Dodgy disturbing thoughts

posted by a mamat:

have u guys read the star newspaper report on
asians learning to spend their weekends n
reducing the working hours…well i just dont feel
part of this new sensation or watever u wanna call
it as we the future drs have to work for hours n ppl
still think that its acceptable…just bcos the senior
drs have gone through the phase n some still do
it…n say that its a pride n a responsibilty…well we
have responsibility not only to pts but to ourselves,
family n happiness…without those will I b able to
sit my ass thru these 5 yrs of medicine?…how can
something b normal what its not…we r lying 2
ourselves…the truth is plain 2 see..theres only so
much u can do in a day 4 pts…sigh

define normal, please.

is it normal as in what the majority of public is going through is considered as normal?

normal 9 to 5 job and continue the normal day by entertaining our children and helping our ladies with the normal dinner or so, or had a normal evening of minor sport games?

I hope someone out there could enlighten me. We had so many medical schools all around malaysia producing so many medical doctors, yet we had insufficient doctors to attend to patient. I heard postulation/speculation that many doctors (pardon me) after they had their title (having the government supporting their study so far), they went into other non-clinical - insurance, politics, health admin and most could not handle the stress in the line of duty and decided to be housewives.

Could this be the reason why doctors still shouldering a large burden in the line of duty?

"theres only so much u can do in a day 4 pts"

Maybe being more in the medical field, one had forgotten that at the end of the day, we are also human. There will be a day, or maybe two day, or maybe more, when we will be in the hospital bed, being severely ill and hopeless. Then, would you be hoping that the doctor could have done more for you?

One maybe dreading long hours of on-call, blood taking, writing the consultant’s words without thinking, tracing results, reviewing old notes, preparing IV drugs, retracting and stitching up at OT, and listening to patients grumble about difficulty in breathing after they had smoked a few puff but at the end of the day, we are not the one with CA of head of pancreas.

Doctor is not god, and should not be playing god, but please reminded that

"with great powers, come great responsibilities"

If you can’t handle the responsibilities, you can always strip away your powers and lead a normal life. Not that you’re being bitten by a radioactive spider, right?

P/S anyway, mamat, you always have the SLAB to shorten your "suffering", right?

Skinned alive by THI HAnnibal

Finished my surgery posting with an unforgettable long case, with the cheeky uro specialist, Thi Ha. Yep, he is the same guy that told us about "no pride in having a long ***** "

Sing Yee had obstructive jaundice

Helmi had upper GI bleed

Nadia had colorectal ca

I had MALIGNANT MELANOMA. Oh gosh! I just briefly flipped through this topic in the morning - totally zielsch nil zero recollection about it.

the whole session was not depressing or pressure mounted, but felt like answering SAT (short answer test) in long case.

Dr. Thi Ha asked me about:

• types of melanoma? beats me. benign and malignant?
• what is subungual melanoma? i bullshitted about darkened skin or melanoma under nail bed, causing eversion of nail, deformed nail, may cause gangrene at the finger tip if circulation was affected. He laughed and told me only the first part is enough.
• complication of TPN? knew the drill
• types of radiotherapy? got the common types covered - PO, external beam, brachytherapy… missed out on IV for sarcoma
• non-neoplastic diseases for radiotherapy? i knew Grave’s nia. then he reminded me of Gamma Knife for trigeminal neuralgia, epilepsy, AVM…
• tumor lysis syndrome? knew about it, but could not answer completely
• many many other question which knocked me down flat, really flat.

though, I learnt plenty of stuff from him

the most depressing thing is I am the last person to present my case.

Waiting there for hours and hours and hours and hours…

Banner, anyone?

Click Here!

A time to die

BMJ is currently discussing about the issue of euthanasia.

"there are signs that a majority of UK doctors now favour legalisation of physician assisted suicide with stringent safeguards"

This is very much depressing, and I particularly support this chap below

Eugene B Wu,
Interventional fellow, cardiovascular division
Brigham and Women’s Hospital, ppb-1, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA 02215, USA

"The position the BMA has taken on euthanasia troubles me deeply. Truth is not determined by head counting, right is not determined by votes, and good is not determined by law. Ethics cannot and should not be determined by popularity. The turning of the tide of opinion about euthanasia does not make euthanasia right. Democracy may be a good way to select a president to run a country, but it is not a good way to do ethics. Slavery, eugenetics, female genital mutilation, ethnic cleansing, and infanticide have all be democratically deemed as good in other cultures and in history. To suggest that just because many people agree with euthanasia and therefore we should legalize it is simply bad ethics.

Those who say that "They wouldn’t let a dog die like my old dad died", may be failing to genuinely appreciate the gross difference in the value of life between his old dad and his old dog. The value of human life is not determined by votes, nor by law. Philosophically, assuming all men are created equal, then, the value of human life is at least as great as the value of my life. Therefore, I am at no liberty to take another man’s life and also at no liberty to take my own life. Since my life is valued higher than my autonomy. In fact, this should come as no surprise to practicing clinicians as many of us have persuaded, argued, and limited our patient’s autonomy for beneficience. From the simple persuasion to stop smoking after a coronary stent to a desperate warning against further alcohol in liver disease, we put their benefit above their autonomy. If we are willing to so discard their autonomy for modest benefits, how much more should we be willing to do so for life?

Historically, doctors have stood out against the crowd on many issues. Even today, doctors in Africa recommend chastity to prevent HIV. Our stand for clean water, vaccination, healthy diet, tobacco use and alcohol use stand against the majority trend of our societies. Our recommendation is more passionate and more urgent than the manufacturer’s "smoking is a cause for lung cancer" label on the packages of their products. When did we, as a profession, lose our guts to stand up for what is right?

As an ageing physician, I unwisely yearn for the days when medicine was a professional vocation, when patient’s trusted their doctors, when legal threats did not impact our decisions. There are many reasons for the degeneration of our profession and the lost of trust of the public. Perhaps one of them, is that we are becoming like the public, for we no longer stand upon ethics, but upon opinions.

Let us not change our position on what is right based upon votes. "

Are becoming more like public? I had to have a closer look at my fellow members of my fraternity…

Something new, there’s an interesting findings about higher risk of neh neh cancer in the left-handers char boh.

No-brainer

The college administrators yet again pulled out a no-brainer stunt of spot-checking us for electrical appliances and prohibited items.

Several signs that they were idiot moron nincompoop blockhead dimwit donkey dumbbell imbecile jackass jerk meathead nitwit pinhead typical low life:

• Last spot-check, they have it the night before our exam at 1am. they don’t even introduce themselves and force their way through into the room with the spare key in their hand.
• Current spot-check, they even brought guys to go around ladies’ hostel. Just a soft-spoken "spot check" and within seconds, they opened the door to the room with the spare key. One of my coursemates were changing her attire at that time. Ain’t this all just insane? Why don’t the pengeTUA-TUA give us a spare key to her house?
• They confiscated electrical items, but surprisingly, they left the cigarette packs alone.

Complaint?

Typical reply "Jika tak suka tinggal kolej ini, boleh tinggal lain tempat."