Home sweet home

The mother of all rotation supposedly ended at 5pm today. Still I found myself working my ass off from one case to another at 7.30pm.

The last case was a 34 year old disco bouncer with a history of ecstasy use ended up in the A & E with a severe acute renal failure. Traces of protein and blood in his urine. Part of his kidneys are ballooning out due to possible obstruction which wasn't obvious in the ultrasound.

He's as dry as a a Legionnaire's army on the Sahara. I pumped in normal saline into his body 1 pint an hour and another 7 pints overnight. The fact that somehow he was pouring out urine like tap water is a good news so far. Let those baby out boy.

On my way out, I spotted a little guy hidden away among our equipments. A nurse told me he has been living there for almost 2 years now.

I wanna take him out, put him somewhere nicer. But hmm changed my mind, he has found his home there. I'm sure he's happy.

My sunshine

I have this tendency to sleep and wake up early these days. Hope it's not a sign of premature ageing. I just re-discovered that my sensory acuity is better in the early morning around 5 -6am. Thank God Lolly made a cup of black coffee every morning to help me ease my way during those semi-somnolence time of the day. I guess another reason for that is perhaps the fact that I begin to read textbooks and do MCQs again. Scary thought.

Waiting for sunrise to appear every morning has become my ritual too. The intensity of daybreak never fails to capture my attention. Let me share with you the best of part of my day is for that brief moment before I enter the main hospital building is to steal a glance at the bright sunshine and the thought of her come to my mind.. every single time. Hoping that she is safe and sound on her bed dreaming beautiful things in this whole wide world.

a girl

"Doctor.. hi" A girl smiled at me.

I smiled back. Strange. Haven't seen her before.

She's around 15 - 17 years old.

She's still smiling.

I'm thinking hard. Nothing came to me.

"Last month, my grandmother passed away"

****

I heard an anguish cry came from the next cubicle followed by hurried footsteps walking away.

After a while. I left the ward and as I turned to the elevator, I noticed a small figure sat down on the floor next to a toilet.

The elevator door opened. But something stopped me.

I turned back and walked to the person who's obviously to me now -a young girl crying unconsolably. Her face was buried between her knees.

I sat in front of her and asked her what had happened.

Her grandmother had just died. And she's angry at the hospital staffs for their lack of attention when she's at her death bed.

"They didn't care. My granny asked for just a drink"

I tried to console her, but to no avail. She's beyond anything then.

Finally, I left her there as I saw her parents came to pick her up.

I didn't get the chance to take a good look at her face. Let alone to remember it.

****

"I just wanna say thank you"

"That's all right. So you're okay now?"

"I'm okay.. yeah "

"That's good.. well I see you around" I walked away.

I looked back one last time "Okay dik.. Take care now, be strong".

She smiled.

Cruising

Sunday morning oh Sunday morning!

After a roti canai & teh tarik breakfast, I made a move to Sunway with the 7 o'clock sun trailing within my peripheral vision

The trip along Federal was always smooth on any given weekend morning. No more 'congestive road failure'. And boy I thought that was a catchy funny phrase.. too bad no one was there to laugh at it.

Now sprinkle a little bit of Katie Melua in the background for that sweet cherry topping... Mama Mia! That was just a little bit too perfect ain't?

It's good to be alive.

Wonderful tonight

It was a long Friday. It felt like one of those long haul flight in economy seat with a not-so friendly stewardess pulling a sour face everytime u ask for a drink.

My morning began with an Indian chap who's hard on hearing suffering from chronic kidney disease requiring long term dialysis support. He is unfortunate to have triple vessel ischaemic heart disease of small diffuse nature which render him unsuitable for CABG (coronary artery bypass graft) @ fondly pronounced as cabbage.

The unilateral conversation between us can be heard by the entire ward, with me literally yelling at his good ears about his options is far better-off with TIPD (than haemodialysis) which is gentler on his semi-infarcted heart.

My stayed-up late the night before till 2am trying to finish off our audit paid well when the presentation went well this evening. The only thing that's eating me alive was the long hours spent in that board room staring blankly at a bunch of pie & bar charts for 3 hours. Not bad for a friday 13th evening.

However, later I had a blast playing with my new gadget - Thanx sweetie. Even mr yoda can't help it from having a wicked time tonight.

Reacquainted

12:45pm on a public holiday... Well I'm just ain't doing much these days. Call it my lazy bones day. Did my laundry yesterday which left me without much options for morning except for getting up late. Hey what do other people do anyway right?

