whew. first day of clinicals was, what they like to call, "whirlwind". it was rather peaceful at first, when we were greeted by a nice surg registrar, who went through the necessary housekeeping stuff then briefly talked about taking a history. the head of surg spoke to us for a while, then an ot nurse came to tell us how to scrub in for ot. was totally exhausted by the time we got to the end of the video. man, the way we gotta scrub our hands and hold the gown this way and that, then turn clockwise so that we don't dirty our "sterile" hands sounds like instructions on how to build a car.

my cg was assigned to the clinics today, so stood in a corner of a room, where we were grilled by the reg who thought we were third years doing clinics. realised i've forgotton most of my anatomy when he asked about the anatomy of the gallbladder. oops. but he was quite a good teacher, explaining to us certain details on reading an ultrasound. we had lunch, then wandered into the gs wards and convinced two very nice seniors to let us tag along. after that we were given an infectious disease talk.

it was during the pm session of clinics that we got to see some really interesting cases. one was this elderly lady who had a lump in her left breast for the past one year, but never told anyone. only recently did her daughter notice it and bring her to a doctor. the diagnosis was advanced breast ca, and later we watched as the reg did a biopsy of the lump. pretty sad, because her daughters who brought her in today didn't want her to know the diagnosis, and were fighting back tears so she wouldn't suspect anything. we also saw a case of fibroadenoma in a young woman, and other older women with cysts and breast ca. one of the few gs cases we saw was this old man from a nursing home who had a huge inguinal hernia. it was really quite impressive, and using our stethoscopes for the first time, we heard bowel sounds in a man's scrotum. our reg even attempted to reduce it, but it was too huge.

well, i must say it's been a fairly memorable first day, what with getting lost as a whole group trying to locate the conference room and all. am looking forward to more. heh.

what a day. participated in a major hospital's mass casualty exercise this afternoon to simulate a bomb and sarin gas attack at a major subway station. we "volunteers" were told to pick a card and the one i got labeled me as a p1 patient with a fractured right femur with head injury, bp 80/60 (can't really be sure about this) pr 120/min rr 6/min gsc 13. i was sped to the hospital in an ambulance (first time in one), and there i waited for a while before the hazmat team took over. was pushed to the decon area then wheeled along the corridor and into the resus (correct?) room. a team of doctors and nurses stood over me. they read my card, hooked me up to the machines, "intubated" me, and decided if i should get a head/cervical CT. i'm not very sure what happened in the intervening period, but my next stop was the ICU, where i was again hooked up to the machines and left alone for two hours. fell asleep for awhile, and the chatty ICU nurses kindly turned down the lights. eventually got a call from missy-c who exclaimed that everyone was back at the reporting area and was i still a patient?! indeed i was, and i've got this feeling my gsc should have been about 5 by then. haha. so i peeled off the electrodes and tags and discharged myself.

so there. my first, and hopefully only, time that i'll get to stare at the ceilings of the er and ICU. other peeps got interesting stuff, like ms lion who actually screamed and behaved like the five-year-old boy she was supposed to be. me, i was asked my name several times, then some nurse would remind everyone i was supposed to be intubated. hilarious. but i've realised that it's awfully lonely to be lying in a hospital bed and unable to move, and that it's a terrible feeling to be lying in that stretcher, being pushed for miles down a corridor and be in pain and have the emergency staff yelling instructions at one another. you're stuck, strapped down onto the gurney by a tangle of wires, and helpless in the chaos.

what a fitting end to my pre-clinical education ain't it? clinics begin next week, and innocence shall fly out the window. heh.

i'm beginning to think that finding shoes is such a chore. i saw three pairs yesterday that fitted the description of my Desired Pair, and guess what, my stupid big toe always becomes squashed. ugh.

was watching tv recently and saw the promos for the bourne identity. listen to the voice over and you'll know what "confused identity" means. the announcer goes," he has a pehst he kahn't remember." oh well. is that a union jack? or is that a star-spangled banner? it's a star-spangled jack. hmmm.

the most extraordinary timetable is out. for the six weeks of basic clinicals, i've been posted to one of the three central hospitals on the island. yay. what boggles me is the alternating surgery and medicine days. it goes something like tuesday and thursday are for surgery, and wednesday and friday are for medicine. huh? so one day i'll be learning surgery stuff, and the next day i've to switch to med? very odd. and we've got jam-packed lecture days every monday, from eight to four, to teach us how to read ecgs, examine a scrotum and communicate with patients.

