Almost

An up and down day - in between attending and assisting in flexible cystoscopy clinic, I managed to lose a USB drive, and post a letter minus the stamps.

And at the eleventh hour, when dinner was in the oven and I was wandering bleary-eyed around the house, Ai Wei's frantic tones via Jack's mobile informed me that I was within 15 minutes of missing the farewell tour of Riverdance.

Having seen them already on DVD, I had some idea of what to expect, but the dancing, the music, the showmanship generally was a sight to behold. Everything seemed so meticulous, from crowd pleasers such as Trading Taps, to wildly crazy dances like Morning in Macedonia, to choral performances and instrumentals; to my untrained eye, not a foot looked out of place.

Sitting back during the intermission we wondered aloud how one of the dancers could twirl on tiptoes while in a squat, and almost immediately get back up and perform without losing her balance.

The musicians were excellent, especially the fiddler, who played immunerable solos and generally kept us entertained for the better part of two hours! Must be something, to be part of such a spirited band.

We were lucky to have got such high seats - AiWei's work, and as they are apparently going to end their run of shows sometime in 2010, about 10 years after they first started (an offspring of a Eurovision performance, I just learned!) so if anyone is still wondering; they're very much worth a watch!

wORSHIP

Song of the night:

At the foot of the cross


What made the most sense:

'I lay all my burdens down, at the foot of the cross.'

I wish I may, I wish I might

Got through today, which I'd been dreading for some time now...

Talked about urinary retention in front of the FY1s at the RLUH, which was strangely more nerve-wrecking for me than I thought it would be-I think its getting up to talk in front of people I'm not that close with that makes me nervous.

As expected, ended up talking fast, and trying to cover too much in too little time. Every time I prepare something similar(which isn't all that often anyway), I seem to picture having a lot more time, and prepare a lot more than I actually need to, with the result of having too little time to say all that I want to say. (I'm sure there's a more efficient way of writing all that out as well!)

Was followed by Jack, who did an amazing presentation on COPD. Amazing because he held everyone's attention via a gameshow aka Who Wants To Be A Millionaire style, and amazing because he included plenty of important points for house officers faced with patients with COPD. Enjoyed revising the FEV1 cutoff points for mild-moderate and severe COPD which I'd totally forgotten after doing the respiratory job.

The rest of the day was particularly busy, but mostly enjoyable - ended the day with an unexpected invite to a drug rep presentation at Mayur, an excuse for urology consultants and registrars to mingle and enjoy free food and drink. Vinny and I felt a bit out of place amongst all the big names and timidly asked for a couple of glasses of coke, while around us, Johnny walker Black Labels were being consumed by the glassful.

To mask the event in a show of actually learning something, the registrars had a couple of talks on recent advances in PSA monitoring, and it was pretty heartening to watch senior doctors argue over the definition of a screening test, and how a receiver operating characteristic curve should be interpreted and what 'area under the curve' actually meant. Kind of reminded me of a long ago evening in Barrow 4th year med school where HP, Ed and I sat down to discuss statistics for exams. Much like then, everyone came to the conclusion that no one really fully understood matters:-)

Dinner was good - and while I kick myself now for not indulging in lassi, it was a good, if brief, night out. If only I wasn't working tmrw.

Happy Good Friday!

Holding my attention

Popped into theatre today for only the second time in my Urology rotation - watched a cystoscopy - basically a camera going into the bladder via the urethra, looking for cancer. The fluffy specks, fronds that swayed in the clear irrigation fluid pumped into the bladder were actually worrying - muscle invasive tumour. A 5-year survival rate of 50%.

Back on the ward, a patient became abusive and took a swing at me as I was examining his chest to detect the crackles and creps of aspiration pneumonia to determine if he should continue on IV antibiotics. The staff wonder: how do we assess the mental capacity of a patient whose family are not immediately contactable? A mini-mental score and a call to the Mental Health Liaison team are in order; plus I shouldn't feel too special about the whole thing; he has taken swings at all manner of staff from SHOs to junior nurses.

