Post-KK Day1 at work is hard. :) After such an excellent weekend of merry-making and great food, I have sort of a hang-over at work this morning. I literally fell on my bed after a quick shower last night when I arrived back in Sandakan around 9pm. I even forgot to set my alarm but luckily my internal alarm was functioning this morning. I woke up exactly at 6.30am. I'm feeling so bloated after the weekend that now I'm planning to skip dinner from now on if possible. After all I have lunch almost 2.30pm everyday.

Wow the session today was pretty heavy. Imagine slides and slides of ECGs but it was quite an experience straining my eyes and forcing myself to figure out what each ECG tracing meant with 150 other doctors and paramedics.

I'm in KK! I didn't miss KK a bit but it's nice to sink my teeth into my fav McD double-cheese burger! :) Yeah... Sandakan doesn't have McD. Good thing too la... can cut down of grease. My 3G broadband is up and going so I can practically go online anyway where there's 3G, so cool. Tomorrow is the ECG workshop and I just got good news... will be meeting up with my 2 old housemates there! They are also attending. Apparently there is going to be quite a crowd. A team from IJN will be conducting the workshop.

I love Oprah. I was watching a segment on women and their finances and it got me thinking about my own money. So I decided that I should do everything I can to maximize my income. So I started doing locum. Last long weekend alone I earned quite a bit in 4 days just doing consultation work. It's really easy money. I really thank my parents for my education. I know many people earning lesser than what I made that 4 days, in a month.

I'll be making a short trip to KK this weekend for a course, my first as a MO. It's on arrhythmia and ECG, which are excellent topics, but honestly I'm more excited to eat and shop in KK. :)

A typical day in my working life here in Sandakan would be seeing between 60-80 patients in the diabetes and hypertension clinic where I'm currently posted to now in the outpatient department.

Some days are good:

1. compliant patients

Some days are bad:

1. patients with weird, diseaseless symptoms
2. those who adjusts their own medications and come back for review with rocket high blood pressure and unrecordable sugar reading (meaning ridiculously high)
3. patients from [2] who get some scolding and do the same thing again the next time around
4. non-compliant patients
5. those who tell you (doctors) what medications they need, the dosage, what their blood test results mean and when they should come back for their reviews
6. patients who complain about that one episode of headache that lasted about 5mins 5months ago and expect you to tell them what disease they had
7. patients who treat doctors like God and leave everything about their health into our hands and do not take any accountability
8. those who insist that Ranitidine is a medication for gout!!! just, just because their "best friend" told them so
9. patients who can't speak English/Malay/Mandarin and call themselves Malaysians
10. patients who suddenly after 3years on a certain anti-hypertensive tell you that the medication causes gidiness and "lemas" but never told the previous doctors who reviewed them the last 3 years just, just because they couldn't speak English/Malay/Mandarin and keep the medication in their medication museum at home

And it goes on for this list.

The point for my entry today: it's easy to make me happy.

I'm having a great life at the moment. My move to a new town and starting my new post and moving into a new place, meeting new people. All have been good.

But all these couldn't stop my heart from aching and tears streaming down my face every time I think of Stryker.

My dear 18-year-old mongrel Stryker, the most "durable" dog in the world, succumbed to intestinal obstruction early this week.

Stryker in my life taught me one very valuable lesson: when you hope and pray for something hard enough, you'll get it, for sure. Both times I collapsed on my knees and prayed for something very hard (both times for Stryker), they miraculously came through.

Sorry Stryker I didn't know you were sick, I would have prayed harder than usual.

Hope you enjoy heaven!

My week-long break of solitude and self-pampering was a most delightful experience! It was a time of consolidating all that had happened for the past 18months since I arrived in KK. All the great moments reminisced with fondness and the not so great ones, scoffed off with a little laugh and lots of serenity.

The packing process for my great exodus to Sandakan next week was a back-breaking task. I just realized that I'm such a rubbish collector, a trait most unsuitable for an aspiring nomad/traveler.

My birthday middle of this week was better accepted than my last because I felt younger than the last one, a sign of a smooth transition of an ongoing acceptance of the aging process. And what really made my day was what the girl at the ticket counter of the cinema asked me.

"Ticket for one?" she asked, looking at me and for anyone else beside or behind me that may look like he or she was with me.

"Yup, one." I smiled at her graciously, rather used to the ticket-for-one question.

She punched in the request and asked where I would like to sit. Then...

"Your student pass?"

MY STUDENT PASS? I suddenly became acutely aware of myself. What was I wearing? My shoes? My bag?

I was wearing a simple black top with a brown floral skirt and a pair of sandals and carrying my Jacques Lacquer handbag, and my new pair of shades on my head.

Not very student baby-T and jeans and some Nike sling bag.

