made.good.again

Moved to a new blog - more space, more photos =)

www.madegoodagain.blogspot.com

 

BULA! Just returned from an amazing medical missions trip in Fiji (it’s one of the Pacific Islands, north-east of Australia; quite different from Mt FUJI which is in Japan =P). The population is under a million, with most people living along the coast - understandably, as the country’s economy is based mainly on sugar exports and tourism. A minority live in the interiors, planting crops such as tapioca and taro (yam) which are the Fijians’ staple foods.

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THE TEAM (from L to R: Pohan, Sue, Hsu En, Kelsey, myself, John our local guide/interpreter) travelled to the interiors where health access was poor. We brought along medical aids and our medical and nursing expertise, with an aim to serve the villagers in helping to improve their health and well-being.

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ACCESS into the village involved a 3 hour bumpy ride on the back of a truck (together with the week’s supply of groceries, our luggage, and a couple of villagers who were returning from town) - a few of the team members had a sore back for the next few days from the ride. It was one of those roads tracks  you knew deep in your heart that it’s only by God’s grace and protection that you were able to make it through safely to your destination! The last hour of the journey was through a non-road that was usually non-accessible to vehicles (naturally), but it was dark and we didn’t know that; somehow the truck just got us straight into the village. When we left the village on the last day, we had to ride on horses on the non-road for about an hour to get to the truck track (still wondering how the truck managed to get in when we came).

AT THE VILLAGE, we mainly did clinics in the morning, followed by health education in the afternoon and church service in the evening.

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CLINICS - Sue, Pohan and Hsu En triaged and prayed for each patient before sending them to be seen by either Kelsey (for wounds, dressings) or myself (for medical advice/treatment). One lady had knee pain, but felt warmth in her knees as the triage team prayed, and left without needing to see the doctor as she was painfree after! Kelsey did well with dressing wounds which were just left open and mostly infected (with pus squirting out when you pressed on them) - a couple of the wounds were completely healed when they came back the following day to have their dressings changed! God heals indeed!!

 

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I SAW Baby "A" who was only 4 month old and had multiple (>10) boils on her (little) head. Some were oozing with pus and she had a fever with it. My heart went out to her and wanted to cry when I first saw the poor little baby. I applied some antiseptic cream and prayed that she’d recover quickly. Pics below: two and four days later!!

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EDUCATION SESSIONS - we taught on hand hygiene, rehydration when one gets vomiting and diarrhoea with gastro, diet and lifestyle changes for prevention/management of diabetes and hypertension. It was encouraging to see the ladies huddling together to discuss about how they were going to change their eating habits and use less oil/sugar/salt/coconut milk in their cooking. The evidence was at breakfast the following morning when the ladies prepared healthy light-grilled roti instead of the usual deep-fried flour balls =)

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HMMmm… should’ve perhaps taught on CHILD SAFETY as well (e.g. do not eat bread in front of dogs).

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.TRAINING - we trained two ladies on some basic first aid and wound care, as well as early signs to look out for when someone was really sick and needed to go to the hospital before it’s too late. They were very grateful and keen learners, taking down notes and remembering them (we’d test them the next day). Apparently someone bled to death last year because no one knew what to do when her hand was accidentally chopped off with a machete. Pic below: the ladies practising with dressings and bandages.

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EVENING SERVICES - we had praise and worship (Fijians are the best singers, everyone can sing in parts!), and each of us took turns to share our testimonies/preach. God moved powerfully, touching hearts and changing lives each night. On the last day, God filled them with the Holy Spirit, from young to old - they were lifting their hands, many had tears streaming down their faces as they were set free from bondages and oppression (where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty), and empowered to serve the Lord, to preach the gospel and bring healing and deliverance to the other villagers and surrounding villages (Isaiah 61).

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              * * * * * To have L O V E * * * * *

1 Corinthians 13:1-8

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love if patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

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God IS love. (1 John 4:16)

We had God, and so we had love - for one another (the foundation of our unity as a team), and for the villagers (the foundation of our service).

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There were countless opportunities and ways to bless the villagers, I believe our eyes were opened because His Spirit of love was overflowing through us.

