Monday, February 12, 2007

Medical Students

These apprentices are let loose on the hospital wards in their senior years to learn the practical applications of what they learned in the ‘pre-clinical’ years.

As a hard-pressed junior doctor, it is a good idea to try to get these gullible souls to perform as many of the menial tasks as possible with the promise that you will put in a word with their examiners for them. You will never meet their examiners but they don’t know this so use their paranoia to your advantage.

Patients can’t fail to miss them as they walk sheepishly around the wards usually in support groups of not less than six for mutual support. If a patient has anything about their case even remotely interesting, they would be well advised to keep it to themselves. If word gets out of something like a ‘classic heart murmur’ there will be queues of students at their bedside with stethoscopes at the ready.

They are easily recognized by their still trendy haircuts and off-white coats that look as if they have been in a boil wash for a week. The student diet consists mainly of water and hospital toast which gives them a pale consumptive look which is designed to make the examiners feel sorry for them.

Students are always laden down with books with titles that start with ‘Lecture Notes in…’ or large unsavoury albums such as ‘A Pictorial Atlas of the Lower Intestine’ which they usually save to read next to some unsuspecting little old lady on the bus.

House Officers

These are doctors within their first year of qualifying. They are qualified but unregistered, and occupy a sort of no-man’s land in the medical world.

House Wallahs, as they are affectionately known, swing constantly between triumph and despair, depending on the day’s events. They will be expected to be responsible and show initiative, but must ‘instinctively’ know when they should ask for advice and assistance. At the beginning of the job, if they are in any doubt as to what is an unacceptable hour to call on consultant advice, a phone call at about 4 a.m. on a Sunday morning to his home usually sorts the matter out.

As relatively inexperienced doctors, it is time that is the main enemy of house officers. There are not enough hours in the day to get all their tasks done and they may often be seen stalking around the wards in the middle of the night doing things that were forgotten earlier. It is not unheard of for patients to be woken in the middle of the night by the house officers to ask them, “Would you like anything to help you to sleep?”

If house officers are called to the ward during the night, look at the way they are dressed. They usually resemble somebody who has grabbed anything wearable to come out of a burning building. For day wear, the required attire is a stiff new white coat, a stethoscope worn proudly but nonchalantly around the neck and pockets stuffed with enough paraphernalia and reference books to supply a third world medical mission.

They invariably bring up the rear of the medical staff ward round, laboriously pushing a trolley full of case notes, looking like some ice-cream vendor and are usually, for the time being anyway, about as well informed.

Posted by Adila :: 2:43 PM :: 0 comments

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Saturday, February 03, 2007

A really long but exciting post!

Hello dear frens!
thx hamid for your shocking expose! he may be a gd soldier, but he certainly is a lousy friend. either tt or his friends must be really hopeless & boring conversationers. have u ever dozed off while having lunch, with ur friends yakking away in front of u? with ur food still in front of u? in e middle of a crowded & hot canteen? u gotta salute this guy. "aiyoh, everyday i eat char kway teow...so boring...might as well sleep sia"

ok now i got a whole bunch of fotos to share courtesy of harti's cam! it's been a wk of firsts for many of us. an exciting end to chp as we enjoyed a last fling of fun before having to buckle down & study for e looming pros.

first up was the Very Special Arts (VSA) charity run organised by medsoc. our beloved happy family CG signed up to play captain's ball. with a power-packed team name like noel lim kai, we blasted our way thru e competition & almost won...almost ok. not only tt, we raised money by running & even caught the rare sight of our school principal wearing micro-mini shorts & baring legs that might have last seen the sun in 1975. ah all in all, it was great fun, though me, mc & huilin raised a pathetic $20 (at $2 per lap) combined. congrats though to harti, who by herself ran 5 rounds plus!!

on wed, a few of us decided to go watch the soccer match at kallang stadium. combining forces w wei keong's crew, about 15 of us med ppl ended up cheering on s'pore in a sort of exciting match. for harti & kok wei, it was e 1st time watching soccer live. kok wei, at first confusing e thai team to be e s'pore one (& who can blame him for they were wearing red?) & likely cheering on the wrong team in e 1st few mins of e game, had a blast i'm sure w harti, following wei keong's lead. wei keong, being a passionate supporter, cursed, booed & cheered w great gusto, even shouting out e horn cheer with much aplomb. in fact, everyone had a fantastic time doing e kallang wave over & over & over again, jumping up & down, spilling coke all over e place & enjoying guo zhang's donut factory donuts.

finally, also included are some pics from the thaipusam parade tt harti, hamid, hamid's fren malik, neela, kok wie, guo zhang, kenneth & me went for. we were so enthusiastic, we even followed e procession, choosing a favourite kavadi to follow, before realising tt we would be trapped until e end if we continued on. it was a truly eye-opening experience, for in a trance state, e devotees felt no pain, did not bleed & could walk & dance with such heavy loads on them. amazing!

to end off our cultural experience, harti & i experienced e tossing of e "yu sheng" (sorry for e spelling) at kok wei's hse, tog w our chp grp, again for e first time.

so...anyone up for sth malay or eurasian next? hehe here are the fotos...

