Of treating an old man and a young girl

Sooooooo I had my first paediatric patient today. It was grand, really. My lil patient was such an angel. Her mother left her alone for a while as she needs to go for a checkup at CUH and she behaved really well. They are from somewhere in Southeast Asia anyway so it was easier to communicate with her mom (not really with the child coz well, she's getting the Irish accent already)

She was even excited to get her radiograph taken. Lil girl, lil girl, u don't know what's waiting for you in the next few weeks. Unfortunately she has 4 teeth need to be filled. That means FOUR unpleasant injections on all 4 quadrants of your mouth (Upper Left, Upper Right, Lower Left, Lower Right) I can say, it's gonna be a rather uncomfortable experience for both me the dentist and the kid. *shrugs* Let's just hope for the best!

She came in all smiles like this..

But she might end up looking like this later T__T

Earlier this morning I had a really old guy for my patient. He is in his late seventies and aside from some heart condition, he's a rather fit man. He dresses really nice too.

I kinda reminded myself from the day before that I had to force my English accent out. YES my spoken English is not that good. Since I'm dealing with a very old man I had to tell myself to speak clearly. You see, it takes a lot of effort to speak English properly. I always got my tongue either tied or twisted. LOL.My least favourite word would be STERILIZATION / STERILIZING. My tongue feels like falling out everytime I need to say those freaking words. I have to be fully energize to speak a good English. The man praised me saying my English is good. Dah kena puji teros kembang, lepas tu terus speaking lintang pukang resulting in me repeating myself twice as he can't really understand what I was saying. Haha. #stupidgirlpantangdipuji

Whichh bring me to my next point - if we speak without a good accent they won't understand. Seriously, like if you go and carry on with the way you speak Manglish with your patient, it's gonna be quite hard to communicate. So don't blame the so-called budak oversea balik berlagak cakap cam omputih. Haha, tapi saya tak rasa lah saya balik cakap English ada accent. My tongue is heavily "nourished" with belacan, cilipadi and what not that it can't get used to any other accent anymore.

Okay now there you go. How I spent a day treating 2 person of 2 extreme ages. One my youngest patient and another my oldest patient I ever had so far. Another boring stories about me treating patient, yes? I hope someday I could find something to blog that is not related to them. For the time being, you would just need to deal with my EXCITEMENT on meeting all those people. Heheh..

Reminiscing

Once upon a time, there was a tavern

Where we used to raise a glass or two

Remember how we laughed away the hours,

Think of all the great things we would do

Those were the days, my friend

We thought they'd never end

We'd sing and dance forever and a day

We'd live the life we'd choose

We'd fight and never lose

For we were young and sure to have our way

Then, the busy years went rushing by us

We lost our starry notions on the way

If, by chance, I'd see you in the tavern,

We'd smile at one another and we'd say

Those were the days, my friend

We thought they'd never end

We'd sing and dance forever and a day

We'd live the life we'd choose

We'd fight and never lose

Those were the days, oh yes, those were the days

Just tonight, I stood before the tavern

Nothing seemed the way it used to be

In the glass, I saw a strange reflection

Was that lonely woman really me?

Those were the days, my friend

We thought they'd never end

We'd sing and dance forever and a day

We'd live the life we'd choose

We'd fight and never lose

Those were the days, oh yes, those were the days

Through the door, there came familiar laughter

I saw your face and heard you call my name

Oh, my friend, we're older but no wiser

For in our hearts, the dreams are still the same

Those were the days, my friend

We thought they'd never end

We'd sing and dance forever and a day

We'd live the life we'd choose

We'd fight and never lose

Those were the days, oh yes, those were the days

Don't drink...or mouthwash(?) and drive

Awwwww second posts in a week, that's a pretty good start innit? Well, I am in a good mood today coz I had a fairly uncomplicated patient this afternoon.

The day started pretty rough as my patient came into the clinic an hour late. Apparently she's been waiting in a wrong room for almost an hour before she finally found her way up to the restorative clinic. At first I was slightly happy (haha!) that I won't need to do any fillings today. I know, right teruk kan? People will usually be disappointed if the patient did not turn up tapi saya happy plak. Heheh.

