Wednesday, February 28, 2007

tell me what you think?


ok guys.. i need your help on this.......... :)
see these phones? they're the sony ericsson z610i! and i'm absolutely in love with them.. so here's the deal.. i have 3 choices:


1. get the phone @ aud10/mth, for 24 mths, with a aud29 cap plan.. which gives me a total of aud190 worth of credits.

2. wait 2-3 mths for this phone to become free on a aud29 cap plan. similar plan to the above. and i also save aud10X24mths..

OR

3. just get the free phones that comes with the cap plan and save aud10X24mths??

and if u choose 1 or 2.. can u please also tell me which colour is better? haha..

but then i'll have to get another optus prepaid top-up for this mth :/

HELP~~

Monday, February 26, 2007

it is well with my soul

one of the hymms that i really like! haha.. i love hymms actually, the words are very meaningful, the melody and the harmony is absolutely amazing!

and well, the song couldn't have expressed it better.. this was actually written by Horatio G. Spafford, 1873 and music by Philip P. Bliss, 1876. he wrote this in the midst of his financial crisis and after the death of his two daughters..

erm, my situation is not AS tragic, but having prof (insert name) as consultant rounds isn't the best thing u can imagine, in fact, it's worst than what u are already imagining (if u are, that is). i've resorted to saying i don't know to all his questions, and i think i almost hit the jackpot today! well by answering i don't know to a question that hasn't got an answer. it's a TRICK question. and so, having such a 'nightmare' in reality should make me study harder eh? but no.. i somehow can get pass page 2 of whatever i'm suppose to read and just go to dreamland! and "panicking" (which usually lasts for 15 minutes of my bus trip) the very next day..

but God has been absolutely amazing, in a sense that, well, he gave me EXTRA grace, and EXTRA favour.. he hasn't really 'blew his top' and things were quite calm in coronary care unit. he still do ask questions that no one can answer except himself, but that's alright. also thank God for my RMO Matt who's been so so nice! haha.. and i thank God for the chance to talk about God with him as well :)

speaking of favour.. we kinda had a mock osce with prof (insert name but different from the above) today. and the before and after picture was just 2 extremes!

before:
fidgeting, hands cold & clammy, can't even complete a full sentence in front of prof.

after:
hopping along the corridor, grinning from ear to ear.

why?

prof actually said i'm a good student, just have to work on my time factor (cos i took 9 minutes to do a respiratory examination -_-")

that's like the most encouraging thing i've heard for the past 5 wks! :) and i won't say it's because i did fantastically well, but indeed God's favour was upon me..

it really lifted my spirit because, when u're here long enough, reality begins to settle in, in terms of 'differences' in skin colour and nationality. it can be quite blatant at times.. and when u get asked spontaneous questions, even with your english proficiency, u realize that, hey, i don't really understand what he's saying.. and sometimes, u've just got to push on! and finally, i felt that, yes, something good is coming out of this, and i'm not the most 'unknowledgable' medical student on planet earth which i sometimes felt i was. cos there's so much to know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

but all in all, being midweek.. it's good :) it is well with my soul! Amen :D

Saturday, February 24, 2007

generosity

prov 22:9

he who has a generous eye will be blessed;
for he gives of his bread to the poor.

it's true! when u are generous, u don't lack. if u don't always think of money as such a big thing, then, u won't always think u have not enough, and save on stuffs that, well, u shouldn't. just a general observation that some ppl can be penny wise, pound foolish in that they save money on the little things, but don't see that if these little things shldn't matter when u've already received sooooo much/been sooooo blessed. it's good to be prudent. but it's even better to be generous. God loves a cheerful giver eh? :) and it's better to give than to receive. so yeah! it doesn't mean that u're not wise either.. just.. yeah, weigh the situation don't be rigid. and it'll take u a long way. and after all, God can't wait to open the windows of heaven and pour out such a blessing on you, don't limit Him! as you have freely received, also freely GIVE! and give your best! to God not only means to church, or missions, invest in people, invest in lives, and God says it is like doing unto Him as well.. so there you go:) food for thought, God inspired.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

building rapport

hmm, in a weird way, unintentionally, but it worked! well, not that i planned it or anything.. this morning as i was searching for a patient's folder, which i obviously couldn't find (told u i was hopelessly blur) because u know why? i looked for the wrong bed number! agh.. anyway, i asked the nurse to help me find it.. and yeah, i found out that i'm absolutely blind too! cos, it was just RIGHT in front of me! heh.. ok fine.. took the sticker, flip through medication charts..

