bronchitis and I

The whole time while I was working on the ward I was sicknessproof, even when I came in contact with patients with pneumonia, tuberculosis, herpes/ chicken pox (I've never had chicken pox as a child), fungal infections etc etc...I was never down with a flu in winter, never had a sick day.


And, ironically, it's finally happened during my holidays... (when I'm out of the hospital)


Today's the 5th day of my self diagnosed bronchitis. It all began with an upper respiratory tract infection ( i.e sore throat, lethargy, muscle ache etc), consequently my ear was blocked (I've always had recurrent ear infection, that's another long story), then I started coughing (vigorously) out yucky phlegm, having shortness of breath, chest tightness/chest pain...





The diagram above is the result of boredom, I can't do much at all with this bronchitis. Last week I could still run 15km at my usual pace ; yesterday I gotta stop after 5km and coughed uncontrollably; today I was out of puff even with climbing the stairs.


This morning I woke up from a night mare where I was sitting up on a hospital bed. My consultant Dr B came as he did his ward round ( the question is, why was my consultant in my dream?), with exactly the same tone when he told a patient that she's got asthma, he went like 'I've had a bad news for you, you have got severe asthma and have to stay on lifelong medication.'


Then instantaneously someone handed me a bag of medicines, the exact types of medicines that I see everyday in the patients' drawers...I was horrified....


Too much of working in the hospital...


I've gotta sit for IELTS (an English test, for the purpose of visa application) this Saturday. With my deaf ear and continuous hacking cough, I think I'll look very funny in the listening and speaking session :)

A joy to look at

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Who ? I guess... the answer is : babies.


Those cute lil things, while they are still a few months old.


I asked my friend Florence, one of the parents , what does it feel to have a newborn?


She said ' Gianna (the baby girl) is a real joy to me.'


I can't possibly understand it now, and not sure if I will ever capture the joy that every parent has. My friend is already a mom at my age (and I am not very young)... Why do I feel marriage and having kids is never my priority? Maybe I am just not cut for that :)


Ok. My heart was touched at the baby dedication ceremony yesterday. Everything was good; baby Gianna and other babies are gorgeous; I was happy because I was again holding my camera :)

day 6 in KL

I have been having a good time at home, of course it's always good to be home.


KL has not changed much since I last saw her 6 months ago, except for a few new highways and a new shopping center .


The city is still chock full of people and vehicles.
The entertainment/ F&B business is still blooming here (and has been since years ago).
The headlines still revolve around the same sorts of stories.


It is good to be home:)


The only downside of living here is the lack of my freedom in doing whatever I desire. For example, carrying an expensive camera( and lenses ) wherever I go is generally discouraged.
I was already bombarded with horrible tales like how someone's arm was chopped off in broad day light in KL, by some evil baddies who could not think of any better ways to snatch her handbag.


Otherwise there would have been excellent shooting opportunities at places like the alleys, the old buildings, the massive crowd of white collars crossing a busy road at lunch hour, the busy wet markets, the park lands , the little old man who sits on his little wooden stool outside of the 30 year old grocery stall etc etc... KL is so beautiful, full of colours and life.


Not shooting for more than a week has made me very restless. Staring at my camera and lenses but having nothing to do with them is a real torment to my mental state (well, of course it was exaggerated)... guess what I did? I shot the roof of my neighbour's house through my window. I hope my neighbour did not see it and think I was spying on him/her :)


To be continued...

what do I like about Adelaide?

Her simplicity.


I was born and bred in a big city. My grandparents, parents and the whole extended family are from KL, and I have lived in the heart of the city centre of KL for the whole of my life.
My heart sank when I first arrived in this small town 5 years ago. Coming from a big city, I thought everything in Adelaide seemed pathetically small and slow.



Now I've gradually fallen in love with this place. I have begun to appreciate her beauty. Every part. The streets, the trams, the buses, the trees, the buildings...and most importantly, the people.


God gives me the heart to see the beauty of everything. Call me naive, but I insist to believe every creature , every part of the creation is beautiful.









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no subject

(A scooter, one day I wanna own this...)



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Someone came up to me and said 'It's a very pretty camera that you are holding! Which press do you work with?'


I was very tempted to say 'the National Geographic Mag.' (because it was my dream when I was much younger) ...I shook my head , 'Naww..I am a doctor.'


'Ohhhh!! You must be a genius! You are very young to be a doctor!'


The usual response that I get all the time when I tell ppl about my occupation. Many of them thought Im a nurse, a physiotherapist, a pharmacist, an accountant, a uni student (usually 1st year uni student)... I love playing this game, love anticipating their reactions when I tell them my actual age and occupation :)))


Maybe I should do something about my face...maybe smile less? Put on a pair of glasses? Chuck my funky clothes and shoes???? hehe....


But it is certainly an honour to be mistaken as a photographer, all the more I should carry my camera wherever I go :)

a lazy day

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This morning for the first time I wasn't waken up by the alarm clock...the actual fact is that I probably wouldnt even need an alarm clock to wake me. Just like this morning, my bio clock actually told me to get up, I jumped up and thought I was late for work (as usual). It was only after a while that I realised I am officially UNEMPLOYED now!




Yay! I happily went back to sleep, woke up at 830am, had a big evil grin on my face, thought Dr B and team must be enjoying their ward round ...


It felt so good, for the first time in the last couple of months I finally got my 7 hours sleep.




As you can tell from the pictures, yeah, I went to Glenelg with my camera again. Glenelg is such a great place for photography.



