Sunday, June 29, 2008

Good Bye, June.. Hello, July..

Salam..

And here I am again.. After two-entry silent spell, I'm back with a small note to share..

*Sigh*
June is leaving as July will come.. For many, this may not make any comprehensible sense.. In fact, putting it in the middle of the year, with sun of summer marking the holiday season has begun, what is there to complain about?

Indeed, it would be to the doctors working in this very country who would understand my statement.. Shall I share? Will do so.. June would be the mark of an end of a year's session and July is tagged as the new season.. Fresh baby-face graduates will be sent to their designated hospitals for their first placement as interns.. Same goes for SHOs and registrars, but more so merely as a change in place (and, likely too, pace) of work.. To make it short and understandable, it'll be a whole new team all together.. Only the consultants will stay in the hospital..

New registrar, new SHO's, new interns.. New faces, new team, new friends, new experience..

But still it doesn't explain the gloomy statement of mine above..

Another sigh..

Let me share my little experience.. July 2006 marked my debut as a healthcare professional in this country, and even more, as a mark of ambition well-achieved.. Yet, little do people know that pride had to be yanked aside to learn despite holding the ever-dreamed of MB BCh BaO! The learning curve was a steep one.. The hands-on was the difficult part as well as the application of 'what we know' to 'what we'll do now'.. Putting in a small drip for a sick patient was very hard indeed, with sweat pouring and heart pounding, to prick a frail unwell man with the tiny needle.. But it has to be done.. And I learn by doing and learn by doing it again and again.. Experience makes a big difference - the more you do, the more you learn!

After a few tries, it didn't feel so hard after all..

The team you're with does make a different.. A nurturing working environment is what helps.. I was blessed with a nice one.. I thank Pat, Brendan, Paul and Tamam for making my first 3 months an easy learning experience for me.. The nurses in the ENT ward were great too.. Sharon and Anne-Marie (CNM's - 'ward sisters') made it easy in the ward.. In fact, it was all smooth flowing with the Respiratory and Endocrinology teams.. Thanks to the reg's and SHOs (Mikey P, Rory, Chris, Shah, Edel, Nina, Babiker, David, John).. Wow, that all flew so fast! And at the end of one year as an intern, I hardly realized, not until then, that how much I had learned about medicine, about being a doctor, about being a team member, about LIFE..

Of course, there were ups and downs.. But it's not the ever-intention to reminisce on the lows, and as I clearly mentioned in my first entry - this is not a HATE-page..

Long story put short, my first SHO appointment was in January this year.. Again, new job, new team, new place, and new intern.. A subordinate? That was new too! Roisin was great.. Pleasant girl to work with, very hardworking.. And then Aidan.. Another great chap.. Soft-spoken and very professional.. Both very intelligent.. Having the two as my first two interns was one memorable experience.. Taught me how to delegate work between me and the interns, taught me how to be in command and look after my subordinate.. I think I did quite okay.. However, I feel I've failed miserably as a teacher to my subordinate.. Sorry, guys.. *sob, sob, sob* But, hey.. Good memories are there to cheer me up.. The 'Jumper' would probably be the best! Hehe.. Ask Aidan or Tom..

Anyway, I wish the best of luck to Roisin and Aidan, who are going to Australia and New Zealand respectively.. May you guys have a good time and learn much more..

One common ‘ritual’ among doctors here is the dinner.. End of June would be the general period for dinners to happen.. Almost every team would have their own dinner scheduled.. Also quite common that the dinners do not include the consultants.. Reason? Who knows.. Maybe the formality would be different when the boss is around, maybe the gossip to tell and share would be somewhat ‘not appropriate’ to tell.. Or maybe it’s just because the team may never be together again as each will walk different paths, and this dinner will commemorate a year of joy and pain endured together as one unit..

The Palliative Care team dinner was held at Copper ‘n’ Spice Indian restaurant.. Quite a posh one, I may say.. Food was great! It was more a farewell and good luck dinner for all of us.. Faith is now in Australia – such a lovely and helpful lady.. Jay will be going to Galway – we will miss his wonderful sense of humour.. Roisin will be going to psychiatry as part of her GP training – I wish you the best for your wedding! And Faisal will be going back to the Regional for more fun and actions with Dr Peirce.. As for me and Haji, we’ll be staying and we will be welcoming the new clan coming in July.. (Unfortunately, Haji accidentally deleted the dinner pics – tough luck..)

And then the Fraser-Meaney-Skelly dinner.. Venue : Meal Mazza, Castletroy.. In attendance : The bosses! Still a great dinner.. Lots of fun and laughter.. (Still waiting for the pics from Masood) That may well be the last time I’ll see Aidan and Roisin, my two first interns, before the fly southbound..

Alas.. It is hard to say good bye and farewell.. But, as mentioned, new friends await, new challenges will come and new experiences are meant to be learned.. Can we say this farewell is a downer? I don’t think so..

Auld Lang Syne.. Old long since.. Whether we sing the lyrics or hum to the music, it does not matter.. We reminisce the time spent together, the laughter shared and the tears we cried together.. We part this day for another journey and we pray someday our paths will cross again, and we’ll sit in the sun, with a cup of tea in our hands and we share the stories again.. And remember the days..

Indeed, June is coming to an end and July is approaching fast.. We say goodbye and thank you to all, and we say welcome to the new crew.. We will get along together and we will be good friends.. And the cycle continues..

As the Irish would say (and so was the name of our farewell reception in Milford), Slán Go Foill..

