MVA, CNY and a savings plan

My housemate got into an accident at the busiest spot in KK last night. Fortunately for her, she escaped unharm, but her poor Kelisa looked pretty beaten up. Will take about 3-4K to fix and some 2 weeks. And because it's her fault that she rammed into the butt of a land cruiser, she probably have to fork out another 3-4k to have the cruiser's bumper fixed and repainted.

In comparison to her poor Kelisa, the white land cruiser looked absolutely immaculate, except for the loose bumper and slight scratch.

We spent about 2 hours in the police station last night to settle everything last night and today I left my tagging earlier to help chaffeur her around to get her fine paid and paper work done.

It's just very unfortunate for her that she's getting all these unfortunate circumstances on a regular basis. So to so that I'm thinking it's because of all her negativity that she's getting into all these back luck.

But I pray that everything will work out for her.

---

I have 3 more days of tagging until Wednesday, and I start my first call in paeds on Saturday. 4th call. It's the call in the recovery ward, so that's good. All the patients there are supposedly very stable patients waiting for discharge. I also have to take care of the patient in the paeds oncology cubicle, but again all of them are supposed to be stable.

All my calls this month is during the weekends and I'm working through CNY. I guess might as well since I have no intentions of flying home. Saving the leave for a long one probably in March or something.

---

For the first time in my life, I've drawn up a savings plan. My target is to save at least 10k this year. At the rate I'm working and the decreasing opportunity of spending, I actually have the potential to save up to 18k, if I really I want to, based on my calculation and rough estimation.

Why am I saving?

1. I want to travel
2. I want to got shopping in KL
3. I have to start saving for my future (further my studies, buy a house)

Wish me luck!

---

Something new just came up with me. I'm considering to pursue surgery.

Good night!

Tagging 2

I'm now at home instead of tagging in the hospital because I rushed back to my apartment to look for my missing wallet (containing my IC and driving licence, and money, atm card).

Stopped by the drive-thru MacD this morning on the way to work. Ordered a big breakfast or something and realized that my wallet wasn't in my bag. Shit. Called my apartment mate, who was running late for work, and hoping she was more late today so that she could find my wallet in the apartment for me.

But she was already in the apartment complex carpark when I got her on the line. So I just told her to drop by the drive-thru and pay my breakfast for me.

So malu.

So I was 10mins late for work, but to my surprise, the ward was empty when I got there. Not a single doctor in sight. Maybe it's the weekend syndrome in paeds.

Hmm... this wasn't the case when I was in surgery. Ok nm, next time no need to feel so anxious if I have valid reason of being late.

But I'm proud of this quality that I have, you know getting anxious when I'm running late or making people wait for me. Got it from my dad.

Anyways, got home after 1pm and found my wallet inside my room on the floor near the door. I can't imagine how that happened because as far as I could remember, I got home around 12MN last night, dropped my bag on top of my laundry basket and took a quick shower before passing out on my bed. Got up 6am, took shower and rushed to work. Didn't even open up my bag.

So the question is, "How did the wallet get out of my bag and landed on the floor?"

Creepy.

Anyways, I have my wallet now. That's the most important. And pay day yesterday! But crappy too because despite earning descently, I just don't have the time to enjoy it. I spend the most of food and petrol (now that I'm stuck in Likas, 12km from Penampang where I'm staying, making that 24km everyday).

---

I was tagging in NICU (Neonatal ICU) last night. It looked very serene with all the radiant warmers and incubators, and all the tiny babies in them. Very different from the regular wards. Was tagging a senior who took quite some time teaching me "survivor skills" in the NICU. And the blood-taking bit. ARRGGHHHH.

Imagine looking for a vein on a dorsum of a hand the size of your thumb. NOT fun.

But after last night, with the little pep talk from my senior, and also the motivation to just tread on, I'm feeling a little bit more optimistic going into my 1st weekend in paeds.

