29th May 2011

          29th May 2011, this is a special day for me, as this is the very first time my girl friend left me for a long period, almost one month. This separation by distance is very far, don't know how many miles away from Malaysia, as now, she is heading towards a place which i and her also very unfamiliar- Santa Cruz, California.

          It has been almost 2 hours her flight departed, i think she maybe somewhere north to Malaysia; maybe Hong Kong, maybe China, or maybe still between the clouds in the sky. My phone call cannot reach her just now, just 5 minutes after the departure time. Wonder when will she arrive at the destination- Los Angeles airport. Hopefully everything goes well~~~

          For the very first time she take flight to oversea, and it is going to Untied States that far, i am quite worried about her actually. However, i never said that to her, as i believe she can make it. From this photo, i wonder how she felt, felt nervous? happy?? afraid??? or other thing else.....

          What i can do for her is just send her to KLIA, for my very first time to fetch people there on my own. Besides, praying in my heart that she will be having comfortable flight.....

It's a long hours flight, i wish she can enjoy the flight!!! 

          Bye bye, she left so happily~~~ The next step she did was check in. And i, left the airport and drive back alone....

          I will see her, not by the time when she come back to Malaysia, because by that time i am already left to Taiwan. Anyway, i will wait her in Taiwan, and wish her "Welcome to Taipei".



 

PostMortem Practical

Another practical completed, and now i'm officially completed the practical requirement by my course. Great!!! There's no more compulsory practical in the coming study year; the final one. I am not saying the compulsory practicals are bad, at least they gave me some exposure and hands on, and a lot of funs with friends too.
To all my practical groupmates: you guys are great, in making my practical meaningful.

For this postmortem practical, it was a very relax one. There's only one case per day, and luckily we got a variety of species; from cat, dog, horse, to wildlife such as deer and baby elephant. The experience of doing a PM on an elephant is a precious one; the pathologist in-charge has not done it himself for his couple of ten years of working life. And, we are the lucky one, to get it on the very last day afternoon. The great news is that the person in charge of this calf is not going to collect back the carcass, hence we perform cosmetic PM on this pity calf, conserving the skeleton to add on a complete baby elephant skeleton to our anatomy museum gallery.

After this PM practical, i found that i'm really very get used to the blood splashing here and there, and i finally can say that i'm good at butchering, hahaha.....

What's coming next???
I think it will be the follow up of my potential clinical conference case and the trip with my family~~~
The holiday still got 14 weeks to go; do something meaningfull, plus get a good rest and enjoy the life...

Small Animal Practical done

Time passed very fast, especially with the busy life in the small animal practice. Without boring arouse, it had come to the end of my 2 weeks practical.

This practical is really mean something to me; exposing me to the private small animal practice. However, this clinic is well-equiped in the way that not all clinics are affordable. This may easily overwhelmed me with those high-cost equipements such as radiography and ultrasonography. Those equipments are good in diagnosing some diseases/ conditions, and sometime the use of such equipements are essential for confirmatory diagnosis. Of course, the usage of those high-end equipments come with the bigger sum that the client have to pay. Besides, they have their experienced technician, nurse and receptionist to help up the veterinarians, which greatly reduced the burden of the veterinarians. Although having them to help up the veterinarians, the veterinarians there are not mind to help up each other, even with the cleaning jobs, really salute!!!

The working atmosphere there is not much of stress, maybe due to i had experience to learn from Dr Tan & Dr Gerry during my practical in Zoo Taiping. Another Dr; Dr Ong, which is also their classmate, is a nice person too. All of them are helpfull, kind and most important is, i can jokes with them, makes my life less tension. I am so happy to work with them, even the working hours is long, almost everyday overtime, but the time spent is wonderfull.

After this first PJ-based small animal practice, i wonder if it will change my mind to divert my future straight away into small animal practice after graduation, or maybe i will still continue with my old thought- just go into pharmaceutical company and involved myself in livestocks production. I need time to think of that, and i have 1 more year to think of that, 1 more year to make the biggest decision in life; career path. Perhaps i shall continue to have more practicals in different practices, to learn more and expose myself more. Don't be lazy is the only thing i would like to say to myself, as this is the main reason that is always hindering me to move forward.

6.5 days a week in Small animal practice

Wow, i did a week of practical in Small animal practice, really eye-opening for me.....

First of all, the working hours is very long; 10.5 hours per day, with no fixed lunch hour, and usually busy throughout the day. With this long working hours, i think one shall be physically strong enough to support the workload.

