Pindah

It’s been a while since I last updated this blog, and it’s probably down to a mixture of mental lethargy and plain laziness. And it’s also partly due to the fact that I’ve moved from the dorm-like atmosphere of my accommodation of the past year to my spanking-new 3-bedroom flat over the bank holiday weekend.

The new place fulfils 2 main criteria of any place I’d want to live in – a power shower and dark curtains to block out the sunlight when needed (e.g. at 10am on a Sunday morning). Happily, it also comes with everything else brand new, as it has been recently been refurbished. This includes the kitchen utensils & electronics, the bathroom, sink and cabinets in my room and they’ve even provided a 20-inch flat screen LCD by Toshiba in each room. And finally, I’ll be able to connect to the internet via the long-delayed use of broadband connection.

Best of all, I’ll be living with people that I actually want to live with, and we’ll have our fair share of privacy as well. Having said that, we’re currently quite literally jumping with excitement after previewing Omar’s Xbox 360, and it’s only a matter of time before we get a HD telly for the living room along with Sky HD (the graphics are BEE-YOO-TEE-FOOL).

We’ve had our celebratory dinner, and here’s looking forward to a year of feeling like I’m living in a home. Oh, and my friends can finally come visit too.

Night 4

I am more or less halfway through my week of nights at the moment, and paradoxically, I am writing this entry on the busiest night so far. I stepped into the Emergency Medical Admissions Unit with a slight spring in my step (ok, I'm lying) and my heart pretty much sank when I saw the 5 admissions waiting to be clerked. I have been pretty much on my feet all night 'till about 20 minutes ago, and we (registrar and myself) have seen about 12 patients between ourselves so far. Thankfully, the wards have been relatively quiet.

Not too bad for a Monday.

I've been told numerous times (by a variety of individuals) that the medical night shift is the place that'll cause the most stress but is also an excellent learning opportunity. To a certain degree, I agree with the statements. It's definitely busier and more taxing than any other shift I've done so far (cue panda eyes) and it definitely makes you think harder and do all you can to ensure the patient remains alive 'till the morning. I've yet to have a oh-fuck-what-do-I-do moment, but that's probably a reflection of the great support I've had from Kosar, my Iraqi registrar. The really sick patients that I've seen so far have either gone to ITU or have (expectedly) died.

The poor reg's actually unable to sleep during the day, so I tend to tell him to take a nap for 2-3 hours around this time (5am) so that he'll be able to at least rest for a bit. I, on the other hand, have the ability to sleep whenever I'm tired. I remember sleeping on a rock and the road back during one of those BTN courses. I prefer staying awake during my shift though, 'cause I get really annoyed when I drift off to dreamland and then get woke up by the incessant sound of the bleep. Hence the nightly ritual of sipping on a mug of coffee at 3 in the morning for the sole purpose of attempting to make sure my mind does not stray too far from the conscious.

Coincidentally, Omar and Karin have started their first set of nights at the same time with moi (in surgery and O&G respectively) and we've faithfully kept to meeting up for breakfast and bitching about the previous night's events. It's actually quite fun 'cause we're all in the fields that we actually intend to make a career of, so hopefully we'll have an idea of what awaits us.

Mary Jane to keep me in sane

Yesterday's on-call was rather tiring, and by the time the fourth OD came through the doors, I was pretty depressed myself. Attempting to commit suicide was the disorder of the day, and for some reason, Amitryptiline was the medication for the day. I swear almost every single patient came in with it.

Today's been good though - managed to cut down my patient list to single digits. It'll undoubtedly grow soon, but at the moment I'm content to sit back in the evening, cook a simple dish (salmon with a rather haphazardly made marinade), reacquaint myself with Chopin, read the comics purchased last weekend and clean my hotmail inbox. I keep wanting to make the move to Gmail, but it'll probably be another few months before I get myself going.

Back home, Pak Lah has broken his 'elegant silence'. Which is probably the correct thing to do in order to deflect criticism that he's not the strongest of leaders. The interview on national telly by his close friend and political speech writer didn't break any new ground though. I'd love to see a debate televised live (ala the American presidential election debates) between Pak Lah and DrM. Might not be fair though, so we can throw in KJ and Anwar alongside Pak Lah. Now, THAT would be prime time entertainment.

F2

I've made the transition from being an orthopaedic F1 to an F2 in cardiology without anything untoward occuring. Thankfully. I've been pretty lucky admittedly - not too many patients at present (my definition of a busy medical firm is one with at least 20 patients to look after), and none of the ones that I have are too ill. Helps to ease the process of re-acclimatising to using my grey cells and it's also extremely helpful to the new F1s.

Yup, I've got a couple of F1s under my wing. As both aren't UK-trained, they're struggling to get used to the way things work. I'm sure they're clinically up to scratch (probably better than I am at this stage!) but from an organisational point of view, things are a lil haphazard. It was quite frustrating having to explain every other thing and showing how everything works, which totally delayed patient care. Add the fact that my locum reg is also new and I had to guide her around as well. But it's only been a couple of days though, and there's nowhere to go but up.

Seeing I've got a couple of F1s, I'm apparently meant to participate in clinics as well. I'm sure it'll be good experience but I don't see it happening for at least another month.

Hmm...suddenly felt the urge to eat kuih sri muka. I swear I actually felt the taste in my mouth. Yum...

Will be starting my first set of nights at the end of the week. Something that I'm partially dreading, as I've yet to participate in medical night on-call. It'll be learning experience hopefully, just as tomorrow's on-call will be. Here's hoping nobody dies.