And maybe because my mood picked up a little bit after meeting up again with my surgery friends yesterday. Was in the main hospital for CME in the morning, and I had to settle a couple of paper work in the office, so I took the opportunity to attend the Surgery HO teaching. :)

Really miss the department. Miss the crazy haphazzard ward. Only now I realized how truly busy the surgery nurses are. A stark contrast to the paeds ward where everything and everyone is kinda slow-moving.

I'm still trying to adjust my hasty pace in the paeds ward to a more relaxed one.

---

I caught myself "playing" with a kid this morning. So geli come to think about it. But the 10-month-old girl was laughing AT me doing the peek-a-boo with her. So geli. She must be thinking that I'm such a silly doctor.

---

Then I found a new cause to champion for. Blood. There are too many thalassaemic children in the ward in heart failure, kept alive with anti-failure drugs waiting for suitable blood.

I'll never be eligible for blood donation as long as I'm still working as a HO because of the lack of sleep. Even as a medical student, I was rejected a couple of times because of I never get enough sleep. Then finally I was rejected because I got myself a tattoo. Need a year after tattoo to start donating again.

The other thing to champion for: thalassaemia screening and counseling, since it's sooooooooooo common here. A favour to those unborn children destined to live a life of frequent blood transfusions and finally succumbing to complications of multiple blood transfusions. And the anguish of their parents, and their lack of understanding of how scarce CDE-matched blood is, and the need for repeated blood-taking to constantly find the best matched blood.

I know that the trait is in my dad side of my family. Dad and sis have the trait. Me clear.

The battle of taking blood from a struggling and screaming child is physically draining, but the battle of bringing the parents onto your side, is both intellectually and emotionally draining.

"Balik-balik ambil darah..."

"Dahlah kurang darah, ambil darah dia lagi..."

"Perlukah cucuk dia doc? Dia takut bah doc..."

I know. I know. I know.

---

Stop here 1st. Sleepy. Want to take a nap.

Tagging

I'm so excited about going to CME tomorrow because I get to go back to Queen Elizabeth and miss the morning rounds at Likas! And also because I hope to catch a glimpse of certain people that I'm missing terribly.

Paeds suck big time. I'm just not cut out for it. Blood-taking is the worst bit. The workload is surprisingly not as much as surgery, not even half the load, but it's 10-fold more stressful because of the hostility and the distrust and the ego, and the need to prove oneself to be better than the other (among the MOs).

"Don't bother writing all those down, trust me, no one is going to read your notes" I was told by a superior.

Fine lor.

"Papa, betulkah papa tidak ada sini masa doktor buat round?" The child's dad noded.

That was after I just told the "superior" that the dad wasn't there when I was doing my rounds.

Why would I lie? Nothing to gain. I just don't get it. I can tolerate any unreasonable scolding, but this utter distrust is very hurtful.

I hope the bitch rot in hell.

Anyways, despite how much I always thought I dislike children, I find myself feeling weak in my knees and tears feeling up to the brim of my lower eye lids every time I see a ill child or when I have to prick a scared child, or when the child is crying in pain when I'm drawing blood from him.

I cannot help feeling frustrated when there's no blood for a thalassaemic child with Hb of 2.4 in heart failure.

I cannot forget how 4-year-old little Muhd. was bargaining with me not to prick him for blood.

"Tak nak jarum besar. Nak jarum kecil saja"... cry.... cry...

"Tak nak cucuk sini, sakit..."... cry... cry....

"Tak nak cucuk jarum... tolong mak... anak takut mak..."... cry... cry...

I took my time to find the perfect vein. 1 poke. Thank God.

Then I asked Muhd. to share the EDTA bottle, which he took eagerly from me and started vigorously shaking, quite happily, with his wet eyes and tear-stained face.

There's this one very naggy and "scoldy" specialist who doesn't speak, but scolds, all the time. She'll be screaming at us at every bed.

"What sort of rounds are you guys doing?"

