Its navarathiri time and out come the golu dolls! :) Didnt have to go to GH this saturday so enjoyed the luxury of sleeping in & helped out with the golu prep. Setting up the stair-cases is creative work indeed; trying to fit in all the boxes we had and then cover it up so it looks nice took us (dad, mum & me) nearly 2 hrs! Aim is to expand even more next year though; orders have already been placed to buy more dolls!

F1 has wowed the world btw, me included! Watched the first 2 days on TV, but cajoled family into driving by ECP on sunday to catch the live action. and boy, was it bright & exciting! each time the decibel levels soared, it strangely made us so excited! Even mum was craning her neck for that glimpse of colour streak by, and when we did see it, it was all ooh's & aah's! Was rather amused by the countless policemen standing by the road though waving cars through. picture perfect alright. Its definitely going to be bigger next year, only hope that tickets arent tt expensive!

Went out with the team for lunch today; really happenning it was - drove up to vivocity, modestos. Cant say enough about the niceness of my reg & MO - as my HO would say, it is simply team heaven :D A sudden cancellation of an op gave us that rare 'free time'. Already looking forward to working here as a HO in a year's time.

But the dark side as always: the patient who 'had just wanted to go home' , took her last breath last week, in a High dependency unit. But she was surrounded by family members though; thanks to the palliative team who recognised her as 'actively dying' (first time I ve heard that phrase). It was horribly painful though for me - didnt particularly feel frankly emotional, but just this gnawing feeling that I reckon I was trying to ignore in an attempt to focus on other work. It was sad. Hopefully these emotions dont get blunted as I go on with my career as seems to be the case among many superiors.

Yay, weekend's here! :) It was an enjoyable saturday at hosp today, thanks to slower rounds (fewer people forming the party), fast changes (most of the post-take patients taken care of) and a relaxed longer-than-usual post-round breakfast. Got to know my MO somewhat better, even recommended the 42 km cycling trip to him for his sunday pursuit :p

Realised rather suddenly today that many of my patients are terminally ill, advanced cancer patients. Thing is, I wonder if, because u deal with it so much day in & day out, one forgets about it; the implications etc & only focuses on the present problem at hand. Not that this is bad, for u dont want to greet a patient thinking only of his cancer (I am sure that will hv its subtle effect on the greeting). But many a time, being aware of this will help u understand a patient's decisions better & respect them. Help restrain your urge for aggressive treatment perhaps. By the way, it isnt as if all these patients sit in bed with a label on their head brooding or looking morose; rather they are all seemingly normal even cheerful. And I admire them for this. Saw a stack of photo albums by the bedside of such a grandma today. It strangely pained me to see her, surrounded by her daughters and her photos, lying in the hospital bed. Various tests, medications, as docs strive to get her better. But all she wanted was to go home. Spend her last days in a comforting environment.

I am waking up really early these days. And by early I mean at 5.30 to trudge along the endless walkway up sgh by 6am. Why do rounds have to start at 7am?? Sigh. But dont get me wrong, apart from the early start I am not complaining abt surg sip. Thankfully our team does its exit round early so I dont have it half as bad as many others. And day work wise, it isnt as bad a cgh med really. Can afford to have on time lunches except when team's on take which was yesterday for mine.

The entire day was a mad rush, running up & down to A&E and then back to the wards. Managed lunch at 4 pm thanks to the insistence of our fabulous MO & reg. Call itself wasnt too bad, managed abt an hour of sleep (which is supposed to be gd by sgh stds). Had a really unfortunate patient with hemorrhagic pancreatitis; had to run a whole gamut of tests on him at 3 am. The poor man was so scared & freaked out when a CVP line had to be inserted - this required his face to be covered & this made him feel claustrophobic. Was holding his hands through the 3o mins or so to stop him from pulling off the cloth. At the end, he was sweating so profusely & just wanting air. Hope he makes it through this.

Woke up post call today, and guess what, thoughts only went to how my patients were doing. Reckon this is what is meant by being involved (or is it too involved?) in patient care. Makes me wait eagerly to start working proper.

Chocolate heaven. yummmm

An absolutely heavenly evening spent with friends, fun and chocolate! :) Happy birthday arch & charan! Thanks to Neela, we all adjourned to this chocolate cafe in robertson quay; their cakes were simply delicious (albeit expensive so 7 of us shared 4 cakes). Then had some camera fun taking random shots of various permutations & combinations including plam trees and waterfalls! All in all a good weekend. And love the bags we found for the bday girls! far east has an amazing range of finds, not necessarily expensive and often very pretty stuff.

Hardly feeling like a final year student btw. Someone told me that its so rare to see a cheerful med student, let alone a final year one. really?? what with the fun we had in psych and derm postings I reckon we all dont feel like 'final years' either!

Was really inspired by the SARS entries in spacefan's (a local doc) blog. Its all a whole new perspective now, being in the field of medicine & being able to relate to what's being said. Back then in 2003, I was following the news as a public & frankly cant remember much now, apart from parents' shy-high anxiety & curfew to stay grounded! So it was that I spent a whole hour reading all the posts, right before derm test. Amazing stuff, yet another experience that has stroked the 'fire of passion' if u like in me.

And speaking of derm test, the process leading up to it was fun, much more so than the test itself! Spent most of friday mugging away in a nice basement bench w the others. Only regretted not bringing some tidbits along! Got lichen planus for the test; totally unexpected but was a pretty classic case so was great for learning (although it didnt feel too great trying to come up with differentials in front of 2 examiners!).

Surg SIP is up next!