My Script

It’s done! My acting re-debut today. And my script? Hardly tantalising compared to the last one. Briefly: I am a 35 year old (oh they make me so young!) single, engineer who has chronic persistent headache for the last 3 months coupled with lethargy. I stay alone, has healthy parents, don’t smoke, drinks beer occasionally and has a girlfriend. I also have some visual problems, growing what looks like a pair of breasts and has lost interest in sex and couldn’t get a woody.

Any guesses?

Will write about the 5 candidates who came into my room for the interview, once I have spent the RM150 I earned today having fun!

Tues, 311006 @ 1702

Protected: Interview with an Umpire (password: sex)

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

Acting

Once in a while, I get the chance to do something fun and get paid for it. Tomorrow will be such a day. I have been asked to act in the MRCP PACES exam. I don’t know what my ‘script’ will be as I will only get it half an hour before the actual acting.  But I can tell you what happened 6 months ago when I was first asked to act.

Back then, I was told to act as a bisexual orthopaedic surgeon who was admitted to the hospital for 2 weeks of unresolving diarrhoea. Turns out that my stool sample tested positive for Cryptosporidium, a nasty little parasite that could only mean one thing: HIV positive.
The task of the exam candidates was to counsel me into taking a HIV screening test. Simple right? Not so! I had to act out disbelief on being told the ‘news’, register shock and denial, and even anger!

Out of 5 candidates who came in to ‘interview’ me, only 2 passed. The rest just bumbled through the whole thing. One assumed that just because I was a ‘surgeon’, I knew everything there is to know about HIV; another just sat in front of me and told me ‘Dr So-and-so, you have AIDS!!!’ and the last one took the cake: She stared at me for eternity and then extended her hand to shake mine and blurted out profusely “Good afternoon Puan Rokiah!”

I was indignant of course (or acted so anyway). I shot back “What? Excuse me, but which part of me looked like a Puan Rokiah to you?”. Poor girl. Apparently she was given the wrong scenario before entering the room! Sigh! We had to do a ‘take 2′ after that. She still flunked by the way. Later I chanced upon her at the corridor and asked why did she greet me as such since I am obviously not a lady! She mumbled that she thought she had to deal with the issue of trans-sexualism!

Oooo, I can’t wait to look at my script tomorrow! I agreed to act with the condition that I do not have to act out any gay/bi characters anymore. Too easy. Heh heh! I think I am going to nominate myself for an Oscar.

Mon, 301006, goyang kaki at another locum clinic, 1945

Free HAART

Here’s a bit of festive cheer. Last week my boss announced that with immediate effect, all first line HAART (highly active anti-retroviral therapy) will be made available FOC to the patients in this hospital!

I was overjoyed when I heard the news. For the first time, offering anti-HIV medications to all patients has become a reality! When these medications first burst onto the Malaysian scene many years ago, the cost was exorbitant, about RM1300 per month, putting them far beyond the reach of ordinary folks. Over the years, the price came down and just last month, a month’s supply of subsidized medications here cost RM260.

RM260 may not be much to many of us but to some people, especially the patients themselves who sometimes are too weak to work, it can still be an impossible sum to come up with.

And now it’s free! Hallelujah! Now everyone can be offered therapy!

My only concern is, however, when something is free, it may not be appreciated by some folks. And this might lead to complacency when it comes to taking the medications, much like many folks with hypertension and diabetes, who default in taking their meds (because the govt gives it to them for a mere RM1!). When that happens, the virus will become resistant to the meds and we might have a bigger headache to deal with!

But until such a time or scenario, lets just rejoice for now!

Mon, 301006 @ 0748

Downsized

I received a call  this morning,  from the clinic where I have been doing locum the past 3 years. The conversation was short. Over at the other end, the head nurse, told me rather curtly that the clinic has terminated the services of all locum doctors! It seems that the owner wants to do all the locum slots himself from next month onwards. I was to surprised to say anything more than just an “ok, sure” before hanging up the phone.

Maybe it’s a divine sign that tells me my time in KL is coming to an end. I depend on that locum money for my weekly expenses and it has been this way the past 3 years. It’s a blessing in many ways as the clinic is not busy so I could study, and the money was enough for my expenses. And now, suddenly, it’s no more. Sigh…

It’s time to tighten the belt further! But as always, God is good, and He will surely provide. That’s what my wife told me as she gave me a goodbye hug earlier as I made my way back to KL.

