My first day as a House Officer.

Woke up at 600am. Did my early morning rituals.

From this day forward, I'm determined that I want to wake up every morning, feeling motivated and passionate to go to work. I know it will be hard since I'll wake up to the same old bed, lavender colored walls, white fluorescent wall lamp etcetra. But that won't stop me from progressing.

I left our home with my right foot first. In my heart, I quietly recited my 'dua. I hoped my day runs smoothly. For the first time in my life (sigh), I'm totally independent.

First stop, JKNS, Shah Alam.

I drove our trusted (but not so sturdy) Satria. We named the car Mike. There's a story behind that name, I'll probably write about it later (if I have the time). To cut the story short, after I finished my errands in JKNS, I continued my journey to Kajang Hospital, which will be my second home for the next two years.

Mike is actually a second hand car, which my parents bought for my sister 5 years ago in order for her to commute from Shah Alam to our house. It was when I was in 3rd year of Med School when Mike had been passed down to me (not entirely), since my sister started using another car. Mike can't stand long journeys or it will get angry and overheat. Another thing with Mike is you can't stop abruptly when you are driving it, or else it will be shocked, seize and lost it's consciousness.

I was on my way to Kajang when Mike started to give me some weird vibes (I can sense when there's something wrong with Mike. Yes, we are that attached). When we were about 500 meters away from the Hicom KESAS exit, Mike seized and lost it's consciousness. Usually I manage to start Mike back after 3 trials but it did not work this time. Surprisingly, I did not panic. I called my sister. Luckily, she was on her way to Shah Alam for her class, but she was running late. Late=Stress=High Pitch Voice when I was talking to her on the phone. It's not her fault. If I'm in her situation, I'll probably reacted the same way as she did. But somehow, that triggered me.

I called my brother for help since he's the expert when it comes to cars, and that's when I burst into tears. Heh. I was surprised that he can understand what I was saying on the phone.

Alhamdulillah, about 15 minutes later, my sister came into the rescue, and then there was this guy who works in a workshop nearby who offered help. I drove my sister's car to Kajang and she waited for her friend to pick her up there. My brother took care of the rest.

Usually when things like these happens, the first person that I will call is my mother, and she will usually call my father for help. Hmmmm. But whatever it is, I'm grateful that I have my sister and brothers around, and I can totally depend on them 24/7. Alhamdulillah.

The rest of the day was filled with endless forms filling, photocopying and briefings. There were 13 new House Officers who came to report their duty other than myself. All of them were nice and helpful. :)

Oh, and my first rotation is....Obstetrics and Gynecology! :)

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ALLAH is GREAT. Allah menguji umatnya supaya senantiasa ingat kepada-Nya.

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That's my story about my first day as a House Officer.

Let's hope for more interesting (and happy) stories to come! :)

October.

10.10.10 - Graduation

11.10.10 - Induction

17.10.10 - Mama flew to Saudi Arabia to perform her Hajj.

18.10.10 - [tomorrow]I'm officially a House Officer in Hospital Kajang. Wootwoot!

As of from today, I will set my 'niat' straight.
I will work for ALLAH. I will work to serve those in need. I will do no harm. Insyaallah, I will try my best to be a competent, trusted, reliable and most importantly, a safe doctor.

Ya ALLAH, please grant me my wishes. Aminnnnnn.

Graduation 10.10.10

A perfect memory carved on a historical triple-ten day.

Graduation from Liyana Zainal on Vimeo.

Starved for Attention

(scroll ke bawah untuk points dalam Bahasa Melayu)

Do you know that almost 195 million children under 5 years of age are affected by malnutrition, with 90 percent living in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia?

Malnutrition contributes significantly to the premature death of children because the immune systems of malnourished children are less resistant to common diseases. Or in other words, malnourished children are more prone to fall sick over treatable diseases such as Pneumonia (radang paru-paru) or a simple chicken pox.

In fact, malnutrition contributes to at least 1/3rd of the 8 million annual deaths of children under five or five.

WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?

