Just Do It!!

Another one of my rants about the ward cover job that I am doing now. Before I proceed, I do apologise to those who become offended after reading this.

During one of the days, a young girl was admitted to the hospital with severe colitis, possibly a new manifestation of Crohn's disease. She was rather septic and in a lot of pain. The SHO wanted her to have an abdominal x-ray. But as she is too ill to go down to the dept for the x-ray, he decided that she should have a portable x-ray instead.

So it was my job to get the portable x-ray up to the ward. I paged the on-call radiographer about it. I waited for 10 minutues, and there wasn't any reply. I paged the person again, and still no reply. It took about an hour before I received a call back from the radiographer. I explained to her the situation and she said ok.

When she arrived at the ward, she saw that the patient was sitting up on the chair. (the reason the patient was sitting on the chair was because the nurses were changing her bedsheets, and she was just given a shot of morphine). Anyway, she went up to the SHO, who was standing nearby and said, "Is that the girl who needed the portable x-ray?"

The SHO nodded. The radiographer said, "Why do you need a portable one, when she could actually sit on the chair. I am sure she could go to the dept to have it done. A portable x-ray is not optimal and the quality is poor."

The SHO replied, "Yes, I understand the quality of the x-ray will not be great. But she is actually too sick to go to the dept. She might suddenly become unwell on her way there. We are worried that she might have a perforation."

"No, I'm not going to do it. She is sitting up on her chair. She looks well."

My SHO explained to her very nicely again his reasons. The radiographer was not impressed. She kept to her opinions.

Finally, after nearly 15 mins of disagreement, my SHO lost his politeness and became very blunt to the radiographer. "Ok, look, this girl is very ill, and where in your experience as a radiographer, were you trained to judge a patient who is sitting down on a chair, as a stable and well person? You have no medical knowledge to say that."

The radiographer turned red. Yet, she resumed her arguement. "Fine. Is this girl pregnant? I won't do the scan until you can proof to me that she is not pregnant."

"Here, look, her pregnancy test yesterday was negative."

"Fine. I want you to write another x-ray card for me."

"Ok. There."

So, the radiographer reluctantly performed the x-ray. I mean, what is the point of arguing. Just get on with it! Stop being such a pain in the arse!

Clinical Emergency?

I am doing ward cover at the moment. It is busy busy. The worse part of the job is not the amount of tasks I need to carry out, but is the fact that I need to fill in so many requests forms for imaging.

On Monday morning itself, I filled in about 10 forms for CT and ultrasound scans. It is quite time consuming, considering the fact that you need to summarise the patient's clinical history in a few sentences, and you need to propose a clinical question too. As the days went by, I became more and more efficient in filling the forms up. hehe. Guess I got better at crapping!

Having completed those forms, I needed to bring them to the radiology dept to get the scans appointed. Since I am in the acute receiving ward, these scans should be done as soon as possible, so that we can investigate the cause of the patients' problems. Organising ultrasound scans are not as bad as organising a CT scan. The reason being, there are not many CT scanners available, and the fact that, the queue is just simply long!

So every morning when I arrive at the CT scan reception, I will be bombarded by the same question, "Is this a clinical emergency?"

This is a tough question. Clinical emergency....hmm...this is a very vague question. What do they mean by clinical emergency? Apparently, it means that the scan must be done in 24 hours. From my point of view, it means that if this scan is not done asap, the patient's life is at stake. Obviously, if the patient is clinically unstable, then, surely the CT scan needs to be done urgently. However, there are times when the patient is stable, but the consultant just wants the scan to be done immediatley. I am in a dilemma.

If I do not get the scans done, the consultant will not be impressed. If I want it to be done on the same day, I have to speak to the radiologists about it. And that my friend, is the scariest part. I really do not know how to convince them that the scans need to be done today, especially when the patient's condition is stable.

There was once when I wanted a patient to have a CT scan done on the same day of his admission. And the radiologist was not happy to do it on the same day. The patient had right iliac fossa peritonism. He wanted to speak to me about it. So I went down to the dept feeling rather worried about what I should say to defend myself.