I was a bit nervous when I treated my morning patient. I had to put IRM in her tooth and I've never used that material before. It hardens fairly quickly and it was so hard to tuck it into patient's cavity. Did not get to do any fillings today but I have about 3-4 fillings to be done on her later. *phewhh*

Later on that day I had a patient. He works with a tv station and he has quite a bad gingiva recession. Something that looked like this :-

He is currently put under a perio maintenance "program" and I was supposed to do some cleaning on his teeth. He even had a splint - something that was put on the crown of the anterior 6 of his teeth to keep them together. I was so afraid to touch the gum coz I didn't want the teeth to fall out or something. Seriously like the gingival recession is so severe that I could see the furcation of the root. But thank God he was such a nice and easy patient. He was so patient with me and the way he thanked me made me felt so good. When I was scaling him he even fell asleep okay. Kadang-kadang saya saja blow the air supaya dia terbangun. wakakaka jahat gila saja je nak testtt dia tido ke dia penat bukak mulut lama-lama. hahahhahaa..

As I was taking his history, he shared an interesting story with me about a mouthwash. Do y'all know that most mouthwash sold in the market contains alcohol as it was supposed to give a cleaning effect in the oral cavity. So there's this one time a jockey went through a "breathing test" using a breathalyzer before a race. He failed the test twice eventhough he has given up alcohol for a few years. That was then they realized it was because of the mouthwash. So unfortunate right, sia-sia je tak dapat bertanding sebab cuci mulut. haha..

All in all I think I'd prefer older Irish people than the young ones. Their old people are very nice and so pleasant looking and they are friendlier. Tapi tapi tapi next week I will get a really old patient. Like 77 or something. tsk...hopefully we could communicate well.

I've got a once in a lifetime (of 4th yr) Friday morning off tomorrow. I'm so happyyyyyy can watch Glee tonight yeayyyyyy

I am a bruxist

I am due to come up with another post aren't I? Huhuhu...apakah saya akan menghapdet blog only once a week? We'll see how it goes ya? Still adjusting to my new life.

Last Friday I had an orthodontic session. Almost semuorang saya cakap saya tengah belajar dentist akan cakap wahhh kaya la nanti kalau boleh buat braces. Tapi kalau dengan orang-orang cengeh kat ortho dept ni, I dunno whether I would still have interest in orthodontics. Was supposed to trim our own model but mine went missing. I practically went all over the possible places - changing room, locker room, C&B lab but still couldn't find it. Was shot a very angry look by my supervisor and the lab guy that made me teared up a bit. Drama drama drama. Haha!

The next Monday, turned out my model was in my friend's locker. I was so relieved and slightly mad as well. I went through a hell of Friday morning because of this. And now I had to use up my free Wednesday afternoon to catch up with the ortho session.

Tapi tapi tapi that Friday afternoon in OTL Prof McC's made a good remark on my crown prep. Legaaaa sikit hati yang lara ni. I dunno if he could tell I was having bad day and just wanted to cheer me up or what but it really brightened up my day. Mengada lebih saya ni kena puji sikit dah kembang.

Oh oh and now that we are preparing ourselves to meet real patients we had to assess each other in the clinic. So far I found out that I have bruxism and that my jaw is kinda misaligned! Bruxism is an involutary habit of clenching and grinding your teeth. I'd say my contributing factor would be stresses and my misaligned teeth. The unexplained intermittent headache and throbbing pain in my back teeth are prolly caused by this habit. Huhu...I'm thinking of getting an orthodontic treatment. It would be handy if I could do it here but the cost is kinda scary and definitely not affordable. sobs.

Last weekend we organized an Open House for our friends here. It was tiring but it was worth the effort. At least it gave us a chance to catch up with everyone (who came that is) Although there were some talks behind the back that are very unnecessary I'm glad it went well. I hoped everyone felt the same too. My weekend was gone just like that. I wanted to do some catching ups with friends back at home but haishk..tak sempat. Lagipun sekarang ni musim raya lagi. Buang karan je nak ingat saya yg jauh di perantauan ni. sobs.

