do you want to be a doctor?

i received a few queries from SPM-leavers enquiring about qualifying for med school & life as a doctor. as it happened, there is an excellent elaboration on this issue written by a physician in the form of a letter to a prospective medical student. all interested students should read it here.

i can vouch for Dr Wong's impeccable credentials. he was an excellent med student & i am proud to have been his classmate.

next time, drink beer from a can?

people accidentally swallow a variety of stuff. children swallow pieces of toys while adults, dentures, chicken & fish bone. so they come to hospital to have them removed under general anaesthesia.

this chap had a drinking session till late one nite. he must have been stoned drunk because he didn't realise anything wrong till the following afternoon. he felt something stuck in his throat.

his xray showed this:

the close-up:

and yes, he did remember he had quite a few rounds of heineken:

it would definitely be the most expensive bottle-cap in the world - once he gets the hospital bill!!

however, i doubt if he would drink beer out of cans after this. how else is he going to get the pretty promoter girls in tight skirts to serve him? heh, heh!

it's that $%#@&!! time of the year again.....

you know the one i mean?

yeah, the day when the results of the public exams are announced.

which is today.

headlining the news would be the top scorers with a whole bunch of A+s to their names. good for them because, i assume, they worked hard for it.

but what about those that worked as hard but just fell short of perfection? my colleague's daughter really took it hard. she didn't get THE CALL yesterday. apparently, the state education department calls up the straight A+ (not just A, mind you!) students a day before the results are announced to invite them for a special ceremony to commemorate their success.

so, she didn't get the call. she was upset & so was her mother. her father, my colleague, took the news better, probably because, like me, we went through the old system & were satisfied with the ...er...above-average results we got. those days were different, i guess. our MCE (& HSC for 6th form)) certificates were well respected & were easily accepted as entry qualifications into overseas colleges/universities.

as it turned out, she got 10 (yes, TEN) A+s & an A. a near-perfect score which, apparently, is not good enough these days.

in our time, we'd have partied thru the nite!! golly, don't we love those good old days!!

ps. as an after-thought, i wonder how many, if they have a choice, would stay back for the revamped STPM. the education ministry announced recently (& suddenly) that there will be assessment-based gradings instead of just one main exam, from this year onwards in a lab rat pioneering effort to enhance interest in the exam.

the week that was

the one-week school break sure passed by fast.

the girl has been home this whole week but i've not had much time to catch up with her except during dinner time. she did achieve one thing though - she finally passed her driving test. (read here)

the boy did something nice, too. he loves frozen yoghurt & he offered to give us all a treat today, limited to rm20.

as a working parent, sometimes my life is controlled by forces outside my control (read: patients) & there's a real danger that the kids grow up without my being there or my realising the changes that accompany their rite of passage.

so, in a way, i'm glad i agreed for the wife to be a stay-at-home mum.

acceptance

kids are often looking for acceptance from their peers. as students, they join school societies & cliques, & maybe out of school, they join secret societies & gangs.

my son has his own group of friends in school - the so-called english-speaking group. you know the type - speaking english amongst themselves despite being in a chinese-medium school. the other day, this group tormented a girl by calling her names. she cried as she told her mother. fortunately, her mother & my wife are friends & that's how we knew about that incident. when we questioned the boy, he revealed that although the group was verbally harsh to the girl, he just stood there & said nothing. the girl confirmed that my son was just a bystander.

i can imagine the predicament he was in. to support his group & harass the girl or do the right thing & abstain? to consolidate acceptance into the group or to risk alienation?

adults aren't much different. acceptance, recognition or approval - they mean the same, a desire to be part of a group, be it family, work colleagues or business circle. 

i myself found acceptance last week. my daughter finally added me to her FB.

yay!!

i know life's unfair but then.....

it's was one of those difficult on-calls but definitely a poignant one.

11-month-old child with brain tumour which suddenly bled & required surgery. results are not promising & he had to be transferred to a university hospital for further treatment.

70-yr-old man scheduled for neck surgery. on the night before surgery, he slipped & fell in the bathroom, causing a bleed in the brain & requiring emergency surgery. the bleeding had caused too much damage to the brain &, in all probability, he will not survive.

young mother into 8th month of pregnancy. the placenta separated prematurely from the uterine wall causing bleeding. the emergency C-section saved the mother but the baby suffered asphyxiation ( medic-speak for suffocation from lack of oxygen) & died the next day in ICU.

