaf

I think I am totally turning DEAF.

Kelly asked me where I was going for christmas, and I replied I was going off to London.
and I asked her back where would she be for christmas.
and she said, "Home ( I heard it at Rome)"
and I said, "What? Are you going to Rome?
"No..no..HOME"
And Chris, Kelly and me burst out laughing.
HHAHAHAHA.
"Although Rome would be a really nice place to go for christmas..."

Weekend again!

I went back to the respiratory ward in the evening to pay a visit to Mrs A since she has been transfered down, and I met another patient Mrs T who is on the opposite bed of Mrs A.
Both of them are so funny and three of us were laughing like mad.
Both of them are on steroids to control their symptoms, and it makes them crazy hungry. So they're scoffing a lot of food down, and even offering me crips to eat. haha
Imagine the three of us having a picnic in the respiratory ward!

And then when I was about to go home, one of the patients was not feeling very well and had wet his bed, and I followed the FY1 to review the patient. Took bloods and ABG off him.
Me: Sir, would it be alright if I took some bloods off you?
Patient: What if I said no?
FY1: Then we would have to pin you down and force you to give us bloods then
hahhahahahhaa.
It's so funny how somebody who is so ill can still attempt to be cheeky!
Then went back to the doctor's room, and helped write up the paperwork for the bloods to be sent off, and then FY1 asked me what investigations need to be done for him. I told him, "U&E's, full blood counts, cultures etc". He was like, "Oh yeah, blood cultures that's a good idea."
and he wanted me to write in glucose for investigations done, and I was like "We didn't collect blood for blood glucose to be tested."
I think he was probably too knackered to think straight, as it was already 10pm and he was on call and had been working the whole day. hahhaa.

Spent the remaining of my Friday night, drinking at the local pub- The Fluke again. At this rate, I have a feeling that my liver is going to go ka-put soon. Oh yeah, I met Ade the FY2 in my respiratory ward with his tall, blonde hot fiancee there, and he bought me a drink :) and he promised to let me do ABG's (arterial blood gas) next week. hehe. I met Ian the surgical registrar there, and I committed one of the biggest no-no which is to ask him about the patient at a pub. Apparently the patient who I clerk, examined and scrubbed into the operation for the abdominal aortic aneurysm is now in intensive care unit as he has developed a pulmonary oedema. *gasp* Poor guy =( He was perfectly well before the surgery, and he did the surgery thinking that it would get rid of the risk of his anuerysm rupturing and now it has become worse :( *sobs* I am hoping that he would get better soon!!!

I also asked Ian how many units of alcohol he drank.
At first he said it was 41 units, and then he changed it to 38 units of alcohol.
and he said he was at the fluke 4 times a week.
"But you still managed to look so sober for ward rounds and clinics!!"
"38 units of alcohol is too much! You're gonna get your liver shot!"
Doctors are so amusing, I think they don't follow the advices they give to patients :P

Anyway, spend most of Saturday studying and sleeping. Then at night, went to tescos to get some groceries and wine! The 4th years were having a christmas party in the common room. When I came back, I met Gav and I went to his flat, and he fed me carrot cake with custard and orange juice :) and we hung out in the kitchen chatting and gossiping :) Later I went downstairs to join the party, and drank some wine :) Got a bit high and cheekily asked alistair if he was gay, cause I heard that he is very good at baking. Anyway that is certainly NOT a very good reason to ask guys if they are gay. Anyway he said he wasn't.

An Update

haha from my observation the registrar has not changed his clothes yes.
It's been 2 weeks already!!
my goodness!!
I wonder if he knows that other people (i.e. ME) noticed that he has not changed his clothes.
hahahhaha.

On another note, I just remembered about some embrassing things I have been doing lately especially in theatres last week.

1. My surgical cap fell off when I was scrubbed into surgery. Oh my goodness, so damn embrassing!! arghsss..I knew it was falling off, and I couldn't reach up to try and put it back on as my hands were supposed to be sterile and not allowed to touch anything else.

2. My first day of vascular surgery. I totally forgot the proper way of gowning up, and I went and put on the gloves before the theatre gown. Arghs, so embrassing again, luckily one of the student nurse noticed and told me about it. I have not scrubbed into theatres in ages and I sort of forgot what was the steps.

3. I forgot to put on my face mask and started scrubbing in, luckily the nurse reminded me. hahah Thank goodness for nurses actually :) they're so kind.

4. Haha this is probably the cream of the embrassing things which I have done. Ian was trying to catheterize (insert a tube up the patient's penis to allow urine to flow out) the patient before the surgery, and I was standing there and watching, and I asked him if the penis was normally so flaccid, and I think he was speechless for a moment and he was like, "What do you want me to say? I'm sorry?". hahhahahahaa, anyway he found it so amusing that he went and told the anaesthetist what I said. arghss....
Anyway Ian was having trouble putting the catheter in as the patient had benign prostatic hypertrophy, and he had to more or less force it in, and this ended up with the patient having blood in his urine. I saw the blood and I was like, "Oh noooo...." and Ian said, "Why oh no? it's just blood, it will clear up." Bleahs.....

I realise that my entries are possibly full of grammatical errors since I can't be bothered to recheck what I have wrote. Much apologies then. I do not have the time nor patience to go through all the stuff I've written.

Playing Doctor

I went to see this guy yesterday complaining of acute chest pains radiating to his left arm and shortness of breath. Anyway his X-ray came back and he was diagnosed with pneumothorax (air in the pleural cavity). Apparently, when I went to see him nobody had told him yet of his diagnosis, and so I went and told him, and explained about the treatment. "They stick a needle into your chest to drain out the air." hhaha. On hindsight, I realized that this might have sounded quite horrifying. But it is definitely what they do, which is to insert a needle in to aspirate the air or to put a chest drain in. Anyway, most interesting bit is the guy has been diagnosed with Charcot Marie Tooth syndrome since he was 12 years old. I think this syndrome is possible quite uncommon, the first time I've come across it. Charcot Marie tooth is a inherited disorder, causing peripheral neuropathy, therefore causing peroneal muscle atrophy and foot drop.

