Jason’s Blog

Thursday, 05/10/2006

The first thing I realised when I woke up this morning was palpitations. Why? Cause I’ll be having Microbio Lab Exam at 10a.m. later today and there’s still loads I’ve yet to cover. Worst still, I’ve just found out last night that Mario came in to class to give some tips for this practical, which I missed. I didn’t know that we had to memorise the composition of each medium as well…

I headed to the library the moment I reached IMU. There’s this particular Practical Microbiology book that I wanted to read before siting for the exam later. Went to the Red Spot section only to find that someone had already borrowed it (Damn!!!). There wasn’t any other book that was useful, so I thought there was no point to stay there. At the entrance, I bumped into Vinegar and found out that he was the fella who had borrowed it. Hmmm…Can’t say I’m surprised…

So, read for a while till about 9a.m. then headed up to the 4th floor to discuss further with the gang. Had quite a few laughs regarding Cetrimide, Chocolate Agar, MgCl, Potassium Sulphate, Belgium Chocolates (You guys who were there, faham-faham lar). Headed to MDL 7 at about 9.50 a.m. to find out that I was supposed to be in MDL 5.

I sat opposite Laura and was given Nutrient Agar with some white dots growing in it. For some reason, I thought that Nutrient Agar was just the general name for the medium and it didn’t cross my mind that Nutrient Agar IS the actual medium for bacterial growth. I panicked, trying to rack my brains to recall what kind of bacterial would give white circular colonies BUT nothing came to my mind. Out of desperation, I took off the cover lid and took a sniff BUT i inhaled TOO HARD. It was a really stupid thing to do which I regretted immediately since loads of bacterial spores entered through my nostril into my airways!!!

I coughed and spluttered since it was really irritating and was worried that they might actually stick to my airways. Dunno whether I imagined it or what, but I suddenly had nose block and my eyes started to stream. Anyway, I stared at my petri dish for a while and decided that it was useless. I just didn’t know how it was possible to guess the organism without first staining it. So I performed Gram staining. When I put the processed slide under the microscope, I could see the colonies under 4X. And 10X. BUT when I turned it to 40X, the colonies went missing!!! So I thought maybe I’ll try my luck at 100X just to find them GONE as well…So I worked backwords, viewed under 40X (no result), under 10X (no result, somehow) and I was like "Oh, shit!!!" view it under 4X, still missing…

I glanced up at Laura to see that she also faced the same problem and started to redo her Gram stain. So I repeated Gram staining and left the safranin solution a little longer this time. Luckily I could find the damn colonies this time and proceeded to answer Question 2. But there was still Question 1 which I didn’t know how to answer. Thanks to Laura, she whispered to me the answer. Then Wai Leong also came over to "discuss" with us without Mario finding out. Why? He was so engrossed in chit-chatting with the new lecturer to notice us…Muahahahahaha…Anyway, after the lab exam, I started sniffing and my eyes smarted once in a while but was so glad that it was finally over!!!

Today when I was travelling back by LRT, I saw this LaLa Mui. She LOOKED SO HORRIBLE!!! She had a "coconut cut" for her fringe with ugly frizzly hair. She carried a HUMONGOUS bag with black and white spots like a New Zealand COW, wore torn jeans with ripped ends at her knees. If you think that was bad enough, she wore black stockings that stretches up to her knees inside white shoes with sparkling purple shoe laces!!! And she has the THICKEST eye shadows I’ve ever seen, giving the impression that she hasn’t been sleeping for the past few weeks…Really…some people just have no DRESS SENSE…Haiyoh…

Tuesday, 03/10/2006

Woke up rather early today since had to rush to IMU to print PowerPoint for PBL later today. Reached IMU at 7 something but eLab 1 was still close so just hang around until about 8.05 a.m. Went up to 3rd floor and printed the slides. Unfortunately the aunty in the photostate shop hasn’t come yet so can’t photocopy for my PBLers. From past experience, she’d normally open shop close to 8.30 a.m. so I thought I’d just wait it out for her and hopefully I can get it ready before Dr Er enters the PBL room.

Waited till 8.29 a.m. but the aunty hasn’t arrive yet (Or perhaps she was hiding in the dark having breakfast at the back of the shop Hehe…Xp). Anyway, I just thought that I’ll have to give the hard copies to my PBLers tomorrow instead. As I was walking to the Room 34, Dr Er was just walking down the stairs towards our room. I noticed that Ying Wa was still photocopying in the library, so I thought I’d give it another try with the aunty (Maybe she had opened her shop, who knows?) So I excused myself from the class (Dr Er was already in the room) and headed towards the shop downstairs…

My heart leaped when I saw light emating from the shop. When I reached the shop, Alen and Joanna were also waiting to photocopy their presentations. Since there were only the 3 of us, I thought I could get mine done without my PBLers having to wait too long for me. To my dismay, the aunty walked ever so slowly from 1 photocopier to another, taking her own sweet time (Hello!!! I’m kinda in a hurry here!!!) She passed Alen his and I handed mine to her (Time: 8.38a.m. Never mind, I was still early, I can still make it on time) She put my notes into the copier. It churned once and then made FUNNY sounds and the paper "seems" like had jammed. Grr-ee-aat! Just what I needed at that time.

I asked the aunty whether my paper had jammed or what, and was told that the copier had run out of paper (Phew!!! But there’s more…) She "glided" slowly back into the back room to grab a new stack of A4 papers. I thought she would put it directly into the feeder (Don’t we always, when we worked part time in offices back in Form 5?) but NO, she rustled the paper left, right, right, left (Time: 8.42a.m.) straightened it back into a stack and repeated the process. Then I thought that she would put it into the feeder but to my dismay, she turned the paper the other side, made a FAN out of the stack of paper and proceeded to left, right, right, left AGAIN!!! Being trained in BPharm to treat obstacles as an "ice cream treat", I took many, many deep breaths but didn’t rush the aunty (I don’t wanna make her waste even more time. Time: 8.43a.m.)

She FINALLY placed them into the feeder and I could hear the reassuring noise of the papers being stamped with ink. (I wished that Canon would invent a copier that can photocopy faster). Anyway, when she had finished making 8 copies, I was thinking "Surely her staples would have enough staplers in them, now wouldn’t she? I can’t be that UNLUCKY right?" But guess what, when she was halfway stapling my notes together, her staples ran out of staplers!!!! As she "glided" ever so slowly back to get fresh ones, I was already rolling my eyes in disbelieve. Of all times! Of all days!!! (Time: 8.44a.m.) I handed her the money, took the notes and sprinted at top speed back into the PBL Room 34. Halfway running, one of the IMU cleaners couldn’t resist smiling as I zoomed past her.

Went into PBl room out of breath. Everyone was already waiting for me, seated at their own places, looking at their notes with me turning red in the face. I looked at my watch: 8.45a.m. Haha, damn Pai Seh man…My tie was too long, so I adjusted it while Swee Ting presented her slides but found out that my tag had caught in between my tie. I wanted to just leave it initially but my name tag was so obviously lopsided, so I had to redo it all over again which was rather distracting since I was the only fella who was moving around so much during people’s presentation…Haha…

I think being able to monopolise all photocopying rights among IMU students had made that aunty very complacent. Someone should really start another photocopying business there and start slashing prices (Hint, hint Tou San). Then only would she wake up and work faster. Can you imagine how much she earns per day???

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