Problem Solver

I am pretty sure that sometime in your life, you would have heard/read this story, or a story similar to this.

A farmer and his son wanted to sell their donkey in the market.
So, they walked to the market, pulling the donkey along with them.

They passed by a field and met another farmer who called out to them, "What's wrong with the both of you? Why are you walking when you have a donkey that you can ride on?"

The farmer looked at his son and told him to ride on the donkey.
The son obliged.

A while later, they met a lady who was on the way back from the market herself.
"Shame on you, young man," she said. "How can you let your father walk all the way to the market while you are riding on the donkey? Get down this instance and let your father ride the donkey".

The son, red-faced, got down from the donkey and told his father to ride it instead.

Not too long later, they met a couple of farmers who were working on their fields.
"Look at that," one of the farmers said to the other. "The father is having a good time riding the donkey, while his son has to suffer the heat and walk."

The farmer and his son were dumbfounded.
Finally, they decided that they would both ride on the donkey.

The donkey, struggled to walk as the combined weight of the farmer and his son was just too much for him to bear. As it was trying it's best to put one step after another, another farmer walked pass.

"What are the both of you doing? Are you crazy? Can't you see that you are too heavy for the donkey? It is the both of you who should be carrying the donkey to the market, not the other way round."

The farmer and his son then got down of the donkey. After a while, they decided that the donkey is too tired to walk to the market and decided to carry the donkey themselves. They tied the donkey to a stick, upside down, and carried the stick over their shoulders.

The donkey, who had had about enough that day, did not like being upside down. It kicked, and brayed and struggled and managed to get itself free. It then ran away, as fast as it could.

The moral of the story : There is no way you can please everyone.

But then, the story does not really teach us to solve the problem, does it?
It gives so many variants of solutions, but none seems right.
In the end, the donkey escapes.

Problems, however, don't just disappear.
If you don't solve them, they just multiply.

So, what can you do?
Is it actually possible to solve a problem in a way that would make everyone satisfied/happy?

3 Not-So-Simple Tests

A Short Neurological Test


1- Find the C below.. Please do not use any cursor help.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

2- If you already found the C, now find the 6 below.

99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
69999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999

3 - Now find the N below. It's a little more difficult.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMNMM
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Supposedly, if you were able to do all 3 tasks, you are not on the verge of getting Alzheimer's. I don't know if it is true or not, but hey...wasn't it fun looking for the hidden word?

Of Statistics And Life

Let's start with 10000 pregnant woman.

10-25% of them will end up with a miscarriage (we'll take an average of 15%).
Which leaves 8500 viable pregnancies.
There is an average of 8 deaths per 1000 life births.
We now have 8432 babies who survived their 1st week of life.

1:800-1:1000 of these pregnant women will deliver to a baby with Down's syndome.
That leaves about 8424 babies.

About 1:2500 babies will be born with Turner's syndrome.
We are left with 8420.

1:700 will be born with cleft palate.
8408 left.

1:120 will be born with a heart disease.
There's 8338 healthy babies so far.

Spina bifida 1-2:1000.
8324.

1-2 out of 1000 are born autistic.
8312.

There is a long list of other congenital disorders - more than a hundred.
We'll give an average of 1:1000 of each of these disorders.
8212 healthy babies.

8212 healthy babies from 10000 pregnancies.
82 out of 100.
8 out of 10.
4 out of 5.

A father, a mother and their 3 children.
That is 5 people.
1 out of 5 babies are not born, or are born with some anomaly.

Aren't we lucky to not be that 1?

p/s - All the information here are those that I got off the net. I have no idea how trust-able it is.

What The Future Holdsr

I have to say - I am rather shocked.
Only 5 posts so far this month.
I didn't even realize how fast time flew by this month.

Maybe there was just too many things going on.
Or maybe it's because of the labor room - a place where time just doesn't seem to matter.

One thing I like about the labor room - they (the ladies) come, they deliver, they leave.
We don't have to see the same patients over and over again for a few days and wait for them to get better slowly.
In fact, most of them who come to us are not even sick, they are just delivering, which is a normal process of life!

I have decided that this is what I like - seeing patients for a short while, as in handling a particular patient for a particular moment and then moving on to the next patient.

I don't want to have to wait for a patient to get better over a long period of time.
I want to see, treat and tell the patient that they are well and they can now leave.

So, what field should I get into?