I was on the wards today and I spoke to this patient who I met yesterday with bronchiectasis, asthma and pneumonia, and apparently the doctors wanted to discharge her even though she was not completely well yet and she refused to be discharged. So I spoke to her, and she told me that no doctors have come to see her since Monday and she has not been given any antibiotics, and she said that she preferred to see the respiratory doctors which she normally sees. So I went downstairs and told Dr Thomas about her, and he said that he would definitely come to see her later on. I went to see her again in the evening agan today, and she was well pleased as Dr Thomas had told her that he would be transferring her downstairs to the respiratory ward to get her antibiotic treatment for the next 10 days, and Dr Franklin the consultant on her ward also came to apologise for not coming in to see her, as he thought she had already been discharged. Yupsss, helping people totally makes my day :-)

My AV fistulae patient

I can't help it, but I need to definitely blog about her.
She's so funny, and entertaining.

The people here are hilarious, which reminds me of the other day at respiratory clinic, this old lady came in with a walking stick accompanied by another man, and I asked them what was their relationship to each other.
The lady replied," He's my son-in-law."
which prompted me to say, "It's so nice of you to bring your mother-in-law in to see the doctor."
Old lady replied, "yes he's really nice."
and son-in-law replied,"If I don't bring her to the clinic, she will hit me with her walking stick!"

Hahhahaha! seriously everybody is sooo funny!

Oh yes, back to this lady, she's about 70 over years old if I am not mistaken, she came in to get an AV fistulae done for haemodialysis, and I had clerked her in. On Sunday, I went to visit her to see how she was doing after the operation, and chatted with her for ages, cause she's just so fun and bubbly.

hahhaa she was kinda insulted in a joking way when I asked her if she sat at home doing knitting, which she insisted that she most certainly did not, and I cheekily told her that, I thought that ladies her age did those sort of stuff (knitting) :P

She even called her husband a cardboard box cut-out, as she said she has nothing much left to say to her husband as they have been married for 50 years! and her husband misses her so much that he insisted on coming back to see her again after lunch, which she did not want to, as he would just sit there and stare at her and have nothing to say. hahhaha.

and she asked me if I had a bf, and I was like "no."
and she said that I should go look for the nice young doctors in the hospital, and that if she was staying longer in the hospital she would more certainly find one for me.
and she mentioned about one of the doctors who was really tall.
and I asked her, "oh, the one with glasses and brown floppy hair?"
and she said, "Oh you noticed too!"
hahahhaa...
omg embrassing!!

After that, her daughter and grandson came to visit her, and she introduced me to them.
and I asked her grandson how old he was.
and grandma said, "He's much too young for you!"
ahhhhhh....
hahahahhahahaa.........
she's so funny =)
Talking to her really made my day :)

I'm glad that I went to visit her :)

Oh yes, one more thing which I noticed.
the registrar has not changed his clothes for like more than one week already..
hahahhahaha.
which reminds me of the other doctor in GH who we noticed that he did not change his clothes for a few days, and I was so thick-face and I went and ask him.
and he said that "I'm in scrubs most of the time, so my clothes are still clean."
hahahhahahhaah.

Vascular Surgey

I absolutely love love love <3>

I learned so much from Mr Wolfe and Dr Ian Mackay.

ahaha they seriously rock ler!

It was very tiring I admit.
Waking up really early everyday to attend ward rounds at 8am!
and theatres/clinics after that which go on the whole day.
Scrubbed into surgery and standing for hours at the operating table..
But it was absolutely fantastic!

And got teaching everyday :)
But was shot with tons of questions everyday at theatres.
A lot of which the answers are not exactly found in the books, but the ones which you have to derieve from logical deduction, which unfortunately I am not capable of. The best part was they did not give me the answer straight away, preferring to ask me more questions leading me to the answers myself instead :)

I think I might have pissed them off a little, as they had to dig answers out of me.

I'm so sorry!! I don't really mean to be like that.....
Just that I was afraid of having the wrong answer and rambling on about it...

Anyway their method of teaching is really good, make me realize that I didn't understand some important concepts. for example why they need to make an AV fistula for haemodialysis.
and also the importance of categorising information so that I would be able to remember more easily, and not just memorising information blind which you would tend to forget easily later on.

All in all it was a good week, and I really appreciated the fact that I was lucky enough to be able to watch uncommon surgeries for example the brachial anuerysm.

Speaking about the brachial aneurysm....During surgery, Mr Wolfe was trying to clamp the brachial aneurysm further up and remove it later on, when suddenly the artery just snap and broke off, and blood was spewing out everywhere, and Ian had to compress the arm to try and slow down the bleeding, and the whole place was just flooded with blood, and at last Mr Wolfe managed to stich the artery up so it would stop bleeding.

Anyway during one of the surgeries, Ian was trying to teach me about stroke, and he mentioned that if the patient were to come to me in the early hours of the morning, there would be nobody around to perform a CT scan to differentiate between the diagnosis of whether it was an ischaemic stroke or haemorrhagic stroke, as the person in charge would be too tired to perform the CT scan, or can't be bothered to show up. Anyway, after he told me that, Mr Wolfe told him to be careful of what he said, and the anaesthetist was quite angry, and told him "not to talk nonsense to the medical student", and that the "radiologist will definitely come up to perform a CT scan". Then Ian was still quite adamant that this was what happened in various other hospitals but probably not in this hospital, and Mr Wolfe told him not to "dig himself into a deeper hole." Anyway, very scary experience being trapped in between the doctors arguing.


I managed to scrub into a carotid endarterectomy too, where they cut open the carotid artery and they dig out all the cholesterol bits from the artery, while maintaining the flow of blood by inserting in a tube to still allow the blood to flow to the other side bypassing the part of the artery where the cholesterol bits is being cut out. I went and clerked the patient the day before and took her blood. eeekk I had to take to take her blood twice cause her veins collapsed and I couldn't get any blood out. Anyway she's 70-80 plus years old, but she totally doesn't look her age, and she's still working. She was a really nice and friendly patient :) Anyway during the surgery, at first she was kept awake, as they wanted to assess whether she was having a stroke during the surgery, as having a stroke was one of the risks of carotid endarterectomy, but then she had to be put to sleep as she kept coughing (she blames it on her blood pressure tablets, but I checked and they've switched the tablets to the ones which won't make her cough). We went to see her after the operation and she was alright :) and she had quite a speedy recovery :)

Which comes to the part of how I kinda pissed the surgeon off.
By giving him stupid answers.
which ended up with him saying "Do you think we are stupid? okay maybe we are a little.."
ok not exactly stupid answers,
but more like correct answers which were vague.

hahhaha.
For example they asked me what happens after a stroke,
I answered "weakness"
and they were like "which part of the body."
and I said "the peripheral parts."
"for example?"
"err..."
"Which part of the body would you test for in a patient with stroke?"
"err...the hands and legs"

It must be so annoying for them to dig out answers from me...
I don't know what's gotten into me......