So, so, I must certainly still look young to her! Muahhaahhaha!

Yes, another of my bimbo moments, but I was deliriously happy. And continued to be happy throughout the very bloody Todd Sweeny: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

I found this miracle in Yogur Berry that would help with the sugar issue in my obsession with ice-cream! I'm weaning off Veda Bleu's hazel nut cream ice-cream...

Today I officially finish internship. Very happy that I'm getting a chance to mantain my manicured nails now that I don't have to be doing all the ward procedures. Very happy now that I can dress up more to work. I had one of those bimbo moments when I clocked out after my last ever ward round as an intern.

What have I learnt over the last 18months?

Nothing new, surprise, surprise! I learnt that life's too short! That I must seize the moment, every single time. That happiness IS just afterall, a habit. Nothing else.

My Crocs maryjanes are very comfy. But am not wearing it to work this month because I'm doing my ortho rotation meaning going into the operation theater meaning I have to leave my shoes outside the OT meaning there's a not so irrational fear of them getting stolen.

Not enjoying this rotation because of very little personal interest mainly, and because this department has the highest concentration of idiots unreasonable people with questionable medical knowledge. But I'm not sweating myself because I'm only doing this rotation for 4weeks. Thank God. :) But I wish at least my month would be spent acquiring some skills.

This rotation is my last before my transfer to Sandakan reporting 1FEB. I have mixed feelings, but more excitement now that I'm sure when I'm heading with the latest list out and that I've sort of settled my transfer of my things and car. What's left to worry now is my accomodation. I'm looking for an apartment or a small house to rent.

I have an idea of what my life's going to be when I get there. A colleague who's already there 2 months said that workload is bad Mon-Fri but weekends off! Coolness! That means diving, diving, diving for me! He said a typical day means 8-5, lots of patients either maternal child health or general outpatient or traveling to the small district health clinics (which all the medical officers rotate among themselves every 2months).

So that sounds pretty ok to me. I have conditioned myself not to think that I'm more suitable for hospital-based work. I need to have a new experience.

No new year resolutions. Just realization that all I need is serenity.

Will be relocating to Sandakan soon to start a new chapter of my life.

Christmas & New Year were a blast! Hope you had a great time too!

Now, wishing you all a happy going back to your life and routine!

new email add. yahoo mail sucks.

happy new year! pls note my new email add. thanks. don't bother sending mail to my yahoo mail.

 

sharon chin.

My leave just got approved this Wed! So, SO happy! That means I'll be home from 22DEC to 2JAN2008! Not only I get to be home for Christmas, I get to attend Chang's wedding! Chang's an old friend from school, joining the mass of my generation from my hometown tying the knot.

In my work place, last month alone, 4 couples got married. Another couple this month and another early 2008. Wow, is the 26 or 27 the magic number or something?

And my dearest friend Jo is already expecting her 1st child, due I think May.

And what have I been doing?

1. Work, work, work and having successive bad calls
2. Changed my hair colour again (now I'm not Sharon with red hair). I'm now spotting a chestnut brown do
3. Started watching Grey's Anatomy (I know, I know, I'm soooo ketinggalan... and I don't find Dr. McDreamy THAT good-looking)
4. Manicure, pedicure, facial and foot reflexology (I'm over-pampering myself!)
5. Appealing to work in the Casualty Dept. (long story... to make it short, it's a plan, finally, on what I'm going to do after my internship)
6. Bought a new camera, laptop and car (my dear old Wira is safely back in Kuching)
7. Passed my medical intern assessment!
8. Almost had a crush on my specialist (luckily I found out he was married on time)
9. Planning a trip to Miri to visit my godparents in 2 weeks time

My sis has put up her Christmas wish list. Here's mine:

1. Acrylic nails!
2. Eyelash extensions!
3. An eggplant flower motive tattoo! A row of them along my thoracolumbar spine! (It's an idea...)
4. The perfect pair of working shoes (I've tried them all, Hush Puppies, Clarks, Scholl, etc. but nothing can compare to my Grenada beach slippers! Yes, hush... I've been wearing slippers to work, not just any slippers, my Grenada beach slippers.) I need a pair of proper working shoes!
5. A new pair of glassess
6. The whole collection of House. I love Hugh Laurie!

I'm a simple girl.

SINCE I CAN'T POST ON YOUR BLOG, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVI!

STAY YOUR SUPER WITTY AND GORGEOUS SELF!

I found authentic Kuching laksa here in KK! It's in Taman Cantek, just a stone's throw from my apartment complex. I'm always having my noodles in a kopitiam in the same row but never ventured further, or I would have saved my mum the trouble of tapau-ing laksa all the way from Kuching when she came to visit me the last few trips.

