Rachel

(I WROTE THIS A MONTH AGO BUT NV COMPLETED IT)

Hi blog, I neglected you for months once more.

Haven’t been feeling the urge to write about my life here and so I got lazy.

Since the last post I have finished quite a bit more of medical school and got slightly closer to the end! 

In Jan I did a cardiology rotation which I actually really liked. Murmurs are very weird and wonderful things to be hearing on the other end of the stethoscope. Its even better when you know how to identify and name the type! Craziest thing I saw was a guy who had a cardiac arrest on the table while having an emergency coronary angiogram post MI. He is an example of the wonders of medicine. He was given cardiac compressions immediately which started the heart going again, and meds to bring up the blood pressure to prevent it from slowing down and stopping once more. I saw him in the ward reading newspapers the next day! 

Then it was a month of lectures in Feb. 1 week was Global Health week which I thought was a bit of an eyeopener but sometimes put me to sleep. Many issues were raised which made me a little frustrated because there are HUGE problems out there in the developing world that are so incredibly difficult to eradicate. It made me feel quite small because I felt there was so little I could do to help. How can human kind fight against something as huge as Climate Change and its negative effects on Africa? And how do you change the culture and mindset of an entire population that has FGM (female genital mutilation) so deep-rooted in their minds to be entirely normal and part of being a woman?

I know that not everything is impossible to eradicate (eg. smallpox, crazy dictators,etc), but the enormity of the problems is probably largely the reason why people choose to remain apathetic. Because forgetting is the easiest thing to do. I hope I remember to be aware of these issues and try to help when I can.

The Psychology course then followed for 2 weeks and I had to write an essay on my ESFP personality type (which should be another post altogether). In the midst of that there was the EBM (evidence based medicine) paper that drove everyone crazy. I know it drove ME crazy. Who puts 7 people in one group and expects a 1000 word paper? So that’s like 140+ words per person. -.-. We wasted loads of time trying to cut down the words from the initial 3000 we had.

Before my next rotation I made a trip to London for VINE night! I won a whole pack of Teh Tarik! It was a good lazy weekend, only slightly marred by EBM project stress. 

My March rotation was ENT/OPHTH. I have to say that I am glad both are over because I am not particularly interested in either. Maybe ENT more than Ophth but I don’t know, still not on the top of my list. We had an Ophth OSCE at the end and thank God, all went well. I was the very last person to go and thankfully didn’t get into trouble with the tired/bored examiner. 

March was an exciting month for me. Yunni, Phoebe and I made a trip up to Donegal to meet Meiching at her place in Letterkenny and went surfing in Bundoran! That was such an experience. Standing up on your board is such a great feeling! 

That’s me!! I look like a power ranger! That’s my fairy pose. as Phoebe describes it. 

I really enjoyed myself with the girls on the short weekend away. Had fun running in the freezing cold while wet, and in a swimsuit. Yun made awesome scrambled eggs and I might just never have scrambled eggs any other way from now on. 

ABRUPT END.

CONTINUED.. WRITTEN TODAY:

Today is April 24. Exams are coming in less than 2 weeks. Really sucky period right now so I don’t have time to write about my Oslo trip and April (actually nothing much happened in April).

Bye for now!

I forsee more neglect (sorry blog).

I am sitting in my room typing this. I just returned to the place I call my second home about 3 hours ago and besides taking the computer out I have done nothing productive just yet. By God’s grace I was given an aisle seat with nice ‘neighbours’ who were neither noisy nor got in my way at all. Managed to get a lot of sleep and some reading done too! And it gets better. I met Meiching and Nicole at Amsterdam Schipol airport at the same gate. They were on my flight! You’ve no idea how much less depressed that made me. I realised I wasn’t alone and that there were so many people doing this. Why complain when you are blessed to have this?