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LOVE IN ACTION - other HIGHLIGHTS…

Before and after a very professionally done haircut by our very own Hsu En (MBBS, Melbourne Uni, majoring in hairdressing).

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CHILDREN!! CHILDREN!! CHILDREN!!

Jesus loves the little children…

With cool hairstyle…

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With NO hairstyle…

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The heavy…

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The dirty!!!

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He loves ‘em all!!!

*****

BLESSED!!

The team’s been really blessed to have had the opportunity to experience God’s abundant riches as we availed ourselves to be used by Him. A BIG BIG THANK YOU to all of you who partnered us in prayer while we were there, the work accomplished was certainly achieved by a team larger than the five of us!

(after a long tiring shift at the emergency department)…

Me: Eh Tat.. if Hugh Grant, Bruce Willis and Tom Cruise come into the emergency dept at the same time who will you treat first?

Tat: Mmm… I’ll treat Tom Cruise first lah…

Me: Why??

Tat: Coz I like him most compared to the other two..

Me: Should treat Hugh Grant first lah..

Tat: Huh? Why?

Me: Coz if you don’t treat him soon you might be seeing a funeral very soon after the 4 weddings! Who would you treat last?

Tat: ??

Me: Treat Bruce Willis last, don’t have to worry much coz he’s Die Hard. Although Tom Cruise might be Mission Impossible you can just take your time.

Tat: Like that Hugh Grant also quite difficult, coz Notting will Hill him woh…

Me: Haha.. smart huh.. we’re indeed from the same family.

*hugs* (not)

Me: (getting more inspired).. then hor if Bruce Lee comes along you probably won’t need to see him anytime soon lah…

Tat: why? coz he’s dead already?

Me: nola he’s probably just got minor stuff, like Bruise Lee mah..

Tat: hohoho…*laughs hysterically*…

From The Age(d) newspaper yesterday…

This is one ringtone you’ve gotta hear

Enterprising teenagers have hijacked a high-pitched electronic blip which adults cannot hear and turned it into a stealth ringtone.

It is suitable for use in situations where grown ups aren’t meant know there’s an incoming call or text message.

The ringtone - which can be downloaded from the internet - is proving especially popular amongst school students in the US and UK who use it in classrooms.

With it, students can receive text message alerts on their mobile phones without the teacher knowing.

As people age, many develop what’s known as presbycusis or aging ear - a loss of the ability to hear higher-frequency sounds.

The ringtone is a spin-off of technology that was originally meant to repel teenagers - not help them.

Last year, a Welsh security company devloped the 17 kilohertz buzz to help shopkeepers disperse youngsters loitering in front of their stores.

Mr Howard Stapleton, the inventor of the "Mosquito", claims the high-frequency pulsing sound can be heard by most people younger than 20 and almost no one older than 30.

Realising the commercial possibilities in the unintended use of the blip, Mr Stapleton’s company has quickly produced it’s own official version of the ringtone which they are calling the "the authentic Mosquito ring."

If you’re under 20 (or over 20 with very good hearing), you can listen to the blip here.

(Hint: in your Windows Media Player, set the option bar to visualisations > bars and waves > bars and at least if you can’t hear the sound, you’ll be able to see it.)

agencies

p/s: I CAN HEAR IT I CAN HEAR IT!!!!!!!!! Woohoooooo…(well I guess it’s not surprising, those under 20 are meant to be able to hear it)..

Tomorrow’s the Medical careers Expo - where the different hospitals have an exhibition-type thing with their representatives there to take questions. Gotta be deciding (ALREADY??!!!) which specialty I’d wanna train in (e.g. if I train in Medicine I’ll be a Physician, if I train in Surgery I’ll be a Surgeon).

