Thursday, May 31, 2007,9:46:00 PM
Off Day~
Today is Vesak Day in Singapore.. I was told Msia's Vesak (Wesak) Day is not today but in May o_O Why the discrepancy?
Yesterday was 13th Day @ Work...
There was a Continuing Education talk in the morning, on Pharmacoeconomics... Morning session was spent dispensing medicine in the ATU followed by my weekly discussion at 11am... This week's discussion was on "Colon Cancer"... I was not so prepared this time as compared to the previous time because the day before, Preceptor V asked whether we could discuss about 2 topics on Wednesday.. I was a bit reluctant, but I thought it would be alright.. so I said OK.. then, after I went for the clinical conference with Preceptor A, he gave me another 2 topics to discuss on Wednesday o_O .. So, I had to read up on the 4 topics and at the same time do the finalised version of my discussion handout.. I decided to forgo one of the topics and concentrate on the others.. I slept less than 5 hours that night... Which resulted in a very drowsy Wednesday despite a cup of coffee in the morning followed by a cup of tea...
Despite that, I got through the "Colon Cancer" discussion.. not well though cause I did not check out some of the terms I put in my handout.. I knew I would be asked but I just did not have time to check them out.. Or more accurately, I forgot to check them out, somehow.. my memory is failing me once again..
As a result, I could not answer their questions :(
But at the end of it, Preceptor A still said "Good Job!" like he always does.. which made me feel weird cause I don't know whether he meant for he say.. If it's not good, or below expectation, I would not know.. hmm... I hope it's at least meeting expectation though...
This was followed by a mini discussion about the clinical conference the day before... In the afternoon, it was another discussion with Preceptor V and I was so embarrased when I told her I did not read up on one of the topics she gave me .. We went on with the discussion anyway...
The day ended after she taught me about ambulatory pumps...
Tomorrow will be my last day in the Onco Pharmacy.. It had been a very enriching 3 weeks.. Very thankful for all the time spent by my preceptors and the other pharmacists and nurses to teach me despite their very busy schedule.. Although, most of the afternoons I am left by myself in the pantry or library to study, I am glad for those time to read up...
There were some guests in my house yesterday night.. Bird and KY's JC friends.. after they left, we watched "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" but I didnt manage to finish the movie, I fell asleep on the couch >.<
I woke up this morning feeling rather weird.. cause it's a Thursday and I'm still in bed at 9.16am! I guess I had felt rather attached to NCC now.. attached to going to work.. even attached to the smell of that place o_O
Planned to study today but was sooooo lazy! Ended up going to the cinema with Thunder to watch Pirates of the Caribbean 3!! It was not as draggy as I heard from others.. The pace was OK.. I didn't even for once glance at my watch... Less Jack Sparrow in this instalment but more of everyone else.. not so much comedy as POTC 2 but better storyline... it was worth the money too cause it's near 3 hours! Did you stay til the every end?
Cause there's still another scene after all those looooong credits.. Thunder heard about it from a classmate, so we stayed and the credits were about 10 minutes long! Why do they want to leave the last scene til after ALL the credits???
We came back right after the movie.. and continued watching movie on TV.. finished Shallow Hal (2nd time watching this is still interesting!) and 50 First Dates.. now it's Ocean Eleven..
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Random thoughts
Was talking to KY and she told me being sad can make people become thin... True? Maybe I should try being sad... ;P
I had been very absent-minded nowadays.. I guess it's the stress from work.. I'm always stressed out whenever I work.. LAst year I was stress cause my working partner was a dean-lister.. Now I'm stress cause I'm the only one there and nobody else can help me answer questions! Sigh...
Even my tuition kid said that I had not been myself lately.. She said I looked like a very alert person.. But when she came yesterday, the whole house was helping me find my misplaced spectacles! I seldom misplace my spectacles although I always misplace my other things.. After near half an hour, I found my specs hanging on the hanger near the bathroom -___-
Many people had been asking me the purpose of going for the summer exchange... Many people thought it's related to Pharmacy and when I said no, they are quite shocked..
