have a break

"Could i cross the green mucky swamp?"

Well I'd know the answer within the next five days.

Never thought I'm going back to BTN at this age.The truth is I'm looking forward for this break, getting away from the ICU for a while feels like charging the old battery. Hell it even feels like buying a new one - sniff ** Hmm well the best part is I'm getting another couple of days break after that, who knows.. Cherating awaits?

Aiyaa! Get off my back will ya

Lepas geram session. Silly things people do that gets to you, like those people who think they can boss you around.

Sadly enuf the person who did the on-call/on-leave roster do not have the slightest clue on how to give priorities. Imagine a colleague of mine got her 'leave' approved so that she can get away on a snorkling trip. Eventhough i applied for it first in order to prepare for an interview/test ---> mine was rejected. How shitty is dat!Thank God someone else is doing the roster now.

Last nite... an orthopod dude wanna do an emergency case @ 4am and have the nerve to tell me that i should give the BIUS his way, simply bcoz he think he can do the procedure in 5 mins.

"Wei... ko bagi hold mask jer, i can get the nail out in 5 mins, check out d xray, it's very easy to find one"

Luckily i gave spinal-block coz it took him almost 1 bloody hour to finish it.

"How do you like them apples?".

Mind your language!

Have u ever felt like you have dissapointed yourself in this quest of living this life to the fullest. Much alike that sambal belacan u wished u didn't eat coz now it left you with foul breath. Yaiks! I'm amazed at how many times i have let down myself at this stage of life. So much to be done yet so little time.

Hah! Btw my new resolution would be 1) to be fit (stamina & endurance so to speak, hence i'll start jog this week 2) to speak more in english. Hey that has been my goal since form 4 -- huhuh i'm a late bloomer u see

Bugger! i find it very de-motivating when people (esp malay kids where i used to grow up in east coast) gave out remarks like "Piraaa..mabuk cakap BI konoon!". Maybe that's why i'm still lacking the confidence to speak BI esp @ public speaking.. talk about lecturing in front of hall-packed with audience. Hahah! Laughing at myself.

I dunno whether my chinese/indian buddies faced the same obstacle when the were kid.
Maybe not.. dat's why most of them able to grasp the core of the language and hence the knowledge that comes with it.. be it science & economy/business. Hey guys! we haven't got that 30% share of that economic pie.. so much for NEP ya.

Heck i'm jealous at the older malay generation, Tun Razak, Tun Haniff, Dr M, Musa Hitam, Tunku, Tun Ismail; they're all fluent in BI and look at what the Language/education policy that generation left us with (well not the names i fore-mentioned)... now i can't even write a bloody-good formal english letter. Oh! Oh! most of our politicians speak in english at home to their kids and many of them have their kids educated in UK etc... so their kids are safe huh. Last but not least kids in Damansara/hartamas/mont kiara would be ok too ya, but how about their second cousins who live in Felda Jengka or Padang Lebar would fare in that department.

So much for my new year resolution..

Ponder

What is happiness?

Is it the presence of joy or merely an absence of sorrow.
Lately i wonder what really makes me happy or unsatisfied about my life & job.
Heheh long hours.. sure! As long as it pay the bills, I'm ok with it.

But having thought hard about it, it's the opportunity of getting know your patient as a human being rather than merely a case. So in our mind... "Mr liver failure behind curtain no.4" is no more just another patient, but has become a face with a pesona who turns out to be a loving husband who always put extra-hours at pasar malam to support his family. Or a novelist who failed twice in her marriage knowing that she will die of cancer in 2-3 days time... alone, with no offsprings.

It's the privilege and humility of being granted the access to another people's life and even intimate part of their history. Every patient who walks in has a 'journey' that could be learned from.

Not all of us docs feel the same, their contention being getting too close will end up taxing you emotionally when patient dies. Detachment may be a good thing, some sort of defense mechanism to our fragile heart. An overdose of ill patients & death could numb the mind of even a veteran doc.

You guys have any personal encounter with docs?... ones that inspires us to become better people... or ones that leave us in anger

5 love stories and a pirate of DVDs

Initially I plan to watch Happy Feet this weekend. However ended up watching 2 local movies instead. Phew! A record. Well folks Ciplak & Cinta prove that Malaysia can still produce good quality movies.


