Life Is Something Like That

Today, I scrubbed in to the operating theatre. Just for experience. The patient was a case of right inguinal hernia, apparently irreducible, so there's a large swelling extending into his scrotal region. I was a bit slow when I scrubbed (first time), so when I entered the room, the surgeons had already cut open the skin to the hernial sac. They were handling a pile of yellowish and reddish 'stuff'. Frankly, I don't know what they were. I guessed the yellow globular part would be the fat and the reddish parts were the layers of fascia and muscles.

Anyway, there were two surgeons, and they were very nice. According to one of them, the case was a bit complicated, as there were many adhesions, and I saw them sorting out the layers, trying to reduce and find the point for suturing. Well, I couldn't really describe what happened, as I myself was not quite sure what was happening. But roughly, I think, after reaching the sac, they reduced the contents, then excised the sac and sutured the neck, followed by the addition of a mesh to strengthen the wall.

It was quite an experience, especially for a medical student. I was able to 'assist' a little, mainly helping to maintain the surgeons's visual field, though I was a bit 'slow' at times. Haha. The worse part was when the surgeon asked me what he was doing or what the structure was, I couldn't really answer. Well, some of the answers, I already knew (I've just read on it). But at the verge of the questions, I went totally blank. Haiz.

Anyway, it was a good experience. At least I was able to have a closer look, with my own eyes, at the procedure. When I read back on the topic, the visualizations, the images in my mind will come useful to help clear some doubts and improve my understanding. Nice.

On another note, I noticed that the surgeons had been standing whole day long, and they hadn't eaten at all, as far as I know. It's quite incredible. After a surgery, they would then proceed with the next one, till the list for the day finished.

We went to the ward as usual, at 7.30pm, for our on-call session. After a brief survey of the ward and the surroundings (since we just had a change to this ward, we're quite new there), we begin to cover the cases. There was only one new admission. We clerked a little, and looked at the progress of the patients in their respective patient folders.

Then, I heard the house officer phoned someone, saying something about the oxygen saturation of a patient falling. After that, two other doctors came (I presume one of them was the one who received the call), and following a brief assessment of the aforementioned patient, they were soon starting to provide respiratory support for the patient. We went over and we saw a patient who seemed to be unconscious. He was so thin, his bones and ribs could be seen quite clearly, with deep depressions in between. There was prominent muscle wasting.

Ah, it's the end of pediatrics posting. Another 6 weeks gone by. Frankly, I think there's a lot to be learnt, but there's not enough time. By the way, the MCQ questions were difficult. I mean, it's unlike what we learned; nobody taught us about the questions that they put up. Seriously, I think they should at least set a standard textbook for us. Some acknowledged this book, some disapproved of it, it's rather confusing. And we're practically just entering the foundation period. Like, beginners. We didn't have real exposure before. So, they should try to make it standardized and simple, at least for this period. Once our foundation is set, then they can expect us to explore further. The questions that they ask us should be based on those textbooks, plus some practical skills we learnt from being in the ward. Or maybe I wasn't good enough. I don't know. Now, even though it's over already, I still think I have much to learn. It's quite difficult to accomplish it within this time-frame. Well, I guess I'll just have to improve myself at a later time.

Oh, and my laptop got somewhat buggy for the past week. I'm not sure if it's because of hardware faults or there is something wrong with my graphics card driver. Yeah, well, I thought I wasn't going be able to enjoy my laptop for this few days of 'end-posting holiday', but after some tinkering, I was able to get it back! Haha. I don't know if it's repaired for good, or just temporary, though. It'll suck not to be able to use my laptop this few days, not to mention I have a CFCS project to work-on. But luckily, for the meantime, it's still working. Well, I guess the lesson is, don't take your laptop for granted. I don't know if I can last long without a laptop. Haha.

Finally, after six weeks into ObGyn posting, it's officially over, at least for Year 4. It has been quite a hectic period of time. We attended 12-hour on-call sessions and conducted deliveries of babies, and a lot more, not to mention the exams. So, it's over for now, though we're still kept in suspense, as the end of posting exam results will not be revealed until the end of the year. Previously, they revealed the results after the posting itself, but it seems that this year, they're changing the policy. I'm not sure if the reason behind this is completely rational, but what can we do?

Anyway, for now, we have a few days to enjoy and relax before the start of the next posting. So, goodbye O&G, and hello Paediatrics.

