CoMmunity CliNic

since last friday was the national university day, my uni had also given us one day off thats when i decided to go to the dentist(government) punye.so i went as a patient..no lab coats..no official wear so i did scaling and onli paid RM4.

while waiting for my mom to come fetch me ,one rather old looking chinese man, shabbily dressed.. came out cursing..

Chi Man: Halor..saye jumpa itu doktor dia kata saye punye cermin(specs) sudah takda guna la
Sofie: oo ok
Chi Man: cilakak la itu doktor
then he began to take out his wallet..
Chi man: lu tengok ini
i got scared i tot he is gonna ask for money
Chi man: Ini dia tulis saya punya mata..lu tengok saya punya mata sekarang, sebelah ada kicik kah?
Sofie: Erm. Tak sure la uncle.Saye bukan doctor ( pretended to be a layman). Tapi ini power mata kanan lagi teruk dari kiri la ( contradicted my role)
Chi man: aiya ya ka.sikalang itu doktor cakap sama saya ini spec sudah tada guna la.mau buat balu.cilakak itu doctor
SOfie: o ok
Chi man: Ok aa..saya mau balik dulu
SOfie: ok Bye Uncle
then he walks abt 4 metres also then he turned back
Chi man: you mata ok a?spec ok a?
Sofie: Yes yes ok
Chi man: Oh..ada itu asam (wind) saja aa
Sofie: Itu pun tada la uncle.datang jumpe doktor gigi
Chi man: Aiyoo kasi cabut aa..jgn kasi cabut la
Sofie: Takde takde..bukan cabut tampal saja
Chi Man: Bagus bagus..jgn kasi cabut nanti masuk dalam badan manyak teruk..Ok aa saya mau balik

i Hope after talking to me he went back a bti calmer with less cursing on th way home
Of all ppl waiting outside he came to me.he mus have tot he could relate to me since we bth wer wearing specs..

SO cute that uncle..Hav u guys noticed older ppl are much more cuter..??

VOting Day

Yeah this is long overdue!! cudnt connect to the internet for 2 weeks..had to go to starbucks to prepare my slides for class presentations.

Alrite..so this was the first time i was able to vote.Didnt want to waste it. Had so much confidence that i was going to vote for that side. I walked up to the sekolah agama with my parents. Sister who was back frm manipal stayed at home since she didnt register to vote. When we walked..there were BN cars every around and many outstation cars too. Suddenly cars u dun even c around the area during raya are now back in town. On the way to the sekolah agama..ther was a booth to check our names listed or not..then after checking then they'l allow us in further..then we walked up further..

Wah..got policeman also. Evrybdy lined up outside the gate and when the police said u can go now..then onli we moved in, checked again our names at another booth using a computer. then there were volunteers who direct us to different classes..My mom and dad apparently got the same aliran. but i had a different one. Being all nervous i waited outside the class and when he policeman gave me the nod, i entered the class.
There are saw 4 ppl sitting with papers clipped together with a ruler and a pencil, then one person read out my name and evrybdy looked at the same page. She couldnt finish my dad's name and sumbdy else had to..What a MALAYsia we are living in.

then they gave me my ballot paper and i stod at the booth..quite sure it was the initial decision i was going to do. but when putting the 'X', then i thought.hmm..nvm la..this one's my dad's friend let's 'X' him. then i'd do that side for the other ballot paper. THen again i contemplated and decided to g for the same 'SIDE'

when i finished i put my ballot paper into two different boxes and walked out.MEt up with m parents and happily went back home.When i got home..my dad asked me

Dad: Check if ur IC is with u
Sofie: Erm ok..(look thru my wallet) My ic's not here..Macam mane ni
Dad: Look Carefully
(went back to the car looked evrywher inside the car and even under the car..no IC)
Sofie: Its not there..Takde takde..Mesti kat tempat undi tadi
Dad: Hmm go and take back.what if they sell ur IC?giv it to illegal foreigners?

i went back..got stopped by the ppl in first booth
Lady: Pls check ur name before voting
Sofie: I alrd voted but i think i left my IC inside i need to go and check

Went to the first police officer
SOfie: Encik.saye tertinggal IC
Police 1: Ade lesen memandu tak
SOfie: Ade
Police 1: Ok boleh register gune lesen memandu
SOfie: Bukan bukan.Saye dah undi tadi. Tapi rasenye saye tinggal IC kat dalam

He called one of the volunteers brought me to the class and met up with the police officer outside the class

Sofie: Encik.. saye tinggal IC kat dalam rasenye Boleh tak kalau nak check
Police: aaa.. IC ye. Sekejap.

