Abbrevations

Some commonly used short forms in my current department:
(try guessing what it means before reading the explaination)

- HTN – hypertension
- D (with a circle around it) – discharge
- Rpt – repeat
- TR – tricuspid regurgitation
- d/w – discussed with
- IEM – inborn error of metabolism
- TRO – to rule out
- M with a circle around it – Mother
- F with a circle around it – Father
- S with a circle around it – specialist or surfactant (depending on situation)
- s/t – spoken to
- D 4 OL – Day 4 of life
- 1/7 – 1 day
- 1/52 – 1 week
- 1/12 – 1 month
- TF – total fluid
- FTSVD – full term, spontaneous vaginal delivery
- EMLSCS – emergency lower segment c-section
- ELLSCS – elective lower segment c-section
- DM – diabetes
- TCA – to come again – the patient has to come to the clinic/hospital for follow up treatment
- G & D – growth and development
- MPC – morning paeds clinic
- BF – breast feeding
- Prem- premature
- T/O – transfer out (usually from one ward to another)
- r/v – review
- S/B – seen by (usually MO or Specialist)
- BW – birth weight
- CW – current weight
- COH – circumference of head
- DOA – date of admission
- A/S – Apgar score
- K/C/O – known case of
- DRNM – dual rhythm, no murmur (means the heart sound is normal)
- NKDA – no known drug allergy
- a/w – associated with

There are many more, but right now I just can’t seem to think about them. Try guessing what this means – rpt cm in LC (answer below..and no, there are no medical terms)





Rpt cm in LC – repeat coming morning in local clicic, which means the test is to be repeated in any nearby clinics the next day. Bet you couldn’t guess it, huh?

04.01.09

Tagging

For the first 2 weeks for work, I was tagging. The tagging period is a period of time given for a HO to get used to whichever department that he/she is placed in. All departments of all hospitals have the tagging system. However, the duration varies. The average duration for tagging is 2 weeks. If you are competent enough, then the HOD or whoever is incharge can allow you to complete your tagging faster, or they can extend your tagging until they think you are capable of doing your job without supervision.

The worst part about tagging is the working hours. You have to work from 7.30am to 11pm everyday – 7 days a week. However, some departments (e.g. Paeds in Ipoh) is kind enough to give us about an hour lunch break and 2 hours dinner break, provided we complete whatever work we are supposed to do before leaving for our breaks. We are also give breaks from 12pm-6pm during weekends, so life wasn’t too bad. You are not allowed to do oncalls while tagging.

Once you are off-tag, your working hours is from 7.30am to 5pm on weekdays or 7.30am to 1pm on weekends and public holidays. However, being off-tag means you can be given oncalls.

What does being oncall mean? For a HO, it means staying and taking care of a particular ward all by yourself. If there is any problems, then you can contact the MO oncall who will be incharge of a few wards. Oncall hours are from 5pm to 7am (the next day) on weekdays and 1pm to 7am (the next day) on weekends and public holidays. The plus point of being on call? You get to go back at about 1pm the next day.

Life right now is not as bad as I imagined it to be. But then, as I told you in my previous post, Paeds is supposed to be the ‘chillest’ department of all. I just hope that I can cope up with the job when I am trasferred to the other departments. Even now, I feel like I don’t know many things. I KNOW that I don’t know many things. I know that I have lots to learn. I hope I can be a good doctor. I hope I don’t get extended. I hope I don’t make major mistakes and cause someone their lives. It’s almost 11pm now and I am sleepy. Got to wake up early tomorrow for work. Good night!

03.01.09

My Day At Work

Let me tell you the basics about my job.

I can’t quite believe it yet.
MY JOB!
I am actually working!

No more a student.
Earning my own money (although I haven’t actually got my first pay yet).
Living away from home.
Driving to and from work, myself.
Eating out.
Actually doing something that is supposed to make a difference in someone else’s life.
No more a student.

I find it weird – 2 months ago I was doing nothing, sitting at home; 1 month ago I was in induksi and BTN attending lectures and now I am going to work everyday and supposedly making money.

Anyway, I am currently working as a/an (not too sure) Houseman (HO) in the Pediatric Department of Ipoh Hospital. It is supposed to be the easiest and ‘chillest’ department of all, but even then, I cannot say that I am not having problems adapting to work. I will be working in Ipoh Hospital for 2 years in 6 different departments (Paeds, O & G – obstetrics and gynaecology, Medical, Surgery, A & E – accident and emergency, and Orthopedics). After I complete the two years (providing I don’t get extended), I will be a/an Medical Officer (MO), and maybe be transferred out to anywhere in Perak. I can, however, request to be transferred out of Perak, providing I have a good enough reason to give.

My relatives and friends keep telling me that Ipoh is a nice place to work and the hospital is a good hospital. For me, I don’t really care. No matter where I work, I know that I am going to be busy and not have that much time. The only difference is that now I have to send my clothes for laundry and I have to eat out (as opposed to having my Mum do the laundry and eating home cooked food). I sound cruel, don’t I? Actually, I am quite a nice person; deep down inside.

How am I adapting to my life here? Quite well, I think. I wake up at about 6-6.15 and get to work at about 7. I and my fellow HOs will start with our morning reviews and rounds. Then the MOs come and we (HOs) will do rounds with them. After that, the speacialist will come and do another round, and we follow them as well.

After the specialist rounds, usually we HOs will have discharges to do as well as other investigations and blood takings. By the time that is done, it will be time for the afternoon rounds. Sometimes there are also new admissions to take care off. Afternoon rounds only involve the acute (really sick) patients and new cases not seen by the MO yet.

