20130830
i feel so strange today. think i'm tired from the social interaction this week, even though it's mainly just been j and his housemates. it was nice just hanging out with the cats today and not being overly attached, ha.
since j was feeling better today (and hence otherwise occupied), i decided to do things i would usually do on my own.
went to the glen to get my telstra mobile broadband thing checked out. the guy was really helpful. turns out there was something wrong with the software, so he reinstalled it and it works now. yay! won't be internet-less when i go back to shep tonight (tomorrow?). :)
got lunch and groceries and came home and made passionfruit rekorderlig macarons. :) though the chocolate was a bit oily, hmm. :| either way i overbaked the shells so they'll have to sit in the fridge for at least 24 hours before anyone gets to try them. will ask j to bring them to church for me, hopefully they'll have softened enough by then.
will shower, cook steamed egg, and load my car before going to lg. i don't feel like talking to people today though. :|
i really can't wait for my annual leave.
4:27 pm
i used to tell j that he was overly attached (to me). now i have to say the reverse is true. i wonder how it got like that in such a short time.
tuna looks like he's withering away. i hope he doesn't have to suffer much longer.
12:27 am
20130828
it's wednesday night and a quiet desperation surfaces. tomorrow i have to drive back to shep and work again.
i'm still contemplating coming back on friday, although that would mean an extra 5 hours+ of driving and $60+ in petrol. and after spending most of today with j, who is down with the man-flu, i wouldn't be surprised if i fall sick too.
when i was doing o&g the midwives were always talking about how their husbands had the man-flu. when guys are sick they can't do anything, but when girls are sick, they just continue doing what they usually do. guys are like babies haha.
went to mmc to pass j some honey lemon this morning. it was super difficult to find parking. -.- walking through mmc brought back so many memories.... mainly of the osces haha. haven't been in there for ?2 years but i managed to find my way to the cafeteria. staircase 19 is no longer labelled? or maybe it was never 19.
drove to abalone's house and we went to pick chyi wei up. went to liar liar for brunch! was tempted to just have the eggs atlantic but ended up going with the quinoa and potato rosti instead. one of the rare times not really wanting to go for brunch because j was sick haha.
went home, went to clayton, then to j's. helped abalone buy ingredients for naan and she came to collect them. cooked herbal chicken soup! couldn't find all the individual herbs in hongkong so i just got one of those pre-packed combinations that had the ones i wanted plus a few extras. added dates and goji. thought the soup was really good, albeit very oily. ;p it was actually quite similar to what mama makes. :) abalone said that jane said it was amazing! :D yay!
kind of met j's parents for the first time. :O
j kept checking his temperature, which fluctuated between 37.4 and 38.1. the weather was so nice that he decided we should go out for a walk. spring is almost here! in the early afternoon it would have been alright to wear shorts and a tshirt out. :) :) :) love. walked to clayton and got food from wurung gudeg for dinner. :) then to coles to get icy poles for his throat.
came home (4th home) and had dinner while watching prison break, then went to trade food with abalone. ;p chicken soup for naan and fish curry. ;p but i left it at j's place, hmmm.
nothing formed against me shall stand
You hold the whole world in Your hands
i'm holding on to Your promises
You are faithful
You are faithful
You are faithful
i know who goes before me
i know who stands behind
the God of angel armies
is always by my side
the One who reigns forever
He is a friend of mine
the God of angel armies
is always by my side
10:41 pm
20130827
tuesday-
went to clayton in the morning to get things. went there yesterday, and will have to go again tomorrow. the people who work there must wonder why i don't plan my meals at least a few days ahead. but oh well, it has just depended on what j wants to eat haha. he's feeling sick, so i'm cooking chicken soup tomorrow.
came home and cooked 豆油肉 and the same veg. also made 1kg of chik kwa! yum. ;p j brought rice over (my rice cooker lives in shep) and we had lunch. then we brought the cats out for a walk! hahaha. or rather, they brought us out on a walk. the environment here has too many stimulants for them, they cannot just wander around without being terrified by people or cars innocently passing by. cannot let them wander leash-less here.
finished making the chik kwa and washing up and laundry, then went over to j's to do what i usually do there - nua. finished my jodi picoult book (i was actually quite taken aback that it was about domestic violence) and watched masterchef while they went to corporate prayer.
bendigo - the only place that i interviewed at - officially rejected me today. i feel like there is no hope left. D: i don't think i've felt this worried about not having a job before, not last year or the year before. maybe it's because i didn't apply interstate this year. so who knows what's in store for next year?
11:56 pm
20130826
i feel like such a pig. but i really don't know why i am so tired all the time. :| such ineffective rest, sigh.
went to clayton in the morning to get ingredients to cook lunch (and dinner) for j. cooked 三杯鸡 and choy sum. the 三杯鸡 really smelt like it came from a restaurant. :D so good! haha. follow recipe only. tomorrow i'm cooking 豆油肉. i feel like i'm preparing for life as a housewife. ;p hahaha. if i was just cooking for myself i would never put in that much effort haha.
watched some prison break and masterchef (top 4!) and read my jodi picoult book. :) A-Z. also took a nap. my days off are so unproductive, hurr.
shall go sleep now so i hopefully have time to make some chik kwa tomorrow too.
2 month hello pandas!
