hello!! glad to hear about ur life in the other hospitals! Looks like u r all adapting quite well.

We here in KK seem more free compared to u guys, since we seem to be oversaturated with HOs, though that means that u can find more people snaking around.

Here in surgery we are expected to do appendicectomies, but due to the many HOs some are graduating without even doing one! this is a bad thing as once sent out to the district if they dont know how to do appendicectomy means have to send back QEH, leading to curses from specialists, MOs and HOs who have to clerk patients.

You can do practically anything here, the natives are generally very trusting towards doctors and allow us to do anything we like on them! Procedures are at a u ask, u probably get to do basis. Heard medicine more procedures but also oversaturated that they are only doing like 4-5 calls a month!

Taking 1 week leave for convo, from 10-17th of August! see u all then!

seok Hong: u r back in Penang meh,??!! Went to our home just now (~ 5.45 pm) but ur car still there. Thot u hav slept. What form do u meant we hav to sign??

And people, if we wan our representatives to get our jubah 4 us, how do we sign the surat kuasa? Do we hav to write one ourselves or the is any particular form to sign?? Well, cant wait to c u all again in convo...

Like SH said, life in HAS not bad at all, at least 4 me in Sur. However, i'm posted to this ward call K1 (just opposite SH's ward) where we start our morning rounds with our head of departments at 7 am!!! So we hav to b there earlier than him to cover all the cases n do our rounds b4 he came, but i think some other places might b worse...however, sumthing crazy bout my ward is that it is a acute emergency surg ward, so all the specialists n consultants, heard me ALL will come to our ward to do their own rounds, OWN rounds throughout the day. So we usu end up with at least 5 ward rounds a day and do not really hav time to do the ward works which we will be scolded for later...hhhaaaiii...what luck.

There's 2 chronic HOs here who never promote to other posting, not to say to MO....they r like in their 30s...1 Chi n another Ind...they never do any calls though..the Chi only works fr 8-4.30 pm (office hours) n disappears after that...the nd HO even more "kheng", only follow the morning rounds, then disappears for the whole day. Luckily they r not in my ward. But i think they r quite 'smart' though to keep life as a chronic HO...no need to do calls, 8-5 working hours n can do locum at night. They might even end up earning more than a MO.

Doing sur here in HAS is not bad. We got to do many procedures that the Head (bog boss) said we had to do at least 3 Appendicectomies, 3 chest tubes b4 we can 'pass' to other postings. Surgeons here r crazy, they manage everything even though they don't hav the sub-specialist to do dat. Thus, neurosurgeons in Penang and Ipoh r very gratefull to us here coz we seldom refer cases for them. Those considering Surg post-graduate might wanna consider working here coz as a trainee specialist, u get to do MANY procedures, n they hav proper tutorials and conferences for training specialists, even for us HOs.

Well, enuf bout my life. On 2 days leave to settle some convo stuff. Went to a tailor just now to made the lounge sut for convo. Hopes it'll turn out nice.

Everybody out there, wish all of u good luck and all the best.....hoe we can hav get-together during the convo.

Hi guys! I'm back at home for 5 hours because have to sign the convo form to ask buddy to take jubah. Alor Setar half day on Thursday, what.
I'm doing Ortho. Not bad. Some days work from 7 am to 4.30pm. Some days until 7.00 pm. Nurses and MOs nice. Did 5 passive calls and 3 active calls already. Next active call tmrw. Passive call have to go to OT for emergency cases anytime. Active call have to see cases which come in via A+E and cover the wards after office hour. Luckily here got MAs to do CMR and POP. Glad to say at least I can insert Steinmann pin. Haven't done Ray's amputation and refashioning yet. Having aching limbs after carrying patient's leg in OT.
Alor Setar good for surgery and paeds. Ah Ngou in surgery now. The surgeons here do everything, even neurosurgery. HOs have to do at least 3 appendicectomies.
MC in O&G. Workload not too bad because can go back 4.30 pm if not on call. But said gynae nurses not so helpful.
Guan Fook having a very , very busy time in Medicine. Even have to go back to hosp. fr 8.00 -10.00 pm to do research for the department.
Food here o.k. Can get Malay food and Chinese food quite easily. Our house comfortable but don't have much time to clean it.
Great hearing from you guys. Will see you all during convo:)

Hi guys....today and yesterday was my full day off!!! wah....such a liberating feeling...finally have time to explore KK town...went to watch Terminator 3 ...wah liao...here got Golden Screen Cinema man....
Gosh...seeing pregnant ladies here up to gravida 15!!! makes me wanna take O&G (which i hate) just to become BTL specialist!!! I mean, if u calculate....(taking a gravida 9 )....there's extra work for housmen times 4 each time they come for delivery and antenatal check up (taking Para 5 at the most) After each patients that i see...i give a stern look..."mesti ikat selepas ini eh!"

cant wait to go back for convo....1 week of break.....very much needed.

