steamed up for the K9 year

new year gathering dinner/tuan yuan fan:

with buddies: at strawberry hills, all present except for cheh in klang. due to time constraint, could not make it to klang to see him. Anyway, i guess he needed the extra time to study for his first clinical exam, end of posting exam in his first posting. had a great time chowing down great delicious food. photos with aik kheng and li ying. li ying (kept appearing in my blog as "buddy") still owes us all the photos of last buddyline gathering. He he.

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with batchmates: steamboat buffet somewhere in sunway. jenny booked 4 tables altogether. no much of interaction between the tables except the times when we have to compete with one another for the chicken wing. I correct myself, for the delicious, BBQ, honey-crusted mouth watering chicken wings. Our table representative is Stephen Chieng and he was always consistent in getting a plate full of BBQ chicken everytime it was served. There were loud cheering everytime the chicken is being served. Seems rather barbaric, but i guess, most of us enjoy these moments. One table started off by having Poh Nee, See Wie, Peng Peng and Seen Yee, stripping off the 4 plates of full of prawns. While Fooji focussed more on getting the fishballs, meatballs, and other kind of balls. He is the yu-tan-lo, while I kept cooking the chicken eggs for others. At the end of the day, full like mad and my tummy look like it is of gravid uterus 6-7 months, breathless when standing straight.

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with family: simple dinner at my house with my parents and sis, then went to my grandma’s place for ‘d’ grand gathering of steamboat, eating at a cosy pace and having wonderful quality time.

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with ex-schoolmates/Xavierians: bunch of stupid x idiot (SXI) people gather around and update about one another professional life, be it studying or working. we had a drink at winter warmer, gurney plaza, then the next day, baccarat at kuong lim’s residence and dinner of western food at the nearby fatty loh restaurant.

gathering at winter warmer of 20+ xavierians was somehow seems like a havoc, especially in paying the bill, or more explicitly, splitting the bill. but then again, i’m glad to see lots of people that were previously ‘lost’ from my social circle. it wouldn’t be fair to classify this meeting as havoc, perhaps it all seems like a game of musical chair, changing seat to chat up with almost everyone.

the baccarat or siam ban lak (siamese blackjack in hokkien) game at kuong lim’s place was also comical and truly an exciting time. this is the first time, his small garden compound squezzed in 8 cars, looking like a used-car company. "I never knew my house could fit so many cars." "you should actually start collecting parking fee". we took turns to be banker. some were obvious big winner, some otherwise, while some just won rm1 (the girl from indah water, jelutong) after 3 hours of game. i won enough to have a decent meal later on.

with my little cousin (lower primary) during cny:

ah boy: "you gamble?"

me: "yes"

ah boy: "doctors can gamble mer?"

me: "so, if you’re not doctors, you can gamble?"

ah boy: "…"

spiak ingrish RETURNS

just finished ward round with Dr. Sanjiv, a great lecturer, humourous and informative guy.

rather "attracted" to a letter sent in to News Straits Times…

Please clarify

I AM totally amused by the recent controversy and statements by by Datuk Ismail Merican, director-general of the Health Ministry, regarding the failure of our medical students from foreign universities in the special professional entrance examination.
To add insult to injury,
Ahmad Ikmal Ismail, chairman of Education Bureau of Umno UMNO Youth, has commented further without checking the facts.
On behalf of all parents who had no chance to send their children to local medical universities, I would like to ask Datuk Ismail to clarify a few things:
First, are our public medical universities recognised by the British Medical Council, which is the highest board for medical graduates all over the world? Even Singapore does not recognise our graduates.
Second, are our lecturers who prepare these questions from our three universities really qualifiedto do so?
Third, is the exam conducted in English or Bahasa Malaysia?
If it is in Bahasa Malaysia, surely all the foreign students will fail because they have studied in English, whereas the local graduates study in Bahasa Malaysia.

Are you very sure that all the graduates from local medical universities are good?
You just have to be in the hospitals and listen totheir graduates’ conversations in English. You would be shocked.

