?

I wonder whether I am asking too much out of life. Maybe I should try to be more understanding, or maybe I should just accept things as they are.

Come on, let's face the fact. You can't change the environment you are in, but you can certainly change the way you react to the surroundings. So if somehow hurts you, or if something bad takes over your life, you should really just take control of your emotions and act wisely. No point in throwing tantrums, or making yourself feel miserable about the whole issue.

Life is indeed a bumpy road. But somehow, you can only hope for that much to happen. The rest all depends on faith and fate.

I dunno. I am only ONE human out of the billions of us on this planet. But, I hope that somebody would appreciate me as I am, and not take me for granted, sometimes. I guess I can only wait and be patient; time will soon tell, but I hope that by then, I won't be tired of waiting.

Boiling Me Up!

I dun understand why some nurses can be so irrational!

Dun get me wrong, majority of nurses are fantastic. They know what they are doing, they care for their patients and understand the politics in hospital.

Yesterday, I was bleeped by a nurse from a ward at about 4.30 pm. She asked me to admit a patient, who was just transferred from A&E. I told her that I was in the middle of a meeting, and I would be unlikely to make it there by 5pm to clerk the patient. She repeated herself to me. Again, stating that there is a new patient that needed to be clerked in. So, I told her again, I understood what she was telling me. but I am unlikely to be able to make it there by 5pm. And told her that, it is probably best to get the on-call team to clerk the patient.

She put down the phone.

I finished my meeting at about 5.10 pm. Suddenly, I was fast-paged by the same ward again. Fast-paging is only used if there is a clinical emergency. So I answered the call. It was the same nurse again, and this time she said, " I'm calling about the same patient. She is now vomiting, and you still havent clerked her in."

I replied, "Is she unstable? Is she vomiting profusely for the past 20 minutes? Are her vital signs unstable?" She said,"I just wanted someone to write her up for an anti-emetic." I was like it is now past 5 pm, and I still have hundred things to sort out, why didn't she think of asking the on-call team to sort the patient out? and the fact that she has misused the fast-page just boiled me!

Anyhow, I told her nicely that it was probably best to get the on-call team to get her to prescribe the medication, and even gave her the page number. She was annoyed, and wanted my name, to file a complaint against me.

Now, I personally do not think I was doing anything wrong. The patient was not critically ill. The patient just needed some symptomatic relief. I do not see why she could not get the on-call team to sort it out. Moreoever, we all have to try our best to adhere to the EWT directive. I felt rather pissed off actually. It wasn't like I was sitting down drinking cups of tea, and ignoring my work! sheesh.

Go Away, Kidneys!

Kidneys.


The vital organs in your body that helps to get ride of our daily toxins. When the kidneys stop working, the human body struggles to function properly. In certain cases, in which, the kidney becomes dysfunctional, dialysis may or may not be deemed appropriate.


I never liked renal medicine as a student. I found it all so complicated. I could not get my head around which part of the nephron absorbs or excretes what. (Yeap...I am still confused!)

My first day weekend on-call was about 1 week ago. I was given the task of covering the Renal Unit. Oh how exciting....NOT! I hardly have any experience in renal medicine as a SHO....the only experience I had was when I was a junior house officer. At that time, all I had to do was to do the paperwork when admitting patients, perform ECGs or blood tests, and treat patients with high potassium levels in their body.

I have to admit I was pretty intimidated by the on-call itself. The day didnt start too badly...but as the time passed by, things started to go haywire.

Renal patients are chronically ill. They always seem to be unwell either DURING or AFTER dialysis. Why is it so? I still haven't found the answer. They seem to have extremely difficult veins for cannulation. I recalled spending at least 30 minutes just trying to find a suitable vein for IV access.

All of the sudden, there were 3 people kicking off in the ward. One was having his/her dialysis, the other 2 were patients post-dialysis. All scoring a EWS* of 5-7!!

I did not know where to start. I decided to go to the patient with the highest score. This person apparently just finished dialysis, and became "funny." Yeap, it doesnt get any more specific than that. To be honest, I didn't understand what the nurses meant by the word "funny"....so I decided to assess the patient myself. He was semi-conscious, speech kinda slurred, breathing really fast. I went through a few differentials, and came to the conclusion that he was profoundly septic.

