2011 at a Glance

So it is new year's eve. And here's the obligatory post for the year!

1. What did you do in 2011 that you’d never done before?

 - Went on a holidays (interstate/tasmania) with shay! 

 - See my first patient die

 - Rent my own place

 - Took the SoT

2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

1. Pass 4th year without any scares
2. Gym regularly (at least 3x/wk) - probably need shay to drag me there! (sort of?)
3. Find my love for running again/start running group
4. Start launceston soka group
5. Chant regularly - morning & evening
6. Practice osces regularly
7. Study not for exam sake
8. Hopefully get offered PEG (fingers crossed)/if not gimme my intern place in launnie & PR!! 
9. Travel around more! 
10. Keep in contact with friends everywhere
11. (Find a GOOD bf)

8 out of 11 resolutions were met! That's not too bad! 

To be really honest, this year is definitely my MOST enjoyable year to date, apart from maybe first year. Everything went well, we had our squabbles but nothing major. Felt really good! Wonderful friends and tutors etc! Passed 4th yr unscathed! :) Good elective too! It is making me consider A&E as a career! 

Special thanks to Shay for tolerating me! Point 11 was a bonus! :) It's difficult imagining not going to the hospital and back with him, having someone to have lunch with, hanging out in the library all day, weekly grocery shopping trips, random road trips etc! :( Especially being my personal maid during my swotvac - cooking/cleaning/tutoring me!

As for next yr..

1. Graduate! 19 Dec 2012!
2. Visit Adelaide!
3. Hopefully decide what specialty I want to do
4. Keep in touch with old and new friends
5. Live harmoniously with my housemates 
6. Lose 5kg 
7. Work towards being a good intern
8. ? Intern place in LGH
9. Regular Soka meetings on Sunday
10. GET A LIFE!
    

 
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Vivi! Lovely girl. My happy sunshine fruit!

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Nope

5. What countries did you visit?

Australia (Melb/Syd/Tas), Msia

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?

More female friends? I'm only really close to A. Can't seem to maintain female friendships. Lol. I'm too tomboy I guess. I much prefer hanging out with the guys than girls. Ugh.
More time, energy, memory space, patience, understanding, rest, self-control. 

7. What date from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

I think 16 April? :)

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Surviving living with Shay? HAHA! That was my biggest worry of the year! What if it didn't work out? So awkward! HAHA! Phew.

9. What was your biggest failure?

Not being confident enough about myself. I keep thinking that I'm never going to be better than XXX, or that XXX will never bother themselves with me because I'm not good enough etc. Or 'why is XXX ignoring me? Is it because I'm too boring/ugly/stupid etc?'

10.Did you suffer illness or injury?

Multiple URTIs mostly secondary to Shay. And then my bout of GE for about 3 days with a temp of 39. That was not good. Followed by my epigastric pain a/w fatty food which turns out to be cholelithiasis. -.- I almost died from the pain one night. Thank god Shay went to ED to get my Nexium which took a while to work but at least I managed to sleep that night!

11.What was the best thing you bought?

Did I buy anything? Hmm maybe my new theatre shoes for next yr?

12.Whose behavior merited celebration?

Shay, ME, Alicia, JMong etc! Thanks for always being there for me! This year would have been very different if it weren't for the 3 of you! 


And of course ruth and pam! :) For the continuous support along the way! :D Although we don't really talk much online cos of the time difference etc, but I definitely feel your presence!

13.Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

youknowhoyouaredammit.

14.Where did most of your money go?

Electricity and rental! Food wasn't too bad I think. Gotta cook anyway. Oh and sydney trip! Loved loved loved it!

15.What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Sydney trip! I was almost going to fall out with Shay over it because he had an assignment due and he wasn't sure if he could finish it blah blah blah and didn't wanna go. But I forced him to finish it by making him book the tickets! We had our logistical problems too like whether to stay at our own friends' place or backpacker's. Thank goodness he gave in to me again and decided on the backpacker's.

16.What song will always remind you of 2011?

Lemon Tree. It's our go-to happy song! Even sang it in Sydney when we were singing K with his friends! LOL!

17.Compared to this time last year, are you happier or sadder?

HAPPIER! Most definitely! :)

18.What do you wish you’d done more of?

