DAY 2289-2317

Dec 8 - Jan 5

1) Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2023!! And what a year it has been. Starting where I last left off, the online exams (for the Research in Health Module) went smoothly, although we have yet to receive our results. Hopefully all of us pass and can progress to the next block of research in August, during the first block of Foundation Year 2 training.

2) Trauma and orthopaedics has been an interesting rotation so far, if slightly challenging to wrap one's head around. For example, there are five different wards - Wards 225-228, and Ward 112. Ward 226 is a mixed ward comprising both orthopaedic and spines patients, while Ward 228 is a neurosurgery ward with some ortho / spines patients. Ward 112 is the elective orthopaedic unit which has recently become a trauma unit, but is currently a medical ward. The other wards are more straightforward - Ward 225 is for neck of femur fractures, and Ward 227 is for acute trauma rehab. All of this took me some getting used to.

3) Overall, this is mainly a medical job in a surgical ward. Commonly encountered scenarios include prescribing adequate pain relief, managing constipation, managing infection, checking wound dressing sites, checking post-op X-rays, and medically optimising patients pre- and post-operatively. Based on my limited experience so far, I've found spines to be more challenging than orthopaedics, with more complex presentations requiring senior input. 

4) It is customary to have a New Year's resolution. For me, it is to make it through Foundation Year training, and then decide for certain what I'd like to pursue in life. With any luck, the coming rotations will help me make up my mind. For now, I'm quite happy and content with the way things are going. Hopefully this will be another good year for everyone. Thanks for visiting my blog as always, and have a great year ahead. Cheers!

Merry Xmas from Ward 228 :)

L-R: Myself, Julian, and Amir

A perk of working late shifts (14:00-22:00) is you get this "Nervecentre Device"

- essentially a repurposed iPhone that alerts the doctor of any urgent tasks

Guess who decided to grab two of these today

Freezing at -8° Celsius

Got myself a gym bag for travelling XD

Unexpectedly shift at County Hospital today

Love the Christmas decorations in front of the hospital

A rainy night

Yes, permission was sought beforehand

First time doing bloods in the paediatric ward

Bloods done today

The wards may be poorly staffed, but the staff are well fed :)

New Year, New Haircut

DAY 1579-1592

Dec 29 - Jan 11

1) Just like that, the nightmare that was 2020 has passed. That doesn't mean things will get any better, but with a new year comes new hope. Some of us will have made our New Year's Resolutions, while others may not. I don't have any particular resolution, other than to continue toiling about with my studies. I'm currently just past the half-way point in family medicine, and I'll be sitting for the end-of-rotation examinations in two weeks. No pressure then.

2) Exam stress aside, family medicine has been very interesting. Our 10-day break for Christmas was very useful for me, as it gave me time off to rest and recuperate, as well as revise some much-needed medicine and surgery notes. Given the recent increase in COVID-19 infections in Malaysia, we will have to wait and see if there are any changes implemented to our current movement control order, which may have an impact on our studies and exams. I guess we'll find out tomorrow evening.

3) When I was younger, I loved reading about space and astronomy - of quasars, supernovas, and supermassive black holes. Of course I was not able to understand most of it, but recently I've begun watching videos on YouTube, and it has piqued my interest again. Everything from the theory of the universe, how life began, and how we measure the age of the universe etc - all easily assessible and explained in layman terms. 

4) Another aspect of science that I've always enjoyed is evolutionary biology, specifically that of humans. Those days, it was always a search for the "missing link" - that transitional fossil that describes the intermediate form that separates modern humans from our anthropoid ancestors. Nowadays, we know that evolution is neither linear nor progressive (i.e. it is branching), and so the term "missing link" has fallen out of favour, replaced by the newer term "last common ancestor". Again, some excellent videos are available on YouTube explaining this in more detail - I just find them fascinating.

5) There's nothing really new going on in my life right now. The main objective is to finish off our family medicine rotation in one piece, and then transition to the next rotation (i.e. ophthalmology) before our Chinese New Year break. Until then, I should probably get back to revising haha. Thanks very much for visiting my blog as always, and have a great week ahead. Cheers! 

Welcome to Cat Beach!

(We took a nice detour during our posting at Teluk Bahang Health Clinic to visit this gem of a location)

I don't know anything about cats but here's a contented-looking one XD

These are all stray cats that have been put up for adoption :)

One of them even decided to get close to me XD

At the entrance to the very aptly named "Cat Beach"

Here's a close-up photo of my left retina, taken during one of the clinic postings

(it's a normal eye XD)

Lunch with Sharifah and Rachel @ Oldtown Kopitiam :)

As quickly as they appeared, the Xmas decorations have been taken down and replaced by the Chinese New Year ones

Compulsory face shield, for extra protection against the current pandemic...

A huge thanks to Melvin and Melissa for the lovely cake and banter! :')