Hospitalized

Another day has passed and zero work was done. -.-

I wanted to cut my hair but yea the place was closed. rarr.. going to the gym soon later..

Anyway i went to visit my fellow course mate at Alfred Hospital today (which by the way is nothing compared to Austin Hospital)

He was playing soccer and got elbowed and yea.. it was quite bad and it was quite scary and heartbreaking seeing him like that and i wish him a speedy recover.

We went as a group and yea, it was quite different going to a hospital as a visitor and not a medical student.

When we heard what was going on immediately i think in all our heads we were review our anatomy and physiology and when he told us what happened, it was in a way that could be described "scientific".

Not all patients would say it like that and if we were to practice our interviewing skills, he would be the perfect patient, giving all the info that we need.

So just walking you guys through it...

Trauma induced injury to the abdominal area, affecting the blood vessels of the right kidney
Supply was cut off to a segment of the kidney was the blood was loss within the body cavity (two kidneys receive 25% of our cardiac output)
Fluid built up and pushed the right kidney quite high up, even higher than the left (normally the right is lower due to the liver)
My fren went home hurting, just thinking it was nth serious till he woke up and experienced excruciating pain and went to the ER
waited 2 hours till a doctor came and gave him an ultrasound and found the vessels of his kidney twisted.
He then went for a CT scan and found that there was a significant amt of internal bleeding and the kidney was pushed way up
10 minutes later he was in the Operating Room and underwent laparoscopic surgery
1/3 of the right kidney was found to be necrotic and was removed.

he will have another CT scan this thur to confirm and will be discharged this fri.

Wish him a speedy recovery

Spagetti Aglio Olio

This is the pasta i cook when i'm hungry... haha... easy to make and quick to wash. A real time saver.

Ingredients

5-6 Cloves of Garlic Diced

Spagetti

A little less than 1/4 Cup Olive Oil

Salt

Pepper

MasterFoods Parsley Flakes

MasterFoods Basil Leaves

McCormick Chilli Powder

McCormick Red Crushed Chilli

Instructions

1)Boil the spagetti in a pot with a dash of salt

2)Pour the diced garlic and olive oil in a non stick pan and heat till the garlic turns a little brown, being careful not to burn it or else good game

3)Once brown, quickly add in the pepper, basil, parsley, chilli powder and red crushed chilli

4) Stir well and remove from heat

5) Once the spagetti is cooked, add it to the pan and mix well.

The spagetti should not be too dry but not dripping with oil too.

For Extra Kick, add in my Garlic and Ham Scrambled Egg (Refer to old post "Late Night Snack") on top for a more balanced meal and a caesar salad for your greens.

Enjoy!

Gymming

So i have been gymming for the past few days..

hols are boring and i havent got down to studying get but i have to soon...

anyways my exams will end on 18 nov and im coming back on the 19th of nov. =)

anyways i hope to do one JC outing cos its been like a gazillion years since we met...

army and sec sch frds MEET up too!! haha

To Ter, Jm, Ls any ideas how to get in touch with everyone?

Chicken (Chooks)

This is My first try at Marinating and cooking chicken (Chooks)

For some weird reason, chicken is called Chooks in Aus and McDonald's is called Mackers.

Anyway

Ingredients

Chicken fillets (Thighs and Drumstick works fine too)

For the Marinate

Masterfood's Garlic Salt

Chilli Powder (Go easy on it unless u like HOT stuff)

Masterfood's Cajun Seasoning

White Pepper

Masterfood's Basil Leaves Seasoning

Instructions

Add Chicken into a bowl and season with all of the above. Add lesser Cajun seasoning and you can add whatever you want to taste more.

Heat the oil in the pan and add Garlic

Fry till fragrant

Add in the marinated chicken and fry till cooked.

Serve

Another Easy and Idiot proof meal that i find tastes ok.

Late Night Snack

Sorry about my handphone camera but i swear it looks nicer in real life haha..