81-yr-old man with bowel cancer scheduled for surgery. 15 years ago, he had cancer in another part of the large bowel which was successfully removed. fortunately for him, the tumour this time was again completely excised.

often i wondered to myself why sometimes innocent people suffer while others who do evil flourish? there's no way we could predict what's going to happen tomorrow. how do you explain to the parents that their 11-mth child will not see teen years, or the expectant mother that her newborn has passed on? what do you tell the children that their father, just 6 hours before a routine surgery has sustained a fatal fall instead, or a man who has developed cancer twice?

yeah, bummer, isn't it? but i suppose if you believe in a Higher Being or a Divine Power, then you'll surrender your life to the fate you've been destined with. life just goes on thereafter.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the LORD.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Isa 55:8, 9

fear of the unknown

we are gripped by fear everyday.

fear of price increase of everyday needs.
fear of war outbreak in the middle east.
fear of radioactive contamination in the east coast.
fear of losing political power in putrajaya.

in hospital, the managers fear for declining profits.
the doctors fear for declining patient numbers.
the heads of dept fear for nurses shortage.

and, the patients fear for their medical condition & their ability to pay the bills. on the operating table, they fear for the outcome of their surgery. whenever i sense such fear in the patients, i try to reassure them. if they believe in God, i offer a prayer for them. if they are muslims, i invite a muslim colleague to berucap with them. & of course, if they have a request for a prayer item, eg. from a medium or temple, that they want to keep close to, i'm more than happy to accede.

after all, i think there's no greater fear than the fear of the unknown.

You will not fear the terror of night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
nor the plague that destroys at midday.
If you say, “The LORD is my refuge,”
and you make the Most High your dwelling,
no harm will overtake you,
no disaster will come near your tent.
For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways;
psalms 91:5,6, 9-11

electricity & water don't mix

in the old days, which is as recent as last month, the Xrays, ultrasound & CT scans taken at the radiology dept have to be physically transported to the wards or clinics, so that the respective doctors can view them. but a lot of things can happen to these hard-copies on the way out from the xray dept. they could be lying around in the dept while waiting for the porter to pick them up, the porters themselves could take their sweet time with these films or they could be misplaced just about anywhere else.

all of which add to the delay in which a diagnosis could be made or treatment started. even if nothing life-threatening, a patient may still have to wait hours waiting for the doctors to review the films. how inconvenient!

well, guess what? the hospital finally invested in an online system where the xray films are immediately uploaded & these can be reviewed immediately at anywhere a viewing screen is installed.

i saw one of these in the wards but it was placed just next to the wash basin.

i thought it was unintentional but the same thing was done at another ward.

you'd think that with it's team of IT-savvy staff & electrical engineers, the hospital would be advised to keep the computer & wash basin apart.

perhaps somewhere along in our education system, while we're striving to train rocket scientists (or astronauts?) & genious mathematicians, someone forgot to teach the students to use common sense.

03-2266 2222

this call came thru this morning & that's the official looking number displayed on my hp.

the voice on the other end was gruff & official sounding, & was apparently a high-ranking police officer from bukit aman who could identify my name. he went on to ask if i knew 2 names he mentioned. when i said i didn't know them, he proceeded to elaborate that they lived in my area & were involved in large borrowings from banks in hong kong. he 1st spoke in english, then mandarin.

i've received many scam emails before from persons in africa who wants to use my bank account to deposit cash due to me from generous but unknown politicians. i've also had youths with neck-ties coming to my home asking me to scratch their lucky draw cards.

but this is the 1st time i've had a phone call like this, so i cut him off in mid-sentence. i figured if he was genuine & serious, he'd call back & i'd apologise for the poor connection. but he didn't.

you read the papers & everyday there are stories of deception where people deposit cash to a stranger's account to gain more cash or to cement an ambiguous relationship. they are gullible maybe because of desperation or greed.

after all, desperate situations demand desperate measures.

& nothing ventured, nothing gained.

my neighbour just bought a whole bunch of watches from a friend in a business deal. now, she's asking the wife to help peddle them for a commission.

who was it who said there's one born every minute?

a twist in the tale

you must have read this somewhere but i'm going to post anyway.

a tourist to spain made a point to watch a bull-fight in madrid. he was impressed that the matadors on that day seemed to effortless stick spears into the bulls & thus killing the animals. at the end of the spectacle, he opted to have dinner at a nearby restaurant. he was fascinated that the most popular dish looked like what he thought was meatballs. he asked the waiter what they were & was told that they were actually deep-fried bull testicles, from the animals that were killed at the bull-ring. he was initially aghast but curiosity got the better of him as the diners seemed to enjoy their meals. he made an order & he was indeed convinced it was the best meat-balls he's ever savoured.

so good was the dish that he returned the next day to the same restaurant & ordered the same. however, this time he was disappointed that the meat-balls were much smaller in size. he asked the waiter why that was so, to which the waiter replied:

sometimes, the bull wins.

i remembered this tale because of a patient who came for minor surgery today. he was involved in a road traffic accident where the car he was travelling in crashed into a tree. he was a back-seat passenger while the driver & front passenger died in the head-on collision.

