Let the snow fall once again...

Being an MO...

SMC Registration... our first step to being an MO!

1 month plus a bit into MO-ship now.
Exciting journey, lots to learn!
Lots of screw ups, not unexpected.
Lots of exasperation over the bosses faces.
(both anaesthetist n surgeons!)
"Baby MOs" is the answer for everything.

2 stitches a minute - I need to double that rate.
Imperfect opposition of skin - I need practice.
Dunno how to hold camera for lap chole - need to improve my 3D orientation.
Intention tremors - stay away from caffiene?

Going to be HD MO soon.
Manage sick patients? - I still dunno how.
Answering questions at M&M - this one is tough!

Despite all that, I'm thankful for nice bosses, nice seniors n nice colleagues.
Hanging in there, making every move carefully.
In this game, there is little room for error!
Need to jia you!
=)
~Footprints in the snow~
Saturday, June 13, 2009, 12:07 PM

Finally... the changeover.

I just realized that the posts that I wrote in NZland apparently hav not been published for some reason! Maybe I shut off my IE too quickly or sthing, or the internet connection for some reason was just bad.
Anywayz, NZland was fun! As are all holidays right? ;)
Despite the rather lack of preparation according to Jo (though I she did a very good job!), everything went quite smoothly and we didn't lose our way, reached all the places we wanted to reach on time, and had fun! I guess the only regret is that we didn't get to go skydiving due to poor weather... ah well... next time maybe =) And I still don't understand why the immigration officer had so much problem believing that I AM a doctor!
Our trip took us from Christchurch to the pretty blue glaciers, then down south to Wanaka in Queenstown where we got to go bungy jumping, then through pretty lake Te Anau to the over-rated Milford Sound. Due to time constraints we decided to skip Dunedin and go back north towards Mt Cook and Lake Tekapo, before returning to Christchurch.
Since I've already uploaded some photos to fb, shall not flood this page with photos. Just the highlights...

1) Glacier Trekking... It was fun! First time I'm using crampons... which are a god-send on the ice.

2) The chicken that Kenny chopped up for dinner. Haha, bcos I'm totally hopeless at de-boning chicken myself. Also explains why I always eat popcorn chicken from KFC.

3) Bungy! We did it! In the rain somemore... haha =)

4) Sashimi. Eaten fresh in the Salmon farm. yum =)

5) Kitty Cat!! Somehow there seem to b plenty of them in NZland... n they r NOT the irritating kind. So cute right?? This one lived on the salmon farm, ate sashimi daily. We saw another one at wanakabakpaka, who ate up the fatty bits of our meat.

6) Feeding the ducks at Glenorchy. One of the few times we took advantage of the break in between the endless showers to get out of the car. As I lured the ducks nearer and nearer the car with bread, K plotted how to catch one for dinner!

7) Mushrooms! or Whatever they are called! These must b the really poisonous ones that start with "A" that block the acetylcholine receptors or sthing n kill u in a few minutes?

8)I got to see an iceberg!!!! Yes its a tiny one... but still... its the first iceberg I've seen! Going to Antartica is definitely on my bucket list.

9) I can't even remember how many afternoons we spent just lazing around by the lakes and not doing anything - the perfect holiday. Nice and cool weather, autumn leaves falling, NO mosquitos (though I think there were other bugs)... so different from rushing to grab case files, take blood, do discharge summaries, asking for urgent scans...

10) And so all good things must come to an end. Holidays too. As we landed at Terminal three and waited for the skytrain... we grumbled about how we would STILL have to do changes... and STILL have to do HO calls... *sigh*
Life goes on...
~Footprints in the snow~
Sunday, May 10, 2009, 9:30 PM

End of HO-ship!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yay!!!!!!!!!!! *jump jump jump*
I think I won't be seeing this corridoor for quite a while...

It felt so good not to have to wake up for rounds, or to have my work phone ringing at all!!! I'm goin 2b away from the hospital for a good period of time, before I get back in to the world more GS hopefully without having to take blood, set plugs and deal with horrible nonsense like patient's pulling out IDCs or plugs at 2am!! *grinz*

I guess HO life had its good times as well, like slacking in the HO room with single digit team lists, or going out for the occassional lunches and coffee at Highlander.
Even though the HO room is super messy with plugs and paper all over the place + umlimited
tubes of PR jelly... I guess I will still miss being there, especially since the printer finally works!!!
(see... Louis is one of the most common ppl seen in that position... pm nap)

And because things like "hardship postings" existed aka colorectal + team 1, we also made good friends who we would share BIG 21 inch pizzas with =)
I also won't forget the postcall liver harvesting at TTSH, definitely one of the highlights of my HO life. (not falling asleep while holding retractor is a skill I still need to work on!)

