I miss Heath Ledger. Sounds weird, as if I knew him personally. But he’s an actor with charisma. I liked every single one of his movies. Just watched “10 Things I Hate About You” again – it’s one of the few shows I’d not mind watching a second time. Can’t help but feel regret over his premature demise. Such youth, talent and screen presence!

The wind reached 50kmph today. Don't remember the weather report coming up with such a terrifying figure last year. Thought 40+kmph was the max already. I had difficulty walking forward haha. RIP, my dear bike. It's past midnight and the typhoon is still raging. Our balcony doors are rattling and the gushing of air currents outside sounds like rain pouring down and striking the ground during a thunderstorm in SG. Whatever happens, just don't rain here. It's officially the last day of 2010. How time passes. Today we bade farewell to one another with a "See you next year!" though "next year"was only a couple of days later.

Finally gave in to the weather today and walked to school. I learnt my lesson not to bike when the wind is roaring plus the temperature is around -10deg without factoring in wind-chill. Don't wanna lose my fingers lol. It's the first time I saw the newly cemented platform at the underground roundabout today! That's how long I haven't been walking. But I have to be on high alert because of the pickpocketing syndicate there. Took me 7 minutes to walk to school today, not bad at all! Haha.

And we finally turned on the heater at home tonight! Lol. I don't know what we've been holding out for.

Woots tmr is eve of eve. Time for good food! :D

As you can see I'm in a brilliant mood today :) Mainly because evil girl wasn't around in the afternoon so Sally and I had a good time. Good stuff! We managed the crowd ourselves and got appreciated by patients finally. Things are looking up! Hopefully it will continue this way.

冬至, or winter solstice, is the shortest day of the year. Why does it feel so long?

Because it is arguably one of my worst intern days.

The only redemption was the comment by one of the last few patients about the difference in 素质 between us and the China students.

And at least I had a very hearty dinner and tang yuan :) Many thanks to my 2 sweeties :D


I cant wait for 2 weeks to be over.

Out of Gynae, into Acupuncture.

Summary of the operations I managed to watch in Gynae:
2 LAVHs （腹腔镜下子宫全切术）
1 子宫肌瘤剔除术
2 LEEPs （宫颈环切术）
1 ectopic pregnancy - removal of foetus from fallopian tube （输卵管开窗）
1 开腹探查+松解粘连+附件切除
1 畸胎瘤 - but I didn't get to see the hair in the cyst because I had to leave early
2 宫腔镜 （1息肉剔除 and 1探查+刮宫）
and countless abortions.
Not bad for a 2-week stint in the wards huh?


Ok today started on a bad note because my mudguard was crooked again (probably because the wind blew and my bike fell on its side again) and it was jutting into my front tyre so they were scraping and screeching all the way to school. The fact that I was burning rubber and wearing out my tyre worried me more than the stupid sound which probably made everyone at the bus-stop stare at me when I cycled past. I was in a bad mood because of my flu, and the day got worse because of the stupid teachers in the 治疗室who seem to hate us and were unfriendly and curt because of the unmanageable influx of impatient patients (how ironic the 2 words are when put together) on a Monday morning, and the acrid smells of smoke, 艾灸 and 药罐 put together. It was so unbearable I had to wear my mask and I was cursing my fate for being stuck in this room for 2 weeks, and a runny nose only made things worse. I'm going to smell like the horrendous fumes in that room for 2 weeks. OYG. I stink even as I type this and I can't wait to cook my dinner and take my bathe. Only to stink again tmr morning. -.- And the dates I'm at 治疗室 coincide with 三九贴 which is some seasonal gimmick where u paste preconcocted tcm paste on different acupoints depending on your problem, which means I might have to come back on Christmas eve, day and post xmas day just to help patients stick that crap. I hope they don't want our help hahahaha.



The stupid bike uncle outside school, or rather his wife, charged me 1 buck just to knock my mudguard back into place with his screwdriver. Lame shit. I was so thankful when I thought he was doing it for free but as I was about to wheel away she asked me for a dollar. -.- If I weren't afraid of wearing down my rubber even more I'd have gone to my usual bike uncle who always does simple chores for free.

I seriously considered resting my bike for the rest of winter because when I got to school today my hands were painful, stiff and numb. I couldn't feel nor bend my fingers and they were so painful and immobile I felt like crying. It was that bad. My fingers never felt that way before. I think it was -11 deg this morning and the wind wasn't even factored in yet. Or maybe I should try wearing double layers of gloves or go get ski gloves. I think I'd rather walk than let my hands suffer like that again. Yikes. Plus I woke up with a terrible sore throat. The cold wind wheezing into my lungs didn't help things. I should mask up when biking in the wind next time. It was only 5 minutes but felt like hell man.

hands on!

My ears hurt when I went out for lunch today. When the highest temperature is negative I guess it's time for beanie and ear muffs. Lol. It's taking me longer to get to school nowadays even by bike because of the cold and wind resistance. Plus my frozen legs and fingers. Lol. But I still can't bring myself to wear a mask cos it will fog up my specs. We just turned on the heater at home and it showed that the current indoor temp is 12.5 deg. Lol. We are good stuff, surviving without the heater for days at such freezing temps - that explains me having numb toes at home! Hahaha.

