Made to look like a fool

One of the reasons why I admire the Dr's here is because of the amount of shit they can take each and everyday when they drag themselves to work only to get put down and belittled by a consultant know all in front of everyone...man...i really salute you guys...I got a taste today...and he isn't even my preceptor (who is on holidays)...why I decided to drag my ass out of the bed at 7am to join his ward round is beyond me.....


Set: Sg Buloh Hospital Surgical ward
Scene: Ward round
Actors: Dr Godzilla: Surgical consultant
Dr tak tau 1: Surgical MO 1
Dr tak tau 2: Surgical MO 2
Tak tau med student: Me
Pt on bed 19: Mr need's surgery

Dr Godzilla: (extends his hand to me) Good morning, are you a medical student?
Me: Yes I am. Doing my electives here.
Dr Godzilla: Ic ic, where are you from? What year are you in?
Me: Oh im from Uni of Queensland, (Wondering if I should subtract my years in med school, so that i have a reason to appear like an idiot....decided not to...), im in 4th year.
Dr Godzilla: Oh good good, so tell me what this pt has?
Me: ....well the patient appears to have varicose veins...? (wondering what the hell is he doing under the general surg team....)
Dr Godzilla: ya, so what causes primary varicose veins?
Me: (heart rate increasing), erm...its due to valvular insufficency of the veins or perforator vein incompetence causing retrograde blood flow in the superficial veins?
Dr Godzilla: ok, do you know what test to differentiate the two?
Me: (shit!!!)....erm, I remember you use a torniquet on different levels?something like tat?
Dr GOdzilla: What is it called?
Me: ......(looking pleadingly at the MO's to bail me out)...........
Dr Godzilla: Its called the brodie_trendelenburg test
Me: oh....
Dr GOdzilla: you know how to do it?
Me: .......No. (hell i dunno even know the name how would i know how to do it?)
Dr Godzilla: (looking at his other MO's) ok Surgical MO 1, go get a torniquet and do it
Surgical MO 1: (runs to get torniquet)...(returns)...(looks blur)
Dr Godzilla: Go ahead
Surgical MO 1: (puts torniquet at random spot)...
Dr GOdzilla: Nope
Surgical MO 1: (chooses another random spot)...
Dr Godzilla: Nope
Surgical MO 1: (chooses yet another random spot)...
Dr Godzilla: Nope....do you know what you are doing?
Surgical MO 1: (looks sheepishly at him)....
Dr GOdzilla: (snatched the torniquet and shows how it is done)

After leaving the bedside
Dr Godzilla: So can anyone explain what happenes when we do the test?
Idiots: ........(desperately avoiding eye contact).....
Dr Godzilla: (shakes his head)....ohhhkay... can anyone tell me the location of the valves in the long saphenous veins?
Me: (I tot they were located along all the veins? There was a specific location??!!)...(keeps mouth shut)
Dr Godzilla: (looks at me)...you...i EXPECT you to know this
Me: (feeling like the biggest fool)...No...
Dr Godzilla: (shakes his head even more)...go home and read up about it...walks away saying "bad bad bad..."
Idiots: (walks in different directions...feeling like the biggest fools ever)

Haih, they sure know how to make you feel like an idiot...

(to those of us who are less informed about the intricate details about the location of the valves, there is actually is a specific distribution and not randomized as my idiot brain once thought...its generally located distally in your calf, only 1 or 2 valves are above the knee, so there you go...veins 101=P)

Word of the day: Chav.

When a consultant in the SGH picks a topic for teaching, he/she briefly explains the reason he/she picked the topic for the week. Usually, because he/she came across a case, or read a new journal article on the subject.

Well, I'm writing about chavs because I'm living with them. Not literally, in the same house with them

- Thank God!! -

but am in the same neighbourhood with them, ie. a council estate, which goes by the deceptively pretty name, the "Flowers Estate."

Chavs - or as YK & I like to refer to them, the Kaum "Innit" (as opposed to the Kaum Inuit) - refers to people "somewhat lacking in intelligence and culture" (Anti-Social Behaviour Dictionary) who "tend to favor gaudy jewelry and expensive-but-tacky clothes with big logos and to behave in a way that others find coarse or obnoxious. Male chavs wear tracksuits and baseball caps; female chavs pull their hair tightly back in buns or ponytails, a style known as a "council house facelift," from the term for public housing" (New York Times).