this has nothing to do with medicine, but take a closer look at the ad featuring a local female celeb on a weight loss program in life! today. notice anything out of the ordinary?

one of my tuning forks is out of tune. there isn't even a single note coming out of it. instead, it's got this high pitched buzzing that sounds somewhat like a b major chord. crazy.

mc's baptism was yesterday evening. haven't attended any catholic mass since i left primary school. the event was three hours long and held in mandarin, which meant i barely understood what was being said and sung. i knew there were readings from genesis, exodus, isaiah, romans and a gospel, but strangely, hearing the verses in mandarin didn't impact me as much as hearing them in english. oh well, think it's just me. haha. they sang a couple of hymns in cantonese too, not suprisingly i knew not a single word. kept trying to peep at the book containing all the rites the woman in front me had but it was a little hard to read. heh. after that was brecko's at bugis for drinks before heading home.

went to sonata yesterday to look for bloch flats, cuz my stupid big toe is really -big-, and when i go on demi-pointe it begins to hurt, so i can never balance on fifth during class, but can do it perfectly-- okay, almost, at home without shoes. well, sonata didn't have them, so gotta make a trip down to okh at tanglin. ugh. my stupid toe! wonder if there's a medical term for it -- bigtoemegaly? at least the lady at sonata is one heck of a good fitter. one look at my feet and she roughly knew my shoe size and width (it's a D!). now if those sales staff at bata and charles and keith and every shoe shop could do that. heh.

finally got the bag i've been thinking about for several days. bought it from far east, and it has mickey mouse comic strips going around it. lest you think it's showy, it isn't. everything's in black and white, and comic strips make the bag look smaller than it actually is. so goody. will now have to take m3's and dopey's advice to find either a pouch or sling bag to carry around in the wards. thanks a lot guys!! =)

american idol was such a disappointment this week. by restricting the contestants to the music of queen, the producers effectively strangled at least half of them. "lacklustre","struggling","dull" are words that could be used to describe the performances. not surprisingly, ace and bucky ended up in the bottom three, and bucky ended up getting the boot. poor elliot. like randy said, america -is- really confused man. he shouldn't be in the bottom three. the results show was such a drag, with the bottom three made to sing their songs once again. elliot had this look of astonishment when ryan handed him the mike. -smacks head- such a brilliant idea to bore out the audience. oh well. there were light moments, mostly at the expense of "innocent" country girl kellie. let's hope next week's show with rod stewart will be more interesting. heh.

this break has been quite a happening one i must say. lots of trips into town, movies and loads of catching up and talking about casual things, ie non-medical related stuff. i've started to watch entertainment tonight (thanks missy C and j!) and have restarted ballet, together with jazz. gosh i wonder how long i'll be able to take jazz lessons. it's times like these when i wished i had a saner schedule.

went to watching "keeping mum" yesterday. simple, dark comedy. the plot was never quite well developed and the twists and turns of the story could have been better handled. a little too deft, if you know what i mean. as usual, the brits poked fun at the americans, portraying them as crude, loud and silly folks. rowan atkinson filled his role fairly nicely i would say, as the well-meaning but rather dull vicar of little wallop. maggie smith was predictably good, but greatly hampered by the film's poor pacing and directing. the rest of the cast was all right, and the story did have the occasional funny and sad moments, but not enough to string up the movie. there were some obvious, uhm, dirty jokes, which seemed quite lost on the audience, so if you find those embarrassing, do not watch this movie.

saw a bag at far east and am now debating whether to get it. thirty bucks, and has mickey mouse comic strips all over it. very whimsical and not too loud. it's so hard to get a bag for clinics. the bag can't be too huge, but must be large enough to hold my books and tendon tappers and whatnots, and not be made up of soft material that makes it collapse on itself. any seniors reading this blog who want to suggest something, please do! someone suggested getting a smaller bag so that i could carry around the tappers and pen torches around the wards.

then there's the clothes and the shoes to get. hmmm. and i've apparently outgrown my ballet flats. will now have to scout around for a pair that doesn't squeeze my big toe so much. heh.

am not on the pass/fail list. thank goodness. had such a horrible day waiting and praying about the results. ugh. and of all the days, some goon chose to call a wrong number on my mobile. when my ringtone sounded at eleven, my body just froze. i stretched out a shaking arm and answered the call, only to hear a woman asking if this was new energy company. i was like, huh? nonono, this is a personal mobile, while heaving a huge sigh of relief at the same time.