The holiday was amazing I wish I could relive it all over again… 

Some highlights:

• Day out with Liying. Shopped a tiny bit, Antoinette for lunch-dinner (Lunner?) then 1-altitude bar for amazing views and just relaxing in the cool balmy night weather on the top of Singapore. 
• WX’s birthday. Was only there 1 hour but that was the only time I had with XiaoJia and Veron this break. I’m glad I made it for that 1 hour!
• Rushed off for dinner with the extended family after wx’s thing. I ate so well. TOO well actually. The table overflowed with very very good food. I don’t think I have had that much richness in a single dinner ever before. But majorly thankful that the family still meets up, has dinner together and that I can still talk to my cousins though we’ve all grown up.
• HK and Macau. Ate the most orgasmic (pardon my vocab!) dimsum, wanton noodles, Portugese cuisine, egg tarts, French fine dining (Caprice), etc, I have ever had. I had 5 Michelin stars of good food. Enjoying the life in the Venetian/Shopping/haggling/squeezing on the MTR/on the streets with the crowds/eating street food and bubble tea/queuing for good food/being chased away after being done with eating to let new hungry people take our seats, etcetc. Can I do it all over again?
• Had a wonderful brunch at the Line! Maybe the food wasn’t as up to standard as before, but so what? It was special.
• Chilling in Changi watching TV. We didn’t get to watch much but that was good enough :)
• Punggol nasi lemak. SO HAPPY I HAD THIS BEFORE THE DREADED SURGERY.
• AFOREMENTIONED DREADED SURGERY. It doesn’t really deserve to be a highlight but I was truly well taken care of during and post surgery. Thank you for encouraging me to get it over and done with. Thanks also for being there during the whole thing and taking me home when it was over. A million thanks for the many bowls of porridge, queuing for laoban taohuey, getting me Udders icecream and koi (without pearls because that would have hurt) and words of encouragement. Would have been so much worse without all of that. And I am sorry for being snappy because of the soreness, and also for being unable to do much for the few days post surgery. Thanks for giving me little pieces of meat for me to tackle with my front teeth and also for not being impatient when I got grumpy cos the food kept falling into those darn holes.
• NYE with the usual people. Had very good ramen! New place to go to in the future! And some substandard chocolate milk shake at Max Brenner (VERY DISAPPOINTED). We waited till 1130 before going outside to wait for the clock to strike 12. People pushed and squeezed which made it rather uncomfortable. The fireworks finally exploded and all I could think of was my sore neck from looking up too much. The fireworks were very in-your-face because we were so close! Nevertheless, still spectacular. We got terribly stuck while trying to get out (felt like PENGUINS waddling in a crowd of sticky penguins) and after many detours we headed to have dimsum at 126! After that it was goodbye-for-now and see-you-again-in-June.
• Running errands with you. Getting my stationery, my coffee cup, getting my hair cut, toiletries, etc. Bringing Rae-ann to get her school books and uniform hahahha
• I didn’t know whether to put this as a highlight. But since my holiday was so pathetically short I thought I might as well add it in. Thanks for helping me pack and sending me to the airport and being there till I went though the departure gates. It was the first time my parents didn’t send me off at the airport because my flight was so late (1.25am) and they had work at 9 the next day. Leaving was hard as usual. It also involved tears (as usual). But it had to be done..so here I am in my second home. Eagerly anticipating my return home. Meanwhile, 4 months of rotations to go, 1 month of lectures, 1 week of written papers and an OSCE.

I can do this!

Had my wisdom teeth extraction yesterday! 

Last week, my dad got me an appointment with his dentist friend for yesterday at 11am. When I reached Gleneagles I had half the mind to back out and run away because I was totally dreading the injection of local anaesthesia and the pain post extraction. Worst most helpless feeling EVER.

Did an xray which showed my teeth to be sadly impacted and practically lying horizontal in the gum. The dentist took one look at the film and said that he would recommend removing all 4 under local anaesthesia asap. He gave me half an hour to go grab a light meal and take a tablet (Celecoxib - selective cox2 inhibitor NSAID!) and then come back for the surgery. I couldn’t decide whether to take all 4 or only 2 on one side. Dr Loh said taking out 2 first does not have any added advantage, in fact I’ll have to endure the whole process all over again with the other 2.. Went to look for my dad in his clinic which was one floor above for some advice. Naturally, he said do it all today. And so I decided to just take the plunge and get it over with!