Identifying a chav:

Via.

Advantages: Good Breeders

Disadvantages: Use up a great deal of tax payers money whilst skulking on street corners

We've all seen them, the essential 'chav', a 15-year old boy or girl found dressed primarily in white branded spoof clothes, snarling at passers by whilst chewing gum and having a generally uncaring disposition towards society.

Although 'chavs' are often associated with lacking intelligence (aside from the vulgar jewellery) they usually manage to scrounge large amounts of social welfare off the government and whilst they usually live in generally poor housing they tend to possess up to date cars which they can be found to be hammering drum 'n' bass in whilst cruising around on Saturdays in local towns near you.

General Specifications:
Alloys
Government housing
Small children
White Hoodys
Cash
General speech inpediment

Essential advice to those who are not chavs: STAY CLEAR

Summary: A cultural group

Am I being a snob by buying into Britain's class-system, and declaring an entire group of people less intelligent and less cultured than other groups in society? Well, for one thing, the nature of our work means that we do tend to pre-judge people, and that is considered acceptable. We assume obese people are more likely to get diabetes & MIs, and hence, ask them more questions about risk factors than we would thin people.

And for another, if the chavs I have met, or in this case, live with, are less intelligent and less cultured, it is because they are behaving exactly according to their stereotype. As a friend of mine said to a Nigerian who tried to cheat him, "As it is, your race doesn't have a great reputation in Malaysia, and your behaviour is not helping it."

End of digression. Back to Southampton & the Flowers Estate.

Southampton City Centre is generally a rough place, notwithstanding its proximity to Winchester, and its general location in the southeast of England. And the Flowers Estate, unfortunately, is one of the more rough parts of Southampton. And therefore, cheap. When my consultant found out I lived in the Flowers Estate, he actually shook my hand, and said, "Good luck!"

Don't get me wrong: I love my room, I love how close we live to the bus-stop and the university. But, my unintended observation at close quarters

- Get it? Close quarters? -

has yielded some other facts about chavs that the other definitions neglect to mention. Namely, they are loud. LOUD.

Even as I type this, at 5pm, I can hear a woman shouting down the road about... something. There's always something. Either a couple is shouting at each other, a mother is shouting at her kid, one little kid is shouting for another little kid down the road, a neighbour is shouting at her other neighbour, a woman is shouting at her dog...

There's always something. So, it follows they are ALWAYS shouting.

And the thing is, it's not like they're shouting because they're fighting, though that is the reason 90% of the time. They shout even when they're having a perfectly normal conversation about how one has a busy week, because she needs to go to court that day against her...

OK, so it's not a perfectly normal conversation in terms of content. BUT, these women are standing less than a metre apart, having a friendly chat, and they're STILL shouting.

The people in my neighbourhood seem almost incapable of speaking at normal volumes, and it's starting to drive me
UP. THE. WALL.
I have only stayed here for a little over 2 weeks, and already I have lost count of how many times I have been woken up by someone shouting. Forget afternoon naps. Forget sleeping in. And DEFINITELY forget about getting any sleep at all on weekends, thanks to Britain's non-existent alcohol problem.

While the different dramas happening on my road makes this an entertaining place to live, in life, as on the telly, I need a mute button. Failing which, I am now armed with a gorgeous set of Harman/Kardon Soundsticks II: If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.



























Forget about graduating as a knowledgeable, sophisticated doctor. By July 2009, I'm going to be a full-blown Asian chav, yea?

Can a man have a stand??

Haha, its nice to have you back Sheena, funny how we always get the urge to blog around the same time...=P

Disclaimer: This post might be offen-..........

Ah screw it, why does a person have to have disclaimers and all this politically correctness nowadays? Don't you think we are becoming a society in which tolerance is becoming so...political, that a person can't even voice his views and opinions without being labeled a bigot, sexist, elitist, racist, anti-environment, homophobic, lefist, rightist, CENTRALIST??!!!

IT all started with a conversation some time ago with a friend, it led to a discussion about homosexuals. My view is that it is un-natural and against my believes as a christian. The friend, a straight person, started with all the "Ohh, how can you be against gays?" , "you know they are human too, they have rights", "they didn't choose to be like that"...trying to impose their views, making me feel like i did or said something wrong....

