The lab class was yet again divided. Group B's lab is tomorrow, so we had the afternoon off.

The sun was shinning, the breeze was relatively warm, the sky was blue and ... The HURD majors decided a game of badminton was due and off they went to Unipol.
Fun, exciting, exhilarating time eh!

An hour of smashing good time passed. The HURD majors decided it was time to return to campus. Reality sets in, awww... the HURD majors have heaps of work to complete.

Hurhur.
I'm just humouring myself.

Gosh, the lab session today was one shocking experience. Negligence or should i say ignorance on our part almost caused a dreadful ending. Ben wasnt responding well to the anesthesia and was beginning to show signs of pedal reflex. Yup, you guessed right, we named him 'Ben' this time round.

Anyway, I would say he almost 'awoke' on the surgical table. If he actually awoke, i'm sure he would have suffered a heart attack seeing so many tubes in him or he might just scamper away in shock, pulling all the tubings along with him.

In the end, we gave him his most needed doses of anaesthesia, enough to knock him out till we finished our experiment. He must have used at least two tubes of anesthesia, which is quite a whole heap for a little fella. My heart goes out to him as well tho, imagine being concious in an operation and hearing weird voices in the background, yet not knowing what is going on. Then peering down to see tubes running from you. and you wanna get up, but you just cant bring yourself up since your hands and feet is firmly stuck to the table.

However, let me emphasize this is all for the good of mankind, good for the establishment and advancement of the medical sciences.

Though the experimental results werent as perfect as we expected it to be, but oh well. its enough to get by.. I just thank God that we had time to get things sorted before the anesthesia totally wore out. It definitely wouldnt be a favourable sign seeing Ben scampering around the room, finding its way out of Eccles' or down Lindo Ferguson for that matter.

You just love my labs dont you?

So it goes, another week as passed. It's been a month since school has started and these days I've been busy with heaps of assignments. One after another.

Things are progressing rather ... slowly. Time seems to be dragging on and on. Last year this time didnt even exist cos time seemed to have flew by, literally.

I've just finished one literature synopsis and now i've yet another task at hand. This time it's worth a whoop 16%. It's due in a week and i have yet to get started.

But despite my busy schedule, i should still make time for friends eh. Had a nice catch up session with Jeannie and Edwin over the weekend. It's comforting to know that I'm missed over at the other end of the world.

I wonder what's in stored for the upcoming week! *Surprises, surprises.

I've come to realise this week that when doing assignments, I need to have certain songs played in the background before i can get stuff done. And this song has been played repetitively throughout the week.

Made me glad - hillsong
I will bless the Lord forever
And I will trust Him at all times
He has delivered me from all fear
And he has set my feet upon a rock
And I will not be moved
And I'll say of the Lord....

You are my shield
My strength
My portion
Deliverer
My shelter
Strong tower
My very present help in time of need

Whom have I in Heaven but you?
There's none I desire beside you
You have made me glad
And I'll say of the Lord....

CHORUS:
You are my shield
My strength
My portion
Deliverer
My shelter
Strong tower
My very present help in time of need

REPEAT CHORUS

You have me glad
And I'll say of the Lord....

REPEAT CHORUS x 2

My very present help in time of need (TO FADE)

Truely He is my very present help in times of need.

Stuartlina and Dora passed on last friday. 16th March 2007, 1530hrs.

An overdose of anaethesia and accelerated with a heart puncture.

Even though she survived the surgery, it's sad how she still has to go in the end.

Enough said.

My dad and I have been looking through some past photographs, reminiscing about our childhood days and how we've grown up etc. Which was when I came across some interesting pictures. I thought it was time for a picture post.


my first teeth


my first train ride


my first rose





my first encounter with disney




brother and I


more disney stuff.. that small little girl there is michellina.. how adorable..


this picture is a must have.. look at mich! hahaa..


then along came the scooter gang. PS: dont mess with us ya..


from smallest to biggest. hahaa.. take a look how cute chris was.. she looks like a wee hamster.. guys, show her this if you can..


some funny things we did being kids. i wonder who made us do this..

fast forward all the way to now...


Fairfield Class renunion at Mr V.Chia's place (3th Feb 2007)


Another shot of us. pardon the unsightly leftovers


the wonderful NTU/NIE cell-group





the day we played beach volleyball when it rained


Somewhere along the bridge connecting Sentosa to the mainland


Us again at vivocity

Okay, I better head off before the weather turns nasty. It is already quite horrible out there.. Till next time folks.

~ rachel's out

I'm finally done with the research report. That's one day to rest before i get my next set of assignments tomorrow.

For those who have been following on the surgery:
Here's just to update, the surgery last friday went very well. Stuartlina had both her ovaries removed and received her oestrogen treatment as per planned. Her left ovary was removed by Ben while i did her right one. I'm sure she's doing well now.

So it's all good for now.

How unfortunate that we will have to dissect her this coming friday. Short life-span she has eh..
I feel so mean.

One thing's for sure, I actually enjoy working with her species.. hahaa.. who knows, I may just end up as a rodent-specialist or a rodent-keeper in future. Hahaa.

And so it goes, I've already handed in two reports and it is only the beginning of the second week of the new school term.

Yesterday's PHSL345 laboratory was half a failure, yet a success. Why do i say so?
Our group started off the experiment well with a healthy heart (or so we thought). The cathether was inserted and set up accordingly. At this point, the heart was still beating normally.

Ten minutes into the experiment, the heart began beating erratically. It was like two beats at the base of the heart followed by one beat at the apex. Obviously, our experimental heart was undergoing extreme stress.

But this little fella is a brave one for it continued beating.

By this time, many 'hearts' across the room had already stopped. It was pretty funny how everyone was going around to see who's heart managed to survive the longest. I'm sure if this was connected to a heart-rate monitor, it would have been a very noisy lab - with flat, long, single beeps being heard throughout.

Very soon, our heart finally succumbed and we announced its departure!

With almost none of the experiments working, the lecturer ordered for another round of hearts to be brought in, meaning that more had to be sacrificed. But well, it's all for the sake of making advancements in biological sciences. I reckon its all for a good cause.

All in all, a massacre took place that fateful day. I suppose next yr's lab would have everything already nicely set up before we entered.

Anyway I mentioned about the lab session being half a failure yet a success. Failure cos we had to do the experiment twice, and a success cos our results were quite close to ideal. In the end, it was all good with the lecturer giving us the values to use in our report.

School has started for a week and i must admit it does seem like a month. It's just the start of school and i've got two assignment just from the first week.

The first day of school saw me witnessing the sacrifice of a Wistar lab rat.


That poor little fella was put down with an overdose of anaethesia just for his heart. It is a fortunate thing that the heart will be provided for during our practical session.

Then on friday, during anatomy practical.. we had a dry-run for the surgery we have to perform this week. Yup, you heard me right.. Ovarietomy surgery! and our 'patient' will wake up the next day and act as if nothing happened. How interesting eh..

Anyway the dry-run was basically a dissection and we were taught techniques like the surgeon's knot. We would be expected to anaethesised the 'patient' on our own and observe proper operation theatre protocol and maintaining complete sterile conditions.

Let's hope the surgery will be a successful one since the recovery rate is almost 100%. The only thing that can go wrong is an overdose of anaethesia or puncturing of some major artery which i doubt would happen. The worse thing that can happen is being killed on the operating table eh..

I can already smell success. hahaa :)