school holidays..

It has started. While my parents are enjoying their holidays at home, i still need to go to hospital as usual, which i hate! I am not going to work while others are lazing at home.. NO NO NO… so i decided to take few days off as well hahahahaha… and it starts tomorrow! yippie!

now.. need to think of what to do next few days kehkehkehkehkeh ;P

The plans are:

1. sleep

2. eat n eat n eat

3. watch kdrama, jdrama, twdrama

4 watch movies

5. shop till drop ;D

6. sightseeing

7. tidy up my bedroom ( ..bersepah dah nie.. heh..)

7. study

Hmm.. weird. How come i think of study last when i have exams in few weeks time!!! LOL 😀

feeding the monkeys..

If you haven’t been to Muar, you should stop by Tanjung Emas. It’s a mangrove ‘recreational park’ for you to jog, sightseeing, dating hmm hmm, not to mention a home to hundreds of monkeys and baboons. Me, my dad n my brother love to feed the monkeys whenever we have extra bananas at home. Last 2 weekends, my brother and I went to feed them hehehehe… they’re adorable!!

I'm getting a sugar cane!

An evening with monkeys.. a true Muarians!

That's me!

The House Of God

The House of God by Samuel Shem.

4th year medical student. The year was 2007. The place was the operating room. It was a laparoscopic hemicolectomy case. The anaesthetist was in his 50s or maybe 60s. Sorry i could not recall his name. He had this unique way of setting cannula. He used a ‘butterfly’. The nurse pointed out he is the only doctor in Manchester Royal Infirmary who would use a ‘butterfly’ to set an IV cannula before surgery. The one and only. He is eccentric, intriguing, a joker as well. While we were in the middle of surgery, he suddenly asked “so Lydia, have you read The House Of God?”. And I said “no”. Suddenly a roar in the operating room. The surgeon, the registrar and the old anaesthetist looked at each other and laughed and talked about the book. He then said to me “You must read it!”.

It took me 4 years to find the book. It’s simply amazing, hilarious and i find some of it real and true. I’m glad i read it now, not 4 years ago. Having work as a doctor and appreciate what the job is all about make me understand what Samuel Shem is trying to convey…. Did i mention the book is first published in 1978? But reading it in 2011 and comparing my HO days with those interns in 1978 (intern in US = House Officer in UK/ Malaysia), i chuckled a bit. Nothing has changed.

Got it from Kino!

LAWS OF THE HOUSE OF GOD

1. Gomers don’t die

2. Gomers go to the ground

3. At cardiac arrest, the first procedure is to take your own pulse

4. The patient is the one with the disease

5. Placement come first

6. There is no body cavity that cannot be reached with a 14G needle and a strong arm

7. Age + BUN = Lasix dose

8. They can always hurt you more

9. The only good admission is a dead admission

10. If you don’t take a temperature, you can’t find a fever

11. Show me a BMS who only triples my work and i will kill his feet

12. If a radiology resident and the BMS both see a lesion on the chest X-ray, there can be no lesion there

13. The delivery of medical care is to do as much nothing as possible

Lost? Read the book. You won’t regret it. Especially if you’re a HOUSE OFFICER. This book is meant for us. Doctors.

P/s: Ever since i started reading the book, i secretly call my patient gomer and gomere whenever i saw them in the ward.. hahahahaha… and i luvvvv ‘Fat Man’

Happy Reading~

Adjustment Disorder..

I’m diagnosing myself to have an adjustment disorder.

It’s a term Psyc loves to used when they can’t figure out what is wrong. I donno what is wrong with me anymore huhuhu..

I haven’t brag about my MO life right? I enjoy it at first, later struggle with it, then love it, then hate it, regret it, grateful of it.. owh A MIX FEELINGS! For your info, I started my MOship last Disember. Almost 1/2 year, time sure flies. Remember those things i said before on how i hate my MOs when i was a HO and pledge not be like them? Ironically, i found myself more n more like them! I do hate myself for it 😦

That day i scolded a HO for not doing her morning round, for not updating the investigation charts, for not carried out my plans, for not sending the cultures..bla..bla.. endless. I got angry for her ‘slow reaction’ and tortoise like attitude. I keep comparing her to myself “if i can get it done why couldn’t you?”. When i share my misery with a good friend she just said these 4 words “They are NOT YOU” which I agree. I admit different people react and do things differently. And I happen to have a HO who is completely opposite of me who likes to make my life miserable! I already give up the word ‘perfect’. I now lower my expectation to ‘just get it done’. Even that simple wish cannot be fulfilled. Now i know why my MOs dulu-dulu hate their HOs. Coz now I hate them all !!

Attitude is the essence of medical practice. If you got a right attitude, you will survive. General medicine is scary. We got the highest admission rate per day, the highest ICU/HDU occupants, the highest of everything. From mistakes to complaints to negligence. You have to have an attitude that can withhold those pressures. Willing to work long hours, finish all the clerkings, discharges, prescriptions etc..etc.. (it’s never finish you know), develop soft skills, getting angry at, being shouted at (i mean by patients and the relatives), and most importantly to try to be as thorough as possible on the job to avoid mistakes that could possibly take someone’s life. General medicine covers >80% of what we learn in medical school. The only time for us, to put our knowledge into practice esp HOs are during the 4 months Housemanship rotation in medical department. I remember what my previous boss Dr. Chua said, “as a doctor your knowledge and medical management must be good. Because no matter how high you go, even if you become a surgeon, oncologist, neurologist etc.. at the end you’re a doctor and as a doctor you are expected to know how to manage a simple case like hypertension and diabetes”. I am so frustrated when those young doctors taking the jobs for granted. I’d been there. I was a HO before. Don’t tell me that the workloads are too much to bear. Get out of my ward if you thought of saying that! My apologies to those who have broken down emotionally, mentally, spiritually and need a few weeks off, see a shrink, on anxiolytics, anti depressants…… oh how medicine must be cruel to you guys. But when you see ‘it’ from where i stand.. from my small eyes 🙂 … general medicine is fun, challenging and 100% rewarding if you have the right attitude. I mean it. I am here am I?

I am trying my best to be a good medical officer. Giving advice and guidance to the young ones. But if they keep irritate me with their blank ‘i donno what to do’ stares, annoying giggles after serious warning from specialists, mistakes here and there…..

the answer is : Get out of my ward. As simple as that. HO mistakes = MO responsibilty.