"So, what's the purpose of going?"
Hmm.. So, was it a wrong decision to go exchange to somewhere I had been to? But it's the xperience of exchange that I'm looking for.. not really the place itself...
Suddenly have this feeling of going to US recently.. One of the pharmacists in my working place had left for Chicago (i think) today for a major conference there..one week later, 1 of my preceptors will be flying to Colorado for another major conference and another preceptor will be flying to San Francisco... :(
I want to go to US too!
My roommate asked me whether I'm still going to Europe with her for graduation trip.. Had to disappoint her though cause my account is depleted...
Sigh...
The End~Labels: NCC Preceptorship
Tuesday, May 29, 2007,9:25:00 PM
12th Day @ Work
I think I may need espresso continuous infusion soon too.. Had been drinking coffee every morning but I still yawn a lot during work... :(
This morning was spent following the girl preceptor... got thrown a bunch of questions :(
Stresssssssss....................
Afternoon was spent reading and finding answers but some answers can't be found in books... decided to go ask the nurses but the very nice nurse was not at work.. other nurses are not so friendly or maybe i dont have a friendly face in the first place :(
Recently, my friends and I had been thinking- our lives would have been smoother if we were prettier... Don't you think so?
If a pretty person makes me mad, I tend to forgive her faster... If pretty person wants something from me, I tend to give to her first... Sigh....
Later in the afternoon my another preceptor brought me to a clinical review conference with the doctors.. It was o_O
At the moment, I was glad that I did not do medicine..
The doctors were discussing some difficult cases they encountered and discuss ways to solve them... after the discussion, there was a teaching part where the Consultant present a case and the Registrar had to volunteer to discuss the case... o_O Stress...
I was just an audience though.. Couldn't understand almost half of the things they said :(
Rather lousy me :(
Early day tomorrow cause there is a continuing education talk...
Labels: NCC Preceptorship
Monday, May 28, 2007,6:51:00 PM
11th Day @ Work
Half day at work today... Had to attend a pre-departure briefing for my Hong Kong summer program in NUS today, so I left work at 1.30pm...
This morning I followed another preceptor to dispense medicine.. She said it was "the moment of truth" cause I followed the pharmacists around for 2 weeks already.. this is my last week attached to the Oncology Pharmacy, so it's time to test what I had learned -__-
The moment was not too good :(
The pre-departure briefing was OK.. nothing too important but we got to meet up with the rest of the people going to HK too.... We exchanged contacts after the briefing...
Came back and fainted on the bed.. tomorrow is another long day...
:)Labels: NCC Preceptorship
Sunday, May 27, 2007,8:46:00 AM
10th Day @ Work
Friday (25/05/07)
Friday morning was spent wandering in the ATU as usual... I was suppose to look out for Colorectal Cancer cases for my discussion next week but most of the cases in the morning are Lung or Nasopharyngeal cases as these require longer chemotherapy...
Followed another pharmacist for dispensing today.. Had some interesting cases like one which complained about the many different kinds of mouthwash and ulcer gel to be applied in his mouth.. The pharmacist taught him which to use and when to use which...
The pharmacist also check on a patient which had facial flushing during his previous chemotherapy...
On a side note, I casually commented that the food in "Kopitiam" at SGH was rather expensive as compared to the food in another canteen there.. and everyone knew about it! I was so embarassed when the pharmacists and pharmacy technicians who went to lunch with me asked whether I could afford to eat at Kopitiam or not.. I am really quite poor now cause of my minimal salary but it was just a passing comment that I made.. A failed attempt to have conversation with the staff there i guess -__-
But, after lunch, one of the technicians treated me to an ice cream! Yeah! Good to be poor sometimes :) 2 of my preceptors had also treated me to lunch.. :)
The staffs there had been really nice actually.. It's just that I always have this invisible barrier between me and new people I meet... Unless I find it really comfortable to talk to you, I won't talk much.. Got to change that -___-
I was so tired on Friday night, I slept at 10pm...
