I forced myself to wake up 7am this morning and got ready and made my way to the hospital... 5 minutes into the ward round, a baby deteriorated and resuscitation was initiated... despite the training we've received (NALS and PALS... and I'm very sure all the staff in the ward received and went through over and over again year in, year out) the situation was CHAOTIC. I can't begin to describe. I guess the only difference between medical students and the staff was their stone calmness. Their sympathetic nervous system did not kick in just now... they were cool and collected... I was only helping with the restraining and nebulizer, but I felt sooo stressed out, and even sad for the 4-month-old boy, and his weeping mother outside the procedure room. It took 2 Medical Officers and 1 Paediatrician to finally intubate the baby, 6 attempts shared out among the 3 of them.

But everything turned out well after more than one hour... his oxygen saturation improved from 56% to 98% and his heart rate normalized... but he was promptly sent to the High-dependency Unit (HDU) after the "successful" but difficult resuscitation... his face was bloody because of his frailty the tube and scopes used to intubate him traumatized his skin and oral mucous membranes.

Then after that the ward round continued to around 12 noon, and before I could leave the ward after that, a 10-year-old schoolgirl was pushed into the ward, breathless and her face puffy and her skin a dull grey brownish hue... she had end-stage renal failure and bronchiectasis...

On the bed just opposite her, was a 9-year-old boy, crouching in excruating pain.... abdomen grossly distended, his face and eyes puffy.... he had a scar on his left flank... and he was infused with 10mg/kg albumin 5%... I couldn't get much history from his mother because she only spoke Iban... but I could figure out at least 60% of what she said...

So what a day, really. A great day for me in terms of being able to observe all those procedures, but really not a very good day for the staff and the children. I wanted to stay on in the afternoon for paediatric cardiac clinic, but the paeds cardiologist was away in Sibu... so I decided to call it a day, besides, my feet were kind of numb...

I'm still planning to go to the hospital tomorrow because there's an oncology and thalassaemia clinic going on.... I've never had the chance to attend one because it's only on Wednesday mornings... and we usually have triggers (Thank God that's a thing of the past) that time...

Last night I tried out my sleeping bag! It's really very comfy and warm... so very happy with it... so I'm all set for the camp on Thursday! I actually felt very secure inside the bag... like I'm getting a big bear hug! Haha! I slept dreamlessly from 1am to 7am... I'm planning to sleep inside the bag again tonight... let me see if I can get either my sis or my parents to take a shot of me in the bag... hehe...

I promised Soon Ching a lunch or a lady's night... I wonder if the gals are up for Italian? I'll get their views later...

Oh no, now I'm sleepy... and I have 4 emails to reply!!! But I think I better nap for a while... I won't want to unconsciously type out something innappropriate...
Announcement: I've changed my mobile no. to a 016-***-**** no. My 019 has been terminated... Initially my mum said she wanted to hold on to my no. but then she decided otherwise... she had it terminated this morning.... it's really a good thing too because besides 016 being cheaper, it would save my dad the time of paying the 019 bill every month (because it's a post-paid no.).


Cheers!