This is my Ham and Garlic Scrambled Egg

Ingredients

2 slices of ham

2 Egges

2 Small spoonfuls of MasterFood's bottled finely crushed garlic (They have a nice taste that fresh garlics don not posses)

Pepper

2 Slices of WHOLEMEAL/WHOLEGRAIN bread ( Dont want the empty calories)

Instructions

1.Chop up the ham into nice cute squares

2.Heat the oil in a non-stick pan and add the garlic and fry till fragrant

3.Add the ham and fry till sauteed

4.While waiting for the ham, beat two eggs (not too hard) and add pepper

5.Pour the eggs over the ham and garlic and keep mixing/chopping, adding milk when the eggs are NEARLY cooked.

6.Serve

Nice healthy snack high in protein with minimal preparation time.

And most importantly, idiot proof

Austin Hospital

These pictures are taken at Austin Hospital which is where i'm currently doing my clinical placements.
Its one of the 4 Clinical Schools of my Uni..
If you want to compare it to SGH or smth, i can tell you for sure really no fight one. Austin pawns/mega-owns any hospital in Singapore.

The lobby kinda looks like a hotel lobby and everyward has a heater and aircon, unlike those crappy C-class wards that are absolute crap.

So much for Singapore boasting...

And i cant take any pictures of the ward for obvious reasons.

The third pic has a surgeon walking in scrubs buying lunch haha.. all doctors like walk around with their stethoscope round their necks haha.. (they say its a sign of professionalism)

-.-

Updates

For 2009 the rent at the place i'm staying at is increasing by 244 dollars.. sigh... 

have to start looking for a place to move to liaoz... and the though of packing and moving... realli tiring man.... oh well... see how

there's this one place too that i realli like, but its not that cheap either. but it has a nice pool and a great gym and i really need to start my exercise regime back...

like when i first came to Aus i gym-ed almost every day but now, like zero exercise... sigh....

lately dunno why like dont really feel in the mood for studying... but have to.... my 1 week holidays are starting next week and i hope to exercise and study...

and reading JM's post brought back some memories...

shall post them another time... got to sleep now...

take care

Cravings

I'm craving for a PIANO!!!!

i really regret not learning piano properly when i had the chance...

i realli regret not learning ANYTHING properly when i had the chance...

damn sad... i think the closest i have ever reached to being "sucessful" is in sports and yet... i didnt take the time to learn anyone well enough and just like skip from one to another...

but now...

i want to relearn how to play the piano.... haha...

and i wish i have a piano here is AUS.... anyone wanna sponsor?? haha

i believe i have zero musical talent...

and i'm sure my ex piano teacher will agree...

i'm gg to put it to the test when i'm back for hols... haha...

for once, i want to see that whether i can learn smth well if i put my mind to it...

Relief

well i got back the results of my test and it was not as bad as i thought it would be...

while its not excatly superb, there is still room for improvements and i'll mug harder...

its already week 9 and week 14 is the last week of sch... exams are drawing near and i cant wait to go home haha....

and i cant wait to say i'm in 2nd year Uni!!!!

i know i can make it...

and i cant wait for year 3 which will be my AMS year but that means we will all split up and go our different ways.... sad but oh well... long way to go...

just finished listening to online lect... bored now... update soon. haha

Wake up call

I'll always rmbr 09/09/2008

Its the day i got my wake up call... and  i think i've received quite a few in my life already.

1. when i failed my secondary 1

2. after i failed my A levels

3. The current one now..

so i just had my test... the first test that will contribute to my final mark..

before this, yes i was a little stressed but still within my comfort zone i guess. i did not have a strong urge to really excel (partly because i know i cant really), i just wanted to enjoy the course and get the AMS subject i want.

but the test was a wake up call...

my "welcome" to med school i suppose...

the test was yea... bad... but i guess i still think i will do ok (because i do not have high expectations)

at first i was thinking wah i still quite comfortable, doing relatively ok and not stressing too much...

then BAM!!!

the test shook my perception and rocked my world...

now... i really must mug liaoz... just to maintain my results from semester 1 (which i'm really quite satisfied already)

but yea.. i'll strive to improve and hopefully do what i want...

also i think that wah ppl in NUS work so hard learn so much i kinda think that will i know less then them. i was thinking that Melb Uni got less QC control on us..

haha.. then the test was like "in your face, here's our quality control"

so yea...