Then the guy inside the class recognise me
Guy: Datang untuk IC ye?Nasib baik saye simpan
SOfie: thnk u thank u..

wah Lau!! SO embarassing..

On the way out..one old lady was walking with me and we talked n the way to my car. She chatted a bit and she straight away guessed that i was a doctor..i told her im still a student and i asked how did she guessed ..cuz i tot she knew my parents.. then she said..no no its the way u carry urself..fulamak..i was wearing fitted clothes with jeans and 10 ringgit slippers and i look like a doctor..she doesnt knw my Skull is HolloW :D

F a t E d

Faith are sometimes things that u dun expect of. Like when the person u least expected to spend the rest of your life with..might be the person u hated most or bullied and teased u most. I in particular did not despise my current fate. It was just of the unexpected..Mind the definition again...things that u dont expect of

My fate is not a person.I would like to share with you about my faith with and illness. On a drizzling evening my friends and i went to the cover the beds in the paediatrics ward..all of us were allocated beds indifferent cubicles, to make it fair and everyone can see an acute (something that just happen suddenly) case..a chronic (something that has been there for sometime..has remitted and now relapse..or now coming in with complications) case..a critical ( a matter of life and death for the poor child) case to get a range of illnesses.

there were 7 of us so each covered 3 or 4 beds.

A surprise to me..i had to cover 3 beds..located at different parts of the ward..and all were Febrile Fits ( This means the child is fitting because he is having very high fever usually among children of ages 3 months to 6 years). All of which were two year olds and weigh 10 kilos

It was fate..

a friend told me..' i think its your jodoh'

: if only febrile fits was a person..i would be married to him soon.
i now introduce u to Mr and Mrs F. Fits

: if only it was dowry.. i would be getting trays and trays of management of febrile fits

: if only i had a western wedding.. all my flower girls and ring bearer would have a history of febrile fits

: if only i wanted a new car.. the front rail of the bonet would be engraved with FF.The boot would be labelled as Fits 1.8

: if only it was a housing area.. it would be Fitting Gardens

ffff Farah Fated Febrile Fits ffff

.:My FutuRe ..My dad's Past:.

rite now our starting pay as housemen have also increased..its now rm4500 inclusive of on calls

the star and NST yesterday announced that doctor's pay after housemanship of two years will be rm6000 inclusive of allowance
can u imagine how my jaw dropped..not just mind.in fact everbody.. the parents..the other students.. the current housemen..the current medical officers

first reason being that the current medical officers who have worked about 10 years in the government service are getting a pay of this much. and they cannot accept the fact that easily all this young pass outs are going to get this amount from the moment they become medical officers. One MO came to see my dad and complained that it is unfair that they are all getting so much without even climbing up the seniority ladder and all this juniors will be getting the same pay as those who have served for 10 years

the parents..are really happy bcz now they realise..its worth now being a doctor..despite the amount of money they had to spend to get their children thru medical school..despite all the exam stress that they also hav to deal with.. despite the non stop working hours that they hardly ever see their children..despite their regret to make their children suffer..mugging for 5 years..jus tobe underpaid and work like a dog..finally..IT IS WORTH being a docto


as for me..im jus too happy to be receiving this kind of pay!!i finally can start investing my money!!


