Waiting for the Call

There’s a feedback session in NUS at 10am today. While J. would have liked to attend, he lacks a certain belief in his own MBBS medicine track performance. Therefore, he and many others like him opted to stay home, somewhat comfortable in the knowledge that should the dreaded call (“You are required to attend an oral viva in NUH/NUS at [time]”) come, they can put on their clinical attire, grab their examination kits and rush down to NUS.

If they had gone to NUS, they would have had to put on full clinical attire, white coat and all, to attend – quite an inconvenience should the call never come. If they had worn casual attire and the call came, why, that would be agreeing to an extra 6 months of medical school.

Anyway, it’s now 1pm and the call should have arrived before 12noon. J. breathes a sigh of relief and is now free to move out of the house.

Day Before Medicine Clinicals

It’s a little bit difficult to study with the rampaging cortisol levels and the occasional ‘What if?’ messages ringing in my ears.

The sheer breadth of information required is daunting, and the surgical clinicals have exposed what appears to be a lack of showsmanship.

Paediatrics is unfamiliar ground, and the people I’m studying with display an incredible depth of knowledge every now and then, as if to keep my adrenaline levels sky high.

That’s why I’m on the internet, eh? Sigh. Here we go.

J.

Link: Uncyclopedia Entry on NUS

The antithesis of Wikipedia, here’s Uncyclopedia! Check out the following entry:

National University of Singapore, home of Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, among other faculties.

P.S. Don’t bother reading the other articles on Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, etc. They look like they’re written by someone who thinks he’s the funniest thing ever (he’s not). At least the NUS one’s amusing.

Surgery MBBS Clinical Examination

The Surgery MBBS clincal examinations were held in various hospitals across Singapore, one on each weekday. The Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) one was held on Tuesday at the Communicable Diseases Centre 2 (CDC 2).

It was very well organised with clear signage, comfortable clinic rooms (though J. was still sweating at the cases), well-primed patients, ready X-ray boxes, refreshments in between long and short cases, helpful assistants and a blood pressure set in every room (though the one in J.’s room was spoilt).

J. was scared by the examiners for his long case, but thinks he somehow managed to scrape by. For his short cases, he was taken by two incredibly nice surgical consultants, but felt that he did horrendous on the short cases.

It’s out of his hands now. Results in mid-April.

Replacing a Damaged MobileGear Mouse

Almost one year ago in April, J. bought a MobilGear Navigator Retractable Laser Mouse (Model no.: IMM132) from Funan DigitaLife Mall. Some time down the road, in the midst of adjusting the camera in Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer (which can be performed with either the middle mouse button or the ‘Z’ keyboard button) something broke.

J. has strong fingers, yes?

The Replacement MobileGear Mouse (Fellowes mousepad not included)

Right. Anyway, the scroll wheel was spoilt and the middle mouse button could only be activate by pushing to the right. Hardly an ideal situation. So recently, taking advantage of them mouse’s 1-year warranty, J. had his replaced. It was quite easy to do, partly due to the good habit of keeping all receipts of electronic goods.

Vaccination in Singapore

Addendum (25/05/2008): Have changed the compulsory and optional headings to recommended and enhanced regimes. Many thanks to angrydoctor for pointing it out.

While blog-surfing, J. was surprised to notice there’s a pretty vocal antivaccine movement in the West. “Antivaccine” because J. can’t figure out if they’re talking about thimerosal, symptoms suggestive of autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) in kids with mitochondrial disorders and whatnot except that ‘vaccines are bad, they cause autism’.

Anyway, J. thought he’d comment on a couple of things that people might have misconceptions about, and talk about what he’s learnt about the vaccination schedule in Singapore.

More information can be obtained on the National Immunisation Registry.

Vaccination Schedule:
Recommended

• Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG:to prevent miliary tuberculosis) – At birth
• Hepatitis B – At birth, 1 month, 6 months
• Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus – 3, 4, 5 months, booster at 18 months (diphteria, tetanus only) booster at 10-12 years
• Oral polio vaccine (Sabin) – 3, 4, 5 months, booster at 18 months, 6-7 years, 10-12 years
• Measles, Mumps, Rubella (MMR) – 15 months, booster at 6-7 years

Enhanced –

• Haemophilus influenza type b (Hib) – 3, 4, 5 months
• Varicella zoster (chicken pox) – 15 months ( 13 years 2 doses)
• Pneumococcal vaccine – Prevnar less than 2 years, Pneumovax after 2 years
• Hepatitis A – non-schedule, 3 doses beginning at least 4 weeks before travel and um, if you really like half-cooked shellfish
• Meningococcus – Single dose tetravalent, especially for pilgrims going on the Haj

Now, onwards to questions!

The Loss of Paeds Cards

Once upon a time, J. had a beautiful little set of cards. They were large, colourful with simple objects and huge lettering, packaged into a nice little bag in a red box.

Perfect for the Paediatics kit. Perfect for developmental assessment for kids.

J. lent it to someone. He went to Canada for 2.5 months. He neglected to write down who he lent it to, and seemed to have forgotten. In trying to recall, he could only remember one friend he had lent it to for the paeds test, but seemed to have gotten in back.

MBBS shorts is in one week, J.’s rummaged through his entire old house to look for it, and it’s not there. Disappointing, to say the least.

Remember, if you’re lending something to someone. Write it down. Get a contract, if necessary. Heh.

Video: Hand in Hand Ballet Video

What do you think about when you hear ‘amputee’? Poorly controlled diabetes? Severe crush injuries? Malignant melanoma? The failure of faith healing? The landmines of Cambodia?

Ballet? The following performance is to a song titled 牵手 (translation: linking hands).

MBBS: The End of Written Exams

Last week, there were 3 written papers for the Medicine Track, which included topics from dermatology, geriatrics, psychiatry and naturally, General Medicine and Paediatrics. It began with an essay paper, followed by Modified Essay Questions (MEQ) done on the computers in the computer lab via IVLE and last multiple choice questions (MCQs) which basically murdered everybody.

This week, there were 3 written papers for the Surgical Track, which mainly consists of General Surgery, Orthopedic Surgery and Obstetrics and Gynaecology with a smidgeon of everything else (e.g. Plastic Surgery). Once again, essay paper, followed by OSSEs (Objective Structured Slide Examination) and then MCQs which basically beat up everyone to within a inch of their lives (but didn’t murder them).

J. thinks he did terrible. Terrible. Bleedin’ ‘ell.

Oh, and there was an Objective Structured Clinical Examination consisting of 10 stations regarding things like filling out Inpatient Medication Record (IMR), counselling patients, drain removal, etc. It was held on Saturday in the clinics. That went pretty okay.

Next up, clinical examinations! But first, an afternoon not spent in the library. Ahhh…

Webcomic: Subnormality!

SUBNORMALITY!

It’s part of Virus Comix. It’s wordy, it’s well drawn, it’s quirky and it pokes fun at many things: from rock music to religion.