12:54 am
let all the people sing of
Your awesome power in all the earth
let darkness tremble at Your name
why do the nations rage when
the King is on His throne
now and forever You will reign
woke up late this morning and was slightly late for church. D: love like a father.
took a nap after church, then went over to j's and looked for bowties/ ties on etsy while he got his hair cut. found a skinny tie which i really liked, but it was too expensive. and also he didn't like it because he thinks it will make him look fat. why so vain ah. ;p settled on a sea foam bowtie instead, from the brand i saw at finders keepers last year! (i am so excited about finders keepers this year ;p)
had dinner at me dee thai restaurant in springvale with a bunch of church friends. very expensiveee for regular thai food plus i always feel like i'm at the losing end of the deal when i share food with people. -.- even if i'm not hungry i don't dare to take more food and so i end up paying what everyone else pays, although i only eat half of what they eat. -.- so not worth it. (case in point - i am hungry now.)
j sent me home after and stayed for a while to play with (read: torture) the cats. they're not so terrified of him now, even though all he does is torture them.
will attempt to be domesticated and do laundry and cook tomorrow. should also go and bank in my cheque and go to the telstra shop. if i can be bothered. :| realised that i can't make ice cream because the bowl isn't frozen, hmm. there isn't any space in the freezer either, oh well.
bailey will roll over for a belly rub even if it means he falls off the bed haha. ;p and on the topic of falling off beds.... ;p
12:41 am
20130824
stop motion-
i feel so old not being able to survive on a few hours' sleep anymore. :|
dragged myself up at 4 and j picked me up at 4.30. drove to yering for our hot air balloon ride, stopping for maccas on the way. ;p weakness. got there at 5.40 and waited in the car for other people to arrive. date planned 3 months in advance. ;p thank you! :)
then we piled into buses (?) and went in the opposite direction from the wind. unloaded in some random field and popped the basket on its side. then they stretched the balloon out and used fans to blow it up with cold air first. then they blew it up with hot air so it went up and made the basket upright. then we all scrambled in and lifted off!
getting off the ground was quite uneventful. and not scary at all, because it was so smooth. everything looked like miniatures, but we could still hear the cows lowing from all the way up there haha. i liked watching the ducks flying and landing in the ponds. we also went up into the clouds. it was so quiet when the pilot wasn't burning.
someone asked if anyone was going to propose haha. "just tell us, we'll take photos for you." ;p but no one did.
landed in another random field which didn't have as much cowdung as the previous few fields we flew over. the basket was new so the pilot really didn't want to get poo all over it haha. "the poo-ometer is going crazy!" landing was bumpier (bouncier) than the take off but we survived. "we're alive!" "what?! there was never a chance of you not being alive!"
posted insta videos of the set up/ flight/ balloon/ pack up. ;p so fun haha.
went to the yarra valley chocolaterie and ice creamery after. had a spinach and feta quiche/ breakfast wrap and passionfruit punch hot chocolate/ salted caramel popcorn hot chocolate. the food was good but i think i would have preferred a normal hot chocolate. tried some of their couverture milk and white chocolate, which was really good. but i felt too poor to buy any. :\
came back and took a 4-hour nap. ;p and then was serenaded because of a comment which will never be forgotten. whoever knew "you are my sunshine" is such a weird song? the second verse is weird enough but the third verse is about conditional love, coupled with a threat. how weird! i videoed it but he wouldn't let me insta it.
finished watching the last masterclass (i am sorely disappointed that they didn't actually teach them how to make sourdough, or even a sourdough starter) and had dinner. i feel bad always having dinner there. :| would have stayed longer but staying there late always makes me feel like not leaving haha. i am so lazy on my days off. plus i need to cook for church lunch also. anddd i think he is more productive when i'm not around haha.
talked to cheryl (yan) and she said that if i get married she will offer her kid to be my flower girl/ page boy. :D hahaha. they are considering having a kid soon! so exciting. ;p
attempting to bake eggs instead of hard boiling them. fingers crossed they don't explode in the oven.
going home in 3 months!
10:18 pm
i have decided
to follow Jesus
no turning back
no turning back
the world behind me
the cross before me
no turning back
no turning back
(i love this song)
i think that that article about introverts made me understand myself a bit better. and randomly - although i am perfectly comfortable with who i am, i really hope for my kids' sake that don't turn out like me. in that sense. i know a lot of the problems i have are insignificant compared to real problems, but i think it just makes life more difficult than it would be otherwise. imagine always being told that you're
too quiet and reserved and that you need to
come out of your shell and
participate. no wonder i have all these self esteem issues.
although if they were like me i would be able to relate. and i would not try to make them do things that were not them. now my mother is fine with who i am, but i think she had a hard time with me as a kid because i was completely opposite from her and she didn't quite know how to handle it except to try and make me more like her (and more like most other kids).
anyway.
thursday
the paeds nurses are brilliant at what they do. they are really good and i am glad to be working with them because they know so much more than i do and i can sometimes ask them what they think. and i think they're starting to warm up to me too, haha.
