Monday, October 26, 2009

Jambo, Jambo!

Jambo, Habari ('Hello' in Swahili:), smth new huh, just learned it from my burnt Chinese son, Aditya the Kenyan boy...Muakakkakka..
anyway, just a lil update from me.
Obs n Gyn officially started 2 weeks ago, and so far so GOOD!! Thanks to the nice peeps whom we met in this firm. From the midwives, SHO, registrars and consultants...everything looking UP UP UP:) Allrighty, the only downside of this firm is the long hours we have to wait in the delivery suite for babies to come to this world:P

Just last Sunday, we decided to try our luck, expecting to see a normal vaginal delivery. So after dinner, enthusiastically we went to the hospital! Woohoo, when the doctors told us there were 2 expected ones. GOooOd, then we took obs history from those women and waited! 1, 2, 3, 4 hours past.....one of the woman showed some signs to deliver..fully dilated YESSSSsss, we screamed in our hearts, but later on the midwife came out and told us, she couldnt proceed to stage 2! BAD sign....STRESS level shot up, midwives and doctors zooOmed her into the theatre coz this woman needed an EMERGENCY C-section! Ahhh, the whole surgery ended bout 1230am..but baby was healthy and not distress..phew! Sooo, our search to see a normal vaginal delivery continued.....

Thursday came, decided to try our luck again. Lily and myself prayed over dinner. 'oh Lord, the 2nd week of our attachment is coming to an end dy, and we have not seen any normal vaginal delivery!! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, let us see one tonight! amen..' Okay, this time, i called the delivery suite to see any expected deliveries, and YESS..the midwife told me there is one..COME IN NOW! Ly grabbed her coat and ZoomEd..Yay, one down! One hour later, Ly called me and there is another one!! Allrighty, my turn! but too bad, by the time i arrived, the baby's head is out dy...sigh, missed! BUT BUT BUT, to my surprise the midwife told me there is another woman going to give birth, but it's her first delivery, so had to wait awhile..nVm, persevere on! waited a few hours till 1100pm..*gosh that lady was in soooo much pain:'(* 'Push push push+u're doing really well+come on, u can do it', all the encouraging words filled the delivery room...i doubt she was hearing wat we were saying due the severe pain she was experiencing. As she screamed with pain when the baby was coming out, i was literally screaming with her as well! Ouchhhh...i could feel the pain man, really deter me to give birth now! After 5 hours of pain, the baby finally came out safely...awwww, my first baby:) He is baby Charlie, weighed 3.060kg, arrived to this world at 2323! *whee* i went home with a smile that night:D *grateful for an answered prayer* My God is full of surprises, isnt He? Hopefully, more to come!


Nothing much happening this week. We need to stay in and start some solid revision coz exams in 1 month time. To avoid unnecessary stress later on, we better start early ya:P So, to beautify my post with some pics, let me show u guys some home-cooked meals for this week. Save some $$. Seee, we save money and learn how to cook ourselves:) *in training to be good housewife..muakkakak*


Chickpea pasta with beaf steak:)

Sweet chilli fried beehun with chicken:)
Ginseng chicken soup with meesua! Needed smth to 'bou shen' (renew our strength)!Noodle with quorn meat+egg!



So yea, just got back in Bury. Have to come back on Sunday evening coz the bus drivers are still on strike every Monday! this is how i look every time i go back Bury! Have to change 3 buses, 2 hours, 1 trip:(
See the red circled bags! One handbag with books, one brown bag with foodstuff for our week, one back pack with lappie and clothes! Huh, that's messy me in the cold+rain!
Guess wat, it's just 5pm and the sky is so dark dy!
Clock turned back 1 hour..
Hard time huh..getting used to it dy

that's my companion! the Channy with 3 bags toO! Muakkakaka...busy woman!
and as we were having our dinner just now, our dear PBL mate came in to the kitchen and gave us some Indian delicacies:) He just celebrated Diwali...and hah, we're remembered:) Felt so loved! Told ya, God sent ppl to bless us and put a smile on our faces!


Just got back from hospital..yup on a Sunday night:) just in time to see another delivery! But this time, it was fast coz it's the 3rd pregnancy for the mom! *good breathing technique, good skills and blup..the baby came out so easily:)* the so called 'text book' delivery by the midwives:) It's a she this time *whee*


guess wat, the registrar on call knew we stayed in the accom in the hospital and so she decided to bring us good food next weekend! Maybe we looked so pitiful..muakkaakakka. God always bless us with nice peeps indeed! *keep my fingers crossed for good food*


another week gonna start tmr!
the cycle repeats, but am getting excited to see wat my God has to reveal this week
till then!


ahh...just wanna say my God is so good.









wasSup Doc:

a heart in tune with God cant help but sing His praise ALL THE TIME! Lallalla...