K.BALASINGAM
Shah Alam

I was thinking "for goodness sake, why are you condemning our own national language?"

and so I wrote in, too…

English or Bahasa Malaysia

Regarding the letter "Please clarify" from K.BALASINGAM of Shah Alam

I am currently a medical undergraduate at our local university. I would like to clarify that the language issue plays a major part of our curriculum and of course, at the end of the day, passing the exam. In my humble opinion, both English and Bahasa Malaysia play a major role in our path of becoming a good and safe doctor in the future.

English is vital as it had long established history of being the standardized language for communication between doctors all over the world, be it Africa, China or India. Any miscommunication about details of the patients would be perilous.

Yet, in our local setting, our national language, too, is an important language, as it is the main communication tool in our daily conversation between people of different races, especially the elderly in our country. Therefore, the real scenario in the exam would be best if the medical students from other countries are able to communicate effectively with the patient and formulate the best management plan for the patient.

Wouldn’t it be horrendous if in sickness, you are being seen by a doctor who had to talk to you only through a translator, or if without the translator, he would just look at the test results and treat you as a disease, not as a person?

I believe those professional medical terms had to be learnt in the university, but basic english should be taught well in primary and secondary school, not in the university. During my second year, there used to be english classes for the undergraduates, which is a total waste of time, as it seems like drama classes to us. Luckily, these classes were taken out of our curriculum.

It would be best if other basic languages, such as Tamil, Mandarin, Cantonese or Hokkien to be taught to the medical students so that they could communicate better with patients, and i believe, in emergency, it would be life-saving.

I believe everyone would expect the doctors in our country are capable of saving lives and respecting the patients, not just being good in English, right?

my thoughts:

though not written in the letter, i would really like to admit that some of us, especially at times of pressure like exam, our english is really ingrish. But where is the problem? The problem is with the Education Ministry. No doubt about it. We were chosen into the undergraduate study program partly looking at our MUET (malaysia university english test) as a relatively important criteria … read it carefully… malaysia university english test… yet in an esteemed faculty, it would take in more than two handsful of students who failed their MUET and had to reMUET in the university.

sungguh meMUET(muak)kan!!!

drama in geriatric ward

currently posted in geriatric ward and infectious ward… interesting, yes…

why? all the aunties and uncles enjoy talking to us… everything but the real condition that hits them badly… mainly their disease…

i end up taking a thorough social history for all my patients… today covering ward for tomorrow’s ward round with Prof Philip Poi….

medical problemwise, all my patients had multiple problems (as expected) and i do not really know where to start, or rather where to end… but i guess what really matters is that these patients at the end of the day, all their problems will be given a solutions which does not contradict with the other solutions to other problems and does not cause a new problem. huh? do reread and make sense out of it.

lots of drama here, especially about a tied-up uncle, kept howling "AAAEEEEE" since the evening hours. By night time, his voice is set to haunt everyone in the ward, be it the patients or the nurse. Several people seemingly had approached him, entertained his order and dealed with him, but nothing seems to work. I wa hoping as his energy runs out, so will his shoutings in the ward. I was wrong.

Apparently, another uncle confined to his own bed, asked me to talk to the howling uncle. "I think I am in the same position as him, he had been shouting for so long, why can’t anyone do anything for him" he said in a very weak manner.

I approached the howling uncle, and he babbled in some foreign language, which does not seems to be mandarin, hokkien, or english. He was bounded up, for some reason, fearing perhaps greater danger that may strikes him. When it all really make sense, all he was shouting is "AIR! AIR!" (water) And so, I gave him some water, and make a deal for him to sleep early. He promised me, in a way. But I remembered vividly, that previously, a nurse too gave him some water and it did not relieve his passion for creating a dolby monosyllables sound effects theater out of 13U. somehow, i hope everything will be fine later on.

tomorrow, instant clerking at 7am, and presenting at 8am to dr. norliza. paged her whole evening, no reply. getting the case tomorrow from her as well, probably at 650am.

i believe it is best to be busiest before my chinese new year break. miss my home greatly.

welcoming the year of DOG… p/s this is a LION dance, not a DOG dance…

spiak ingrish?!?!