Secondly, the clients expectations are so high, and some of them are so demanding, but luckily demanding in a good way where they expect the veterinarian to give them the best diagnosis, treatment and advices. They are really very good owner, in the sense that they really take their pets (dog,cat, EXOTICs) as part of their family. Besides, some of the owner can take good care of his/her pets, until the animals (note: not only one pet) can proceed their life into geriatric age, whereby it may denote that the pet ownership have been improved, a good news to pet animals!!! When the pets go into geriatric age with all sorts of old-aged diseases- heart disease, diabetes, kidney & liver disease come up, the owner still insisted to proceed with all special management of the disease, thumbs up!!!
I personally think that such pets are having a very good life, very much better than some of the human beings.
However, some clients demand too much, and for a fresh graduated veterinarian, it may somewhat difficult to handle them as they judged the veterinarian by the seniority. What to do??? If i were graduated to become a small animal practictioner, i think tolerance is the better way to it, and of course, with a smile, i believe it will help to heal the soul much better.

Thirdly, some clients are so nice that they bring some food such as home-cooked porridge, big bucket of KFC, cheese cake, and "shao pao" for the veterinarians as a token of appreciation for their expertise in treating their beloved pets. It is really happy to see clients appreciate what you did to their pets. As a student there, i also able to share the food, really nice life!!!

Fourthly, some animals have had severe health problem/ condition that amazingly healed after some supportive therapy. Besides, some surgical procedures are amazingly relieved animals from the problems, this really attracts my attention, as i think this type of procedures are really needed to relieve animals from suffering. That is where a veterinarian needed i think; to professionally treat the animal, either medically or surgically. I LIKE IT !!!

DVM 4, byebye~~~

Officially ended my DVM 4 yesterday, which is my 8th semester, 2 more semesters to go and i will get my degree. Hurray~~~

Hmm...going into final year soon...what have i learned previously to make me a final year student? i think just a little bit here and there, but the notes collected is about 20 inches high, YES, it's 20 inches!!! and the books used can go up to 1 metre high, omg, can't believe i read so much.

Having said how much material i have, i will like to emphasized that i'm only able to carry less than 10% of the knowledge i learnt to the final year. The rest, lost somewhere~

My immediate seniors, all passed in their comprehensive exam (cover all subjects in 5 years + out-of-textbook question), they really did a great job, welldone!!!
CONGRATS~~~wish them have a bright future after getting their entrance ticket to their carrier.
But, will be lonely of not seeing them in the faculty. I am sure i will miss them. Last but not least, thanks for sharing and caring all these years. Still remember when i and my coursemates come in for the very first week, meeting those seniors, and now they are leaving us to enter into their carrier, so sad to say that, but nevermind, i will join some of them soon, after i get my entrance ticket, by the year 2012, if it's not end of the world.

Back to my academic this semester, it's really a tough semester, with 6 subjects and Rotation, nearly make my life miserable (but i still enjoy my life, with supports of my family, gf and friends). The subjects are tough, like statistic & research method, veterinary public health and canine & feline medicine, these subjects are killing me.
Statistic is about a lot of mathematical formula and their associated conditions, which is quite dry, but important in scientific research, and its usefullness to me is really unknown.
Veterinary public health, is quite interesting to me initially, as it covers wide range of general knowledge regarding food animal products, but it became torturing when it come to foodborne diseases and zoonoses, which encompasses diseases that will be misdiagnosed by human dr, which i do not see a point of studying them. However, i stand to my believe until very last, i study for my test and for my general knowledge, who knows one day my medical friends will ask me about those rare and underdiagnosed diseases.
Lastly, canine & feline medicine, which i will said it is the toughest subject in the pass 4 years. I hardly able to answer in the test, same as in the final exam, it is really a test on the knowledge, the speed of thinking and answering. It is really tough! so tough that it may refraining me from entering small animal practice.
Having said it's a tough semester, i did joined some faculty's activities like vet sport, attending faculty dinner and majlis silaturahim. Although it may mean nothing for those active one, but it is my first step to join more, at least to my ability, hopefully i can keep this up next year, and i should keeping this up--- Life is not about studying (though study is my priority).

How about next semester? terrible semester!!!
You can't imagine how the life will be. Let me describe here, the day start with 7 a.m in the ward, then class from 8 to 7 with 1 hour lunch break, then continue ward rotation by 7 until 9 something, and have to do daily report when you reach home with exhausted condition. where is the breakfast time? 6 something while i'm still sleepy??? where is the dinner time? eating dinner in the ward while cleaning up stools and urine??? Not to forget i still got clinical conference, rounds presentation and FYP proposal to do, wonder how could they arrange such schedule???
What can i do?
Pray hard for next semester, pray for my physical health, for my mental strength, and for everything i need in such a tough semester. <<Life still going>>
All my wish is: be strong, be happy, and with the god bless, i will survive~