Getting involved in my rotation. Sometimes it's not my fault. There's just nothing happening but sometimes it's due to group mates which make me feel like 'pfft forget it'.

19.What do you wish you’d done less of?

Sleeping and probably watching random movies etc. But they're usually over meals except on weekends. We've got self-control. Hehe! He's blaming me for making him addicted to so many shows like Top Chef and True Blood.

20.How did you spend Christmas?

Watching You're Beautiful and then steamboat at uncle's place! Finished 16 eps in 2 days!

21.Did you fall in love in 2011?

:)

22.How many one-night stands?

-.-

23.What was your favorite TV program?
True Blood and Top Chef

24.Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

Yeah I guess. Some hate, some just annoyed.

25.What was the best book you read?

How to win friends and influence people. Read bits of House of God too but didn't quite finish it before I had to return it to the library.

26.What was your greatest musical discovery?

Christina Perri? Adele? Shay's covers of Jay Chou etc? :P

27.What did you want and get?

Everything I could ever ask for.

28.What did you want and not get?

Stability perhaps?

29.What was your favorite film this year?

Hmm watched too many.. Some were disturbing - Van Dieman's Land.

30.What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

23. Didn't do anything much on my birthday itself. Had fishhead steamboat for dinner I think. Cos bro was still having As so didn't really want to spend too much time eating out because it means he's got less study time.

31.What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Better internet at home. And maybe hot water too.

32.How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?

No patient day = Black jeans, top, pink jacket
Clinical days = Skirt, blouse/dress, stockings, pink jacket

33.What kept you sane?

Shay! He's probably seen almost every side of me. The cute, annoying, angry, depressed, sick, happy, stressed etc!

34.Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

-

35.What political issue stirred you the most?

-

36.Who did you miss?

Family whenever the holidays came because I'll keep trying to see if I can fly home.

37.Who was the best new person you met?

The LCS peeps, the CGH A&E folks - no one best person I guess..

38.Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011:

Be yourself. People will love you for who you are. :)

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
Err. I'll think about it. But it's been a good year. Thank you all for being a part of it! 

OSCE stations 2011 End-Yr

1. Paeds FTT with baby's weight falling off a bit associated with bouts with loose, smelly diarrhoea - DDx coeliac disease
2. post-natal depression in new mum 10wks post-partum
3. breaking bad news of grade 2 invasive ductal carcinoma.
4. phone call with RN in community hosp 2h away about lady with chest pain and initial management. ECG showed ischaemic changes.
5. Lower abdo and Hernia exam + focused history in male who felt pain in L groin but no visible lump while lifting something at work
6. counseling pt about needlestick injury and explaining occupational health protocol because foreign elective student pricked himself while disposing of cannula needle.

Get Over It: The Subconscious Stethoscope

Get Over It: The Subconscious Stethoscope: There is a lot to be said about the stethoscope, nothing screams DOCTOR (or physio!) louder than a set of tubes around your neck! In fact I...

Surrogacy vs Yourself

Started on paeds this week. On neonates for 3 weeks and then 4K. The babies are so cute! I think I'm gonna be joining all the girls before me in the 'OMG I WANT A KID NOW!' syndrome.

Is it a must to go through pregnancy before you can become a good mother? I personally would feel a bit incomplete if I used surrogacy instead. But he was like 'why do you want to go through 9 months of fatness, bloatedness, morning sickness etc?! Just get someone else to do it.' But of course only if its legal.

He asked me why I would be willing to do it (as if there really was another option). And I can't think of any other reason that isn't cliched!

It's the magical feeling of knowing you're carrying a life within you, something that cannot be explained well enough unless you experience it yourself. The process of childbirth (occasionally C-sections) is magical. I see the look on the parents' faces and it just makes my day.

It is a surreal experience. Unglam for sure. But surreal.

Nuts and More!

happy holidays~ 

we finally made a trip up to burnie! yay! so don't bug me anymore huh! hahaha! jkjk!

it was a good trip up! Good music, snacks and thankfully it wasn't raining at all even though it was gloomy all day! 

On the way up! 

we took a short break at their place just to say hi etc. and then after an extra hour's drive from their place, we reached The Nut @ Stanley! 

The first European to see "The Nut" was Matthew Flinders who in 1798 recorded that he had seen a "cliffy round lump resembling a Christmas Cake". 