Yesterday was a self-declared no studying day too.. Usually my Fridays are no-studying day but I took yesterday off too.. went to school in the morning for a briefing for the "Brown Bagging" project that I will take part in, on the 9th of June at NCCS... It is a medication review project, where the patients who signed up for this review will bring in their medications and the volunteer students with some pharmacists will record the medicines they are on and to counsel them on the use... I missed the previous Brown Bagging and wanted to give this a try...
My preceptor was in charge of this project and he came to brief us about the common medications and some do's and don'ts.. And he picked on me a few times to answer his questions during the briefing -___- I became rather "famous" in pharmacy school yesterday. ....................
After the briefing, Thunder and I went to Vivo to shop! My housemates commented that my working clothes are all so formal and some are like nurses' uniform.. So, I decided to buy some tops despite me being rather poor now... But it's the Great Singapore Sales! :)
Khim came to cook dinner for us! It was so nice!!! Thank you Khim! :)
Woke up early today to do my assignments ........................................................
4 more weeks to go!
Labels: NCC Preceptorship
Thursday, May 24, 2007,9:17:00 PM
7th, 8th and 9th Day @ Work
The internet connection went haywire.. or actually my comp went haywire yesterday night when I had to complete my reading and compiling of presentation for today :( First, the comp could not detect any wireless signal.. But it was OK.. I did not need the Internet to complete my assignment.. Then, the USB port went crazy as well.. I could not save my document in the thumb drive and the comp could not detect any file in the thumb drive... Then, the printer could not be detected.. Everything just completely gone crazy! Despite all that, I still managed to finish compiling my presentation handout at about 1am
Tuesday (7th Day)
I started dispensing medicine when my preceptor came back from his overseas talk... He discussed the medicines with me and we did a mock counselling session before he sent me out to dispense to the patient ... I was shocked but was not as nervous as I thought I would be.. Maybe I was still in shock as I walked to the patient to dispense.. Luckily, the whole experience was alright :)
Later that day, I dispensed to a few more patients...
Got to watch a lumbar puncture process to collect cerebrospinal fluid from a patient.. I was the translator because the patient only spoke Mandarin but the doctor is Vietnamese/Burmese and the nurse is Malay... The doctor and nurse were rather nice to explain the procedure to me.. After that, there was another lumbar puncture procedure to administer intrathecal (IT) injection...
(Saw an intraperitoneal administration of chemotherapy on Monday)
Wednesday (8th Day)
Yesterday was quite bad as I could not answer many simple questions from my preceptor... Things that I should know... My preceptor seemed rather frustrated and asked me to check them out myself.. So ashamed of myself :(
Did a few more dispensing and followed the nurses around to see the administration of chemotherapy..
Thursday (9th Day)
Woke up earlier today to find some information asked by my preceptor.. late to leave the house but luckily not late for work again...
I was nervous the whole day.. Did not go out for my normal rounds with the nurse but sat in the pantry to read up more about my presentation.. In between, I went out to dispense medicines to 3 patients today :)
Presentation was at 4pm... There were 4 pharmacists in front of me and I had to "teach" them about Lung Cancer o_O I was so nervous, I forgot about my extra notes which I had painstakingly compiled for the past week... I merely read from the handout that I prepared and some explanations from what I remembered >.<
I was questioned by them but I could not answer fully which was rather sad.. Luckily, they were all very nice and patient to explain the concepts to me...
It was a rather fruitful discussion.. Despite their busy schedule, all 4 of them gave me almost near to 1 hour of their time just to listen to me present... At the end of it, my preceptor gave me some extra notes to consolidate what I had read and researched for this topic :)
Finally, one presentation down, 2 more to go!
