Jason’s Blog

Friday, 22/09/2006

Woke up extra early today to avoid the notorious Jalan Genting Klang jam so that can reach IMU earlier. Dunno why it was extra cold today. I would normally fold up my sleeves when I reach Titiwangsa Station but I left them unfolded the whole time. Even the aircon in STAR LRT was stronger than usual. (Hmmm…wonder could it be the side effects of studying too much for Natural Products?)

There weren’t many people around in the LRT since it wa still so early. For the first time this month, I slept all the way to IMU undisturbed. Being a light sleeper, I’d normally have trouble falling asleep in the train. But today, I enjoyed my sleep so much!!! Woke up at Sri Petaling Station feeling refreshed and ready to face the incoming "war" later today…

Went to the nearest PBL and hit my books. Hey man, I’m no nerd: See for yourself HOW MUCH there is to cover JUST for a CLASS TEST?

I mean, it’s totally crazy!!! Human brains only have a certain limit as to what they can absorb and remember (Yesh or Noh?) Why does IMU wanna subject us to such torture? Anyway, read as much as I could, then went up to wait outside MPH 1 for Judgement Day. Since there was still some time, did some last minute reading again. About 5 minutes to 9.15, Dr Mak came out and asked us to go in. He said "Very easy one. Don’t worry, you’ll laugh once you see the paper" and we were like "Ya, right, Easy for you to say since you’re the one in charge of that paper"

The paper was O—K (note the hesitation to connect the 2 letters together) but there some questions were utterly rubbish. For example: How many % of THC can you find in hash oil? I mean, it’s already difficult to remember the active ingredient of each plant product, what more their percentages!!! SIAO AH???

Still, it wasn’t that bad but I felt that I could’ve done better…Sigh… Anyway, Dr Kang came in like 5 minutes before our next class and read out a letter from HKL’s pharmacist, a Miss Nirmala or something; congratulating Group 1 & 2’s outsanding attitude on Monday. To them: Yahoo!!! You guys had given B105 a GOOD Name again!!! Ni Men Sze Zhui Hau De!!!

Mario’s class was rather boring and many people were only listening half-heartedly while curi-curi read for Pharm. Analysis CAL Test later (hem hem, Sadako). After that David Chong and Benny came to brief us on next week’s PSD. I wished they’d hurry since my tummy was thundering every now and then but NO… Benny kept "advising" the boys to cut their hair and said that we had obtained "very good results" for Extem. Dispensing Class Test. Whatever lar… The test was really tough and we really DIDN’T have enough time to complete the questions! I believe that all of us had really tried our best for it.

During lunch, PKZ bought us 10 lekor from the canteen and belanja us makan. Compared to the one that I and Esther ate during David’s workshop last week, today’s one was rather cold, hard and tasteless. Even the kuah wasn’t spicy and tasted more like starch or ‘Petaling Street’s kuah‘ (according to Sadako…Hahahaha) About 1 p.m. I left the gang and headed off to eLab 2 to discuss the CAL Test that we’d be having that day.

We spent about 45 minutes discussing the questions and felt rather confident that we’d be getting the 10 marks allocated for Pharm Analysis (we all damn Chuen man, keke). I wanted to type the Microbio report and do PBL but Phui Lin said the PCs got virus, so I checked my emails instead BUT the line was so SLOW and I waited ages just to load a page. Ended up chatting instead.

Dr Kang came in 5 minutes before 2.30 and I finally had my own PC to use! He told us to open a particular folder that would contain the questions and we were like shit: The questions were quite different from those that we had just discussed. Panic…Panic… Luckily I sat next to Lai Peng and near Phui Lin and Fun Fi, so we had the chance to discuss…Otherwise I think I wouldn’t be able to answer the questions!!! (no time to study lar!) Good thing Dr Kang allowed us to do so openly. I heard that Ventakesan didn’t allow the students in eLab 3 to discuss…Phew!!! I was thinking about going to eLab 3 initially…