spent quite a bit of time just watching a girl having a platelet and packed red cell transfusion in the evening. she's 11 years old and was recently diagnosed with a brain tumour. she had chemo recently and had a nosebleed yesterday and was found to have a platelet count of 7 and haemoglobin of 78. because of the tumour, she also has diabetes insipidus (so she pees
a lot) and her mum had just given her desmopressin (which stops her peeing), so we were quite worried about her fluid balance since we were transfusing her with 400ml of blood and platelets. she was fine when i was there, hope she was fine overnight too.
went to ED to help akbar with an admission (a ?non-accidental injury who later discharged against medical advice) and as i was finishing the paperwork, there was a code green (emergency caesar) in birth suite (although seriously where else could a code green be called?) and i went up within 5 mins. i was really surprised to see them already wheeling the patient off to theatre. how efficient is that? they were never that efficient when i was working there! haha.
because she was already being wheeled off, i didn't get to see who she was. but later on coldfusion i realised that she was my frequent flyer patient! i'd been seeing her in ED since she was 15 weeks pregnant, using marijuana and having abdominal pain. later after she passed 20 weeks i started seeing her in birth suite instead. i remember being surprised when she remembered my name the last time i saw her, since i hadn't bothered to introduce myself after seeing her like nearly every week. i was also surprised that she was finally 39+2/40 haha. went to see her and bub later that night. :)
friday
finished work at midnight and woke up at 6.30am to drive back to melb because daniel had a random craving for bagels, which he randomly told me about yesterday haha. abalone says i am very nice to him. ;p
got home at about 9.40am and unloaded, then j and daniel picked me up and we went to redeliver someone's mail (woohoo chendol!). picked abalone up, then went for brunch at huff bagelry. :) had the #1 - smoked salmon with cream cheese and capers (minus the capers). i am still of the opinion that their bagels are amazing but the fillings are only okay.
went to j's so daniel could try out his new guitar. which i still believe is temporarily more important than me. but hopefully only temporarily lah hor. watched a bit of last night's masterclass and a bit of Atonement, which i actually want to finish haha. strange show. dropped abalone home, dropped daniel off in uni, went home where j attempted to get reacquainted with the cats, then brought my rice to j's and took a nap, yay. he studied (i think) and cooked my fried rice for lg for me. :) and practised guitar.
was really quite apprehensive about my first time at the new lg, so i kept praying beforehand that i would be able to go with an open mind haha. i am never comfortable in new situations with people i don't know or don't know well. but it was not bad really. :) did things i don't usually do. hmm.
surprisingly, the hot air balloon thing is still on tomorrow. i think the weather will be crap so we won't really be able to see the sunrise and the photos won't turn out nice. :\ but oh well. hot chocolate festival after! :) we have to be there by 5.40am so i should really sleep now. although i've been sleeping at 2-3am for the last 4 nights haha.
12:10 am
20130821
attempting to blog from work because my mobile broadband has died on me for some unknown reason and i cannot make myself wake up/ leave the house early to go to telstra to get it checked out. and blogging from my ipad doesn't allow me to change the default time, which is 2 hours ahead (and i don't know how to change the settings).
day 3 of 4! only 1 to go! :)
worked non-stop from 2.30-10pm today, which is new haha. ;p for paeds. started off doing a referral to the RCH burns clinic, then showed hoa how to do a baby check - we checked twins simultaneously and he pretty much copied what i wrote. then kelvin said he wanted me to do admissions today so i started freaking out and praying that there wouldn't be any sick kids in ED.
did 2 direct admissions (babies transferred from other hospitals), which was alright, since they're pretty stable and already have a plan in place. then i went to ED to see 2 kids with bronchiolitis. was relieved when kelvin decided to admit the one i wanted to admit, and discharge the one i wanted to discharge. :) i am not that hopeless at my job after all! haha. then i saw another kid with gastro. it's always slightly scary when the patient's parent (or when i was doing o&g, the patient's partner) is a doctor. admitted that kid too. and then kelvin admitted another kid with ?glandular fever.
i have generalised pruritus and although i am not jaundiced i feel like i should get my LFTs checked. :|
hoa has an interview at monash on thursday so he asked to swap a shift with me. it didn't really make sense to swap sat or sun because the hours are that much longer, so we ended up swapping thursday for friday. which means i have to come back to work a day earlier, then get friday off. the consensus was that it didn't make sense for me to drive back and forth twice in two days, so i will just stay. :| it is weird not going for lg when i'm not actually working.
saturday is meant to be hot air balloon/ hot chocolate festival day but i'm not sure if the weather will hold up. it's so strange to see some trees covered in blossoms when it's still this cold (currently 8 degrees).
talked about kids, which was nice. i am still scared though.
nearly time to go home. :)
11:48 pm
my God is fighting for us always
my God is fighting for us all
day 2 of 4! it is so much easier to get through 4 days of work compared to 8. ;p looking forward to my week off!
slept in today. ;p got up at 8.30 initially because of the sun - i remember waking up at 6am up on the sunny coast because of the sun. got up to feed the cats and clear poop and facebook, then snoozed from 10 until 12 haha.
it was a good day. had handover, went on the afternoon round and did some discharge paper work, then went to ED with vishu (the reg) to admit an 8 month old baby with PUO.
did nothing much for most of the rest of the evening. discharge summaries, updated the list, had dinner, did sudoku in the paper that's been lying in the reg room, facebooked.
then i got a call from the ED AO asking me to go admit a patient with croup. he'd already discussed it with vishu and just needed me to do the admission paperwork. to me, that is the best kind of admission. there's already a plan in place, all i have to do is take a history and examine a not very sick child. not too difficult. ;p
another bad thing about working lates: i eat a lot. i have dinner at work, then i come home and eat some more. D: like a pig! sigh.
croissants next week..? hmm.
have been stalking someone lately which keeps getting this song stuck in my head. and it's annoying but i have such stalkerish tendencies hur hur.