and he wasn't even using the seat-belt.

he was extremely fortunate. in a collision like this, he only sustained a cut on his shoulder while his 2 friends perished.

yeah, somtimes the bull wins.

victoria

a queen of england.

a state in australia.

a railway station in london.

wife of david beckham.

a reknown lingerie brand.

and the new australian open tennis women's champion & current world #1.

so, it was coincidental that my daughter would be enrolled into victoria junior college for A-levels. according to the students, the top 3 ranking JCs are raffles, hwa chong & national. they joked that those who fail to enter hwa chong end up in national, while those that couldn't enter raffles would settle for victoria.

she quipped that she'd be considered a raffles drop-out. i reassured her that she'd be less stressed in an environment where expectations aren't sky-high & just to enjoy herself in the last 2 years of formal schooling. i know i did.

i just hope the boys won't be too much of a distraction.

at the crossroads

5th formers are spoilt for choice these days. there are so many paths they can take to pursue their career dreams.

those who can afford private education, go on to foundation courses or A-levels, either locally or overseas, based on their forecast results. foundation courses fast-track on to university within a year while A-levels exams may be taken in june of the following year, allowing entry into UK universities in september.

yet others wait for the SPM results & then apply for matriculation or 6th form. these are the government's equivalent of foundation courses & A-levels, respectively.

amidst all these, there's the annual saga of government & private scholarships & the long-drawn issue of the fair disbursement of these awards.

so many choices. how would you choose what's best for your kids? how would they choose?

This is what the LORD says: “Stop at the crossroads and look around. Ask for the old, godly way, and walk in it. Travel its path, and you will find rest for your souls. 
Jer 6:16

killer breakfasts

this is typically what N takes for breakfast. today, it's nasi lemak. tomorrow, it may be mee goreng & the next day, a burger. but it almost always goes with a 500-ml bottle of carbonated drink. coke today, maybe sprite tomorrow.

N is a 20-something male nurse who graduated a few years back. the health lectures he listened to during his training days must have been lost on him. or maybe, he wasn't paying attention. or worse, he couldn't care less.

he is already grossly overweight but he's ok for now because he's still young & (looks) healthy. give him another 20 years on this diet & he'll be another health statistic. you know, hypertention, diabetes, stroke & coronary artery disease. he must have overlooked the fact that we've had patients in their 40s coming in for heart bypass surgery.

we've already repeatedly drummed into him, warning him of his folly but the advice has fallen on deaf ears. maybe he's stubborn & couldn't care less.

but this isn't an ideal world & we all know it. because in an ideal world, doctors don't smoke, lawyers don't cheat, accountants don't embezzle & politicians speak the truth.

what do you think an ideal world is like?

“There is no ideal world for you to wait around for. The world is always just what it is now, and it's up to you how you respond to it.” ― Isaac Marion, Warm Bodies

ground zero

i've not been to JB, where i was born & bred, for over 3 years since the old man passed on. so, it was a homecoming of sorts when i met up with my remaining relatives & friends this lunar new year.

catching up gave me a glimpse of my past again - rediscovering my roots &  experiencing a sense of deja vu. it was all too familiar, this JB town - the dirty streets, the crowded food courts, the recognisable faces. & yet JB the city felt strangely foreign - flyovers appeared where there once was only roads congested with traffic, residential areas that were previously considered "ulu" are now townships in their own right.

this trip also provided the opportunity to speak my native teochew again - words, sentences & their intonation that were kept in the back-burner all these years jumped to the fore. but alas, they sounded foreign to my kids & for that, i take responsibility for not passing down the clan's legacy. i consoled myself that millions now speak mandarin instead of dialects.

i foresee that these trips to JB would be less frequent in the future. once the old guard fades away, there's no reason for their kids who now have their own families & who do not reside in JB, like me, to return to their place of birth.

JB would be like ground zero. a happy place once alive with people i know & loved, but soon to exist only in distant memories. i felt a sense of belonging & yet the detachment from the images that i know & remember so well is obvious.

i smiled knowingly, chuckled to myself at people & events past, & then move on.


**my profile picture was taken at my great-grandma's attap home in jalan ngee heng, right where danga city mall now stands**

like a lottery.

a lottery, as we all know, is a game of chance. whether you choose a series of numbers or buy numbered tickets, you win by a lucky draw. there's no intelligent thinking or effort that determines the outcome, except only by chance.

like sending your car to the workshop. if you go to a manufacturer authorised workshop, you'd expect a certain standard of service. you'd think the mechanics are well-trained, the equipment up-to-date & the spare parts genuine. but is it possible, by chance, one day you are allocated a mechanic who has some personal problems that affects his work? imagine what could go wrong after he's done with your car.

like going to the emergency department. you find out that you require urgent surgery & the surgeon, by chance, needs to attend an important dinner that very day. so, he hurriedly tries to complete the surgery in time for his dinner date. imagine you are that patient & what could possibly go wrong.

things happen, often randomly, but by the grace of God, we are mostly spared the dire consequences.

a bird in hand.

you know how the saying goes  - that it's worth 2 in the bush?

i just found a new meaning today.

