Return to Kelang

The last time I was posted to teach in Kelang, I have not even started the blog yet. It must have been close to 3 years back. Certainly a long of things have changed. I also remember still the first time I was posted here back in 2004. Idlan was only just born and the partner I was assigned with have left for private practice. It certainly have been a long time since I first step there and for old time sake, let see what had happened.

The session being plannedThe first thing I noticed was the number of crows around the place. The number had certainly gone down. It was a norm to have team of shooters doing the rounds there shooting these pesky birds down. Walking from the hostel to the hospital building was also a risk. You never know what would land on your head if you were not careful. The place has certainly been better kept. A lot of investment has gone in with the building of a new multistory car park and an outpatient complex. There was a new cafeteria there - where I now have lunch.

Give me more roti canaiThe hostel building. Not much change there.I also remember looking forward for a proper roti canai at another cafeteria there - the one in the old building, near the Casualty. I was disappointed with the offering on my last stint there, but this week, it was very nice, although the curry could have been better. The wards were just as crowded as ever, although the main medical ward had managed to rid of their dengue patient to a new designated ward. I remember at least 50% of admissions every night into the medical ward was dengue back then. The patients were still as grumpy and the condition were less than ideal for teaching medical students, especially those who were just learning their trade. The first teachers are very in important in getting the students to get into the right habit. With the less than ideal condition on offer, it would take a lot of commitment to get things right.

The new outpatients buildingThere was also this tendency amongst the students to make sure all their boxes were ticked. They were more adept at making sure that the lecturer cover as wide a range of subject as possible, but the danger of that would be the compromise in quality. On a personal level, I much prefer the qualitative approach rather than getting as much done as possible. That was easier said than done, and as a result I can appear to be too overbearing and tend to elaborate more than I possibly need to. But then again, that was me, and I can only strive to do the best that I can. So, quality boys and girls, rather than quality.

Taking notesTaking a breatherAlong the same vein, the class size has certainly increased along the years. There used to be around 30 to 32 students per group. The current group I have was 44, including a number of students who dropped down a year. This will certainly put a strain on things especially in the final week, during which I will be taking them for a short case examinations. 44 students. All for short case. Sigh!

On a personal note, the lady in charge for the program in Kelang for the UM side has also changed. It used to be Kak Ani. She has since retired. It was now Kak Salmah. It will take a while for me to get to know her. The lecture schedules were still the same, but apparently, the Consultants would be coming here more regularly than before. I will have to wait to see how things pan out. 

P1 Downtime

It looks like I will be off the net - well off the P1 for the time being. P1 was doing maintenance in my neck of the woods this weekend. Good thing that we were planning to balik kampong to Kuala Kangsar this weekend. Idlan has gone grumpy since he was not able to get on YouTube. Kids nowadays.

Puan Anita has started packing. We will leave tomorrow after work, taking our minivan for the first time. Not sure if I will be doing the drying since our driver will be coming along as well. Since I was currently teaching in Kelang, I had to come back for teaching on Monday. Otherwise it could've been an extended weekend as Tuesday will be a public holidays. We were planning what to do that day. We may go up Genting.

Graduation

This morning, before attending the clinic, I went to Idlan school to attend his graduation. Well, kindergarten graduation. He wasn’t that excited initially, but not until he found out that he would be wearing a robe. We gathered at the school library to get them on. Fitted him smartly, with Irfan looking on from close by wondering what the fuss was all about.

Today was the last day of school for Seri Utama, and the last day for Idlan in kindergarten. Some of his friends, who had been with him for the last 3 years in kindie will be leaving for public school, so it was kind of a bitter sweet affair. Most of them was not able to continue because of school schedule. From next year, Idlan’s school times will start at 9 and finishes at 3.30 in the afternoon. We were lucky as Puan Anita will be her own boss and able to fit the time to fetch both Idlan and Irfan. We have also enrolled Idlan for Sekolah Ugama in the afternoon, 3 times a week from then on. I am sure, he will have his hands full.

Anita planned to join the rest of the parents for an impromptu gathering at a playground at Great Eastern Mall later in the afternoon. It will be the time for Idlan to say goodbye to his friends who will be leaving. A few will stay on however, and I am sure he will meet more friends.

Morning Session

The sight which greeted me that Sunday morningFinally it came my turn to participate in the patient support group discussion. My topic was to facilitate the discussion in a small group in Malay medium. Yes, finding the right terms and pitching your message at the right level can be tricky at times. You don’t want to appear too overbearing, but at the same time you want to move the audience forward in terms of their understanding of their disease. The fact that some of the participants were newly diagnosed, compared to some who had been coming to these events for the past few years, finding the happy medium was a challenge. But there was where the fun lies.

Ms Tan Pei Lin, Pharmacist from UMMCThe session started very early for a Sunday morning. So kudos to all the participants. We kicked off with an overview of how best to take their medications - we were talking about Glivec here. It was ably delivered by our own UMMC’s Clinical Pharmacist, Ms Tan Pei Lin. She has only been dealing Glivec for me in the last couple of months, but has been with us for a lot longer. The talk was very easy to follow, and judging from the response from the crowd, it was very well received. My only comment to the organiser was we should have had the Q&A session straight after the talk rather than pushing on with the next talk. By allowing some questions, things would have been still fresh and discussion could’ve been more focus. If we wait until later, the momentum may have been lost.

Dr Xavier from Hospital AmpangThe next talk was by Dr Xavier Sim from Ampang Hospital. His talk was more clinical-based, mainly about the molecular side of the disease and the importance of compliance to Glivec. Some of the points were quite technical for the audience but he took them to task to explain those points in details and in laymen’s term. Yes, it was way above the head of some audience, while for others it may have been merely a revision, stressing the point of the difficulty in finding the right pitch. I was pretty sure however that there were many messages for the audience to take home. It will at least stimulate some curiosity in them for the next session, when the group were broken into smaller ones, mainly into Malay, English and Mandarin medium.

I was taking notes of course ... while updating the twitter on @haemummc The souvenir, a hand-painted artwork by Encik Sahimi, a CML patient and founding member of MaxFamilyIt took a while for the discussion to get going but when it did, oh boy! Pei Lin, the Pharmacist had to move between the three group to take on some more direct question concerning drug interaction and similar issues. Before we knew it, it was already mid day. We then had the customary photo session and the obligatory handing over of souvenir. I had to start my journey back home after lunch, and it was already raining heavily then. The rest of participants from KL wold be taking a bus at 2pm. I made it to KL by 5pm, stuck in the jam after Seremban. I wonder how the rest of the group got on.

Checking in

After dinner, I joined up with the rest of the participants for the evening session. It was conducted by a professional motivational speaker from Melaka, Encik Baba. The session we had concerned self-confidence and handling pressure in face of cancer, which was easy to follow and rather entertaining. What was obvious was the willingness of the participants to open up. Their enthusiasm was infectious and even though they were of different race, there was no barrier. Even though I was familiar to most of the techniques on show, it takes skill to get the message across to a group of different races.

Encik Baba trying to burst her balloonIt was time for bedI was too tired to stay for the whole session. Some of the segments required the participants to interact with each other and that took some time. I left to my room - which was on the top floor when they were about to close the session. I went to survey the rest of the hotel before returning to my room. When I was writing this entry, United was leading Blackburn 3 nil, and they had only just played half an hour. I was able to watch the game in my room. I have an early start tomorrow morning, plus the drive back to KL. Will blog about the hotel later when I have more picture of the place.