The other patient had 5Litres of fluid removed from his body...and, surprise, surprise, he was profoundly hypotensive!

The last patient who was unwell during his dialysis had an "unresponsive" episode, which recovered after 5 minutes.

The weekend just kinda went into such trend. A few sickies at the same time. I guess it has given me good learning opportunities in managing ill patients. But I still do not like renal medicine.

Tickle tickle....

A cough certainly takes a long time to heal!

I developed this tickly dry cough last week...and it is still here.

For the first time in many years, I've decided to spend some money on a cough mixture, like simple linctus. I would not say that it tasted nice...it was quite sweet actually. But it didnt really help to relieve my cough.

The moment I closed my eyes, the cough became worse. I coughed and coughed, until tears started to roll down my cheeks. I took some hot water to see if it helped....no, not really. My throat was just SO TICKLY. Later, I realised that the cough was worse when I was lying flat on the bed. So I laid on the bed at about 60 degrees angulation. I continued to cough, but guess, my tiredness took over me...and I finally fell asleep.

I can say for a fact that the sleep was disruptive. Many a times I woke up coughing. I was so sleepy when I got up this morning. The cough was better in the morning...but it irritated me a lot at work. It felt like I was the ill patient in the hospital!!

As a result of the cough, my voice has changed. My patients and their family members could not really hear me clearly.

I am attempting to sleep earlier tonight. Hopefully the cough will be less annoying.

Come and gone...

I'm feeling quite sad at the moment. Mum, Dad and Bro came to visit for 2 weeks...and I sent them to the airport this morning. I just couldn't believe how fast the time flies when you're enjoying yourself.

We actually didn't do much. The weather was not good at all....it was raining everyday of the week, except on Wednesday. We saw the shy sun for about 2 to 3 hours most evenings. The wind was very strong and chilly too. But anyhow, we managed to make a few short trips to the surrounding area.

First stop, was Glasgow. I know I just moved down from Glasgow...somehow, this town is very charming. I honestly miss Glasgow. I miss the good food, the lovely cafes, the hussle bussle of Buchanan/Sauchiehall Street, the Scottish pipers....and the Accent! yeap......I miss hearing them say "cannae," "doon," "wee."

I took my family to savour the delicious Rumours cafe (malaysian cafe) in Glasgow....The wa tan hor made my day. The next day, I took them to eat brunch at Berits n Browns. Mum & dad were intrigued by the pancakes with bacon....and I must say, they were impressed with it!

On Wednesday, when it was sunnier, we decided to make a trip to Alnwick Castle and Garden. I was NOT impressed at all. Firstly, I paid 18.50 pounds each to enter...and the garden was not THAT pretty. I heard alot of good things about the garden....but I was rather disappointed. Guess I went in with high expectations. I had seen more beautiful gardens than this, and paid half the price to enter!

The only beautiful thing in the garden was the fountain cascade. The Castle was better though. It was huge, and well-maintained. We visited the part of the castle that was used for the filming of Harry Potter.

Alnwick Castle (this was where Harry Potter was filmed)

The rest of the week was spent driving to nearby towns, such as Durham, York, Redcar, Whitby and Scarborough. We kind of just visit the main attraction in each town...and spent time sitting down in a cafe sipping coffee, or eating dinner.

Scarborough was rather interesting. Guess most people will know of Scarborough from the song sang by Simon and Garfunkel. The beach was not bad. I was amazed by the local people there, who were half-naked on the beach, exposing their body to the strong chilly wind. They were also dipping themselves in the sea?! It was so cold!!! And I could not see any sign of a shiver on their faces or body!!!

Anyway, the highlight of the trip to Scarborough was the food. I managed to convince my parents to share an ice-cream with me. They would prefer to drink a hot cup of tea than eat something icy! Guess what I got?


Yeah!!! Let me introduce you to the Mega Treat ice-cream! There were 6 flavours in it...and boy, it was good! Dad was shivering halfway through the ice-cream, but insisted on eating more...haha.


Good times.....wished they could come up more often. Its back to reality for me. Its a long week ahead for me...but I'm sure it will pass quite quickly.