This is only an example, my question is...what about my RIGHTS to have views? Am I denying them any rights? NO....do I insult or ridicule them?NO...do I go gay-bashing?NO...its just MY PERSONAL believe that it is wrong, when asked for my opinion, i have every right to say i'm against it. Why do I need to conform to societal standards to be accepting of something my personal believe says its wrong? When people start getting all high and mighty and start judging others, they should just stop and consider the rights of the person they are talking to, they too are human being's with a freaking brain...to think, to judge within their consience and believe what is right and wrong...who are we to deny them that right and impose on them your views...

Which bring me to another point...unrelated, or somewhat related...politicians are idiots. I saw this video of one of Chris Rocks stand up comedy...being the comedian he is, he actually has a point about politicians. Why is it that politicians are so eager to be aligned to a party, that their own views are nullified and they vote based on party lines? I thought when we vote, we were voting for caring intellectuals who suppose to represent the voice of the constituency he/she represents? Why are their individual views/constituency views govern by the few top people higher up the heirachy?If so why don't we just have ministers and robots run our country? it will be so much easier don't you think? Its happening now anyway? For instance the pulling of financial funding for projects in Penang, its such a blatant attempt to punish Penangnites for giving the state over to the opposition...but what I don't get is the Barang Naik reps in penang....what about the people who are in your constituency? They dont matter because they are supporters so they are happy to have billions ripped off them?!!

IT shits me when Presidents of political parties can do what they want, when they want and the party members are told to conform or be expelled. I laughed when someone in a major party component said "we should try and have an arrangement so that incumbents or vacant positions are fielded without election" and this is in the eve of an impending AGM...such a joke..why don't you call it musical chairs then moron?

Ok i digress, back to a persons view, we are all created with a brain to think and reason, some things we can be liberal, some we can be conservative. Crime, we can all say we are conservative, corruption, we are all conservative (save those in power of course), porn, im liberal...hahaha...kidding=P My point is, why do people have to toe the party line, i'm pretty sure there are some things the opposition proposes which makes good sense that assemblymen (WITH BRAINS) from the ruling party agrees with, you are elected by citizens to be their voice, if something needs to be said, say it! If your kepala is corrupt, and the opposition is pushing for a motion for investigation, your brain says they are 100% right, but yet you sit there like a robot, have some balls and have a stand. So your views are not popular, but if it is your belief, shouldn't you at least let your voice be heard? Isn't that why we voted for you in the first place?

Why as we grow up, we are all so eager to give up our consience and rights just so we belong? Or fit a particular party so much so it kills us inside? History is overrated, if you look back into history it is written by only 0.00000000000001% of humanity, and yet the rest of the 99.99999999% of humanity are so eager to embrace it, so much so that views of others are frowned on, discarded even if the believe they have is so wrong....wars, crimes against humanity, corruption, discrimination, this are all because we are kowtowing to the views of the minute people in our government. Do we give a damn about all the political tirade happening? Do we give a damn about 1-2 couples ber-khalwating? NO!! We give a damn when our tax money is blatantly stolen, we give a damn when you rob the poor to feed the rich, we give a damn when our rights are eroded....Who gives a shit about 1-2 couples fooling around when around the corner crimes have never been higher because people just can't afford the living costs anymore? Who gives a shit about sending an Orthopaedic surgeon to the moon when we can't even maintain top 100 status of our universities? we are the majority...we should start acting like we are....

Give the man a star!

Well, not quite a star, a datukship.

But, for goodness' sake, don't give it to him for being a space tourist. Any one can be a tourist; just a question of how far you get to travel.

And how willing our government is to throw ridiculous amounts of honest tax-payers' money at you to indulge its ridiculous attempts at grandeur. But we'll leave that debate for now.

If anything, the sultan of Negeri Sembilan should be giving it to him for being an orthopaedic surgeon at age 36.

That's fast enough to be commendable, by my reckoning. Or rather, by reckoning against the UK specialist training system.

There, I think I've discharged my M203 blogger duty for the year. Tokenism, this is.

And Daniel, keep up the posting, man! Interesting reads.