The mentor sent a timely link - The Medical Specialty Aptitude Test, which matches your personality to the type of specialty that would suit you…

Mine:

http://www.med-ed.virginia.edu/specialties/

Rank	Specialty	Score
1	med oncology	44
2	dermatology	43
3	emergency med	41
4	preventive med	41
5	occupational med	41
6	pediatrics	41
7	radiation oncology	41
8	family practice	40
9	anesthesiology	40
10	general internal med	39
11	rheumatology	39
12	physical med & rehabilitation	39
13	ophthalmology	39
14	urology	39
15	radiology	39
16	psychiatry	38
17	nephrology	38
18	gastroenterology	38
19	endocrinology	37
20	hematology	37
21	colon & rectal surgery	37
22	aerospace med	37
23	obstetrics/gynecology	37
24	neurology	37
25	otolaryngology	37
26	orthopaedic surgery	36
27	pathology	36
28	neurosurgery	36
29	plastic surgery	36
30	allergy & immunology	36
31	pulmonology	35
32	thoracic surgery	35
33	nuclear med	34
34	infectious disease	34
35	cardiology	32
36	general surgery	32

Must say it’s quite accurate - Med Onc is a specialty where you care for cancer patients, I’ve always liked talking to cancer patients, learning from them, reflecting with them what’s past and what’s to come. It’s one of those diseases where you’re suddenly thrown into having to ponder (with a mind often still healthy and not demented) upon the mortality and fragility of life.

Dermatology should not belong anywhere near the top of my list! I won’t want to look at skins and describe lumps and bumps for the next 30 years of my life thankyouverymuch. Was just telling a friend I’d rather be a teacher (haha that’s what I’d wanna be if I weren’t a dr by the way)…

Emergency medicine I love! Love the action in the department and the fact that you never know what sort of cases to expect as patients walk in. Just the odd shifts that make the lifestyle quite difficult, would definitely consider it more seriously if I didn’t plan to have a family!

Preventive med and Occupational med have never crossed my mind…

PAEDIATRICS!! i love kids i love kids - treat them not eat them (krys!).. Besides the fact that I think I can identify with them (and behave like them at times), there’s just something about being able to help a sick kid feel better. A kid who is unwell, somehow is just able to draw our care and love, compassion… even parents separated would for those moments put their hatred/differences/grievances aside and work together to help the kid get better. As if suddenly there’s an awakening of the GOOD inside each person - no matter how little, is magnified, to care. Maybe it’s their innocence, that kids should not deserve to suffer.

Maybe it’s instinctive within each parent’s heart, to want to take over, in whatever ways possible the suffering of the child.

Q: How do you know that you’ve truly started working?

A: When everyone’s got exams and you haven’t… *cheeky grin greeted by threatening stares and glares from STUDENT OCFers*…

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Speaking about exams I think they got more manageable with each year (in my 6-year-uni-experience anyway). Still remember I used to get really bad tension headaches and insomnia in my first year, then it was racing thoughts and hyperactive mind in my second year. Third year med was kinda okay, so was fourth year (research year and the year where the exams didn’t really count towards anything, also incidentally the year where you get to spend your time doing lotsa things outside school like OCF.. hehe). Fifth year was the toughest (I think it’s the first time I cried - it was interviewstyle exams and I was nervous/stressed the night before, so my friend decided we should all take a break and just worship God and tears just flowed when we sang Enter In. I was just overwhelmed as His peace filled my heart, literally as the song goes "King of glory, enter in…" Final year was supposedly the most stressful but I think after 6 years I learnt to cultivate the trust and dependence on God, that He’d carry me through like how He’d graciously done so in the previous years. And He did.

He did it all, BECAUSE.

Funny now as I look back on my student years it’s become more obvious that the fingerprints of God are smeared right across each season. BIG enough to be the Creator of the universe, small enough that what matters to me matters to Him.

All the best for the exams, folks!!

The pharynx is inflammed and nasal passages congested!

Had to take sick leave today (friends had to teach me how to call in sick) so I wouldn’t infect the hundreds of innocent lives in hospital! The thing is I KNOW which kid gave it to me! It was this seven-year-old fattyfattykiddie I saw two days ago (shan’t reveal too much for patient confidentialitysake) who came in with a SUPER sore throat! Incidentally he BREATHED into my face although I was standing a METRE away. I remember I could imagine the virus-containing-respiratory-droplets floating and settling onto my mucous membranes and have now given me a SUPER sorethroat after incubating for two days in the ideal climate my oropharyngeal cavity provided.

Mmm…yummy paracetamol…

AH TAT!!!!!!! COOK PORRIDGE!!!!