Cat got my tongue I think.......

The next bit contains some useful information about carotid endarterectomy. Skip it if you find it useless/boring. hahaa.

Anyway some interesting bits of information about the carotid endarterectomy. I got asked all these stuff during the surgery.

Well the artery which they dig out the bits of gunk from is the internal carotid artery which is a branch of the common carotid artery, and the internal carotid artery supplies the brain and it has no branches, unlike it's twin the external carotid artery which supplies most part of the face, thyroid etc. The indictations for the surgery include, a recent TIA or stroke, and if the artery is severely occluded by atherosclerosis >70% if I am not mistaken. The complications of the surgery include stroke, death, injury to nerves. On which the surgeon asked me, "Why would you perform a surgery to prevent the stroke, when the surgery itself might cause a stroke?"

Go figure!! oh yes, somemore anatomy stuff, the internal jugular vein is medial to the internal carotid artery, and below the internal jugular vein and the internal carotid artery is the vagus nerve. Also nearby there is the hypoglossal nerve. so need to be really careful when performing the surgery.

Also got scolded for giving one word answers.
haha not the first time actually.
okay need to elaborate on my answers next time.
and must remember to think logically and systematically.

This posts is getting far too long.
Shall go back to studying and continue writing another day.

On another note...finished all my free minutes already!
No more phone calls until Saturday as that would be the 1st of December.
No more phone calls anyway until exams are over.
Am spending too much time on the phone!! sheesh..
But at least I managed to find out some interesting bits of information.
Like the fact that my parents bought my brother a new camera...

I am so cluelesss about everything!!!
To all those people who think I know everything or have a "satellite"
All I can say is that's absolutely rubbish!!
am too far away from everyone!

oh yes, am totally getting addicted to coffee.

Cappucino, tiramisu, good conversation during the weekend :)

Strange

I find it so strange if people ask me what's going on in Aberdeen.
Hello!! I am not in Aberdeen okay!
I am not there half the time, and I definitely have no idea what is going on there.
Which is like weird right?
cause I am supposed to be studying at the University of Aberdeen, and I'm supposed to be in Aberdeen and know what is going on right??
Bleahs!
am feeling disconnected....
Whatever!!
am very stressed about mock exams anyway!!
warghhhh
told Jeff about all the things I had to study, and he said that I should go jump from a bridge/building or some crap like that.
On another note, met Mr Wolfe on Monday, and he asked me if I was a world class vascular surgeon, and I was like "yup!" and Dr Evans said, "So that makes the two of you!" hehehe *smiles* :-)

Tales of Childhood

During the monsoon season, it always rains heavily in KL, I guess the rain was as much of a welcome relief as a bane as there was temporary relief from the suffocating heat washing away all the dirt and grime of the city but downside of it would be during rush hour when it was time for everyone to get back home for dinner cars would be honking in every direction, and the city coming to a stand-still due to the uncontrollable traffic jams. Whenever it rained the river situated behind our school with its sinister-looking, dark murky milo-coloured water would rise rapidly, attempting to spill over its edges engulfing everything in its wake. The river water would surge forward in such great haste with bits of floating wood, plastics, sometimes even a shirt. I always thought the river resembled more of a giant drain compared to a river as the government had over the years reinforced the sides with concrete. The class teacher would occasionally enthral us with tales of how every 100 years, bells will start toiling as a warning sign and the school would be flooded, and how they had to clean up the classrooms and put the books out in the sun to dry the next day. Luckily for me, there were no major floods during the 6 years I was there.

Once after school, the same bunch of us who always stayed back after school while waiting for our parents to finish work and brave the traffic jams to fetch us, well basically we got bored, we decided to play a game of cops and robbers in the classroom corridors. After a hectic game, we stood at the balcony huffing and panting, watching the gushing river of water when somebody had the sudden bright idea of throwing things into the river. So said person went to the lost and found cupboard, and collected various things which included, pencil boxes, water tumblers etc, and after that we just stood there at the balcony, flinging things into the river. We were attempting to outdo one another by hurling the things as far as our arms could manage. The sounds of giggling and laughter permeating the air, the feeling of exhilaration and the adrenaline rush doing something which was clearly wrong. Mind you, even the class monitor was involved in the above stated affair. Now you know, why the river is so polluted, I guess we were one of the guilty parties contributing to it.

In the end, we never did get caught, but sometimes I find it incomprehensible how something so simple could bring so much joy as a child, and the ability to experience such pleasure diminishes with age, as you get caught up with the rat race in an attempt to chase after materialistic possessions. Ah… what I would give to experience the simple pure joys of childhood once again, with no worries or troubles clouding my thoughts, allowing me once again to breathe freely.

Conversations..

Conversation 1

I walked into the doctor's room and spotted a Oxford handbook of clinical medicine 3rd edition on the shelf. I picked it up and while flipping through the book said "This book is ancient!"
The registrar in the room then replied, "ooh you must have one of the latest edition then"
"No no, my book is quite old too, only the 5th edition"
Registrar then said, "Don't worry even though the book is old, but the knowledge in our head is new". Which sent the 3 of us laughing our heads off.

Conversation 2

I was describing to Anuj how I met andrew, and I mentioned that andrew stole my breast surgery from me.
"I walked into the operating theatre, and I saw somebody else scrubbing into the surgery I was supposed to scrub into"
Andrew then replied, "Well, I took the work of holding the retractors for the surgery off your shoulders, besides I'm being paid to scrub in".
"But I have to pay to scrub in!" I retorted.


Conversation 3

I know I tend to ask strange questions sometimes.
Like how while I was in Kuala Kubu Bharu and I asked the doctor if women would end up having loose vaginas if they had sex more often.I know there's some sort of myth somewhere stating that.
I think her replied was probably no.
Or the other time when I asked my senior was graduating and he was gonna wear a kilt, and I asked him whether he was gonna wear underwear underneath his kilt, cause I read somewhere that scottish men didn't wear underwear when they're wearing kilts, and I think I even spotted pictures on the net of men caught on camera not wearing underwear when the wind came and blew their kilts up into the air. hahaha~! Anyway, I think he was too embrassed to reply me in the end.