4 more weeks left (one last week in the Oncology Pharmacy), the following 3 weeks will be spent at the Outpatient Pharmacy at Level 1... It will be a lot more pick and pack then walking or sitting around :(
*Case review in progress*
Tomorrow is Friday! ^_^vLabels: NCC Preceptorship
Monday, May 21, 2007,10:26:00 PM
6th Day @ Work- Stress >.<
All I Ask Of You ~ Andrew Lloyd Webber
from The Phantom of the Opera
Written by: Andrew Lloyd Webber and Charles Hart~
Raoul:No more talk of darkness,
Forget these wide-eyed fears.
I'm here, nothing can harm you - my words will warm and calm you.
Let me be your freedom, let daylight dry your tears.
I'm here with you, beside you, to guard you and to guide you...
Christine:Say you love me every waking moment,
turn my head with talk of summertime...
Say you need me with you now and always...
Promise me that all you say is true - that's all I ask of you...
Raoul:Let me be your shelter, let me be your light.
You're safe: No-one will find you - your fears are far behind you...
Christine:All I want is freedom, a world with no more night...
and you, always beside me, to hold me and to hide me...
Raoul:Then say you'll share with me one love, one lifetime...l
et me lead you from your solitude....
Say you need me with you here, beside you...
anywhere you go, let me go too - Christine, that's all I ask of you...
Christine:Say you'll share with me one love, one lifetime...
say the word and I will follow you...
Raoul & Christine:Share each day with me, each night, each morning...
Christine:Say you love me...
Raoul:You know I do...
Raul & Christine:Love me - that's all I ask of you...
Anywhere you go let me go too...
Love me - that's all I ask of you...
Phantom:I gave you my music...made your song take wing...
and now how you've repaid me: denied me and betrayed me...
He was bound to love you when he heard you sing...Christine...Christine...
Raoul & Christine:Say you'll share with me one love, one lifetime...
say the word and I will follow you...
Share each day with me, each night, each morning...
Phantom:You will curse the day you did not do all that the Phantom asked of you...!
It was good :) The effects, the atmosphere, the phantom's singing, the changing of scenes are all very good.My favourite scene was the Masquerade :)
Would have been better if we had sat closer to the stage.. Heehee
Today, at work I saw a patient retch and vomit in front of me.. resulting in me not able to finish my lunch.. then i felt uncomfortable for the whole afternoon...
Stress up about the assignments and presentations >.<
Wish me luck...
Hoping preceptorship will end soon! waiting for June 22nd (my last day of work not my small sis's birthday orh! ;))
Labels: NCC Preceptorship
Saturday, May 19, 2007,5:08:00 PM
5th Day @ Work
Friday- I followed my preceptor for her morning round of patient counselling. Most cases that day were Nasopharyngeal Cancer and patients were mostly on highly emetogenic chemotherapy drugs..
There were also a few new cases where patients had not undergone chemotherapy before. My preceptor had to explain more clearly on the side effects of the treatment and answer their queries... Besides the general side effects, explanations of other side effects were tailored to the needs of the patient, according to their concerns and specific to the chemo they will be administered with..
A patient came in with side effects from the chemo drug he was administered with during his previous treatment. There were painful red marks at the site of the previous administration. The pharmacist, nurses and doctor assessed the patients and addressed the problem together, which was rather good as I could see the cooperation among the healthcare professionals :)
There were quite a lot of cases that morning..
Lunch was Masala Thosai, ordered from an Indian restaurant which has delivery service. It was rather nice but a little salty.. Although I had heard about thosai since long time ago, I think this should be the 1st time I'm trying it.
I was suppose to follow the nurse again in the afternoon but the nice nurse was on Medical Leave.. So I had to tag along with this other nurse whom I couldn't find.. Haha.
I gave up at around 3+pm and spent the rest of the afternoon in the library again.. Trying very hard to keep myself awake and read up more.
Dinner was cooked by Birdie ! KY and I helped out.. It was nice :)
The night was spent watching HK drama! Wahahaa ... no reading for the night!