There is a plaque at the lookout on the southern side of Sawyer Bay. It reads: "The Nut, discovered by Bass and Flinders in 1798, rises abruptly 143 m from the sea to a flattish top. The geological survey of Tasmania has confirmed that The Nut is the stump of an old volcano. The original core was built of fragments mainly volcanic rock ejected by explosive eruptions. Molten basaltic lava welled up the feeder pipe and in places intruded into these fragmental rocks and formed a lava lake in the crater where it solidified. As it cooled the basalt became weakly magnetised in the direction of the local magnetic field of that time. The direction and dip of this fossil magnetisation is quite different from the present magnetic field and suggests that the volcano was active during some period between 25 and 70 million years ago. Weathering and erosion since has removed all the weak rocks which built the cone so that the hard basalt of the lava pool now stands up as a conspicuous landmark. If you modelled a cone and crater in sand and half filled the crater with molten iron through a pipe from below then jetted the sand away with a hose you would get the picture." 

 us 1/3 up the Nut. Tiring steep slope. Ugh.

we finally reached the top and we were basically taking photos and camwhoring everywhere. :) that's what we do best! 

the Nut from the distance. Byeeee~. we spent the night at their place. thankfully sha7's friend is christ1na's housemate so we basically crashed their place. :) had yummy mapo tofu and beef bulgogi cooked specially by christ1na and joelene! thanks girls! darr3n had DEM shift but luckily i saw him before he left for his shift earlier that afternoon.

we left pretty early the next day because we had to go back and finish up our work! why? because we're going to sydney on wed! which means chop chop finish work then can go! :D

on the way back from burnie, we stopped by lillico beach. which is basically a cobblestone beach? mum said it looks dirty and ugly. hahaha! 

who needs a bag of pebbles from ikea when u get a beach full of them?! 

HAH. self-explanatory. 

stopped by ashgrov3 cheese on the way back! bought some interesting cheese like wasabi cheese! picture's still in my camera. will upload it once i get it out. 

and that concludes my very short trip up to burnie with a nice yummy cup of cappuccino!

back to drama-land.

Singapore Night 2011 made me feel really old. Yikes. VIP was 27 years old. The new committee ran the show and they were averaging 21 years old. All the newbies looked so young and spritely while the old people like us just hung around taking pictures with old friends. LOL! We couldn't even be bothered to wear new dresses - recycling what we wore from last year! 

joelen3 and i! that's like the best picture of me all night. it's usually like that for me. certain angles look great, others look less awesome. one day i'll become one of those who keep posing with that angle because it's the best. 

amanda, jloh and i! like my new hair colour? hahaha! supposed to be 'dark ash blonde'. just looks hazel brown to me. hahahaha! doesn't look very different from what i usually get except the red colour last year! WOOTS! hahaha!

VIP, christ1na and i! that was the after party and I didn't really have any clubbing clothes. hated it so much. was just sooooo damn tired. wanted to go back and sleep but guess it wasnt as bad when i started to actually jump around. had to wake up early the next morning too. :S thankfully i managed to wake up at 7.30am despite a late night.

it was raining so much so it dampened my spirits a little. would totally go back and visit the area again. :)

Documentaries of the Week

Oh I've watched a few docmentaries recently!

I don't know if you remember the vagina exhibit at MONA (see old post) but I saw a documentary about that! Well not wholely on that but it was part of the show. Think the documentary was called 'The Perfect Vagina' and it featured people who were unhappy about their V. They wanted labioplasty, hymen repairs and the host was exploring various ways to convince these women that surgery was not the way to go. There was a weird part where this group therapist had ladies sitting in a circle and one by one they would take a mirror and look at their V and talk about what they like or don't like about it - in front of everyone else. @.@ NO WAY am I going to do that! It's just so weird!

The host also got some of them to go to the artist and cast their vaginas so that they can see how it REALLY looks and if it is different from the way their perceive it! It was interesting to see so many women willing to undergo this (btw the artist is male). I've seen my share of Vs and I'm not too fussed about it anymore. But for a lay person on the street, exposing yourself to someone else, putting plaster on your -ahem- and then moulding it. Just a bit strange for me but still not too bad.