As I was told to, I grabbed a bite then took the tablet. Went back to the clinic and it was all really fast from there. He started giving me loads of LA and omg I HATE THIS PART SO MUCH. It hurt like crap, I was squirming and tensing up in the seat and making so much noise (moaning and groaning) at the same time. Tears starting welling up in the eyes and very quickly the numbness came which made me start to retch and shake uncontrollably. It was plain awful to have lips and a tongue that don’t feel like a part of you. The numbness also spread to the throat which made it a little tricky to swallow. That’s probably what made me retch cos I felt a little suffocated! They kept telling me to concentrate on breathing deeply and very soon I was all numbed up. 

Went to the surgery room where he immediately started on the left lower 3rd molar. I saw the scalpel go into my mouth…. Well at that moment there was no running away..all I could pray for was to feel no pain! And sure enough it was completely painless. I marvel at the power of anaesthesia. Major Godsent. He also drilled at it for a bit before extracting it in two pieces. A stitch was put in after that. It is such a queer feeling to see the needle and actually feel it pierce your flesh but feel nothing but pressure. First tooth done in 5mins.

He moved on to the upper one and since it was fully out no incision was needed. He merely used pliers and pulled them out. For some reason, I found the extractions for the upper teeth more uncomfortable than the lower ones. I actually felt a slight pain from the tugging and started moaning again (the door was wide open I feel sorry for those patients waiting for their turn) and demanding that I get more LA. (He gave me the maximum dose. He said if he gave me anymore I would get tachycardia. My pain threshold is non existent!)

All this was done in 20 minutes! I was extremely impressed at his efficiency and pleased with myself for choosing to take them out all at one go. It would take a lot for me to go back in there to take out the remaining 2. 

Today my face is slightly swollen but not too bad at all. The wounds ache but its bearable. I think I bear achy sore pain much better than sharp pain so I really don’t mind this. I won’t be able to eat solid food (read: yummy sg food) for now but I’m hoping hard that it gets better soon for me to squeeze in my favourite musthaves before I return to Dubs.

I only have 24 teeth remaining. I have less teeth than a 5 year old kid. How pathetic!

Exams are in a month’s time and I am pathetically way behind. I know I might sound geeky with the exams still a month a way and getting all uptight but I have loads to know and study for and yet am not doing anything about it. It is quite terrible. I am still stuck in the first few (5?) lectures from last month’s block of lectures, not moving along at all. I don’t know why, I am just disinterested in reading stuff and committing to memory! Maybe its because I don’t have a sense of urgency just yet. OK it is time to draw up a plan of action! #geektalk. Will do up a study schedule right NOW. From now on, no more procrastination, shopping, browsing blogs, facebooking. EVERY WEBSITE WILL BE BLOCKED HENCEFORTH. I will not succumb to my laziness! Come on Rachlim you aren’t even doing schols. How lazy can you get -.- NO MORE PROCRASTINATION. People who are reading this, I am in serious need of help here so just tell me to study and get off whatever nonsense I am doing. Today I saw a news article on some beached whales. It got me interested so I proceeded to google ‘blue whale anatomy’ and spent 1 hour watching videos of beached whales and living whales. I learnt that the whale’s heart is so freaking big that it weighs more than 100kgs and its aorta is 23cm in diameter. An adult human being can actually fit in there. Also, it’s cardiac output is like more than 100litres of blood. I know, I am crazy. 

And so I can’t sleep right now because I slept right after dinner at 8pm. Such a bad idea because 1. I didn’t change of out the dress I wore to the hospital BUT I can explain that this is not so bad because I wasn’t in it for most of the day. Was in scrubs for surgery. Hehe don’t judge me and say I’m gross k. 2. I had dinner at 6pm. Thus, I am absolutely starvingg right now and I brushed my teeth plus have retainers on so no munching on biscuits for me. Seriously I am so lazy to rebrush my teeth I’d rather go hungry. 3. Have to wake up at 5:45 later on (haha 2 hours left only) so I don’t really know what to do now Sleep/no sleep?? STUDY??

