Incubator

After 5 months of being sick-free, all those common ailments come bombarding me at one go.
It feels as if my body is an incubator for all these bacteria and viruses that attack me when my immune system goes down and believe me, they are having the time of their lives making me feel horrible.
So far, in chronological order, I've had viral fever with body aches, abnormal sweating (for someone who doesn't sweat a lot), headache, sore throat, cold, and cough.
Which eventually worsened to the point that I could not swallow water and my pharynx was so inflamed that it was red in color.
By that time, gastric was already joining the party.
I am so sick of being sick.

Therapy

Am in a very good mood as I had a very satisfying session of retail and food therapy on Thursday with none other than Ms Jamie Chai. =)
And ended up with lots of goodies.
Shopping is so good for the soul.
So, so good.

Responsibility

I'm home again for the weekends but there's still a matter that's niggling my brain.
See now that I'm a "pegawai" I have much more responsibility to take on. Unfortunately responsibility comes in the form of paperwork. And paperwork is bad news.

Now I'm stuck with having to prepare reports on why there were 24 patients who waited more than 30 minutes for their medications at the Outpatient Pharmacy for three days. I had to practically man the front counter alone with another assistant pharmacist and take care of the back at the same time which is not possible for me at this stage. And the specialist from Kuantan, who comes only once every three months, had to choose to come this week when we are really short-handed at the Outpatient Pharmacy. And he has to prescribe more than 7 meds for each of his patient (due to chronic renal disease) and most of these meds have to be recorded into the bincard for each usage. Hence, the waiting time exceeded 30 minutes.

And now I'm the head of Diabetes and Hemodialysis Unit MTAC (MTAC being Medication Adherence Therapy Clinic). And also doing Outpatient Pharmacy when I'm not doing MTAC.
Grr. Being the boss sucks.

On another note, do not make promises you can't keep.

Wishes Do Come True

When I made wishes in the past year, I kept asking to go back to "KL".
And my wishes did come true.
I was posted to KL and am now working at HKL.
The irony?
The KL that I got is not Kuala Lumpur but Kuala Lipis.
Next time I'm going to be very accurate and precise with my wishes.

Next Stop: Pahang

After a long and torturous wait, and finally giving up hope of ever getting your posting as a fully registered pharmacist, I finally got my posting out of the blue, when I'm least expecting it.
I got Pahang!
Which was actually my first choice..call me crazy but my only aim was to get out of Terengganu at that time.
It took me some time to absorb it all, being stupid and ungrateful for it in the beginning and finally accepting it in the end because it is still much better than staying in Terengganu or being shipped off to Sabah.
Still, Pahang IS a big state. I could even be posted to the most rural part of Pahang! That's a chance I have to take now..

On a different note, i finally climbed up Bukit Besar for the first and the last time in Terengganu. I felt like Flubber (the green jelly-like thing) the whole way up and especially all the way down. Gah I still need more work to lose more Flubber part of me!

Hit-and-Run

I so did a hit-and-run today.
Nope, no one was injured in this case.
Yup, shame on me.
In my defense, the KKM (Kementerian Kesihatan Malaysia) owned van was only a bit scratched.
You can't really notice it unless it was pointed out to you. OK it was a wee bit obvious. But it is just one more to the multitude scratches on the van.
Whereas my car took the harder hit and it is now a wee bit dented on the back of the left side. And scratched. Ouch.

My Final On-Call

I just finished my final on-call as a provisionally registered pharmacist at HSNZ on 11th September 2010. And I had to communicate with the most arrogant medical officer ever.

Since it was the Raya holidays, most Muslim medical staff were let go of for the holidays and the Chinese ones had to stay to carry out on-call duties. And as usual during the festive season, the Casualty Department became a hectic place due to the many accidents, food poisoning, and gastritis cases courtesy of the festive season. With this hectic crowd, there are bound to be doctors who have to be borrowed from other departments and health clinics during this Raya season and mistakes in prescriptions are unavoidable.

There was this one case that totally irked me. This particular medical officer prescribed many slips with C. Ponstan II/II BD and T. Vit C I/I TDS. For two days in a row. So I decided to call up the doctor to verify the unusual doses during my on-call. Here was how the conversation went.
Me: Good evening Dr. .... I'm Ling from Satellite Pharmacy 7 and I would like to confirm the dose of a few prescription slips that I received from you.
Dr: Yes?
Me: (Proceeded with the problem at hand). Usually we give Ponstan as II/II TDS, do you really want to give it as a BD dose?
Dr: I know that the max dose is TDS, so it is not wrong to give it as a BD dose right since it is still within the max dose? I have always given it to my patients as a BD dose anyway. But since you say it is TDS then it is TDS.
Me: Alright. Then what about the Vit C? May I know what is the indication for I/I TDS? Cause usually I/I OD is adequate as a prophylactic treatment.
Dr: I usually give it I/I TDS as an anti-anxiolytic.
Me: (Reinforcing statement) But Vit C I/I OD is really already adequate enough as a prophylactic treatment.
(It's not like I can tell that doctor that:

1. We are always running out of stock of Vit C
   
2. Most patients don't even take their meds accordingly
3. There are better sources of Vit C anyway
4. I/I OD is REALLY adequate enough and it is the practice at the HSNZ A&E Dept.)

Dr: But I have always been prescribing it for my patients this way. Since you say it is I/I OD then it is I/I OD.
Me: Alright.
Dr: (Hangs up immediately)

Rude much?

But other than that, I have had quite a satisfying final on-call with new cases to handle and there were these two particular patients that made my day.

One made me took three puffs of MDI Salbutamol (which is overdose even for normal asthmatic patients and I was not using placebos) to get him to understand the MDI technique but he finally got it in the end. He thanked me and then went off happily with his meds.

Another was a Malay gentleman from Kuantan who had to get cough and cold meds from this hospital and he voiced his concerns that his inhalers weren't working for him anymore even though he took all his meds accordingly (and he was using the best inhalers too). So I took the time to explain to him about his condition and that his inhalers might not work as well due to his untreated cough and cold and his inhalers will work just as well when his condition improves. He thanked me for spending the time to explain his condition and for his supply of meds and went home relieved of one his worries.

It feels good to be appreciated and it is these small things that make you remember why you still pull yourself through with your job even when the conditions are less than appealing to you. And it definitely pays to spend a little more time to make a difference in patients' lives.