Friday 20/10/06

I'm coming home tonight! Yeay! I'm so happy I just can't wait!

I'm a bit sad that I'm the only one here now. I have to wait for my parents to come pick me up tonight. All my friends have left and some were already home yesterday!

Anyway, I'm just so happy now. It's my first Hari Raya I'm celebrating with my family after 3 years celebrating Hari Raya in India. To everybody I wish a colourful and bright Diwali. And to all, Selamat Hari Raya!

LETS DONATE BLOOD

I had my end of posting exam today for ENT. Can't believe one month is over! I think I did OK today. My clinical evaluations and my practice was OK. But I'm still worried. I don't know.

Anyway, few days back there was blood donation drive in the college. Out of minimum of 400 students, only 80-90 came up to donate blood! That's quite surprisingly not very good. Since we all are in a medical team and well, not many of us are interested in donating blood. I wanted to donate blood so badly and I was so happy that they finally came to our college for the drive. But when I got there and got my blood checked, my Hemoglobin is low. Well, it's not that low, only that they wanted a minimum of 12.5 and mine was 12.4!

I got so sad that I couldn't take part in it :( so I tried my luck again that night just in case if I could make it and well, not my day I guess, the second time I had it checked, it came down to 11.8 :(

Well, in case if any of you see a blood donation activity taking place nearby, you might want to take part too. Everyday someone depends on blood for life. They are needed for surgery, accident victims, or to help treat people with LEUKEMIA, cancer, heart and liver diseases and even HEMOPHILIA. Your contribution could help save a life!

Only about 450ml of blood will be withdrawn from you. Our total blood volume is about 5L. And 450 is less than 10%. So this will not make you feel different without the blood you donated. Most people feel great after donating blood too. You just have to be sure that you have had good meal before donating and that you have had enough rest the day before. Having enough rest and food makes a big difference in how you will feel afterwards.

It takes about 24 hours for your body to replace the blood volume. You should drink extra 4 glasses of water or non alcoholic fluid. Do not carry heavy liftings with your arm for 5 hours. And your body needs 4-8 weeks to replace the red blood cells before you can donate again.

So why don't we all lift up the spirit of helping others by taking part in a blood donation drive. I had fun the first time I donated. I'm just going to wait a little more till I can correct my hemoglobin level higher and then I'll look forward into donating blood again :)

Monday 16/10/06

Bad haze today. Been a month like this. Some burning in the Indonesian land (again) for the umpteenth time :( and I'm feeling lazy and sick. And I've got ulcer in my mouth :( hurts when I eat this Indian cracker like thing called "muruku". It's pretty nice but I think I'm having this ulcer also because its fasting month my mouth gets dry and it got ulcer easily.

I skipped class today. But I went for afternoon session. We learned how to study X-Rays of the head and neck. It wasn't so bad. But I couldn't really concentrate because I was having headache too. But now I'm just in the room drinking hot mushroom soup. Think I'll drink more soup tonight at least I get a bit more liquid in.

And found out Hoppy is pregnant again. The last time she delivered to a few babies. 4 I think. Can't quite recall. They died one by one, one day after another :( But anyway, I hope this time the babies will survive. Can't wait to see them coming out :P Then I can be grandmum. Hehe.

Just a minute

I feel so tired. Feeling lazy to go to class as usual. But I better not skip today's group discussion. I think it'll be so nice if I can become hamsters every now and then. To sleep and sleep and sleep till my owner pick me up and bullies me :P

Talking about hamsters, one of them ran away last 2 nights. That got me so very worried. He never did that before but now I will have to be more careful. Have to make sure he wont run out again whenever I open the room door. Now they are sleeping. Guess thats what they do best. That picture or a slimmer hamster is Hoppy, a female. And the other is Happy, a male hamster, the one that tried to run away :(

Hope tonight I get to go out and buy some movies to watch or maybe some pc games. I can't wait to go home for eid. Mom have been calling me again and again asking when am I coming home. And last night she told me that I'm going to have to bake 2 types of cookies a day once I'm home. Cant wait :P

TONSILLITIS

Had a long day in the clinic today. The teaching doctor went on and on and on. But at least I learned well today. It was my turn to present a case today and I had a patient who came with sore throat. My patient was an 18year old boy who have been having recurrent sore throat since childhood and he was diagnosed to have TONSILLITIS of chronic type.