Consultant radiologist: Tell me why do you want this scan done today.

me: Well, the reason is because we are not sure why the patient is having the pain. Maybe it is appendicitis, or localised perforation or even a caecal tumour?

Consultant radiologist: Ok, let me say this again. What I want to know is, is the patient going for a surgery today?

me: It really depends on the result of the scan, that's why we would like it to be done asap.

Consultant radiologist: Doing a scan today, the patient will not be properlly prep for it. So you will get a suboptimal scan.

me: The patient has taken the gastrograffin and she has been fasting since midnight.

Consultant radiologist: No, no, that is not the point. The scan will not be optimal to be done today. What is the plan for this lady?

me: *speechless for awhile. Well, the surgeon has not decided on a plan yet....all plans really depend on the scan results.

Consultant radiologist: Look, I am not going to do the scan until you can tell me what the plan is. Performing the scan in the next morning is the best.

me: Right ok. I'll find out what the plan is. (at the same time, thinking, just do the fucking scan! That was a totally pointless discussion)

Ok...so I went back to the ward and managed to inform my SHO about it. And he gave me a look that mean what a stupid question the radiologist directed to me. The SHO just told me to go back to me and get the scan done.

Sigh. Right. Right. So I went back to the radiology dept and tried my luck again.

me: Sorry doctor, I've just spoken to the SHO and he said the plan really lies on the result of the scan.

Consultant radiologist: No no. Go speak to your consultant, not your SHO.

me: But it was the consultant who wanted the scan to be done.

Consultant radiologist: Fine.

me: Thank you doctor.

Shheessh! That was a pointless arguement, don't you think? This is an obvious clinical emergency...because the patient is experiencing peritonism and the sooner the scan is done, the faster the appropriate treatment can be carried out.

I spent about 30minutes just trying to arrange the scan for the lady. The time taken to argue could have been used to do a CT scan, which will only take 20minutes.

Fun-filled Weekend

My weekend was fun! I met up with my friends and we all went to a place called New Lanark, which is a UNESCO heritage site. It was about more than an hour's drive from the Glasgow city centre. The weather was very chilly, with minimal sunlight.

New Lanark consisted of many cotton mills during the olden days. The mills were managed by a famous man, Robert Owen. He was well-known for providing free health care, education and decent homes to those villagers in New Lanark. Today, New Lanark has been restored and we managed to get a glimpse of how life used to be during those days. The view was rather scenic because it is now autumn.

New Lanark

Casino Royal was also one of the highlights of the weekend. We managed to get seats for this James Bond movie. omg, this Bond is certainly HOT! I thought this Bond movie was quite different from the others, but I enjoyed it.

This weekend has also been two days of indulgence. We indulged in coffes and cakes! As you know, chirstmas is just around the corner, and both Starbucks & Costa coffee came out with their special edition christmas drinks. Thumbs up to all the drinks. And I do not know why I was craving badly for a slice of cheesecake. So I had one for bfast on Sunday!! haha. It was
crazy.

Oh, and guess what? My friends and I discovered Nando's in Glasgow!! yay!! I LOVE Nando's. The atmosphere was very warm (similar to Chili's in KL). The food was great! Although the peri-peri sauce was burning my stomach, I still continued to dip my chicken into it. =P

As expected, time flew past so quickly. And now it is already 10pm on a Sunday night, which means I should probably retire to bed soon and get myself ready for work AGAIN! Nite nite!

Its a Sad, Sad Story

Today is the day which made me feel lucky.

I came across a very very sad story today and realised how lucky I am to be me. I have always felt that to be a soldier, one has to be very brave and willing to sacrifice his life for anything. Today, I found truth in my thoughts.

Picture this:

You (a young person in the early 20's) was sent off to another country to fight in a war. While on duty, you were caught by your enemy. The enemy hit you really hard, and left you in a subconscious state. They laid you on the road, and asked their team members in an oil tanker to drive over you. You were too weak to move out of the way. The tanker rolled over you, breaking your pelvic bones, your femurs, crushing your intestines (large and small), destroying your spleen and caused massive injuries to your nervous system.