The group therapy was weirder. Best part was some of these ladies got really emotional and just ran out of the room. But they felt like it helped them embrace their own sexuality. Interesting huh? :)

The other documentary I've started watching is an Australian production where they send 6 volunteers on a reverse refugee journey! Most of these volunteers are DAMN racist. They HATE the refugees, think they are taking over their country, think that they don't deserve to be here and they ought to have been sent back to wherever they came from. It hurts my heart to see such narrow-mindedness in them. Being an overseas student, we have our fair share of racism too so I understand but I bet it is a 100x worse for these refugees because of their skin colour, cultural background and stereotypes in society.

It's a 3 part series and it's called 'Go Back To Where You Came From'. I don't think you can stream it from Singapore (it's on SBS - special broadcasting service) but if you can somehow get hold of it through torrents etc, it is worth a watch! :) I just finished part 1 yesterday and I'm already starting to understand how difficult it must be for them. I hope these volunteers will be able to change their mindsets after their 25 days. I literally feel like smacking some of their faces - just the things they say! OMG heartless.

Hard Work Pays Off!

HAPPINESS! :D

Got my uni results yesterday! Full marks! 4 out of 4! Which is awesome! I was totally afraid that I would fail one of the stations because it totally threw me off but after hearing from a friend that the examiner only failed one student in our session, I felt über confident that I would get 4 out of 4. The other 3 stations were relatively easy.

1. Take a history in a 25yo G1P0 22/40 lady presenting with PR bleeding. Just don't misread it as PV bleeding. Some of my friends did. And so did i initially until I saw that I'm the 'surgical intern'. Differentials and management.
2. Take a history from 50+ yo man with sudden onset chest pain with a hx of trauma to L shin after being kicked by the horse (yes we're in Australia). List of differentials and investigations. 
3. Shoulder examination of a 30+ yo male who presented with shoulder pain after vigorous window cleaning over the weekend. Dx - supraspinatus tendonitis. This was the one that threw me off because I don't exactly know how to examine a shoulder but still managed to do the basic Look-Feel-Move-Special Tests
4. Motivational Interviewing - 45yo lady who came in for >45yo screening test. Impaired fasting glucose. Explain to her what that means, the next investigation and advise her on lifestyle changes. She also had a daughter with Asperger's which made it difficult for her to exercise because she had to keep an eye on her. ><

Anyway.. So what does this REALLY mean? It means that I would most probably pass 4th year and make it to my final year of studies! And actually become a doctor! I only need 2 out of 6 for my end of year OSCEs now! :) And of course hopefully pass the written MCQ/EMQs which are supposedly harder than the OSCEs because ANYTHING can come out.

It made me think how far I’ve come these 3.5 years. It has been a harrowing journey (actually just last year) but it’s all good now. I love what I’m doing and although I still feel inadequate, I feel like I am capable of at least doing the basic for my patients now.

For example, I inserted a catheter into this patient today and although I have not done one in over 6 months, I knew what I had to do and having the consultant praise me for my good work and to see the catheter draining well is so rewarding. It was a difficult patient as well as there was a lot of swelling in the area. That made me feel like I can be useful, even now, just as a medical student.

Just had a palliative care session with the palliative doctors. It is so different - the management of palliative treatment. Why would the other doctors continue prescribing simvastatin for a patient who only has 3 weeks to live? Would you prescribe Clexane for a patient who has advanced lung cancer and is immobile? Would you prescribe anti-depressants for a patient who has recently deteriorated and is dying in the next few weeks?

How do you make a patient comfortable? What does palliative care really mean? 

I always wondered how accurate those calorie counters are because I don't seem to be able to get the right 'portion size'. I just guesstimate.

Second Semester.

So I’ve just started my second semester. What a great start! I swear I set my alarm for 7am for a 8am start but I didn’t hear a thing! Next thing I knew, I woke up at 7.58am thinking ‘OH SHIT IS THIS FOR REAL?!’ Rushed out of the house in 5min flat and reached uni in 3min! Record timing! I was the only late person. But hey, better late than never! ;)

I spend most of uni waiting for things to happen - tutorials, surgeries, labours, lectures etc.

3 weeks to exams. time to study!

So much but oh so little.

Oh gosh I cannot even remember what to blog about because it's been so long!