Wow...i almost forgot that the blog exists! By chance someone reminded me,gosh again! So hello + warm greetings everyone! I'm in Paeds in Penang GH and now recovering from a grueling call! Ever heard of Pandas syndrome? Whoa! This 'suspected' case came in late at night and started a chain reaction of crazy investigations and numerous other admissions!The patient had myoclonic jerks of the head and left UL + vomiting + ...... Where are all the URTI's when u need em?hehe....
The abundance of houseman terror tales here could make Apartheid look like a small issue,hehe..oh well,we'll PREVAIL!muahaha!
Hope i have not lost it yet..
Penang GH is a nice place, i mean Paeds.Quite a number of kewl people,even some of the consultants are nice! My nickname in the ward is 'KOJAK' ! Numerous PMC students,i mean Penang Medical Students roam the ward i am working in,and some are babes!hehe..There's always hope,even in the darkest of times...
Do take care people + happy H.O ing. Seeya at graduation :)

wow, now i know what luxurious life you people lead in KK. Over here in ipoh we hardly see each other.I mostly see sathiya around. Chun Wearn is like getting hell in surgery. Didn't sleep a wink throughout his call. and fell asleep in the hall during CME.Almost dropped his head on the Malay girl's shoulder next to him... then again... maybe it was intentional.

Well, sathiya has said it all... we are getting the raw deal here. and today, the ketua pengarah came to bullshit. I was post call and fell asleep.
Peter's the only one enjoying here. He's in paeds and the ratio of HO to patients as we counted the other night is 1:2. Meanwhile Nissa gets 30 admissions a day in medical. The other day she somehow landed herself with two pagers (2nd and 3rd call) and was running approx 8 wards throughout the night. She has filled in more death certs than any one of us. Of course, if sathiya (O&G) fills in one, he might as well sign one for himself .

Kooi Yen: I heard about pekki going to penang. Well, enjoy yourselves. Try not to fight. Then again, you probably won't see much of each other.

Got to build up some muscles. All these ortho cases involve either fat guys or atheletic ones and holding up their limbs is a sheer agony.almost collapsed in OT after the call.

hi yeeling here. in o+g jb hosp, the supposed the largest production unit in msia. hectic as expected. the worse is the responsibilities i suddenly have to assume like having to arm 20 pregnant ladies and insert 10 prostin 5am in the morn by myself. both of which i had no experience during medical student days. i believe half of the prostin dropped out and half the babies have incurred suspicious lacerations on their head. agreed with lee kien, good to keep low profile and act blur (not too difficult a task for me). a lot of time i was given strict warning not to include my grandma stories into the clerk sheet. (don't write the pt NBO for three days post op because the mo wants to discharge pt).

and yes tony, i do miss those uh stickers. do you people have to do a Bleeding time / clotting time? a funny, time consuming test which consists of deliberately pricking the patient's finger to assess how long it will bleed and fill some blood into a tiny cylinder , then keep turning it until it stops flowing. i really hate that one. nobody really know how to interprete the results.

Howdy everybodee?

Another week has passed. The weeks seem to pass faster now that tagging is over. Calls were ok so far. Keeping low and acting blur, but asking a lot of questions. I find that keeping a low profile works better for the houseman. A few times I noted some things and asked about it, the reply i got is: jangan buat/tanya yang pelik-pelik.

During tagging, I had a MVA pt with some upper limb fracture, and he complained of pain in excess of appearance despite sedation and I kind of asked the MO during the night round if compartment syndrome could be a possibility; and he gave me this "shut up and dont give me extra work" look and said "wah, if like this, i will be very busy everytime u r oncall". Deep inside, I was hoping that the next morning the limb would pulseless (I know this is evil and not fair for the patient) and teach him a lesson. However, the pain subsided the next day (good for the patient).

During my call at 3am this morning, I saw this patient who c/o haematemesis and while I was clerking him, I realised that he actually is having a new stroke. Then, in front of me, he aspirated vomitus and started gurgling and gasping. Quickly I set up mask, oximetry etc and called the MO. When he arrived, first thing he asked was did i do a PR. Of course i didn't, and he was displeased. I was thinking like, come on, I am more concerned about this pts ABC at this point but there he was asking about PR. Felt like PRing him there and then. The pt subsequently required intubation and ICU admission (which cost my night's sleep).

Ok, that's my rambling this time. One good thing is that I got my pay cheque for the half month too. Happy happy.

til next week.

Hi guys,

Wow, the Blog looks spanking new and cool :) Am writing from my grandma's house in M'cca. Came back here this weekend and wuz back in Subang last weekend. However will be on-call the next 2 weekends. Can't complain I suppose.