2:03 am
20130820
day 1 of 4! :) only 4 this time! :)
slept in this morning - by which i mean i got up at about 9.30am haha. prepped and packed, then went to pick j up and dropped him off at mmc. he seems to think i am very nice just because of that haha. amusing. ;p
was really sleepy but managed to get up to shep in one piece. came home, fed the cats, and went to work.
the good thing about working the late shift - getting to sleep in. i remember sleeping at about 3am when i did lates in caloundra ED, and getting up at 10 (yes, 10 is late for me). i guess the difference is that caldem was a good 30 min drive away haha. now i leave home at 2.20pm to start work at 2.30pm. ;p
the bad thing about working the late shift - having to park really far away. and also, the sick kids. we had another kid with asthma who was going to be transferred to melbourne. she was actually centrally cyanosed when she presented to ED, but improved with mag sulph. but she deteriorated after coming to the ward - we gave her 30 minutely salbutamol nebs with no improvement and i thought she needed aminophyline, so i called the reg. he came and saw her, called the boss, and we started the loading dose of aminophyline. the reg called pets and they wanted her transferred.
met the other resident today, he seems nice. slightly clueless about the patients, but that wasn't really his fault considering he hadn't worked the weekend. there weren't any sick kids anyway when he left.
went to birth suite for a short while at about 9.30pm because i was bored. ;p and because i knew ibby was on haha. molly and marcia were there too. :) talked for a bit, then ibby had to go see a patient on the surgical ward and molly and marcia finished their shift and went home. i didn't know the night midwives (they were probably wondering who i was) so i went back to the ward.
my telstra mobile broadband isn't working. :( can't work out why.
i get to sleep in tomorrow! :)
2:37 am
20130818
i know it's crazy to believe in silly things
but it's not that easy
i've been the grumpiest person all weekend but j has somehow managed to put up with me and still try to make me smile. so loved, i know.
managed to use propresenter today. i did think that one day i would have to learn to use it, and that today would not be the best day to learn because service was in uni = set up in the morning = not much time at all. plus there were a couple of videos and 2 powerpoints but i survived, yay! william says i should just use propresenter next time because alfons is putting a lot of effort into maintaining it. okay.
have been checking out catteries for the end of the year but they are really expensive. i don't know if i have much of a choice though. probably not.
i think my little box of chik kwa is not going to last very long. D:
so not looking forward to going back to work. i don't like afternoon shifts because i think that's when all the bad things happen. :| hopefully not this week. please let it be a nice quiet week when no bad things happen.
10:53 pm
20130817
theoretically-
occasionally i wonder what is wrong with people. most of the time i don't bother doing anything because i feel that it is quite pointless. so not worth the effort.
went to Breakfast Thieves for breakfast with j today. we were the first ones there! going early pays off. but their ms omega (eggs atlantic) was strange. the smoked salmon was a bit sweet and orangey, and the hollandaise was definitely not as buttery and flavourful as seven:am's. their hot chocolate was also nutty, which is something i cannot stand in hot chocolates.
spent most of the rest of the day nuahing/ sleeping/ watching prison break. went out to get groceries, had kfc for lunch, then made some chik kwa. made the whole colin house smell like chik kwa for a while. :| sorry! j made me take a shower because he said i smelt like a bak kwa aunty. which was true. hair and all.
j also helped me clean up my computer, yay! now it is (supposed to be) faster and hasn't told me that there's no space... yet.
had laksa for dinner, made from the prima taste mix. laksa lamian is better, though i think it wasn't really a fair comparison haha.
i just don't like the idea.....
miss my cats, the little comforts.
one weekend off is not enough. my o&g rotation has spoilt me, i need 6 days off to recuperate after working 8 days. :( so grumpy all the time.
11:59 pm
thursday
day 7 of 8. 1 to go! (!!!)
sick asthma kid went to melbourne (not sure where exactly) last night. once again, PETS took ten thousand years (10 hours) to get here to transport her. -.- and in exchange, we got 2 bronchiolitic babies. and a set of twins! delivered by nvd! did not even see one of those in my entire 6 months in o&g, how disappointing.
discharged 4 kids today. did lots of discharge paperwork (discharge summaries, scripts, clinic referral forms, asthma action plans etc), then went up to special care to do more paperwork. then did handover with stef, which actually took an hour (we have an hour overlap) because we talked about all sorts of other random things haha. she has an interview at monash tomorrow so she's going to visit x in monash picu.
came home after work, had lunch (at 3.45pm), showered, and skyped with j. :) we're going to have dinner with my distant cousin (whom i have never met) on sunday. her mother is my father's cousin somewhere on mama's side. say yes first worry later ahhh i am so bad at meeting new people. :| oh and the reason why we're meeting is because she knows j.
friday
day 8 of 8! :D cannot believe that i've had hot chocolate 6 out of 8 days this work week. that is crazy.
the reg and consultant had a really interesting conversation about flying today. people who have so much money that they can learn to fly and then buy and maintain their own planes, ha.
was supposed to finish at 4 but ended up only leaving at about 4.50pm. the afternoon resident was doing the APLS course and adam was only covering from 5pm. but the boss came around at 4pm and started reviewing and discharging patients. didn't want to leave jobs for adam so i did all the discharge paperwork before i left.
got to lg at about 7.35pm, which wasn't too bad really. 2 hours 40 mins in after work traffic.
went to watch Now You See Me after and managed to stay awake the whole time. ;p i am really getting too old for midnight movies, heh. plus we're going out for brunch early tomorrow. i hope breakfast thieves' eggs ben doesn't disappoint! i'm hungry.
