Little Superhero Girl...

Another week of intensive course...and another week of running to the wards and back to the lecture hall for classes...and tomorrow we have our own department presentation before the formal classes starts at 8am...skubalon!!! post call today...after suturing 3 faces from lunch till almost 8pm, thank God there were no more cases at night and i slept till the morning after finishing my presentation...

These 4 months (almost) have been a crazy roller coster ride...though there were more moments of spiralling down than a slow upward climb (not too sure which is actually the lesser of 2 evils)...but my life is pretty summed up by this Corrinne May's song called "Little Superhero Girl"...just wanna share the lyrics...you guys can find her song in Youtube quite easily...

Little Superhero Girl

I feel like a little girl
Trying to conquer the whole wide world
Everybody wants a piece of me
And I just don't know where to turn
I've got work piled up to my head
All I want to do is jump into bed
And wash away my troubles
with lemonade
Play hide and seek
with the boy next door
Take a trip to Singapore and
Imagine how I'll make the world
a better place

All I need is a good disguise
One where nobody can recognise
That I'm feeling so small
All I need is a secret weapon
I've gotta have faith
Zapping monsters into outer space
I'm gonna be a Superhero

Na-na-na-na-na-na
Na-na-na-na-na-na-na
Na-na-na-na-na-na-
Yeah

If I were a little girl
Trying to clean up the whole wide world
I'd kick the bad boys back to school
Teach them fighting's just not cool
I'd give every kid a teddy bear
Turn starving people into millionaires
Break glass ceilings with dynamite
sprinkle a little sugar and spice
Turn the bullies that terrorize
Into pink poodles that bark,
but don't bite

All I need is a good disguise
One where nobody can recognise
That I'm feeling so small
All I need is a secret weapon
I've gotta have faith
Zapping monsters into outer space
I'm gonna be a Superhero

Na-na-na-na-na-na
Na-na-na-na-na-na-na
Na-na-na-na-na-na-
Yeah

Little Superhero Girl
Little Superhero Girl
Save me
Little Superhero Girl
Little Superhero Girl
Save me from myself

I feel like a little girl
Trying to conquer the whole wide world

Intensive course....

Our 1st week of intensive course just ended today...with a 20-question MCQ paper...the last 2 weeks i've been just trying to play catch up...with what? i can't pinpoint it...maybe it's just my own shadow...but i really feel like i've just been dashing from point A to B and C and D and so on...and without me realizing, 2 weeks have passed by...and i haven't studied much...

I've probably failed my MCQ paper today...despite the fact that almost all the questions were pass year questions which we managed to get our hands on...and which we tried finding answers to the questions...still, nothing in life is guaranteed yea? guess we'll see how next week goes...there'll be practical and viva sessions by the end of the week...i hate vivas...i've always failed them...

In times of haste and rushing through days without being able to stop and smell the roses, i'm reminded of Corrinne May's song "Slow down"...i really wish i can slow down...can't wait for next month...i'll be in HKB...and i'll be going to UK for a week...ah, release is finally here...alright, i'm post call today and i'm playing keyboard at church tomorrow...need to get enough rest....

Of Snickers, Skubalon, and Fun in the Sun....

Last week was the beginning of flaps again...i was on call on Tuesday...and Wednesday was flap OT...and i left the hospital at about 230am on Thursday morning...after about 44 hours plus spent in the hospital...which is quite the usual...but i thank God that Thursday has come and that i was going on a girls weekend trip to across the border to Golok with Sharon and Suet Lai...but when i went out for dinner with them on Thursday evening, they told me that they decided not to venture across the border just yet in view of us not being familiar to the place...so we ended up deciding to go to Perhentian Kecil instead...was a bit disappointed coz i really was looking forward to a good thai massage after a long week...but a weekend island getaway sounded just as good...

We had dinner at Four Seasons...afterwards, we dropped by at 7-11 coz Sharon wanted to stock up on her painkillers...and i saw a bunch of Snickers bars on the counter and just had to get one...it has been ages since i munched on a Snickers bar...so i went home and packed...and enjoyed my Snickers bar at about 11pm...such unholy hour to be eating such energy-laddened food...which was why it was so gratifying...the small luxuries in life...hehehe....

Woke up late for church on Friday morning...good thing made it to church before they finished worship session...we were starting a series on Galatians and Dr Chew talked about Paul's background...and we all learned a new word in sermon...a Greek word: skubalon...which according to Dr Chew, sounds like abalone but is a far cry from it...coz skubalon actually means dung/ shit...so now i have a new word to use...and it won't even sound like a swear word...hahahaha....

After church i went home to collect my bag and the taxi with Sharon and Suet Lai in it, came to pick me up...as usual, i was sleeping all the way to Kuala Besut...hey, i only slept about 14 hours for the last 3 days...i have my extra baggy eyebags in my photos as prove...we had lunch at a restaurant opposite the jetty and took the 230pm speedboat to Perhentian Kecil...initially we thought of staying at Bubu Long Beach Resort again but in the end decided to try some other more budget place...

