Wake up call

Today, I was asked to relief the outpatient clinic again, but only for the afternoon. Thankfully, there weren't many patitents ^^ So while waiting for patients, I chatted with my 2 Dental Surgery Assistants about my 3 year compulsory service. Here in Malaysia, anyone who wishes to get a license to practice in this country must serve a 3 year compulsory service in the government sector prior to working in the private sector. However, this regulation has been changed to 2 years for those who begin work after April 2012. Me not included! So still 3 years for me. Upon hearing that I have to serve 10 years ( consequence of accepting a govt scholarship) instead of just 3, they told me to just leave after 3 years and pay back the sum to my sponsor. They added that I could easily come up with that money once I enter the private sector. I had been having second thoughts, about whether to stay on for the 10 years or not but now I suppose it is apparent a choice has been made. How could i be so ignorant?

On a lighter note, it's my last day at Periodontology department today :) Can't believe a month has gone by. It feels like just yesterday when I showed up at the clinic and my new colleagues thought i was a salesperson :S  

I did a count on the total number of patients I saw in my month there. And the number is.......

19!!!

An average of 1 a day ;) 

We were observing a bone grafting surgery the other day and we got a bit bored, so...

Us 5 Fydos at Perio

Gonna start at the Restorative department tomorrow. New place, new people. Wish me luck!

Awesome life

 Been AWOL for a bit since my last post. I have been super busy for the past 2 weeks, so many things happened and so many things done. Life is great!

Alison's Wedding

Alison, one of my best friends in secondary school, got hitched in one of the most beautiful weddings ever! Alison has always had a creative mind. It was apparent that she put her whole heart and soul into planning this wedding, as every single detail from the deco on the tables to the music just screams Alison. You go, girl! :)

A beautiful picture of the newlyweds and the ji muis, all dressed in seafoam

Personalized sarsi mints. How cute is that!

Convent girls. Love u guys!

Congratulations Jon + Ally! Have a blissful life ahead :)

 Brotzeit Beer Bar

We checked out the Brotzeit beer bar @ Midvalley the other day. It looks like any other restaurant from the outside, but we were in for a pleasant afternoon. The food was better than anticipated and the service was top notched. 

Us :)

The pork platter. The pork knuckle is mouthwatering! 

A great experience on the whole. Absolutely love the mango flavoured Paulaner beer.

J.B.

I've officially been in JB for 19 days and I'm loving it more and more each day! It's so much more exciting compared to the mundane Muar. Spent my last weekend here, the bf came down, and it was awesome! Ate some good food, went to watch Brave (loved it!!!!), went to Sg (yup, only for 5 hours. hehe) and did a lottttt of shopping ( so broke now!!!!)

Q & I at Ten Gu. Must try the duck!

Life at the perio clinic has been sluggish. I treated only 1 perio patient this week and it's already Thursday. Last 2 days were Implant days, when our specialist goes to the hospital to place implants and leave us all at the clinic. Bleh. So there were absolutely no patients for 2 days. It was unbearable! Hours passed by so slowly, i felt like dying. So, we had to find activities to keep ourselves busy. 

Like taking random pictures in the clinic...

Or doing scaling for each other. Dentists mah, what do you expect? Haha

I, as usual, brought my books there to read. I managed to finish the 2 sequels to Hunger Games, and they left me hungry for more. I'm experiencing the feeling of finishing a good book/ movie, and then not know what to do with life anymore :((((( Anyway, I've moved on :) I just started Afterwards by Rosamund Lupton. Can barely put it down.

OH I have to tell you about my experience in the outpatient clinic. The outpatient clinic is where all the usual patients come for checkup, fillings, scaling, or extractions. It is super busy everyday with up to 200 patients per day. Normally only 3 rooms will be in operation, so it's an average of 70 patients per dentist per day. And if you do the math, it equivalents to less than 7 minutes per patient! Within this 7 minutes, the patient must be called, seated, clerked, examined, treated, and sent out. It's just utterly crazy! No wonder these dentists get so cranky at times.

I was asked to relief an outpatient session last Thursday. I was so anxious before starting that I was walking around dazed, on the verge of tears! I saw all kinds of patients that day. One lady came in happily requesting an extraction but left in tears :( Many came asking for multiple treatments but we had to be snappy and asserted that only one treatment can be done a day due to the high volume of patients. 

I got the hang of things pretty quickly and am absolutely awed by my 2 extremely efficient assistants. That day, i saw about 45 patients in total ( they gave me fewer patients knowing it was my first time). Outpatient clinic isn't that hard after all :) 

The vast difference between perio clinic and out patient clinic. Perio 4, Outpatient 42. You can imagine how free we are, the 5 of us attached to Perio at the moment.

Another good thing of being in JB is that it's so near Singapore! It's so near that we can cross over to Sg on a working night, just to have dinner :) but going to Sg means i need SGD, which rate is sooooo HIGH now! 1 SGD = RM 2.51. WTH! *grumble grumble*

New friends in JB

Pebbie Dear

PB is currently living with Q in Melaka. I'm living in an apartment now, and they don't allow pets! *Hmmph!!*  Still and all, Q is coming down again this weekend and guess who's coming with???? Tee hee! Can't wait for tomorrow!

 After her grooming. Love the way her legs are shaped.

On the way to Melaka, she slept almost the whole journey and had to be awoken for her dinner!

Stole this from the internet. I thought she was the only one...