Finished about 4 p.m. then headed to eLab 1 to do PBL but our juniors had already occupied the area, so went down to the canteen with Fay Jin, Carol and Irene to eat ice-cream instead. Chose Triple Choc ice-cream (wasn’t really that nice compared to the BlackForest one that I took few weeks agao). After that, headed home…

This happened yesterday…

I finally found my lab coat again!!! I was searching for it since Monday when I went for my hospital attachment. All I found was an ‘S’-sized lab coat inside a pink plastic bag. Initially I thought that the lab coat belonged to whoever who had taken my lab coat by mistake and I thought that he/she would return it back the same day. Then on Thursday, my lab coat was still missing and the same ‘S’-sized one was still there. I was rather pissed off for 2 reasons: ‘whoever’ who had taken it didn’t even ask me for my permission beforehand; and what if the ‘whoever’ had intended to STEAL it? This ‘S’-sized one was kinda tight and dirty with coal tar stain from last week’s Extem Dispensing… Anyway, after lab I went back to my locker, hoping that the ‘whoever’ had returned my lab coat but to my dismay, it was still missing!!!

I was rather upset but since I couldn’t do anything, so I headed off to the PBL to prepare for Nat Product (remember, this was yesterday). Halfway studying, I was trying to recall what I did last Friday before I ‘lost’ my lab coat… I was supposed to play ping-pong with Fay Jin and Kean Nam but got distracted with distributing the notes that was on the floor to our classmates who had just come out from MDL 6. That must be where I must had left my lab coat before I headed down to the ping-pong room. So I rushed up to the pigeon hole area outside MDL 5 & 6. Sure enough, my lab coat WAS STILL THERE, waiting for me to find it!!! And to think that I was so silly in waiting for ‘whoever’ to return my lab coat and in asking around the class if they ahd taken my lab coat. But now that I’ve found my lab coat, the question that still lingers in my mind is: Who’s lab coat was I wearing on Monday and Thursday? Why didn’t ‘whoever’s lab coat ask around if we had taken his/her lab coat by mistake? How come there can be an extra lab coat in our locker that belongs to no one? Ooohh… Ingat. Usahkan hidup anda diselubungi (hand gesture across TV screen) MISTERI…..

Putrajaya Hospital Visit, 18/09/2006

Left home at 6.10 a.m. Miss-called Phui Lin to indicate that I was on the way. At around 6.30, reached Titiwangsa station and waited a while for Phui Lin. We then took the train to Sri Petaling station where we were supposed to gather at 7 a.m.

Mun Yew and Kher Li were our chaffeuers for the day. Sat in Mun Yew’s car with Kong, Kok Pun and Po Leen while Phui Lin, Wai Leong, Sau Kean and Laura were in Kher Li’s car. We left around 7.15 a.m. and reached about 1/2 hour later. Since we were still early, we Shiok Sendiri and took some photographs first.

We then went to meet our pharmacist for the day, a Miss Ching. She gave us the itenary for the day. Since it was still early and we had 1/2 hour before the first session, we went down to the cafetaria for breakfast first.

Although the hospital was quite large and high-class, the cafetaria was rather small. While eating, we signed the 3 Thank You cards to be given to Miss Ching, MA for echocardio and MA for haematodialysis later.

We were to meet our MA for echocardio, a Mr. Faris at 8.30 a.m. We reached there and waited awhile. He come a few moments later and ushered us into the echocardio room. Since there weren’t any patients at that time, he explained all the questions that were in the log book and the various procedures and what-nots. We waited around 40 plus minutes for our patient to come but didn’t show up so Miss Ching suggested that one of us volunteered to be screened. We unanimously voted Kong for it even before he could make a sound…Kekeke…

Suffice to say, Kong is a very healthy fella. He even got 2 pictures of his heart: one coloured the other uncoloured.

We then went to the haemodialysis centre but was told that our MA had gone for a course in Penang, so we had a Puan Ramani, a staff nurse to explain stuffs to us. While explaining the techniques in dialysis, she allowed me to touch the patient’s fistula: It was soft and I could feel blood gushing through it. Gosh!!! Freaky!!!

