Autopsy - Dead or Alive

Warning: Possibly gruesome post ahead! 

Finally saw my 1st autopsy today! It was strangely dissociative watching them remove the skull cap, brain, organs etc. I felt squeamish when I looked at the body. It was different from the cadaver lab. This person only died yesterday. This person still had hair. This person had a case history file. This person had a family. This person had a name. This person was a person before.

Not sure how much I'm allowed to share here but there wasn't much to be seen apart from slightly scarred kidney, signs of acute pancreatitis (saponification), fatty streaks in aorta. Cause of death ?OD. So they'll have to wait for toxicology to come back in a few weeks. And blood is drawn from the femoral artery post-mortem! This is because substances like caffeine (?!) can be released from the heart into the blood if taken from there.

It was weird seeing them slice up the organs, take samples, dump everything into a black plastic bag in the abdomen and sew it all up again. All of a sudden, the body looks presentable once more. What was an empty (literally) carcass was full again.

Just for your info, they remove the brain as one part, including the brainstem and cerebellum. Then they remove the abdominal organs from the tongue down to the ovaries/prostate. HMM just realised something. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE INTESTINES?! Didn't see it being chopped up! Didn't realise the bladder was SOOOO BIG and expandable!! It's like a giant plastic bag! Almost!

It's different looking at fresh organs as compared to preserved stuff in the cadaver lab. Everything' still squishy and soft and liquid. The person was foaming at the mouth which was a sign of pulmonary oedema. And we got to see the aspiration pneumonia in the lungs because the contents were the same as that in the stomach.

It was exciting! Wouldn't mind seeing more if I can. =)

Singapore Night 2010 - Happy Birthday Singapore!

Yesterday was Singapore Night! It was fun not having to run around trying to make sure everything's in order! So that was good. =) Sat at the VIP table with sherwin, jo, vasaant, foong, nicolle ang, michelle ang, jeremy bay, jerem7 chng and of course our VIP kok wee! So we got to attack the food first! :P 

The food was good. Had rolls, beehoon, ham, roast lamb, steamed fish, vege panache, green curry chicken etc. Dessert was nice too. I love hotel desserts. I swear I can go to a dessert buffet and eat non-stop if not for the fact that I would put on SO SO SO MUCH weight! 

Performances were awesome and ended up having to go up and play table games! Eat 3 warheads with a straight face! Was sooo hard! Ended up had to eat 2 more because there were too many people left on stage. Then gotta dance with a straight face too. WAH that was a challenge because 1. I DON'T DANCE. 2. how to dance to poker face with a straight face?! But it was good clean fun. =) 

Managed to grab a few photos with people so that was good. Was looking back at past Singapore Night photos and I'm like O.M.G.W.H.A.T.S.W.I.T.H.M.Y.H.A.I.R! Can't believe I actually had those hairstyles!!! EEKSSSS!!! 

Here's what I mean. 

2008 with Marcu5

2009 with fellow medlets! 

2010 with el3anor

See the vast difference? Never knew it was this bad till i scrolled through all photos on facebook! LOL! 

Anyway, we played with the helium balloons too! And I SOUND SOOO WEIRD! Like pikachu! It was fun and I really don't regret going!! Would I drive down from Launnie next yr? Maybe if I crash together with the other Launnie people! =) 

SGH Posting in Dec!

i'll be at sgh from 6-31 Dec! doing internal med! yay! and i thought i would be unsuccessful again this yr! pretty excited about it. lol!

