It's so typical.
So so SOOOO typical...
The weather always takes a U-turn whenever I leave a place. Like it wants to make a statement of some sort.
"So that I'll remember Oxford and think of it as a place with lots of sunshine..." I hear you say.
Oh yeah right.
Too late pal, too late.
I mean, 9 hours before I'm about to leave? What do you take me for, a person as fickle as the weather?
Give me a break.
The rain has wrecked so many of my plans I don't think I'll forgive it for some time. Not that it needs my forgiveness or approval that has to be said.
Right, ugly business aside, I'm all up for a bit of of Tender Love and Care (or is it Tender Loving Care? I can never tell...) of which I have been deprived, for too long...
Too long.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Scrubs
Let me take a 15 min break from my placement...and blog.
Went to the hospital theatres today to observe a lower gastro-intestinal surgery - laparoscopic anterior resection for those hung up on jargon. Being a non-medical student, that meant nothing to me and I had to pull one of the runner nurses to explain in English. PLAIN English.
"Oh, that's taking bits out of the gut, presumably coz it's cancerous and then rejoining the two sections at the end."
Ah, I see...
Yes I echo your thoughts, a pharmacy student has nothing to do with surgery, but my tutor - prior to my placement - asked if I was interested to have a theatre visit and I thought, a-ha, this would be something exciting! How often would you get a chance like this eh?
When I went in this morning, the receptionist asked me which type of surgery I wanted to see - paeds, trauma, upper GI or lower GI. To be honest, I have no preference. And being such a squirmy person, I thought I'd challenge myself and go for the most gross one :)
And what d'ya know...I didn't pass out, much to my surprise!
The operation was absorbing. After 4 hours and 45 mins, I was drained. If a by-stander like me (who did nothing but WATCH) felt drained, imagine how knackered the surgeons were at the end! I won't describe the operation because I don't know much (and don't want to sound smart and all :) but man, the human body is amazingly complicated. You'd imagine that a colonic resection is just cutting up the patient, chopping out the useless bits and then stitching him back up right? Well, that's the gist, but there was way more going on. Kudos to the nurses who were working alongside the surgeons. I suppose you could could say, behind every successful surgeon, there's a team of nurses!
I am naturally squirmy. Very. My eyes almost bawled out when they incised the patient and took the guts out. A nurse even dared me to have "a feel" of the colon and the cancerous tumour after they had been removed (with a pair gloves on obviously). I admit I wasn't comfortable at the thought of that, but at the same time, I didn't want to be chickenshit either, so I went ahead anyway (I wonder what gave me the Dutch courage...)
A shiver went down my spine when I first laid my fingers on the colon. It's geli if you know what what I mean. This piece of soft, slimy, bright red material that was 5 minutes ago suspended in the patient's peritoneal cavity, was now dumped in a plastic container ready to be sent to pathology.
"Go on, feel the tumour."
Erm. Ok.
I closed my eyes when I did that. Don't ask me why though. I suppose you could argue that I didn't see what I touched, but that's why we have 5 senses you see. Even if I didn't see it, I felt it. It was different. As you'd expect. Tumour. A mass of cells. Naturally more fibrous than a mucous membrane-y kinda tissue.
It was like a rollercoaster ride, you know. Once you've tried it, you want to do it again. And that was what happened with me. I kept touching the damn tumour until the nurse had to stop me.
Honestly, what am I like? Getting "addicted" to "feeling up" a removed tumour.... Gawd!
Anyway, that's about it. My eye-opening experience in the operating theatres. Makes me want to watch Scrubs now, actually. Haha.
Oooh, and buy the Snow Patrol album. They played the entire CD during the operation. Never knew they were this good!
Went to the hospital theatres today to observe a lower gastro-intestinal surgery - laparoscopic anterior resection for those hung up on jargon. Being a non-medical student, that meant nothing to me and I had to pull one of the runner nurses to explain in English. PLAIN English.