2:19 am
20130814
day 6 of 8. 2 to go, i cannot wait. in fact, i cannot wait for the next 3 months to be over so i can start doing geriatrics. -.-
x went to monash last night, intubated. in return, we got another sick kid with asthma. when i left this afternoon, they'd called PETS to transfer her. what is up with all these sick kids. :|
up side: did my own admission of a not very sick kid from clinic. she has an oral aversion because when she was 5 months old, her mother cut the top off the bottle teat and choked her. so she gets most of her nutrition by nasogastric tube now. she has some viral illness/ UTI but otherwise she's fine.
we are all mathematically challenged, even with calculators: it took us like at least half an hour to calculate how to dilute the mag sulph and what rate to run it at.
went back to the hospital for the VIC FEAT video conference at 7pm. teaching was on ophthalmology, which was alright but they didn't really cover many topics and ophthal also isn't that relevant a topic. the next VIC FEAT is on asthma (how much more relevant is that?) but isn't till november, heh.
yay saturday is hot chocolate festival date day! :D
10:28 pm
20130813
'cause no matter who you are
and no matter what you've done
there will come a time
when you can't make it on your own
and in your hour of desperation
know you're not the only one
praying, Lord above, i need a miracle
day 5 of 8. 3 to go. :)
had a couple of kids admitted overnight with exacerbation of asthma. and as i was finishing up today, X (who we'd just discharged yesterday) came back into ED looking quite bad. :|
the paeds consultants seem a lot nicer than the o&g ones. so far i've worked 5 days and had 3 cups of hot chocolate. ;p
kelvin tried once again to get my into the APLS course this weekend but he was unsuccessful. ;p yay! not only do i not want to do APLS, i also want to have my weekend off and go back to melbourne. if i had to do APLS i would be, in a sense, working for 14 days... not fun.
feel like some retail therapy again. therapy for what i'm not sure, but i just want to shoppp. :| plus i need new sandals.
irrationally disliking certain people.
tuna is dying. my mother said he had a left-sided abdominal lump before she went to kl, and after she came back his abdomen was very distended, he wasn't eating, and he seemed to be in pain. she brought him to the vet, who did an ?abdo x-ray and abdominocentesis (275ml of blood-stained fluid). today he had an ultrasound which showed a mid abdominal mass measuring 3.8x4.0x8.0cm and multiple liver masses. don't know what it is, and i don't know what my mother is planning to do. but either way, he is dying. and i probably won't get to say bye. :(
6:36 pm
20130812
day 4 of 8 (midweek fallout)
it was an alright day at work. felt like i hardly did any real work at all haha. "a resident's job" as stef calls it.
8.15am handover
8.30am radiology meeting
9.00am multidisciplinary team meeting
10.00am paeds ward round
11.00am special care ward round + ward consults
11.30am watched the reg attempt a lumbar puncture on a neonate
12.00pm coffee break with the consultant
12.15pm discharge paperwork
2.00pm update handover list
3.00pm handover to stef for the afternoon
we discharged like 5 kids today haha. the only jobs left for stef in the arvo was chasing up the report of an abdo/renal ultrasound and calling GPs and the aboriginal liaison officer. oh and a couple of discharge summaries. i even got to leave early. ;p
went to the bank to sort out some stuff. the girl who helped me said i was too young to be a doctor (she's the same age as me) and asked about my job haha.
it feels really weird to finish work in the middle of the afternoon. but it's a good break after the long weekend. i realised that i work 38 hours from friday to sunday, and then 38 hours again from monday to friday. it just seems like they could spread it out a bit better, oh well.
i have to say the paeds nurses are pretty amazing. i think they do half my job for me. and also akbar and gidon have been very nice and helpful in terms of teaching. kelvin, not so much haha. yet. met another two of the consultants today, they seem alright.
susan (one of the amums) said the midwives all had really good feedback for sarah and i haha. always good to hear. ;p i still miss my o&g job. and birth suite, haha. wonder how the new residents are doing. ;p
met sarah the other day on the way in to work. she was leaving (she's doing medical nights) and i was arriving, and she saw me in my distinctive yellow submarine and waved haha. though actually there are 3 yellow beetles in shep. saw both of the other ones today, one's for sale! the other one has a pink flower (mine's purple). ;p
i really think i'm going to end up jobless next year. how ah? :|
can't believe it's nearly mid august already. it's almost spring! :D
9:42 pm
20130811
all the children of the world
day 3 of 8. my long days are over, yay! worked 38 hours in the last 3 days, i'm all ready for 7.5-8 hour days now. ;p it must be nice to finish work at like 3.30 or 4 in the afternoon haha.
felt cheated this morning when i arrived at 7.45am to prepare the list, but the reg and consultant only came in at 9am. -.- i could have slept for another hour! sigh. did the paeds round, then the special care round, then saw a couple of consults on the ward.
there was 1 baby with a GBS positive mum who'd had antibiotics but baby had a temp spike. and another baby who was just a bit flat. the reg cannulated both of them and then i showed steven (the temporary o&g resident) how to do a baby check. ;p both babies ended up needing IV antibiotics, but hopefully the blood cultures will be negative after 48 hours and they'll be fine.