I did something really stupid the other day. I wanted to make something interesting but couldn't be bothered to go to the supermarket and I suddenly thought 'what about making chee cheong fun?!' Sounds like a good idea right? NOT. Because I did not even have rice flour. Had this brilliant thought that my awesome rocket blender can grind it into a flour for me. HAHA. what was i thinking?

Ended up being relatively grainy. Bit coarser than fine sand. Obviously the chee cheong fun didn't succeed because it wasn't even a smooth flour fluid. Ended up more like a carrot cake sort of texture. Which was alright with me I guess. Haha thankfully I attempted it while the housemate was away. Otherwise he would have given me the @.@ look.

Didnt even bother to take pictures because it was quite laughable.

Tried making mee hoon kuey the night before. Tasted edible but I miss the QQ-ness of my ban mian. :( I miss ban mian so much la! UGH! As usual I did not have a rolling pin so the pieces were uneven and possibly a bit thicker than I would have liked it. But I was quite satisfied with it I guess. Might need to knead more to get the gluten whatsoever to develop. And that was why I didn't have any more flour to play with which resulted in the chee cheong fun idea.

Apart from my cooking experiments, life's been pretty boring. Been on O&G for 4 weeks already and I've YET TO SEE ONE NVD!! KILL ME NOW! Thank goodness I'm not the only one missing out. Managed to see a C-section the other day because I just hung around the ward hoping for something to happen even though I wasn't scheduled for it. So at least I've seen that.

Seen some stuff in theatre.

• Laparoscopy - endometriosis, dye studies, adhesion lysis
• Hysteroscopy - polypoid uterus, Essure insertion, curettage
• Vaginal hysterectomy 
• Suction D&C - missed miscarriage 
• Emergency C-section 
• Draining of a fluid filled vagina with vaginal stenosis
• Vulval biopsy

Not really much in clinics.

• ANC - BP, abdo exam, doppler U/S
• Mirena insertion and removal 
• Gynae clinic - PCOS, infertility, PV bleeding 
• Colp - Biopsy, examine with acetic acid/iodine, Pap smears 
• CTG 

Just loads of waiting around for something to happen. Only two more weeks left! I NEED TO SEE A NVD AND INSTRUMENTAL DELIVERY!! PLEASEEEE! :( I'll be so sad if I graduate without even seeing one. That's just plain pathetic actually. 

Oh well. I feel like I've done heaps but yet not at the same time. Sigh. 

doesn't feel the same anymore

Went back to hobart again for easter! Stayed at elvin3's the first night and then at jan3 for the next 2 nights. Was nice to see some of the people i didnt see the last time i went down. but as before, i'm glad i'm not in hobart - too much drama. i sometimes feel very distant from them now. guess people move on, and maybe so should we. 

the dynamics have changed. it feels so familiar yet strange at the same time. same people, different rooms, same doors, different keys. makes me wonder how much more change will it take before i stop going back there. same as rg5. it's not the same anymore. guess we've decided it's time to move on too. 

anw, met up with some friends but the highlight had to be the visit to MONA (museum of old and new art). there were so many interesting and erm thought-provoking works in there. everyone is equipped with an ipod touch as all the exhibits do not have written info about them. you need to read off the ipod. high-tech right? no more having to squeeze with people to read the tiny pieces of paper anymore! 

it's basically one man's personal museum. 0.o i know. a very rich man - david walsh. the exhibits aren't your usual sort. some were bordering on porn/art while others were gross. a few were thought provoking and i wish i could spend all day just reading the explanations etc for every exhibit but it would take too long. there was a picture of the holy virgin mary that included elephant dung as one of the media. 

That's the queue to enter. free admission + easter holidays = long long queue!

so what do girls do when we're in line and we're bored? cam whore! hahaha! 

fat porsche. literally. its a real porsche btw. with fat seats too. like really inflated and bulging. 

you'll never guess what this exhibit is. all 150 of them. 

yup. that's what it is. cast from 150 different women aged 18-78yo. nice. some of them looked utterly disgusting. made me rethink my career choice as a gynae. hahahaha! 

this was some waterfall which spelt the most searched words on google for the day. 

some machine with fast moving lights. 

i wished we queued to see the mummy! :( thought we could go back later but they were closing already. maybe next time! they only let two people in at a time which is why there was a long queue for that exhibit. meh. so sad. 