I guess it was good that I didn't get the surgery posting because that was meant to be 1st two weeks of Jan which doesn't look like a good idea what with me having to move up to launceston as well. so thank goodness i didnt get it! =)

School's been boring but otherwise exciting

err ok. its been one month. school's been pretty slack. much slacker than last semester. tutorials cancelled here and there. been into theatre twice - once to see hernia repairs and another to see amputation of gangrenous toe and debridement of chronic ulcer.

but it's been pretty exciting in other aspects! although i didn't take photos with my own camera. they're all in other people's cameras.

was vivi's birthday on friday so we went for dinner at infusion restaurant which was so good. best food i've had in a long long long while. although a little pricey i guess. but it was nice to meet up with the soka people over a meal and just chill. although i had only seen them a week before at meeting. haha!

went to my fellow's house today for lunch! om nom nom! we had oysters, smoked salmon, fresh salmon pate, baked bread with olives/sundried tomatoes/cheese, cheese platter, biscuits, berry/coconut cake, berry terrine, fresh cherries etc! OMG i was SOOO FULL!

singapore night's coming up so that's gonna be interesting! might be performing but we'll see how it goes. secret! haha!

gotta meet up with our researcher on wednesday so that we can do our assignment too! pretty full on huh! plus i'm on call this friday (last one whee~!)!

carlin's engagement party this coming saturday up in launceston so i think we're gonna drive up together with darren joelen3 elvin3 etc so hopefully i don't have to drive! hahaha! don't really fancy driving back in the dark after the party. but i've got first aid course in the morning till 12pm so we can leave after that and make it to launnie for his party at 5pm. =)

then this sunday would be carm3n's gohonzon enshrinement at 10am! it's gonna be busy busy week!

Back in Hobart again. Hopefully this semester would be so much more exciting than last semester with convention and exciting topics to be learnt etc! Although the lectures tmr don't look too good. Law, negligence etc. Only exciting lecture is tropical medicine. Even then, that is 3h long. =S

Watched the girl with the dragon tattoo on the way back to sg and I must say that is one of the best movies I've watched in a long while. It made me buy the last book in a trilogy (so I'm currently missing the middle part of the story) because I want to see what happens in the end (and because it had a 20% off at popular). Not sure about the movie rating. Wouldn't be surprised if it was M18 or R21. Was it even shown in Singapore?! 

Watched The Lovely Bones on the way back to Hobart. Beautiful movie. Watched Dear John too. That was pretty typical. Rather similar to A Walk To Remember by the same author. Slight twist at the end though. Shan't spoil it further. 


Alright. Better head to bed. It's going to be a long 5 months. 

Down to Crunchtime!

5 days to exams! *gasp*

Trying to finish up all my readings by tonight so that I can actually sit down and start studying properly tmr. I'm pretty sure I'll pull through it in the end but it just seems like an endless painful journey. Argh. 2 more weeks. Just 2 more week. Char Kway Teow here I come!

And I'm a little disappointed that I'm going to miss vernic3's wedding by 1 week!! NOO!! =( you guys must take loads of photos on my behalf ok?

Alright. Back to the books for 45 more minutes before dinner. =(

It's coming to an end!

OMG it's almost the end of semester! Everyone else starts SWOT-VAC today while we poor medical students still have one more week of lectures to go. argh. This is horrible because the lectures are winding down - instead it is becoming more intense! Pui!

Anyway, I've finally finished the primary care project which was a competition of sorts and guess what? WE WON!! So now I've got a $50 voucher for the co-op bookshop which I have no idea what to do with it. Might sell it to some other person and get it for cash instead! We'll see how it goes. Can't say that I didn't expect to win but actually winning it was quite a surprise because we weren't really aiming for it. LOL!

We came up with a research plan about the gluten-free, casein-free diet in improving core autistic behaviours in autism spectrum disorder as compared to usual therapy alone. Was pretty interesting because we gave out gluten-free, casein-free, SUGAR-free cupcakes at the end of our presentation! Hehe! So fun!

So now that the project is over, we've got to do a reflective piece which is a pain in the arse because they've changed the format from previous reflective pieces and honestly, what's there to reflect on about DOING a project?? HMM. It's due on Tues. Bleah this weekend would be spent writing that.

And thankfully I passed my diabetic case history!! Which means I wouldn't have to worry too much next rotation about passing my CAT and case history because I've already completed my requirements! Woots! That's really good news to me. Must thank St3ph for the 2 case histories we had to refer to. =)

OH has anyone been to the PIXAR exhibition?? I was thinking of going there when I'm back! Any good?