The enemy stood by the side enjoying the view. You screamed in pain. But they do not care. Instead, they pulled you up and tried to kidnap you. However, your fellow soldiers managed to come to your rescue and saved you. But you were in an unimaginable state of injury. Your life was at stake.

The whole accident left you crippled, your intestines had to be reconstructed, etc etc. You had to stay in the ITU for months before you regain abit of your life back. Many complications arose, including MRSA infection, loss of sexual functions, compartment syndrome.... life you couldn't go any worse than this. But you survived and you are still sane.

That was the sad sad story that I came across today. It left me thinking about how people suffered in the war. I mean, yes I read in the papers about the evil side of a war, but I think it is only when you see the whole thing right in front of your eyes, that you actually understand and feel the suffering.

If I were a victim of war (such as the above), I think I would be left in a vegetative state. I would probably rather die than carry on with life, to be honest. A lot of praises + respect have to be given to these brave warriors or victims of war.

A Week of Half Days!!

Yippee!! This whole week I'll be having half day every single day! =D

The reason was my colleague wanted Sunday off as he had something to do. So he asked if I was willing to do his Receiving Sunday (from 8-9), and he offered to do all my late shifts this week. I thought, oh well, I did not plan to do anything on Sunday, and not having to work long hours for the next few days would be nice. Hence, I agreed. I know it may sound abit silly to sacrifice my Sunday for that, but I didnt really mind. =)

So there you go, I had a half day today, and another one tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after....hehe. I think I got to enjoy my spare time for now because once I change over to do medicine for the next 8 months, I will never ever get a half day off. And medicine has a bad reputation of being very busy....and the worse thing is, I'll be paid less for working more.

Nevermind, will worry about that later. I enjoyed my half day today with my friend. We both went to Tesco to buy groceries. It was quite fun (I know this sounds rather pathetic, but shopping for groceries is now my new found hobby)! We, then, walked to Tinderbox, a famous cafe nearby to have coffee. Sipping a hot cuppa was really nice as the weather was icy cold. We sat there for about an hour and a half, bitching about other people or about work. It felt weird too because we were actually chilling out in working clothes....kinda felt a wee bit old.

I really had a nice chill out time, which was what I really needed, as I can forsee myself feeling rather miserable this month (the dark gloomy sky is not helping me out either).....Ohh... I can't wait for my half day tomorrow. I'm certainly going to make full use of it!

Smoking A Pot

Yeap....Look carefully, I'm smoking a pot! No kidding...it was my first time and it was really good.

Gotcha!

I was actually drinking my tea infusion "Mate IQ." It tasted really weird....a mixture of herbs and flowery things. Hope it really did help to infuse my brain cells which have fungus all over after my break. keke.

This was how it looked like inside. It had a metal straw.

Back to Work

Its monday, which means it is back to work for me, after a 2 week break from the hospital. I am feeling so lazy.....

The weekend has been really good. I've managed to do so many things:

1. Watched 2 movies (The Departed and The Devil Wears Prada). Both of them were really good.

2. Managed to meet up with my Uni friends...had lunch together. And chatted away till midnite.

3. Bought a new cardigan for myself...the weather is getting colder and I need it for my night shifts in 3 weeks time.

4. Had weird tea infusions in a shop nearby. It was a really unique shop, secluded from the busy streets. The small cosy tea house was furnished with interesting pics and 2nd hand furniture. And the best part was the shop sold tea from all over the country, you name it, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey, etc... They also have their own tea recipe...for eg, I tried Mate IQ. It was a super duper weird tea served in a funny bottle with a metal straw. Apparently, it helps to invigorate the brain cells. (which is what I need to start my work again...hehe)

5. Had a drama series marathon with my friend. She stayed over the weekend and we were both glued to 24.

So that was kind of like my weekend. It ended quite fast. Now, I need to get my ass moving and get ready for my work!

A Story of A Cat

Once upon a time, there was a cat, named Kitty Kat. She was a white cat with 2 brown patches around the ears and a brown-tipped tail. Kitty Kat lived alone in a palace which used to belong to a king a long looonng time ago. There was not alot of food around the palace, therefore, she fed on leftover food found in the dustbins.

