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.

Down in JB

I was asked to participate in a patient support group event down in JB, a course I have always gladly support. I did a few sessions in the past, although they were mainly in KL. Puan Anita initially wanted to join me but his brother is due to return from Turkmenistan. We decided to ditch that plan. We were gearing up for the trip to Kuala Kangsar next weekend, but that will depend on whether my in-laws were coming or not. Rather difficult if they can’t make it with us.

Since I was traveling alone, I decided to drive down after lunch. I made a stop at Ayer Keroh for some ‘Root Beer floats’ at A&W, before kicking on. The weather was nice initially, but by the time I reached Simpang Renggam, it turned. It poured down and I had to take my time. I made it in the end and checked into the hotel just after 5.30. It looked like I have a session to attend after dinner. My colleague, Dr Bee, is from Muar. I gather that he was spending the day at his parents and will be driving down - will only take him less than a couple of hours mind you - after dinner.

Initially I was thinking of having a look at what the town have to offer, but don’t really fancy doing it alone. A quick check, and they might be showing the football in my room later. Something to look forward to …. Will blog later about the hotel.