Jack and Gil are watching Hospital - a reality programme about NHS and dealing with different patients - too much work for me, I'm glad to come home to Heroes, to a nice cup of hot Milo with condensed milk(!) to the latest book waiting to be read, not to more work:-)

Saw tonight on the Apple trailers site that one of my first books growing up, is being made into a movie. Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, to me, was a tale about a troubled child who went to the land of the Wild Things to escape his ominous life at home. Seems that the movie is going along those lines - will be interesting to see how it pans out.

I like weekends

It's nice to wake up at the ungodly hour of 9am, without being jolted out of sleep by the alarm and knowing that, if I chose, I could go on sleeping and no one would be harmed in the least (not that they would anyway).

So had a relatively lazy Saturday where I finally dragged myself out of the house to the Liverpool Empire to catch the Witches of Eastwick. It was surprisingly good, and provided plenty of entertaining moments, though we did wonder about the subject matter and there being plenty of kids around - colorful language and sexual innuendo abounded - parents would have a lot of explaining to do.

The story, for those too lazy to follow the links, revolves around 3 women living in a town small enough that everyone knows who's seeing who, and the conjuring up of a devilishly handsome man that proceeds to charm the lady-folk of the town, with both creepy and hilarious effects.

Here's hoping Riverdance will at least be as good when we watch them in April!

Saturday night saw us at Jody's where a number of Malaysian medics had been invited. It was nice to kick back and chat, if a little too medical-oriented:-) (what an amazing phenomenon that when medics gather, the conversation always turns back to work) and considering his house wasn't too far from ours, we stumbled home at 1am without too much difficulty.


Have decided in bits what to talk about on Thursday (benign prostatic hyperplasia management) and am a little miffed at finding out I am working the next couple of bank holidays.

Things are getting exciting

Grand Nationals this weekend...the nursing staff are talking about going to the races, everyone's worried that the rain will spoil things and recounting hilarious past experiences where people spent ridiculous amounts on a bottle of wine.

Will be watching Witches of Eastwick - of which I know nothing about as of now with Jack, my long suffering housemate with whom I've been out together on more occasions than I care to remember. Gil bailed out leaving the two of us to scrounge around for someone else to share the evening with.

Am feeling a little pleased at having survived today after covering 6 different consultants worth of patients. SHOs who are willing to pitch in are a Godsend.

And Easter is coming up. Wonder if I'm working then?

Its nice when things go right

Had an enjoyable Saturday diagnosing and managing at leisure what seemed to be all the various surgical causes of abdominal pain, all of who came in at nicely spaced intervals so that I never felt rushed to do things.

And while Sunday was a little more free than I'd have liked, I diagnosed my first acute appendicitis.

Its the little things that make me happy.

'Twas a curry lunch saved my life today

Yup, carrying that packed lunch of lamb, dhal poured over white rice and overlaid with fragments of a crispy poppadum around to the various wards certainly helped the day go by quite well.

In THe eNd

So its final - I'll start my second year as a doctor working in Infectious Diseases, then Accident and Emergency, and finally Critical Care.

Should I try to sit part 1 during my first block of 4 months? - yet to be answered.

But

'But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy.
Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you.
For surely, O Lord, you bless the righteous;
you surround them with your favor as with a shield.'
Ps 5:11-12

Its been a while..

Introspective

I like to sit on the fence.

I'm not a risk-taker.

I self-indulge a little too much.

I like to start things, but often find finishing them a real pain.

I actually eat quite a lot of food - I wonder where it all goes to.

'The issues' bother me for a while.

As of yet, I haven't committed towards a definite career path yet.

Commitment is more of an issue with me than I'd like to admit.

A lot of my thinking is shaped by my peers/outside influence growing up - I am not the most original of persons.

Probably the only thing I still enjoy doing now as much as before: reading.

Given an unpleasant experience, I'd be the person who'd rather slog through it, head down, rather than spending time figuring out a way to circumvent it.

If I had time, I'd spend more time building friendships and maintaining those that I'd forged over the years.

My estimation and prediction of group dynamics is not as intuitive as I'd like to believe.

Music to me is more about the melody and harmony rather than the lyrics, which is the opposite of what I'd like it to be.


Making lists is something I like to do - lets see how this one turns out.

Disorgnized

I've got myself a diary, 2 in fact, and am still feeling that there are a lot of loose ends to tie up in my life.