Going to Botak Jones for dinner tonight :)Labels: NCC Preceptorship
Thursday, May 17, 2007,10:54:00 PM
4th day @ Work- Day of Talks
I attended 3 different talks today..
First talk was intended for the Medical Officers, given by my preceptor.. The talk was about Chemotherapy..
Second talk was intended for new cancer patients, given by a nurse.. The talk covered mostly an introduction to the cancer center, chemotherapy, self care and the common side effects..
Third talk was intended for the nurses, given by a group of Advanced Diploma Nursing Students.. The talk was about Genetically Modified Food and Cancer...
All 3 talks were informative in different ways...
Today was rather fulfilling.. Besides the 3 talks and free lunch, I got to follow my preceptor out for her round in the morning.. I am still rather unfamiliar with the chemo drugs, so it was more of my preceptor giving me info... In the afternoon, I tagged along with a very nice nurse to observe how chemo are run... She even showed me photos of side effects that had previously occured in the center...
I had roughly gone through all the points i need to learn for the 1st week.. So, we are progressing to Week 2's stuff now.. in the meantime, it's more and more readings.. my file is getting fatter and fatter.. plus today, I was given another thick file to read up.. and i borrowed a book to read ... >.<
Tired but glad to be learning..
Tomorrow is Friday! :)Labels: NCC Preceptorship
Wednesday, May 16, 2007,9:14:00 PM
2nd and 3rd day @ Work
These 2 days, I had been in the lab for the morning sessions and afternoons were spent reading.. lots and lots of reading.. our pharmacotherapy syllabus had not covered cancer drugs so I'm quite lost with all the cancer drug names o_O
Yesterday I was reading in the pantry while ppl were walking around.. My preceptor felt quite bad for leaving me there reading but they are really very busy.. It was O.K.
Except for the extreme sleepiness, I managed to read a big part of the thick notes..
Today, I followed my preceptor who is giving a talk for the Registrar (doctors)... It was a rather good experience cause I got to see how tutorials for the doctors are done.. and I got some information about the cancer drugs use in pregnant women...
But I was rather disappointed with myself because I was not able to ask intelligent questions or give proper feedback to my preceptor after the talk.. To make it worse, I was stunned when questioned by my preceptor.. I could only truthfully tell him that I can't remember the stuff from lecture :( He gave me a shocked response..
That's the disadvantage of working alone without a partner.. There's no one you can turn to when you get cornered by your preceptor to answer questions.. -__-
The afternoon was spent in the library.. There's a small library in the hospital.. The environment was quite alright.. the temperature was just right, unlike outside which was like freezer today! so cold! >.<
got released earlier again today.. hmm.. don't know how should i record my working time cause 2 different preceptors gave me different time to go off.. Haha
Got to read up more for tomorrow.. not going into the lab anymore tomorrow.. There were some visitors from Penang today but I didnt get to meet them as I was in the lab.. they took a lot of pictures of the lab with us inside.. like 3 polar bears in the zoo... I was practising syringing skill in the cabinet and my back became the focus of the flash camera -__-
Less tired now cause I slept at 10pm yesterday due to extreme somnolence.. Better start with my readings before it's too late :(Labels: NCC Preceptorship
Monday, May 14, 2007,7:23:00 PM
First Day @ Work
I was early for work but was late to report... Cause I couldnt find the person I'm suppose to report to -__-
I'm the only student at the workplace :(
I have 3 preceptors and one of them is NUS lecturer! He will be teaching my class next year o_O
First day of work was very tiring.. mainly cause I'm not used to standing for the whole day yet.. Had been lazying around since after exams... The morning session was spent in the clean room where chemo drugs are reconstituted for use in patients.. I had to wear the suit that looks something like astronaut with duck's beak -__-
It was rather uncomfortable in the suit and I couldn't hear properly.. haha .. but it was rather interesting to see the drugs and the process :)
Lunch was kinda late and we packed chicken rice from the SGH canteen.. ate in our pantry and had a little rest before start of the afternoon session where I learnt the proper technique of syringing... It was rather tiring and I sprained my eyes looking at the syringe to get the exact volume... The pharmacy technician practised with me til around 5+pm... I did some reading to answer questions in the worksheet and were let off at 5.30pm..