ED has been slammed the last 3 days, i'm glad i'm not working there. we've had quite a few consults and admissions as well, went with akbar to see 4 kids (and there were more waiting to be seen). he was nice and did the consults while i just wrote notes and drugs and fluids and path forms and stuff. ;p the easy jobs. ;p
babysat for a bit because one of the babies was screaming his head off in one of the rooms and one of the other dads couldn't take it anymore and wheeled him out. he's a 1 month old baby with a social admission for parenting. but his parents had left him in the stroller and were nowhere to be found. no wonder DHS won't let them take the baby out of the hospital. and it's really upsetting when babies smell like cigarette smoke. D: babies should have that wonderful baby smell that makes you just want to breathe them in.
penny (one of the midwives) asked me the other day: doesn't that make you just want to run out and get one (a baby)? ;p haha.
zzz.
11:23 pm
day 2 of 8
one of the things i dislike most about changing rotations is having to work with new people. i can't remember all their names! :|
i think akbar is easier to work with than kelvin. he spent most of the day studying in the paeds office, so i had to hang out at the ward desk instead. actually spent quite a bit of time studying because there wasn't much else to do.
the boss said to me, "you're very quiet. you're not in o&g anymore, where you're not allowed to talk. here you can talk to your heart's content!" haha.
the mum of one of our patients (a 1 month old bub) looked at me this morning at the ward round and said, "i remember you, you looked after me when i was in hospital!" haha. ;p and we saw another 5 month old baby in ED and i realised that i had looked after his mum antenatally, was there when he was born, and did his discharge baby check. just a snippet of continuity of care for you. ;p
ibby's back! :D saw him on the maternity ward and then at the cafe as well but didn't get to talk to him much. thought about dropping by birth suite but i think i have an unhealthy obsession with that place so i'm trying not to, heh.
another 14 hour day tomorrow, need to sleep.
12:11 am
20130810
what a long day. (day 1 of 8)
got up at 7ish to shower and pack and load the car. went over to j's to collect the cake and pass him corn muffins. :) then sent him to mmc because it was raining. pumped petrol on the way back, then loaded the cats into the car and set off for shep.
i've really started to dislike these long drives. they just go on forever. :( so sleepy.
came home, unpacked a bit, fed the cats, took a half hour nap, then changed and went to work, filled with dread and anxiety. D:
paeds is just completely out of my comfort zone. i spent the entire 10 hours feeling intensely uncomfortable, except when doing baby checks, even though i didn't really do much else. i think at the end of this rotation i'll dislike kids even more. :|
the o&g resident was off sick (?pertussis D:) so i did the well baby checks - the most comfortable (and comforting) part of my day, really. on the paeds ward and in special care i feel completely out of my league. D:
reminded kelvin (one of the paeds regs) that it's national day haha. he said, "oh yeah it is. but nobody cares."
felt bad leaving at 12mn because there were quite a few kids in ED (kelvin must have spent his whole evening there) but i couldn't really stay because i have to be back at work at 8am tomorrow (later today). and he said the first 2 weeks we're only expected to get to know the system and manage the ward. so...
came home and had my half of the lemon tart. thought it was a bit strange because it somehow tasted artificial. hmm. rehydrated with ribena. decided against eating more junk. packed lunch/dinner/tea for tomorrow - i will just eat it when i'm hungry haha.
off to sleep now because i have to wake up in 5.5 hours for a 14 hour shift. ugh.
1:23 am
20130809
the white rabbit.
tomorrow when everyone goes TGIF, i'll be thinking the opposite... sigh. :(
am incredibly stressed about starting paeds. i foresee many mornings (or afternoons) not wanting to get out of bed. much more so than the last 6 months. :( please let the next 3 months fly by!
spent the morning grocery shopping and baking and washing up. my hands are so dry. :|
went over to j's in the afternoon. watched some prison break, did some studying, did some research, talked... helped to chop and mix stuff for the carbonara while he was at worship practice. yay carbonara. ;p it's nice to have nice food to eat without actually having to cook. ;p
i keep getting confused switching between his macbook air and mine. scrolling the opposite way and trying to make it make sense in my head.
Feather and Stone emailed about their analogue photog workshop. but it's on 7 nov (i'm working) and costs like $750. so oh well, that was decided for me. :|
yay for happy surprises. ;p
off to sleep now because i have to get up early to pack + load the car + collect cake + load the cats + drive to shep + nap and have lunch + pack dinner + work for 10 hours. haven't quite figured out where to park so it'll be closest to kids ward. :| and i finish work at midnight so i want to be as close as possible, hmm.
oh happy national day, singapore!
