Ward work

ward work this week got a bit more hectic compared to last week... think i'm starting to warm up to the consultants, registrars and residents that's why.

there're 2 teams in my department - gastro team and liver transplant team. i prefer to follow the gastro team coz they see general gastro cases whereas the liver transplant team's too specialised into liver transplant work-up, post transplant complications n stuff.

Scott, the registrar, and Mutlu, the resident, are really nice people to follow. Occasionally, Prof Crotty's around for the consultant rounds.

I followed Mutlu to do some IV cannulation and ascitic taps on tues... the equipment and colours of the cannulas are of course different from those at home, so i took a while to adjust to them. and i miss the nice butterfly clips (for the uninitiated, with the butterfly clips, it's much easier to remove the needle and push the plastic cannula into the vein)... so i fumbled a bit the 2 times i cannulated. but not too bad, i managed to hit jackpot 2 times upon 2 without much difficulty.

and then he showed me how to do the ascitic taps... (again for the uninitiated, we place a drain into the abdomen of patients who have too much fluid in there from liver disease) after he completed one, he actually asked me "u wanna do e next?" i must've looked shocked... coz he said "it's ok if u dun want!" hahaha!! heng i quickly recovered n grabbed the chance... i was pretty blur when i did it but he was so nice to guide me along. and at the end of it, he actually said "tt was good!" phew!!

and yesterday i assisted Scott in some liver biopsies (they use ultrasound to find a good spot of the liver and we stick a needle in to draw out some liver tissues to view under the microscope)... there was a chinese patient who din speak much english so i helped to translate. haha!! Scott was so nice and he thanked me again n again for my help... and i was like "no no... thanks for letting me watch!"

even prof crotty who's like some big tua pai in the hospital (think he was the ex clinical sch dean of Austin) told me after ward rounds... "i'm sorry that was a bit of a rush! Hope you've learnt something! If you're free, come along at 11am tom again, we'll have more time for discussion then!" and during ward rounds, he always opens the doors for me, give way to me in the corridors... what a perfect gentleman!

i'm enjoying my posting so much coz ppl r just generally so nice, polite, gentlemanly, keen to teach! haha!!

anyway, it just hit on me last nite tt it's damn hazardous for me to do procedures in the gastro dep... coz 90 percent of the pts haf Hepatitis C or Hepatitis B... scary... i better make sure i handle the sharps and put on double gloves whenever i do stuff...

looking forward to a lady's nite out tonight... with the other girls in the hostel... the german girls, preeti (a melb student staying in e hostel) and chihiro (a jap elective student)! we're gonna catch a film at the german film festival in the city! yoohoo!! it'll be so fun!!

P.S. e other german guy's name's Ingor... i got it totally wrong!!! haha!! tot it was Yu-something... oops!