Tonsils are lymphoid tissues in the oral cavity that have a protective role in the mouth. There are 6 in number and the ones you see in the picture are called palatine tonsil. The normal tonsils are small and the colour maybe not so red. It should have the same colour like your mouth. See the smaller picture, here it shows that the tonsils are enlarged and are red.

People with tonsillitis usually complain of sore throat, difficulty in swallowing, fever, and probably change in voice too. Tonsillitis is common among us. This is because our mouth gets infected easily if hygiene is not maintained, or because we frequently get cold or cough. This common infection maybe infecting us again and again and again and weaken our system and infects the tonsils next.

It isnt a dangerous disease, but it may cause harm to children because their respiratory tract is small and this enlarged tonsils may obstruct the air passage and may cause complications.

So if you want to know more about your tonsils, have a look in front of the mirror. You might need to use torchlight and observe the tonsils when you are having cough or cold. If you think your tonsils are enlarged and you need better treatment than just rest and homemade remedies than you should go see a doctor for it. :P

SINUSITIS

Wow. I think I haven't been blogging for months. Sorry about that. I didn't forget or anything. I always tell myself whenever I learn or read about something new I would go back to my room and blog. But nowadays life here in Melaka is too busy and I have other extra curricular things to do too :P

Now I'm in ENT posting (Ear Nose & Throat). This field is quite fun. And I think it is a bit relaxing. I've always wanted to let people know a bit more about this normal disease that people often talk about, which is called SINUSITIS.

Sinusitis is different from normal cold or flu that we often come across. So not all flu and cold that we get is known as sinusitis. And if your doctor diagnose you with sinusitis you will have to come for regular check up since it is a little bit more serious than normal cold.

Sinus are air filled cavities in your skull. There are 4 in numbers on each side and are named. These spaces are normally empty only to be filled by air. These sinuses help to maintain our head light and provide resonance to our voice.

Sinusitis is the inflammation of the sinus lining on the inside, we call mucosa. This inflammation may be caused by nasal discharge or phlegm that enters these sinus cavities. And as we know, these phlegm has microorganism like bacteria or virus. So when these microorganism enter the sinus they may cause damage in the sinus. And the patient complains of heaviness in the face, facial pain together with profuse nasal discharge which is thick, and also there may be fever, headache, bodyache, etc.

The facial pain may be occuring at different sites depending on which sinus cavity is infected. Sometimes they maybe only at the forehead close to the eyebrow, or maybe in between the eyes, or sometimes on the upper jaw or gums and teeth.

It is very important to try to keep your sinus clear of phlegm whenever you get cold or flu. Someone told me once that you need to keep your head upside down for few minutes. This enables the sinus to be emptied since we are helping the phlegm to drain out. That is just my theory behind it. :)

Monday 8/06/07

I went to Jasin Hospital today. I spent the whole morning in OPD with the specialist and got to do a few stuffs. O&G posting is relaxing but I dont quite like it because the lecturer doesn't finish the class early and just now we only had 20 minutes for lunch break :(

Today I got to do the 4 Obstetric grips oa pregnant woman in the OPD. That was the first time ever that I managed to feel for the fetal parts. It was a good experiance. And I'm having the feeling I might be very interested in taking this field especially because the women are always easy with me.

When I was doing the 4 Obstetric grips I got to know where the baby's body parts are. Like where is his head, his limbs, and his back andbuttocks. After knowing the baby's position in the womb I got to listen to his heart beat using this Fetal Doppler. Their normal heart rate is much faster than us adults. Theirs are around 160beats per minute.

And I also saw pap smear procedure. This procedure is done to detect any cancerous growth in the cervix. Cervical cancer is easily detected by doing pap smear and women who are sexually active and who are in post menopausal age should do this pap smear once a year at least. This if done can help reduce the mortality caused by cervical cancer a lot lot more because cervical cancer is easily curable if it is detected at early stage.