From jeffooi.com

This is an anecdote pinned on the noticeboard of the dietetics department at Monash University, Melbourne:

NUTRITION FACTS

Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attack than the
Aussies, British or Americans.

Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attack than the
Aussies, British or Americans.

African drinks very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attack than
the Aussies, British or Americans.

Italian drink large amount of red wine and suffer fewer heart attack
than the Aussies, British or Americans.

Germans drink a lot of beer and eat lots of sausages and fats and
suffer fewer heart attack than the Aussies, British or Americans.

CONCLUSION

Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you.

one of the comments given there:

Jeff, I take the above "NUTRITION FACTS" seriously as it is exactly what "Enzymes and Microbial Technolgy" is all about. Japanese, Mexican and African eat more raw meat & vege than the Aussies, British or Americans. Italian & Germans drink more wine than the Aussies, British or Americans. Remember that raw meat, vegi, Kimchi ,sake and wine are rich in enzymes due to it’s nature or by the fermentation process. This is also why Eskimos are healthier even though they eat lot of meat (raw, not cooked). The the problem with Aussies, British or Americans is because they eat too much "cooked" food.
This also explains why less Korean & Japanese are hit by Bird Flu or MAd Cow decease.

ref:
http://www.worthington-biochem.com/introBiochem/introEnzymes.html
http://www.transformation-enzyme.jp/clinical.html
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20030316a3.htm

Anyway, I think I should be healthier then the rest of you cos I made the enzymes at home and my English is No Good

Posted by thomas_SRJK at January 25, 2006 04:40 PM

case closed?

article 121 (1A) ruling

• great climber’s soul being torn apart between the civil and syariah court
• being torn apart by family and religion. right action? hmmmn…
• non-muslims citizens got worried (but still got lots of responsibilities, therefore continue daily activities, putting faith on the chosen ones)
• non-muslims ministers write it out in a memo instead of speak it out
• action is after all louder than words. right action? yes!!
• muslims citizens membantah by gathering around somewhere (nothing else better to do) and somewhere else (good alternative to picnicking harmlessly). right action? hmmmn…
• pak lah stands strong closing the case on the 9 minister’s memo. right action? yes!!

where do we go from here?

"this is neither the end, nor the beginning of the end, IT IS THE END OF BEGINNING." Winston Churchill.

goon thing rum boat!!

new hair cut for the (chinese) new year!!!

mcdull

mcdull with the doctor

mcdull with the restaurant ah pek

prom night

traditionally, prom night would be the night where the guys be worried about getting a partner for the night, and anticipating a great time during the dinner itself or after it. go figure.

MPIS, malam penganugerahan ibnu sina, an annual events of the hostel all medical students are supposed to be staying in (except 2 years ago, when some smart people senselessly tried to place them at other colleges, ending with lots of complaint from the students and hostel’s management because of the difference in our holidays). Now, most retransfer back into the this college, but once again some senseless people pulled in students from other faculties despite the fact there are never enough rooms for the medical students. for what? muhibbah, i guess.

since it is the annual events for us, the pathetic medical students, we had to somehow take it as or delude into thinking that MPIS is our prom night. not even close, but still it is a dinner, where one would put our grooming skills and creativity into practice, especially for the ladies. my total grooming time, including wearing my rough worn-out brown shoes equal to 5 minutes. no kidding.

thinking along the line that this MPIS is for the final year senior, a dear friend of mine was disappointed that there were less "involvement" of final years in the whole events. there were less photos, less appearance in the presentation. somehow, we should be reminded that this is a college dinner, not a final year graduation dinner. big exam coming soon.

most of the time, we were comparing MPIS this year to the MPIS we had during our first year. we compare almost everything. the food, the dress, the events, the presentation, the deco, the itinery, but not the speeches (it is difficult to pay attention to speeches with an empty stomach).

the food: mostly chinese-style. most of the dishes - the chicken, the vege, and the mushroom can easily be found when i am dining back in penang with my family at a random kopitiam at jelutong (somewhere in penang, near my house). you get the picture.

