Saturday, May 31, 2008

home alone

Janice is home alone this weekend.

There's a good and bad to it.

Good is that I can mess up the house! wakakakaaka

and the bad is that I have to clean all the mess up before my housemates come back.

-.-"


lame...I know. Haha

Monday, May 26, 2008

for medics out there preparing for exam!

I heard this song 2 years ago when I was still studying A levels.

Now listening to it again...it makes sense to me now! haha. Really cool song.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

tired

I have been very tired recently.

I dun know why. I sleep for 8 hours plus everyday.

Yesterday I thought I was feeling less tired for work as I didn't feel sleepy.

But my friend commented that I looked tired and sleepless.

??!!

"have u been doing bookthrough*?" she asked.

I haven't done bookthroughs for 2 months now! why am I still tired?




*bookthrough is the overtime late night shift from 10pm to 5.30am.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

The answer for Matthew's age is 45. Haha. You all got it all wrong except for the biotechnologist in my chatbox who probably enlarged the pic and scrutinized Matthew's skin, wrinkles....to confirm his age.



Well, I wanted u to guess the pic not because of pure leisure but I wanted to know Matthew's average age in people's perception. When I first saw Matthew I also thought he was 30 or perhaps in his late-twenties. Only after I had a conversation with him then I knew he was much older:

Me: Hey, I saw you walking into the crèche room the other day in church! (that time i was in Pentecostal church)
Matthew: Is it? Did I go into the crèche room the other day? *frowning*
Me: Yeah, you were walking so fast and then you disappeared into the room! I guess you were looking for your children.
Matthew: Hahahahaha....my children?!! They have long left creche!
Me: ??!!!! *bewildered*
Matthew: They are 17, 19 now...


I never dared to ask his age until when he told me recently that he had a granddaughter, it stroked my curiosity again.

Lo and behold he was 45! Indeed it's so hard to believe that. I told him that he looked too young to be 45 and he said many people have told him before. Then he said the reason (read carefully if you want to know the reason to look young. Haha):


"God told me that He will reduce my age by 15 years"

"He wanted to preserve my life so that I could do more work for Him"


How amazing! It's indeed amazing to witness of God's power in Matthew! Nothing is impossible for God!

As far as I know, Matthew is a one of Christian leader in his church and he chairs meeting occasionally to mission trips to Africa. I asked him how did he know God wanted to reduce his age and he said, 'well, if you listen to Him long enough, you can hear God telling you what He wants.'
Matthew told me that he and his wife have experienced God's power in their life and he could write books of what God has done for him.

As what Psalm 84:11 says, "No good thing shall he withhold from those whose walk is blameless."

OSCE

foreword: this post will be very draggy and contains some medical jargons as I just want to use it for documenting purpose so that I could refer back to it one day.


I was one of the student helpers for the third year exam OSCE in CAH. As the student helpers, we were subjects of physical examination and this gave me valuable experience to know how the OSCE mark scheme is like, to observe the scenes behind the OSCE exams and to have a greater understanding of the exam procedure.

I was the subject for thyroid examination and the BP measurement. Some of the students who came in were calm and some were messed up and too nervous to think of anything. The examiner himself is a first-timer in examining the OSCE and he was nervous himself too! haha. But he was a nice chap to talk to. He told me that most of the students had their examination overly done. Students perceive each and every examination as the whole process and not performing specific test for specific examination. For instance, they were testing capillary refill, looking for xantomata, splinter haemorrhage, anaemia and other tests which were unrelated to thyroid examination. One guy was looking for koilonychia, dupuytren contracture (?!!!!) in me. -.-" I was scratching my head, hmmm....this is not a GI examination but a thyroid examination!

We also get to rate the students on their attitude and professionalism. I gave most of the 5 but one guy was quite messed up with his examination so I gave him a 3.

Thyroid examination was the first cycle. In the second cycle, I was in the BP measurement station. My poor arm had to be squeezed until numb a few times while the students take the BP. The examiner asked everyone this qn, 'how do you choose the cuff size?' Some students were obviously well prepared as they gave the answer without hesitation. Some crapped through by saying that 'oh, this is obviously an adult and I would choose an adult size one for her and the size can be checked by looking at the symbols on the cuff.'

There was a clear distinction between the B and C. But a fine line of difference between A and B. Most people who got B followed the mark scheme answer. But those who got A did extra stuff. I guess it depends not only on how methodological and orderly your procedure is, but also how well you explain the BP measurement and asking the patient 'are you feeling ok?' constantly. One girl got extra points for asking, 'do you have any questions to ask me?' Not all the students were good though. There was one student who couldn't feel my brachial pulse! He was kinda 'poking' me using his fingers to look for the pulse instead of palpating and the feeling for it using the tips of the fingers. Besides, he couldn't take my reading correctly and he made out a BP reading which obviously was very wrong. (any reading >10mmHg of the actual reading will not get any marks).

There were 2 6-minute gap in between the stations and I got to talk to my examiner. He was a Leeds graduate deciding to become a GP finally. He said, 'you must take an intercalated degree. Must.' Then he went out to say that in the application form, there are 6 questions. Qn 3 and 4 are the hardest as it looks into your experience of doing any research and teaching. This examiner nonchalantly told me, 'I applied for 8 jobs and got all 8 interviews.' Wow. Then he said he actually had 4 degrees ( one degree was intercalated) and he was a demonstrator for the anatomy teaching classes. Hmm...this got me into thinking. I haven't got any experience in teaching yet except for the occasional one-minute 'teaching' in RM when I tell my colleagues how to to sort the letters.

okie. I guess that's all for my experience as a student helper. We were paid quite well for it (one 1.5 hour cycle 20 pounds) and I could have stayed there for the whole day it not because I have another job which requires me to go off early. :(

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Happy mother's day!

Happy mummy's day! this post was intended to be posted up yesterday but I have forgotten completely to post it. My apologies. It's still 11th May in UK =)


mummy and the 2 kids at home. Jon is missing in the pic (and also the three of us girls).

Saturday, May 10, 2008

guess

Introducing you one of my best mates in Royal Mail --> Matthew.

Guess how old is he?

He either looks too old for his age or he looks too young for his age. So I want you to guess!

Matthew

The answer shall be revealed in a few days' time. Hehe!

Thursday, May 01, 2008

preparing for D-day

My table and files are finally cleaned and sorted.

more space to study if I take the laptop away


It's time to study.

PS: Please pray for me to focus in my study and for good health also. Feeling very lethargic these few days esp after I got back from work. Weather is getting cranky and cycling in the rain ain't doing my body any good. Thanks!