Friday, April 27, 2007

Merajuk

Abg is angry with me.

So right now I'm left alone at home.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Colleagues busuk....

What the hell has happened to professionalism??? Sometimes when I read the slogan, "sikap penyayang, bekerja berpasukan and professionalisme..." - I seriously laugh, man.

The last time I took a long leave (long = more than one day) was in January. and how many months ago was that? Bila ada overlapping PH pun I'm either oncall or postcall. and then bila nak amik cuti in continuation with overlapping PH, fikirrrrr la seratus kali whether I really need the break or not because I know all hell breaks loose in an OPD after overlapping holidays (hence why I must be the only person in Malaysia who hates overlapping holidays but that's another blog entry).

I think some MOs in my hospital has been taking advantage of others. Take for example our OPD; at the moment there are three MOs there (average of 250-300 patients per day) tapi boleh kira dgn jari la how many days there are three of us. Most of the time one is away for a meeting, a course or assisting with visiting specialists. When you're in charge of the OPD (read: moi), takde tapi2, sharp 8.15am at least kena start tgk patients already. Most days, you finish at past 1 pm. Pukul 2 suku or lewat2 pun, half two you have to start again.

I don't like to call myself calculating, but when day in and day out you see your colleagues (who is supposed to be helping out) leave her parking space at half twelve -quarter to one and only drive leisurely back at half two, sape yang tak bengang? Tambah lagi this certain MO never shows her face to help with seeing patients. Nor is she at the casualty to assist the MO there. So, what are you doing haaaaa?????? Mengelamun? Berlenggang???

The story via the grapevine recently was that she went off for a course in Pahang early this month. Tetapi rerupanya, she didn't go for the course AND didn't turn up for work. What the hell? So it's no wonder that the other silently suffering MO retaliated by taking off for more than a week after she came back. Poodacit punya org.

The other colleague busuk of the year is another pain in the ass. I don't care if she reads this because I am sure as hell going to give her something worth listening to during the next MO meeting. She is only in charge of the Labour Room (which gets about 6-8 admissions per day nowadays) and the ante/postnatal ward. It goes without saying of course that she also is in charge of the Gynae/Antenatal Clinic. She took leave yesterday and came for work today and taking the rest of the week off? Okay la, kalau tak ganggu kerja aku, tak kisah la but why the hell are you taking a day off when you're supposed to assist the specialist? Siapa jugak yg kena ganti? Akuuuuu jugak. So, esok OPD only one MO left. What the hell?? MO yg luluskan cuti pun satu, and yg tolong sign as pengganti pun satu. Korang dah tahu perangai minah andalusia tu macam tu, jangan la sign borang cuti tu, fahammmm???

Eii, hangin aku.

Sure doesn't help the fact that I am on call tomorrow......sigh.....

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Why I worry for my race's future..

First of all, with this post, I am in no way declaring myself as a picture of perfection. Jauh panggang dari api. I'm doing OK and can always improve in many ways...

But, I worry when I go to the newstand or book stores and I see the Malays only reach for Harian Metro or Bacaria and Perdana. When it comes to magazines, I only see them buying Mangga or URTV or Media Hiburan. I worry when I accidentally eavesdrop on a group of Malay kids' conversation, all I hear is what a disaster it is that Siti has put on weight and dressing more provocatively some more.

They say they don't buy English mags or newspapers because they have a hard time understanding, yet if they don't read, I can't see them improving and it's all just a vicious cycle.

I worry when I watch TV and I see parents dragging school-going kids to shows that easily ends at 11 pm when kids need 8-10 hours of sleep to nurture their thinking capabilities. I worry when I see makciks jumping up and down with excitement in their seats when they see Aizat rolling his hips to the current Spanish hit.

I worry when parents start to see the idiot box (and there's a reason why the TV is called that) as a substitute baby sitter and prefer to plonk their kids to Barney or Cinderella or worst still, Kuliah Cinta rather than read a story to them.

I worry when kids get dragged to the cinemas by entertainment-hungry parents, and end up watching Ghost Rider or Pontianak Harum Sundal Malam. I remember being brought to the the cinemas but all we got to watch was harmless Disney animation.

I worry when I see young, innocent girls turn up at my hospital, pregnant yet unwed and in despair as the bf is a drug addict yet they can't leave the relationship because they oh-so-love-him-so-much!

I worry when Malay kids tend to take the easy way out and opt for easier degrees and then end up without a job later. I worry that our education system is churning out regurgitators rather than thinkers.

I'm a worry wort tonight, yes I am....

Fantabulous


I love living in Kelantan. Kelantan is where traffic jams are a near impossiblity (only happens during Raya period) and kuih is still 20sen a piece and you can still get a meal for seriyal (seringgit la tu...:)) but there are no cinemas here so I have to be content with a trip to Kuantan or watching them later.
Thanks to RedBeanBun, I went and got myself this! and what a bargain it was! DVD original for RM13.90 aje okay? Slacknya satu aje, on the cover and on the disc itself, it proudly states, FELEM Yasmin Ahmad. Tak caya, gi tengok....
I think, in order to appreciate Yasmin Ahmad's films, you must be a person who gets subtleties. Her films don't tell all. They leave some for the audience's imagination. You know lah, how people watch movies and then they grouch about how they didn't like the ending and the plot and what nots. Sometimes though, it does feel like watching a compilation of Petronas ads but she does make them fantastically so no one's complaining.
I love Ayu! Hahaha....I think she should get a spin off. Seriously.
If I have a kid, and if it's a girl, I want her to be like Orked.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Pisang goreng anyone?



Looks completely harmless kan? Yummy even. BTW, at D'Bayam Restaurant in KB, there's is this kiosk selling Pisgor. They're fried bananas with fillings - chocolate, strawberry, milk, cheese - agak menarik, kan?

