Day 1.
First dish for the day: Briefing by the Deputy Director of Hospital Sg Buloh, Dr Aminuddin.
He broadened our comprehension of the medical field by bidding us to venture into other workplaces besides the hospital. He thinks doctors and hospitals are so cliched!
His suggestions:
> Ministry of Health : For docs who are big on administrative posts, public health officers and deal will the general health of Malaysians
> Higher Education Ministry: Docs who want to be lecturers, work in unis, or be panel doctors
> Prime Ministers Office: Resident doctors for Orang Asli (teringat SK Bkt Tadom), or LPPKN to work in the family planning unit, or be docs who are on standby for the PM
> MINDEF: Be an army doc! Like Major Owen Hunt in Greys *swoons*
You get posted around the world, like Western Africa etc
He warned us that the path of a healer isn't a bed of roses. We did the math with him, 2 years in IB, 5 years in Med School, 2 years as a Houseman, 3 years compulsory service, 4 years if you enter the Masters Program, 1 year to be gazetted as as a Specialist, then its 5 years before you can achieve the title Consultant. Give or take its 20+ years. Given that you don't flop in any of those stages. *gulps*
After sowing seeds of doubt and kiasuism, we were led on to the tour of all the wards of the hospital! My favourite part.
It was all your basic wards, the coolest definitely being Ortho and Day Care Endoscope wards. Ortho cause of all the machinery attached to the patients,
Like this Illizarov to treat open bone fractures
And the different types of scopes
Syamim was weirded out by how patients in the Neuro ward had stitches on their shaved heads (post craniotomy), and misshapen heads due to accidents. The Medical ward was rife with diabetes patients and the Surgical wards had patients in varying stages (pre-op, post-op, observation). But there wasn't much action going on.
After our tour of the wards, we were all dying to see a procedure, so I harassed Dr Madihah to let me observe whatever it was she was doing at the moment.
Result: I got to see my own sister suture someones tongue! Very cool!
Pictures of patients are prohibited but use your imagination!
But we were determined to see something more dramatic so Hannis seeked permission to go to the Forensics department which includes the morgue! Jeepers creepers or what? The forensics officers are super sporting and gave us an extensive tour which includes the body storage facility. He jokingly offered to show us, but we were like "Seriously" and before we could stop him, he pulled out the body from the fridge!
Again, not the real deal but akin to it.
He then offered to show us decomposed bodies! Syamim, Irma, Ijat and I were cowering behind each other. He rolled out the body, and though we were scared, we braced ourselves, then we realized, "Hey, this ain't so bad, we can do this!" We even saw the bodies of babies dumped by their mothers (which broke our hearts, because the baby looked like it was asleep, perfectly preserved, just lying there.....
Oh mother who bore this child, did you not feel even an inkling of love when you glimpsed this heavenly face?
The autopsy room and its apparatus may seem like a butcher work zone but the officer in charge implied that as a medical student, we should start getting used to it, cause its the unofficial classroom for anatomy class. The officer even regaled us with tales of how sometimes it gets so difficult to put your brain back in your cranium that they just close your head up and put your brain in your thoracic cavity or next to your intestines!
Day 2
Visited the Pharmacy Unit! As an outpatient who's on thyroxine for life, I must say it really tweaked my interest on how my meds make it from the supplier into my mouth. The Pharmacy Unit was so organized thanks to their strict adherence of the Kaizen 5S method! I suggested to Hannis that the KMB MPPs make a trip cause the place was the most organized, cheerful and efficient department I have ever been too! I instantly felt like 5S-ing my life!
Next up: CSSD unit.
Suit up people!
Introduction to surgical tools, sterility procedures and procedure kits! Ahh, the shiny shiny scalpels really made my jiwa bergetar XD
I think I have a fetish for surgical clamps.
As usual, we are the most demanding HA group in the world. After our official tour ended, we begged Puan Hamimah (a darling really) to allow us access to the Labour Room.
And since Hannis is an expert at diplomatic reasoning, we got ourselves in.
Was very worth it! Day 1 we saw the last stage of life, today we witnessed the very beginning of life! The screams of one of the mothers as she was in labour are still ringing in my ears.... Dr Chan showed us how to ultrasound the mothers belly, the early stages of labour (contractions and how far the passage has opened) and the types of abnormal pregnancies like twins and breached babies.
The sister there said that tho labour does hurt, no one actually screams that often. It all depends on individual pain thresholds. If all your energy is channeled to your larynx, your uterus won't be as efficient in pushing that baby out. (It is ur uterus that pushes kan?)
We also made a trip to the Emergency Dept (ED) where with our muka tebals we hijacked a doctors procedure and assisted in setting broken bones! (You gotta be bold in asking doctors for things you want)
ED feels very familiar as I've clocked many hours there with my sister and have been a patient there myself. Plus, after 6 seasons of Grey's Anatomy, your bound to know what triage and trauma are right?
Day 3
Since Sg Buloh was built on the original leper colony, we got to visit the PKKN (Pusat Kawalan Kusta Negara). Leprosy is one of the plagues of the past, thanks to the advent of Dapsone and MDTs, but back in the 1920's, if you had leprosy, you'd have to get yourself checked in here. Its the largest leper colony in Malaysia at one time, having over 2500 patients.
Some of the nurses there used to work back in the heyday of leprosy, the patients used to be in such pain, and mind you there wasn't any morphine, or ponstan or adequate pain killers back then, and the would hurt so bad that some just commit suicide in their beds.
Some of the original lepers still remain here, and you can see the effects of the disease. One aunty I asked told me that she'd been there since 1988!
What it does to your hands.
Couldn't help remembering the King of Jerusalem during the time of Christian occupation during the crusades, Baldwin the IV and his face when he died.
The docs there however reassured that its a slow disease, and most patients don't die of leprosy, but of other complications and that modern medicine can have leprosy cured fast.
Our final stop was the rehab centre. Reminded me of grandma and PDKs. Apparently, rehab is the new "in" thing with hospitals and demands for allied health science careers such as occupational therapists, physiotherapists, and rehab doctors have skyrocketed.
Post SPM people, look into these careers. Allied health is still work in the medical field, only the path has less thorns and bumps, and the job satisfaction is equally high.
The gang with our KYUEM friends.
Was definitely a worth it experience. Albeit the fact that we were shooed out of the OT, I still learnt a lot! Special thanks to Pn Hamimah and Sis Azian fr making this all possible. And the Almighty of course. This is the path I'm determined to take God willing, and I know I gotta make the most of it.
Next time, I'm just gonna apply for OT visits only! Scratch that, next time, I'm gonna be running my own OT.