Saturday, October 17, 2009

Behind the scene..

I guess most of you who are following my blog will always wonder what is this medical student doing in Manchester, squandering parents' money, eating out most of the time and not studying!
I got most of those comments all the time.
All we did was play play and more play. It's as though i'm wasting my time here and not fulfilling the real purpose of me being here, right?! Now let me tell you, you guys have taken it all WRONG! Let me tell you wat's happening behind the scene, and make ur own judgement.....This was wat we went through for the past 7 weeks, every Thursday...Just after my alarm clock strikes at 5.30am, it's time to wake up and shower and get dress, ready for our GP day in Glossop. An adventurous journey indeed.in the meantime, we have to prepare our LUNCH, that is egg sandwich! So had to spare some time to fry egg! Just because we want to save some money. Buying a sandwich for 2+ pounds is so not worth it! After converting it to ringgit, we came to conclusion that packing our own lunch is so much cheaper eventho we had to sacrifice our sleeping time..
both of us learned our lesson. Start a day off with good breakfast! Or else, our tummies will make noise! Pathetic us have to eat in my room because my kitchen is always conquered by the BEES early morning. Dont ask me why..we have no idea either. Last few days, while we were eating in my kitchen, a swarm of them came in and surrounded us...scary kao~ So yea..have to move to eat in my room instead:(
it's about 645am now...the sky is still dark and we both already start our day:( Walking on the quiet street is no good. sometimes, u will see drunkards sleeping at the street:P

we had to start off early because taking public transport to Glossop was a pain and took quite some time..BUS..our very first mean of transport of the day...thank God the buses come quite regularly eventho it's early dawn...
then we have to walk a good 10 mins to the train station....bear in mind, with the UK weather, it's freezing cold in the morning, and if unlucky, it will rain suddenly and we will be soaked! Sooo, dun ever envy us being able to stay in this chilly place. It's not as coolie as u think it is. When the wind pierce into your bone, u will start shivering and get sick the second day. Appreciate Malaysia's weather coz the heat u have will help you burn some calories and allows u to eat more! Whereas here, the cold will increase your appetite and store the fat!! And subsequently, the KGs will go up day by day...scary~

Queuing up to buy our train tickets which cost us....6.40pounds return, which is equivalent to RM 38?!?!? wah...with that money we can travel to Penang up and down looooo!! and rmb, this is just for Train and ONE day!
hopped into the train at 7.13am....
and the next thing you see us doing is......SLEEEEP! ZZzzzzZZzzzz....we have to treasure each and every second we have...if not, we will be 'fishing' in the consultation room later which is embarrassing
45mins in the train...next up change to taxi this time. Another 4pound each way...SIAL! it's 10 pounds plus dy we spent! for A DAY!

and after the marathon journey, we arrive at Simmondley Medical Centre..which they called it as 'the surgery' :) brrrr.....it's always cold there..i wonder why?!?!??!

once we get ourselves settled, we will make ourselves a cup of hot tea to warm ourselves up and eat a piece of biscuits that we bring along...i believed after all that we went through, the breakfast we had at 6am was all burnt! so we need some energy to concentrate at work!

Dr Bhatt, our kaipak(ayah angkat) He is such a nice old man...very knowledgeable..though he is quite old+retired, he is still very enthu in teaching us and knows his stuff super well.(he can quoote from books!!!) Usually, we will sit in his room while he consults his patients. Though he was very stern with us on our 1st visit, never even showed a smile! but subsequently as week goes by, we got to know him better and he is actually a very friendly man. PLUS, his wife is from Malaysia, guess that's y he 'sayang' us more:)

then lunch time!!! (our favourite time of the day)
so this is our usual lunch for weekdays. Egg sandwich(sometimes we will have ham instead:)+a yogurt+a cup of tea. And all these cost less than a pound!
That's how we save some money so that we could have a better meal during the weekend.

after lunch, Dr Bhatt will keep us in the kitchen and 'advise' us to study. On and off, he will sneak in the kitchen and check on us whether we are doing our work or not. He also logs us into BMJ Learning and asks us to complete some QnA modules which are relevant to our Peads posting. He even make sure we pass those modules as he requires us to print out the certificate from the website to prove our scores! Hah..and when we got 100% correct, he would give us a 'pat' on our shoulder..saying 'well done'! We were treated like his daughters and we know he wants the best for us, ensuring that we've learned something from that day.
we will leave the surgery at 5pm and the 'public transport' cycle shall repeat. By the time we reach home, it will be 7pm and the sky is already dark...We're dog tired after all this but do we have a choice?

and Pat, our chef from the hall will pack dinner for us.....salmon+loads of vege!

so this is a usual Thursday. It's no fun at all i must emphasise.

