Succusion Splash

Patient is a 25 year old chinese student who had just eaten a big meal at marina south steamboat buffet 3 hours ago. He now presents with abdominal distention and the feeling of 'impending doom' about the possible growth of his abdomen.

On abdominal inspection, there was distention observed more on the left than the right. There were no visible masses felt. On palpation, the.... blah blah. On auscultation, bowel sounds were present and succusion splash was heard over the stomach when the patient is rocked side to side.

Hmm... luckily I did not have projectile vomitting..

Hippo

Time taken to finish 613 pages of Dan Brown's Angels and Demons: 1 day...



Time taken to finish 100+ pages of a chapter in Kumar and Clarke: 2 days...

Amount of time and knowledge lost due to reading Dan Brown's story book instead of studying: Priceless

There are certain times when knowledge just refuses to get into the brain, for the other times, you will need a working hippocampus.

My encounter with hippos began in kindergarten when i keep seeing the hungry hungry hippo advertisements.. Quite bewildered and excited by the game.



But over time.. i realised that hippos are live and they have the big mouths.. (think i was in primary school then.. in a science lesson)



Then in second year med school.. i realised there's a hippo in the brain or rather a seahorse called hippocampus that aids in memory.. I need it to be alive and kicking now.. most of the time.. so that i can remember stuff all the time. Apparently i might not have trained it well.. It or rather the pair of them seems to be ailing now.. Hai.. how? feed them with essence of chicken? red bull? bird nest? or the plankton they used to eat in their natural habitat?

Happiness-Inducer Deficiency Syndrome

Cure me...

Normal-life-sation...?

Dad and Mom are back from China..

Was already quite used to being home alone.. totally, since they have been on trips many times liao.. This time fortunately, was not as lonely as the previous times. (Thanks Dear..)

Thought life would be normalising when they return, who knows some things became a little more abnormal..

1) Digicam suddenly went on strike. cannot focus, cannot take proper pictures, so had to send to repair.. dunno what is the etiology.

2) Mom was sunning the laundry from the trip this morning before breakfast when "CRASH!!!" the whole bracket holding the clothes line broke off the wall sending the whole infrastructure of the home's "clothes sunning system" to the ground. Will need some moderate operation to construct it again.. Luckily Dad has 2 more days of leave.. Hmm.. broke off the wall, first time in my life it happened..

3) Dad and mom also came back with a back full of medicine from China.. 熊胆 supposedly good for hypertension and 2 other medicines, 1 for liver and 1 for menopause.. I was real skeptical about the meds.. Most prob due to my western education.. but my parents seem pretty impressed by the profs and docs in the medical company they were brought to visit, so they bought the meds.. $1K of them.. What can i say? If they trust them and they will feel better, should be good for them i suppose.. i guess i will just have to look out for adverse effects... (Hmm, what made the chinese practitioners so trustworthy, compared to so many of us med students and docs?? Communication?)

Star Search 2005

It was a new kind of test.. the introduction of an OSCE with 10 stations that we have to pass before we can take the MBBS.. Just took the mock test last saturday, to let us 'have a flavour of what it is like'

Turned out to be maciam 演员训练班 like that.

One of the stations was patient education about asthma inhalers and spacers for her child. I read the question then 'ACTION!'

'Hi Good morning.. Mrs Cecilia!" i began

'Oh.. er.. good morning' (the 'patient's mother' had to refer to her paper to confirm her name.. hmm... not my NG)

'I am KH, medical student..' i went on

'Huh medical student?!' she asked, glancing a little to the examiner

(Oops, the question said i was supposed to be a houseman... Hai.. used to it liao..) Well anyway, must act like nothing happened...

'So i see your daughter..blah blah blah... teach teach teach..'

After all the teaching, she offered to demonstrate to me to see if she got me correct.. (oops, forgot to tell her to do it.. think she saved me.)

Then surprisingly, after being 'taught' by 12 other people before me, she still could act blur then hesistantly shake the inhaler maciam she never did it before like that then place it to the spacer and pretend to spray.. she also kept confirming her steps till we finally reached the end. (She's really impressive.. she has another 3 more people to act blur with after me, i believe she can do it..)

'TING!' the bell went off = CUT!

Good take? have to wait for the review some time later..

Soccer final after the mock test. Last match in the last year.. We lost big time but i was glad i played my best game ever this last game. Most prob due to someone in the stands ;) Will miss the times with the soccer gang.. They really helped me improve over the 4 years.. We never failed to have jokes and laughter during our games too..

Need For Speed

What is an acceptable pace for studying? Being able to go through the whole Neuro chapter in Kumar and Clarke in 1 day?

Really don't know what's ideal, but i seem to be trudging through the chapter like a 24km route march.. (not that i've done it though.. longest i marched was 10km) Well.. wonder how long i will take to finish it..

I like study breaks. Get to study more leisurely than during postings.. More energy to do so also.. Maybe it also gives me a false sense of security cause i won't know i don't know a lot of stuff.

Well, anyway.. think should grab the opportunity, next time might not have so much chances to stay at home the whole day.

Sick... Of the sick role

Really hate this, the weak feeling with the desire to really do..... nothing but lie down

Glad this will be ending soon. All the worries for nothing with a negative for all results. Not even a raised total white or a differential shift in WBC to tell me what kind of an infection it was...

Anyway, found that my body only took a minor damage in this course of illness. So many more people are affected. Parents having to worry, whole family cannot enjoy a good dinner before my brother flies off, can't send my brother off, then whole family including dear Rei has to feed on fish porridge with me for a sunday dinner.. (how nice..) and all because of a rather atypical and prolonged illness.

And Dr Lim got to lose money by charging me peanuts for all the blood tests, consultation and medicine. (got to get him something..)

And i cannot do exercise though soccer final is nearing, cannot study properly, cannot do some housework (got to catch up this weekend), cannot attend outings, important birthday dinners etc

Hmm.. the sick role.. Can i decide not to adopt it by sheer mental determination? Looking back i think i had no choice.. or is it that my mind is weak?

Sick...

Fever day 5...

Sore throat, occasional cough, no runny nose, temperature spikes in the evenings reaching 39.7, chills and rigours (first time i witness cyanosis of my own fingernails..) malaise at its ultimate.. 5 days liao.. what could it be??

Dr Lim ran dengue serology, blood film for malaria, UFEME, platelet count.. and gave me macrolides to cover strep pyo.. just in case. Well.. looks like all grounds covered liao. Wonder what i actually have. Doesn't help thinking i had been to CDC the past 2 weeks..

This should the best period of time to study: electives. must somehow psyche myself to do so..