Since we were to interview a patient, 3 of us went over to a patient and spoke to her. We chose her since she was one of the few who was awake at that time and was holding an English story book, hence we would not have any problems with the language (hehe…we’re damn sly wei…) Anyway, she told us about her medical history (and since we’re not allowed to discuss openly about patient’s confidential particular, even here), so it’s sufficient to say that she’s very upset about her present condition. There was a point where she broke down and tears started streaming down her eyes. We were very uneasy and wanted to console her but (remember Miss Wong or Dr Xavier in Sem 2) told us that if a patient were to cry, we were to allow them and NOT to say anything. So we looked around uneasily everywhere but her so that she would not feel even worse. I gestured one of us to just pat her arm to console her since we didn’t know what to do. After a while, she was OK again, we finished out interview and then left. She gave me the impression that she knows LOTS of stuffs. Hey man, she can even quote which fruits and which vegetable is high in K+ that can lead to cardiac arrythmia. She even spoke to us in medicine jargon…

Miss Ching said that we should interview other patients as well to get a general idea about dialysis patients and advised us to do so in the 2nd session at 3 later. Since we had 2 1/2 hours for lunch, she suggested that we head to Alamanda for lunch.

We went to McD and had lunch. Some of us wanted to search for the arcade and headed off to the 2nd floor, but we couldn’t find one. Somehow we stopped by ToyCity, went in and spend the next 45 mins searching for a cute soft toy for Wei Yin’s birthday the next day. Finally we found a very cute Mummy Dog hugging a Baby Dog, to be shared by the 11 of us: me, Sau Kean, Kong, Wai Leong, Kok Pun, Mun Yew, Phui Lin, Kher Li, Suk Kuan, Michelle and Esther… To Wei Yin: Happy Birthday Tomorrow!!!

We went back to Putrajaya and got burnt for 10 mins under the blazing sun (I had more sun today just in 1 day than all the days combined for the whole of last week!!! Sigh, talk about life in IMU)

We waited awhile for Mr. Faris and his patient to come, then we were brought into the stress test room where an 81-year-old man was to be tested. After that, we presented him with a Thank You card and IMU’s gift.

Mr. Faris was REALLY NICE and friendly!!! He was chatty and laughed most of the time, making us feel at ease in his presence. He knows about his stuffs and could explain things very well to us. He acted like a lecturer, asking us loads of questions for us to answer and when we can’t find the answer, probed us to think some more. Really lucky to get this guy today. Hopefully those who’d be here on Wed would get him too!!!!

We went back to the dialysis centre where we split into 2 groups to interview 2 patients. All the patients were Malay, so we spoke in Malay. I also simply say only lar, if got Bahasa Pasar also Bahasa Pasar lar… (I so Pai Seh ler, BM not very Ngam, Xp)…Hehe… This patient wasn’t that well verse in medicine unlike the 1st patient but he knows the function of the medicine that he took (but there’re some statements that were quite ambiguous…Hmmm, dunno lar, just borak borak with the Pakcik only lar :>) Before we left, we gave Puan Ramani the IMU souvenir. Since she was busy, we couldn’t take any picture so…

We went up to Miss Ching’s office, met her colleague (our MPharm senior from IMU), chatted with her for a while and before we left took photographs with her. We learnt a few things today: a) Not everything that you learn is applicable in real life b) Your brain shrinks by 60% if you rest for > 6 months (so get those neurons working, guys!!!) c) Hand signal…Hehe

Before we left, we stopped by Taman Botani to take some photographs, then drove to IMU. Overall, it was really educational and a really humbling experience. It causes us to question ourselves and all those "unhappiness" that we frequently complain about (life is unfair lar, so much to study lar, no time lar) but after visiting those dialysis patients, it made me think how lucky some of us are and how often we overlook our own happiness in our everyday lives. Just think about it: How lucky we are to still be able to lead a normal, healthy life without having to spend 4 hours a day, 3 times a week, 52 times a year for the rest of your life, being hooked up to some machine? It just shows how fragile human life is, one moment you may be super healthy, the next thing you know, you have something being inserted into you. The take away message: Cherish life.

Before I end, here’s something:

The car was found abandoned in an unknown location by an unknown person. Any information, please call 1300-88-2525