Haha... I get so excited at every little thing... Its a phase thing.

On my last call, I noticed that me and Kenny spent a considerable amount of time in the HO room. Hopefully it is a reflection we have gotten more efficient over the year that we finally find time to sleep on call. Haha... he is the first person I've been on call with who actually turns off all the lights including the computer screen!!! haha~ I must confess I slept well.
Kenny says I keep laughing at everything he says...
So... to end it all off, we had breakfast at 0645hrs on our last call =)
Just as we got our food, I received an sms "we round in 10 mins ok?" Lucky I printed the list before breakfast... so we had 10mins to gulp down the PO albumin + kaya toast + milo.
The tragic life of a HO...

Anyway....I'm going on holiday!!!! (once I clear my part1...)
Hopefully when I return to the centre of excellence next month... this sign at the lift lobby will be gone =)
Don't believe what it says.
~Footprints in the snow~
Sunday, April 19, 2009, 5:13 PM

Pretti Pink~

Me has a new PINK sony VAIO!!! yay!!!!!!!!!!!
which is like worth one month's salary but is totally worth it bcos it is the best thing that has happened this month... this very horrible month that I just can't wait for it to be over. (Ok we shall not talk about it further)

I wish I have more time to play with it.... Photos will come eventually... hopefully uploaded from my new laptop!

Big thank you to YOU for helping me with the whole process of acquiring + carrying my pretty pink toy since I've been craving and whining about it for... a few months I think.

Buy u bubbletea next time ;)
~Footprints in the snow~
Tuesday, March 17, 2009, 10:39 AM

colorectal.

Every day I wonder why I am doing what I am doing.
~Footprints in the snow~
Saturday, March 07, 2009, 12:26 PM

Life in GS.

Its been over a month since I last updated my blog, and I can only say it is because GS has left me tired. drained. pining for leave.
I guess starting a new posting is always difficult, but since its my final HO posting, I didn't expect it to be THIS difficult.
I started out January in team 4, and it was generally not too bad as the CNY month meant fewer electives than usual, and not too much damage to the team list. However, I saw more BGITs in January than I ever saw in the rest of my life. (apparently BGIT is the common thing in GS). The good thing was, I had really nice consultants who were rather easy going and approchable, and I made an effort to put watever I learned from ortho about updating lists into use. I also survived my first GS call with 5 hours of sleep, way more than I expected, and a great achievement especially since I cried so bad on my first ortho call, and trembled so bad before GS call. Maybe we've all grown as HOs! haha~ (the subsequent GS calls were not that great... but u know, the first is always the one which gives u tachycardia and insomnia)

So now February has arrived, rudely.
Being in Team 6 meant more patients, more work, more rules, stricter consultants, longer hours, less/no weekends off....
hai~

In the centre of excellence, patient expectations are high. Things will always be stat, people are pushed to the limits, miracles happen, thereby creating new/higher standards and expectations. It is a place where the weak do not survive, where everyone struggles to stay in the game, mistakes can be deadly.

Maybe I am not suited for life like that. Maybe I am really a kampung girl at heart.
At the end of the day, I still miss sitting next to the koi pond, feeding the leftover bits of my Mr. Bean pancake to the fishes, and watching the world go by.

Having written all of the above, I suddenly find my situation awfully similar to the characters in the drama serial I recently watched, about a few friends who left their little village to seek "a better life" in Taipei. Haha~
~Footprints in the snow~
Tuesday, February 03, 2009, 9:02 PM

The last few days of ortho......

So... I did call on my birthday!!!! A big achievement for someone who has never done any productive work on her birthday.
The day started off well.... with me havin a ridiculously good list with time to go into OT scrubbing up next to a plastic surgeon! How cool is that! =) Of cos I fumbled like crazy when he told me to tear off the number one tab on the plastic thingy you use for VAC dressing.... haha.... But thankfully he was really nice! =)

And when I came out of OT... I was treated to a nice surprise =) My chocolate bday cake!!!!!!!!! =) Thank you to all my fellow HOs for the nice surprise!!!!!! ;)

I think N-de was kindof jealous of my ridiculously good list..... haha~

After a nice long afternoon nap, call started rather uneventfully. And I must say I really didn't have much work to do, no collapses, no sickies... and I set 2 plugs the whole night, how cool is that! There was this patient which had Hb6.2, and I was supposed to keep Hb>8. After 1 pint of PCT, Hb went up to 8.6! How cool is that! no need to call BTSMO anymore! *grinz* Its called birthday luck I believe....Haha. I also had nice MOs and nice registrars on that day... and I got chicken without bones for dinner!