We ended up staying at this place called Panorama Chalets...got a family room with 2 double beds, AC but cold shower for RM150 per night...very basic, smells of cigarette smoke and has a leaking basin...but otherwise it was liveable...and they provided dinner for 2 persons...so we only had to fork out money for another person's dinner and drinks...so after we settled in our room, off we went to the beach to soak in the sun...i bought my bible along...thought it'd be a good time for reflection and all...after reading Psalm 22, totally dozed off (actually was already dozing off towards the end of Psalm 22)...used the bible to shade my face some more...tsk tsk tsk...

After about 2 hours on the beach, we decided to go for a walk along the beach...went to check out another resort at the end of the beach which has chalets along the slopes of the hill facing the ocean...and the rates were quite reasonable...i would love to be staying in one of those seaview chalets although my 2 others friends thought that any place that needed a hike up a hill isn't worth staying at...we went back to bathe and it started to rain...we wanted to wait for the rain to stop before we went for dinner but it didn't stop even by 830pm...so we decided to just shield ourselves from the rain with the towels and made our way to the restaurant for dinner...

We had our seafood dinner...Suet Lai with her King Fish, me with my barraccuda and Sharon with her squid...nothing to shout about...but the drinks were amazing...the 2 girls ordered chocolate banana milkshake which was just absolutely heavenly...and i ordered a Snickers milkshake which was great too...the ang moh waitress actually told us there was a bar called Black Tip Bar down the beach which has ladies night every Friday...and all the ladies (and men who wore dresses) get a free cocktail...would have loved to get my fix of cocktail if it weren't for the rain...so we went back to the room instead and chatted away...

Woke up about 9am...got ready and packed and went for breakfast...thought of trying out the massage at the guesthouse next door but they only opened at 11am and we were catching the 12pm boat back to Kuala Besut...so after checking out, we just lazed at the beach while waiting for our boat...came back to KB, wanted to find a place for a good massage...but couldn't find a place which would give us a massage....sigh...guess my massage will have to wait till later...

So i've enjoyed my weekend instead of studying...now it's time to get back to studying...dreading tomorrow and the rest of the week...coz it's flap..and then on call...and flap again...Lord, give me the strength to carry on...

Chicken Chop & Good Old Times....and El Camino de Santiago as my graduation gift...

I just came back from dinner with Kenneth and Daphne...had chicken chop for dinner...it's the famous one which we used to go to during our uni days...i just found out today that the owners have moved their shop...quite an upgrade from the shop they used to run their business...which i must say is a rare thing in KB...i guess business has been very good since i left KB 5 years ago...

As i ate my large portion of chicken chop, it brought back a lot of good memories...Alisa, Colleen, Chiew Ping and i used to go there for our dose of chicken chop/ fish and chips...or sometimes one of them would go out and ta pau back for dinner...and when i was with Kheng Wee, that used to be one of our regular dinner date spot...if we ever go out for dinner...Kheng Wee loved the chicken chop there...sometimes he would go on the bike all the way to town to ta pau chicken chop for both of us... ahhh, those were the good old times...

So much have stayed the same, yet so much have changed...but one thing's for sure...you can't go back to the past...so i have to seize the present....and look forward to the future...i've been listening to Corrinne May every so often as i can...and someone used her song "On My Way" as the song for her El Camino de Santiago journey in Youtube...i was curious about this El Camino de Santiago so i googled it...

What i found out totally inspired me...El Camino de Santiago is also known as The Way of St James...it's a pilgrimage where pilgrims make their journey from certain starting points to end at the Santiago de Compostella, the cathedral where it was believed that the remains of St James were buried...it's at a place called Santiago in Northern Spain...and the most popular starting point is from this place called St Jean Pied de Port, somewhere at the French side of the Pyrenees...from there, pilgrims travel by foot/ bicycle for 780km to their destination in Santiago...along the way, there are Alburgues or Refugios (hostels for pilgrims) where pilgrims can rest and exchange experience/ life stories with other pilgrims...when they've reached Santiago de Compostella, some pilgrims choose to continue their walk to Finisterre, which is by the beach...

And so, i have a dream...that is to go for El Camino de Santiago after i graduate from my master programme...it would be a graduation gift to myself...and i truly believe that it will be a purifying journey for me...not sure exactly what i expect to find...perhaps it will help renew my faith, help me to draw closer to God...whatever it is, it is definitely something that i will hold on to, to help me get through these next 4 years...Lord, may You bless Your daughter's desire...

Anyway, enough of dreaming and reverie for now...time to get back to studying...post call today...and i haven't been studying anything...one day wasted...oh dear...but i'm so not in the mood to study...Lord, help me to love anatomy....

A post call Raya...