12:30 am
20130807
play the game
keep the flame
burning brightly ever
had brunch at Hammer & Tong in fitzroy with the abalone today. we were both really happy to discover that they've got the soft shell crab burgers on their weekday breakfast menu! :) yum. and since we were in fitzroy, we (i) decided to drop by babka to pick up a slice of lemon tart each. :) (reminder to self to get it from the car before i sleep tonight)
ended up ditching my unexciting study plans to pick c up from uni, and we went to mazda to check out their mazda 2s and their m day (week) sale. she took the car for a test drive and despite abalone's and my attempts to convince her that meteor grey is nicer than aluminium, she still went for the silver haha. the salesman was nice and gave us 3 monsters! ;p mine is sitting in my car haha.
came home starving and cooked up some laksa lamian, yum. :D looked at (and uploaded) my lomo lady grey roll, i really like how all these photos turned out! :)
an attempt to study some paeds has reminded me of how much i dislike paediatrics and all things medicine (by which i mean medicine, as in not O&G, or surgery, but actual medicine). it is just tedious and complicated. O&G, in comparison, is easy. ugh why can i not just do another 6 months of O&G. or even another 6 months of geriatrics, really. why paeds. D: bane of my life.
being distracted by recipes... there is a reason why i never used to study at home. :| productivity zero.
off to read more RCH CPGs and hope something stays in my brain.
8:52 pm
philosophy-
today was interview day. singular,
interview. still haven't heard from anywhere else. D: what if i end up jobless next year? D:
dragged myself out of bed, showered, packed, drove to bendigo. such a sleepy drive. i really dislike interviews. as i walked to the bendigo primary care clinic i was thinking about how nice it was last year to get 7 interviews and not have to actually physically attend any of them. phone interviews are so much better. :| and queensland is even better, no interviews at all! maybe i should just go back up there. where it's warm, too.
drove back, another long sleepy drive. went to pump petrol, there goes another $70 in 2 days.
went to meet j and we went to clayton. bank account. :O then we dabaoed food from wurung gudeg for an early dinner. :D wurung gudeg! ♥
masterchef, prison break. sneakily tried to listen in to bits and pieces of the study group to see if i could glean some useful info for the very terrifying paeds rotation haha. okay i really should start studying. :| tomorrow.
some people can be so demanding when they ask for favours. -.-
occasionally i'm glad that i'm not around to have to deal with the annoyingness of trying to organise a gathering. why bother putting in effort organising something when no one else cares anyway? no, i cannot be bothered.
brunch tomorrow at hammer & tong! :) finally i get to have a proper brunch again. :) and collect my b&w film from abalone, yay! :D
1:02 am
20130805
drove up to shep this morning. got home, hung around in front of the heater for a long while, then went to the hospital.
went to medical workforce first because amy wanted to talk to me about the paeds roster. by the time i got there she'd sorted it out, but she wants to talk to me about the o&g rotation. :| since i was in medical workforce, i picked up the stuff from my pigeon hole. sarah's nigellissima (cookbook) was in there! ;p plus a payslip and some path results.
wasn't sure what to do with the path results, so i ended up going to birth suite to sign and drop them off haha. said hi to donna, caroline, and bridget. :) then i went down to paeds ward to wait for the consultant for the paeds orientation.
fitri did a really good handover email. met steph, one of the other residents, who's doing a paeds year. she's done paeds ED and surg so far, in RCH and MMC. i am going to look so stupid beside her. -.- anyway she's from monash also haha. khalid took us on a tour and told us about all the teaching and stuff. he is
so nice. went up to special care (where i met lucy!) and then to birth suite haha. it's so nice seeing familiar faces. ;p showed steph how to use coldfusion and print the isbar list.
went to some freight centre to pick up my lc-wide instant back. :) there was a friendly doggy there who waddled out to meet me haha. she also headbutted my leg every time i stopped scratching her behind the ears, aww. and she wanted to follow me out haha.
watched lots of prison break hur hur. attempted to prep for the interview tomorrow... :\ please don't ask me any clinical questions. :\
sometimes peoples' responses just throw me off. like, really?
looks like i'll be going to hk after all! :D delicious kitchen here i comeeee! ♥
10:40 pm
It took me nearly another decade to conquer the fear, or the lack of enthusiasm. I am this slow at many things. I am this afraid. But he found that out anyway. He didn’t need to see me sink in the ocean to learn it.
(Is this love or depression? by Violet Young)
remember, remember
(reminders to myself)
today is chilli crab day! we also had cereal prawns, scallops, and oysters (which i didn't eat). i have to say that after watching the process of killing and cleaning and chopping and hammering the crabs, i really think it's a dish that requires too much effort.
it was very nice anyway. :) thank you! :)
overheard abalone telling someone that she was going to be in the city tomorrow, so i asked her to help me pick up my film. :D yay! and then we're going to have brunch on weds, at hammer & tong. :)
my fingers are burning up and they feel so raw that i don't dare to remove my chipped red nail polish tonight. hopefully it'll be better tomorrow.
the orange poppyseed cupcakes were overcooked. :( they smelled really good though. think i'd still stick with my usual cupcake recipe for next time.
only one month of winter to go.
happy belated founder's day! 125 years and counting.
i still think the most important thing is time.
