6TD Nurses Day Party

It has been a yearly event internationally - The Nurses Week. Once a year they had a party in the ward. The nurses did a collection, bought each other prezzies and had a jolly good time. This year was no exception but I must say that this year’s event was the biggest I remembered at least in my ward - Ward 6TD.

When everything was still civilisedYes! Haemato-Oncology is not exactly a rosy subject. The patients stay with us for long period of time, staying in for a good month during their chemotherapy. The nurses and doctors tend to get to know them pretty well. We go through a lot of ups and downs with them. After a while, the patients also get to know us, the nurses and doctors. Some of them were even my Facebook contacts, and that brought down a layer or two in terms of communications. Some of them regularly tweet me and the best way to contact me would be through email as I don’t give away my phone numbers that readily.

On the other side, leukaemia and lymphoma is not exactly conditions that were easy to treat, and sometimes these “friends” of ours never made it through. Ward 6TD can then be a sorrowful place. Things can get depressing. I learned from way back to not feel guilty when I eat in front of patients or have a do like this, behaving like normal human beings. But having a do inside the ward can be awkward still.

The event yesterday was a great one. It was a shame that I can only join late on after my clinic. I finally made it after Jumaat prayers after a few phone calls from the ward sister. Luckily they have saved some food for me. The satay were still aplenty, the soto was set aside for me, so were the dessert. All the food were prepared by the nurses themselves, insisting on me trying all of them. By the time I was done, I could hardly walk! To all the nurses reading this .... much appreciated and Happy Nurses Day.

Slideshow for the party can be found here.

More Exams

Finally heading home after such a long but fruitful day. Disappointed that some of the candidates did not fare as well as expected, but I suppose in any exams, there will be some party left with bad news.

So, the part II MMed Exam was wrapped up. Off to HUKM tomorrow for the MMed I clinicals. Will have to be there early to beat the traffic and calibrate the cases. Hopefully it won't be as long a day as today was.

The candidates will only learn their fate on Friday morning after individual marks were tabulated and discussed. Since it will be on a Friday, I will not be able to attend the meeting but will be present when the news about the results were broken. I shall just leave it at that for the time being.

During the deliberation at the end, the External Examiners did remark abou the long day and the element of examiner fatique creeping in. It will not be fair if that were to affect the assessments of the candidates. However there will never be a totally fair exams although some exams were fairer than others. In terms of organisation, yes, there were a few hairy moments with patients not turning up. One of the patient was drowsy with a drug he has taken and was snoring away while another had a weak bladder and we had to call the cleaners in to mop up the floor! There was also this classic picture of one of my invigilating colleague using a cow bell to alert the candidates that time was up. It was a sight!

Arm twisting

Unfortunately, my feeble attempt at quarantine a couple of weekends ago did not work. I managed to pass on my virus to Puan Anita and the boys. The boys has since recovered. The same can initially be said about Puan Anita, but behind my back she sneaked to the local GP and got herself some antibiotics. She felt great in the first few days, then the cough returned, minus any fever. She also started have joint pains.

She took all the precaution about taking enough fluids. She took paracetamol when the pain got to her, and takes lozenges regularly. She lost her voice by last weekend and yet to regain it and the sore throat got worst yesterday. I told her to keep at it, but she started to get worried. Alright then, time for some intervention. She came over to the ward this afternoon, got her blood tested and cheat Xray taken. Alhamdulillah she was OK, but when it was time to return back home, she got a shock when she called our driver. The gentleman only started working a month ago and unfortunately son of one of my mum-in-law friend. She was the one brokering the deal to take him on.

He parked the car near an entrance and left, maybe to have a smoke. Obviously the car was clamped! Puan Anita called me, and I told her that she has to see the nearest security officer. Unfortunately I was doing my Day Care and can’t leave. We managed to get to the security office. The rule was very clear, we had to pay a fine to remove the clamp and since it was pretty clear it was out fault, were quite happy to fork out the fee. Puan Anita was anxious to get home for the boys. But no! Our driver argued with the security chief. How embarrassing. Anita couldn’t believe it. 10 minutes it went on, and finally she stepped, paid the fee and asked the chief to remove the clamp. She had to apologise on behalf of the driver for the drama.

I only learned about this after I reached home. I was quite upset, not because of the clamping, but his attitude of arguing with the security officer. It wasn’t very pleasant since I work at the place. At the rate the driver was going, he was clearly heading for the sack. Apparently, even my mum-in-law was not happy with him the other day - well that would not take much, as nothing really pleases her. Since she was the one employing the man, she has to sort this mess out!

Party

Just finished my morning weekend round and then a tutorial for the Anaesthesia MO. They have an exam coming up in 3 weeks and I did a session on haemostasis with them. Rather complicated but hopefully they can pick something useful up from the discussion.

Arriving for the ward round this morning, I was surprised to look at the effort made by the Paediatrics Department this morning to cheer up their Oncology patients. Something that should be commended. I wish that similar thing can be done for my adult patients but that would be highly inappropriate really. Every few month, they organised a variety show for the patients, inviting celebrities and singers with games and shows. It was very well received despite the heavy rain in Kuala Lumpur this morning. I only managed to catch a glimpse of the whole party. By the time I settle to start my tutorial, I kept being distracted by Lady Gaga playing in the background. The venue was almost full and the catering was provided by Hotel Istana which I thought was cool - our wedding was held there, mind you 13 years ago!

I was now about to leave for home. Puan Anita just called an she was planning an outing. Will wait and see what she has in mind!

Mock time!

As a teacher, the best feeling to have is when your students do well. In my field, I look to more than just passing exams, because frankly, they would have passed their exams without me teaching them. What's more important is being there when they needed help or guidance. After all, my students are adults. In fact, some of them were older than me.

Today, we held a mock exam for OSPE, one of the exam formats. The exam proper will take place next week and everyone was pretty jittery about it already. I was really pleasantly surprised that all the 15 candidates turned up to take the mock. Truly guys, that means a lot. They'll probably still pass the exam without the mock but I'm sure they will find it helpful for their preparation.

All the best!