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Bye bye weekend..


Salam..

Hi everyone.. I'm back again.. phewww.. what a weekend.. summary of our weekend:

Saturday
Abang went to work until 2 pm..
I cooked 'bihun goreng' (not very tasty.. huhu.. i'm losing my cooking reflexes!!)..
I tidied up the 2nd bedroom but in the end we didn't move..;)
I fall asleep in the couch while waiting for my husband to come back..
We had our lunch while watching TV..
Abang fall asleep in front of TV..
I continued my spree cleaning..
We had maggi for dinner while watching the match..

Sunday..
Abang went to work and came back around 11.30..
I called my mum for nearly an hour and then finished up my cleaning (huh, cleaning on my own really took me more time.. glad I've managed to throw out unused & old things)
We went out for window shopping and then abang got a phone call to admit a patient..
I ended up in his workplace while he was working..
We went to the halal shop afterwards (bought some chicken,salami and lamb ribs.. hmm,need to find a recipe.. never cook lamb ribs before..)
On our way home,we went to halal restaurant (hehe.. I don't feel like cooking today)
We watched 'One Missed Call' while having our lunch/dinner (not a very good story.. well, expected ending for a ghost story anyway..)
And now we are watching the match between Spain & Italy..

I went to my husband's hospital/hospice for the 2nd time today.. It was a lovely place.. Very neat & nice environment too.. Met a few nurses & one of them even brought juices for me & my husband..


Shhh.. the busy doctor is working..;)

Hmm.. I'm actually sleepy... zzzz... will update again sometime.. working day tomorrow.. *sigh*...

P/s: thank you very much abang for ironing my clothes.. love you!! hehe..

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Yuhoo.. It's weekend!!


Salam..

Hi everyone.. looks like it's my turn to write sth as my husband has made the first entry.. I really don't know where to start.. so many things that i want to write down.. stories about me, about him, about us, our families, our vacations (we loveeee to travel), our work & much more.. So, be patient ok.. I will write them down when i have time..


I am soooo glad that it's weekend again.. Fuhh.. this week has been extraordinarily exhausting for me.. My consultant is away.. And we have a Research Reg acting as consultant for our team.. I'm working in Geriatrics team (Care for the Elderly).. So,baseline is we're always busy.. Starts around 8 every morning & finishes around 5.30 or 6.. (shouldn't be complaining too much as I know my friends especially in Malaysia are far more busier than I'm).. 6 months working like this sometimes make me want to quit!;p but Alhamdulillah as for now,I'm still working with Geri (previous intern has quited only after 2 weeks!).. I guess one of the reason i'm staying is because of my team.. My consultant is the best ever (he never gives out to us.. he loves to tell stories & make jokes.. He does a very quick ward round,a fast but accurate decision-maker..) So is my Specialist registrar (she's brilliant.. she never put pressure on us.. she never lose her temper.. she always looks happy & energetic even though post-call which she rarely gets more than 2 hours of sleep..she never make you feel inferior.. We all love her!!).. My SHOs are all nice.. they never leave me alone doing all the jobs.. they'll always call me and make sure that i'm alright.. hmm.. I'm pampered!! truthfully,working as a doctor in Geri team is very bz but i guess they all make it less stress for all of us..

Huh.. done talking about my work.. it's weekend!! Unfortunately my husband is oncall today as well as tomorrow.. So,he has gone to his hospital (we're working in the same city but different hospitals).. But he will be back in a few hours.. So,need to start doing jobs.. here is my list of jobs for today (weekend is the time for spree cleaning!)..

  1. will start off with cleaning my kitchen & dining area
  2. tidy up the front area
  3. moving our things to the next room (we're moving to the other room as we think it has more space than our room)
  4. cooks.. (haven't figure out what's the menu for today)
  5. discard old clothes & shoes..
I'm so glad that our apartment isn't too big.. It's suites us very well.. We have small kitchen & dining area.. 2 double rooms (1 is en-suite).. 2 bathrooms.. it won't take us more than 2 hours to clean our apartment usually.. but i guess today will take me the whole day as we're moving to another bedroom..

My kitchen area.. all pics taken by my mum who was in deep love with my apartment;)

All in one.. the kitchen, the dining area & the guest area..

2 double rooms next to each other..

I guess i better stop writing now and start working on my lists for today.. will update on my achievements today! hehe...

p/s: the game last nite was good.. never thought that the turks would beat portugal in the very last minute!

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Welcoming You, Welcoming Me..


Salam..

Aaahh.. The first ever entry of the blog we made last night (by accident).. Nothing much to say, but a very warm welcome to you, to me and to us both..

The idea of this blog, for some weird reason, is pretty much for us to waste more and more time in the internet and in front of the computer.. If somebody is lucky (or should i say, unlucky) enough to randomly search and found this blog page, they may be thrilled to realize that there is absolutely nothing worthwhile reading in this page.. Or for some really unlucky one, pages..

We are pretty much doing this to vent our feelings - anger, sadness, happiness, and others - via writing.. Possibly as well, when we have some good information to share, we might do so too.. Now, that might take some while before we could find some goodies for the readers.. But, rest assured, we will find something..

Maybe in the coming posts, we will also write a little bit more about our travels, vacations, holidays, nice experiences and lots more.. Maybe a little bit more about our background, family and friends.. Oh, don't worry.. No bad words will be posted.. This is NOT a hate page..

I've just asked my wife if she would want to write something, but she said 'nanti lah', ie. later..

So, maybe this welcoming note will just be from me..