Work in HKP is quite light compared to other hospitals. There's more free time and less pts. We get to go back at 4.30 everyday, if we've finished all our work, and we get weekends and public hols off, assuming we're not on-call. The bad point is the learning experience is quite limited. I don't really mind I guess if I can go back during weekends and I actually have time to myself to do the things I want to do. It's a trade-off. Depends on the person and what he wants in life. Currently I walk around the hospital with my log-book in one labcoat pocket and Asimov's Prelude to Foundation in the other :)

However they're not sending many new HOs to KP. Because of the new 2 yr system, the Ministry counts the 2nd year HOs into the total no of HOs in the hospital. However in the hospital the 2nd year HOs are considered junior MOs and are doin MO duty and calls. I'm in O&G and by the end of August there will be 8 MOs compared to 5 HOs. In September because the HOs are spread so thin I'll be running the Labour Room on my own and having EOD calls *yuck*

People here are nice. I do get scolded now and then for doing the things I do: mostly for dreaming a lot and being slow at work :P But at the core the MOs are friendly compared to those in some other hospitals I've heard. The nurses here are like my own aunties and the specialists are ok too.

I wuz told that KP and Sungai Petani are the only 2 hospitals where HOs are off on weekends. However last weekend I met Suraya in Subang Parade and she said that in HUKM they've weekends off too. We were so glad to see each other in Parkson we screamed. Gosh it felt so good to see one of you guys again.

It's a bit quiet in KP and thank goodness Lee Kien is there with me. As you know we both are renting a house outside, despite not gettin any housing allowance, and it's quite comfortable, if not a bit bare.

Liza's mum has called the uni and has been repeatedly told that convocation IS on Aug 12 until further notice. *Sigh* why does no one believe me. UKM's convo is on Aug 16, and USM's is on Aug 8. I do think they changed it because of the clash with UKM but I'm not sure.

I don't have time to send individual greetings to each of you guys so good luck to u all, the others in your hospital, your luopos and luopizahs. Will write again sometime from a cybercafe I expect.

Cheers

tony, i don't think the conjunctivitis' virus is originated from chicken, please. and mine believe to be bacterial in origin if not it won't reponse so well with CMC eye drop. i miss my student day where i don't need even MC if i have attended more than 80%. going back to work tmr. ha i am back from heaven to hell. where is earth?

Hmmm... i heard the reason they changed the date is coz it clashed with UKM.

Anyway, Tony and I are having damn big headache securing leaves. That's bcoz there are 6 of us UM people in Surgery, and if we all go it is like 50% of the HO available leaving at the same time! The rest will just suffer. So we have to sit down and planned out our leaves so dat some go earlier, some later.... but cant do all that if date not confirmed!


I heard that Teluk Intan has only 10 HO? dats like 2 HO per posting... so EOD call maut maut ke? no wonder havent heard anything from Adeline.

my conjunctivitis is improving. going back to jb to work soon i think maybe this sunday. can't afford to spend too many days MC. ah it is a nice break but not worth it!

i am worried that our convo might be crushing with the UKM's. heard theirs in also more the less same date as ours. ah ya! how to apply for leave then.

roddy: long time never heard from you? are you alive?

Alan just told me it's on the 12th afternoon. But seeing the way they keep changing the dates... who knows?

kalis: you are lucky already to get your pay so soon or at least you have something to be glad with in contrast to the hell of your environment. don't know when will i get mine......

no one will really believe me 'cause i am taking a big break now goyang kaki at melaka. i have an unilateral red eye now and was forced to take a eight day MC. my god, it is going to use up my entire leave for this posting. don't laugh or admired it! it is no fun at all. saw an eye MO before i got back home, he said it is most probably is a bacterial conjuctivitis-pus and pseudomembran in my right eye.

yanwei: do you remember your form six classmate, irene. she is now in JB doing Hman also(paeds). jb was not in her choices. poor girl eats only bread almost everyday. i wanna help but you know lah not convenient ma with my loupo around.

tonny:i suggest that you become our penghulu in this blog 'cause you appear more frequently but you know what, i am coming in after you.

kooi yen: i know lah. but sometimes both are busy and it makes not much different even if we were apart. you take care.

oh some said our convo will be 15-18 of august. not sure yet. any one got any idea?