Steve Jobs
1995 - 2011
The world misses you

It's been three weeks into the O&G posting already. And it is my first posting. Now that we're in clinical years, things are just different. Really different. It's like a very big leap, from the start of a staircase to the end of it, in a single jump. We are expected to perform procedures and stuff. And they didn't bother to have a teaching/learning session for us. Luckily, we have seniors, staff and some doctors who are helpful. They guide and teach us things. Though some others would just ignore us. It's the system - self-learning, they call it. But then, they are practical things, we certainly have to learn from someone, don't we? We couldn't just insert a needle into a patient's arm just like that, without knowing how it should be done. Well, in my opinion, an educational institution should be conducive for the learning process of its students. Another problem is that different doctors have different ways or should I say, desires, of how something should be done. The real problem comes when they become the examiner for our examinations. Are we supposed to know all the different ways and apply the right one when we meet him/her in our exams? Is there anything wrong if we just follow the standard ones, those in the textbook? What's more, if it is set as a criteria for passing - to please the examiner by following his method, it's just plain ridicule. Well, that's what I heard. I'm not sure if those conflicts are real, but if they are, *smack*.

Just a few days back, I managed to conduct a delivery of a baby. I monitored the mother from 12am to 4pm. And when the baby's head was coming out, tension abound. People were just shouting, giving motivations. And since it was a first pregnancy for the woman, it was expectedly longer than usual. When the baby was out, I can tell how relieved the parents were. After the on-call session which ended at 6am, I had to prepare for ward round and classes next. Non-stop. Finally, at 2pm, I could go back to my room and have a good rest. A whole day's rest actually, for apart than having my dinner and bath, I was asleep till the next morning.

Fuh, what a day, what a posting.

Webify Me is an amusing feature brought by Mozilla. Its page starts by asking what your unique Web looks like. Indeed, as it explains, the Web is a huge giant of information. However, it is everyone's choices on the Internet which leads to a personal Web, unique to the individual. Media and entertainment, engine searches, news and journalism, weblogs, social networking, and much more - they define the person's Web. Hence, Webify Me seeks to create a visualization or a collage of your personal Web, for the fun of it. All you have to do is answer 20 simple multiple choice questions (I have to say, some of the answer options are hilarious), type in the title for your collage, and it's done! You'll see a wall of objects which portrays your Web, or in other words, they define you and your personal Web. You can click on each of the objects to see the descriptions. Also, you can save a snapshot of it to your computer, for use as your desktop wallpaper, maybe?

Funny, yet true in a certain sense.

If you have had hard shutdowns on your computer a number of times, or improper shutdowns (e.g. due to power breakdown), or you simply have never done a check of your hard drive, perhaps you would want to run a scan of your disk and fix/repair it, before you start losing data or even the entire drive. I hadn't done a disk check since a few months back, and who would've known, I had a corrupted file (a pretty large one at that) and it's lost. Luckily though, I had a backup of the file. So, it's better for you to make frequent backups of your important data (e.g. to an external hard drive) and to check your disk for errors, perhaps once every few months. Better be safe than sorry. Here's how.

A disk check scans for file system errors as well as check the disk surface for bad sectors. How to check your disk? In Windows there is a Check Disk feature built into every version. In Unix, a similar method is the fsck command. We'll be looking at some of the ways to perform a disk check in Windows 7 (similar in other versions).

Ubuntu 11.04, codenamed Natty Narwhal, has been out for a few months now. Immediately, there were mixed responses to the 'new' release. Some absolutely like it, some totally hate (if it's not too harsh a word) it, while others think they can still live with it.

In this release, a number of changes can be seen, compared to previous releases such as the Maverick Meerkat. For one, Natty was designed to be suitable for desktops, laptops or netbooks regardless, instead of being specific. The classic Gnome desktop was replaced with a different and new Unity. Instead of panels at the top and bottom, the Unity launcher sits, by default, at the left edge of the screen. It has the autohide feature and some key shortcuts to bring up the targeted applications. The dash, which opens up via the super key, spreads across the screen (almost 3/4 of the space), where you can type in a few key letters or words in a searchbar and the space below will change to show the related applications. A quicker way perhaps, to access your desired applications compared to the previous Gnome panel where the applications are grouped in categories in menus (which can be quite cluttered when the number of applications increase considerably). In addition, there were a few other shortcuts implemented, such as Alt +F2, to quickly enter a command.

Before going to the National Park in Pahang, we gathered at our friend's house first, for two nights, in Ampang. In the morning, his parents took us for a breakfast. Boy, was I full, because his dad ordered quite a lot. Plus, I don't usually take breakfast. Still, it was a treat, and of course it tasted nice. Haha.

Next, his parents went for work, while he took us to Batu Caves, by LRT and train. My first time there.

Yesterday evening, my dad and I went fishing again at the river behind our house. We started quite late in the evening. Not that we didn't want to start earlier, but it had been raining since afternoon, and as soon as it turned to a drizzle, we went out. This time, we used live prawns only, no worms. Nothing disgusting. Haha. 