Sun, 291006 @ 0925

Coke – one for the weekend

 

Work’s done (could have been done sooner if not for the darn last minute referrals), the nightmare (of working thru the festive break) is over, I just want to finish my detoxifying green tea and head on home, listening to Savage Garden while driving. The blue skies are back and so is the monsoon!

Have a grand weekend everyone!

Fri, 271006 @ 1633

PS: personally I prefer vanilla coke if I am forced to take a carbonated drink.

Morning at the park

I had the opportunity to spend time alone with my kids last week when my wife had to work on a Saturday. After breakfast, I took them to the famed (or used to be anyway) Seremban Lake Gardens where they spent an hour playing with the slides, swings and everything else. The whole place was wet due to the heavy down pour the night before but that didn’t stop them from having a go at it.

Ryan was fearless of course, and he couldn’t care less that his bum was wet and his pants were soiled! Darlene, being a  girl, was more careful and it was heartening to see her try things that a few years ago she totally refused to do; like going on the swing and running across the iron beam!

Later we also went for a bicycle ride at the nearby ‘mini traffic town’ where bicycles are  rented at RM2 for 30 minutes. Had to push Ryan all over ‘town’ as he hasn’t quite mastered the art of cycling! (or was he faking it so poor daddy had to push him?!!! Hmmm….)

The morning was topped off with lunch at Mac Donald’s. It was a lovely day.

Fri, and can’t wait for the day to be done! 271006 @ 0742

Oops!

Someone very kindly informed me that my earlier article has been blogged on by another person much earlier…like in Mac this year! And by none other than Vagus too! (he is one funny chap, you should read his blog). Anyway, he has taken the trouble to put up the original flow chart. Take a look at it here.

Sheesh, nothing dents an inflated ego faster than to be told you are publishing recycled news, albeit unknowingly! I swear upon the graves of all those white rats I dissected in Form 6 that I did not plagiarise his work!

Thurs, post-locum, tired but happy that the blue skies are back! 261006 @ 2300

A medical student’s guide to subspecialization

One of the biggest dilemma a medical student faces upon graduation is the question of which subspecialization to pursue. I had a chat with a medical student last week and he expressed a similar sentiment. Well, be in doubt no more! Last week, a colleague handed me a print out of a flow chart on how to decide on your subspecialization. Since, I am too lazy to reproduce the flow chart, I have converted it into 8 simple questions that will determine your destiny! Give it a try! 

 

Q1, You are mentally

            a. Crazy (proceed to Q2)

            b. Sane (proceed to Q3)

 

Q2. Your attention span is

            a. Significant: try Psychiatry

            b. Non-existent: try Emergency Medicine

Q3. Are you hard working?

            a. Very (proceed to Q4)

            b. Not so much (proceed to Q7)

 

Q4. You attitude is

            a. Nice (proceed to Q5)

            b. Doesn’t matter (proceed to Q6)

            c. Mean: try Surgery

 

Q5. You hate

            a. Adults: try Paediatrics

            b. Children: try Medicine

 

Q6. The patient is

            a. Asleep: try Anaesthesia

            b. Dead: try Pathology

 

Q7. You are afraid of

            a. the light: try Radiology

            b. the dark (proceed to Q8)

 

Q8. You think

            a. big: try Dermatology

            b: small: try Ophthalmology

 

I am just wondering where does Obstetrics and Gynaecology fit in. I suppose if you answer, ‘non of the above’, you would probably have to consider specializing in O&G, or ENT or just become a GP.

I expect I would probably get an earfull from unhappy fellow colleagues. Hey, lighten up ya, it’s the festive season!

 

Thurs, 261006 @ 0756

Post call

Last night wasn’t too bad, thankfully. I was more bored than busy. Still, I hardly slept well. It’s always like that no matter how quiet or busy the call is. The heart pumps a little faster and the senses a little sharper, even when I drift off to fitful slumber, always anticipating that the pager might beep and fearing that I might sleep through it (and consequently have my pants sued off me for negligence!).

I am going to finish my coffee, do the rounds (hoping it will be mercifully quick) and go home and sleep the day away.

Wed, 251006 @ 0727