1 more day of tagging....yeah.....
tomorrow must present somethiing in front of the dept...cincai lo.....
am eating more nowadays...snacking here and there.....
heard that there are 2 types of HO...one that puts on weight...while the other type loses weight.
at the rate i'm eating..think i'll end up the former.
the banana goreng here super delicious....dunno why. must be some super kadazan flour.

post call.... so tiring... one critical patient is enough to spoil ur night.... blurrr

hey ppl....i'm counting down....3 more lousy days of tagging! and guess wat...! the day after tagging ....kena on call pulak...
today, got my my way out tagging at 6pm....that means 5 extra hours of rest...
gosh...hate O@G....the only consolation is that it's one of the more demanding posting in terms of stress and schedule of work...so by the time i do other posting...it might be a breeze......cei....as if....mana tau, still blur blur...

Hey guys,

I am in Surg too. Much more free compared to Seremban. I get to go back at 4.30pm everyday unlike Seremban where surg ppl go back at 9pm. I have 6 calls this month. Did one call already. Luckily no MVA case that night, so it was pretty ok. The roads here to Seremban and other districts very winding one, so higher chance of MVA especially after happy hour.

Feels like surg patients here are not managed properly. Got only one surgeon and he is more like a tukang bedah, he rarely actually delves into patients problems and addresses them. He just do the op. Morning round with him also super fast. The actual ppl making decisions for pts are the M.O. (there is no registrar here). The M.O. also 2nd or 3rd yr in govt service. Management here is more like symptomatic, the underlying cause not addressed and pt keep coming back. Any sakit abdomen that is not a/appendicitis - buscopan. Epigastric pain? -Cimetidine. RIF pain not fitting description of a/appendicitis - "subacute appendicitis". Renal colic - M pot citrate. No ultrasound for surgery here. OGDS also is the rigid metal one. No tube with camera. All radiology inv must be sent to Seremban. Usually before their TCA SOPD to review their IVU/US/CT etc, the pt will be readmitted bcos of the same symptoms.

This is not a place for ppl aiming for FRCS. Sure, we houseman get more chance to do procedures, but donno the way they teach us to do is correct or not.

Anyway, the good part about it is I really get a lot of free time for myself, which I really need for my own reading. So, I kerja pun tutup sebelah mata, just follow the M.O instruction only lah. Next time when I become M.O./registrar then only I try to do what is right for the patients.

I am in female surg ward. At the max also 17 + 3 beds at ony time. Last week only 6 pts for 2 days. Workload is really ok.

Remember the senior Lim Choo Ghee (i think is 3 yrs older than us), he is preparing for MRCP but he is put in O&G by the pengarah.

We got morning assembly (like school one) every first monday of the month where we line up and sing negaraku and the pengarah talks. Ridiculous, dont u think. Wonder if u guys got this also.

There is also this UPM chinese senior houseman at O&G (Alan is at O&G now), whom I think is full of himself.

Alan and I live in a rented house all by ourselves. We have not found time to make the house cosy.

Take care.


P/S BM phrases are creeping into my conversational speech, since working in govt hosp. I heard here for the first time the expression "jonah"(really unlucky; many admissions). Do they use this phrase also at ur place?

Apala u tailo. What no kaki, u staying with lao puo should be fun what. 2 weeks liao mah ok lo. can syiok syiok go over to singapore.

actually i think those who got surgery first are really lucky in the sense the we got time to adapt to this alien world. we are like a lost troop venturing into this unknown galaxy far far away at somewhere near M12?.
wah !really admired those in KK can stay together with friends, must be fun at least when you all are free.
me here hardly find kaki to cho tai ti(big 2).
chiew leng: samelah here o&g also have to do tagging from 7am to 11pm for 2 weeks leh. i hardly see my luopo around.
tonny: did u still owe me money?

kai inn: haiya...convo that time can get from me le....your stuff still safely intact...

halo...

i hate o @ g!!!!
counting down.... 15 weeks more to go....
1 more week of tagging...tiring....645am till 11 pm everyday....
makan makan here very limited....the places where we get food here is kat "bawah pokok" or "tepi longkang" or just in hospital cafetaria....3 lousy choices...
am craving for so much food.....

hello hello hello!! nice to see that some ppl still got time to go blogging. U'll be hearing more from us blokes in Sabah coz we got our own apartment and phone lines and all. So no problem with internet access.

Dunno why Tony on EOD calls considering that there are 23 ho in the same posting! he just too kind that he changed with someone and ended up with EOD. TOny, Jeklin, Donna, Elsie and I are in surgery, the indians in ortho (all indians end up there), chee chan in medic, chiewleng in o&g.

Surgical life here is not bad. people here are nice, nurses dont scold. not on call can get to go home by 4.30pm if work finishes. Had my second call yesterday, slept from 12am to 6am. SO unlike my first call last saturday. berlambak-lambak admissions, barely got any sleep.

Dengarnya UH like lepak sungguh. hai... somemore can bully medical students clerk case for u. so practically no work.

Havent got much time to go exploring KK yet, gonna get a car soon.

U guys stay in touch as much as u can.