Dr Malik

Wah! The stroke teaching here is absolutely BRILLIANT!
Dr Malik is an absolutely passionate lecturer =)
He made the arterial system of the brain so simple!
I never did managed to grasp the anatomy of the brain much during CNS, but after his tutorial I finally understood everything.
He even explained so clearly about the visual fields and how the different hemanopias present.
It's like as if a light bulb *lit up* in my head.
He made the classification of stroke so simple.
I don't know why people always like to make things so complicated, when in fact it can be quite straight forward.
Thanks Dr Malik!!! hehe you rock!! I really appreciate somebody who pours their heart into teaching =)
He travelled all the way from Caithness, Wick to give us the tutorial! Imagine that1 that's like more than 100 miles away!! such dedication! Hats off to you!
Which comes to my conclusion that teaching in Inverness is soo much better than Aberdeen!

Last weekend

Been exactly one week since I came back to Inverness again.
gah.
Don't even remind me of the bus ride I took to get here.
4 hours ride okay!
The bus stopped at every single tiny town in between Aberdeen and Inverness.
Anyway was half asleep through most of the journey.
Finally arrived at the bus station, had to lug all my luggage to catch another bus to the hospital.
This is one of the main reasons why I don't fancy travelling very much.
So tiring, seriously!
Reached the hospital, went to the porters to get my key.
This time staying in Fraser Noble instead of Juniper Court.
Personally I preferred Juniper Court, cause there's a television there for one, and I think my ex-room in Juniper Court was much bigger.
Then had to unpack, chatted with tony on the phone, and told him I was in his ex-flat.
Then went and collected my stuff from various places which included my ex-flat in Juniper Court, where I met Victoria cooking in the kitchen, and also went up to Fiona's flat to get somemore of my things.
hahah my things are like littered all around I think.
Thankfully, nobody took anything.
Not that I have anything valuable inside or whatever, just mostly books handed down by the seniors who were previously working in Inverness.

At night, saw andrew and another guy cooking in the kitchen, and went and knock on their window, haha both of them jumped coz they had the fright of their life, seeing me knocking on their window, with my long hair, I probably appear ghost-like or something. hahhaha. They opened the door and let me in, as they were in the midst of eating dinner, or was it supper? since it was nearly 11pm. haha crazy people, eating so late. I was introduced to Anuj, who's working as a occupational therapist in the hospital. Anyway had crazy fun chatting with both of them. They totally crack me up. Their dirty jokes are hilarious. I like the fact that I could laugh at the dirty jokes, without being called a pervert. Which I am not of course. anuj is like so open. hahah, asked him what he "did" with the girl he is seeing, and he just told everything. hahaa, and he even educated us about his techniques of seduction, and music he plays when he is doing "it". hahaha. Anyway by the time I went back to my flat it was nearly 1am, and guess what? I forgot the password for the flat, and nearly got locked out! so had to knock on Andrea's window and ring the doorbell to be let in. arghs. so embarassing. Hope she is not to pissed off with me......

Friday night

hahah had a good time yesterday.
I went over to Juniper Court to watch television.
Then at night, went over to the fluke with the rest of the 4th years.
Had 1 pint of tennet's ale to drink.
bluerghh..
I don't really enjoy drinking beer.
Anyway, managed to meet a lot of new friends.
My classmates are really nice.
I didn't really feel left out or awkward.
Went and watch them playing pool.
When I got back, went over to hang out at andrew's place.
I went and knocked on Anuj's door and he was with his chick watching a movie.
hahahha so embarassing.
Anyway was supposed to study, but me and andrew ended up playing games on PSP and reading newspapers.
bleahs, Tetris is so addictive seriously.
Anyway finally stopped playing with the PSP, then washed plates, and andrew taught me some peripheral vascular disease stuff.
Then went home at nearly 2am to sleep.

Abdominal Aortic Anuerysm

Well what the above title really means is a section of your abdominal aorta becomes enlarged more than 10 times the normal size and thinned out. That's the definition Andrew gave me anyway.
I was chatting with Andrew yesterday night, and he told me about this patient who had AAA and refused to have surgery done.
Anyway it ended up with her anuerysm bursting, and she was wheeled into theatre where her anuerysm was repaired. They discovered a huge amount of blood pooled in her anterior peritoneal cavity.
Subsequently, she passed away in the intensive care unit.
Haihss, so sad to hear this story....
Anyway, Andrew reminded me that in case next time I see an elderly person with back ache and collapse to think of the differential diagnosis of abdominal aortic anuerysm.
Why back ache?
Cause the aorta is retroperitoneal, just in front of the spine, and enlargement of the aorta will compress against the spine, causing the back ache.
Whereas the collapse is caused by loss of blood due to rupture of the aorta from the anuerysm.

The Incident

bleahs.
I would have really loved Inverness more if this thing didn't happened.
Don't worry.
I am fine and safe.
Thankfully.
Taught me a good lesson, not to simply anyhow go out with people, also not to be too naive in future.

Vee Han's Birthday

This was taken in CK's room. I set the camera to take 10 pics continously with a 5 sec interval, and we were supposed to changed positions with every shot. Shiao Wei loves this photo, cause all of us seem to be exuding genuine happiness and laughter at the silly thing we were doing.

The bad side of being in Inverness

The downside of being in Inverness is possible the lack of friends in Aberdeen.
But I guess it's just a lesson of learning to be strong, and being able to cope by yourself, cause in the future, I'm probably going to be alone wherever I am.
But, friends in Aberdeen are definitely great.
I love chatting with them on the phone, felt like I never left them.
Thank God for free minutes :)
Anyway, discovered a Jamie Oliver cookbook in the kitchen the other day, and wasted my time flipping through it.
Shall now attempt to brush up on my culinary skills, and cook some cuisine instead!
hahahah!