suddenly, intern & resident comes along.. we're heading to the icu. wanna come? i'm like, of course! wait for meeeeee......... while i 'gracefully' put this bck. turns a bit, drop my file on the phone as the registrar was a bout to pick it up (and yeah, i'm a big klutz too) *shock.. 1 sec, 2 sec* i'm sorry.. muttered.. the registrar was like, can i uh, use the phone? with my big fat file still sitting on the phone. *blush* yes yes of course u can.. sorry again.

i was absolutely certain he was gonna blacklist me. *oh no!! he's gonna be my registrar nxt wk.. he'll be assessing me.. how how??*

after icu, we headed to emergency department, and guess who i bumped into again..??? the reg! ahh, tries to hide.. but well, hm, after attending to a heart attack patient, he passed me the clinical notes and asked me to go inside to see how they managed the patient. *cool* he came bck after awhile and gave me the ecg and ask me to interpret.. and along the way to the cath lab, he explained it to me.

i guess that wasn't too bad after all? haha.. and somehow, managed to build rapport with my incoming reg. cos i was starting to feel a bit squirmish abt being alone again cos the other 2 med students who were with me will be moving on, my current reg & intern will be transferring to another unit.. which leaves me & matt (resident) only..

oh and it turns out that my intern (monica) is actually a big fan of jay chou & guang liang.. and so, today i didn't feel like i was in australia cos the whole unit was playing jay chou & guang liang's cd. haha.. another interesting thing i found out, my reg (aaron) & resident actually knows their chinese horoscope and 'celebrates' chinese new yr.. they even know the coming year is the year of the pig. i was honestly quite surprised!

and speaking of rapport, i went for joanne's birthday celeb @ this place called chocolate bean. it's this nice cozy little cafe that serves everything chocolate! yum yum.. absolute heaven for chocolate lovers.. and yup, got to know more people from my batch too!

yup, once again, thank God for mapping out everything so smoothly for me. 2 more weeks in cardio unit. i think i'm actually gonna miss this place. i love cardio! and paeds! i'm going to be a paediatric cardiologist *hopes*

Monday, February 12, 2007

Happy Valentine's Day!

Text Color





to the Love of My Life..

I am amazed
When i look at you
I see you smiling back at me
It's like all my dreams come true
I am afraid
If I lost you
I'd fall through the cracks
And lose me track in this crazy lonely world

Sometimes it's so hard to believe
When the nights can be so long
And faith gave me the strength
And kept me holding on

You are the love of my life
And I'm so glad you found me
You are the love of my life
Baby put your arms around me
I guess this is how it feels
When you finally find something real
My angel in the night
You are my love
The love of my life

Now here you are
Midnight closing in
You take my hand as our shadows dance
With moonlite on you skin

I look in your eyes
I'm lost inside your kiss
I think if i'd never met you
About all the things I'd missed..
Jim Brickman

Thank you dear for accepting me just as I am, standing by me through thick and thin, loving me even when I'm unreasonable.. I pray we will be each other's encourager & 'stake', both growing strongly in the Lord and our love for each other. Love you lots..!

Happy Valentine's Day also to everyone! it's not about appreciating someone only on one day, but yeah, it's always good to celebrate the ones you love and make them feel special. Have a great day! :)

Sunday, February 11, 2007

i got tagged~

haha.. i shall join in the fun too. thanks christina for the 'feel'. hahaha..

Each player of this game starts off by giving 6 weird things about themselves. People who get tagged need to write in a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state the rules clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. After you do that, leave them each a comment letting them know you tagged them and to read your blog.


6 weird things about myself.. i probably can name u a whole lot more!

