Da Rice...

When Yun got her first mobile phone, Xian had been eager to lay his hand on one of those. He was eyeing for some high end model but still we had tried to “calm” him down from time to time as he is eyeing on “flagship” grade model.

During one of the occasion, I had introduced him to the “red rice”; a product by “small rice” which had stormed the market since months ago. Unlike those major mobile phone producer which introduced flagship grade product on yearly basis and selling them with the price tag of RM2200+. The small rice has approached the market differently; their products sold at almost half the price of those major branded counterpart with the same specs.

The red rice has a 4.7’ screen with a quadcore processor. Middle range product which is selling at less than 400RM. The problems -> no stock available in the market except those marked up product sold by “yellow cow” over the internet.

The small rice company has released a few thousand units over the net on weekly basis. The release is mostly held at noon on Wednesday and most of the sales ended within minutes. Some had said that it is just like an online game which is played once a week and the reward although is non-comparable to LOTTO but yet still worth a try.

I had led Xian to this product as I thought it would take quite sometimes before I would grab one and the product was darn cheap compare to those branded.

We successfully grabbed our first red rice on our 5^th attempts and Xian was happy with it. Nothing to shout about the product but yet the price is darn cheap.

The small rice has another got money cannot buy product -> portable charger, 50% less than the one sold in the market and yet the efficiency was top of it type.

Well there was this rice fan festival 2 weeks ago where we had grabbed some portable chargers and a red rice for myself….

 This photo is taken with the red rice from my farm...

you can see with the cheap RM400 mobile phone, I could take photo with reasonable depth of field. 

still 4 more months to go before I could lay m hand on this yummy pineapple

Parents and Healer...

It was 2 am, when I sensed that Yun had awaken and trying to put her jacket on in the tent.

I had hit dreamland about 1+ hrs ago when the other folks retired to their tent. While struggling to open my soring eyes, I asked her if she is feeling unwell. She told me that she is experiencing chillness, nausea and abdominal pain.

Well, with instant reflex, I had asked her if she has passed any motion that day. She gave me a positive answer and she pointed to the periumblical area and told me the pain was localized at that point. She told me she had 2 similar attacks in the past and both were relieved by passing stool.

I brought her to the car, given her some panadol syrup and do a quick PE. There pain was worst at the McBurney’s point and rebound tenderness was noted. My heart sunk but still told her that I would accompany her to the toilet and she could try and see if it would get better after passing stool.

As the nearest toilet did not have a sitting bowl, I had to bring Yun to the toilet at the other end of the camping ground about 200m away. I told Yun to the toilet and told her to take her time.

It was a long wait and I had kept praying to the LORD to have mercy on Yun – no appendicitis please. Although the history was actually not compatible, but the rebound tenderness was quick shocking. In the past, I had come across quite a few patient with constipation who presented with rebound tenderness but still, it is still an annoying sign.

The waiting was not boring as Yun and I had a good chat but I had to tolerate wave and wave of Kamakazie attack by the mosquito.

Yun felt better after expelling her waste, and we retired to the tent by 3am. We had a good chat regarding abdominal pain and appendicitis.

Well, being a healer is simple – the anxiety is less, but as a parents, the anxiety is 1000x …..

a case of lymphadenopathy...

As the class ended up early, I had arrived early to take over the shift....

A mother had come to the ED with her 10 y/o daughter. The mother had explained that her daughter was seen earlier in our ED and referred to ENT clinic for a swollen mass in the neck. She had however brought to the her panel family med clinic which had referred her again to us for a CBC test. 

The girl had noted with a temperature of  37.6°C at the triage station.

The mass was apparently a lymph node located just below the mandible angle. I did a quick PE and found that there was no obvious lesion in the head region. Just as I wanted to proceed to the examination of the trunk, the mother had told me that there was this blister noted around the girl's left shoulder. I adjusted the girl's shirt and found some blisters at both of her shoulder and further examination had revealed blisters over the neck base as well.

The answer was straight forward at that time - chicken pox.I reassured the mother and sent the patient's home......

Wild goose chase which ended up with a spot diagnosis.

back to the basic-> careful history and PE conclude most of the case.

Farewell....

TiVO had been in our family for over 8 years. I had upgraded its’ 80G hard disc to 320G recent few years and the kid had been enjoying it. The interface was one of the best, it’s intelligent fast forward function is my favorite. The cons – poor resolution, it’s output to my 47LCD via AV signal resulting in image that is about 480p….but nothing to shout as the signal from the cable is as bad as it is….

2 weeks ago, my cable TV provider had sent me a notice that the analog signal would be shut down at the end of the months and we would need to upgrade to the new digital system for further viewing. I had asked around and found out that the provider had upgraded 90% of the subscribers and applied to the NCC for implement the total digitization and shutting down the analog signal.

The pros -> HD quality but cons ->giving up TiVO

I would have to give up my TiVO as my TiVO does not support the new digital system.

Well, the HD is awesome and the PVR service is suboptimal but acceptable…

Farewell, TiVO…（hopefully it would introduce the HD version in the future…）

a little sensation of happiness.....

a little reward from my little farm..

as my shifts is currently stirred up, I could only go to my farm on an irregular basis however I could spent more time there as I enjoyed more 3-4 straight break in between my shifts. 

This is the 2nd time I planted beet root (could only grow in the winter) and the reward was awesome. Ving would blend the beet root with some veggie and fruit as our wake up drink....