Happenings thus far

i just realised how infrequently i've been updating my blog to the point that i almost forgot that i have a blog. eeks! 

heaps have been happening but i just can't be bothered to blog about them but i'm sure in 5 years time, i would regret not having said something on this back then just because my brain would have forgotten it (as usual. i've got terrible memory for things like this). 

so what's been happening?

1st May: International Night at Jane

I didn't have a new costume this year so I was asking my angmoh friends if they have any ethnic costumes since they have so many costume parties etc! And jenn7 happened to have some! She had the cheerleader (US), the poofy dress that i wore in the end (oktoberfest beer girl? jap maid cafe?) and a kimono but because christ1na and another girl were wearing yukatas so it probably didn't look too special i suppose. so that is why i went with the crazy poofy dress. seriously, if not because i'm in australia and things are crazy and people go all out, i would never be caught dead in that in singapore! HAHA! 

ended up being one of the finalist for the best dressed competition! LOL! there wasn't a final winner but it was just fun to go up and stage and have to say something about it. best part of it was that i couldn't even decide what i was trying to be! this other girl turned up in a cosplay costume and that's how we found out she's actually a cosplayer!! and she said her friends made it for her. OMG it actually looked soooo good that we thought she bought it!

had a rather awesome post-event dance floor in the table tennis room. =) relatively better music than usual. HAHA! that's good enough. whoops! 

3rd May-14th May: Rural GP Placement

I was one of the lucky 2 people to be sent off to Flinders Island for my placement! Which means that I had to travel up to Launceston and catch a plane over! It was a 40min ride and it was so exciting sitting in one of those mini plane with 1 propellers on each wing! We were so excited about it all! Heard all the wonderful reviews about the doctors and the place and we couldn't wait to explore it! 

Sat in with the GPs and took BP, wt all day and it was so fun listening to the pt's history and then coming up with a initial diagnosis which was the same as the doctors! like loin-groin pain and you think of renal! hahaha! it was nice to be in a GP setting where you see pts that you've known for a long while. 

the food at the hospital was GOOD. For only $2.40, you get like fish and chips, beef stew, meat loaf, chicken curry, beef lasagna etc! We basically ate all day at the hospital. We would have brekkie at 8.30, morning tea (yummilicious sandwiches) at ~11am, lunch at 1pm, arvo tea (choc cake/ginger slice/scones etc) at ~3pm, dinner at 6pm, sometimes supper at 8pm. LOL! how's that for being greedy? 

thankfully we went for a roadtrip of sorts on the weekend so we had a look at the various beautiful beaches all over and went for a 3h bushwalk on Sunday! we were just commenting on how we did our week's recommended exercise in a day! 30minx5days = 150min and we bushwalked for almost 3h! haha! there are more photos on facebook!

oh and i forgot to mention that steph and i were cycling along the road after class one day because our GP strained her back and cancelled all her afternoon appointments! it was so funny because while we were cycling, all the drivers would wave at us as they would wave another driver but i couldn't take my hand off the handle bars so i just sorta flicked my hand up. i love flinders people! they're so friendly! anyway, we were cycling along when we passed this farm with sheep and the sheep starting running away from us. i went 'mehhhhhhhh~' and then ALL THE SHEEP STOPPED RUNNING AND LOOKED AT ME!!! OMG! it was soo funny! we couldn't stop laughing and then steph 'mehhhh~' too later on at another bunch of sheep! i think i might have moo-ed at some cows but they didn't react. :(

too bad it was low tide when we got the bluff beach because it was sooo pretty when we saw it the last time we were there doing a home visit. but we got to walk along the beach and were looking for nautilus shells because they were apparently washing up! couldn't find any! it looked something like the one below but it had brown bumps along the outer edge of it where the 'crests' of the lines were. 

we went scottish dancing on thursday night because ALL medical students who come to Flinders have to join them as a 'tradition'. HAHA! it was fun because we didn't know how to move and we were being a hindrance to our partners instead! Might upload some videos on facebook as evidence! LOL! 