Anyway, my internet connection went kaput on Friday. Luckily yours truly was on call on Friday. However, upon returning on Saturday morning, Abg said the connection's still poor (translate - non existant!) so I called up Tmnet, ye la takut akaun mati ke sebab tak bayar bill, kan? But the nice young chap on the other side said everything looks ok. Tension ok, takde internet.......I got chills and rigors from the withdrawal...haha.

Friday started slow. The morning after, I went to review the cases I admitted and there were only a handful. and I found myself feeling less tired than usual despite only trudging off to the on call room at nearly one and was waken by phonecalls every hour.

The gist of the call happened after half seven. I had left a few patients there awaiting blood results. When I got there, I proceeded to clerk them in. At the end of the casualty I noticed a group of a family. Apparently this girl of 28 had been eating pisang goreng earlier and said that a piece had gotten stuck in her throat. She was seriously OK when I first saw her. Her oxygen sats pun 97% and she was breathing fine.

Suddenly she started to become more agitated and restless. My MA gave me a warning look and pushed her to the resus room.

She was choking and panic was so evident in her eyes. I proceeded to sedate her and intubated her quite easily. Tak nampak pun pisang goreng....tapi after intubation I noticed that only the right side was rising. Tarik2 tube pun tak jadi. Buat xray, tgk left lung dah collapse. Tapi nasib baik her oxygen levels stayed in the 90s and remained that way all the way to KB.

We called up ICU just now to ask how she's doing. Alhamdulillah, she is now recovering, only requiring the minimum of ventilation. and the ENT team DID find a piece of pisang goreng in her left main bronchus (one of the passageway in the lungs).

Tapi of course, as always I am left wondering if I could have handled this better. If I had discussed this case earlier (when she was still breathing on her own), there is a possibility the ENT team would just laugh me off. Even if the ENT team did accept her case, there is the possibility of her choking on the way and what could she do then?

and then, in the middle of the pisang goreng bruhaha, an 82-year-old was brought in unconscious. A classical case of intercranial bleed. Initially wanted to refer her to USM but her condition deteriorated and later on passed away. Such was the grief of her son that he in turn collapsed in my casualty. Nasib baik takde apa. Phew.

At least dah lepas dah my PH on call. Now can enjoy the rest of my weekends. Yeay.

Sunday, April 08, 2007

The madness that was..

Jusco's card member's day.

Seriously.


View of the madness from the first floor.


More madness.


Smack in the middle of madness.

*Click on picture to experience the full effect of the madness.

Abg had a briefing in KL this recent weekend. Initially we wanted to get there on the Friday, and leave on Sunday. However, I had just submitted my leave application for Thursday and Big Boss had approved. Kalau nak ubah, kena 'ghoyak semula' - which is, something I am not particularly looking forward to. So, in the end, we decided to drive to KL on my day off and drive back right after the briefing.

The night before leaving, I came across the ad for Jusco's card member's day, which was only going to be held at two Jusco stores - Wangsa Maju and one other (can't remember). and I naively thought, ah, working day meh, takkan la ramai org....BOY was I mistaken. Ma tells me she avoids Jusco's card member's day like the plague. Regardless of how giler the discounts are, the hassle of all the people, the lack of parking and queues to pay are just not worth it.

We arrived at about half two and since Ma (who also left Kelantan the same morning) haven't arrived, we thought we'd go and see what bargains we could grab. Belum apa2, I dah hairan tgk all these cars parked all over the place. and I mean, ALL OVER. Even on the grass of the divider okay. Right from the Wangsa Maju LRT station to the traffic light. Abg had to U-turn twice before managing to find a spot on the divider. There were RELA officers taking care of traffic flow and already a bunch of makciks were happily pushing trolleys of stuff out of the parking entrance.

Security checked for Jusco cards (I bet they were too hassled to check if the cards were this year's) and turun je escalator, BOOM, the full throes of women in a sale frenzy hit me.

Serious giler ok.

I tak tgk pun barang. I was more enthralled with watching the bargain hunters.

Some had trolleyfulls of clothes and bags and shoes and pillows and bedsheets. One nyonya had a trolleyful of only MamyPoko diapers - many came out pushing luggages (which were seriously cheap). Many had kids sleeping amidst the stuff they just bought and one even laid down blankets in the shopping trolley for his baby to lie down on and WITH HIS OTHER HAND, pushing ANOTHER trolley for stuff.

Berapa ramai la workers took the day off that day. Even weekends pun tak segiler nie tau. A makcik in the elevator jokingly said she spent the whole year's savings on that one day sale.

Dah la prices were cut down, in addition to that, for every RM100 you buy from the same dept, you get to redeem RM10 vouchers. Mana tak giler?

But Jusco again proves to me why it's so popular among KL-Selangor people. Even with the hundreds of shoppers, you barely had to wait 5 mins to pay. In fact, there were so many cashiers waiting (for your money) that you barely had to wait at all.

Abg got a pair of really nice sandals, a couple of shorts - I got an early birthday gift for sis Yaya and Shokubutsu was only RM4.99! Talk about great bargains.

Yang kelakarnya, we left after getting the 'essentials' and had to go back to the car cause our arms were aching from lugging the stuff (Naturel cooking oil was cheap and Ma wanted us to get fruits and veges) we bought (trolley pun habis) - and after we got into the car, Abg said, 'Kalau kita U-turn and ada parking, nak masuk lagi sekali tak?' Hahaha, tgk2 bila dah U-turn, parking was opened so kitorg pun joined the madness for the second time. Giler ke tak giler tu?

As much as I hate KL for it's constant hecticness, there's nothing like it for retail therapy.