Anyway I am on a Urology Surgical rotation right now. Today was surgery day and it was very very interesting. Well the morning anyway. Basically everything looked very painful and I am sincerely thankful I am not a man. First was a cystoscopy (scope ie. camera that goes up the urethra into the bladder) for a surveillance on the pt’s bladder cancer. Second, circumcison, third was an exploratory surgery for query testicular torsion (See it just gets more and more painful) After lunch I got sleepy and bored while watching a partial nephrectomy (resection of tumour in kidney) cos I couldn’t see anything very clearly and there was a full half and hour of stitching to try to stop the bleeding from the kidney after removal of the tumour. Well it was exciting in the first 10 minutes when the remaining kidney kept bleeding and so quickly as well. It was also a race against time because the renal arteries had been clamped and there is a risk of reperfusion injury if the kidney is deprived of its blood supply for too long. She literally put in 40 stitches into the hole where the tumour once sat! Kept yawning under my mask hahaha I guess the mask is really useful for situations like this. 

The circumcision was eyeopening. Looked. so. freaking. painful. And in the torsion case, the testicle was twisted 720 degrees on its own spermatic cord. Poor thing was purple when they opened up and was warmed with a cloth soaked in warm saline. Colour returned to it partially and so it wasn’t resected!! Thank God. His future offspring will be so grateful to know.

So that was my day. I guess I should read something. Problem is I am so hungry so maybe I should try to sleep. Bye!

I was asking them ‘intelligent’ questions about electives in the summer and about the residency programme in Singapore, then my mum got a phone call from the hospital. Next moment, A FOOT FILLS THE SCREEN. hahaha

I love my parents.

shelovesasianfood:

Egg Tarts (by My Little Rascal)

This was a much needed long weekend! We had friday off because lectures were cancelled and were to be rescheduled (what Trinity does best - put up a schedule and make a million changes to it. If they had told us earlier that friday was off, I’d have booked a flight to somewhere!) So yeah going back to the long weekend. Had an amazing lie in on friday morning (sleeping in is the greatest luxury in the life of a med student!) and had some classmates over for dinner. Elisa made wonderful bulgogi beef and a vegetarian version for Andrea which we had with rice and kimchi. Chris brought mac and cheese from M&S which I didn’t eat at all hahaha. And Kate made a cheesecake which the guys wouldn’t stop taking 3rd/4th servings of. 

We then played two games of Cranium which got everyone competitive. I used my ‘humming skills’ to make my team mates come up with the song title ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’ (Don’t laugh, this means I can sing!!), and acted out ‘Flushing the Toilet’ which Chris managed to guess. He said my flushing was very good while Eric criticised my sitting-on-the-toilet-face (not convincing enough apparently) and he proceeded to show me his convincing version. Was a bit nervous initially about having to act out phrases and words and even act like a famous person (Elisa did Willy Wonka haha) but it turned out fine and was so much fun! Haven’t had this much to laugh about in a while and it felt good that we had the chance to on Friday night!

Yesterday was my usual skype day and my mum forced me to pick the com up and go to the kitchen to show her my new Nespresso machine hahaha. She said she might get me to bring a machine home for her (!) and I guilt-tripped her into agreeing to send me a box of food!! (I said that my housemates always get things from their mums) And some clothes too because I realise that I have so many clothes at home but am already running out of tops to wear here. Makes no sense to buy more here so I think sending them over with food might be a better thing to do. Yeah and so that was saturday.

Troy being forced to come into the screen

My parents are clueless that they look so ridiculous hahahaa

Today was pretty uneventful as well. Did some reading in the day and went out at about 5pm. While getting ready I was horrified to find out that I have an awful AWFUL breakout on the ENTIRE FACE and it looks so bad under the toilet light I just wanted to curl up in bed and not go out. Finally pulled myself out of the house and went to the shops to get a bigger size for the shoes I bought last week and also to return some stuff I got from H&M. Then I went to Arnotts to check out the sale they were having on Home stuff. And this is what I bought: 

So pink, so girly but I am in love with it :D Reminds me of the Cath Kidson kind of print! (they had Cath Kidson bedspreads too but they were obscenely overpriced) Also love how the underside is a pretty striped pattern! Very happy I got it for 70% off too! Used to be 100e but I got it for 30e :DDD

Went to church after that where there was a good message on Humility. Came home at about 9 and popped the new sheets into the washing machine. It’s not fully dry but I put it on anyway hahaha and that pretty sums up the weekend!

Not looking forward to the many more lectures to come this week but it is a necessary evil. I failed miserably at trying to do work this weekend so I better do more during the next one to make up for it… :(

Byeee