The word of "小確幸" was first used by author Marukami Haruki(I had read only one of his novel 1Q84 - a very interesting sci-fi)  in one of his prose 'an afternoon of the islets of Langerhans' which means a sensation of small happiness. (the kanji was abstracted from the phrase "小さいけど確かな幸せ.....")

The term had been widely used by the local media lately...

respect

I had met our surgeon W today and he was quite pissed off lately. One of the case he had operated on had deteriorated and the on call doctor had called him for instruction but yet still acted actively….

Well, It is all about respect; on call doctors take thing into their own hand or ask the attending physician/surgeon for instruction and should follow instruction after the consultation. But sometimes, someone who is more senior stir their hand into the mess, that would be another story.

We hope that we don’t lose W as the consequences….  

bar mizvah ride....

Xian had asked me if I would be working on the mid of May and I told him that I would spare the day if he wanted me to do so… He told me that he wanted to join the 100 km bicycle ride

The government had been promoting cycling  as "bar mizvah" for the junior high graduate since few years. The ministry of sport had funded tons of rides which is co-organized by local authority. As the head master is a cyclist fan, he had been offering such event to elementary school student - Xian had taken part in one of the ride during his 2nd grade.  

It is another hell ride again, the torment is not the physical stress but the worried of traffic accident. Well, riding alone is simple, but riding with a bunch of reckless junior youngster is another story. Yun had encountered couple of falls during the ride and had vowed that she would ride in any further event last year... but when Xian came back with the news, she had asked Xian to get 2 more forms for her and her friend.....

I had been participating in the event annually for the past few years. Frankly said, riding a folding bike in such event was quite a stress as most of the participants ride a 26 ‘ wheeler, it would take some effort to keep up with them . For the past 5 years, I had been participated  annually with 1 withdrawal (due to flat tire).

Well, it is still a thrilling experience for an old dog like me. I had a good training route and with the Garmin edge 800, I am able to monitor myself safely during my training rounds. ...

parents.....

I had seen many irresponsible parents along the path, some of them really need a punch over their face…

A young male with a curly hair came in with a child. He related that the child was coughing badly and cried of chest pain in the house. The child was sitting calmly in front of the ED desk. The young male was sliding his phone intermittently while answering to my questions. I was a little pissed but still within my grip of temper as the consultation progress. The child was noted with wheezing and I had told the parent that he might have asthma and would need to be very careful in the future. While gliding his phone, he did not show any anxiety about the child’s condition and didn’t bother to ask about the care of such children in the future.

As the child inhaling his Ventolin, the father was sitting along the bench about 10 meters from me while gliding his mobile phone (I presumed he is playing with “Tower of Savior” from his gliding stature, as Yun was playing with it for sometimes) with an expression of I don’t care….

Another parent that really need a wallop…..

something never change...

It had been many years since my housemanship, but I still shivered thinking of doing rounds with some “big-gun” specialist/consultant. I had recently seen the mini-video clip of regarding housemanship which gone viral lately – “budak baru”

Something never change –

1.  How to tell which is House officer and which is Medical officer ?(male) – house officer look young and wear a tie, Medical officer don’t…specialist wear ties but they look “old”…

2.  There is always some “Bossy” specialist around the wards. They care about job done instead of training of the House officer….ask you to read up while the house officer doing tagging (work 7-11, and yet expect to read up after work…). Could scolding and yelling produce a better doctor ? I doubt it…

3.  Houseman would be judged initially from where you grad from.

4.  House officer is expected to know each case when they step into the ward. Clerking should be instant…

5.  Specialist always said, “my ward…..bla bla bla”

6.  CT and MRI is at the mercy of radiologist….house officer had to beg and beg and beg for an appointment.

Anyway it is a good video....

I had been telling others, I got paid to do my job and there is nothing about it, just a job like every other job in the world. The key is the passion, the passion to help others....

looking back and eyeing forward...

I read through Yun’s examination paper lately… well, I could barely answer her Chinese paper and the rest of her papers were like senior high level. She scored >70 over half of her subject and still struggling with her Chinese(which was darn darn difficult..)

I am glad that she was improving and understood the importance of self motivated studying. Still, I just don't want to put any pressure on her at the moment.

She was worried about her future like I was in the past. I was anxious because I knew it would be very difficult for my parents to support me to go abroad. I had thought of many ways of staying back in Malaysia furthering my study with the cheapest way. I deeply thank them for their effort. Yun was however worried about how to keep her residential status after her graduation. According to the local law, she would have to give up her alien resident certificate at the age of 20. (but by then she would be in her sophomore year and she would be holding her own ARC under the reason of further study) .I had comforted her and told her that she would be fine as the country here is trying to secure more young professionals. But to be  an eligible one, she would have to choose the right path.

I had told her that she had to focus on her study and she would have a good choice when choosing her tertiary education path.

For those riches, there should be no differences, cannot study ? then work in the family business, but I don’t have any to let them to work in…so it is up to them to struggle, and hopefully they could.

There was once, when I had worried so much about their future. But slowly, my savior had convinced me that let him lead the path…

I have seen their improvement and I ought to imitate my savior acting as a shepherd instead of a controller. They are not going to complete what I had left out but yet they would walk down the path as they are destined to do so.

They do not have the luxury like me to enjoy extra-curriculum activity which taught me so many thins but yet they enjoyed what I haven’t in the past. You gain some you lose some….