1. i am an absent minded klutz. seriously, i don't think u can find anyone more clumsy than me. haha, i dropped my file 3x today and i misplaced my id cards (both hospital & uni), thumb drive, wallet, phone even! all in 3 days.. i think one day i might even forget where i left my mind too..

2. i must have a mint at all times. i'll feel weird without it. that IS weird right.

3. i love candles. not that i use them. even when there's blackouts, i refuse to let my mom touch my candles..

4. i'm a tasmanian devil in disguise. i can clean and arrange the stuffs in my room, all nice and neat, within 5 minutes, everything will be all over the place again.

5. i have a bottomless (i eat a LOT), noisy (and still always hungry) and percussible (but yet empty) tummy o_O

6. i like white roses although mom always say white flowers are for 'other' stuffs. i used to buy them a lot when i was in s'pore. haha.. just to cheer myself up :)

6 people i'll tag..

1. ivy ang ang ang (cos she's my daughter!)
2. gary 'tweety' chia (cos he's my son!)
3. cyin ('IN' with a blog)
4. evie (the other 'IN' with a blog)
5. jackjack (this should cheer ur blog up a bit :P)
6. yeangwee (same specs!!)

tag, u're iT!

Saturday, February 10, 2007

show and tell!





presenting..... adelaide's central
market! it's just across where we
live :)















fresh fruits!!! yummy..













the butcher! but they don't chop
the chicken up for u.. geez..







our favourite supermarket! and it
opens @ midnight.. how cool's that?















me & chris in the bus on our way
to............





ta-daaa... actually i didn't know what it is until
we arrived cos it was supposed to be a surprise!
haha..








the waterfall with no water! haha.. but it was
a very nice walk..







but God made the trip worth it, we spotted a
koala (thks for the tip-off ranger) on the way
back. can u see it????










apartment 64 girls :D (gamblar forgot her
cool shades!)







we've brought wine drinking UP a
level......... in a SESAME ST cup! 8)
and it was really good to keep us
warm cos it was freezing cold towards
the night! it's so cold that the wine
was chilled by the air, which tasted
so much better!






look at the mass of people!!! and they were all
there like, super early! with scrumptious food
prepared.. we had uh, doritos! shapes! bread
with peanut butter & jelly.. and ICE CREAM!







presenting.. adelaide symphony orchestra's
symphony under the stars *clap clap* (can
u spot the star, it's just above the stage)


















splendid fireworks display at the
end of it all :) *sigh* so nice..



yup, show and tell over. we did all those on saturday.. so efficient ler! :P truly enjoyable.. ready to start the next week!

week3, queen elizabeth hospital, 4th year medical student.

i know it'll be a good week, because God is a good God! :D but no matter how nice it is here.. i still miss malaysia!!!!!!

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

i wish a hole would swallow me up!

today ah. so embarassing ah.. :-( we went for morning handover (where drs from night shift handover new cases to those in the morning shift). then ah!!! there's this interesting ecg case presented.. so i made a mental note to ask the dr if i can have a look at it after the meeting and proceeded to be a good medical student and concentrate on the following cases. so there were a couple of x-rays shown.. and ended at that.. having chest x-ray as the last picture in my mind. so the chest x-ray + the mental note to see the ecg somehow got integrated.. and u know what i did? i approached the dr and said..

"can i have a look at the x-ray please?" while jabbing furiously at the ecg sheet.
then the dr look at me with his brows raised.. "x-ray?"
then i said, "yeah x-ray" (is that so difficult to understand?? weird)
he looked at me, "i think u mean ecg right?"
i turned the shade of beet root red and muttered "oops sorry" and wish a hole would just swallow me up! -_-"

and then, when i went up to my unit.. after awhile the SAME dr came too, to ask my registrar some qns.. he looked at me and laughed (in a snorty way) . malu-nya..........

it's all the coffee's fault! :/ had a late night yesterday, so i decided to have a cup of coffee, anyway, i felt hungry too, so i thought it shld keep me full for awhile. but it ended up making me light headed, anxious and heart beating @ 120bpm. but the coffee was good, heh.. :D

but yup, this week has been really good i must say. i'm enjoying every moment of it. yea! and of course, the weekend's coming.. woohoo..

