Swimming

I had a great fun swimming today....
I didn't count exactly how many laps I did but I think it should fall between 8-10...
Would like to do more but we had to go home early for Maghrib...
If only I had a swimming pool at my own backyard...it would be easier to lose weight!


I found this boy at the changing room crying as his mom is in the toilet...
His older sister tried to cuddle him but she's only a few inches taller than him..I'm afraid she might fall over so I offered to cuddle him...Thank God he stopped crying...(If he didn't, I think I would run away ASAP...before his mom came out of the toilet...certainly don't wanna be responsible for his crying!!)



(I think I should change the blog name...I found myself posting something even when I don't have anything interesting to write)

Guys

I made jokes with Effah that I'd prefer her not to go to tute today so that I can have all the guys for myself...in the end she decided not to turn up so I actually left with Nick & Peter for the tute with Dr John in the morning and with Tom at lunch time...
It wasn't too bad after all hanging out with the boys even though I felt a bit awkward initially as I've always been in a tutorial where girls outnumbered guys...
We had a good laugh talking about a lot of things...the midwives, consultants, future specialties that we might pursue, last year OSCE exam and about our efforts in studying...
I always wonder how difficult it is for a male med student doing an O&G rotation..I have confirmed it today....it definitely is difficult!
Peter told us, there's one time when the midwife asked him to put his hand on a patient's tummy for 10minutes to feel for the contraction and to time it up...he was left with the patient alone in the delivery suite...the patient tried to relieve her pain by standing and swinging her hips..(I'd imagine she's basically looked like she's dancing)..Suddenly, the patient's fiance came into the room...and Peter, with his hand on the patient's tummy instantly told the fiance that he's a medical student...(I wonder what's on the fiance's mind when he first saw them both)...hahah...surely not what he'd expect...
I was surprised to learn Peter n Nick's views about labour...both of them agree that they hate watching women in labour..they think that the whole thing is gruesome...they even said that they would be surprised to know that any female medical students would still think of having a baby (at least vaginally) after witnessing how gross it is...
It's interesting how both of them thinks of the hardship of the whole experience while I would focus on the joy of the baby's arrival into the world....

Mistaken

I was scared to go to Dr Lee's clinic today as I didn't go to the hospital last Tuesday and do the presentation which Dr Lee had asked me to...I made sure that I brought my stethoscope along as Dr Lee had given Peter a hard time when he forgot to bring his...

Dr Lee asked me to sit in Consulting Room 2 while he is in Consulting Room 1...he sends his patient to me to take their history, BP, examine the tummy and take fetal heart rate while he attends to another patient...after I'm finished, he would come and ask me to present the case and he double-checks if I managed to get the correct fetal lie and presentation..I was right in 7 out of 10 patients...counting the patient who's carrying a twin in her tummy which I failed to reckonize until she told me so...I was surprised that when I measured her symphysis-fundal-height(SFH) which happened to be 42cm when she's only 36 weeks pregnant(SFH is usually equal to no. of weeks)..btw,she was my first patient of the day!

As Dr Lee had been sending me his antenatal patients, I assumed he would continue the trend so I'm sort of getting used to ask the patient how many weeks are they into the pregnancy...until this patient came with a baby in a stroller and I asked the same question without thinking....she was like, "No..no..I'm not pregnant...he's 3 months old..she showed me her baby"...I was really embarrassed and I just apologize to her for my stupidity...and I thought I managed to cover that up when we had a chat about her presenting complaint and her cute baby boy...

Dr Lee came later and he examined her tummy which she had been complaining of pain...she had a caesarean section and the examination revealed that there were no signs of inflammation and the scars is healing well...she said she had been taking Panadeine Forte and she couldn't do anything without it...she had 3 other daughters and 2 of them is 2 and 3 years old...Dr Lee confirmed my suspicion of post-natal depression as she doesn't seem to be coping well...