Y is a 77-yr-old man with severe heart disease complicated with renal failure. his wife has left him & his 4 children are not the least bothered about him.

that's because he has a 2nd wife. she's on her own because her own family doesn't know about this marriage, if one was ever held. she has not been seen since Y was admitted 2 days ago.

that leaves Y all alone floundering in the ICU. his heart is giving way & his kidneys are packing up. he's hooked up to a ventilator & there are tubes galore sticking out of him. he won't last the day.

what a way to end the year - dying alone.

yet, isn't it a paradox when they say 3's a crowd??

it's in the genes....... isn't it?

we are all familiar with the tradition of assigning a child's physical appearance to either parent or even to a grandparent, sometimes even down to a particular feature of the face. remember kirk & michael douglas's trademark chin?

sometimes we dissect the child's character & habits as well. take my daughter for example. she takes after my looks, is introverted & often melancholic like me, & has inherited my (ahem!) brains.

but, alas, she drives like her mum.

she failed her driving test again. sigh, now i have to go home & lend her my shoulders.

oh yes, like her mum, she doesn't take failure too well.

but my son, conceived 8 years later, is altogether different. he doesn't look like either of us, has a dimple on his cheek like his grandma, has a gentle disposition like his uncle (my brother). he only takes after me in our common interest in watching & playing football & he enjoys helping out his mother in the kitchen & housework.

such is the mystery of the human character. only God knows why we are made the way we are.

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
You saw me before I was born.
Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.
psalms 139:13-16 (NLT)

gold

the media reported a gold rush of sorts in johor baru yesterday. with gold price at a high, it's understandable why people would pan for the precious commodity.

as it turned out, it's only granite imbedded with iron sulphide, which glitters under sunlight.

i got a call from a nurse very early this morning about a patient in the ward who was restless from a head injury. i had seen him earlier yesterday & prescribed the appropriate medication. however, the nurse didn't adhere closely to the prescription, which resulted in the patient getting restless, & which got me all riled up.

at 2am.

instinctively, i gave her a mouthful, which could have been worse but for the fact that i'm a natural late-sleeper. i've ranted about incompetent nurses before here, here & here.

but some nurses are really good, although sadly, they are few & far in-between. like male nurse D. he started as a clerk & the hospital sponsored his nursing diploma. after completion, he served his bond faithfully - willing to learn, accepts criticism, is hardworking & has a nice personality. one of my colleagues Dr K took him under his wings & trained him up to be his (Dr K's) assistant in OT. D is good at what he does.

now that his bond is near completion, D has found a better paying job elsewhere. we threw him a farewell lunch today. i told Dr K: you're going to lose your right-hand man soon.

Dr K replied, rather crudely : he's only my left hand little finger.

i thought that was uncalled for. it's so hard to find decent nurses these days & doctors should appreciate when they get good ones. for that matter, hospitals should similarly try to retain their staff, especially so those that bring up their good name.

after all, many things glitter, but only real gold has intrinsic value. all the best to your new job, nurse D!

**image from the star**

ordinary

that's what the "O" stands for in O-level exams.
my daughter doesn't feel it's all that ordinary. in fact, it's giving her the jitters as the day of reckoning arrives. 

those days, we all went to the school office & queued to get the result slips. no one else would know the details if we chose not to reveal.

in my daughter's school, they will assemble in the school hall. the top students (7As & above) will be called up by name & the number of As announced. then, they will go up on stage to collect their slips.

the other less successful students will just get their results individually & with much less fanfare.

no wonder, the girl has jitters!! but i guess she will just have to get used to the pressure-cooker pace, because that's the way it is & i don't envy her one bit.

on the day i got my results, a bunch of us walked from school through the botanical gardens towards town center to catch a bus home. on the way, we monkeyed around, ate ice-cream & joked. there wasn't much pressure. none of us did exceptionally well but we all did enough to get into 6th form & that mattered the most.

ah, life was ordinarily simple then.

still an "L"

the girl went for her driving test this morning. i had hoped she would pass 1st time but she didn't.

did she knock into a pole during parking?

no.

did she slide down the slope?

no.

did she forget to put on the indicator light when changing lanes?

no.

so, how did she fail?

she ran a red light.

i'm still reeling from the shock - there's a potential speed demon in the family.