Back in Inverness again

I say that Inverness is a brilliant place for doing blocks.
With the exception of paediatrics I think.
Been having cardiology week.
It has been a great week, although I think I do need to catch up on my studies.
My ECG skills have been improving.
I used to look at the ECG, and go totally blank, but now it seems to be making a lot more sense.
and I'm getting good at listening to murmurs.
I used to think physical examination was so difficult.
I think the more you do it, the better you will get at it.
Anyway having a good time at clinics, and in the hospital.
Lots of smiley, friendly faces :)
Been learning a lot of new stuffs too.
The consultants here aren't as busy as in Aberdeen, so teaching here is great,
and I like the way they ask me question, and stimulate me to think. Like it's not stuff I can just read off the book and regurgitate. You need to have good clinical knowledge and work things out.
Oh yeah getting zha in clinics.
Consultant hands me the sheet of medication, and asks me, "please comment on the medication"
or "what's the management for this patient"
and I would stand and think for a few seconds before the answer pops into my head.
hahahhaa.
okay, hope I can accomplish much in terms of studying this weekend.

Locked Out!

I came home the other day thinking that my housemate was back and was sleeping.
He just came flew back from KL about a week ago, and he's extremely jet-lag. waking up at funny hours and such.
Anyway I decided to latch the door as I always do.
After that, I went and took a bath, and when I was showering, I had a loud clanging noise, and I thought my clothes feel off the rail or something, and I drew open my shower curtain and peered out, and didn't see anything unusual, so I ignored it and continued showering.
After I came out from the bath, I realised that my housemate's light was on, and he told me that I locked him out! and he had to use some sort of manouevere to open the latch, which he says it's a secret. hahaa so funny. I'm exceedingly evil! *evil grins*

Cerita Hantu

ARghhhhhhhhhhh
I gatal go watch stupid ghost movies,
now I'm afraid to look into mirrors, and afraid of taking pictures with the camera, sleep at night have to switch on light and radio.
Must seriously stop watching cerita hantu.
Somemore I living alone.
Aiyoh.
*faints*

This Week in Summary

Set off to Woodend Hospital on Monday Morning to start off my geriatrics block and was attached to ward 21/22. Lots of hot guy doctors in that ward. Can just go there and *drools* everyday :P
Then I've been going to Old Aberdeen quite often to Queen mother library cause I had the bus pass. Also borrowed a few DVDs to watch from the library. I quite dislike being home alone, and have been begging people to come visit me, or just plain going over to people's place, especially Thaven, Boon Hui's place, cause it's so near my house. I've been going to ASDA shopping too, because of the bus pass :) I think that ASDA is the cheapest to shop from compared to the other hypermarkets.
On Thursday, I went over to Boon Hui's place, and hung out there. Joanne came over to visit Yoke Sin. Yoke Sin was in the kitchen baking a cheesecake, and the two guys and me were standing there and cracking perverted jokes. It was so freaking funny. Then, I decided to ask Boon Hui to help to look for a school bag on ebay, and both of us ended up spending the whole night surfing the net looking for my school bag and earphones. I nearly wanted to bid for a pair of Sony earphones, but I didn't. Although I did manage to buy a jansport bag off ebay, and I'm now waiting for it to be delivered, and I have no idea when would that be, cause apparently the postal people are having a strike again, probably to demand for increase in wages.
Friday night, went over to Thaven and Boon Hui's place again. I think like the whole world was there or something. Uncle Hiang was there. Deacon came over to visit Yoke Sin, and Kian Boon came over later to see Thaven. Hung out in Boon Hui's room and chatted to Ah hiang and boon hui, and bullied ah hiang. hahhaha he's soo nice to bully. Boon Hui downloaded Shutter, the scary thai movie, and the 4 boys and me, went over to my place to watch Shutter. It was pretty scary, and I ended up bringing my pillow over, and spending the night at Thaven and Boon Hui's place. Also watched Grey's Anatomy and House with Thaven, but fell asleep halfway.
Saturday, I woke up and watched another scary movie- The Eye. Anyway I vouched not to watch any scary movie again, cause I get so scared for quite some time after that. In the afternoon went up to Old Aberdeen again to return and borrow another DVD, and check to see if my school fees have been paid in, but unfortunately by the time I got there, it was already close. Then went over to Hillhead to visit Shaun, and chatted with him for quite some time. Quite happy that there is another Concordians who came over to join us in Aberdeen. Apparently there are only 3 Malaysians in year 1 medicine this year, and out of that only one Chinese boy and 2 Malay girls. At least, there will be 10 from IMU joining him when he reaches year 3. After that I came back and went to visit Shiao Wei, Shi Xian's flat, and Shiao Wei came over to do her washing at my place, as their washing machine has spoiled, before that we went over to Thaven's place, but they were not around, as both the guys had gone dating at the fish and chips shop. hahhaha. Boon Hui must be overjoyed to have his bf Thaven back :P.
Sunday-Went to ASDA to do some shopping again, met this dear old lady on the bus back who used to work as a cleaner in Hillhead, and chatted with her. I love little old ladies, they're so adorable and kind. At night, Shaun came over for dinner, and Shi Xian brought her own food along to eat too. I cooked kurma chicken and egg omelette with mushrooms, and we watched The Gladiator together.
Anyway the end of one week, and the starting of another.

Fringe

haha I have a fringe now!
Shiao Wei, Shi Xian, CK and me were over at Boon Hui's place yesterday, then Shiao Wei suggested that I should have a fringe. So we borrowed the thinning scissors from Thaven and went downstairs to cut my hair. Some ang moh lady walked past us and she must have been wondering what we were up to. Anyway they think I look better with the fringe.
I'm still trying to get used to it though.
When I wake up, it's a bit messy and I have to comb it back in place.
Well at least I don't look so *toot* anymore.
I was getting really annoyed cause my hair kept falling into the middle parting, making me look like a class 1 geek.
My own fault really I think, as I didn't make the effort to comb it to the side while it is still wet.
Anyway I'm not too sure yet whether I should dye my hair or not, since I am going to cut it in December in London.

Back in Aberdeen

I'm back in Aberdeen.
It's been almost one week.
Time flies and we don't even realise it.
Sometimes I wish I could grasp onto time tightly, and hope that it would stop passing me by so quick.
I want to sit on the soft green grass, and stare at the cloudless blue sky, enjoying the bright sun rays which might lighten up my dark soul with its intense golden hue.