It was more like a holiday because although we had to do our diabetic case history, we had 2 weeks there and we only interviewed our patient on the friday of the 1st week and had road trip over the weekend which meant that we spent the 1st week not really doing much! Watched the entire BBC series of P&P (its nice! i want a copy of it! anyone has it??), season 2 of charmed (damn corny), wild child, the guardian, the hangover, princess and the frog (PAM! i actually watched it! and i wasn't as bad as i thought it would have been!), accepted etc. can't rmb what i watched over the course of 2 weeks. 

we had other procrastination ideas such as making onion rings because we had excess onions and for some reason there was a huge container of cornflour in the house so we just tried! not too bad! fried some bananas too! yum yum! it was fun! =)

flew over to cape barren on the second thursday as well! went to visit to the community health centre and then went crystal fossicking! no idea if the stones i picked up are worthy of anything or just plain rocks. some people can find killicrankie diamonds (killicrankie is the name of a place on Flinders Island). but its like 2 pieces after fossicking all day with proper tools. i would rather find the shells to be honest. sat in the co-pilot seat on the flight back and it made me want to be a pilot again! some day some day. its so cool being able to listen to what goes on between the control tower and the pilot! and looking at all the various knobs, buttons etc

this plane could only sit 6 passengers INCLUDING the pilot. =D

Knobs, knobs and more knobs.

Co-piloting!

All in all, placement was such a wonderful experience and it is something I will never forget. hopefully. 

Dr Son1a with us in her surgery! =) She's got the coolest laughter ever and she's just so nice! Would definitely go back again if given a chance!

Freckles!

ruth! this is the choc i was talking about! omg yums!

HELLO FROM FLINDERS ISLAND!!! I SURVIVED THE ROAD TRIP UP AND FLIGHT THERE!! =D

one day one day. getting there. hang in there!

watched alice in wonderland and new moon the other day.

AiW was not too bad but i feel that it was slightly overrated? Maybe the 3D version would have been more exciting, considering some people watched it 3 times. =S i think if LOTR was made 3D i would watch it 3x but not AiW.

New Moon was even worse. wasted 2h of my life. grr. i wonder if the last one is going to be worse still. but at least i have finally watched new moon. -.-

Finished Glee too! that was quite nice. Makes you want to sing and dance along with them too. hehehe! sometimes i wish i could sing and dance. ok shant be greedy. sing OR dance. =)

Getting there.

easter break's almost over! been the insanest break ever. primary care's starting soon and the timetable looks super full on! noo! although i will get friday's off to do our project! =) can't wait for this semester to end and then i'll be halfway there! bring on the half-way partayyy~!!

Lecturers and Notes

I hate how some lecturers think they are doing us a favour by putting 4-6 slides on a page. I'd so much rather them save them as individual slides so that I can format it however I want it. I'm the sort to squeeze 9 slides on a page. That's why.

Worst still are those who save as Notes format with the lines provided at the side. One page end up only 3 slides. Plus some of those slides are USELESS. Grr. I wish they didn't take the initiative. Lol!

Freebies, discounts and more!

OH guess what! My 'new' Honda Jazz was reclassified as a demo car! So i get a $300 discount! =) Awesome! Besides, the only people who have test-driven the car are me, elvin3 and another person. Has only 109km in it! So it really isn't that much of a demo car I suppose. But hey! Who doesn't enjoy a $300 discount! =P

On top of that, I had free carpet mats thrown in which cost $195.

Maybe life isn't that bad after all.

80s/90s party on saturday! was quite fun i guess. saw heaps of old friends and it was really nice. =) pics are in tessa's camera so we'll just have to wait for them.

week 7 already! 2 more weeks to easter break/study break! niceeee.

Wishing too much

LIFE IS BORING.

sorry for the lack of updates.

apart from the fact that sometimes some people don't know their limits and keep trampling on my toes although it isn't anything serious. it's just pissifying sometimes. but i know they really mean no harm cos they're just being themselves. i need more self-control.

apart from that, i wish things can be simplified. why must life be so full of twists, turns and road blocks? mehhh. upset upset.

OH and these few days there have been many many car break-ins and horrible things happening around. =( Sam's car got broken into.

