COAMS #37- so sick of being sick

it's been a week already,.. i suspect that i am resistant to the antibiotic prescribed... or perhaps there's just too much allergens... i suppose i am allergic to classes altogether... and i mean it quite literally... every morning, i have to attend ENT classes in this air-conditioned room with thick curtains infested with God knows how many zillions of dust mites and dirt... not to forget the tick carpets... the dark environment... my condition never recovers... having nasal congestion can be very torturing... BELIEVE me... especially when it start blocking your nose bilaterally, and you have to breathe through your mouth, your throut gets dry.. you get sore throut... URTI(upper respiratory tract infection) only worsen the condition... the the mucus start moving into your airway... the allergic reaction worsen.. the next thing you know, YOU CANNOT BREATHE!! terrible, terrible,terrible... cocaine spray and ventolin nebuliser only gives temporary relief... (just in case you were wondering, no, that does not make me a cocaine addict) Mr Megat adviced exercise to stimulate adrenalines,... is there any easier way? siGh.......... maybe when i get better...

i am so sick of being sick... the world keeps on spinning without sympathy... i feel terrible,.. physically and emotionally... and i start suspecting i might have Munchausen syndrome (falling sick to gain attention).. then again, this may not be the kind of attention one would like to seek... you have your coursemates subconsciously taking a 'FULL HISTORY' of you... impressive nodding their heads when you happen to be a VERY TYPICAL HYPERSENSITIVE TYPE 1... siGh...

sometimes, i just wished to escape... it's hard even to fish the 3 magic words [GET-WELL-SOON...]... really, instead, i have people around me 'taking history' and asking what medications i am taking... i suspect the 3 magic words doesn't exist in the chinese and malay dictionary... hmm... [semoga cepat sembuh]... sounds weird isn't it? xi wang ni hau yi dian? haha, yup, my chinese sucks...

oh well.. got to continue eating porridge.... why being sick have to eat porridge? i wonder whether who create the condept, whether it really works... all i know is i can't risk it cause i'm losing my voice, (correction: i lost my voice) and i am having shortcase (oral clinical) exams soon... i don't think my examiner will postpone the exam for me or excuse me for being sick... and hey, i don't know sign language, neither does he... siGh...


(Written on June 28, 2007 at 06:10 AM)

p/s: Later on, in Family Medicine Posting in 4th year(8th Sem), i learnt that:
1. URTI, in my case, is viral in origin,... so it's only normal that it last over a week
2. Viral URTI is self-limiting and does not requires antibiotic... it only needs adequate rest and symptomatic relief
3. i was abusing antibiotics
4. No wonder my body is more and more resistant to antibiotics!!

COAMS #36 - falling SICK... feeling SICK....

i hate falling sick, terrible running nose with post-nasal-drip, blocked nose with the ENT lecturer taking you as a good example of 'hyponasal' speech and hypertrophic inferior turbenates, and having temporary relief from the nebuliser and DAMN i wished i could just buy my own nebuliser and keep it in my room... the air is getting tense... i suspect the world's air concentration is depleting its source,.. either i am very sensitive or it's just me... and worst of all not having to take my medication because of the sedative effect when i have a case presentation tomorrow, tons of procrasinated homework and an exam coming up in one and a half week time....

learning points:

1. i hope people do not have to fall sick
2. if there is no sick people, there will be no need for doctors
3. if there is no need to for doctors, i will not be trapped here with assignments, case-write-ups and exams despite being sick
4. there's how much my life can suck sometimes...
5.because, noone is immune to disease
6. therefore, there will always be sick people
7. and therefore, i will always be trapped here with assignments, case-write-ups and exams despite being sick
8. and HELL, my life SUCKS

(Written on June 25, 2007 at 06:07 AM)

COAMS #35 - A World without light, colors, dimensions... Are we too blind to care for the blind?

( pic: the picture on the right is the mould while the picture on the left is the embossed tactile diagram of the inner structure of a car. This is found in the form 4 physic textbook)

What is a world without light? An empty world without colors? A world without dimensions?