Miss Lau

I was chatting on msn the other day with Jen Xin, and I mentioned the fact that when I was doing my last block, the consultants seem to think that I wasn't very good at English.
Well let me clarify what they seem to think so, it's my own fault actually. Whenever they asked questions, I always answer one word answers. I'm probably too afraid of saying the wrong answers, or perhaps just not very good at speaking up. I'm not as confident as people think.
Then there was this occasion when Amy asked me if we studied medicine in Malay in IMU. haha I thought that was so funny. Then Jen Xin told me about how her classmates also ask her silly questions, like "Do you wear tudung in Malaysia? " or "Do you study medicine in mandarin in Malaysia?". Anyway Jen Xin never fails to amuse me, she said to me, "Do I look like I wear a frigging tudung ?". Miss Lau, I really miss our sam-pat times together :)

tudung- headscarf worn by muslims to cover their hair

6 months....

It's been 6 months since I was last back in Malaysia.

I just realized that time passes so fast, you can't even keep track of it.

It just dawned on me too, that I'll be a doctor in 2 years time.

Now, that IS a scary thought.

Food

Ooppss, I just realised that half of my posts are about food.
I possibly have some sort of obessession with food or something.
Worse bit is I think I associate people with food.
I best remember people for food we have eaten together, or food we cooked together, or they cook for me. Something or the other.
Shall try to write about other stuff besides food.
Even though I think my life mostly is centralised on food.
Like when is my break, so I can run home to grab some lunch to eat, etc.
Next up, I'll probably blog about my stay at the KL Hilton.
Althought I have no pictures to post up, as I didn't have a camera yet then.
I think I enjoy posting about the past more than the present.
Nothing much happening in the present actually.
Just basically freezing half to death, cause the weather is becoming colder.
When I walk outside in the cold, I can feel my fingers becoming frozen with this tingling numb sensation.
I wish something exciting will happen in my life soon. Life is getting too routine.
I know I'm the type of person who craves excitement.
Anyway can't wait for December exams to be over, so I can run away to London again.
I just realised I cannot stay too long in one place, as I get bored too easily.
I need to go to new places, and meet new people, explore new things. I always get fascinated by new things anyway. Notice how we all always wear our new clothes often, till we buy the next new shirt or other, and we'll wear the new one more often instead.
Jeff once said that I'll probably get bored even if I was in London.
Right now, I'm studying for my Paediatrics assessment tomorrow. After this is over, I'm going back to Aberdeen on Saturday. I can't wait to get back to Aberdeen actually. I miss my flat there, and I definitely miss my food in my cupboards there! I didn't really bring much food to Aberdeen other than my oyster sauce and a few coffee packets. I also need to get my mooncake from Adrian. I hope he remembered to save one piece for me. Craving for mooncakes right now.
After my paediatrics block is over, I'll be doing Psychiatry and Geriatrics block. I hope those 2 blocks are interesting.
Oh yeah I remembered something which happened yesterday night. Chris made some toast and cheese on the grill and I was in the kitchen cutting apples to eat. After that both of us went back to our rooms. After awhile, I heard some sort of beeping noise outside, and I opened the door of my room, and it was just thick clouds of smoke with burning smell. I quickly went to the kitchen to switch the grill off, and went knocking on Chris's door to tell him that he forgot to switch off the grill. Luckily the fire alarm didn't go off, as I think a lot of people would have been quite pissed off, cause apparently the fire alarm went off earlier in the night while I was out at tescos.
I think this post is so random. Like me.
Always coming up with random things to say.
Oh right about London, I don't think I should get too excited about it or anything.
It's because I think that the higher your expectations on something, the more it will dissapoint you if it doesn't meet your expectations. So don't have expectations in the first place!

Nearly done with Paediatrics

Here I am sitting and typing into the computer when I should be reading my notes for the paediatrics assessment tomorrow instead.
Lost the mood to study after today's infectious disease assessment, which went pretty alright.
I think my posts are all extremely short. I should write more actually.
I always get ideas to write at the most inappropriate of times.
Especially near exams/assessments. Like being distracted I suppose.
I've been watching ho chiak! on 8tv's website lately. Luckily my brother told me about the website. I totally love the show, and all the places where I can get yummy food.
Back home, we always end up eating at the same places. I don't know why.
Probably because we try and play is safe, and we know those places definitely won't dissapoint us. I think I went to eat at Madam Kwan's at least 3 times. I remember experiences pretty well especially in relation to food :) I have always wanted to eat at Madam Kwan's but never got around to it, coz I heard some pretty good comments about the place, and I always walked past it in KLCC. Anyway the first time I ate there was about 2 years plus ago I think. Yan Li came down to do some shopping, cause her dad was in KL for business. I took the train from IMU to KLCC to meet her and lepak with her. We walk around and was wondering what to eat. Finally settled on Madam Kwan's. Both of us have never eaten there before. I had no idea what to order, and left the ordering entirely to her. I still remembered what we ordered. It was sambal petai prawns, rendang, stir fried chinese vegetables, tea and white rice. The food was served promptly, the meal was delicious. The rendang just melts in your mouth, and sambal petai prawns tasted absolutely divine. The food was probably too much for 2 people to eat. But it was really good, and both of us were stuffed at the end of the meal. It was great meeting up with her as I only get to meet up with her once a year. I always enjoy my once a year gathering with friends :) and catching up on gossips. We walked around the shopping centre, and I remembered she bought this orange skirt from this shop which I have forgotten the name of. Later in the afternoon, she went and bought a hot drink from coffeebean. I was so full from lunch, I couldn't even drink anything. It felt so good. Chatting with an old friend over a steaming cup of hot coffee, occasionally glancing up to check out passerbys in a busy shopping centre.
After that, it was time for goodbyes as I had to go back to school for classes if I'm not mistaken, can't really remember.