Hmmm I guess that's all for now. Thank God it's almost halfway thru the week already. The days passed by so fast nowadays. Pegi klinik pegi lab pegi kelas pergi pagi balik petang malam penat tido. Sooooo can't wait for the weekend. Lagi-lagi the free weekends where I can spend time for myself.

Just keep swimming, just keep paddling

Gosh, I miss being a frequent blogger. Gone already the days where I can spend like 20-30 minutes yapping yapping things that I feel/going through daily. Nowadays I'd be spending 8.30-5.30 at school and when I'm back home, I'd be too tired to write anything or too busy sorting out things.

It's been my second week of being a 4th year and things have started to be clear bit by bit. Not that much, but at least there are improvements. I've been seeing more patients and I've been making more and more mistakes but hey, I'm learning, ya? Making mistakes are common, ya?

The thing that people don't quite understand what's so tiring about being a dental student can't really be explained well. Normal patient-doctor/med student life would be going for ward rounds checking patients that is already being classified what's wrong with them. The patients are there, lying around waiting to be treated. In short, the patients come to them. As opposed to that, we have to get our own patients from the waiting list, we've to ring them, asking whether they are available to come for treatment, make sure they come for the treatment and be prepared for disappointments in case they didn't turn up. It has to be done every week and it's so frustrating if we couldn't get a patient for certain slot coz that would cause us a requirement. Yeap, that's another concern - the REQUIREMENTS. They are a lot, and they haunt most of our lives T___T

Anywaysss I'd say I've been getting interesting patients so far. One of them used to be an alcoholic, has had his pituitary gland removed and had rheumatic fever. He's quite old but he's wants to start off a new life with his teeth, if you know what i mean. He's quite determined to take care of whatever left in his mouth but the teeth prognosis are quite poor. Let's hope I could do something for him. The patient I had this morning she has quite a few problem. She has anxiety, depression, schizo and has a few suicide attempts before. But with treatments and supports of medications, she has seen the silver lining in the cloud and has started to take life positively.

The lesson I learned from my patients are, never give up wherever/whatever life has drove you to. Sure you are disappointed, you are tired and you wish things don't go that certain ways, but why would you make it worse? Eh eh tibe2 emosional plak. Hahaha..

Oklah sebnanye stress ni I can't find my old glasses. The one that I'm using now to post this entry has higher power and it'll give me headache soon. Have a nice day my dear blog reader (if I still have any) and selamat berusaha start puasa 6. I'm yet to start anyway. I'm busy sorting out my life and being hungry sometimes doesn't help. lol. padahai dulu time puasa ok jaaaa...Terimalah gambar raya ketiga dari saya..heheheh

Cerita pendek raya-raya @ Cork

Celebrated second day of raya at UCC Mini Rest, this is my 4th Eid abroad anyway.

kami berdua yang ditinggalkan housemates-housemates yang kejam light-light

tangkap gambar setelah kenyang menyantap

All Dentist United :)

Atiq doesn't like how she looked in this picture so I'll upload here instead to my FB :P

Batch 07/12, insyaAllah :)

Selamat Hari Raya Maaf Zahir Batin all the way from Cork, Ireland :)

p/s : 95 days to go ^__^

Have I stopped being emo?

sigggghhhhhhhh

Am I gonna keep on updating this blog or what? Where have I left you blog? You used to be my tempat menadah segala makian emo. Am I not that emotional now? Heck NO. It's just that I don't have time to entertain 'em?

Tak emo? My 4th Eid abroad and I'm starting to forget how does it feel like to be at home around this festive season. Tak emo? Mak is gonna go back to kampung on her own again, and not that many of her siblings are gonna be celebrating in Muar in first raya. Tak emo kau kata tak emo? Thinking about Mak going back to kampung alone this raya is heartwrenching enough. Tak emo? I can't bring myself to call Mak because I'm afraid I'm gonna cry like a streaming river. Tak emo? Tak emo tak emo? My first day raya is filled with Ortho lab and OTL. My baju raya is a filthy labcoat stained with plaster and melted wax that I forgot to take out when I was washing 'em in the morning and my second raya outfit would be a navy blue scrub that is worn together with 9 other of my groupmates. Tak emo kau kata tak emo? Every facebook status that screamed the happiness of going back to kampung, preparing stuff with the family and whatnots are like slitting my heart pieces by pieces. My last few days of Ramadhan was filled with worries on clinical stuff, patients, getting used around 4th year and rearranging and organizing my life.