(red font mine)

No pork for chang festival (!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

KUALA LUMPUR: Chinese celebrating the Dumpling Festival might have to go without their favourite “bak chang” or pork dumpling this year (HOW TO HAVE BAK CHANG WITHOUT PORK!! PORK = BAK. BAK = PORK! It’s like KFC without CHICKEN, BAK kut Teh without pork and tea!! Char kuey teow without si ham.. Wanton mee without wanton.. Pisang Goreng without banana.. you get the idea).  

This is because more than 3,000 pork sellers nationwide will not be opening shop for four days prior to the May 31 festival to protest against the “continuous” increase in ex-farm prices.   

The price reached a record high of RM690 per 100kg on Sunday, compared with RM500 last year. Since January this year, prices have increased four times. (PORK IS NOT cheap k..and the value continues to appreciate.. think twice next time before you call someone a pig)

National Pork Seller Association chairman (hehe what a glorious title, you wonder if it’s been a childhood ambition) Goh Chui Lai said the four-day boycott would start on May 27. The decision was made at an emergency meeting on Sunday night attended by association representatives from all states. 

“If we do not increase prices, we cannot survive. For every 100kg we sell, we make less than RM50. And we have to deduct operational costs.” 

“Pig farmers are manipulating prices by reducing supply so that they can keep charging higher prices,” he alleged. 

However, the Federation’s Pig Unit vice-chairman (i think this is even better) Sim Ah Hock refuted the claim.   

“It is not true that we reduced supply to increase prices. The low supply is because of strict government regulations and also due to the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak which affected our stocks,” said Sim.   

He said the unit would call for a meeting to discuss the association’s proposed boycott.   

“We want to make sure that consumers will able to buy pork for their chang during the coming Dumpling Festival,” he said.  (yes please, VERY IMPORTANT!!)

He said the ministry would call for a meeting between pork sellers and pig farmers to reach an amicable solution as the current problem between them was affecting consumers (in malaysia, singapore, some say Melbourne oso ah!).

I still can’t figure out whether it’s the being in the centre of attention bit… or the getting to hear from / be with people I love bit that made the birthday weekend such a good one! Am thankful to God for surrounding my life with such beautiful people - family and friends, in Melbourne and abroad… who always make me feel special. I think it’s the consistent security, love and encouragement that taught me humility and gave me the ability to be able to promote others above myself…

Mum was the first to call (like a day before) - I think she knows that her happening daughter would be out: "HAPPY BIRTHDAY ahh.. make sure you got celebrate, go and have a nice dinner with ah tat (which I did…seafood platter yumyum).. And make sure you eat more fruits ha.. you know ah.. they say fruits are very good for taking away the toxic things in your body.. so eat it half an hour before your dinner, like before you cook dinner.. so that when you are cooking you can digest the fruit, then when your dinner is ready your stomach is ready also……"

And then there were calls and SMSes (wah so popular) after midnight from friends and family who had good memory and loved me. Then a day after there were still some calls and SMSes from friends and family who also loved me but had notsogood memory - which I didn’t mind coz it just meant I got to celebrate my birthday for like THREE DAYS… Oo.. my notsolittle brother (who’s working back home now) sent a message reading "happy birthday to my wonderful sister"… I couldn’t help smiling, somehow it’s extrasweet coming from naughtyboy brother whose hobby is to tease me and ahtat…

My colleagues were sweet to insist on sneaking out so we could have some coffee and donuts downstairs (we got to sit around for like 15mins before our pagers got busy beeping with SMS-like messages about patients who needed some attention…. as in, medical attention).

My young adults’ cell surprised me pre-dinner..
Then OCF cell had a lovely cake for me too.. (heehee benefits of joining TWO cell groups)..
Just when I thought everything was over.. I went home and was pleasantly surprised by the Brunetti cakebox that was sitting on my dining table (which was empty because the HEAVY cake was hiding in my room along with my favourite peoples)… so I ran in to SURPRISE them (yay).. ah tat was the mastermind behind all these (he has a great gift of making people feel special).

Then the next day lunch and homecooked dinner with the OLDER OCFers.. hehe.. they treat me like a little sister because I am SO YOUNG (the power of denial)…

I love life!! I love this celebration of life =) God continues to make all things beautiful.. thank you to each and everyone of you who have added and brought much joy and meaning into my life through your friendships. Love you all!!