"You guys really disappoint me..."

"You guys really make me feel like I fail as a specialist..."

"How can you guys let this happen?"

Then one 5-year-old boy in the ward with antibiotic-related rash, obviously affected by the specialist "heat", told his mum,

"Mummy, can we give doctor an ice-cream if she's angry?"

And the mum just chuckled and told the specialist, who turned red and gave a very fake laugh to cover her embarassment, I imagine.

PADAN muka. :D

I still cannot / don't know how to "Play" with a child. Some of my colleagues are a natural. I treat the child like an adult, especially the school-going ones. I explain the procedures step-by-step to them, and so far I find all of them quite responsive and very intelligent.

Ok, stopping here for now. Very tired.

Thank you!

Thank you all for your birthday wishes!

Birthdays nowadays are spent in denial. :) I'm so not ready to cross the quarter century mark.

Just got back around 11.15pm from my Day 2 of tagging in paediatrics. So far not very impressed. People in paeds here are arrogant and stuck up. A stark contrast to the paeds dept. back in SGH. And I always had this impression that paediatricians and paeds people in general are more pleasant.

Or maybe I'm just bias. But then again, HOs posted there previously also thought that the MOs are not very helpful. And but again, it's only my 2nd day. I should give paeds a chance because I feel that I owe Dr. Padmini (my paeds lecturer back in medical school) for being such a great lecturer. I actually liked paeds very much when I was in school. I'll see how I feel about the posting as a HO later on.


I have so much to tell but I'm just so tired tonight. 8 more days of 7-11pm tagging calls.
Need my beauty sleep. :P

Dear Mr. V...

Dear Mr. V,

I'm very grateful for your guidance, and your amazing patience and understanding despite my constant blunders and shortcomings. There are no other people that I respect more in this world than a great teacher.

Your compassion and genuine concern for your patients are a source of inspiration for me. Your persistent quest for details is something that I would strive to emulate.

I'm very lucky to have crossed path with you. When it's my time and when I'm in the position to guide others, I would remember you, and all that you have done for me.

THANK YOU!


Yours sincerely,

Sharon Chin
20 January 2007.

Going to paeds

Today I officially complete 4 months of internship. Congrats to me and to all my other friends throughout the country.

That means the end of my surgical posting though which I've come to love very much despite the amount of stress and battery it had inflicted on me, eg. 3 consecutive EOD calls (in an overloaded ward) with no sleep at all this week, and attachment to the busiest ward in the department for the last 2 weeks.

My dear colleague, Siti was sobbing and crying while tracing BUSE results on the phone last week as 4-5 other HOs sat at the nurses' station tracing results, writing discharge summaries, making referrals and filling up investigation forms. Everyone would be silent purposefully with the occasional outburst by the more extrovert ones.

Siti was doing the dreaded neuro rotation which I loathed too when it was my turn some months ago. So I can totally empathize with her.

Then another colleague, Shanti was doing uro rotation, with 9 admissions coming in at the same time. A few in pain because of urinary retention. I hated that rotation too. But Shanti's really very good natured, and I've yet to see her upset or frustrated. I need to learn a thing or two from her.

I was doing general surgery last week when the ward was at its peak. Patient lying on the floor with mattresses, and some in the procedure and store room.

I'll be running around taking blood and discharging patients, and then running down to radiology for imaging. But I'm proud to say that my success rate of getting urgent imaging studies is almost 100%, so it's almost exclusively my duty nowadays. Then the surgeon would be ordering us to the OT, and the MOs calling from the clinic for us to help out in the clinic.

So I would be always teasing Shanti, "Hey Shanti, Mr. T just called. He asked you to go to the clinic and OT and the ward at the same time STAT!"

Seriously, I feel like I need to trisect myself to get all the things done on time.

"Sharon, don't do everything yourself. Delegate." Mr. V said to me when he asked why the patient's blood culture result was not traced, and I quickly snatched the file from his hands and started calling the lab.

