And so the final battle in our school life begins… (which by the way marks the start of a lifelong ‘war’)
Wish me luck!
Good luck to everyone out there who’s reading and mugging hard!
Jiayou mumbler, m4 and another m4!
PS: Will continue to publish pre-written drafts during the next few weeks…
The FINAL year syndrome - criteria guidelines
This is in response to Wenky’s suggestion… many many months back!
To satisfy the criteria the person-in-concern should:
a) Satisfy 5 or more of the following points.
b) Satisfy at least 3 of the following points, AND be able to recite the entire criteria.
1. myopathic face (6th cause)
- could be secondary to depression, lack of sleep (bilateral ptosis), generalised ’sianness’ or a combination of factors
2. have spent at least 4 years in an institution where studies take up a greater proportion of time than sleep time, meal times, socialising and ‘pak-tor’-ing time.
3. when startled (eg. by someone patting them on the back), turns around with a wild look in the eyes, alternately brandishes a tendon tapper or yells, ‘I NEED MORE TIME TO STUDY!’
4. willingly gives up all angbaos during CNY in order to study more!
5. has the stamina to study from 9am to 9pm AND more hours at home if he/she should desire so… and do it continuously for a week at least!
6. has undergone significant weight change (gain or loss of 5% of body weight) over the last 4 months… (haha i know the criteria is different from our usual 10% in 6m)
7. have sighed an average of thrice daily for the past 3 months. HAIZZZ…
8. be able to recite detailed TMN staging for breast cancer in one breath
The Diving Bell and The Butterfly - by Jean-Dominique Bauby (translated from French by Jeremy Legg)
This book represents the greatest paradox in my voracious history of reading…
Standing at a mere 150+ pages (with font size 14) and page size only like the Apley blue physical examination book, it took me at least 5 sittings and 3 renewals of the book in order to complete reading it. PHEW!
It’s written by a French journalist about his own experience of ‘locked-in syndrome’, following a brainstem stroke…
So what is this locked-in syndrome?
Also known as cerebromedullospinal disconnection, de-efferented state, pseudocoma or ventral pontine syndrome, this is a condition where the patient is aware and awake but cannot move or communicate due to complete paralysis of nearly all voluntary muscles in the body. There is quadriplegia and inability to speak without any cognitive impairment. It spares certain facial muscles, such as the occulomotor muscles which allows them the only way to communicate with others.
One very well known case is that of Parisian journalist Jean-Dominique Bauby (author of this book), who used blinking to dictate the book one letter at a time.
It’s scary to be reading a book written by a man in such unfortunate circumstances. Can feel this periodic chill of cold going down my spine. *shudders* I can’t imagine ever living in such a world, so closed up and locked in. (pardon the pun) Then again, I have to applaud Bauby for attempting to reach out to the rest of us out there through his book. Maybe they should make a movie out of it. Something like ‘El Mar Adentro’, which is the true story of a quadriplegic and his fight for ‘a good death’ for himself. (he wasn’t allowed to ‘euthanise’ himself legally, but he did it with the help of his friends eventually, it’s a really heartwrenching yet beautiful film!)
‘Happy’ Lunar New Year, can’t say much for the Happy. I guess everyone’s mugging (some are stuffing) their heads off.
To m4 and another m4, wish you two all the best for your patho exams! It will be such a sucky one month before that! EUWWW… so better enjoy your CNY now, don’t be like me, can’t remember what I was doing last year, probably mugging paeds. PUI…
Hey AG, remember those dysplastic oranges we made FOUR LONG LONG years ago? I think they’ve probably degraded into CFCs by now. But I still have those pics and boy am I proud of our ugly oranges!
And here’s what happened after we vandalised them! :) The round one’s you, the one with teeth is me!!!
Good luck to all for the exams! Cuz since we’re run out of time, of memory space and of money (to print anymore notes), the only thing we’ve left is LUCK! (and I hope Lady Luck is a feminist!)
Brotzeit - Contemporary German Bier Bar & Restaurant
Site
Located snugly right opposite the fantastic view of Sentosa, Brotzeit is a chic-looking dining place, pretty popular, seeing that it was about 70% full the whole nite (and it was the lunar new year’s eve too). There’s both sitting indoors, a nicely lit up bar, high tables, and this porch like place which allows you to enjoy your beer and the view! :)
The Bar
Here’s what we had… my darn hp lost 3 of the pictures of the food i took, luckily managed to find nicer pics online…
Meeresfrüchlesalat (SGD18.50) - mixed salad with smoked salmon and tuna, prawns, sun-dried tomatoes, black olives, grilled zucchero, orange and sour cream dressing.