When we continuously brag about what we ate (and gonna eat) in our Facebook or Twitter there are people living in other part of the world who find it difficult to feed their children, let alone themselves. However, we are grateful that our government provides appropriate nutritional help for children with needs like these.

For the unfortunate countries, they rely on the help from larger countries, eg. the US. US is the world’s largest food aid donor. It produces and ships hundreds of thousands of tons of fortified cereals made of corn and soy blend (CSB), which may relieve a young child’s hunger but do not provide proper nourishment. CSB does not meet standards for infant cereals intended for healthy children, let alone those who are malnourished and underweight.

So, the US sends food overseas to children that it does not use in its own nutrition programs.

THIS DOUBLE STANDARD NEEDS TO END!

In order to stop these from happening, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and VII Photo present “Starved for Attention,” a multimedia campaign exposing the neglected and largely invisible crisis of childhood malnutrition.

“Starved for Attention” aims to rewrite the story of malnutrition through a series of multimedia documentaries that seamlessly blend photography and video from some of the most accomplished and award-winning photojournalists working today.

By signing the “Starved for Attention” online petition, you can be part of the campaign to rewrite the story of malnutrition and demand that the 195 million malnourished children get the attention they need and deserve to escape the deadly cycle of malnutrition.

It makes me sad knowing that that there are millions of children out there who suffers from malnutrition, when ironically, obesity is one of the main problem here in our country.

The most that we can do now is to sign the petition to support Doctors Without Borders' efforts to demand that governments supplying humanitarian food aid ensure that the food meets nutritional standards for infants and young children.

I rewrote the story of malnutrition. How about YOU?

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[B.M. translation]

• 195 juta kanak-kanak di seluruh dunia, terutamanya di negara dunia ke-3, mengalami masalah malnutrisi.
• Amerika merupakan salah satu negara terbesar yang tampil ke hadapan untuk menolong menghantar bekalan makanan kepada negara yang memerlukan.
• AKAN TETAPI, Amerika didapati menghantar bekalan makanan berbentuk bijirin soya dan jagung, yang semestinya TIDAK DAPAT MEMBANTU TUMBESARAN KANAK-KANAK.
• Didapati juga, Amerika TIDAK menggunakan makanan berbentuk bijirin soya dan jagung untuk diberi kepada rakyat mereka yang memerlukan.
• Perbuatan PILIH KASIH (double standard) ini PERLU DIHENTIKAN!
• Oleh yang demikian, persatuan DOKTOR TANPA SEMPADAN ingin mengumpul petisyen supaya bantuan bekalan makanan kepada negara dunia ke-3 ini menepati nutrisi tumbesaran kanak-kanak.
• Sila tekan di sini untuk membantu mereka!

(pelik sungguh buat translation ke BM ni :p)

Tips from a Blackberry user.

Things I like love ❤ about my Blackberry

1. Finally, I can use only one handphone smartphone. It was quite troublesome to have to carry two phones everywhere you go. My boyfriend studies in Indonesia, so in order to cut cost, we both had two phones with Maxis and XL (Indonesian) line. Now that both of us owns a BB, we just BlackBerryMessenger (BBM) each other. Pantas, senang dah mudah (Cewahhh!).

2. I admit, I'm a Facebook and Twitter(just recently) addict. With BB, I can check and upload pictures to Facebook and blab in Twitter literally everywhere! (Read: everywhere means; 1. places with no wireless network; 2. places with phone coverage)



2. You've probably heard people saying that having a BB is only worthit when your friends/family are also using it. It's true in the sense that you can only Blackberry Messenger with another BB user. The truth is, BBM is the same like any other messenger eg. YM, G-talk, MSN Messenger. The only difference is in BBM, your friends will be among BB users only. You just have to download other messenger application from BB App World and you can start instant messaging your non-BB friends through BB 24/7.

3. E-mailing is a lot easier with BB! The RIM technology allows you to send and receive emails in a flash. This is because your emails & attachments are compressed no larger than 2 KB.