Need to get started.

Happy CNY!

Meeting family in a matter of weeks! - save me biscuits!

To everyone who is of Chinese parentage, upbringing, or enjoys a good hot cup of chinese tea..

So Close

So if I hadn't been getting my National Insurance Number sorted on that day, I'd have been here.

And now with the hospital getting into the news for all sorts of reasons, and with staff being increasingly easily provoked due to the increased workload, coming into work daily is becoming more and more fun.

'We are an acute medical unit'

One of the most quoted phrases I've heard this week.

So I don't know enough yet eh?

I'll show them..

Christmas Dinner @18 Guelph Street!

Prepping after coming back from work.

Watching wedding photos..guess whose?

Fellow countrymen in a far off land..

Food - onion soup worked!

As well as roast pork!

Cheese board...we get more posh every year!

And christmas pud with brandy sauce - props to esther!

everyone gets a slice...notice the crackers!

Gift exchange...and our first proper tree in years!

Relaxing with a glass of mulled wine, basking in the aftermath of a satisfying night..

Happy Christmas!!

Hey all, wherever you are, all over the world, have a happy Christmas and a great run-up to the New Year!

Just went on Amazon.c0.uk, and if you have an account, they are offering GBP3 worth of MP3 downloads, only available on the 25th and the 26th of Dec, so have fun picking out your tunes!

Finally..

Just finished probably the most tiring set of nights so far since I started.

Something that's stayed with me this week, both as a reminder and as something to push me:

'You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.' Isa 26:3

steadfast (NIV)
stayed on thee (KJV)
set on you (Message)
(both its inclination and character) is stayed on you (Amplified Bible)
fixed on you (NLT)

perfect peace (NIV)
completely whole (Message)
guard him and keep in constant and perfect peace (Amplified Bible)


As I get stuck into working life my worry is just that, that I'll get stuck into it to the exclusion of everything else. Isa 26:3 for me, is a good reminder to get a life!

So, yesterday...

IN hospital every Friday, there's this massive meeting which EVERYONE in hospital gets tom come to, usually for the hot coffee/croissants to start with, then later adjourning to the lecture hall for a presentation on a research topic.

This Friday just gone however, the hall was packed. Standing room only. What groundbreaking medical event, what life-changing, revolutionary drug/treatment/procedure, indeed what mind-blowing gloopy wonder was being presented? You'd have thought the cure for AIDS, or the common cold was being revealed on stage.

In fact, the hall was super crowded because a doctor apparently was amusing himself watching Youtube, and thought it would be a good idea to show some nurses what he was watching. And as a result, the Royal Liverpool University Hospital invites:


Amateur Transplants


to perform an hour of Christmas comedy, right before the hospital descends into its usual Friday chaos.

I got there late, somehow forgetting this was happening, as as such had to squeeze myself into the 'standing room only' spot right at the back of the hall, from which I couldnt even see the stage, much less the performing duo.

For the uninitiated, Amateur Transplants are a couple of practising doctors (at least, i think they are practising!) Dr Adam Kay, and Dr Suman Biswas who do comedy routines, incorporating a lot of music via keyboards, which makes them rather special, if not entirely unique counting their profession.

They have plenty of Youtube videos, so feel free to check them out! Having heard some of them online before, i was still in laughing along with the rest at the Anaesthetist's Hymn, Finals Fantasy, Take A Look At Me Nan and tons of short bits marrying pop song parodies and medical tidbits that medics (and some non-medics!) would identify with!

At the end (by which time I'd gotten barely a 5 second peep at the stage), the crowd got up to disperse, and being right at the back, I was one of the first out. While looking around for a friend whom I was standing beside earlier, I realised that Adam and Suman had actually sneaked out ahead of everyone to cool off..Feeling suddenly tongue tied, all I could manage was a 'wow, well done!' to which they replied 'yup, that wasn't too bad was it?' before remembering I had a ward round to catch up with and rushing off.

It was only later I'd realised....

I should have grabbed a photo while I had the chance!


Still all in all, a good start to a Friday!

Wondering about a Christmas Party..

but I need to work work work...sigh.

To be a student for the christmas holidays!