By 5.00, HOs are allowed to leave, unless you are on call or you are tagging (will explain about tagging in another post). If you are on call, there will be another review to be done at about 7pm followed by MO rounds and specialist rounds, but also involving only acute patients and new cases. Once that it over with, you just do whatever blood takings that have not been done yet or handle new cases. If there are no new admissions, then you can sleep and wake up the next morning in time for morning reviews.

Work doesn’t sound that complicated, does it? There is a lot more to work than what I just told, but then I will explain that in subsequent posts. This post is already long enough as it is. As I told you in my previous post, most of my entries are going to revolve around my work, because that is the only thing going on in my life right now. That is what my whole day is about. I hope I don’t bore you too much though. That would defeat the whole purpose of writing an entry, right?

03.01.08

Retrospective Blog Entries

No, I still haven’t got my internet connection yet. Sad, isn’t it. I thought that one of the first things I should get after I start work is an internet connection and till now, almost one month after I started work, I still don’t have one. The reason – it is too expensive.

I do have a few choices – streamyx, Maxis broadband, Celcom broadband or the dial-up tmnet thing. All these choices are either too expensive or do not provide proper service at the place that I live. I am still exploring my choices, but then I decided that I have left my blog for too long and have come to a solution.

I am going to blog at my own time in my hostel, then pass it along to KR or Rajiv, whoever comes and visits me, and tell them to post it up on my blog. I will try to write as many as possible so that there will be more posts to be posted up, but then for now it is just a plan, so let’s see how it works out. However, this means that all my posts will be retrospective entries. Hopefully I will get my internet soon enough to be able to post entries up by myself and check my mail and check my facebook and friendster account and read the papers and study (although I doubt that much of my time online will be spent studying).

Anyway, for those who don’t know it yet, I am currently an official employee of the Ipoh Hospital. I think you can expect most of my posts from now onwards to be about work and the people I meet at work. I guess many of you have heard about patient-doctor confidentiality, but then I don’t really know what I am allowed to and not allowed to talk about. I will try my best to not talk too much about my patients or even if I do, I will not use their names – so I guess its ok, right?

I think this is enough for this post. Have fun online-ing!

03.01.09

Starting A New Life

Tomorrow I start a new life.

Tomorrow I'll be leaving for Ipoh.

I will be reporting for work on Tuesday.

I don't know what I feel.
A little excited.
A little nervous.
A little afraid.
A little sad.
A little happy.

I have no idea what to expect.

I don't know where I'll be staying - I'll be in the quarters, but have no idea which room or what it looks like.
I don't know who my roomate will be.
I don't know which department I'll be in.
I don't know what time my work starts and what time it ends.
I don't know where I'll eat or where to do my laundry.
I don't know when I'll be back next.
I don't know when I'll be able to go online.
I don't know whether or not I'll be having weekends.
I don't know a million other things, but then it's already 12.30am and I don't want to tax my brain so much.

It's like when I went to Russia for the first time.
It's a whole new way of life.

There are many things that I will have to do before I actually settle down. Rajiv will be doing most of the settling down for me (I think) 'cos I have to start work immediately.
There are so many petty things to buy, but then I think it will be better for me to actually see my room first before actually buying anything, so Rajiv will be doing my shopping.
I don't know whether I have mentioned it in previous blogs or not, but then I don't have a problem living without a TV, but I NEED THE INTERNET!! Rajiv will be getting me the Celcom broadband thingy, so I guess that will be OK. I've got lots of stories to blog about and not enough time to write them. Hopefully, I'll get the internet connection soon (and also have the 'mood' to write a post).

I also will have to get used to working life. 3 months of holidays have certainly spoilt me. I know that it is going to be hard - lots of work and not enough sleep, but I hope that I will get used to it soon.

I think I've started blabbing. I should stop for now.
This would probably be the last time I am going online in my house for quite some time.

From Seremban, With Love..:P (actually, I couldn't think on how to end this post..haha)

My First Shades

I bought my first pair of sunglasses about a week ago.

I have never been able to wear them before because I wore glasses.

Ever since I did my LASIK, I have been wanting to buy a pair of shades, but never got around to doing so mainly because I was jobless and moneyless.

However, on the 26th (or was it the 27th) of November, after our induction exam, we were taken to Padang Besar for a trip. There were many sunglasses there, and they were cheap(cos it was ciplak ones) and I thought, why not?

So, here's a picture of me with my new shades.



FF said that I shouldn't get the ones that look like spectacles and that I should get the bigger ones. Since they are cheap, I decided to get the big one, just for fun. They only had black and white frames - the black ones make my whole face look too dark, so I decided on the white one.

Once I get my pay, I most probably will get a new pair of sunglasses. Till then, this will be it!

Post BTN

Finally! After 5 days of no internet, I finally get to go online!

I can't really write a proper post this time.

I was supposed to register and report to Ipoh Hospital earlier today, but then, since I (and about 20+) other housemen just finished our BTN yesterday, we were given permission to report only on Tuesday. I only found out about it yesterday evening, so I stayed back in Ipoh (as was planned earlier) and just came back today.

There is a family gathering to attend this weekend, starting today, so I don't really have the chance to go online for a long time.

Gotta leave now for the function.
Will try my best to write a post soon.
Thank you everyone for dropping by to my blog.

p/s BTN was fun!! Hope will get to write about it.