Dinner

I say yesterday's dinner was excellent!
How we even came up with the idea of having dinner together was incredibly random.
There I was popping my frozen lasagne into the oven, and Fraser started describing to me about how to make it. and there I was standing, starring at him in a confused manner.
and he was like " I know it sounds complicated, but it's really easy to make!"
and that was how it started, and how the three of us, me, Amy, and Fraser decided to cook dinner together.
First there was the matter of deciding on the time!
Tuesdays..
went knocking on their doors to look for a suitable time.
THURSDAY-- day of cooking.
I was supposed to be on call. So I went back after classes, to cut up the chicken meat and peppers so that I could cook them straightaway when I come back.
I went back to the paediatrics ward again after that.
But there were no patients around!
I was wandering aimlessly around the ward, which caused the nurse to ask me if I was looking for something.
Decided to go home, since there was nothing else to do.
They were just going off to buy the raw food.
We trotted down to Fraser's car, and I went in the backseat, and *gasp* I forgot to wear my seatbelt! (FYI you need to fasten your seatbelt even if you are in the backseat in UK) and we sped off to tescos with blaring music from the stereo system.
The tescos we went to was this really huge, 24-hour one, which I have never been to before situated in the retail centre.
So we walked around and bought all our stuff. We got most of our food stuff on offer.
Returned back to cook. First the frying of the beef with tomatoes, and the white sauce, and the hard work and sore arms from grating the cheese.
Our immense efforts finally paid off.
Just standing there, with the smell of lasagne slowly wafting into your nostrils....
Fraser and Amy went off to the common room to nick a table so we could lay our food on.
and dinner was served....
First course was french bread eaten with our own butters respectively.
followed by the delicious lasagne, and stir fried peppers cooked by yours truly :)
and to polish of the meal was a delicious belgian chocolate cheesecake.
Absolutely divine and melt in your mouth :)
Fraser was evil and cut me a totally huge slice.
I told him that he reminded me of Miss Trunchbull in Matilda, forcing the fat boy to eat the whole chocolate cake.
I did finish the cake in the end, if you were wondering.
To cap off the evening, we gathered in Amy's room and watched the movie hot fuzz together. It's some british comedy, which Fraser found absolutely hilarious.

Children

I swear kids these days are so smart!

I was playing with this 4 year old yesterday,
and he said to me, "I'm a toddler"
so I thought perhaps he did not understand what the word was and he probably picked it up from listening to his parents or something.
So I pointed to the other 7 year old, and asked "Is he a toddler too?"
and the 4yr old promptly replied, "No, he's a kid."

LOLz!

Life

I like Inverness coz I can go back to being me.
Aberdeen was just too exciting, and had too much going on.
I like this quiet peaceful life.
Not to forget how I couldn't sleep well in Aberdeen for so many months.
but now I am back to my original lifestyle,
which consists of studying, sleeping, watching series.
and I love being in the library,
I miss being in the library loads.

Unhealthy Lifestyle

I think I epitomised the unhealthy lifestyle.
Not eating a proper meal times/ eating at odd hours
Bathing late.
Sleeping with my wet hair.
sleeping at odd hours.
Skipping meals.
Eating biscuits for meals.
etc the long list goes on and on.
haha

Boredom

I swear I write about the most boring things ever.
and I don't have any interesting posts.
Not that I care anyways.
Anyway I need FOOD!!!
had fun chatting and giggling with Mok on the phone yesterday.
He's soo funny!
Now I have to go figure out what to do next.

Gynae clinic out-patient

I went for gyane clinics yesterday afternoon.

Saw this lady who had 2 uterus and 2 cervix.

How cool is that?

Anyway just finished my O&G assessment this morning.

really weird stuff they ask.

totally different from IMU definitely.

Labour Report

Right now, am sitting in the library typing out my labour report.
grrr...oh right I also have an assessment on O&G on Friday.
Right now am undecided whether to go to the labour suite or not.
It's a bit late to go though, cause I was supposed to go in the afternoon.
Anyway had a bit of good news.
I managed to swap with Amanda to be in Inverness for November-block 5!
hurray!
I emailed Morag and she said it was alright!
Inverness is such a great place!

Inverness

I'm holed up in Inverness for the next 6 weeks.
argh can't believe time has passed so fast!
I guess time flies when you're having fun!
anyway am nearly done with O&G, so moving onto Paediatrics soon.
O&G was lots of fun!!
Anyway I love my patients :)
Came in during the weekends to see her again after her surgery on Friday,
she seems to be doing great :)
I gave her newspapers to read and an apple I got from Virgie :)
and she gave me magazines to read.
Yesterday was the most horrible weather ever!
it was cold, windy and raining the whole day!!
arghh
But nothing like a good cup of hot milo and milk on a rainy day :)

Sunday 29th April

I seriously need to document all the stuff I get up to,
cause I think it's quite interesting the amount of energy I seem to have.
crazy crazy amounts of energy.
Well this morning I went to attend church at St Peter's as always.
I really love love the place, I feel so welcomed there.
and I really love the hymm we sang today, very meaningful.
then later I came back for a nap.
at about 4.30pm left to play football.
ahahhaha was a lot of fun!
I think I am getting better as a defender. hahaah membangga-banggakan diri sendiri....
then I left about 5.30pm and went back cause I wanted to go to the beach.
Came back, me, CK and Shi Xian decided to go to the beach for a picnic.

Aberdeen

hoho
Aberdeen seriously rocks!!
everyone should come study in Aberdeen man!
I've been up to lots of things since I came.
including all our partying every weekend!
ahaha the football sessions and the basketball sessions.
and to church too! I think it's great!
oh yeah going off to the beach for a nice picnic soon!
and going to have dinner later with seniors and papa-o gang upstairs!
ahhahahahhaa
My life is currently fabulous, except for the fact that I need to do a presentation and I'm like super blur! urgh...
okay will try to write more later.
if I am not too lazy, which I soo am.

Pictures

I actually have tons of pictures I took on the trip to Concord.
but so so lazy to put them up now.
speaking of which, I have to go to Aberdeen soon. which is like next Tuesday. and I kind of promised my cousin Victor that we will cook something for him. coz we went over to his place and ate up a lot of his stuff, and even took his little ducky. it's extremely adorable ok!
argh argh. how now???
and today we have to go to borough market. We also need to cook for Jeff and Sel tomorrow!!
aikss.. running out of time!

London!

I've been in London for quite some time already.
Actually since 22nd March which was like last Thursday I think.
yes I have not bothered updating this blog due to my upmost laziness.
I didn't even write about all the stuff I did in the hospital, even though I thought it was pretty interesting.
I even went down to Concord College, and just came back day before yesterday.
hahaha I'm having quite a good and interesting time back in UK!
will write more later!

Busy Week!