Anyhow as I said before I'm too busy rearranging my life and stuff.As class started last Monday I began to feel more and more panicked and the pressure is building up. I am still going around tryna get used to everything and I know it's going to take time. There are so many new things in 4th year. So many things to grab and to catch up and I'm already feeling suffocated already. Hopefully things would fall into places as time goes by.

Last Sunday I came out with crazy decision to sell in the Bazar Ramadhan. Well, there are a few reasons behind that decision. One of the biggest factor is I wanna keep myself occupied for the weekend so I would stop dreading about how am I gonna celebrate Raya here and getting sad thinking about Mak. I didn't tell anyone about this one particular reason coz it's just too complicated to explain. Mission accomplished, I was so busy preparing stuff and my energy drained out as expected. Nak kumpul duit untung buat beli tiket winter? Hell no man untung dia kalau pergi beli groceries sekali abis dah. But ssokay Alhamdulillah ada gak la untung sikit-sikit.

Anyhoo Anyhei Anyheyaheya ooo I think I'd be better stop now before I raage out of control and torn this beautiful last days of Ramadhan. Here's me wishing you all Selamat Hari Raya and may your Ramadhan this time around is one of your best. I hope mine is. I'm sorry this one post sounded so bitter I promise when things are better I'll come up with nicer words. Till then, Assalamualaikum

Of finally manage to publish a post again

Nowadays it's so hard to find the right motivation to stay right until the end of sentence and click PUBLISH POST. Ntah kemana hilangnya semangat tu pun saya tak tahu. Mungkin dah tua and dah kurang semangat kot. Waceyh..tua la sangat nak kena lempang ke?

Of School.

Orientation started last Monday. Nothing much done just some reminders on cross infection control, immunization and some other support stuffs. Then we were free until today. At first I raaage upon the thought of asking us to start school early and left us classless, labless, clinicless for the rest of the week but now I'm quite thankful for that. It gave me time to arrange my life, settling stuff like doing Garda Card (immigration card) and buying essentials to start this new sem. Considering the tight schedule I'll be having, there is no way I can do that had the classes started already.

...and speaking about tight schedule, I was kinda shocked to see how busy we are gonna be this year. It's 9 to 5 Monday to Friday with exception on Wednesday. Itupun on Wednesday morning we have lecture that starts as early as 8.30am and finish up until 12.30. That is one hell of a long series of lecture! The rest of the week I'm either gonna be in the clinic (3 sessions), OTL lab, prosthetic lab, crown & bridge lab, or in the dental surgery.

With that, I really need to be mentally and physically prepared for this new academic year. Every year has its own difficulties. 1st year we have to adapt to the new environment. 2nd year is filled with a lot of subjects and exams. 3rd year is the start of clinical year..and now 4th year doubles (or triple?) the amount of clinical stuff did in 3rd year.

Of house renovation.

We asked our landlord to remove the bathtub and replace it with a shower place because the bathtub is ancient and it's more convenient to have a shower place rather than a bathtub. However he miscalculated our holiday and the mini renovation only starting to take place this week. That left me and Dayah with no choice but to use our friend's place to shower since the renovation is still ongoing. Gone already the days where I can shower whenever I feel like it because now I have to walk about 30-40m if I want to do so. I hope the renovation is done by this week coz my class is starting next week.

I guess that's all updates on my life for the time being. Ramadhan is approaching the end already. Cepat sungguh masa berlalu. I hope this masa-berlalu-dengan-cepat feeling remains throughout the year. And oh yes, I'm planning to go back again this winter. Please pray that I could find a good deal and that my supervisors are kind enough to let me go earlier!