Jay Bee

My attachment at OS in Muar ended last Friday. Gave my presentation ( Dental management of patients on radiotherapy) on my very last day. Received positive feedback from my superiors but nurses weren't that elated that my presentation was in English. But what do you expect when i've prepared all my slides in English, all my references are in English and all the terms are in English! Well, instead of listening to my talk, they had their own "talk", which was rather distracting for me. Anyway, what's done is done. I've moved on :)

I'm in JB now!

Not exactly excited to be here but since i'm already here, might as well make the best of it :) 

I'm currently attached to the periodontal clinic here in JB. Gonna be at this clinic for a month, then will be moving on to Peads. Looking forward!

My first day at perio was daunting! Basically saw 3 patients today. Saw as in look only, no touch. There are 4 of us FYDOs there, plus 2 nurses in a room, with only 2 chairs! I felt like we were playing musical chair :S And I chose today to wear my uncomfortable heels. Blueh! All we did all day was watch the nurse scale 2 patients' teeth, and watched the specialist perform a frenectomy. Other than that, we were just standing around chatting the day away. Hope it gets better from here...

Anyway..

I moved into a studio unit near my clinic, basically 2 minutes drive away. Can leave for work 5 minutes before and still be in time to clock in at 8! Plus, they have staff parking! No need for endless rounds looking for a good spot. 

This is my studio and that's daddy at the balcony checking out the view

It's not huge, just adequate. 

 And here's mom and dad in the kitchen cutting mangoes. Nearer door leads to bathroom and further one leads to laundry area. 

 The view. Hehe. Not the view from my window though, but from the common area. That's the straits. Breathtaking eh?

 My study cum dressing table

And the pool! Haven't swam in ages. Time to dig out my bikini and go for a swim :)

Waiting for my first guest to visit! 

My little girl turns 1!

 This, my friends, is Pebbles! or more affectionately known as Pebbie. She's a white Toy Poodle / Bichon Frise that came to us about 10 months ago. And since then, she has brought us endless joy and laughter :)

When she arrived, she was in a box far too large for her. Sleeping in a corner, barely stirring when i picked her up. She was only slightly bigger than the size of my palm, so fragile, so vulnerable. 

I remembered the first night she stayed in my house, she was afraid of being in a new surrounding. So afraid that she had diarrhea. I was worried sick. Thank goodness she got better after eating half a carbon pill. 

Since then, i've watched her progress from stumbling to walking to running and walking on her hind legs. I've watched her transform from a little lamb lookalike to this beautiful, most lovable dog anyone could ever ask for. 

Pebbie on her 2nd day with us

Pebbie now. Ain't she cute?

And today, she turns ONE! It's a shame i'm not able to celebrate this day with her. But i've made sure that she gets enough hugs and treats to last until i see her again, in 5 days! Can't wait :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY DEAR PEBBLES!

LOVE U LOADS

Special needs patients

Lately, there has been many special needs patients coming to the clinic, and somehow or rather, I end up seeing them. Not that I'm complaining, but it is definitely a challenge for me, seeing that I have never seen patients apart from those requesting restorative care during my student life, and also those who seek orthodontic treatment during my attachment at the orthodontic clinic.

The first case that came in last week was a 12 year old girl with learning difficulty. She was willing to be examined with a mouth mirror, but at the sight of any other instruments, she mouth clamps shut. Her Mother has taken her to various other dental clinics but all have failed to extract her teeth. Even with a history like this, my senior officer somehow had confidence that i could carry out the extractions! After several failed attempts to inject the anaesthesia, it was decided that she had to be sedated. So a dose of midazolam was prescribed. 30 minutes later, even in her drowsy state, she still managed to struggle and push my hand away. 5 people ( mother, aunt, specialist, 2 nurses) had to restrain her while i injected the last bit of anaesthesia. With all the commotion, one tooth was finally extracted. After over 2 hours!  And worst of all, she was so pissed, she refused to bite on a cotton roll. So she had bloody saliva dribbling from her mouth onto her clothes and the dental chair. And when someone finally managed to get a roll into her mouth, she threw the blood soaked roll on the floor. One of it ended up on my foot :S

The state of my hair after the extraction

Patient number 2 came in yesterday. He is a 15 year old boy with cerebral palsy. He has spasms of his arms and legs, making him unable to walk, and so had to be carried by his mother. Unsurprising for a case like this, he has multiple teeth with large carious lesions requiring extractions. Since nothing can be done with the patient so uncooperative, the patient was put on the waiting list for dental clearance under general anaesthesia.

Patient 3 came in this morning with Down's syndrome. He complained of pain from upper front teeth. Again, he too needs multiple extractions but refuses to let me put anything into his mouth besides the mouth mirror. How to work like that?? So another patient on the waiting list for GA.

Patient 4 came in shortly after Patient 3. He is a 5 year old boy diagnosed with Mental Retardation with Hyperactivity. OMG! This patient is a handful. Even in the waiting room itself, he managed to fall and hurt himself. He could barely stay still for 2 seconds and his dad had to hold on to him the whole time. When he got free, he ran around the clinic, into the specialist's room  and out again. He is one of the worse cases so far. He needs extractions of all his primary molars. Imagine the level of decay! Daddy refused to go to the Paeds specialist in JB for the extractions, so one more case on the waiting list! 

Parents, please! Do keep your child's teeth clean! Don't bring them in only when their teeth can no longer be restored! And with the amount of decay, there must be long term neglect. 

*****

I saw another patient today with a heart wrenching story. An old man of 73 years, was involved in a car accident. He could not remember how or when it happened, or who he was with. He was hardly responsive when asked. Later, i heard from one of the nurses that he was in a car driven by his son, who sadly didn't survive the crash. I was thinking, maybe it wasn't that he couldn't remember the crash. Maybe he just didn't want to remember it.