I blogged T.O.D.A.Y @ 09:55

congrats!

My buddy in mocc finally got married on 29 Dec 2007, one year after his proposal which i believed i have written an entry on it b4. wedding plan is probably one of the most tortuous task to do but i guess overall it was successfully done. The 2-day event of church wedding and dinner-hosting x 2 was over yesterday.

probably one of the best wedding invites that i have received so far; not just the dinners, but the whole package - from the wedding favors, souvenirs (guess what - these are actually personalised; and even the seating arrangement is personalised with your name labelled on each seat!), decos, invitation cards, the venue etc - all nicely done, thanks to the beautiful bride, who is perhaps the one of most creative and thoughtful girl around. u are one lucky man buddy!

once again, congratulations to the couple, and may u live happily ever after. and make more babies!

0 comments

I blogged T.O.D.A.Y @ 10:34

one of the reasons why i missed army..

met up with my fellow cbrd friends yesterday cos my competent ex-research assistant hl was back from LA for his winter holiday. it has been 4 months since we last met! that's about the time he ORDed and i still have 2 months to go. took some photos with the christmas decos in plaza sing too.. awaiting veron to email to me so that i can upload to my facebook!

*
and btw, 27/12/07 was my first year anniversary for my honda jazz! although i am still very not competent at times..

0 comments

I blogged T.O.D.A.Y @ 19:36

so long..

met up with my fellow friends from hqmc today for a christmas lunch at central. it has been so long! hmm perhaps not too long.. about 2 months since a bunch of us (SO CBRD - yours truly, SO PACES and SO HC) orded. my memory has been failing me.. i am starting to forget some of the names of the regulars/dxo in hqmc - i must be getting old.

nice to know how's everybody doing. theo is flooding in a sea of female dominance; greg is enjoying his life as a SO in real life with no calls and no weekend work; cr is still stuck in level 6 fighting fire for the Rs; don is still stuck in level 5 but seems delightful in his newly-found romance haha.

i dun think hqmc changed much since i left. life is probably still as mundane as usual, though the atmosphere of the working environment is perhaps different already, with new faces and jobscope. and not too long later, another batch is going to ORD (that's like 3-4 months down the road..).

the journey of life seems faster than i have expected. and looking back now, hmmm i dun seem to have achieve much yet.. other than learning to set lines, adjusting the ventilators, etc. in fact, frankly speaking, i haven't been reading much too, although i have bought a couple of new books. life outside work sucks too. damn. i need a breakthrough.

I blogged T.O.D.A.Y @ 06:16

Phew

My very first virgin ICU call is finally over, and it was quite toxic! And from what i have heard, all the people who were on call that day had it bad.

Initially i thought that the call would be quiet cos from 5pm till 11pm, nothing significant happened. i managed to finish my night round in peace at around 11 plus, so i thought perhaps i should rest. but after entering the call room for 10 minutes, the nurse told me that one patient was tubed and on the way down... sighz.

I had 3 ICU admissions in total that night, 2 of which were quite sick and required inotrope support. one of them even had 3 inotropes but BP was still low.. and he collapsed on me in the middle of the night; and collapsed 2 more times in the day. likely from AMI. I had probably slept 1 plus hour in all.

It seems that everytime when the ICU MOs are on ICU call, the luck wasn't good. my two other friends who had calls before me - one had 3 HD admissions and the other had 2 HD and 1 ICU.

Was so tired when i reached home yesterday.. i actually slept from 5pm to 5.30am and skipped my dinner in the process!

0 comments

I blogged T.O.D.A.Y @ 20:17

adrenaline surge

pun not intended.

life is getting more exciting.. or should i say busier?
i continued to reach the ward at around 7.15 am, and i think i should come even earlier next time. ideally (that's what i think), i should have reviewed all the cases before the registrar and consultant made their rounds, cos the consultant's round can be fast and i will not have time to:
1) fill up my icu review sheet
2) correct the imr
3) AURORA the inx
4) wear mask + gown + gloves and remove mask + gown + gloves

and as u know, working in ICU can be quite unpredictable at times.

today, i have 3 new cases (of which one came at around 7.30am - when i am just reviewing my first patient...) and one collapse. that took up my whole morning and i only managed to have my lunch at 2 plus =(.

one case was a patient who became breathless and subsequently required intubation.
another was a patient with renal failure and collapse in general ward, probably had a heart attack.
the last one was a patient who was hypotensive on dopamine support and requires dialysis in ICU.
and the collapse case - was damn fast. transferred to MICU yesterday evening for sudden collapse in ward and subsequently turned worse. became pulseless and went into VF after cpr - first time i actually shock a patient, and i probably shocked him like 16 times before we terminate resus.

i have more stories to tell.. till next entry maybe.

0 comments

I blogged T.O.D.A.Y @ 20:15

1st day in ICU!

today marks the day when we change ward coverage for the month of December, and i have been rotated to cover the medical ICU! yup that's kind of scary... second month into a posting after losing touch with medicine for 2 years in army. yet again, i will have to do it some time since ICU posting is compulsory for us, be it later or earlier.

there are 3 MOs covering the ICU, and i am glad the rest are quite senior and have ICU experience. probably the most important priority now is to learn how to set all the lines and intubation, so that i can handle my first ICU call confidently, which will be on 14 Dec.

First day in ICU- well for once i woke up at 5.30am and manage to reach the ward at 7am. my earliest reporting time to work so far heh. The consultant will come at around 8 plus, so hopefully by the time he comes, we would have seen the patients. i am still trying my best to get myself familiarise with everything, including filling up the progress form, etc. today was quite a good start for me (and i hope to keep it that way - not too busy, yet i can learn from the job). we sent out 4 patients to the general ward, and that's a great achievement!

unfortunately this time round, we are one man short, so i foresee that we will have to work every day, including all sats, suns and the three public holidays in this month and 1st jan. how sad =(.

0 comments

I blogged T.O.D.A.Y @ 00:41

eNcHaNtEd

i was glad that my MO4 call was finally over. for those who did posting here before, u should know that level 5 and level 10 (which the HO4 and MO4 cover) always get the most number of admissions. the turnover rate was so high that all 4 wards in level 5 would be full the very next day. in other words, if u discharge 5 patients, 5 new patients will come in to fill the beds. so i was having my usual pre-call blues and was already sort of prepared not to sleep thru the night.

but guess what? i got 8 admissions in total. that is considered a good call for MO4! in fact, it was a good call for everybody at different levels, perhaps becos of the rain earlier.



my wind-off for the week was to catch a movie on friday night. We watched "Enchanted", where fairy tales turn alive. Quite hilarious! though the cockroach part was damn gross (my greatest fear!). the story combines a number of fairy tales into one, though a bit off-tangent. i will encourage all to watch this light-hearted show; it will certainly make the day heh.

0 comments