this last one is very interesting. it's affectionately called a cloaca. its basically a shit making machine. or rather an artificial GIT. food enters from the left, courtesy of the kitchen above. and it is digested and kept at body temperature and progresses through the various vessels till it ends up as poop. the machine poops at 3pm everyday. 0.o even more regular than me! LOL! i know this is very gross but the last container actually looks like chocolate milkshake. =S ok i feel like puking now that i've said that out loud. *shudders* 

there were heaps of other exhibits but my battery was running low so was trying to conserve it for the more interesting one (to me at least). 

so now i'm home, just nua-ing on my bed. sha7's only back on thurs so i have another 2.5 days to myself. time to start cooking! but i need my guinea pig to feed. :( come back quick! hahahahahah! 

Intern's Intern

hello world! it's been a month since i've updated my blog. seems like i've been abandoning it quite a bit recently. mainly because there's always facebook which seems to be more exciting than a blog. but anyway, just thought i should come clean up the cobwebs here once in a while. 

for those that didn't know, launnie sort of flooded a few weeks ago which was a little scary. not for me but for people in other areas. they had to evacuate some people from longford and the inveresk uni campus was shut down. we were basically whining why didn't it flood at the hospital because that would mean no uni! although it would probably be pretty disastrous. 

that's the cataract gorge flooding. it was intense! loved it! i think half of launceston was there on that day! we went there the day before because we thought it would be like this but the gorge just looked really full. like high tide sort of thing. who knew that a day later it would be raging! they had to close off bits of the park because the water submerged the picnic area, the pool, the playground and was up till the level of the toilets! which is pretty damn high up! the only way across was to take the chairlift. first time seeing a queue for the chairlift to be honest! but so scary! i keep thinking that my shoes will fall off if i take the chairlift. hahaha! irrational fear. gotta thank twitter that i got to see this. my classmate tweeted about it and i exclaimed to my housemate 'eh the gorge is flooded!! LET'S GO!!' XD so random. 

moving on. we had dinner at buddha tha1 one random saturday night. we had the roast duck which was OH-SO-GOOD. nothing like what i've tried before. the curries were alright i guess. but the duck was YUMS. $27 for it but MUST TRY. ok now that i've gotten your hopes and expectations up, hope you don't end up disappointed. I would be sad. It was nice having a meal at a cosy little restaurant with friends. Went to coles after and then we had OSCE practice with the seniors. =) we are so kiasu. exams are so far away yet we're starting osce practice already! but there seems to be sooo much to learn! that it never seems to end! yikes! especially since we have no idea what is being tested! sobs. 

we were studying in the library as usual when sha7 asked me to google this website  and omg once i saw it, i was sooo hungry! he made me look at the foccacia and said 'looks good right?'. and that was it. i HAD to make it. regardless of how i think it might turn out. hahahaha! since i'm i don't usually bake and all i've made are steamed cakes. like the ji dan gao. XD anyway, off to coles we went to get yeast and after 2h of preparation, rising, baking etc. it was ready! it tasted so good fresh. like when i just pulled it out from the oven. would have been better if we actually had sea salt. did not sprinkle enough salt on it but still. i'm hungry while typing this. 

we tried making pumpkin soup/mash yesterday because we had pumpkin and we had to finish it before it went bad. so we microwaved it for 10min to cook and then mashed it up. we sorta free-styled from there. added honey, cream cheese spread (really anyhow sia!), mixed herbs, water and bring to boil. it tasted not bad actually! but i guess pumpkin is naturally sweet so it can't be that bad anyway. =) 

we've been practicing cannulation on each other! been poked twice already. i think ive got some vagovagal response when i see my own blood in the cannula bung. ugh. but not to the extent of passing out. venepuncture's fine btw. it's just cannulation. 'drank' 20ml of water yesterday through the cannula. hahaha! 

moving on to more boring stuff like uni. finished respiratory last week and currently on cardiology. it's so fun! i dunno why people said cardio wasn't as exciting as it sounds. the people are nice and friendly. been doing admissions, discharges, examining patients, mini tutorials on the run etc. more tiring than respiratory actually. i REALLY feel like an intern on cardio. hopefully i'll be able to hone my skills further. loving it so far. respiratory was good too! excellent consultants, reg and intern! miss them already! very inspirational people. wish i can be as charismatic as some of them. they just establish rapport so easily with patients! *grumbles* oh did i mention that i've changed my perspective on respiratory? HATED it before i did my rotation! stupid CAM201 made me swear off it for 1.5 years! it's actually not bad! might consider it to be honest. *ponders*

