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Only about 450ml of blood will be withdrawn from you.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. :)