Monday, February 05, 2007

here's to a better week :) *cheers*

hey guys.. thank u all for ur concern.. *sobs* so touched. hehe.. i definitely feel much better now! and things have taken a better turn! (i reckon it was my PMS period last week, so a little bit emotional) familiarizing with the environment also helped :)

Anyway, guess what? i got to do my first GelCo today! (it's a brand name for IV cannula, those that u use for drips) i inserted it at first try! so so so happy.. yay! yesterday and today has been quite fruitful and productive. really glad that all my "cries" & "prayers" were answered over the weekend. God is right when He said He'll see me through it :)

today i met this dr. we had him for a neurological examination session. he is, by far, the kindest, most compassionate, respectful, humble, patient, encouraging, and on top of that, knowledgeable dr i've ever seen. no kidding.. just observing as he explained to the patient and reassured the patient, even i felt like crying.. *sniff* that's the kind of dr i wanna be.. thank God for such wonderful drs.

i'm inspired to study harder, to be the person that God wants me to be. yes!

Friday, February 02, 2007

the weekend's here!!!!

the feeling of homesickness & missing the familiar faces, settings and environment only settled in this week. despite the busy schedules that they've put us in, i somehow found time to feel "detached" and "alone" from all the activities that we have. it's like i am, but i'm not? *sigh*

anyway, clinical school is NO JOKE.. i have a slight wave of regret for not studying harder, for all the exams i've passed, God has been more than good to me, it's GRACE! because coming here, i realize how much i actually don't know OR don't remember!

how embarassing it is to stare at bck at the consultant with a blank face (& even worse, with no answer).

or to think that i have no problems with english, but everything i say just doesn't seem to come out right(i still tend to 'lah' and get a considerable amount of weird stares), and i try to listen so hard to filter their sentences that i forget the real meaning of it (eg. what are the common causes for iron def.? and i thought iodine.. what are the signs of cardiac failure? and i answer dyspnoea, which happens to be a SYMPTOM! -_-") to feel fake when i speak with an accent, but really dumb if i continue with my 'lahs'.

to wake up really early in the morning, and sleep early..

to STUDY! in between sessions and after dinner.

to be confident,

to get the doctors to notice you so that you get a good assessment.

to be able to do all the system's FULL examination in 6 mins/each.

to be posted in the cardiology unit BUT have to learn all the other 9 systems. it doesn't help that most ppl tell me how scary my professor is (who happens to be assessing me)

it doesn't help that i tend to be "sympathetic" rather than "empathetic" to my patients, being rather emotionally attached. i feel bad, when we see the patient 3x just because we're 'eager' medical students who wants to see campbell de morgan spots, or finger clubbing, or hear a cardiac murmur, or a wheeze. or hunt down interns so that they'll teach us how to put a cannula in, or draw blood, or do a blood gas just so we can learn, but jabbing patients a few times, causing such a huge bruise, it pains me. i just can't do it! but then again, if we don't practice, we won't learn!

i'm STRESSED!!!!

and then, i realize that all i've been trying to do is to please ppl, to live up to their standards, feelings of inadequacy (trust me, the doctors ask a whole lot of questions that you've never heard of and u just wish a hole will swallow u up!) especially even more when we're entering halfway through the course. it's a challenge. i know the feeling, i've felt it before when i joined a levels in s'pore abt 5 mths after they started.

and God impressed upon me, the only person u have to please is Me. i've brought u through all the stages of your life, would i not do the same again this time? and that's right. why am i being so bogged down, when i shld be victorious because God is in control. it was only today, that i really unloaded my "luggages" of stress and worries. 1 Peter 5:7

and now that the weekend's here, i'm gonna buy myself a pair of good & comfy shoes (way overdue) maybe go for a picnic at the park, and visit another church this weekend. and of course.. study! ;)

p/s: there's a good clause abt my professor, he likes research students, and he happens to be my supervisor *phew*