A little past afternoon and a plate of lunch later, found my self at the kitchen corner of midvalley's carrefour. The time has come for me to get in reacquainted with my cooking knife, so brought home with me a kitchen stove, a rice cooker plus some utensils.

Well beyond that I must say me and my sis spent the whole evening watching ER marathon and managed to finish season 1.

Hmm 1 down.. 12 more seasons to go! Whadaya say Clooney.. up for it?

Reality

All I need to do now is to be prepared for any consequences. Come on wake up boy, life is not as beautiful as you thought it is and Louis Armstrong got it wrong after all.

She could be right though.. this was after all could be just one of those dream that wakes you up in cold sweat knowing that it is somehow too good to be a reality.

Maybe travelling alone to my destination tomorrow would do good to my system. All I need is my car key, sunglasses and my new burned CD.

"I never wanted the stars
I never shot for the moon
I like them right where they are
All I wanted was you

So baby just turn away
Because I can't face the truth
All I'm trying to say
Is all I wanted was you"

I want you -- Bon Jovi

Staying alive

The sun is shining cold beyond the foggy looking hills. The drop in temperature is chilly enough to drive even the toughest soaring albatross back to its nest.

However nothing can beat the warm feeling of starting early in the day. With that in mind I found myself alone at a local gym at 6.30am.

The weather forecast said that it's gonna be a terrific day at least for me. So gonna hit the town with a wicked smile on my face, too bad the yellow hamster is unable to tag along, he's pretty much knocked-out from too much of strawberry martini from last night party.

The longest day

Tick tock tick tock.

The clock on the wall is somewhat slow today. Can it be that whenever I'm oncall, the earth would move further away from the sun making time move at an unbearable crawling speed.

A trick that I'm sure everyone knows is not to look at your clock. I bet some people have mastered this technique especially during fasting month.

"Doc.. doc..." A soft voice came from behind me.

"Yeah, what's up?" My beautiful daydreaming ended prematurely.

"Just letting you know that we just ran out of our last bed for today" Jennny showed her megawatt smile as if she's auditioning for The West End's Sound of Music.

"Uhum, just great.. It just..hmmm 3pm?!" Damn I looked at the watch again.

Looks like it's gonna be a long oncall.

And daddy doesn't have any more bed to spare.

Tick tock tick tock.

Walk the talk

Before the popcorn gets cold, I want to scribble something down to commemorate the inauguration. So the man has become the 44th US president. Where everything could go wrong he got it all right. I mean boy, Obama really nailed his campaign. For most people they just want to be inspired, including yours truly - and I'am not even an American! Haha I would have voted for him too.

But is he really the man that the world especially Middle-East have waited for?

The sceptics claim that the new west wing administration would not do a darn thing over the Gaza conflict. Much of the doubt is based on that Obama has indebted too much on the Jewish big-guns' support in beating McCain.

The chap that need to be monitored is no other than Obama's right hand man Rahm Emanuel the new white house Chief of Staff (the so called 2nd man most powerful in the white house). A son of a member of a Zionist group Irgun in Chicago, even rumor has it that Rahm used to serve in the Israelis army. Although he claimed only to volunteer in the bomb squadron (it doesn't make it any more benign dude). Not to mention Obama's head political strategist David Axelrod who is also a... yes mam!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a racist or into generalisation. Jew is just a race, and we should not blame a person based on his color, race or creed. And apart from the Israelis army, I don't think all Jews are the baddies here. I'm certain that any ordinary Jew in Jerusalem say Jeremiah the cable-guy is a hardworking honest chap who has a family to feed and a dog to walk every after supper. So part of me still hoping that Rahm and David are one of the good fellah.

What Obama need to show to the world is he really determines to address the Gaza bloody crisis more than his predecessor Bush & Jokers. I suppose he's on the right track when he chose an Arab TV network for his first television interview in getting his message across to the Arab world that US shouldn't be viewed as the enemy.

But yeah that is just on foreign policy, on the home front he has to deal with the economic crisis, unemployment, health reform and what not. But that's another story over a next cup of milo. Well Mr President, you can talk the talk but only time would tell whether you can really walk the walk.

PS: For the record, Barrack if u ever want to reappoint your secretary of health for your second term, then I'm your guy.



PPS: One thing for sure, he and Michellle is one sweet couple.