The river was flowing down, though a while ago, in the afternoon, it was a full tide. Influence from the full moon? The day before, the moon looked quite full, big and bright. On another note, I just learned from Google's search page, that there would be a lunar eclipse on the 15th of June. I'm not sure though which timezone it refers to. 

Anyway, we didn't manage to get a fish. There was a dog at the river bank behind one of the houses there, which kept barking when it saw us. No good, it might scare the fish away. But we did saw glimpses of the fish in the river. The fish made ripples on the surface of the water, in addition to those from the rain. Occasionally, the fish flipped about the surface, showing it's silver body in a swish for a split second. I felt a jerk once on my bait, but that's all for the day. I had to mention though, that there were some rubbish in the river. Plastics, especially. They must have come from the residence along the riverbank. Ain't there a better place for the rubbish to go? 

Apart from the rubbish, the place looked like a mini National Geographic scene of a swamp river. The overhanging tree on the bank stretching over the river, the drizzling rain, the ripples on the water, the birds swooping low over the surface. It was nice, cold and windy too. As the night crawled nearer, mosquitoes began to come out to feast, and the rain was slowly increasing its intensity, so we headed back home.

Would you have thought that there's a go-kart circuit in Manjung? Haha, there actually is. I'm not sure when they began their operation, but I only came to know it this year. True enough, the place seems quite "secluded" and there's only a big signboard at the front to tell you it's a karting circuit. However, it's by the highway, and most of the people who sped by probably wouldn't notice. So, we knew of it's existence by word of mouth.

We went to the Manjung Karting circuit, except for my mom, just for a try-out. No other customer was there, just us. Probably because it was a weekday. Great, the whole circuit was ours. It's a rather simple circuit, you can actually see the whole track in a glance - it's not even as big as a football field. Well, you wouldn't expect it to be like those in Genting or Sepang anyway. RM10 for 5 minutes, RM20 for 10 minutes. My sis said you could go for a steamboat for RM20. Haha.

Everything was ready, so off we go. The engine's chugging quite loudly, and we were wearing a heavy helmet, so it was kinda hard to hear others. The whole kart also vibrates from the engine. Once on the track though, you wouldn't notice it much. When you look at another kart in front of you (and you're in a kart too), it was kind of funny and cute. Imagine, my dad in a mini car, speeding away. And my sis with a grin on her face, on the other side of the track. I just wished I could get hold of my camera then. The curve was kind of sharp though, and the steering wheel was a little hard, but it was fine. In fact, the steering wheel could only turn 60 degrees max to either side. With a full-sized car, the curve might be like a U-turn every 5 seconds, but for a smaller go-kart, it was more "manageable". Haha.

Well, my dad was like driving past us all quickly - probably his driving experience. Haha. As for me, I took my time. I could speed all the way and overtake, but the width of the track wasn't very big. Plus, the guy in charge warned of reckless behaviour. There was actually two times when I came close behind one of my sis' car where she suddenly slowed down. And I was so near, I stepped on the brakes as well as let go of the accelerator. Guess what happened? My kart's engine shut down. And I was left waiting for the guy to come over to help start the engine again. It was funny. And it happened two times! Haha. And you bet, 5 minutes passed pretty quickly.

It has been so many years since I came back to Johor. The last was during a university trip to NUS. But I guess that wouldn't count since we just stopped by. And this time, we're really back! Haha. The journey there took about seven to eight hours. After all the travelling previously (especially from home to campus, which also took as long), somehow, this journey didn't seem to be that long, as it would before. Just roads, rest areas and, we reached our destination.

We went to my grandmother's house. The big Pineapple statue at the junction leading into the housing area still stood proudly there. Can you guess where this is? Haha. By the time we reached, it was already quite late at night. After dinner, and some chatting with my uncle, we went off to sleep.

Originally, my dad and I intended to go climb the hill which I brought my friends to the other day. However, the road, which was narrow already, was packed with cars. It looked like a lot of people from an institution, probably the navy, were there. When we reached, many cars, motorcycles and people were coming out. We couldn't get our car in, so we had to cancel our plan. I wonder how so many cars could fit in the narrow area.

So, driving back, we thought of finding the bait shop that we couldn't locate the other day when my friends came over. Not satisfied, we wanted to find it. Haha. After some searching, finally, we found it. It's a small road, no wonder we missed it. We bought some worms and live prawns, and went fishing at the river near my house.