AND wongi3 is getting a car! honda jazz. manual. GG. it makes me want a car too. =( now i wish i had a manual license so i can just kope her car.

sad sad sad.

First Rain

it's raining!!! like a proper rain! it's such an awesome feeling when you're indoors trying to get work done with the soft pattering of the rain in the background. it has been so hot the past few days! it's supposed to be autumn, not summer! although summer can be a pretty wonderful season as well i suppose. =)

sorta finished my assignment but now i'm 500 words over the limit! shucks! best part is that i have no idea how to reduce the words! the more i read, the more i end up typing instead of deleting. whoops!

need to go study and read talley etc! finally getting more bedside tutes! i've 3 this coming week! endocrine, neuro and abdo! need to get my OSLERs signed off! =S

went down to DEM the other day when my team was on take. took Hx and had my notes counter signed by the reg and filed away! haha! cheap thrill. =P we went off to do venepuncture on each other again while 4 nurses looked on in horror as we practiced on each other. it was pretty funny! so now i've got a vial of blood sitting on my shelf which has separated out into two layers. my friends think i'm sick in the head. i think it's pretty cool! (at least i like to think so)

so much to do yet so little time! =( jiayou!

It's rural week for 1/4 of my class so the rest of us do not have lectures for these two weeks! AWESOME! So it just means that we can go study and catch up on all the neuroanatomy things and sleep! Came down to the clinical school early because I wanted to do clerk a patient in the morning then I realised that ward rounds might be going on and it probably isn't a very good idea to do it so early. Bah oh well I'll just say I had a short talk to one of the patients previously (the one which had a TTE and pacemaker op while I watched).

Med Welcome on Sat was crazy as usual. Nothing outta the ordinary for med parties. Haha! It was nice meeting all the people that went to Launnie and just talking and catching up with people you don't usually talk to. I think I spoke more to N1ck and Cath more than I did the ENTIRE YEAR last year in one night! Amazing.

Sunday was rather uneventful - a day to catch up on lost sleep. Went out for dindins with Christ1na and Mum which was nice. Think it was like $50+ for 3 people which actually isn't too bad in Hobart.

Alright, that's really all for now. Gotta head off to my bedside tute soon! Hope everything's going alright for everyone! =)

Life's pretty normal with lectures and hospital stuff. The only highlight so far would be getting back into endoscopy AND drawing out the propofol AND administering it! under the watchful eye of the anaesthetist of course! ok he wasn't really STARING at me give it but he was there just making sure that the patient isn't going to wake up on me. =)

everything was a first for me! drawing it out, handling sharps and everything! Finally something procedural! I know it sounds really trivial but it IS my first time doing all these stuff on a REAL patient! woots!

Just had a 5-hr ward round this morning. Radiology meeting was pretty cool looking at all the CTs, MRIs etc! Was still pretty hard to understand what they were talking about since all i see right now are like grey, black and white. hehe! alright i can identify structures but they were scanning through the slices so quickly that it was pretty difficult to follow! Went off to ward rounds thereafter and I was so glad we had the 'metabolic meeting' at 10.30am. Wondering what that is? Basically all the teams just stop work and head upstairs to the RMO quarters for makan! HAHA! Talk about welfare!

Was going to clerk 2 more patients after lunch but they both had family with them so we might do it our tutorial/lecture at 2pm. Which would be followed by a pharmacy tutorial at 3pm and then a dermatology tut at 5pm (which is really interesting AND because the reg is really pretty too!)

Was societies day yesterday and it was good! saw heaps of friends and free drinks too! Motto of the day: Two hands, Two cans! That was pasted on the walls everywhere! Another friend of mine had 10 cans! OMG and she was still alright! niceee.

Went to pear1's surprise birthday party last night! was pretty going hanging out with friends and having a tour of their new house! it is huge! pretty convenient too. Just around the corner from salamanca and town.

There's an Overs3a Singapor3an Unit dinner at Henr7 Jone5 Hotel at 6pm so yay! Nice nice dinner!

So ya, it has been a rather busy week. But I LOVE IT!