Medical is basically a chronic field- some even say people come there to die.

Kids are just too complicated.

Surgery - not interested.

Ortho is basically surgery - not interested.

O&G - kind of nice, but don't like the surgical part of it, so, once again - not interested.

A&E - never been there, have no idea what it is like. But then, yes, acute management. Either patients come there and die or they get stable enough to be transferred to other wards. But, is there a future in A&E? Why do people say that those who are in A&E are those who can't get into other departments?

Ophthal - can't even do a fundoscopy properly.

ENT - once again - surgery.

Derma - boring?

Anaest - seems interesting. But seems like it needs lots of knowledge - will I be able to know all? What if I can't get a line for a patient? Whom do I turn to?

Did I miss out any departments? I don't think so.

Hmm...I just don't know what I want.

Am I supposed to decide now? Some say that the faster you decide, then the faster you can start to study to become a specialist and so you won't have to be an MO for long (being an MO is NOT EASY!).

Maybe being a chronic MO (being an MO forever) is not too bad (as long as not in a GH).
Maybe be an MO in a KK or district hospital.

Do I even get a choice or will I just be posted out?
I wonder.

Why is life so hard?
So many decisions, so many uncertainties..

Sleep, Sleep

It's been 1 week since my last blog post.
I've been rather busy, actually - this time, for real.

I have had 2 calls this week.

I have had to go Deepavali shopping.

I went and bought a bus ticket for myself and ended up getting Rajiv to come pick me up in Ipoh.

I went and bought the famous Ipoh kacangs - ended up buying so much - which is why I decided not to take the bus.

I had to study for my assessment which was on Friday morning.
Thank God I passed!!
Thanks to YG, actually, who told me to study about ovarian cyst - if not I would have been dead!

Deepavali eve - Friday, I was postcall and had pm off.
We left Ipoh after lunch and reached Seremban at about 5.30pm.
Then, we went for a Deepavali eve party in Cheras.

After makan, I felt really sleepy and ended up sleeping upstairs, where all the kids were running around and screaming and playing.
My Aunty found it weird that I could actually sleep, but truth be told, I did not hear a single sound.
Even when KR called me up at 12am to wish me Happy Deepavali, I picked up the phone and spoke and don't remember a single thing about it.

Anyway, we left Cheras at about 1-2am and reached home about an hour later.

The next day, Mum cooked at home and I helped.
My Aunties and Uncles and cousins (2 families) came over for lunch.
After lunch, it was sleep time for almost everyone, except for some of us ladies who ended up chatting (read : gossiping).

Here are some shots of the sleeping arrangements - my Dad and his 2 brothers were sleeping upstairs in 3 different rooms.

Cute- right..Notice the feet sticking out from the back of the sofa and the other 'body' sleeping like a guard in front of the door

I think everyone just fell asleep at the spot where they were sitting

That night, there was a Deepavali party in another cousin brother's house in PJ, which we went to. We were back by about 1am today and then I slept, and slept till 10 this morning..a really good sleep!

See, I had perfectly good reason why I didn't blog for such a long time.

By the way, Happy Deepavali everyone!

Me And Cholesterol

Many of us don't really go around doing routine check ups.
We only go to the doctor when we are unwell and that too, usually after not getting better even after taking Panadol or whatever medicine that we have at home.

However, recently, I took some blood tests for myself.

From the blood tests, I found that:
1. I am not anemic.
2. I don't have diabetes.
3. I have high cholesterol level.

Actually, I kind of expected the high cholesterol level.
You should just see the kind of food I eat everyday.
Chicken and chicken and more chicken.

I love fried stuff, so there is no way I can have a normal cholesterol level, unless I actually starve myself or eat food that I don't like.

For me, eating should be enjoyed.
Which is why, if I don't like a certain food, I don't eat it at all!
Call me choosy, call me picky - whatever. I eat food that I like and that's that! You can't force me to eat something I don't want to.
Opps - I am rather deviating from the topic.

So, I have high cholesterol level.
My roommate, before realizing that the results was mine wanted to start me on Lovastatin.
I guess I have to do something to lower my cholesterol level.

Stop eating my favourite food?
:(

Exercise?
That is spending what little time that I have on something other than the internet and my story book.

I don't know.
Maybe I should just not care.
Hmm...

Or maybe I should eat more of the stuff suggested here.

I think I prefer the last idea.
:)

A Friend In Need..

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package.