We started at around four something in the evening and fished till about seven. It brought back my teenagehood memories. The prawns' eyes looked big and shining like they did, and the worms were still that gross. Haha. I just sat there, like I did when I was young (not really that young; I sometimes went fishing with my dad when I was a teenager), and looked at the scene before me - the waves in the water, the swaying trees and the birds flying low, waiting for the line to strike. I remembered there were times when I went to fish with my dad at night. The cold breeze, the torch light, the mosquitoes, the bold moonlight, the shadows of trees beyond the bank on the other side, the glowing eyes of prawns in the river, the clicking sound when I wound the line, and the flipping sound of the fish in the water as I pulled up a catch. Ah, those were the times.

It was some wait, and patience is a virtue. Sometimes, you'd feel that a fish had caught your bait and pulled it up only to find that your bait was gone. If you didn't wait long enough, and keep pulling it up to check your line, then you probably wouldn't catch a thing. In the end, I caught a small fish (I don't really know what it is; it's the size of a baby's palm) and a small catfish about the size of a forearm, or less (I'd like to take a photo of the fish, but I didn't bring my camera because I know I'd be touching the worms). Not bad for a day, better than nothing at all. Haha. When the tide was coming down, and too much rubbish were flowing down the river (yeah, who threw those rubbish?!), we stopped. The rubbish would get stuck at the line. By the way, we released the fish back into the river.

Ah, 8 days of travelling to those places. Melaka was the first place we went because it was where we planned to complete our elective project. Besides my group members, there were others who joined along because they were, well, simply bored at home. Haha. We stayed at my friend's house, and it was big, with the classic/antique feel to it. Very classic Melaka-like. We went to the jonker streets, temples, the A Famosa thing, took a boat tour around the Melaka river, ate satay celop, and many more. Fun, especially when there were friends around to enjoy with. Of course, with friends, silly things happen, and we got to laugh. Haha. The night view around the river was amazing; too bad my camera ran out of battery. But it certainly was a nice sight to see. Other than that, we managed to finish the elective project there and then. That's it. No more delaying. What a relief.

Looks like our supervisor, the professor, wants us to conduct a survey/research that can be presented at the annual conference. Wow, we didn't expect that. We just wanna complete the project for our elective, but it seems he wants to take it further. Since he's a professor, I guess that's only natural. I'm beginning to wonder if we should've chosen other supervisor instead. Well, I'm not really sure if what we will be doing would return valid results or not. It could even be a messed up project. So, for a starter, he asked us to submit an official proposal to him. It took me very long to complete it. It's our first, and the real difficult part is the literature review and background of the research - yea, we're that blur about the topic. There isn't much related information, not as far as we could find, but we couldn't just put "there's nothing to be found", so it's like a finding a needle in a haystack. Okay, maybe not a needle, probably a stick. Still it's not easy. I took days to get it done.

    The next part is waiting for the response from the professor. Though I'm not sure if he still remembers about our group and our project. The thing is, he is rather busy, even wanting to meet him for discussion may be a little difficult. Never mind. We shall proceed with our project. It is for our elective, after all. Hopefully, we can do it quick.

I've been thinking of getting a new camera. My previous Olympus camera is not really functioning well anymore. It doesn't seem to be able to detect the battery. Not battery problem. I've checked it with other batteries. Even when you've charged the battery full, the camera still says that the battery power is empty. Though, sometimes, when you repeatedly insert the battery, maybe shift/turn the battery around a little, the camera powers on alright, and guess what, the battery meter is full! This is frustrating though, because you'd need to fiddle with the battery a little each time you wanna take a shot, and by then, the 'moment' is probably gone.

    Finally, I got myself a new camera. A Canon Powershot S95. Cool and compact. Haha. It has a focal length of 28 - 105mm (35mm film), slightly wide, but not too wide. The optical zoom is only 3.8x; it won't do if you want to zoom in on very far subjects. But it has a focal ratio of as low as f/2.0, which makes it good to use for low-light conditions. Plus, it offers full manual control.

    I bought it at Low Yat Plaza when I visited KL. Definitely cheaper there than many other places. I went to Ipoh the other day, but the price is higher. I'd like to put a few pictures of my new camera here, but since I don't have another good camera to shoot with, I guess I can't. Using a phone camera won't do justification either. So, maybe another time then.

Professional 2 Exam is over. I made it. Looks like the coming few years may not be sweets and candies, but that's another matter. For now, it's holiday! And it's for about five months long. Haha. There's the elective project, a little troublesome actually - we kinda chose the "difficult" topic. But otherwise, there's plenty of relaxation time. Eat, rest, watch movie and sleep, here I come. If possible, I'd like to travel some places too. Yay. Start anew! I'm scrubbing my blog and redesigning it too.