VSA Captain's BAll

Kok Wei, Kenneth, Me, Hui Lin & Guo Zhang - team Noel Lim Kai with Harti not in view as she
was supporting us from the overhead bridge. Noel & Lim Kai, u know who u are. We've done
u proud!

Someone from e other team scrabbling madly for e ball

Kok Wei in action!

Us resting & eating e free potato chips


Sci Canteen shots

Ah! The original fav place gang tog! Lovely isn't it?

Ladies & gentlemen, a rare sight - pls focus on e top L-hand corner of this pic. Partially
obscured by a red plastic bag, here u see our asroe eating a full meal during lunch. Another
first in a wk of firsts!

Hamid, pedas is it? Cannot tahan ah? On e other end of e scale, MF, Marvin & Hui lin looking gd
with wide grins (kidding hamid!)

Witness the symbolic passing of the correct item of necessity to Boredin as e boo-boo
queen of yesteryear finally gets it right

The latest pretty young thing from Taiwan. Looking oh-so-sweet and as demure as a chinese
bride is Hamid, coyly advertising a bottle of kwei hua (i dunno how to spell)

Soccer!!
The med ppl at the game! Was fun eh!!

Hamid in this foto, looking a tad disturbed...

A patriotic donut!

Kok Wei & Harti, first-timers! Behind, you can see e pakcik armchair critics who amused
us with their insightful comments & strategies thruout e game

If u twist ur neck, here's a pic of wei keong doing the horn cheer.
Pep-pep-peppeppep-peppeppeppep...*****!!! (or however a horn sounds like)

Nice! Another grp foto...

Thaipusam...

The devotee whom we followed closely behind during the procession

Taking a rest after a spot of dancing to whistles & drum beats

A red swastika kavadi

View of the procession from the top

In the temple - a devotee dancing so vigorously his kavadi is a blur



Finally, a pic of CHP grp 4 before tossing the salad thing. Here's to lots
more fun and friendships in the coming new year!!

Posted by Adila :: 5:50 PM :: 0 comments

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---------------oOo--------------- :: The Soldier ::

"Good soldiers never pass up a chance to eat or sleep. They never know how much they'll be called on to do before the next chance."

The above mentioned adage is a famous one by Barrayar in 1991. It might seem a tad frivolous and out-of-depth on first sight but let us examine the sanctified truth that lies behind such simple and ordinary words. As we all know, especially the boys who have been though National Service, soldiers are a special breed of people. They are special because they have answered a calling that exist in very few. They put family ahead of self, and the nation ahead of the family. Ultimately, they will be ready to give their life for their beloved country at anytime and any day may the need arise. As such, their lives become unpredictable. They have to be ready for action at all times and no brooding or hesitation is tolerated.

With this background knowledge, we can understand why good soldiers never pass up on a chance to eat or sleep. This is because, even the soldiers do not have the knowledge of the availability of their time. Hence, a good soldier is one who capitalizes on his free time and makes use of it to eat or sleep, two entities which are vital in everyone's life.

What is a quote on paper? What we need are real-life super-extraordinary people who actually bring this quote to life and teach us a lesson to remember. We need a role model to follow and a guide to hold our hand and lead us to victory. Only a fortunate few will get the chance and opportunity to meet such people in their lives. And we, the laughtertears are highly fortunate and blessed to have met such a person. The person who epitomizes and crystallizes the meaning of Barrayar's quote so aptly and succinctly that it is almost unbelievably astonishing and bamboozling. The person that I am referring to is the best of soldiers. One of the true warriors of all time who has taken advantage of his free time to both eat and sleep. Such is the quality of this sleep that he is unable to hear his fellow soldier's chiding right in front of his face. Such is his concentration that he is able to sustain such great sleep in the midst of a bustling canteen. It is truly my honour now to present the limited edition picture of our fantastic soldier.

Our role-model of a soldier is labelled B. Notice that A is distressed and C is
rather nonchalant.

Posted by Hamid :: 12:36 AM :: 0 comments

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