I'm now doing my internal medicine rotation and it's kickass exciting! Especially the acute patients! Not cool for the patients, I know but it's keeping me going, you know the adrenaline rush! I'm still waiting for the opportunity to defibrilate somebody! *rubbing my palms together and spotting an evil grin*

And there's always a sense of achievement at the finishing line of each day, irregardless whether I come in 1st, 2nd or last. :)

My new pearl jade Viva! I love!

Hosted on Fotki

Mum made this collage of my sis and I a while back. It's so cute! I'm on the fast track at the moment. Very happy in my current department. And extremely happy with my current team of colleagues. We are a super team of house officers! :) I have so much to to look forward to this week. Getting myself a new pearl jade Viva! Trying out for the Sabah health dept. tennis team tomorrow. Trying out my 1st locum. Will start swimming again after a hiatus to let my new tattoo heal... I didn't mention that I got a new tattoo when I was back in Kuching in September?

lazy, originally uploaded by sharonhappymorgue.

Last week my team at the Male Chronic Ward had a very denerving experience. A young man came in with jaundice and gross ascites in renal failure and was encephalopathic. 3 of us had to restrain and sedate him to put in an IV branulla for meds and fluids. And we couldn't get any history from him, so we just worked him up and settled all his acute problems.

My poor colleague had a needle-stick injury while doing a peritoneal tap for the patient. I was so disturbed when she suddenly came up to me at the counter and told me about it. In retrospect, I was more disturbed than my collegue. I urged her to take all the needle-stick injury steps and inform the Infectious Disease Team. NOTHING was known about the patient's infectious disease status.

The following day, the patient's Retrovirus screen test came back REPEATEDLY REACTIVE. That means POSITIVE. My friend just broke down and ran somewhere to hide, to go through the brief denial phase.

For the subsequent 2-3 hours, there was dead silence among us. A part of me felt like the world had become dark and gloomy shrouded with despair and uncertainty. The other part was praying so hard to God, thanking Him that just a few minutes ago, my blood-taking session with that patient had been uneventful.

I know that we hear about this all the time, but I felt so unprepared and surprisingly very affected.

We are doing what we are doing to help people isn't it? Was this necessary? And that night it was quite hard to sleep even though I was terribly tired.

But we picked ourselves up and went on working the following day and the following day after that. My colleague can smile and laugh today, but it's such a heavy, heavy cross she's carrying.

It's Hari Raya today and I'm having a fine day resting at home after a brief morning round in the 1st class ward of only 7 patients under my care. Since Thursday I've been relocated to the 1st class ward and haematology reverse isolation rooms to cover a colleague who's flown home to west Malaysia for the festivity.

It's really very relaxing, minimal blood-taking, and patients are ridiculously well actually. 2 were discharged yesterday but "prefers to stay until Monday", citing that their families were not around over the raya weekend. What can I do? If the specialists don't insist them to leave the hospital, I can't.

And I had a fairly good call on Thursday. 3 admissions after 12MN, but I actually enjoyed the whole experience. One came in with acute exacerbation of COAD, another presented with chest pain and palpitations and the 3rd presented with sudden onset of deep jaundice.

Maybe after going through obstetrics and gynae where clerking is at its barest minimum, clerking again in medical posting reminded me of my student time and I realized that it was actually very fun to go through all the possible differentials when asking about a particular symptom. The brain is working eagerly and excitedly in the wee hours of the morning.

And I'm still challenging myself to keep my composure and my PATIENCE, particularly with patients who's defaulted again and again, and coming in periodically with near-death experince, leaving me wondering in the world why their brains were not well-formed in utero.

Did the coolest thing today after work and went to the zoo. With my new Canon PowerShot S5IS. 2 weeks into medical posting and I'm quite happy though I'm dizzily busy, till the point of self-neglect. I'm looking so undesirable nowadays. Hehe. And my room, oh my God. Just heard from an old friend from home. He's tying the knot in December. Whoa. I'm invited to the wedding reception and all. I'm strangely worried that I'm not sure what I want to do after MOship later. I don't have any inclination. I enjoy all my postings. I've crossed path with a very special individual who's challenged me to re-evaluate my values and my attitude towards my vocation as a doctor.

I'm still alive

IMG_0362.JPGsm, originally uploaded by sharonhappymorgue.

Now doing my medical posting. BUSY, but quite happy with the department. And oh ya, I'm officially a HO/MO now! Time flies!

Was back in Kuching for a wonderful week! Sorry didn't call up anyone. Just enjoyed my time with my family. Will be back for Christmas.

Went to Telupid for another medical camp last weekend.

Crappy news: Lost my RM600/- dive watch. :~~( Can't figure out how it happened. Will continue looking for it. Please pray that I find it.

Pictures another time!