i guess the message is "Welcome, This is Med Sch"

PS sorry for the change in address has some "technical" difficulties. haha

Uncertain

Sometimes you go to a place and you wonder whether you fit it or not...

i guess fitting in is one thing but the most impt question to ask is "do you belong there"

sometimes i wonder whether i do belong in my course...

i see so many bright minds everyday and sometimes u just have that tinge of self-doubt.

will you do a good enough job when u graduate?

i mean... i have to... there's sooo much at stake...

but then, there are ten reasons i think i dont belong here..

maybe its just exams stress but here goes:

1. i'm the only singaporean who is in this course with over 8 points for O levels
2. the only one with no bio/physics background.. (poor science foundation)
3. i seem to forget all i learn really fast
4. i love to sleep too much =)
5. i take too long to learn, like more than double the time ppl take
6. my forte is still think lies more towards the artsy side
7. my tuition fees are ridiculous. and i don know if i can graduate.
8. i dont really want to compete in such a cut throat environment (mayb cos i'll lose bad)
9. i'm one of 3 not form top-5 jc and u all know what happen to my A levels
10. i may not get to specialise in what i wan...

sigh

if i choose not to continue, i can take an "out" option in my third year.

just get my Bachelor of Medical Science and say good night...

but yea...

i'll press on... take each day as it comes...

1940 to go.....

AHHHHHHH

ANATOMY!!!!!!

Photo scanned from Netter's Human Atlas of Anatomy

well so i just spent like 2 hrs doing hardcore anatomy...

see until my eyes pain haha...

haha.. but i guess i have to say... i love anatomy!!! =)

imagine that pic above but like over 500 pages of it.. -.- haha

but yea, its realli cool but damn hard to visualise and remember

nxt week i get to dissect! hope i can understand it more

and i just realised... eating 2 slices of garlic pizza 15 mins before dissection pract is not smart haha..

felt abit nauseous but nth happened =)

Updates

Well so so so...

Been mugging for one day.. well.. almost... damn sianz liaoz...

i find that yea i really like what i'm studying.. but for now, i still don really get the whole pic..

i hope i get it faster.. not like last sem when only 1 week b4 exam then i got it all...

this sem need to do well to get the AMS subject in year 3 i want...

Anyways yea on friday...

i was walking towards the medical building for a class...

you know sometimes when u walk u can hear ppl talking even if u nv really try to...
like overhear accidently

yea... i overheard 3 convos along the way...
though i didnt get the whole convo cos i was walking quite fast..

i could hear the gist. ie the keywords/synopsis/outline whatever u want to call it.

here they are:

1st convo keywords:
osmotic pressure
emesis

2nd convo keywords:
short gut syndrome
metabolism

3rd convo keywords:
histology
carcinoma

i was like.. wah lao... walk along the way also hear this kinda stuff damn sad...

sigh, now u know why we got no life..

in sch we learn, do lab

outside we research

free time go read journal, practice clinical skills...

walking anywhere also talk abt work

sigh...

and i think my whole life will be like this...

suddenly i find that when i go back sg i wanna work but i don wan anything to do with what i'm studying.

any lobangs anyone? haha

A Spring in my step!

=)

It's the first day of spring... new season new resolutions. haha...

1. i hope to catch on on my work

2. i hope to get back to exercising.

and i finally finished my 2500 word essay. i hope it will be good.

anyways i just got bad news. i heard the 2003-2005 average mark for my current semester is onli 70%. damn sad la.. i need 70% if i want to go overseas during my 3rd year. haiz... wish me luck..

anyway got a test coming up on the 9th of sept. 35 more lects to go =(

and i added more books to my current selection.

here goes

Pathophysiology of diseases

Anatomedia

Medical Microbiology

Clinically Orientated Anatomy

Clinical Examination

Biochemistry

Colour Textbook of Histology

Netter's Human Atlas of Anatomy

Physiology

Pathologic Basis of Diesease

Pharmocology

Current Essentials of Medicine

Signs and Symptoms

Pocket Guide to Diagnostic Tests

i think there alone got close to 400 bucks already. lol...

but its ok la... for some "light" reading...

update me ppl!