12:19 am
20130803
every time i see your face
my heart takes off
on a high speed chase, now
such a gloomy rainy saturday. perfect for sleeping in and being completely unproductive, ha.
but i got up at 8 and made my pasta dough. let it rest while i marinated the chicken mince, showered, and folded my clothes from the dryer. rolled the pasta out, it took longer than i'd expected because i'd forgotten the technique haha. but it turned out alright i think. :)
made the pasta sauce, cooked the meatballs, cooked the pasta (for like only 1-2 mins). sent liliane to clayton and ended up hanging around while the guys did their grocery shopping (which takes forever) (i'm used to ducking in and out, chop chop). got a terrible headache while at coles, possibly the worst headache i've ever had. refused to take paracetamol and just slept it off. took about 2 hours (and some pasta and prison break). ;p
oh i met ravind in coles! he said to tell him when tae's down in melb haha.
itching to try out the lomochrome purple but i don't have an unloaded camera and the weather forecast is for rain the next few days.
ben made shepherd's pie! and tomorrow is chilli crab day, provided we can find mud crabs. otherwise... i don't know. :\ 5 guys and 1 girl, how extra right. :|
today i was told that i smile and laugh more now. ;p i hadn't noticed haha. but i was also told that i breathe like i have COPD. :(
it's been nearly 1.5 years since i got the meows. can't imagine life without them now. they're also nearly 2 years old! but still like kittens really. i love how they sometimes start purring even if i'm just near them. such sweethearts. ♥
have to drive up to shep on monday for my paeds orientation. figured i should just stay in shep on mon night and drive to bendigo for my interview from there the next day. that would save me at least 4 hours of driving (and a whole lot of petrol). and maybe i can stop by the city on the way up or down to collect my film, hmm.
time to shower and bake some orange/tangelo/lemon and poppyseed cupcakes!
9:18 pm
#2
coming home to cat vomit is not fun, and even less so when it's on your new sheets. -.- they really have good timing. but at least it's vomit and not something from the other end. vomit just smells like cat food.
laksa night, food was multiplied from 70 serves to feed 100 people! :) but like we said... laksa lamian is still better. ;p in fact james had that afterwards haha. and derrick had a banana. while we had maccas. -.- such unhealthy people we are.
watched ah boys to men and ah boys to men 2. i know i am really slow but i hadn't watched either before. it must be nice for boys to watch, having gone through all of that before.
i have chicken mince sitting in the fridge, meant for meatballs.... but it's calling out to me to make bak kwa instead haha. ;p
orange poppy seed cupcakes? hmmm...
2:17 am
20130802
early entry today because....
I CLEANED MY ROOM.
people who have lived with me/ had a glimpse of my room in melb will know that i am the messiest person ever. like,
ever. so cleaning my room is no small feat. ;p
having said that, when i decide to clean my room, i do usually get it done within a day, and it's usually extremely neat at the end of it. unfortunately that never lasts long. ;p also rearranged the furniture and the room looks so much bigger now.
linda is getting married! :D and i'm going to be in sg, yay! :D i love weddings. ;p i really hope everyone goes. 4A reunion. ;p
also cut the cats' claws, with a bit of a struggle. thankfully they're not the vicious type. ;p
he said son can you play me a memory
i'm not really sure how it goes
but it's sad and it's sweet and i knew it complete
when i wore a younger man's clothes
laksa night tonight!
5:41 pm
20130801
don't look down
it's only love
baby that we're falling in
hot springs day! :D it was really cloudy on the way there but true enough, bom's forecast of "partly cloudy" came to pass. ;p how nice to soak in the mineral springs with the clear blue sky above you. and it's even nicer when there aren't many other people around. :)
had brunch at Picknics Cafe in rye. the hot chocolate was not bad and the food was alright. didn't like how they "poached" their eggs, so ugly. (side note: just watched gary poach eggs on masterchef, he makes it look so simple!) couldn't really enjoy the meal because of this annoying ulcer at the back of my throat. :( so painful. :(
spent a lot of time watching shows today. D: mainly prison break. from season 1. watch until ear pain. j cooked penne carbonara for dinner. for some reason i had never tried it before today, but it's actually quite good. ;p
lomo has delivered my lc-wide instant back! :D it's at DHL express and i'll have to go pick it up tomorrow. thought about walking there since it's really quite near where i live, but if it rains/ is cold i'll probably be lazy and drive. can't start using it yet anyway because there's still a roll of half-used film in the lc-wide. and also my instax film is in shep.
don't know what to do tomorrow, hmm. study? bake? cook? laundry, hmm. i feel like i'm going to forget to pick my film up from michael's but i really cannot justify going all the way to the city just for that. :| i wonder how long they'll hold onto it for.
friday - laksa night
sunday - chilli crab!
monday - paeds orientation
tuesday - bendigo interview + ?dinner with tae
not looking forward to all the driving. :( and all the money spent on petrol. :(
sebas tried to convince me again to go back when jason is there. so i checked out flights again. $1200+. and i'm working till 1600 on friday and start again at 1430 on monday, so it would only be for 2 days. so... unless someone wants to sponsor me..... weekend escapes to singapore are really too exhausting.
time to start saving money. (i know,
start? what?) (it's scary)
10:59 pm