1st, it's time consuming; 2nd, it's draining us!

this is not the end...we had to wake up at 6am the second morning to return to Bury(Fairfield Hospital) because we're based there instead of the city. So in another word, we will come back to Manchester on Wednesday evening, and go to our GP on Thursday(bcoz to get to Glossop it's nearer to go from Manchester), and return to Bury on Friday...:'(

and come back Mcr on Weekends, so that we could have a break. So all those fun time i had(in my previous posts) were all over the weekends. That's the only short time we had to chill abit, to eat some proper food and rejuvenate ourselves before another cycle of busy weekdays.

so please dun perceive us as the 'only know how to play' ppl. WE ARE NOT! we are those 'kiasu' students because we know our parents spent so much $$ to send us here. We are always reminded that the sacrifice our parents had to make to grant us this golden opportunity to study abroad and we really appreciate it. There is no 'play' in our dictionary! The purpose of us being here is to get our medical degree and we know that full well! But in the meantime, we want to enjoy this whole process as well.


But i must say, it's not an easy time studying here. Being away from family is a pain. When we come home, we face the 4 walls and homesick-ness KILLS. We hv no car to drive to any destination we want, and the only mean of transport is by bus/train/taxi which cost a bomb! So we resolved by walking. We have no cheap mamaks for supper and it's never safe to go out at night because of the drunkards roaming in the town! And we will think twice/trice before we buy any food because we know how much it will cost after converting to RM and it's a pain! We cant just go into any restaurant we want for dinner because we know it's not worth the money spent, so we cook ourselves! And finally, we have to do our own groceries shopping every week, comparing prices from all supermarkets to get the best deal, and have to carry those heavy stuff in a sardine packed bus!

the simple dinner we prepared ourselves..now comparing to wat u have back home..! we dun complain..coz WE ENJOY THE MEAL!

So STOP saying our lives here in UK is way much better..you have no idea how much we have gone through..the tears, the pain,the cold, the suffering and the uncertainties. It's never easy.

but one thing i'm sure

WE BECAME TOUGHER!


So why we always appear as the 'happy little sunshine'?
it's because we have a mighty God and we know He is watching over us no matter where we go.
Every morning, when we both have our breakfast, we will pray together.
Asking God for strength, asking God for opportunities, asking God for joy in our hearts and always always give thanks in all circumstances.
We have come to a conclusion that no matter where we are, what we're going through, there is a purpose behind it.
He put us there for a reason!
Be it good or bad, we give thanks and rejoice in it.
that's why we always appear happy because there is a living God in us!


'Hello' from Glossop:)
SUPERwomen we are!
we seized every opportunities which knock on the doors of ours! That's the way to survive in this dog eat dog world isn't it?
and we're really thankful because our God is so real.
Since our obs n gyn posting has started, He has blessed us so much.
In this first week(started last Wed) we got to take history from a woman with ectopic pregnancy, followed her to surgery to remove it(just within one afternoon). And today itself was fulfilling! A cesarean section was performed in the morning and got attached to a great gynaecologist who guided us in so many clinical skills patiently!
prayer moves the hand of God indeed:)
we're always surprised by how God works during our day and by night time, we both will smile:)
He is teaching us new things everyday.
and we look forward for that*_*

*each new day is welcomed without expectation, but only with anticipation*


In a nutshell, we are all children of God and no matter where He has placed us to complete our degree..be thankful. At the end of the day, we're all doctors who want to save lives and make a difference, right?






wasSup Doc:
Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
[1 Thessalonians 5:16-18]

:)so smile(:

Monday, October 12, 2009

Soooo many things to tell....

Ahhhh.....finally i could find some time to tell my up abouts of the last 2 weeks:) Been the busiest ever..but phew, all over and gonna start with a 'BANG' soon! Let's talk about last LAST Sat. Celebrated Min's belated birthday at East2East..this new explored Indian Restaurant in the town. Very posh ambiance i must admit, but the price for the food are reasonable and yum, tho i didnt eat much coz i had a heavy dimsum lunch with the fellow leaders in Glamorous after the leaders retreat in church. Knowing that when u're eating with the older generation, they will order MORE and BETTER food:) And when you hv consultants in the midst of the leaders, they will treat us...guess doctors DO get higher pay here:P Anyway, Min's biggie day pics:)
Happy Biggie day with double portion of blessing:)the peeps who went

****************************************************
Uncle Mike's open house for new students!



As usual, when the new academic year starts, Uncle Mike and family will always open up their house to welcome new students. Blessed with home cooked Chinese food and games:D



Quite a lot of us turned up!