the dress: i would say grooming-wise my final year seniors (MPIS 2001) is better and shows a lot more creativity plus flair. nonetheless, my batchmates were strikingly showing great improvement by comparison to how we dress back then when we are in first year. everyone looks grand in one way or another. among the chinese, my mixed traditional and modern wear, should be rather outstanding, right? (”,)

the events: lots of creativity. there was this entertaining artistic stage dance or show with a big fat butterfly flying with some random masked Zorro-wannabes in jeans flipping the colourful clothes as rainbows. my coursemate, farina sang a song, a high-pitched song, to high for her to handle, i guess. lovely movie presentations, a clear masterpiece, deserving my applause. should have shown the man behind it, instead of displaying just his name. also there was this item-collecting games for the table.

then, there was this mr. and ms personality contest. just a cooked-up contest for fun. as before mentioned, i got into the finals, but unfortunately i lose. ha ha. I never expected to even get into the finals anyway.
the winner is a clear deserving winner - Don. In this last few years, he is the leader of our batch, pushed into this responsibility by others, but work his way steadily as a buffer to balance the dissatisfaction by fellow coursemates and the demands of the higher authorities, especially from the "santa claus".
i am also a clear loser, not prepared, hungry and hypoglycaemic - luckily my borborygmi did not project loudly when I am on stage.
the finalist: elaine wong, norAZAyati, kavetha, don ismail, puthashanan, me
the winner: don ismail, kavetha.

the itinery: awards for selected sportmans, and sportladies, the college staff and student council, the contributing students,

the deco: admirable ice at the entrance, great ribbons over the chairs, great stage deco, the arc and everything. but the opening ceremony was a failure as the banner did not drop down as planned.

no dancing session, as expected, and it was replaced by the self-declared photography session, as usual. felt pretty superficial taking all the photos, but perhaps looking back at them years later, may prove me wrong. special thanx to cameraman choo wei, kelvin and king chong.

the next day, darn tired, but still dragged myself to the ward to see the patients early before short cases practise with beloved prof kj goh.

being the finalist for mr personality, short conversation with my groupmate at 5U, ms. nut-pillar-house-sane.

"banyak junior minat you, yeh?"
"tak de lar"
"jadi you ajar mereka banyak benda keh?"
"i tolong mereka jika mereka memerlukan, seniors kena tolong juniors, bukan saya seorang yang menolong"
"eh, you tahu ke soalan untuk kavetha itu dulu pernah tanya…"
"wah, you ade collect SOALAN PAST YEARS untuk ms personality-keh? ha ha. terrornye"
"eh, tak de lar"

review from one of the powerpuff girl. poh peh poh peh… =)

hamsaplo strikes again - mamat and his buddies, 2 first years.

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informally, the best bow tie award (N.B. bow tie borrowed from the chair)

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the best boy band award (Men II Boyz)

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the deco… iced up, gang!

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the toast of the night… CHEERS!! (served jasmine tea ONLY - healthy stuff)

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the elegant madame (keep ur eyes in the socket, please, guys)

Curl Check War… (disappointed)

yes… disappointed with the dilemma that I am in now.. supposed to blog about the dinner MPIS that I recently had but couldn’t, reason being - there’s only 2 available pc in the library, one could not go online… another could not handle my pendrive being plugged into its multi-lubang backside…

so, my comment about dinner that day shall be postponed…

i’m disappointed by a tale about a patient in the ward, actually more of a disappointment about his children. the patient, X is a stroke patient and he is currently well and could go home with children. Isn’t it a good news? if I am the son, i would be jumping joyously and pack up to get back to HOME SWEET HOME… but before no, the children wanted to keep their father at hospital. excuse being, they don’t know how to take care of the father. What the f***? I’m really pissed at this situation. The rehabilitation doctor came and wanted to teach the children how to take care, and the children refused, YES, REFUSED to learn them, and wanted to wait for their newly hired maid to come in a month time to learn up the take-care-of-stroke-patient skills. this story can really be a sensational hit at Ripley’s believe it or not. the parents would hardly leave them over with a maid, and now they just wanted to leave the total responsibility on their father to a complete stranger.