highly unlikely that i should get the "straight supps" so well, guess it's time to pack those microbiology stuff and bring out the surgery texts.

yippee.

these few weeks, reality and tv land have just fused in my mind or something. like three days before second pros, i dreamt i was interviewing felicity huffman in some beautiful house which belonged to me, and then later i dreamt i was doing the same thing with ryan seacrest (must be too much idol huh) about a textbook he had written which features a section on, wait for this, microbiology contributed by our favourite brit prof. like, what's the link?!

and american idol is getting crazier and loonier. first, all that weird voting -- lisa tucker getting into the bottom three the week that she sang so well (she sang signed, sealed delivered) and paris and bucky -still- being on the show. paris is just going through the paces really, no soul, no honesty in her music. remember her rendition of "fever"? that was sad, but praised by the judges. bucky has been going from strength to strength now, but the initial part was so shaky i expected him to be voted out soon. now mandisa getting voted despite not being the worst performer.

and second, all the looney antics of the judges, and ugh, ryan seacrest about his dating terri hatcher. i mean, what's with the beard? but i must admit i loved simon's rejoiner about ryan trying to look like a characted from "desperate housewives". must have been one of the best quips of the season. heh.

onto more sobering things, the viva list comes out tomorrow. apparently some folks (and their parents!) have been bugging the dean's office about it since last week (they obviously don't have relatives who are teachers), so the brit prof had to email us saying please stop calling so that they can mark and add up the marks in peace. funny, no?

to those of you out there who have nothing to do and are thinking of seeing a movie, go watch The Producers!! it's funny, it's whacky, it's got great dancing and singing, and best of all it's got this man:





yes, mr matthew broderick, the oh-so-sweet-and-charming guy who can sing and dance. whoot. he played leo bloom in both the broadway and film versions of the show, and he is just -fantastic-. i mean, just look at that smile!! *gushes* couple him with nathan lane and you understand why The Producers was such a hit. gosh, i should have watched them on west end last summer! heh.

the movie was great. we laughed and laughed and laughed. the music was fast and cheerful and it's all familiar broadway with tap dancing sequences and big music. nathan lane is max bialystock, the broadway producer who's desperate to see some kaching soon. matthew broderick is a young, nervous accountant who gives him the idea of making a flop to earn big bucks. una thurman plays the pretty swedish bombshell who is their lead actress in "springtime with hitler" and will ferrell plays franz liebkind, the ex-nazi guy who wrote the "worst" play. and surprise surprise, roger bart, the crazy pharmacist from "desperate housewives" is carmen ghia, the gay and hilarious sidekick to the worst director. fantastic cast and great singing from hollywood likes of thurman and ferrell. a million times better than the cringe-worthy phantom of the opera, which supposedly starred unknown "singers".

but boy oh boy, matthew broderick is sehr gut! we've all heard him on lion king and other movies, but to see him do a musical is just phenomenal. he'll be the reason why i buy the dvd with extra footage and interviews and shots of the rehearsals. *swoons*

i now understand what they mean by the stage can never be fully translated on screen. while film might be an excellent medium to work with, nothing can match the 'live' performances of the actors on stage, and the energy that fills the hall when the show is on. after some of the numbers i really wanted to cheer and clap, but of course that would have been silly, but watching it on screen, i could still imagine them on stage doing their thing. nathan lane once said on jay leno that on encountering the occassional unresponsive audiences, he would actually ask the audience to clap! oh the joy of performing on stage.

now my goal is to hunt down a copy of the original broadway recording, and sit at home and wait...

and so it's over, for now. friday the much dreaded, or in some cases much hoped for, viva list will be out, and the two extremes of the class shall be identified. this is awful. can't we just pass or get a distinction without getting hauled up for a grilling?

oh well. microbiology was all right. mcq part was average, essays weren't too bad because i expected worse. but i'm worried i didn't give enough details to give me more marks. ugh. especially the drug questions. neuroscience was ok too, but schizo was a surprise. totally hadn't expected it, so i could only fill in a few lines. grr.

e clinics starting soon! a new chapter in my life. and this blog will get a new layout. heh.

oooh, what a difference a day -will- make. at this time tomorrow, it'll be either sighs of relief or a sinking heart.

the whole bug thing is driving me nuts!

one more dawn, one more day, one day more!