What can compare to a sunny morning, sitting by the beach , grabbing a McDonald's egg and sausage muffin , and sipping a Cibo's latte, holding my toy in my hands, and having my good friend keeping me in company?





More photos are on my http://www.siewwai.zenfolio.com/

I have been forcing all my friends to visit the site...

OMG

This is still very shocking to me...in a good way :)


Today I gave my consultant an appreciation card, specially hand picked because of its colour. He is a baby blue person, I have never seen any grown up man being so obssessed with a particular colour. He is always wearing blue of different shades, occasionally a darker blue...but it is always a blue. His car is a metallic baby blue if I am not mistaken.


In the card I also included my photo website ... but I did not expect a busy person like him would even care to visit my website...let alone going to my blog! He asked me 'so I am a very cheeky consultant ?' OMG OMG OMG!! Instantaneously I knew he'd come to my blog and read thru the posts... and I am just an intern...


At that moment I was so glad I did not bitch about him on my blog :D


Anyway...I am glad that he did spare some of his precious time for this mini mighty mouse.
He wrote a very good report about me, the comment that I like the best goes like 'a lovely intern with great humour'...humour? I think he's got a better sense of humour :) It was him who made the team the greatest.


Just a thought :)....if he ever had to give me an end of term assessment form for his overal performance as a consultant, I'd probably write :' Dr B is a lovely consultant who allows his staff the freedom to express themselves, He's done well in this term, always looking after his staff and occasionally letting his intern boss him around when he is in a good mood, and despite all this, he still willingly shouts the team coffee. '


:) but to be honest, my Boss, if you are reading this post, you know that you have been a great boss. Even the registrar once told me that he'd so glad that he worked on this unit.


A gold star for you :)

what a year

It has come to the end of my internship, finally. It will be my last day tomorrow.

The year has gone by very very quickly. I still remember very vividly the day when I started my internship, exactly 365 days ago.





This has been a tough year. The first time of many things.






I remember I started off with my night shifts, and I was probably more confused and disorientated than any of my demented patients. I remember the lil old lady who was very very frail, she didn't make it after a major surgery. I still remember in the middle of the night I was called to see her when she was in coma. I gave her too much fluid and indirectly contributed to her death the next morning. That was the first death in my career. Of course I was weeping and weeping the whole week. Never again I allow myself to repeat the mistake.






I remember my dearest surgical registrar who did the nights with me. We became good friends , every night he told me his stories as a missionary surgeon in India. I remember on my way of collecting my car I liked to put lil prayer notes or words of encouragement under his windscreen wiper. That was the first time I was inspired to wanna be a surgeon.






I remember how terrified I was when I had to go into a dying patient's room packed with 20 ppl, telling them their nana was going to die.






I remember spending my Chinese New Year , my 26th birthday, my Good Friday, my Easter at night alone in the office whilst on night shifts. I remember I broke up with Chris in the morning of 18/2 and came to work at night on the same day, hiding my own emotions and putting up a mask. I think my boss must have seen my swollen red eyes.






I remember hitting 140 hours a fortnight in my 2nd rotation while I went through a very tough time in my personal life. How could I have possibly handled both the stress of work and the stress of my life events altogether, if it was without God???? A patient shouted at me on the corridor demanding to have his needs sorted out immediately, while I had not even my LUNCH at 5 pm. That was the first time I yelled at my patient. That was also the first time I broke down in tears in front of my colleagues, just for 10 seconds.






But later on this very handsome patient turned out to like me and attempted to ask me out. Don't worry, of course it did not happen.






Oh yea, of course I remember good old Mr X. He too was very old and frail, but we became good friends. Every night I'd drop by his room and say a prayer for him. He would tell me ' Siew, you have made my day'.....I remember him very well, because he was asking for me the very moment before he died, according to the nurses.






We all learn through trials and errors. We all had a hard time in the beginning. It has finally come to the end of internship. I no longer tremble because nothing makes me too scared now.






It is always hard to say bye to something that you cherish so much in ur heart. I've enjoyed all my days at work, I might not be excellent but I have done my very best in every rotation, and esp this one.






I am not sure if any of these beautiful ppl would even know the existence of this post, but I just wanna say I love them all. This has indeed been the highlight of my internship, the team has been the greatest of all. Efficient, on the ball, compassionate, united, supportive of each other, forgiving, and most importantly, fun loving.






And now Mighty Mouse has become my nickname on the ward, thanks to my very cheeky consultant :)






Hmm...what a year of being at the bottom of the foodchain...a bit of nostalgia here, I have a lot to share , but really should be going to bed now...

arrrgggggggggggggggggg

and arrrrggggggggg! Forgive me if I am screaming out too loudly. I was just so annoyed that I missed the entire count down posting , just because of the stupid internet connection.I have been living without the www for nearly 2 weeks and finally, finally , finally, it's all fixed....but ... but...but I had sooo much to share during those last few days of 2007, esp about what God has done for me in this tough year! Anyway..



Work has been crazy , it is coming to the end of my internship and just 2 more days to go! And being as obssessive-compulsive as I can, I just wanna make sure I finish ALL my jobs before I leave, without leaving any shit for the new interns, they will have enuf troubles of their own in the beginning of their internship. Just today itself I've stayed in the hospital for 16 hours. The next 2 days will be WORSE. I will not leave the hospital on Tuesday if I do not finish the last discharge summary.



Ok, photos of this week...as usual, I actually again went to the Torrens River, just me myself and siewwai, time of solitude again. God is good, isn't He? Whoelse can possibly paint the sky like He does?





















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