if you remembered my previous blog entry, a nurse once said,"satu bapa boleh jaga sepuluh anak, sepuluh anak tak boleh jaga satu bapa"

then, there was this friend of mine, Y, that told me after graduating and working, she will repay her parents. I said,"money not important to them, it is more important to take care of them". She was taken aback,"no, i think i’ll just repay them back. I am too busy, besides I am not on good terms with them"

Nonetheless, there are still time to change her mind. I hope so.

the eyes that truly see

no class the whole day… initially.

have not confirmed any ward rounds last week.

anyway, started my own schedule today just to pad up the time

630am jogging

800am breakfast off to ward (haven’t decide what to do)

815am saw some dr doing rounds - follow them to get to know the patient

900am still following

1000am still following

1100am told by leader FishXar La Bull (not her real name), we’d a class with Dr. HT CHong… did some short cases… my examination sucks… big time… but got rather relatively good marks…

1215pm go to meet prof gracie because she wanted me to collect signatures for our previous anaesthetic class attendance… she’s so scared that she could not get our signature… yes, she used the exact word - scared

1230pm chow time

100pm went back to room. got a letter from college - sukacita, anda ialah finalis untuk Mr. Personaliti - ooooh great, i will be the target of pranks at this dinner… hope i can spread "joy" to everyone… and took some tense of all the pre-examination stress.

130pm went with the mamat to practice short cases in ward paed5. examined several babies. the first baby’s parents got so used to the examination, that they taught us what we miss… SUPERB…. BONUS…

215pm joined clinic of Prof Adeeba… got questioned about various AIDS medication in a patient which is pregnant… really starting off in a rather complicated matters… why is the drug started, why it stopped, why start back again, why didn’t stop like the first time? start, stop, start, stop, start, stop… kepala pusing.

400pm really tired… went back to Ward 5U to see whether i can learn anything from patient. just too tired to really clerk a patient professionally, and so i sat down quietly and talked to a blind uncle. I sat down introduced myself as a medical student, but conversed as a friend. he is alone, and perhaps finding the all the sounds in the ward to be a drama to him. he doesn’t have anyone around him and no other audiovisual devices, too. he was glad i was there. he told me about the story how he got blind. how the incident striked in such a manner that everyone mistook it as a joke, he spoke about his previous striving in the society, he spoke about his adversity - wife leaving, lose jobs, selling houses, moving places, supporting children in studies, and not forgetting some darn hard, cold facts with the medical "professionals"**. he told me how he loved "er hu" (sort of chinese traditional violin), how he loved 935 FM from singapore because of all the stories how great people in the world had their own share of suffering ie deng xiao ping never had any children for 40 years since his wife last miscarriage, how he deals with his children’s education, how he learnt all his skills of using a walking sticks and how much fun he had in the Malaysian Association for the Blind, how he despise wearing sunglasses because he thought he look like an evil villain wearing one….

"Uncle, is there anything that the medical people should be more sensitive about?"

"Yes, something scary happened to me. It was my 3rd day in 6E, UMMC (the eye ward), and as i asked a doctor how’s my condition, he answered me slightly rude- uncle, your eyes is blind liao, cannot see, so, tomorrow, you can go back liao"

"Oh"

"But a nice doctor, soft spoken, later talk to me again. He told me - uncle, i did not know what you were previously told. but i just wanted to tell you the truth. Before i tell you, it is best that you prepare yourself mentally. This is something that could have happened to me, too. I want to tell you that the nerve for your eyes is completely spoilt, so resulting in blindness. You will be living in the world of blindness in your coming days. But medical field are advancing very fast nowadays. One could not predict the future. Who knows there will be a discovery anytime that could help you see again, by probably changing a new eye for you. In medicine, there is always a possibility"

"Yes, it is true, we are all human, one day, we will also becomes a patient ourselves eventually"

* piloism: professionalism is not in the name or honor people had given you. it is in the little things that you do that makes the whole lot of difference.

as what stephen chow sing-chi had said and portrayed in his movie: "keh leh feh, tou yiu zou ko, jun yip ke keh leh feh" (in cantonese: in acting, extras also have to be a professional extras)

by this time, you maybe thinking "what this fella so free ar? talk so much to patient, blog so much, siao ar" "ok… going to study liao.."