"Oh, that's taking bits out of the gut, presumably coz it's cancerous and then rejoining the two sections at the end."
Ah, I see...
Yes I echo your thoughts, a pharmacy student has nothing to do with surgery, but my tutor - prior to my placement - asked if I was interested to have a theatre visit and I thought, a-ha, this would be something exciting! How often would you get a chance like this eh?
When I went in this morning, the receptionist asked me which type of surgery I wanted to see - paeds, trauma, upper GI or lower GI. To be honest, I have no preference. And being such a squirmy person, I thought I'd challenge myself and go for the most gross one :)
And what d'ya know...I didn't pass out, much to my surprise!
The operation was absorbing. After 4 hours and 45 mins, I was drained. If a by-stander like me (who did nothing but WATCH) felt drained, imagine how knackered the surgeons were at the end! I won't describe the operation because I don't know much (and don't want to sound smart and all :) but man, the human body is amazingly complicated. You'd imagine that a colonic resection is just cutting up the patient, chopping out the useless bits and then stitching him back up right? Well, that's the gist, but there was way more going on. Kudos to the nurses who were working alongside the surgeons. I suppose you could could say, behind every successful surgeon, there's a team of nurses!
I am naturally squirmy. Very. My eyes almost bawled out when they incised the patient and took the guts out. A nurse even dared me to have "a feel" of the colon and the cancerous tumour after they had been removed (with a pair gloves on obviously). I admit I wasn't comfortable at the thought of that, but at the same time, I didn't want to be chickenshit either, so I went ahead anyway (I wonder what gave me the Dutch courage...)
A shiver went down my spine when I first laid my fingers on the colon. It's geli if you know what what I mean. This piece of soft, slimy, bright red material that was 5 minutes ago suspended in the patient's peritoneal cavity, was now dumped in a plastic container ready to be sent to pathology.
"Go on, feel the tumour."
Erm. Ok.
I closed my eyes when I did that. Don't ask me why though. I suppose you could argue that I didn't see what I touched, but that's why we have 5 senses you see. Even if I didn't see it, I felt it. It was different. As you'd expect. Tumour. A mass of cells. Naturally more fibrous than a mucous membrane-y kinda tissue.
It was like a rollercoaster ride, you know. Once you've tried it, you want to do it again. And that was what happened with me. I kept touching the damn tumour until the nurse had to stop me.
Honestly, what am I like? Getting "addicted" to "feeling up" a removed tumour.... Gawd!
Anyway, that's about it. My eye-opening experience in the operating theatres. Makes me want to watch Scrubs now, actually. Haha.
Oooh, and buy the Snow Patrol album. They played the entire CD during the operation. Never knew they were this good!
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Mun's Homecoming
I almost forgotten that I had a blog.
A friend recently asked why I hadn't been updating it, and it took me a while to answer.
"Blog?"
"Oh yes!"
Haha, that's old age for ya... :)
Nah, it's hard when you haven't got internet access. And when you're only given an hour a day to use the county library computer, you'd really want to maximise every minute of it for emails, travel-planning and weather-checking.
Don't get me started on that...bloody flood.
So yes, it's 3 days to the end of my second (and last) placement this year and I'm coming home on Friday. 27th July 2007. 2200.
12 hours and 25 minutes later I should be back on Malaysian soil.
Yippee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A friend recently asked why I hadn't been updating it, and it took me a while to answer.
"Blog?"
"Oh yes!"
Haha, that's old age for ya... :)
Nah, it's hard when you haven't got internet access. And when you're only given an hour a day to use the county library computer, you'd really want to maximise every minute of it for emails, travel-planning and weather-checking.
Don't get me started on that...bloody flood.
So yes, it's 3 days to the end of my second (and last) placement this year and I'm coming home on Friday. 27th July 2007. 2200.
12 hours and 25 minutes later I should be back on Malaysian soil.
Yippee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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