Last week, I visited the MAB, Malaysia Association of the Blind at Jalan Tun Sambanthan.

It is amazing how much the visually disabled can do. Braille is not an easy language to be learnt. I tried closing my eyes and reading with my fingers, and hell, it was tough… The dotted characters seemed the same, more like tiny sands. Kar Yuen, the 6-year-old kid I met there, was able to tactilely read all the alphabets and numbers as fast as I read with my eyes. Braille is based on only 6 dots, yet it is possible to emboss characters A-Z, 0-9, in codes to be read by touch. Reading Braille is difficult let alone typing it. The Brailler (a Braille typewriter) has only 9 keys. Nevertheless, I had my name embossed in Braille ^_^ (just in case you were wondering, no, I did not typed it, too challenging for me, hehe..)

What impressed me most is that MAB transcribes text print to Braille. Text from novels, to Reader Digest and even school textbooks! An average Reader Digest book, after transcription, would be 3 books thick, each about the size of a box file! With that, the blind or low vision students are able to attend school, both primary and secondary school, together with other ordinary students. Yes, they would be able to sit for UPSR, PMR, SPM, etc… Diagrams (as above) are embossed so that they too can learn. Embossing diagrams is a very tedious task. Reading it is equally difficult. Yet, these special people have a great sense of touch and imaginations, putting together the puzzles into a picture. Really, really impressive.

And there was this guy playing Pachabel Canon in D. He had a diploma in piano. And to think that passing piano exams was a struggle even for people with good vision. Well, at least I struggled, and hell, I don’t even have a diploma! And there was this girl who passed her SPM with flying colors and was awarded ‘Anugerah pelajar istimewa cemerlang’ by the Melacca government. She aspires to be a teacher however her application to a teaching school has been rejected. The world today is too blind to see how much these less fortunate people need our support.

Lastly, I suppose we should count our blessings… (yeah, all of you who are lucky enough to be able to read this)… sometimes, we don’t realize how lucky we are, having one of the God’s greatest gifts. Ophthalmology is a very important branch of medicine, aiming to prevent visual loss and blindness. MAB on the other hand, helps people to cope with visual loss. Education and rehabilation is important...

Can we make a difference? Certainly! It can be as simple as helping a blind people to cross the street or to find a shop. Let him hold your arm and walk slightly in front of them, not behind. If you are helping a blind into a car, tell him which way it is facing, and place his hand on the car roof over the open door. If you are eating with a blind, take the courtesy to tell them what food is served. Debone the fish, if any and never fill up drinks up to the brim to avoid spillage. If you are working, you may pledge to donate a portion of your monthly salary or even provide employment to the blind. Don’t be surprised that the blind is capable to use the computer. They have ‘talking computers’ and manage with hotkeys. They use windows and other special software. Visit www.mab.org.my for more information.

(Written on June 09, 2007 at 09:05 AM)

COAMS #34 - Opthalmology

The fundus, it is perhaps, the most beautiful thing i've ever seen on earth. I think i am falling in love with it, almost.

I can’t believe I am actually enjoying my ophthalmology posting!!  Maybe it is because it’s not exam week yet, and basically the lecturers at this department are very very nice… The fundoscope, is a very amazing tool. You can tell so much just by looking at the fundus, it’s like looking into another world, peeking into one’s secret chamber. (ps: a fundoscope is a mobile hand tool used to view the eye structure, basically looking at the retina for signs of bleeding, leakage, occlusion etc) I have to admit had that the first few days was a struggled, where I could only see the vessels, a glimpse of the optic disc and nothing more… it was depressing at first… I strained my eyes so much that the patient commented that I looked as if I was more in pain that she was, haha! When I first saw the optic disc,i was so excited i was like 'yeay!'.., silly me.. Ophthalmology is fun, really, when you start appreciating more and more findings.. but I shall not elaborate on them here as i do not want to bore you off with terms… I think I am starting to like this posting, I hope I will… ^_^

(Written on June 01, 2007 at 10:35 AM)