(off topic: the food during handovers every morning is yums. raspberry muffins, croissants, egg and bacon muffins, hot cross buns, fruit, yoghurt etc. it's enough to make me wake up at 7.30 for handover at 8) 

but i have to say that i have become more outspoken this year. trying to get the most out of my rotations! just stick my head out there. haha! but one thing for sure. probably not gonna do psych in future. not my cup of tea for now. =S 

time's going by so quickly! before you know it, it's EASTER!! 3 more weeks! btw the time difference between singapore and tasmania is now 2h instead of 3 because we just had daylight savings last weekend. of which i regret not going to bed earlier to enjoy extra 1h sleep. mehh. 

sorry for the lack of updates over the past 2 weeks! been busy preparing for the pee-ee-gee interview! and i've got good news for you all! I GOT IT! yay! so now i have a 4 yr bond to serve in exchange for about SGD55k. not too bad i guess. together with a return ticket for electives this yr! woots! plus i'm already guaranteed a job so with the employment contract comes relocation benefits etc. =) so happy! now i can concentrate on my studies! been so stressed about it. they were so friendly and informal! felt totally at ease in there! could have just been chatting with friends!

will update soon about our short trip to melbourne for the interview! i didn't take pics because its all in joelen3's camera! so maybe once she uploads i'll kope and blog. or maybe just blog without pics before i forget!

Just did the MBTI test again! And i THINK i'm the same as I was 8 years ago! ESTJ! although i cannot find a previous blog post that might have had my previous result. Meh. It honestly sounds like me and it was pretty funny because Rob1n was saying how i can do any specialty, except maybe psychiatry! and i agree with her because i'm struggling with psych at the moment! i have no idea what all the salient points are, how to assess the MSE accurately, even just the appearance! =S I don't pick up cues like body language etc well. I'm more of a facts person. So i pay attention to what he's saying and not how he looks. which i guess causes me to lose like 50% of the info that i can gather. 

i made dan do a quick one and he was the exact opposite to me! INFP! we were reading the descriptions and i was like 'you've got something against my TJ personality' because it keeps mentioning things like 

One real problem area for the INFP is their intensive dislike of conflict and criticism. The INFP is quick to find a personal angle in any critical comment, whether or not anything personal was intended. They will tend to take any sort of criticism as a personal attack on their character, and will usually become irrational and emotional in such situations. This can be a real problem for INFPs who are involved with persons who have Thinking and Judging preferences. "TJ"s relate to others with a objective, decisive attitude that frequently shows an opinion on the topic of conversation. If the opinion is negative, the TJ's attitude may be threatening to the INFP, who will tend to respond emotionally to the negativity and be vaguely but emphatically convinced that the negativity is somehow the INFP's fault.

 anyway, it's friday tmr which is goooodddddd... i love the weekends. thats the thing i look forward to on mondays. haha! plus its a public holiday in launceston next wed cos of the launceston cup! =) and i've got no class on tues till 7-9pm CBL. but i've gotta be on the wards. but still.. ;) 

off-topic: watched black swan (as you all alr know) and green hornet. omg green hornet is SUCH A WASTE OF MONEY! i guess it's a good laugh but it's pretty lame. not sure why ja7 chou agreed to act in it. but hey, his english wasn't too bad. watched the mythbuster green hornet special after that and realised that most of the stunts wouldnt work. =( guess it is hollywood after all. 

it's so sad. there's nothing to do on the weekends. no salamanca to rock up to, you've gotta pay parking in town, been to the gorge 3 times already. there's a sunday market at evandale but apparently you've gotta pay to get in too. -.- lame. pay pay pay. so what do we do on weekends? wash laundry, watch movie, study, cook. then prepare for the next week of uni. probably should go to wing&co and get ourselves some nice asian stuff. 