Sunday 7/05/06

Finally, I'm done with Smallville. I never again will watch that dumb series. But I have a feeling I might be watching the 5th season soon enough :P

I can't help it. I keep watching it and everytime I do I'll condemn all the actors and actresses (Lana especially) and I just hate it hate it hate it :(

HEART ATTACK

I'm up early this morning,because I had a weird dream. Hehe. I've been getting these weird dreams ever since I was addicted to watching Smallville. This is bad. Want it to stop :P

Yesterday I learnt about Coronary Artery Disease. Coronory artery is the artery that supplies blood to the heart and if this artery is diseased or if it is blocked then we all are in deep trouble. We need the blood supply to the heart so that the heart tissues can be oxygenated and the heart can work properly to pump blood to all the other tissues in the body. If the coronary artery is diseased,we have high risk of HEART ATTACK and we can die instantly. I'm sorry if this sounds scary but if preventive measures are taken then I can assure you that we all can live happily without this problem. So cheer up :)

There are factors causing problems to coronary artery and the most important and the most common one is ATHEROSCLEROSIS. It simply means the thickening of blood vessels. This thickening happens due to deposition of fatty plaque in the blood vessel walls. Well,the word fatty plaque already tells you that this is because there's high level of lipid or fat in the blood and this is the reason why these lipid or fat gets stored inside the vessel walls. But this doesn't just happen in obese people,even thin people get this deposition because they eat too much fatty food and somehow their body automatically stores these fats into the blood vessels and not their body tissues and that's why they look thin and slim all the time. So becareful. This fatty plaque what it will do to our blood vessel is that it will grow and grow and as it grows it makes the blood vessel lumen smaller and smaller. This causes the blood flow in the vessel wall gets disturbed and one day when it is big enough it might occlude the vessel wall, (in this case the coronary artery) and this stops the blood supply to the heart.

Atherosclerosis used to be a disease of the old age. But recently there has been post mortem report of children having these atherosclerotic plaques. And this is very pitiful. That's why it is very important not to feed them too much. Nowadays there are many round babies and round children all over and I feel bad seeing them like that. They do look cute I must say but we can't see whats happening inside their body. How their body system is acting and stuff.

We cannot treat this atherosclerosis plaque, I mean once the plaque grows,we cannot remove it with drugs or surgery. But there are ways to prevent this. Like try avoiding fatty food mostly and we believe that Vitamin E and Vitamin C is needed to help us conteract with the fats that we eat. And also there is fish oil that contain Omega 3 which contain high level of PUFA (poly unsaturated fatty acid). PUFA helps in raising the 'good cholesterol' level in blood and this reduces the risk of heart problem. And the most important thing is, STOP SMOKING :) and don't say i didn't warn you.

PROSTATE CANCER

I'm so tired now. My back is aching because I was carrying 18L of water into my room. This is what I do once a week. It's my water supply to drink. I'm so used to drinking reversed osmosis water and now I just can't drink normal tap water anymore because it taste so different from RO water.

I went to hospital today and was alloted a case as usual. Today the patient was a male patient of 73 years old. He was educated by the way he talked to me. He was diagnosed to have prostate cancer since 4 years back. And sadly the cancer cells has spread to other organs in his body including his bones. Now he's having severe pain whenever he moves. He was telling me that he is ready to go. But he wants to leave this world peacefuly. It was sad to know that his body is being eaten up by the cancer cells slowly but surely. He was being very strong. And he kept repeating that he is willing to die anytime at all.

Prostate is a gland found only in males. Most of the prostate enlargements are of benign type. Easier way to describe it is that it is nothing to be worried about. But if you are unlucky, it might be a malignant (something to be very worried about).

This problem can affect any men. Mosly of age 50 and above. Early detetction is important. The first symptom that you should be aware is increased in frequency of micturition especially at night. There are other symptoms such as when you feel urgency in micturition and that you are not very satisfied with the urination that when you feel there are still more urine in your bladder only that it is not coming out. Also poor ejaculation. If this happens to you then you will have to go straight away to the doctor.

11/04/06 tuesday

Finally, I get my own internet access in my room and now that its day off today. It's been hectic life over here. The patients in the hospital are much nicer and sweeter and more co-operative. But the lecturers, well let me put it this way, no words to describe =)

Lets just hope i will get through this.