Aunt SweeLeen, she 's a Malaysian frm Melacca. But she has settled in UK for years and working as a translator in the hospital. She loved us so much that she prepared lots of nice food for us!

Uncle Lip:) our student fellowship advisor. He is a consultant in Oncology, graduated from Melbourne Uni. A father to 3 lovely daughters. A man after God's heart!

the good food we had
M'sia n Singapore version of BSB:P

Awwww, we felt so loved *whee*

************************************************
Bury Market we went!

We've been in staying in Bury for about 7weeks! and most of the time, we had microwavable meal or just super simple meal for dinner. Been not very healthy we know...let's see wat we had in the past..

Microwavable food, LOWFAT beef and Yorkshire pudding+VEGENoodle+Bakgua+Egg+Vege
pathetic kan:'(

we used to eat quite good meal in out catered hall. but since we cudn't go back now, we're forced to cook ourselves.

Soooo, to improvised our meals for the next coming weeks, we decided to pay a visit to Bury Market( UK VOTED BEST MARKET) and get some groceries on a fine Sat morning!


Adventurous us @ Bury Market. 1st time there despite staying in Bury for 7 weeks dy..


jakun us, attracted to the cakes! and Ly..to the home-made muffins/bread!
outside of the market...selling super fresh vege, fruits and meat at cheaper price.
inside the market hall, selling clothing, cards, brollies etc...
and we decided to give ourselves a treat of cappuccino and muffin after a long hectic working week. Ahhh, this is life, sitting in the coffee house, chit chatting while enjoying our hot cup of cappuccino:) we like!

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SF meeting @ Jo's

Student fellowship started off last Thursday with bible study. I took up the challenge of becoming the small group leader this academic year. It's a new breakthrough for me because if u kno me better, i dun really hv the quality to lead, but maybe it's time to stand up and try smth new and get my feet off the comfort zone. Stretching my limit more will mould my character isn't it? So yea, please keep me in prayer bout this matter k. The 1st bible study last week went quite allright, group members are of great ppl. Thank God for that. Hope that God will bind us together and grow spiritually closer to Him as well. Time management!!! jiayou Angie:)
Jo, SF leader! decided to cook a nice meal for us over the weekend despite being sick, coughing! That's y she wore a mask when she cook so that she dun transmit germs to us! muakakkaka..


Mapo taufu

Chicken with fungus SF committee:D

Thanks for the encouragements and supportive love. God bless u all:) Great working as a team with you all.

*****************************************
Peads..ended:(
Yup, my 7weeks of peads posting has just ended. Time really flies. It's been a great posting, with some good consultants.my PBL group.
Dr Prabhu..the most enthu peads dr i've ever met! We enjoyed his teachings esp during ward rounds. That's y, doing ward rounds with him will take up to 3 hours!
He is one of the prominent features dealing with child protection issues. His quote: We're here to protect the children, not to accuse the parents!
good thought indeed.
a very inspiring doctor who is so passionate with his job.
Glossop adventure has ended as well. No more misery of waking up 530am in the morning to go there.
will post about my complete journey there one day. YESsss.. it's all over now.
Swapping to obs n gyn next week.
hope i will enjoy this posting too
but BURY is still where i will be..for the next 6 weeks!
*wish me luck*
***********************************************
Sarah's visit to Mcr!
and this week ended with a BANG as well, with the most influential gurl, Sarah's arrival to Mcr!
it's been a year++ i never see this scandalous woman!
SOOoooooo, excited larrr..muakakkaka
Angie*Sarah*Edwina
Great catching with you la dear...so many things to share, so many things to update within such a short day. Will surely, definitely pay u a visit in Edin when i've got the FREE time k.
Cook me nice food and bake me nice cakes when i go na.
:D


and finally mum, this is for u!
since u're so worried bout my wound..it's healing now.
No more puss coming out..
but i think there will be a permanent scar on it:'(
so regret falling down now...sigh..
Lord, please do a miracle for me. remove this scar please....


chiaoz peeps.
it's time to PRESS my pause button.
need a break
..............
l.o.v.e









waSsup Doc:
All things bright and beautiful;
All creatures great and small;
All things wise and wonderful;
The Lord God made them all.