Later on, when Dr Lee's receptionist came into my room to give me a patient's file, she reminded me to read the patient's file first before I start talking to them..she said, "Don't just ask the patients how many weeks they are, because the last one complains.."I told her I'm sorry...I think she really was pissed off with me...I know I should have felt bad for my own mistake, but I just couldn't accept how she acted...everytime she came into the room giving me the file, she always smile half-heartedly only because I was smiling and keep on saying thanks to her...she seemed to be avoiding my eyes which I found really annoying...

Anyway, all in all....Dr Lee was really nice to me today...I wouldn't expect him to be that nice after what Peter has told me...we even talked about Dr Lee's background, where he came from, which school he went to...apparently he was the 8th batch graduated from UM med school!!I even had a chat with him about politics!!

(I googled Dr Lee yesterday to look for the address of his practice and I was surprised to find a forum where mother-to-be talk about their own experience...there was this lady who asked if anyone had seen Dr Lee and if he is pro-natural..it was funny to know how people talks about their doctors and the impressions they made..it's not just celebrities who need to have good reputation, doctors too...I should mention that there is one patient who complained about Dr Lee's receptionist and she was seconded by another patient..........and now me...)


Apart from that incident, it was a good day for me...I get to practise obstetrics examination, history taking and presenting patient's case)

Things always turns out fine for me when I'm worried most about it...

Parenting

This is a very random topic...totally unrelated to my usual typical med student's life entry...

I think parenting is the hardest thing in the world...it's not something that can be taught at uni n u can't earn a degree in parenting..it's even harder than learning to become a neurosurgeon..where u can refer to books, journals and u will be trained by different consultants before u become one...there's no book that can teach U how to become a parent...I wonder why people even bother buying parenting books or write one in the first place...
hmm..on second thought, maybe because it's too difficult that people thought some tips might help..

From my observation throughout my 23++ years of life, I shall say there's no correct way to become a parent...U might be too strict, and ur children hate U or did something bad n it reflects on U not being a good parent..U might be too lenient and the same thing could happen...U can't trust them yet U can't doubt them...even when U think U hv a good relationship with ur children, things can still go wrong...even when U treat all your children the same way, they won't grow up with the same character or values...

I want to become a mother in the future, I'm thinking maybe in 5years' time, but seeing how challenging it is, scares me a little..nurturing babies might not be as hard (maybe it's more difficult logistic wise)...but it certainly gonna be a greater challenge as they grow older..

Bushfire

I never thought bushfire is that close...I've seen some burnt grass n trees on my way to the hospital but never when it's still burning....

Yesterday I was in the operating theatre(OT) in the afternoon..there were 2 OTs(Dr Lee & Dr Rasiah) for O&G and I decided to go to Dr Lee's OT as I saw on the list that he will be performing total abdominal hysterectomy(TAH) which is not done everyday at Angliss..I was with Dr Lee for the first hysteroscopy+dilatation & curettage+polypectomy..after that Dr Lee send me to Dr Rasiah's OT as he has an emergency laparoscopy for an ectopic pregnancy...the surgery took about one hour and while I was in there, the nurses, the anaesthetist talked about bushfire..everyone seems to know someone who has been affected by it..even one of our O&G specialist Dr McCallum has asked Dr Rasiah to cover for him if any of his patients is delivering their babies as Dr McCallum couldn't leave his house because of the bushfire...owhh...I just remember that I'm rosterred to go to Dr McCallum's theatre next Monday, hopefully he would be able to make it by then..

Suddenly one of the nurses in the other OT came to ours telling that some of the staffs had to go home..they just received news about the bushfire n their house might be affected as well...so Dr Lee's theatre need to stop while everything is sorted out..the anaesthetist look up on CFA website (CFA is equivalent to 'bomba' in Malaysia) about the latest updates in bushfire...some roads are cut off and everyone started talking about alternative routes to go home..one of the nurses told me that she might just stay at the hospital for the night rather than getting stuck in traffic since all the road is congested at the moment..

It turns out that both Dr Lee's n Dr Rasiah's major elective surgeries had to be cancelled..as I don't know where I should go in between the surgeries so I just follow wherever Dr Rasiah go..apparently Dr Rasiah also has a patient for TAH that had to be cancelled..As Dr Rasiah started to talk to her, she started crying...Dr Rasiah tried his best to explain the situation to her but she wouldn't listen..this is her second cancellation..the first time was because of bushfire as well...I felt sorry for what happened but there's nothing we could do..people's safety is more important...