Sunday26/02/06

5 more days then I'll be home =) I can't wait.Last night I was at my neighbour's house.She's also my tailor.She has a husband and 2 children.A 7 year old girl and a 5 year old boy.I was talking with them for about 2 hours last night.About stuff.About life and about Malaysia and India and about their 2 children.Had lots of fun talking to them.I'm going to miss them once I leave.

tuesday 07/02/06

A hot hot day today.I just got back from second day of psychiatry posting.It was a little more interesting today.We got to see a patient.He spoke English so at least we can really evaluate him and get to understand his problems better.

He was 74years old.He came in with a wide smile on his face.He introduced himslef to us and he was telling us about his family.And his friend who is in the navy.I don't know if that was real or it was all in his mind.But he was a happy lot.Before he left he blessed us and sang to us.

The ward was depressing actually.They had bars all over but after a while I learned that here in this ward there are all kinds of mental illnesses/disorders.Most patients here are under depression and they might attempt suicide any time.There was one patient I saw who showed her face on the door and was asking me to open up the door for her.She appeared normal and I first thought that she was normal.Until I realised that she was having a different tone.And immediately I had goosebumps and got scared =P

I sms my dad and told him that I'm posted in pediatric ward.He reminded me that he met my mom is psychiatry ward.Haha.It was funny how they met.My dad was doing his posting then and my mom was working there as a nurse that time =) I wonder how I'm to meet my future husband.(sigh...)

6/02/06 monday

I've completed my pediatrics posting last week.Now I'm posted in psychiatry wards.There was no patients today.A boring day in that centre.Hopefuly there will be something exciting coming up soon.I haven't yet experianced or imagine anything thrilling in this subject of clinical medicine.But quite a lot whom I know are looking forward into specializing in this stream.

Exactly 1 month from now I will soon be home!For good!God I just can't wait.I will miss Manipal for sure.It's a good place to study.It really is.It may have made me cursed a begizillion times to have chose this place but after looking back at things,I can proudly say that this place makes me be me.And I get to know myself a lot better.

The Reason

A few days back my college dean spoke a few words regarding to what he expects us to be, to do,to become.It had a good opening but how he ended his speech keeps me wondering, thinking a little more.He was asking us why did we take up medicine.He told us to let our hearts out on an essay on why did we take up medicine.In his speech he mentioned that these essays will be read by our lecturers who then will grade us on our "maturity" that they assume we own based on our answers on why we chose this career.

He commented on some of the essays the seniors wrote before this.He said that he thinks those who answered that they chose this path because 'they want to help the sick',' to be the curer', 'to be on their side when they need u most', are immature in their thinking.At first I had not much to say against it as I was thinking that he might be saying that because he was so bored of reading almost the same answers from everybody.Almost like they were stereotypes.

But when I was in the bus just now I over heard my friends talking about this matter.One was saying that our dean should have not said something like that at all.Because it is one's own dream and one's own decision and one's own faith in what one believes in.He couldn't have commented on what is right and what is wrong.What is mature and what is not.It is someone's dream.And I thought to myself.Why did I chose this career.I didn't fail maths.I was brilliant in maths.I love to design.I colud have taken up architecture.I'm a good singer.I could have been a singer if I want to.I could have been anything else other than chosing to be a doctor.

Then I remembered.Right after I finished my A level my dad had a little chat with me.He is a great man.A great father who is my idol.Someone I look up to highly.An Anesthetist.An honest practitioner.He told me to take up medicine.He gave me some practical reasons why he asked me to study medicine.He said that a doctor is the profession that has high demand.They have the power.They have the money.They are well respected only by having that Dr. title on his or her name.Doctors' names are so established and they receive full attention whenever a doctor opens up their mouth to speak even the tiniest things.They are highly appreciated in any way possible.I just had to agree.

But then he told me the real reason why he chose to be a doctor.To be who he is now.He said he wanted to make his family proud of him.Not by the money and fame.But for his deeds.He said he feels relieved seeing the patient under him progressing well and better.He feels like he is closer to God more than anything else to have experianced God's creations by learning medicine.It's not just by memorizing the whole book.But how well you are to the people around you,how well you treat them as a human being who always crave for tender,love and care.And that feeling to have helped a soul and the family is just unimaginable.