So i've survived by 3rd eod call...there was referral last night from district...30 year-old lady involved in an MVA...she was the front seat passenger and she wasn't wearing her seatbelt...the driver tried to avoid an oncoming lorry and swerved to the left and crashed into a retaining wall...the patient hit the dashboard and smashed the windscreen...thus sustaining bilateral corneal laceration and a huge forehead laceration wound....since eye team was going in for EUA and T & S, so our side would do the forehead T & S under GA as well after they've fixed the eyes....

Got a call from OT just before 6am saying the eye team was almost done so i went into OT straightaway....then the eye ppl told me they had to suture the left cornea as well coz there were some lacerations...so i waited (while sleeping uncomfortably in OT) for them to finish...but by the time they finished it was 8am...my call was over...so i had to passover to my colleague who was on call today to come into ot to start suturing the patient's forehead...i felt bad for passing over to him but we're both doing eod calls...so i think i need my rest so that i can be on call again tomorrow....

Came back and zonked out till almost 2pm...if it weren't for my mobile messages, i probably would have slept till later...that's how tired i was....thought wanna go out for dinner with some friends...but most of them are working today...bad timing...when i'm working they are not, and vice versa...oh well, it's not like i'm not used to having dinner on my own...gonna study till dinner then need to go hunt for food...i think most eateries would be closed due to raya...

5 EOD calls in a row...Selamat Hari Raya indeed...

Yesterday i started my 1st of 5 EOD calls in a row over the Hari Raya Break...i'll be on call again on Saturday, Monday, Wednesday & Friday...praying really hard there won't be any onslaught of facial burn patients that the casualty ppl would intubate freely without ensuring if there was a place to ventilate the patient...coz then i would be the one who need to beg around for portable ventilators or a place to ventilate the patient if the burn unit is already ventilating 2 patients....i'll settle for minor limbs burn...even facial lacerations on idiots who still managed to get into accidents despite the massive jam that's going to happen over the Raya break....please Lord, have mercy on me...give me the strength and peace to go through the coming week...

Selamat Hari Raya anyway....

Korean dinner...and cocktails & cakes thereafter...

I went to visit Pa today...woke up about 12pm...found out Ma's wallet got stolen when she and Pei went to the market in the morning...sigh...series of unfortunate events...after lunch, Ma and i went to the place where we kept Pa's urn...i just felt that i needed to see Pa...thought that maybe i'd find peace... didn't see his physical self though...wish i could see him like how my niece Sylvia could...but i did find the courage to go on...i would make Pa proud of her daughter...we're not quitters...

Sent Ma to Lot 10 to exchange her Shiseido goods after that...got stuck in the jam for quite some time..reached home about 4pm plus...read 2 pages of anatomy and fell asleep...had a date with Twink tonight...she was supposed to come pick me up at 6pm to go for dinner...but somehow there was a change of plan...in the end i went to pick her up from at Sri Hartamas where she had her facial done...

So we went to a nearby Korean restaurant and had a pork bbq feast...since i've been pork-deprived in KB...hehe...after dinner, we drove back down to the Gardens and had dessert in Alexis...i just remembered that our family had our Chinese New Year lunch there this year...and that was the last time i had photos of Pa taken...and i realized that i didn't take a photo with him...just the 2 of us...

Anyway, i ordered a long island iced tea and Twink ordered a lychee martini...and we had mango cream cake and strawberry mascarpone for dessert...so it turned out that long island iced tea is a combination of 5 white spirits (poison according to Twink, of which i know none of their names), orange and coke (and no tea whatsoever)...i would have added more coke to the mixture to dilute the alcohol taste...but after the ice melted,the alcohol taste was less...so it was quite nice...and the lychee martini looked very feminine...very suitable for women...and at least it had lychee in it...

I had a good time bitching about my life (or the lack of it) in KB...told Twink of some horror stories...one particular story involved a certain person in my department whom i was assisting in an AVF operation...so this person was blaming me for trying to ruin his life coz i prepared the LA using a mixture of lignocaine & marcain adrenaline...which was what my urology boss had been using for the few hundred AVFs he had created (and no he had never had a case where the artery ceased to pulsate)...so when he found the vein, it wasn't in vasoconstriction...and then he found a pale cord-like structure at the radial aspect of the forearm which wasn't pulsating...and he started going on about why we shouldn't use marcain adrenaline bla bla bla..."hmmm, i wonder why the artery is so small?" and "damn, it's not even pulsating"...

I thought that was pretty odd...and the place where it was was more lateral than where the radial artery should have been...so i palpated where the radial artery pulse should have been and pointed out that it was more medial...that structure which was not pulsating was actually a nerve...thank God he didn't clamp/arteriotomize it...but i would not be surprised that if he screwed up, it would still have been my fault somehow....to cut the long story short, thank God for His mercy that the AVF was created without much mishap...

I actually have more stories of oppression/stupidity/etc etc...but it's getting late...and i'd rather sleep than waste my time on stories about people unworthy of my time...