If Wagamama Can Make Teriyaki Sauce, So Can I

=P

I finally made teriyaki sauce from scratch!

Yay! I am very proud of myself. I am a huge Japanese food lover....I love sushi, teppanyaki, teriyaki, green tea, miso, bento...etc...etc.. Wagamama is a popular Japanese restaurant that can be found around the UK. I love going there to savour all the delicious chicken katsu, ramen, and gyoza. Unfortunately, living about an hour's away from the city, I haven't been able to frequent it as much as I would like to.

Feeling all miserable, and in order to satisfy my cravings for Jap food, I challenged myself to make teriyaki sauce. It is NOT difficult! All you need is a small saucepan, sugar, light soya sauce, dark soya sauce and sake. Mix them all together...and VOILA....

TERIYAKI SAUCE!

The sauce tasted exactly like the ones you buy off the shelves...but at least I know, there isn't any preservative or msg or anything like that. I decided to use the teriyaki sauce to marinate a piece of salmon. I grilled the salmon for awhile.

While waiting for it to be ready, I stir-fried some mix vege - using pak choi, button mushrooms, carrots, broccoli, sugarsnap peas and garlic. I also added a touch of teriyaki sauce and a bit of lemon juice into the stir-fry......just to give it a sweet tanginess.

And the final result:

Grilled Teriyaki Salmon served with a bed of vegetables!

I munched it down with a bowl of white rice...and I can happily say, my dinner was absolutely delicious!

Inspired by MasterChef!

The brand new masterchef series has started! And remember that one of my new year resolutions is to prepare more homecooked food?

Yes...both Kevin and I were very inspired to prepare our own fine dining in the comfort of your own home! =D I have to admit that it does take quite abit of an effort, but the end result is well worth it. And it is definitely nicer to cook for two!

So...here they are!

Stuffed apple with ice cream
(pardon the apple, it kinda exploded in the oven...hence it had lost its shape)

Brown Rice Kedegree with side salad

Pan Fried Seabass, topped with tomatoes and olives salsa, and grilled courgettes on the side.

We attempted to present the dish well! Guess we didnt do too badly.

I wish I could take credit for creating such lovely food...the recipes are taken from Sophie Dahl's Cookbook, "Miss Dahl's voluptous delights!"

I highly recommend this cookbook if you're looking for nice homely healthy food!

Today is The Day

Today is the day that I felt I have failed to be a doctor.

=(

It hasn't been a good week so far. Things were disorganised, consultants were being difficult, nurses were being pushy, and patients were very ill.

There is a death in the ward for the past 2 consecutive mornings.

However, the death this morning has made me feel like a complete failure. This poor patient has metastatic cancer...lets call this patient B. B came in with increasing abdominal/chest pain, with episodes of diarrhoea. We have thought it was gastroenteritis, and attempted to get on top of B's pain with opioid based analgesia. B was very settled before we all left for home yesterday.

Unfortunately, when I came to work this morning, B was in severe pain overnight. I went to review B. B was screaming in pain and was writhing around the bed. B apparently had a shot of diamorphine, which seemed to work for a few mins, before B was in severe pain again. The tricky thing about B's pain control was B was quite sensitive to morphine, and had an episode of presumed opioid toxicity, which he responded quite well to naloxone (an antidote for morphine).

I didn't know why B had such bad pain. But my initial plan was to give B some intravenous morphine to get him comfy. However, just as we going to get some IV access in him, B just suddenly deteriorated. B's breathing became very laboured, the colour on B's face disappeared very quickly, and just less than 1 minute, B just stopped breathing, and died.

I was shocked that B deteriorated so quickly. The worse thing was B died in pain! How could I possibly allow a terminal cancer patient die in so much pain...B was screaming in pain seconds and minutes before B's death.

I was very disappointed with myself for not doing anything sooner. One can only imagine how much pain B was in, and that B's death was so uncomfortable for B. I seriously felt I failed to be a doctor today. I also could not understand why B's pain relief was not addressed properly overnight, when B was in so much agony. Who knows! B's death was certainly inevitable, but we as doctors should have made sure that the journey towards B's death was as painless as it can be.

I was very disturbed after that death. My deepest sympathy goes to B's family.

* sigh.

How Unthoughtful!

This is no laughing matter.

And, this is NOT the first time that I have encountered this problem.

Yet, I still DO NOT understand why there is a lack of modern technology in this era!

Now, what am I talking about?

Well, simply the fact that there are quite a number of obese patients in the country that could not fit into MRI, or CT scanners.

One of the patients in the hospital needed an urgent MRI scan to investigate for spinal cord compression. Unfortunately, although he is not obese, he still could not fit into the MRI scanner. The radiographers have blamed it on his big tummy! There are no larger MRI scanners in this region....and I heard someone mentioned that there might be a specialised MRI scanner for obese patient in Sheffield, or the patient could use the scanners build for the use of animals.

What I do not understand is, why aren't there many larger scanners available in this country? I mean, surely, the government realise that obesity is a problem in the UK. And surely, this problem occurs quite frequently. Ok, I admit I do not much about the physics and mechanics of these scanners...but one would have thought that if there are scanners available for large animals, why can't there be ones build for larger patients?

MRI scans are more helpful in identifying spinal cord problems compare to CT scans. Are we depriving larger patients more accurate diagnostic investigations? If building larger machines is not the answer, then what is?

I guess you can ask these patients to try to lose weight...but that would take quite awhile. Moreover, the scans are needed to be done on an asap basis. I guess health professionals just have to treat empirically and use their best clinical judgement for such cases. Or, utilise other investigative methods to investigate an illness by the process of elimination.