t.i.r.e.d.
my working hours will be 8.30am-6pm on Mon-Thurs and 8.30am-5.30pm on Fri..
a lot of readings to be done :(Labels: NCC Preceptorship
Saturday, May 05, 2007,9:51:00 PM
Moved!
Had been soooo BUSY recently! Have not had a proper sleep even after exams ended! Right after our second last paper on Monday, KY, CM and I went to shift our furnitures in the house.. then we went to watch a Japanese movie (again..haha), "Love and Honor"....
We thought it's an action movie since the newspaper said it's about samurai.. but no.. it's about romance and the honor of a samurai... the fight scene was about 5 minutes? Haha.. But Takuya Kimura made it all worthwhile :)
His wife in the movie is very pretty!! Anywayz, don't be fooled by the movie poster.. Takuya Kimura had the weirdest hairstyle in the movie! We got shocked when he appeared right at the start of the movie.. Nonetheless, he still has very beautiful eyes and nice smile :)
CM and I had our last exam on Wed.. Thursday morning, Thunder and I went to University Hall to settle our scholarship issue... Then, I joined the other 3 housemates for shopping at Ikea.. bought our chairs and some other things... Then it was painting.. Painting is SO tiring!! I painted a few doors.. We didn't like the doors which were blue in colour.. and we didn't like the colour of our bedroom walls which were orange.. So, we repainted them..
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The original blue to light peach now.. Had to paint a layer of white first and then 2 more layers of the light peach -__-
We moved on Friday! It was quite a big operation.. But luckily, we had the very strong lorry uncle with his worker.. and also the twins and my papa... Thanks! :) Went to Crystal Jade for dinner that night to treat our helpers.. hehe
Today, I rushed for 2 tuitions because the housekey was misplaced and we got locked in! -__- Almost done unpacking now.. Just need the contractor to come in and drill the hangers in for the clothes and bags.. and some miscellanous things..
Tomorrow will be another round of shopping at Ikea and the contractor will be in... Monday will be tuitions day and I'll be leaving for home on Tuesday! :)
Going to be back in Sg on Sunday again cause I'll be starting work on Monday... Finally, finally settled my 3 months break schedule.. Finally, finally I am going to work in the National Cancer Center for my 1.5 months preceptorship program... And finally, finally I am going to Hong Kong for summer exchange end of June! it's a 6-weeks program and I'll be taking 2 modules there.. 3 days of classes and 4 days of wandering around in Hong Kong! :D
My housemates watching cable TV now.. going to join them.. yeah! ^_^
Secret Agent tagged me,
"Each player of this game starts out by giving 6 weird things about themselves. People who get tagged need to write in a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state the rules clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. After you do that, leave them each a comment letting them know you tagged them and to read you blog!"
1. I can fall asleep in any position at any place.. (serious..)
2. I don't eat all kinds of nuts, mushrooms and soya beans..haha
3. I don't feel comfortable talking on the phone.. I prefer face-to-face or emails :)
4. I'm addicted to coffee.. for happiness.. a coffee-less day is an incomplete day
5. I wear my watch on the right hand even though I'm right-handed.. (I get questioned about it often.. why do right-handers need to wear their watch on the left hand anyway? haha .. actually, I know why larr..)
6. I like to learn new jokes so that I can entertain my friends..
Hmm.. it's actually difficult to think of weird things about yourself cause usually you'll think that you are behaving normally and there's nothing weird about yourself.. Other people are the weird ones, right?
Haha... My 6 weird things may not be weird afterall.. :)
Finally finished my exams!! Yeay!
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