He has been practising for more than 30 years perhaps.And I can see how his patients appreciate him deeply.This I think reflected on his honest work.His honest effort.His dream which he had developed since his childhood days.Never had he been a greedy man.To think of money and fame,the title.Money and fame fades off if you are not careful.But knowing how much people appreciate you and words spreading telling what a wonderful being you are to another sick soul lasts forever.That is definate.

I did not choose this path because my father told me to take up medicine.I did not choose to be a doctor because of the fame and money and whatever worldy this title will soon deliver me to.I am studying medicine because I hold on firmly to what I believe in.And I believe in my childhood dream.It has always been my dream to see babies born safely to the world.I have conducted deliveries of my kittens since I was 10.And that feeling I had everytime my cats give birth to wonderful kittens touched my heart deeply which I cannot explain.And to imagine me conducting a human delivery,and have the baby in my hands,I do not have words to express how wonderful that would be.

22/01/06 sunday

It's a lazy sunday for me today =)

Got up early but later decided to gulp more cough syrup to put me to sleep.Hehe.After getting up and feeling so guilty I decided to do a little light reading on pediatrics.

Growth and development of a child are two very interesting topics.In a man's eyes their growth are just something amusing and entertaining.Especially when we get to hear their first word.Or being so excited to see them able to take their first step away from the couch.But some children were not born as perfect as you and I were brought up to be.

A few days back a baby girl was born with broken bones and joints.These fractures were of unknown causes.Usually cases such as these are due to genetic inheritant.But in this family,there were no known family members who had this defect before.It was not detected earlier during the pregnancy.And when the baby was brought out of the uterus she was crying excessively and all her limbs were not moving.And they are bowed.The baby feels pain whenever the limbs move and she has not much chance to survive for long.She can be treated with surgery to repair her fractured bones.But she still has poor prognosis even after the surgery is successfuly done.

It was so sad for us and the doctors to see the baby crying and could not do anything much to help the baby.All that was to be done was just to giver her some pain killers to help her ease the pain and nothing more.Studying medicine makes me feel insecured and afraid of a lot of things.I dont know how I am going to be like once I'm pregnant.I'll be so scared all the time =( always so worried.

21/01/06

It's been a while since I last blog.I've been busy lately with postings.Now im posted to pediatrics ward.It's fun in this field.But I don't think I'll be taking up this field.Now I'm posted in OPD department and I get to see and play with babies and little children everyday.I have to bring colourful toys to distract the children when examinations are done on them.Most of the children here have lower respiratory tract infection since India is so dusty.I just hope something can be done about this.

There's a new subject taught to us called palliative medicine.Here they emphesize on communication skills.Some might think that it's a stupid subject to be taught but come to think of it, I think I'm having some communication problems too.It is always a problem for me to voice out my feelings especially when someone is hurting me.I tend to just let them be and I keep things to myself too often and every thing just accumulate and one day it will blow off so badly.But I just dont dare to voice out much since I'm afraid of the outcome.

It's a real headache when I try to keep things to myself cos it hurts so much.I always try to see things from the better side.I always try to.So that at least that cheer me up and I get to take my mind off things that are bothering me so much.The negative things.And I always tell myself to keep my cool and believe in what I believe in.And one day I surely will be getting what i deserve and what I've wished for.Maybe even better =)

Wednesday 3/1/06

It is not too late for me to wish every readers out there a Happy and Prosperous new year :)

I've been very busy with medicine postings and I am looking forward for weekends.I'm so going to spoil myself this weekend.

Today there was a new admission of acute gastroenteritis a.k.a food poisoning.We've had a lot of that this week.Now I'm posted to male and female ICU wards.The male patients are very co operative and most of them do understand english so they didnt give much problems to me and my friends.But the female patients always give us problems and I think they were being so unfair.So my friends and I had to bribe them by buying them chocolates,biscuits and fruits :)

I'm enjoying my time here.At least I've learned a lot and I can't wait to learn more.But every time I'm presenting a case I will be worried and stressed out.I guess that's just so normal :)