Walking down memory lane...


when my dad first started becoming a houseman..the pay was less than rm1000.it was difficult enough to live.eventhough without kids.Hearing his stories about how he and my mom survived the hardship was unbelievable. imagine having to pay monthly to buy a fridge..
how they played 'kutu'
This 'main kutu' means they collect a pool of money among themselves, the doctors each month..all must contribute the same amount lets say rm50..so if there are 4 people main 'kutu' in the end of the month they will take turns to get rm200 a month. then when my dad wanted to go to sit for his MRCP again there was no money available. that time there was no masters program in the country. he had to put it on paper that he was selling his car to my aunt so that my aunt will receive a bank loan to 'buy' it. this money was used for air ticket..to support my dad's expenses in the UK for a month.. and also for exam fees. And at that time very few scholarships were available.JPA only sent malay students so they did their masters in the UK for a year or two.


AS for the non malays, it is all their own money.And because they went there purely for the exams, they did not have the privilege of having classes there. They hang aroud in the hospital just to familiarise with the cases (Western countries cases are different from tropical you see certain things are mroe common there and become more important in exams). Then they hang around in the university campus and try to see if there are many arabs around.WHY?
Because they are the ones with enough money to PAY an examiner to Teach them JUST FOR THE EXAMS.MY dad and his friends try to listen from outside the lecture hall or join in secretly.

Hardship was this back in the 70s for doctors even when they are medical officers

And unlike these days MRCP was very tough because there was no mock exams.no mcq books nothing..so many doctors do not pas for the first time.My dad thought he would fail too so he decided to head back to Malaysia without knowing his results.He thought he would just try again harder next year..means more Money! but to his surprise on his way back he was informed that he passed and is now a specialist.

With that title in hand..slowly promotions came in but definitely not as many as this. Thats why a lt of the doctors at that time decided it doesnt pay to be faithful to the government service. Most of my dad's friends resigned and opened up their own privae practice. Only those 'foolish' ones stayed on. Inspite of that..not all reached their full maximum promotion before retirement. My dad was one of the few lucky ones who reached the Super Scale A

Macam orang Melayu selalu cakap..ade hikmah di sebaliknye..Maybe this is it.He is a senior and quite prominent doctor now...Prominent bcz he is one of those old dogs who still want to work under the government even after retirement. Hehe..

~Spot Diagnoses..

What it means here is diagnosing the patient's condition without asking questions to the patient or relative and not touching or examining him. It is done purely just by standing in front of the bed observe the patient and guess what he has. This comes from experience..

Personally for me, this comes with experience..intuition..and a queer eye

Today is my 2nd day in my last paediatrics posting. We did a lot of spot diagnoses by ourselves..And my friends had the tendency to check if my spot diagnoses will work since they already know the cases

The first case was baby boy who was on a nasogastric tube, wearing diapers, remained in full flxed position in all limbs, head was slightly enlarged and the most prominent feature was the feet all flexed and inverted and the whole body was stiff
My Guess: Cerebral Palsy
Answer: Correct
Then i was asked to tell the age of the boy, and my colleague said 'You will be surprised'
Since he was very looking like only a few months old, i guessed as 2 years old. My friend said wrong. Then i said 6 years old. And he said close..its 7 years old

The second case was a baby boy 1 year 4 months left all alone in the cot.Tongue protuding and other features which pointed out to Down's Syndrome
My guess: Down's Syndrome
Other people guess: Normal baby
Answer: Down's Syndrome

Third patient is a 3 year old girl looking rather obese with periorbital puffiness.Moody. Saw her on my way into the ward
My guess: Nephrotic syndrome.Not remitted--> mEans Steroid Resistant Nephrotic Syndrome
Answer: Steroid resistant nephrotic syndrome..Focal Segmented Glomerularnephritis

Fourth patient was a 5 year old boy with a chipmunk round face. Saw him on my way into the ward
Diagnosis: Thalassemia,
Answer: Thalassemia, came in for blood transfusion

My last patient..left me on cloud nine. A 6 month old baby girl was just admitted. Her bed was next to the cerebral palsy boy. The doctor who brought us for case presentation moved over to this bed and asked us to observe.'Tell me what's wrong with this patient'. All 7 of us were quiet.I observed
Diagnosis: She cant see, doctor
The doctor asked me how do you know?Your friends don't seem to know this
' Her eyes are moving around, not focusing to anything'
The doctor answered' Its called rotatory nystagmus'
Answer: Cortical Blindness

This is the most interesting day for me in the ward:) Cant wait for tomorrow