I was thinking very hard to myself, "And who am I suppose to delegate the job to?" It's only me and Aini, who's posting a case for emergency operation.

Shit, already 4.36pm. No answer. So I had to run down to the lab, and asked to be let into the lab and go through the results myself.

"NO ORGANISMS GROWN"

Great.

I have mixed feelings actually. Happy to be progressing. Happy to be leaving in a respectable way.

One of the GA MOs was kind of praising me the other day.

"You're good. Which uni?"

SOOOO proud to say, "UNIMAS". :)

Happy to that I'm not letting the missing the AF incident to continue to cast a black cloud over my head.

But, I'm feeling very heavy in my heart too because I'm leaving the people that I've come to be comfortable with, and of course I'm leaving my dear Mr. V.

How can I not miss him? How can I not feel the pang of a great loss once I've lost that constant contact with him? What's worse is that today my last day he didn't come for rounds because he's post-call, so I didn't get to say thank you and good bye and also I didn't get to shake his hands.

So I've decided to get him a thank you card. So I guess I won't be seeing him for some 8 months. Because my new posting is in another hospital some 12km away. That's going to be tough.

I'm supposed to report for duty tomorrow but since it's Sunday, I was told that the supervisor would not be around, so there's no point reporting tomorrow. So I've decided to chill out and read-up on some paeds stuff tomorrow.

And I need the time to recharge and regroup and brace myself for another major posting.

Pics!

The wedding went without a hitch. Thanks Bren. Thank you everyone for all your love and support!

Some informal pictures from my 4 days jome in Kuching!


The girls hanging out before the big day...


Love this shot with Kay and Sam, taken during the pre-wedding dinner.


The traditional veiling ceremony or something... but love this shot because I got all the phatographers!


Kay wanted a shot with Pheobe before leaving for the cathedral... Pheobe wasn't very cooperative...


With one of her flower girls, Nicole...


Got this gorgeous Punjabi suit for a bargain RM165/- the day before the wedding! So lucky! I have this thing for Indian traditional costumes. I own like 6 suits. I tried on a sari once but didn't get one because the really nice ones cost a bomb. Will get one in the future.


This is Lala. Met him while shopping for clothes.

Will write more and post more pics later this week. Have to pack up and get ready to fly back to KK. Start work tomorrow. :(

The wedding bells bypass me

Wow 24hrs just came and gone. Only less than 72hrs left in Kuching. But I think it's better not to actually keep track of the time and just enjoy myself.

Am feeling a bit weary with all that's going on with the wedding. Still haven't recovered from the tiring journey from KK back to Kuching.

My mum had a nice black dress tailored for me for the wedding reception, but I still have nothing to wear from the pre-wedding dinner and the wedding mass itself on Saturday. Plan to go shopping tomorrow.

Am going through the inevitable.

"So Sharon, when is your turn?"

Argghh.

Another thing. My dad reads my blog. Arggh. He's been teasing me about Mr. V. Almost died just now. He's asking me to show him pictures of Mr. V which I don't have, and don't intend to have. But mum's sensible to point out that he's married. Thanks mum.

I think the rule I give to anyone I see every day or keep in contact with regularly about reading my blog should apply to my dad too: NO discussing about my blog when meeting me in person. To read my blog and not ask me anything about it in person. Fair right?

At first I felt a little embarassed, but it's fine because then they would know what going on with my life.

But I'll continue to write whatever I like about some stupid MOs. My dad was saying that I shouldn't but I'm thinking that I'm not mentioning names, so it's not a big deal.

My colleague called me just now just as I was starting with my facial.

"Hey someone misses you..."

"Oh it's Uncle S isn't it?"

Uncle S is the patient who we're thinking may be having Munchaussen Syndrome. It's a psychiatric illness where the patient fabricates illness and willingly endures painful and invasive procedures. He's my patient until I left the ward for my leave yesterday. :)

"It's Mr. V la... he asked why you didn't inform him that you were taking leave..."

