thursday morning was chilly. the birds were still half asleep when i left the house. no chirping to greet me good morning. and due to working overtime the previous night, i got home at a quarter before midnight, reducing my sleep to about 4 hours since i need to wake up earlier than usual to get to the hospital for my 7am volunteering shift. but all of that was well worth it cuz i saw two surgeries while shadowing the veteran volunteer in the OR. i was enlivened just by being there, albeit only witnessing some minor surgeries. anyway. that's where i'll be posted for my next volunteering rotation. thank goodness i chose the OR, cuz i dont think i'll be quite as keen if i have to wake up to an empty ER for the next 3 months.
the first one was an arthroscopy, which is a knee procedure to remove extra fibrous tissues, torn meniscal cartilages or damaged joint tissues with the help of a small camera. was pretty cool, considering i'm not anywhere close to being a doc yet i got to stand next to the orthopaedic surgeon with him explaining to me as he operated on the patient's knee. :) the anesthesiologist was a pretty cool guy too.
the 2nd one was a femoral-popliteal bypass. the doc was originally gonna remove the clots in the femoral artery and insert a shunt in it; but because of some complications he couldn't do that, so they decided to do a bypass instead. this other anesthesiologist a burmese chinese doc (who speaks hokkien too!!) explained to me (and another volunteer) the procedures they were doing, and the big picture of general anesthesia, how it works etc. and then he went into this bioethical dilemma of whether the state should "waste" resources to help patients who don't help themselves. should patients who don't take care of their health deserve excellent health care only to be voiding all of the effort by smoking like a chimney and stuffing their faces with greasy high cholesterol food? wouldn't it make more sense to spend the limited budget (let's face it, there will never be enough resource to take care of everyone) on patients who deserve or really need it? then again, didn't all physicians took an oath of some sort that they should treat each and every patient regardless of their race, creed or religion - that said, personality and attitudes too? i'm just saying, i don't know much on this so i can't say for sure. but quite frankly, i do agree with the doc to a certain extent. i mean, if you wanna inhale beef burgers right after your surgery, then what's the point of the surgery?! so that's the interesting stuff in OR on thursday.
at work, its been terribly busy, so much so that i woke up from sleep thinking that i had to get back to work cuz there's just overflowing samples that i have to test. -.- that same morning i was told i need an evidence of continuous employment eligibility to work in the US to be offered this job that i've been praying for. after 2 interviews, 2 written tests, i got it, only to be taken away from me because i don't have the appropriate documents. damnit.
later that morning my hair got tangled in the hair dryer and i had to chop them off or else i'll have the hair dryer connected to my head forever. it was quite a comical sight, if you will. XD
saturday - gotta work. chean flew back to malaysia for cny. lucky her. i hope she brings me back some milo and cny cookies. :)))) ok back to studies. toodles~
the first one was an arthroscopy, which is a knee procedure to remove extra fibrous tissues, torn meniscal cartilages or damaged joint tissues with the help of a small camera. was pretty cool, considering i'm not anywhere close to being a doc yet i got to stand next to the orthopaedic surgeon with him explaining to me as he operated on the patient's knee. :) the anesthesiologist was a pretty cool guy too.
the 2nd one was a femoral-popliteal bypass. the doc was originally gonna remove the clots in the femoral artery and insert a shunt in it; but because of some complications he couldn't do that, so they decided to do a bypass instead. this other anesthesiologist a burmese chinese doc (who speaks hokkien too!!) explained to me (and another volunteer) the procedures they were doing, and the big picture of general anesthesia, how it works etc. and then he went into this bioethical dilemma of whether the state should "waste" resources to help patients who don't help themselves. should patients who don't take care of their health deserve excellent health care only to be voiding all of the effort by smoking like a chimney and stuffing their faces with greasy high cholesterol food? wouldn't it make more sense to spend the limited budget (let's face it, there will never be enough resource to take care of everyone) on patients who deserve or really need it? then again, didn't all physicians took an oath of some sort that they should treat each and every patient regardless of their race, creed or religion - that said, personality and attitudes too? i'm just saying, i don't know much on this so i can't say for sure. but quite frankly, i do agree with the doc to a certain extent. i mean, if you wanna inhale beef burgers right after your surgery, then what's the point of the surgery?! so that's the interesting stuff in OR on thursday.
at work, its been terribly busy, so much so that i woke up from sleep thinking that i had to get back to work cuz there's just overflowing samples that i have to test. -.- that same morning i was told i need an evidence of continuous employment eligibility to work in the US to be offered this job that i've been praying for. after 2 interviews, 2 written tests, i got it, only to be taken away from me because i don't have the appropriate documents. damnit.
later that morning my hair got tangled in the hair dryer and i had to chop them off or else i'll have the hair dryer connected to my head forever. it was quite a comical sight, if you will. XD
saturday - gotta work. chean flew back to malaysia for cny. lucky her. i hope she brings me back some milo and cny cookies. :)))) ok back to studies. toodles~
2 comments:
same question appeared in my mind when I was watching CSI, the murderer was a surgery doctor, and he murdered a guy who was bringing a donation liver to the surgery room for an alcoholic for the transplantation surgery. He intends to give that liver to his wife who was suffering from liver illness and will die soon if she couldn't get an appropriate liver donor.
The doctor asked a question when he was under arrested, 'Is a guy like him deserve the liver? A guy who gonna destroy his new liver again with alcohol.'
The question is not answered by Taylor, but I guess all of us already have the answer. Agree or not, that's the tragedy part of our society.
i completely agree. yet tragedies are part of our society, for we do not live in a perfect world. and life goes on....
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