'What food might this contain?'
The mouse wondered -he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.

Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning.

'There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!'

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, 'Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it.'

The mouse turned to the pig and told him, 'There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!'

The pig sympathized, but said, 'I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers.'

The mouse turned to the cow and said, 'There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!'

The cow said, 'Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my nose.'

So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap-- alone.

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house --like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey.

The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught.
In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught.

The snake bit the farmer's wife.

The farmer rushed her to the hospital and she returned home with a fever. Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient.

But his wife's sickness continued,so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock.

To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.

The farmer's wife did not get well; she died.
So many people came for her funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.

The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.

So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn't concern you, remember -- when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk.

We are all involved in this journey called life.
We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage one another.

THIS IS TO LET YOU ALL KNOW HOW IMPORTANT YOU ALL ARE.
REMEMBER: EACH OF US IS A VITAL THREAD IN ANOTHER PERSON'S TAPESTRY; OUR LIVES ARE WOVEN TOGETHER FOR A REASON.

One of the best things to hold onto in this world is a friend.

A Collapsed Building

One earthquake.
More than a thousand people dead.
About 3000 people missing.
Thousands of people lost their loved ones.
Thousands don't have a place to stay.

And it all happened in Indonesia - our neighbour.
So near, yet, thankfully, far enough for us not to feel the effect of the disaster.

If you are one of the ones who follow the news closely (or if you live in Ipoh), I am sure you would have heard of the building collapsing a few days ago in Ipoh.
It is literally next to the hospital, just walking distance away, but I only heard about it the next day.
And today, I passed by the place (on the way to buy food) and saw the building for myself.

For some reason, I felt sad, especially thinking about the 2 people who died in the collapse.
It was like a shot out of a movie, the building crumpled down like that.
Really a sad scene to see.

I can only imagine what it looks like in Indonesia right now.
If one collapsed building looks so sad, imagine a whole town of collapsed building, no electricity, no clean water, no food, no shelter and dead/injured people everywhere.
All we do is read about the news, feel sorry for the people who are there.

But imagine if you are there.
Imagine being one of those who lost everything in the quake.
I tried, but I can't. Or maybe I just don't want to.
Why would I want to make myself feel sad, right?

It is really quite devastating, the fact that so many people died.
I often wonder..what do people think the few minutes or seconds before they die.
In this case, who knows how many people were trapped for how long before they died.
What was running through their mind?
Did they know they were going to die?

Those people who died - who knows what plans they had.
It is actually worse for the people who survived - to have to live through the loss of a loved one, loss of all their belongings, having to start life all over again.

And to think, this all happened just about a thousand kilometres (maybe more, maybe less) away from us.

Shut Out From The World

Finally.
After almost 2 months, now I am at the O&G headquaters - the labor room.

But life in the labor room is isolated.
You are practically there the whole day long.
You don't go out for lunch.
You don't go out to get a drink.
You just sit/walk in there as the day passes by.

It is quite a happening place.
You never know when an emergency will surface.
Sometimes, when you have to be fast, you have to be fast.
Patients get pushed in for caesarean in 5 minutes.
By then, you have to prepare everything - consent, booking slip, make sure bloods taken, make sure blood is available at the blood bank, set line, inform anaest, inform paeds.
You just have to, somehow.

Since life is just labor room and nothing else, I can't think of anything to say.

But I've been getting some rather interesting e mails recently, 2 of which I would like to share..

_________________________________________________________________

The Bathtub Test

During a visit to the mental hospital, I asked the Director 'How do you determine whether or not a patient should be admitted to the hospital.'

'Well,' said the Director, 'We fill up a bathtub, and then we give a teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the patient and ask him to empty the bathtub.'

'Oh, I understand,' I said. 'A normal person would use the bucket because it's bigger than the spoon or the teacup.'
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'No.' Said the Director, 'A normal person would pull the drain plug.

Well... Would you prefer a bed near the window?'

______________________________________________________________

Dan was a single guy living at home with his father and working in the family business.
When he found out he was going to inherit a fortune when his sickly father died, he decided he needed a wife with whom to share his fortune.

One evening at an investment meeting he spotted the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

Her natural beauty took his breath away. "I may look like just an ordinary man," he said to her, but in just a few years, my father will die, and I'll inherit $200 million."

Impressed, the woman obtained his business card and three days later, she became his stepmother.

Women are so much better at financial planning than men!