For the first time, I actually enjoyed close to raw fish! YUM YUM. It´s very impt to get salad when you dine ´German´, they´re just so big on the meat! The sun-dried tomatoes are really nice :) I was very disappointed not to locate the grilled zucchero, but they made up for the lack with the olives! :) I think i like olives!
Brotzeitflade Bayern (SGD15.90) - Thin crust fladenbrot with tomatoes, Emmanthal cheese, black forest ham, mild green pepper, cocktail onion and mushrooms. It´s called ´a type of specially baked thin crust dark dough bread with toppings´ but actually it looks just like a pizza. HAHA…
It´s a bit on the salty side… Had I known it´s just like a pizza, wouldn´t have ordered that… And where are the mushrooms?
Tafelspitz (SGD24.90) - Slow boiled beef with German roast potatoes, cream spinach and horseradish sauce.
Looks nicer in this pic I found on the web than it does in real life… But it´s one of the lighter dishes there, some pple might find it a bit bland for their discerning tastebuds.
Würstelplatte (SGD29.90) - authentic sausage platter with spring chicken sausage, lamb sausage, chicken and pork cheese cracker sausage, weisswurst sausage with sauerkraut, horseradish and mustard.
Hmmm, it´s a platter for two. But nice to order and share around with everyone on the table… Can sample all the different sausages, but like my Mum said, they all look roughly the same, just different size and colours… But taste around the same… I didn´t think so, I think she´s just biased towards sausages.
Spicy potato wedges (SGD6.80) oh, very nice…. very nice indeed… hehe…
As for beer, I din drink… But I kopped a bit here and there, it´s definitely GOOOOOD STUFF! They´ve got stuff imported directly from Germany… Anyway I dunno much about beer hehe but this place supposedly is known to be good for it…
There´s something else that´s very popular there but which I refused to order… It´s the pork knuckle. It´s really GIGANTIC. But I HATEEEEE pork! yucks. Anyway, also all fat and skin (EUW), not so healthy huh… Anyway, it´s a whooping SGD32, but probably worth every penny you´re paying…
I refer to my entry on 5th Feb. And I would like to apologise to all implicated in that entry.
I do appreciate you guys a lot, especially how you’ve rallied around me during the difficult months before this last posting. And that entry was definitely not a nice way to repay you after what you all have done. It was ungrateful and it was mean, and I’m sorry about it. In addition, I know I’ve always teased you all regarding an ‘issue’, and I do apologise about it. It was meant to be harmless teasing, but now I know that it is not the case.
I really cherish the friendships we’ve built up despite being such a new group and I hope the friendships will extend beyond med school.
PS: The reference to the ‘bunch of cowards’ in the last paragraph, after the separator is not meant for you guys, it’s one of my after thoughts regarding some other people who did awful things to friends of mine (that’s why got separator there). I hope there wasn’t a misunderstanding over it. It really wasn’t directed at any one of you!
PPS: Pls continue to spam my blog.
Here I am swotting Obs (it’s so much more fun than swotting Paeds), and I find this itinerary for travel to Paris, Salzburg… in a file called ‘grad trip’. So I suppose it’s got to be one of the year 5s! And guess what, I think I’ve found a kindred soul! This person is as organised and obssessed about the itinerary as I am! Kudos manz! You even highlighted stuff like confirmation of tix! WHO ARE YOU??? We got to trade our OC tips! hahaha…
Anyway, I really felt like drooling over your itinerary! Good job! You even put in details on how to get to the hostel, can’t remember if you put in the map as well (like I did for my Spain trip)…
Counting down to the days of temporary freedom…
During a call… (yes, pharmacists go on call too), she received a phone call…
HO (desperate voice): Hi, yes, pharmacist? Is panadol an NSAID?
i had a dream this morning…
i dreamt that i was admitted with chest pain.
then i woke up to find this particular prof examining my abdomen (talk abt weird) and then he told me i’d died from studying too much.
WEIRD.
The Edna Files: On Prophylaxis
One day during tutorial, Edna succeeded in ’suanning’ all of us together, and we all goondus were so ‘brainless’ that we actually laughed along with her!
We were discussing a scenario where a prophylactic stent was placed in the common bile duct for a patient who was deeply jaundiced. (no stones/obstruction seen in ERCP though).
Edna: So… hmmm… you see, prophylatic stents! I suppose the PTCA done previously was ‘prophylactic’ too? (looks around at all of us) I think you all need prophylactic brain transplants!
Us: HAHAHAHAHAAAA
Edna: Haiya, I think sometimes, you all really need to use your… I really don’t want to say… But you got to use your brains!