CIPLAK
(PULP FICTION meets SNATCH) A low budget indie movie yet an impressive 1st outing for this malay dude! The strength mostly come from clever editing, story development and fine acting. Sure there is some 'ciplak' directorial style from his idol K.smith & Tarantino, but the result is something to be proud of. The nonchalant humour works well with this guy.

The only thing is.. sometimes it's quite difficult for me to understand his thick UK accent/slang. English subtitle will be helpful though haha!
Very promising talent. Hopefully he'll get some $$ return for a bigger production next time


CINTA
LOVE ACTUALY meets 'nasi lemak' (surprisingly much better!!)
It has all the elements of great story telling & love that trancend all walk of life which works well with our multi-facet society. The idea of love can exist in many forms i.e sacrifice, unconditional, siblings, is rarely potrayed in modern malay films. Kudos to the great effort! The cinematography cleverly captured both urban and rural feel of KL.

However putting 5 stories may have put a toll on some plots and its character development. The ones that have better premise for more story-development are the married couple & siblings. Dato' Rahim, Fasha, Rashidi (eg. telling his story to Nanu at building site), and Nanu have all put up convincing performance.

Rita and Eizlan have shown their hidden talents in this movie, albeit not consistently shown in some scenes (i.e. press conference). Love the flashback scenes... Sadly I feel Amani didn't show her natural acting strength - previously seen in SEPET & GUBRA. ...

Oh btw, that little girl can really act huh!

"Foxtrot Sierra... do you copy?"

Phew! The A1 GP racing came and gone. I got lucky to be called again for the second time to join its medical cover team. Th experience can be summed up with 3 words - fun, hectic & wet.

The medical cover was organised by our own military medics, with the inclusion of some civilian docs.

It's always interesting to watch the way those army folks run the show. We got morning parades and briefing ala-ala "an officer & a gentleman" minus R.Gere of coz. I guess the take home message is teamwork begets success

We were devided into several key-teams, comprised of docs, paramedics/nurses. Each team had different role and were given unique call signs: e.g. zulu leader (team leader), papa lima (pit lane doctor), foxtrot sierra (flight surgeon) etc... this whole code-thing reminds me of J.A.G yeyeh!

The main role of each team will then be determined by the doc's (who lead them)specialities e.g. emergency physician, surgeon, anaesthetist, orthopods etc.

The Sepang medical center itself was turned (in just an overnight) into a 'mini-mi' hospital, we got everything from X-ray machine, observation ward to even an operating room! - Malaysia boleh kan! Even the mat-sallehs who co-supervise the whole action complemented our local effort as being among the best medical teams in the global GP arena. No play-play ah!

We had 3 days headstart purposely for only 1 thing = TRAINING. This includes from reporting accidents to evacuating drivers from their damaged cockpit. Most of the guys had been trained before in the previous race or tournaments i.e F1, Japan GT, so it was just a matter of getting back into shape & rhythm.

We also gotta learn and memorise the track well, esp. the dangerous turns & curves and the fastest & nearest route to the crash location and back to the medical center.

And oh boy! In Sepang circuit, when it rains it pours huhuh!

"Charlie 2 to Zulu leader, we've got a code red at turn 12, requesting Bravo unit assistance, do you copy? over".

PS: Did I hear somebody says F1 :)

The morning after

Anaesthetist are bunch of docs who guard the ICU and OT (two places in hospital where tension can be quite nerve-wrecking). ICU patients are mostly unstable and usually connected to breathing machine. Which means they are not so verbal... and when they do complaint, it will be in form of 'dropping their blood pressure or heart rate'.
Perhaps that is why there is some form of global regulation that anaes usually gets a day off after being on-call for 24 hours. Whether that 'law' really exist or not, it is something that we do get and need after those semi-sleepless nights.

Question:

"Would you want an anaes who didn't get any sleep the night before, doing your surgical case; by choosing & calculating the correct drug types & doses to put you asleep on the operating table?"

Having said that, I pity our other colleagues from the other departments i.e paeds, surgical, orthopaedics etc. who don't get the post-oncall day off. This means they're working from 8am that day until 5pm the next day --> 33 hours straight.


So.. my most recent post-oncall day: I slept for good 6 hours.. pampered myself with 007 and a nice dinner at Piccolo Mondo! Now dat's my 'morning after' ;) Oh BTW, that blond chap... he is a perfect Bond (after Connery of course HAH).