Today I took part in a surgery for the first time! It was a LAVH. Only downside was that it was tiring having to stand on a platform and bend over the patient's leg to look into her vagina to see what was happening and stretch open with the 拉钩 and be on hand to suck up any blood with the sucking tube, yet taking care not to put my entire weight on her leg lest she wake up with post-op leg pain. While perking my ears to pass the 主任 and 副主任 the electric blade and tongs. Oh and my hands and arms are even drier now cos I scrubbed away my epidermis. It was stressful wearing the gloves under the 主任's supervision, and my stupid surgery gown had the cuffs of 1 sleeve torn off, making it even more difficult. But the op was a successful one, I was glad to have played a part, albeit minor, and my name is now in the surgery record :D Exciting experience, but I don't think I'll get another chance because none of my patients are going to have major ops for the rest of this week and it's already my last. Yet again, time flies. Can't help but marvel at how fit the doctors here are. They're in their 40s and 50s but they can perform a few operations in a day and still talk with so much gusto. Lol.

I watched a LEEP and ectopic pregnancy surgery on Friday. Brought a good ending to my week. :) May the coming week be a fruitful, not-too-busy yet not bored-to-tears one. My last week in gynae!

I saw a foetus and a placenta today. It was very disturbing. I couldn't bring myself to touch it. It was approximately the size of the distal section of my thumb,translucent and pinkish (reminded me of a lizard), curled up and I could see the eyes, hands and umbilical cord. I can't imagine us all starting out like that. So tiny, so fragile, so innocent, a life in itself, with the potential to grow into a human being like any of us, now dead and floating in a basin of blood with a large placenta. My goodness. I wanted to know whether it felt rubbery, soft or hard but I couldn't touch it. I think I would be traumatized for life. My friend held it in her hand and took photos. But it's really quite sick. I don't want to think about it. I wish abortions weren't so rampant here. I'd like to think I wasn't imagining that the father's eyes were red and teary but I don't know whether he had seen the foetus or felt anything about his wife's second abortion.

I saw 3 operations yesterday. 1 was minor, just the cutting of the Bartholin's gland to let the pus and infected blood flow out. Another was a LAVH (laparoscopic-assisted vaginal hysterectomy), which was cool cos I got to see the cervix and uterus - the real stuff - cut out. But it reminded me of grilled sotong, cos of the persistent smell of burnt meat and the fact that the cervix fell into the bin and it looked like the fat sotong rings Ma using to cook. Ya I know I'm disgusting. Anyway the burnt-meat smell was because of the 电刀, I don't know what it's called in English but besides severing it has the effect of burning and sealing up to stop bleeding. The third operation was through the stomach, through a gaping hole around 16cm long? The surgeons' hands were groping around inside the abdomen, and the cool thing was it was the first time I could see the muscle layers so clearly defined. I could see the oblique muscles of the abdomen! It brought anatomy to a whole new level. The left accessories and right fallopian tube were removed. The patient was sweating profusely towards the end of the op and the GA was wearing off, it was scary. Her head and hand started moving slightly while they were still busy sewing up her abdomen, and they had to add anaesthesia. Always makes me wonder what went on while they operated on my appendix those years back.

The 18 year-old girl came back again and continued to address my teacher and I as “阿姨”, gaining pity as it made her feel really small plus she had this sad little face. But it grew almost annoying when she kept coming back, with funny inquiries like not having enough money to pay for the op.


Spent the last hour or so of outpatient time this afternoon chit-chatting with my teacher about all sorts of random things like how I grew so tall, whether her daughter wants to be a doc, Orchard road and orchids, the night safari and beaches, but above it all the topic about SG food almost made me drool. Boo. I think I never had such a long solo convo with a teacher before. A lazy and slack Thursday afternoon :) Think there'll be even less patients tmr, cos it's gonna be colder and somehow less people fancy visiting the doc on Friday afternoons. Makes sense. TGIF!


There was a "hurricane" today and it was a bit of a challenge trying to steer my bike against the opposing forces of the wind with 1 hand and the other hand on my head, trying to keep my cap on. While avoiding traffic around the roundabout. Lol. Fun stuff, but I think I finally know how it feels to be asthmatic, because I was breathing heavily all the way home, given that I was chionging against the cold wind.

There was this sad little girl today, pregnant for the first time at 18, whose foetus was big enough for the head (circumference 1.5cm) and limbs (0.4cm long) to be discerned from the ultrasound. Which meant she had to be hospitalized to do the abortion as the foetus was too big for it to be done at outpatient. She started crying and after the checkup she was sitting there trembling as I was getting the paperwork done. It was just pitiful. Then I went to the toilet and saw her sitting in the lobby with her bf, still crying. It was kinda sad, but seems like this is the norm here.


I was taking the lift up to my unit with the usual lift auntie on night shift. She was scribbling something on a pink piece of paper as I entered and took the lift, then when the door opened and I was about to step out, she suddenly looked up and looked like she was going to pass me the paper but instead she said "你信耶稣吗？" I was so stunned, I huh-ed and she repeated her qs. I said: “哦，不信。阿姨您信啊？” “信！我信。” I replied: “我不信但我父母信。” “啊! 那很好!” Then I said goodbye and walked out of the lift. So random and weird right? Hahahaha.


I finally found my marshmallows at the SLT BHG supermarket! Yayness. Short of a better way, I'm thinking of roasting it over the stove. Lol.