Post call, we had a super long and good breakfast at... *drumroll*.......

=)
so cool right. That is how December should be =)

Also had the chance to meet up with my darlin RGS gals..... after like so so so long bcos it is super difficult to fit our gatherings into SOMEBODY's timetable bcos she is busy goin round Singapore in a GOLDEN BMW. *ahem*
Ask her for more details.

So.... here comes 2009. New posting, new people, new work. Jia you everyone! ;)
~Footprints in the snow~
Thursday, January 01, 2009, 10:22 PM

December 2008

The month is almost coming to an end. So fast...
It wasn't that long ago I was eating my fill of strawberries on the 1st of December in Melbourne!
This December, compared to the rest, is just so quiet, so wierd.
WE ARE ALL FAMILY, WHY MUST THINGS BE SO HOSTILE AND WIERD??? HOW DID THINGS END UP LIKE THIS??? IS THERE REALLY NO BETTER RESOLUTION??? AND FOR HEAVENS SAKE I AM NEARLY TWENTY-FOUR AND OLD ENOUGH TO DECIDE WHO I SHOULD HANG OUT WITH!!!
what happened to the days where we played piano next to the Christmas tree, refused to go home bcos we wanted to finish the next episode of death note, and spent just like one hour giving out christmas prezzies bcos there were JUST SO MANY!
Ok enough of the nonsense...
I shall just concentrate on all the good things that happened in December =)

The last day where all Three Team 4 HOs were at work...

Christmas Eve got 1/2 day! So we finally had our team 4 outing...

Darling Chengsi finally flew back and we went to try specs on Christmas day! So funky right... at good ol' uncle Koh's shop in Parkway parade... =)

My new look... actually not bad leh! Heh~

And my long time good friend + CG mate bought me dinner!!! yumyum pizza~

Ben & Jerrys to complete the night. Having a weekend off is total luxury. And when we meet, it is still always the same topics of nurses, MOs, Regs, ACs, Cons... blah blah blah...
Haha~ some things never change.

Ok lar... sometimes my sister can be quite sweet...

And my cousins too! Here's my bday cake! =)
After having a little bit to drink....

Hope the last few days of December will bring more peace, love and joy =)
And hope my bday wish will come true!!!!!

*grinz*

~Footprints in the snow~
Sunday, December 28, 2008, 11:29 PM

Christmas Eve...

Its Christmas Eve.
Christmas eve this year feels so... wierd. Feels so... lonely.

I'm sitting at home watching DVDs, but somehow not really laughing.
MSN seems empty, its so wierd.

I can't really recall what I spent christmas eve last year doing... maybe I wasn't so emo.
sigh.

May Christmas day be a better day.
Chengsi + chengyi dearies... I miss you!!!!! When r u guys comin back?!?!?!?!
*wails*
~Footprints in the snow~
Wednesday, December 24, 2008, 10:18 PM

December rocks.

Even though I have a 40+ patient ward round list, December still rocks, bcos Christmas is coming and my birthday is coming!!! =) The disturbing part is that I'm reaching my mid-twenties soon. Not good. Too old. With one last take for the month, we will survive =)

I still vividly remember my first horrible CGH ortho call that left me crying so bad so many times throughout the night. bleah~ Looking bad, that call was actually not bad bcos I admitted all finger cases. But then... at that time I didn't even know open fracture supposed to start cefa genta, so stupid right. But like with all calls, the sun still rose and I still survived. =)

Now... I'm not sure I'm ready to leave my comfort zone and move to surgery... hmmm....

So ortho HO farewell came and went. Food was not that fantastic but company was good. This is the nicest photo of the lot! (in terms of lighting and number of people looking at the camera). I still think I had the best time in team 1, everyday can walk out to buy bubble tea one. haha~ peppermint milk tea with BIG pearls and red tea with BIG pearls. Haha~ the stupid things I remember. (I still think small pearls nicer!)

Finally found time to meet up with my CG mates. Yay we r all goin SGH next! The place where we learnt the 10 causes of pulmonary fibrosis the painful way, one of which is lymphangitis carcinomatosis. bleah~ When stressed HOs meet up, all they can manage to do is re-arrange food on the table.

(by the way, the fries get dipped into the sundae, the sauces are for decorative purposes and to bully the guys.)

Ok... enough of random bloggin. Time to sleep =)

~Footprints in the snow~
Thursday, December 18, 2008, 9:58 PM