I blogged T.O.D.A.Y @ 17:57

the day when i felt sad when patients were discharged

the way we handle patients, or more specifically, patient number is slightly different from when we are in an acute hospital setting. in the latter, the number fluctuates and there are good days and bad days. Good days mean there are a lot of discharges and no patients are admitted to the ward under your care. Bad days mean there are no discharges, yet got new admissions, and yet got a lot of happenings to your current patients.

why we prefer low patient number - because lesser patients, generally, mean less changes, mean more time for us to have self-improvement, be it mentally, spiritually or physically.

However, in my current working environment, the patient number usually remains quite stagnant. Whenever u discharge patients, new patients will come in. in fact, we anticipate how many patients we will have because they are all planned admissions. We do have a lot of patients, but let's put it that it is a comfortable number of patients per team if there are two MOs per team.

Another difference is that patients stays for quite a while. I am currently in the stroke team, and most of my patients stay on an average of 1 month to undergo rehabilitation.

I have never really witnessed, or follow through how rehabilitation really works until now. yup, they do improve, and some of them to a significant extent. it is really heartwarming to see how their motor power increases as the days go by; from not able to move at all, to be able to walk with aids.

and yup, time really flies and i am in the current team for almost a month already, which is about time when the patients whom i first encountered are going to be discharged. somehow, it feels strange to see an empty bed when it is usually occupied by someone u know.

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I blogged T.O.D.A.Y @ 23:55

the crystal skull

i dun remember much of the previous episodes of indiana jones (probably too young for me to remember), but anyway, the storyline between all episodes is not in continuity, so it does not matter.

managed to catch indiana jones 4 on the first day itself, thanks to nhg which provided us with free tickets. and luckily enuff, i applied quite early and my seats were great.

the story was similar and i thought the movie was not too bad esp the later parts, though some of my peers thought otherwise. HF aged quite a lot and most of his parts were probably played by stuntmen instead. it was later when i realised that the younger male cast played in transformers too. steven spielberg's new pet.

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I blogged T.O.D.A.Y @ 17:31

reminder!

i didn't know that we have to notify MINDEF whenever we travel overseas, until i receive this notification. i thought now we dun have to tell them so long as we travel less than 6 months. apparently not.

1) u have to inform them using any of the methods listed in point 3 in the letter, if u travel overseas for more than 24 hours.

2) u have to APPLY for AN EXIT PERMIT if u travel overseas for more than 6 months.

So troublesome. They should just have some form of mechanism, where MINDEF will be automatically notified once we scanned our passport at the airport. alternatively, we should outsource this to the immigration department or SIA such that they will notify for us once we purchase our air tickets.

i think it applies to NSmen (ORD personnel), not NSF.

i can't afford to forget now, else i will be fined 2000 bucks and charged in court!

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

happy mother's day!

to all mothers!

we had our mother's day dinner at peach garden restaurant at novena gardens eventually after i have shortlisted a few.

i have initially wanted to bring my family out to try something more exotic like brazilian food etc, so i surf the yum.sg site for a while and after much consideration, i think my mother would still prefer something that is more traditional and conservative, which leaves me only chinese food - and choice between teochew, cantonese, hokkien, seafood restaurant.

why peach garden? well, because firstly i know where the place is and secondly i have tried the food before. it wasn't too bad i remembered when i had a taste at the thomson plaza branch. we had the set dinner (6 course) and at the end of the day, it was quite satisfying (minus the noise from other tables). the one at thomson plaza is more classy.

and that costs me a bomb!

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I blogged T.O.D.A.Y @ 19:11

omg

eeeek!!!
i need to meet up my friends to "discuss" about my new working environment and my comrades!!!