anyway! last weekend was REALLY COOL! festivale (food/wine fest) was on so we headed down to have a taste/eat/gorge/binge ourselves out there. had crayfish wood-fired pizza (of which we couldnt taste the crayfish AT ALL), van diemen's beer, olliebollens (dutch doughnuts), salt&pepper calamari, fish&chips, angus steak sandwich, mexican platter of ribs, nachos, chicken wraps etc, nutgrove rum&raisin ice cream and rosti. yumyum. 

and then on sunday, dan came up and then we met up with one of the new singaporeans studying in launceston and went around launceston! =) headed up to the gorge again and walked around. it was a beautiful day = good weather, lovely people.

headed to the museum after to have a look. it was basically a mini science centre + train museum. it was pretty interesting. maybe i should go to the one with the dinosaurs etc one day. wanna go to MONA too! but that's all the way in hobart. damn. why must everything interesting happen in hobart when im gone! like how they opened a burger got soul there on sandy bay! ugh.

after that, we headed to the tamar island for a while. saw black swans (hah!) but it was like a boardwalk thing. there was a bbq pit halfway along the walk. guess it would be a quiet and pretty. 

i feel like my body is falling apart. my back hurts (old issue) and my elbow started hurting again today (old issue). not sure what i did this time around for my elbow to hurt. =S didn't lift anything heavy so it should be alright. seems fine now but it was giving me problems this afternoon. sigh. 22 yrs and counting. someone quick do some regenerative medicine research so that i can have some spare parts in years to come!

anyway, i might be doing some research at the hospital! gonna meet with the research lady next week. so exciting! =) i think i'm developing an interest in O&G so might explore the idea of some O&G research projects which is good i guess. at least now there's something to look forward to. haha! although O&G is my last rotation this semester so we'll see if i think the same way after it. =)

just a week in and i'm tired but happy

so here i am, lying in bed, on the first thursday of the new academic year, feeling REALLY tired already. although i haven't been doing much clinical stuff because of the rotation i'm on atm. but everything's been VERY organised unlike Hobart which is aweeesome. you have no idea (well actually you probably do) how irritating it can be when the admin stuffs up.

i've seen 2 psych assessments and they have been a real eye-opener for me - how some people buy so much into their delusions that that becomes their reality. or how an intelligent person can do things that seem ridiculous to us. but i guess that is the beauty of psychiatry. to find out what's going on in their heads.

apart from uni which is really tiring because we start mostly at 8am and i usually stay in school till about 6 to use my computer/study etc. then we'll head back home (yay 300m away) and cook dinner! which has been spaghetti, jap curry, tomyum soup & fried egg etc. although i think we prob need to go grocery shopping and stock up on a week's worth of food. got enough meat (minced beef to be exact) to last us till tmr. then we are going to go vego! LOL! unless we go buy meattttt. ok we got 3 more eggs i think but thats NOT meat.

i think most of you would have seen photos of my house on facebook so shan't post them here lest someone attacks/burglars my house! HAHA! Well most people who read my blog are friends so they would have me on facebook. yay!

talking about facebook, i think i MIGHT change my profile name to something else. something difficult to find so that it is difficult to find me unless i tell you my profile name/email address. keeps it away from unwanted eyes. might do a friend cull too. but i'm debating about that. i guess it's nice to keep everyone on my list. who knows, maybe 5-10yrs down the road, i might need someone's help! would be nice to say 'heyy rmb me?' hahaha! what's your thought on that?

PS. i actually had to do a blog post as homework on our e-portfolio gateway. so can't believe i posted there before updating my own blog! =S

so it's 10 days into the new year. nothing really exciting to report at the moment. except that i'm going for wisdom tooth extraction tmr! one week before i fly off! that's probably a bad idea cos i wouldn't be able to eat my last minute nice foods! ice cream diet anyone?

so here are my resolutions for 2011:

1. pass 4th year without any scares
2. gym regularly (at least 3x/wk) - probably need shay to drag me there!
3. find my love for running again/start running group
4. start launceston soka group
5. chant regularly - morning & evening
6. practice osces regularly
7. study not for exam sake
8. hopefully get offered PEG (fingers crossed)/if not gimme my intern place in launnie --> PR!! 
9. travel around more! 
10. keep in contact with friends everywhere
11. (find a GOOD bf)

the last point is not a necessity. but if it's going to happen, PLEASE LET IT BE A GOOD ONE THANKEW VERY MUCH. 

PS. my hair's a really nice reddish purple now! =)