012-3112602
The only guy i know who has his birth date in his handphone number. well, ex-hp number.



Happy belated 21st dude! Finally...

By the way, that yellow capped bottle behind the pail looks familiar...an embalmed bull's eye (literally...with its eyelashes and ocular muscles still attached) soaked in stale oil. Hah...only in IMU...

Oh my goodness...

Browsing through all the M103 blogs, I feel my bulu roma standing on end. What's with the love everyone?!?! Man...I think someone's gonna get married soon.

Wawasan Aiky (sorry CMing for the plagarism)

There are 3 cars parked side by side outside the St John's Hosp here in Livingston. From far, they look like police cars coz they have those long bars of siren on top of their roof. Except that for police cars, the siren would be blue. But the sirens of these cars are green. And at the front of the siren, and on top of the bonnet and on both sides, and on top of the boot, it's written in big, green, bold letters: DOCTOR.

Wow. Now that's what I call gaya.

I must study hard, get a PRHO placement in A&E St John's and then bug the consultant to let me drive one of those cars. Oh wait, I need a driving license as well.

"...if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." Matt 17:21

But what if your faith's as fragile as an old shred of thread, that all it needs is a little tug, and all that you used to believe in falls apart?

It hurts seeing close friends who used to run together with you in Christ deciding to walk away from the race. The rejection is worse than when non-believer friends tell you they don't believe a single thing you're telling them about God.

I tried to understand their situations-why they're falling away in faith. I prayed for more wisdom to say the right things at the right time. I included them in my prayer and think of them more. Then as I started to add more and more names to that prayer list, this feeling of helplessness and tiredness crept in. Is UK really the big black spiritual hole that sucks all Godliness out of you? Maybe it is. Then I came to the realisation that there's only so much I can say, so much I can pray. It's not my burden anymore. God will definitely reveal himself in due time. Rather than be overwhelmed by the disappointment of looking at them fall away, I should really be praying more and trusting God in faith that things will change for the better.

Loving Livingston...

Wasn't a bad idea dropping my expectations to the lowest before I came. But now that I'm here, really loving it. Yeap, am currently on an outblock in Livingston (3hrs away fr Dundee) doing Psychiatry. Consultant/supervisor's great, nurses are helpful, huge huge huge and comfy coffee room, offered free coffee/tea everyday, accomodation's nice, and...muahaha...Scotland's biggest retail/factory outlet and biggest supermarket (ASDA) sits 10 mins away from the residences. Woohoo!! Have not had the chance to go there yet 'coz it's almost 9-5 everyday now...but will be there this Saturday. Esther, don't flip!

I get offered coffee nearly every session here, from my consultant, the SHO, nurses, even secretaries. So even if I didn't have a caffeine addiction before this, I won't be surprised if I have one now. And it's hard to turn them down. Imagine your consultant taking you along for her coffee break. And you sit down with her in the coffee room with the other nurses. And while sitting there, you have nothing else to do except awkwardly watching her and the other nurses sip coffee. Now won't it be nice if you had a cup of warm coffee/tea yourself so you would at least look occupied with something rather than having to bear with the awkwardness between you and your consultant? Well, she's the most soft spoken consultant and one of the nicest I've ever met, but still...
Anyways, was just flipping through the ICD-10 of Mental&Behavioural Disorders last night. It's this whole guide on how to classify mental disorders according to signs and symptoms. and look what I found stated as one of the criteria under Withdrawal states from other stimulants, including caffeine:

Any two of the following signs must be present:
(1) lethargy and fatigue (i get severely lethargic and have a headache if it gets too boring in the hosp, does that count?)
(2) psychomotor retardation or agitation (nope)
(3) craving for stimulant drugs (caffeine is a stimulant but is it considered a drug?)
(4) increased appetite (yeap! *gulp*)
(5) insomnia or hypersomnia (nope)
(6) bizarre or unpleasant dreams (yeap!)

oh no...that's two and a half! Well, of course this is just one small part of the criteria for this praticular ICD-10 disorder. But still, quite bad isn't it? And imagine the irony, getting caffeine addiction and developing withdrawals all while you're doing PSYCHIATRY, the specialty that is involved in patients of substance dependence/withdrawal. But don't worry (yes, mommy, i'll cut down on it) I don't think it's that severe. I'm not getting tremors or agitated if you don't give me coffee. So nope, I'm not classified as having caffeine addiction YET.

Just finished reading Proverbs. Don't think I've ever felt any book in the Bible being so confrontational. Some verses just shoot straight into my heart. and I'll go: hey God, that's me you're talking about! Take for instance:

'Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest- and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.' Proverbs 6:6-11

hmmm....

I very rarely blog to kill time. For the simple reason that I kill time by doing more brainless stuff...like......um......um...ok, maybe I don't have much time to kill normally coz I can't really think of anything I do to kill time.
But anyways, let's get to the point. I'm sitting in this half-lit computer lab now and it's already 8.15pm...wondering when I'll ever ever get that last signature signed off. For those who don't know, Dundee medic students all have this much dreaded Record of Achievement (ROA in short) to complete. If you're an IMU folk reading this, ROA is like KKB log book times million times worse. And for paediatrics block, which is what I've been doing for the last 4 weeks, you get another ROA specific for child health that needs completing. you need to get signatures for clerking patients, examining patients, attending ward rounds, watching videos, attending department meetings. So here I am, with the deadline of 12pm tmrw to pass up my paediatric portfolio...without my last signature of 'neurodevelopment examination of a child' signed off yet and it's driving me absolutely nuts!! i've been waiting for this last signature since last week! and yes, i've seen loads of babies in the clinics, it's just i never ever get the opportunity to jump in and do the examination. man! I should really learn to speak up and bug the SHOs/SpRs to their graves! So yeap...even after a long day in Perth paeds outpatient(yes, there's a Perth in Scotland. it's only 30 min away fr Dundee), I have to come back to Ninewells for this one signature. And kids ward right now is completely chaotic with only 1 SHO that I don't see how I can get it done. And it's times like this that those totally useless, dreaded statements pop up in your mind: 'if only I had got it signed off when I saw that so-and-so kid', 'if only I was more thick faced and forced that SHO to sign it for me'...oh well, such is the life of a medic student.

Paeds block wasn't too bad at all. I've learnt to love kids more, and I don't think they mind me either. And hey, while I'm doing paeds, Tim is doing geriatrics as his first block in Perth(the one in Australia this time)...so how bad can it get? I still can't imagine Tim with his super big ear piercing clerking an old wee lady, with his tongue piercing flashing once in a while. have fun, Tim! try not to suck all the old ppl dry of their optimism :P Miss having you around.

ok i should really go back to the ward and stand in the way of the SHO or SpR until they give me that few strokes that will complete my portfolio.

Woohoo! DCCF CNY celebration tomorrow....can't wait. trusting God for miracles to happen. And they will because of all the prayers we put into this event. So if you're a Chinese in Dundee, see you there tomorrow 7pm, St Peter's Church.

Off to bug people now...