What's in the Name?

It has again been a long day. It may be a cause for a lot of anxiety for some, but a source of relief for others. Had another session examining short case earlier this afternoon. Saw some familiar faces. As I mentioned last night, I shall refrain from saying anything about the outcome of the exam until the results are out. 

Most of you will be traveling home for the weekend. I want to share with you a couple of stories. The first is concerning my brother-in-law's friend. He has just returned from overseas after completing his medical degree and waiting for his postings with Kementerian. One day, at a traffic light while he was on his motorcycle, a lorry came from behind and hit him. He died instantly. He never get to practice medicine.

The second is about my granduncle's son (my Dad's cousin). My granduncle was a great Paediatrician. When he left government service, he was the Deputy Director General of Health. He recently passed away in 2006 well in his eighties. Amongst his daughters and sons, none of them took up Medicine. None from his nieces and nephews followed suit as well. I was to be the first. In 1969, his brilliant youngest son was offered the Colombo scholarship to read Medicine in Canada. It was a great joy for him and the family. Unfortunately two weeks out, he died of an accident while in his father's car. His name was Fadzil.

I was the first grandchild, and was born a few years after Fadzil passed on. When deliberating what name to register me by, my granduncle wanted me to be named Fadzil. He says that one day I will become a Doctor like him. My father however was wary of the fate befallen Fadzil, an decided to name me slightly differently. My family calls me Fadzil, but most of you know me as Haris.

The morale is, drive carefully on your way back to your kampung. A lot of people are banking on you to be the pride of the family. It is one thing to disappoint people, but imagine if something were to happen to you just due to your recklessness. As the TV advert says .... 'Anda Mampu Mengubahnya!' Drive safely, and see you next Tuesday.

Update on Friday, April 3, 2009 at 11:03PM by Haris Abdul Rahman

I will be doing my fair share of driving as well tomorrow, going down to Malacca. The program there starts at 10, probably leaving right after breakfast at my mother's house. Coming back, I plan to drive via Port Dickson and Banting just for the fun of it ... Hmmm! Banting ... 

I will be taking Toad down for the journey as well. I got home late today, so Toad has gone to sleep with Idlan and Irfan.

A Long Day for Me ... An Even Longer One for the Candidates

I was involved in the examination for the afternoon session and the whole process went well. I only realised how tiring it was after I reached home. I can imagine how exhausted the students were, having firstly to wait for their turn, then suffer the agony of being quarantined.

Toad doing some online shopping. Oi! Stay off my wallet!Judging from the postings on Facebook, everyone had mixed feelings about how they did during the exams. Usually apprehension is healthy. There's not much else anyone can do after the actual exam. We can only wait and watch, and wish our friends still waiting for their turn all the best. I must say that I was very impressed on the quality of the cases on show. They are all very fair, and not out to trick their candidates. Some of the cases can even allow them to shine. Those waiting for their turn tomorrow and Saturday don't have anything to fear.

I also spend today reorganising the way things are posted on the site. I have added another journal stream, called themed posts. This is where the post according to the themes I selected yesterday will be put onto. Hopefully it will prevent the blog from getting clogged up. Today, I looked into three articles from NEJM. I thought they are pretty useful, and hopefully help my Medical Officers and students interested in current medical updates.

The best of luck for those still waiting for tomorrow and Saturday. It will be over soon.

A Brand New Month ...

Toad eyeing my dinner last night. Maybe he is protesting as I have some mushroom in the noodle

So, did anybody got hit by the conflicker.c virus so far? Hopefully it stays as an April Fool prank, even though part of me being a Mac user would like to see that one coming ....

I started blogging proper only since Friday the 13th last month (March). It has been fun, and the support and encouragement I received from readers have been great. When I started, I planned to give it a couple of months, before I find a topic I am relatively good at and only blog exclusively on that. 3 weeks on, I am still uncertain, not because there were no topic of interest, but it is just that I feel I lack focus at the moment.

This morning, sitting in a lecture about sleep, how appropriately, I drafted myself a timetable. I will still write daily - I feel that it is getting easier compared to when I started. I have assigned myself a topic to chew on everyday, selected on a theme. 

So here it goes;

Monday - Haematology/Oncology News

Tuesday - Tech update, about gadget and stuffs

Wednesday (today) - Anything photography, hopefully posting some new pictures taken during the week etc, and looking at latest camera gears

Thursday - Medical news, coinciding with the current issue of New England Journal

Friday - Sports, especially my beloved United

Saturday - undecided because usually I take my boys out that day

Sunday - roundup of news of interest for the week

It's gonna be hard work, but I am sure I will learn a lot as time goes ...

Prof David HuiAs for this morning lecture, it was delivered by our Final MBBS external examiner from Hong Kong, Prof David Hui. He is an eminent pulmonalogist and currently sits in the WHO advisory board for avian flu. He talked about the 'Cardiovascular Effect of Sleep Apnoea'. Unfortunately, I was in the cloud dreaming about this blog!

Told You This Stem Cell Thing Will Lead Somewhere Someday

Hello! Is it me you're looking for?Part of my work in UMMC involves stem cell transplant as part of the long term consolidation among my unfortunate leukaemia patients. Oftentimes, we never even got to it, either due to patient not having a good enough response to initial chemotherapy, patient being too old for the procedure, have problem with their internal organs or carrying infection that will render the transplant process too risky. However, all this are meaningless if they don't have potential donor in the first lace. As a rule, we look amongst their siblings to donate. Failing that, we may be looking at the various stem cell or cord blood registry.

I stumbled across this article yesterday which I found interesting enough to blog about. Conventional stem cell transplant are not alien to us. There are now new avenues being explored for it's use, from the conventional to the bizarre. The success of autologous (source being patient's own) stem cell infusion into Mr A Allagra's in September 2003 in IJN captured the public imagination. I was fortunate enough to be part of the team to perform the first adult unrelated transplant in Malaysia, although my boss my not be impressed to be quoted as a Medical Officer.

Now, breast augmentation from stem cell? Hmmmm! Now, that's a thought. I am not sure how to response should a member of public ask me about it - hey! I am a stem cell expert after all!. And for the students, should I ask you the indications for stem cell transplant, please don't mention to grow breasts!

Oh! My Arm's Aching!

That guy in red is proper lethal! Watch out!I went down for the first time to join a few of my ex-Terendakians for a game of badminton as mentioned last night. Instead of catching the zzz very quickly after the game, I had insomnia! I just cannot sleep! I only finally managed to doze off around 3.30. I tried everything, glass of milk, even reading articles, but I was just wide awake! Must be extra adrenaline.

Woke up this morning slightly late as a consequence. Luckily it is Tuesday, when ward activity is lightest. Edmund led the ward round, so I just joined up halfway. My whole body is aching! I need some urut I think! How am I going to survive another session next week?

Deep down, I really enjoyed hooking up with the lads. They are all grown up. When at MRSM, I have a badminton partner from the opposite end of the spectrum. At school, I was the bookworm, very enthusiastic in school programs, holding posts and stuff, while my partner is a typical rebel in the year. Nobody believed that we clicked together on the badminton court, and we remained unbeaten during the school sports competition. He is now a teacher and happens to live near my Mum's house in Bukit Antarabangsa, married with four kids. He is the last person I would have thought to turn out to be a teacher. But a teacher he is. The pic on top right is me playing with Hasni (or Payut as we liked to call him, and I was called Asap, not because I smoke but due to part of my facial anatomy). He now works for Bank Negara. He will be giving me the lift this weekend to Malacca.

So I am off for my massage then ..... wishful thinking!