4. It's qwerty keyboard and sleek design. A perfect fit for those with big hands, like me! ;)


Things I dislike about Blackberry

1. You have to subscribe the Blackberry Internet Service (BIS) for you to enjoy those things I mentioned earlier. Your BB can work without BIS, but a BB without BIS = Bukan Blackberry lah! Haha. If you are using prepaid, you can activate your BIS per day/week/month, and the rate depends on your provider. But in my opinion (and experience), if you are planning to use BIS everyday, it is advisable for you to change your plan to postpaid and subscribe the monthly BIS package. I've been using Maxis's BIS service for nearly 5 months now. So far, so good :)

2. RIM, please make a Hipstamatic for Blackberry!! Oh, it will be nice if I can swap lenses, film, and flash settings all with the swipe of a finger on my BB. Tak payah nak beli Lomo dah kalau ada Hipsta for BB!


3. If you like to play games and download ridiculous applications for your phone, BB is not for you. Go for iPhone or Android phone instead. I'm saying this because BB has limited applications for you to download, and most of them aren't free.

4. You cannot make video calls using any Blackberry phones or iPhone 3Gs. Video calls are only available with iPhone 4 (over Wi-Fi only), or the new (not yet released) Blackberry Playbook. Oh saya mahuuuuu itu!

Uuuuuuu. Lebih kecil dari iPad yang gedabak tu.
Yang ini, saya mahu.

5. iPhone 4 is OVERRATED. Siapa setuju sila angkat tangan. Heh.


I hope these help. ^.^

Graduation : Wishlist!

{baby's breath}

{pastel colored roses}

{calla lilies}



{daisy gerbera}

This post is in response to my status in Facebook:


Well, I don't want to leave you guys wondering how those flowers look like. I'm pretty sure those names does not ring any bell up there since we live in a tropical country; unless you're living in Cameron Highland or majoring in flower and plantation (ade ke course tu?), you are excepted.

So, *hint* my graduation is next Sunday (101010), and I will be a very happy graduand if I can get my hands on those lovely bouquet *hint*.

Heeeee *smirk*.

Excited!

I'm uber excited!

Just now, I was startled by a loud honk which came from my front gate. Ingatkan apek surat khabar lama, rupanya van Pos Laju. I'm expecting a Pos Laju delivery since last week actually. A dear friend from Ipoh asked me a favor to collect her graduation robe, so I'm expecting a letter from her containing her academic regalia forms etc.

The postman was super-cute! He was like "Ni surat nak pergi Khidmat Negara ke?". I responded "Eh, taklah..." (Dalam hati : "Wah! Pakcik ni ingat aku 17 tahun ke. Heeee"). Tapi kesian Pakcik Postman sebab kena berjemur tengah panas. Thank you Pakcik Posman! Tanpa awak, takdelah surat cinta untuk saya!

I thanked the super-cute postman, grabbed the letter and went straight into the house. I was confident that the letter was from my friend, so I didn't bother to look at it thoroughly. I wasn't expecting any letter from KKM, not at this time of the month, due to the response I got from them late last week. I called KKM asking about the induction course last Friday and they said they couldn't confirm the date, and they ask me to just wait for the letter.

Surprisingly, it's THE letter! It's just been freakin' 3 days after the phone call and it's here! Whoooohooo! Bravo Gomen! Hahaha. One worddd: EFFICIENT!



Okay, I haven't mentioned it here, my Graduation will be on the 10th of October. According to the letter, induction falls on the 11th of October, which is one day after Graduation! Alhamdulillah. I'm truly blessed. Thank you ALLAH for granting my wish :) When I was doing my Tawaf Umrah, I prayed and prayed that I'll start work not to early and not to late, hopefully when I'm ready mentally, physically and emotionally. I have a feeling that this is the perfect date to start my housemanship, Insyaallah.

Now I have to start training myself to wake up early in the morning, sort out my notes, freshen up my knowledge, buy new clothes for work and pray hard I'll be posted to the nearest hospital from home. :)

The 800 miles love story.

The story of two lovers who lives 800 miles apart ❤.