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I blogged T.O.D.A.Y @ 22:43

another new beginning

first day into my new posting at AMKCH.
first impression - the place is quiet and peaceful and indeed, good for rehabilitation. i remembered i came here once as part of my ?ortho posting when i was still a student.
distance wise from my home, i think it is comparable to ttsh main building, or perhaps shorter. at least there is no ERP - so that is 50 cents cheaper a day heh.

people wise, i can't comment yet cos today is just the first day. but i roughly know who can be good and helpful colleagues..

work wise, i dun really like it for now. a bit haphazard and patients are all over the place (either in PT session or main ward). which means that the ward round will only be partially completed, and that means me very frustrated. i guess i need some time to get used to it. also, i heard the admin part is rather complicated and tedious.

food wise (which is probably the most important to me), sigh. not much choice within the compound. in fact, it is quite sucky. i need to lunch outside tomorrow. i heard there are a few cases of GE...

IT wise, as usual, in the beginning part of the posting, u spend your time getting your password fixed, getting your account fixed, calling ITDHELP desk at least 2 times. and here, they are using lotus notes - which i dun even have the password! anyway, being the OCD dude, i need to make sure that all these are settled by today.

investigations wise, sigh, unfortunately, the phlebo went on holiday forever, so we have to take blood ourselves. and we can only do the basic blood tests and simple x-rays and u/s. the rest we have to send to TTSH. and the basic tests we do, the results won't reflect in cpss and we have to wait for the ah-ma to hand-deliver the hard copies to us. which is why i called it suburbanised institution in my facebook.

night call wise, i am doing now.

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I blogged T.O.D.A.Y @ 18:53

backlog..

time for an update since haven't been blogging for.. well 11 days.
and since i am doing call now (at CDC2), i thought i might as well do some blogging, facebooking, surfing...

posting at TTSH GM is coming to an end, and looking back, i must admit that i have learnt quite a lot of things. after a hiatus of 2 years; from a freshly out CPT(NS) into the real world with real patients and real action - that's quite a steep learning curve. in fact, i dun even remember all the doses of antibiotics when i first entered the wards! all i know was - piriton one tab tds, amoxicillin 2 tabs tds... i still remembered the first day when i was posted to ward 5c, i was like a caveman! i dunno aurora, i forgot cpss. anyway, that was the past. i shall write a summary of my 6 mth stint here, so that when i look back next time, i will know who to like and who to hate haha.

end oct to nov-
5c, 9b, 5c, 5d
i spent 3 days in 5c, 2 weeks in 9b renal, 1 week in 5c and 1 week in 5d. not too ideal, cos i am like floating around. i remembered i hated the ward planner then though i eventually relented. i love my 2 weeks in 9b, cos i learn and the team is nice. busy but fruitful.

dec-
6b icu
the most fruitful part of the posting cos i learn all the procedures that i need to noe. i like the controlled environment cos i dun have to hunt for my IMR. the staff are nice too! and i am glad that the workload wasn't too overwhelming. the sad part - i dun think i have any weekend off. not to mention that all major public holidays fall during this period.

jan-
8a and 12c
the most chill team haha! the consultant is nice, my HO is competent (i have to say that cos she is reading my blog ;p). the cases are interesting. the sister is good. the ward round is long but i dun wanna complain. the times where i managed to explore all the eating hangouts around ttsh! i so missed the times...

feb-
5a
the worst month. enuff said. i hate it. busy like hell and yet no one appreciates it. i hate the consultant. i think i will still detest him 10 years down the road. gross.

march-
5c
quite a busy ward. but i enjoyed the times here too, other than the times when we were slightly terrorised the last 2 weeks... the nurses are fabulous and fun!

april-
10ab, 9d, 8d
i got my competent HO back with me - which means i can slack off haha.. no lah. this month is good, cos i managed to get my one week leave, but i spent the other 2 weeks having urti and coughing like crazy. yup i am still coughing right now. workload wise, getting heavier, especially when el was deployed elsewhere and we have to cover 8d as well. sigh. i hope they admit more NL cases into ward 9d. but then again, i am leaving this place. sunday will be my last day. and we have finished our final ward round today with our elderly, most-respected, partially deaf/visual impaired emeritus consultant. actually i find him quite grandfatherly =) despite el hating him to the core. i think my 5a con is far worse than grandpa.

so to sum it all, i would have really enjoyed my times here in ttsh, if not for the fact of the dreadful feb. and thanks for the friendship and help throughout these 6 months =)

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