One day, she decided that she has had enough of rubbish food and went to hunt for food. She walked along a small pond in the palace.



As she walked, she stopped and looked at her reflection on the pond.

"Oh, I still look very pretty and clean," Kitty Kat said to herself. She stared at her face on the pond for quite a long time, before it struck her. *ting (a light bulb just switched on)

"I'm looking at a pond....and what does a pond have? Pond has fish....yes....FISH! If I wait for one to appear, I won't need to eat rubbish food today."

So Kitty Kat waited patiently for a fish to surface. Suddenly, 2 orange fish appeared at the surface of the pond, where Kitty Kat was sitting.

"They certainly looked yummy...but how do I get to them? If I jump into the pond, I'll drown, coz I don't know how to swim. And I hate getting wet," Kitty Kat whispered to herself.

At this point, Kitty Kat was salivating. But it was such a shame she didn't know how to get it, or even try. The fish swam around her, but she just stared at them.

grrrr..... (went Kitty Kat's tummy)

After a few minutes, the fish swam away.

"No...no....don't runaway from me. Come back. I'm so hungry...." moaned Kitty Kat. She was disappointed for not even trying to catch the fish.

She walked away with her head down, angry at herself for missing the opportunity to have a nice dinner. That night, she ended up digging food from rubbish bin again to fill her stomach.


Moral of the story: Don't be afraid to try once you get an opportunity!! Once it is gone, it will never come back!!

Hola Espana!

Spain was great! The weather was good, the food was interesting and there were many exciting things to see. My parents and I stayed in a resort hotel just beside the beach in Southern Spain. Every morning, I woke up to the sound of the waves of the Mediterranean Sea. The moment I open my eyes, I could see the very blue sea and the sunrise. ahh....this was a perfect way to spend my holiday. =)

The beautiful beach in Benalmadena, Spain.

In Southern Spain, my dad rented a car, and we managed to travel around Andalusia. We visited Seville, Ronda (a small city located on top of a rocky limestone cleft), Granada and Malaga. The weather was slightly wet in Seville but we still managed to check out the area. Orange trees were found almost everywhere in Seville.

The rows of orange trees & me, holding an orange.

The visit to Granada was satisfying. I visited the great Alhambra. It was a palace built under Ismail I who ruled Granada at that time. The palace was big and it also had a nice paradise-like garden, known as the Generalife. Everything in the place had Islamic patterns.

The above 2 pics: The picturesque Alhambra.

Nothing beats watching a LIVE bullfight in Spain. hehe. I paid about 45 euros for a bullfight. It was really exciting but at the same time, rather cruel. Besides the bullfight, I also managed to watch a flamenco performance. The flamenco was really good and I was amazed at how the dancers managed to move so swiftly and clap in synchrony. Not to mention how skilful they were with the castanets.

After spending a few days in Andalusia, we flew off to Barcelona. There the various street theatres along the famous street, La Rambla, did not fail to facinate me. I had my first tapas meal in Barcelona. Tapas is like small little snacks to savour on (something like dimsum). It was delicious.

The buildings designed and created by Antoni Gaudi (a famous architect) can be found in Barcelona. The La Pedrera (which is just an apartment) has a unique wavy structure. The roof is topped with tall sculptures which actually function as chimneys. There is also the unfinished Temple of Sagrada Familia. Antoni Gaudi only managed to build a small part of it before he was killed in an accident. Since his death, many people have taken over the project and plans have been made to ensure its completion by 2010. My family and I managed to take a stroll in 2 parks in Barcelona. One of it is Parc Guell, which is partly designed by Antoni Gaudi.

The La Pedrera, Barcelona (notice the sculptured chimneys).

Casa Batlo (another creation of Antoni Gaudi)

Me @ The Sagrada Familia

Shopping in Barcelona was great. I did not buy anything in particular except for souveniers. I really enjoyed the entire trip and wished the days pass slower.

Street Theatre along La Rambla.