I was a little surprised. I didn't have to inform anyone the last time I took leave, as long as it's approved it should be ok.

"But don't worry la. He's ok about it."

"Oh ok."

But I flet unsettled. So I sms him after that but I didn't get any reply. Hope he doesn't feel that I was being disrespectful. I wanted to tell him yesterday when I saw him walking pass me in front of the casualty department when I was waiting for my cab, but he looked preoccupied with his handphone, so I didn't call out to him as he walked away and finally disappeared into walkway towards the central parking.

Just before we all dispersed for the day, he was counseling a patient and the patient's sons regarding the further plan of management for their father's thyroid malignancy. His phone rang and he removed the phone from his left pocket and passed it to me.

"Sharon, please answer my phone."

I took the phone an ran outside the side room.

"Hello?"

A long silence.

"Hello? Mr. V's engaged at the moment. He's counseling a patient and the family at the moment."

Finally...

"Oh ok." a very young female voice came from the other end of the line.

"May I know who's on the line please? I'll get Mr. V to call you back..."

"His wife."

"Ok. Will let him know."

"Ok thanks." Line went dead.

Then later when I passed Mr. V back his phone he asked, "Who was it?"

"Your wife."

He just took the phone and started fumbling with the keypads as he walked away from me. He didn't even say thank you, like how he would usually do.

Sigh.

My mum doesn't think I look thinner, but tonner. My old clothes at home are looser, but I haven't lost a single kilo! So mum's most probably right.

I need to resume swimming again.

Now a treat! Photos!


Pheobe in front of the wedding portraits. My sis, Karen and her husband, Sam. Haven't gotten hold of any nice pics of them yet.


Dad and Mum. Dad with his cool shirt and mum with her new hairdo.


With my darling Pheobe...


With schizophrenic Miss Jelly.


With relatives coming around the house to jive up the wedding atmosphere.

Cheers!

I can't sleep...

It's 1.30am, I can't sleep, and I have to work later. Why?

Cause I'm insanely excited that I'm going home!!!

Happy 2007!

Catching a flight straight after work later. So am bringing luggage to the ward. :) Bought a new Hush Puppies duffle traveling/overnight/oncall bag. Cost me around RM230/- after discount. Pretty decent. Traveling light this time. Not dragging any books with me this time, because now with Streamyx, I can access to virtually anything. :)

My supervisor is letting me stay in the current ward I'm working! And I'm so thrilled! Initially she said no, but I guess she thought that since it was my last 3 weeks, she decided to let me stay, and probably I actually opened my mouth and asked her. :)

In just one week with Mr. V, I've done peritoneal tapping, excision of lymph node and chest tube insertion! And he personally supervised me and my other colleagues! Where in the world would you find a surgeon who would roll up his sleeves and spend several hours after rounds to supervise interns in doing procedures, with step-by-step instructions and appropriate amount of encouragement in between?

I know that I'm going to miss Mr. V when I go off for me break, but I miss my family too much at the moment, and the smell of Pheobe's fur coat. :)

At the moment I'm not really very excited about the whole wedding deal, but I'm sure when I reach home, I'll be sucked into the atmosphere.

Have been trying to cheer up my housemate who's been down recently, trying to spend whatever free time I have with her, and I'm happy to note that she's happier these 2 days... she herself noted it too, and attributed it to the "good" calls she had. I can only pray for continuous strength for her. It's really up to her to help herself.

Will write more when I'm back in Kuching. I have to summarize a patient's 3 volumes worth of medical history for tomorrow's rounds. The consultant, Mr. C is back from a long break, and we have to present detail history of all the patients in the ward tomorrow.

Oh ya, had a delicious slice of expresso cheesecake at Secret Recipi after dinner just now. Sinful. :)

Remind me to write about a monster of a MO in my next entry. That stupid bastard.