In the end, even after cancelling those major surgeries, they still couldn't finish according to the 5pm schedule...I got 5 signatures today(3 for VEs, 1 hysteroscopy and 1 laparoscopy)..I've observed 4 hysteroscopies but they only want 1...

I was coughing all the way while walking from the hospital to the train station because of the smoke...btw, we could even smell the smoke from the hallway at the OT area...that's how close we are!

Sex

I'm telling you...It doesn't matter...It shouldn't matter...

Although..being born in a family of girls, I always wish I have a brother..an older brother would be great but a younger brother is fine too...Somehow I secretly hope that I have an older brother that I haven't met..(maybe like Peyton in One Tree Hill)..he doesn't have to a biological brother..he might be a brother whom I've fed from the same breast...as long as he is someone I couldn't marry...how cool would that be!!
I don't detest anyone who would want a son after giving birth to 3 daughters or the other way around..but I couldn't accept the fact that there are some people who would only want sons but not daughters..

The other day, I had a chat with a patient that I was managing...while I took her blood pressure, I heard her telling me that she's a muslim too..of course I expected her to be one as I had read her file which stated that she is an Afghan...I even wondered if she's a Hazara or a Pashtun...I've just read 'Kite Runner' which I thought one of the best book I've read if not the best...as the setting is in Afghanistan, I've learnt a few facts about Afghans and I have to say I'm excited to meet an Afghan and talk about their culture and life over there, pre and post Taliban era....
Anyway, I figured she might have mixed-blood..as her mother looks like how I pictured a Hazara would, but she doesn't...

As she wasn't in too much pain, I thought it was a good idea to stay in her room and have a chat with her...she told me this is her second child..she has a daughter and this one is gonna be a girl too..I told her that I have 2 siblings, both are girls...She said to me, "U know in Muslim country they don't like to have a girl..."
How can she as Muslim say that?I would felt differently if that's what a non-muslim perceived...
I told her that's not what I experienced in Malaysia...and I don't think that it's Islamic teaching...
After a few minutes I left her room, with my mind still thinking of her words, her perception about her own religion...I know it's not her fault...It's what the male-dominant society taught her and makes her into believing...the religion doesn't teach men to oppress women...it's the culture people!!I hate it when people mix cultural and religious beliefs...and the non-muslims assume that the religion is the culprit..and those women who succumbed to their own culture think that way too...for that same reason, I always avoid reading books written by Muslim women even though they are listed as best-sellers..I don't want to listen to words coming from those who thinks they are being oppressed and couldn't care less about learning Islam from it's roots...they should criticise the culture created by man, not Islam!

A few days after, I had a chat with Catherine and she told me her sister used to live in Jordan where both her daughters were born...She told me it was funny how when the baby was delivered, the people over there kept saying to them how sorry they are the fact that she had a girl instead of a boy...she even had to tell them that they are happy to have a girl..and still, they would say,"It's good that u're happy, but, try again!!"...when I told Catherine that it wasn't prophet Muhammad's teaching, even she agrees with me!!I felt frustrated thinking how a Muslim woman can be confused about her own religious teaching but a Christian could tell which one is culture and which one is religion??

No Baby No Cry

I guess it doesn't fair for me to talk only of the mothers...
Fathers do deserve some credits for without them there won't be babies...

One thing I always observe in labour is the role played by the baby's father in supporting the mother...some are great..they just know what helps and what not...some are clueless...

Nonetheless, one thing I love to see is when the father is cuddling the baby....my most favourite part is when they shed a few drops of tears while holding the baby in their arms...I personally doesn't like guys who cry, but this is an exceptional case..even a desirable one!!I dare to say those who doesn't aren't real man..well at least for their first baby...I always want to capture those moments with my D80 but never had the chance...I guess I won't have the chance anymore as any future deliveries where I'm in that suite, I would have to be the one performing the delivery...no more clean hands for the camera...