It has been an absolutely busy crazy week!!
that was also because I have started my attachment at GHKL.
On Monday, I went to GH really early. so unit PASCA wasn't open yet. so I was sitting around with nothing to do. listening to my ipod and flipping through oxford handbook.
then I met with some of the semester 3 who had just finished their exams and were doing their electives there, so I followed them to unit PASCA, and then Puan Sherly who is working there told me I needed to write a letter to do my attachment!! I was thinking OH NOOO!! as I don't have any letter, and it would further delay my time of attachment, since I already have to leave like 22nd of march, and coming today was a waste of time! also I thought that I did not need to write a letter since KB told me that I only need a letter from IMU to say that I'm an IMU student. and Puan Sherly, asked me when I would like to start my elective, so I had to write down starting on Wednesday, and she said that she would give me a call. Anyway not to fret, hahaha lady luck is always smiling down on me :)
I met up with the rest of the ppl in semester 3 also doing their electives there, and then I asked them if I could tag along, so selambar tag along with them, this was also due to the fact that one of their group members had gone on to join another hospital . and Puan Sherly could not recognize me, so I just submitted in my application for the name tag along with the rest.
so we then went down to surgical outpatient and waited. After some time, Mr Rahman came along, and briefed us about the surgical department. I told him that both me and KW haven't had a formal letter yet to say that we are attached to the surgical department. then Mr Rahman was like it's alright, you can tag along with the rest of them. haha such a nice surgeon rite?? :)
Anyway we were split into 2 groups which is ward 12 and ward 13, and the next week we had to switch between the wards. so we hung around ward 12 and interviewed the patients. There's this poor lady there with thoracic aortic anuerysm scheduled for a surgery, but then her stent has not arrived yet therefore she can't do her surgery so she was damn pissed off, coz she thinks her life is in danger. In the afternoon, her family came, and the guard downstairs did not allow her child who was 10 to come up to the ward. I dunno why they have this stupid ruling whereby kids are not allowed up in the afternoon visiting hours, they're only allowed up after 4.30pm. so I was thinking poor kid! all alone downstairs. and poor lady, she thinks she might not survive the surgery, so she wants to see the kid for the perhaps last time. therefore me being all mischievious and full of bright ideas, decided to smuggle the kid up. ahhaha of course we asked the doctor for permission first if we could bring the kid up for a short while. the doctor was like okay, but the doctor was just afraid that the kid might contract diseases. so me and E went downstairs, and we were looking high and low for the kid, and E was so unsure, she was like maybe we should brought the dad down to identify etc etc. because the only identification we had was that the kid was wearing a blue shirt, and he was kinda big size. haha suddenly E spotted the kid! and we brought him together with us and asked the guard whether we could bring the kid up, and we told the guard that his mum was going to have surgery tomorrow, and we said the doctor says it's okay if he goes up. but the guard was very ADAMANT, and she kept saying NO, it's against the rules yadda yadda yadda....
so I told E, I know another way! so I brought them using another road up. and E was like soo freaked out, and she kept thinking that we would get caught or whatever. haih some ppl are soo paranoid I swear! and she kept saying if she gets caught, her elective will have a bad remark or whatever. so dramatic. We did brought the kid up safetly in the end. and the mum was soooo HAPPY!! and she kept thanking us. and she even wanted to give us ang pow. so PAI SEH okay! I told them that none of them should take ang pow from her. oh yeah she and her husband are only rubber tappers.
oh yeah, we also follow ward rounds every morning which starts at 8am. something all the big shot surgeons come, sometimes only 1-2 surgeons are around.
wow this is getting to be a freaking long post! and that's only day 1!!!
okay will post up about the rest of the days soon!!
doing my attachment at GH is really interesting!
anyway my highlight of the day on Monday, was being able to scrub into surgery for AV fistulae!
haha I saw this patient, I knew she was going into for an AV fistule operation, so KW said quickly follow her in so we can see the surgery, so we waited there, and we asked the nurse whether we could see the operation or not, then the nurse said she had to ask the head nurse, and she helped asked for us, and they gave us the green light, and told us to change into scrubs. ahah so we quickly went in to change, and then we went and look for the patient. and the patient was in the waiting room before surgery, she was kinda freaked out, so we had a nice chat with her, and she said that she felt more brave to go into surgery, and I kept reassuring her that it was only a small procedure, haha and when the surgeon came into the waiting room, the patient told him that our presence there gave her strength to go for surgery!
hehhe so bangga!
anyway the surgeon Mr Lee, is very very nice!!! He pointed out all the arteries and veins for me, haha my own fault coz I was standing so close, I could see everything very clearly. I know I'm not supposed to stand so close, but if you don't stand so close you can't see nuts. haha seriously arteries and veins and nerves all looking very different compared to netters, it's kinda difficult to tell them apart, and I asked Mr Lee, how to tell them apart, and he told me. haha so nice rite, layan me during operation. aiyoh!
and he like explain everything! and explained to me how to suture the would. and he was like explaining to the other doctor how to anastomose the artery and the vein together. Wow he's really good at suturing since the artery and vein is so tiny!
oh yeah surgery is really not very simple!
it was difficult looking for the artery and vein in the first place, and after that need to determine the size of the vein, if the vein is too small, there is no point in performing surgery.
also we stood there for more than 2 hours, which was the duration of the surgery. surgery is really need a lot of patience and for one to be really meticulous. It is definitely not that grey's anatomy makes it out to be.
end of story, at the end of the day I was exhausted!

Sueyi's Chinese New Year Party

I went for Sueyi's chinese new year party yesterday at her house.
hahahha at first wasn't sure whether I wanted to go or not coz I takut sesat there.
but in the end decided to go.
Arrived really really late there, cause my parents got lost, in the end have to call Sueyi and ask for directions. and this is like my 3rd time going there already!! my goodness. I really cannot remember how to go to her house at all!!!
anyway the food there was really nice. got ice kacang, lamb!! delicious lamb! err lots of other chinese food la.
so anyway the only other IMU ppl who were there were, shafiq and his gf, Raj and Sakthi, William and another UKM medic boy, so all of us ended up sitting on the same table together, really had fun chatting with them and teasing everyone :)
oh yeah I ate a lot, and somebody commented I had a bottomless pit. hahahahaha.
the char kuey teow was also very yummy.
Anyway here are photos!
oopps I look really bad in the pictures.
hahaha too bad.

Goong Palace

Right now I'm currently watching goong palace on youtube.
that's cause I am jobless ma, since it's the holidays.
oh yeah will probably be going to general hospital for attachment starting Monday.
luckily Kim Wah agreed to go with me. I would dread the thought of going alone!





the teddy bears!! awwwww so cutee!!!!!