part of my world
Friday, November 03, 2006
Was away for 2 weeks because I was on call for the Raya week. What initially thought of as a depressing lonely week turned out otherwise (thank you Lord for looking out for me from above).
Drove up on Monday morning at 5.30am. Wee~~ The mist and all.. Indeed, I quote someone, "it's like going to heaven". Really. The whole surrounding was heavenly. Wonders of nature.
Monday's work was hellish in contrast to the start. So many MVA's (motor vehicle accidents)! No surprise actually and we expected that. It's the festive season afterall! Since the satellite pharmacy I am in covers the ortho and surgical wards, workload was mountainous. What supposedly to end at 1pm took and an extra 2 hours. So work at satellite ended about 3pm. Then there were 7 TDM samples waiting for me! What is wrong with the world?!? Why so many sick people wann... and of all days when we are so short of staffs. All the while during my posting there, I have never received 7 samples in a day and given anytime I was there, I would have rejoiced and jumped with glee because then, I wouldn't have any free time to clerk patients! But on Monday, I literally prayed that they would just disappear. I had only 2 hours of sleep the day before and woke up at 5am to drive to work. No lunch yet at 3pm and signs and symptoms of hypoglycemia was starting to kick in. Decided to just grab a bun and head straight to the TDM lab (a wise move I realised later). Since it's a public holiday, we are to use a slower, less efficient machine to run the samples to save cost. Ran the vancomycin sample which I initially promised the HDU staff nurse before lunch (ooopss) and then 5 genta samples which I discovered 2 of the samples belonged to discharged patients. Sheesh! To add to the misery, the reagent ran out. There's no stock in the stor! I had to perform some magic and thank goodness it work. Good boy!
5pm already.
That's like working a full day!
Then came the phenytoin sample which I thought would be done by 5.30pm. Ran it thrice because the control was out of range. To add to the misery the control also ran out. Since I utilised all the 3 controls, I had but no choice calibrate the darn thing. Took me another good 30 minutes. Then the result came out toxic. Geee.. more work. Call the ward to enquire about patient's weight for calculation purpose, and what answer I got?
"Patient sudah discharge" (you kidding me? another one?!?!) @#$%#@#
The classic part was that the HO told me he accidently and mistakenly took the sample. He chuckled and innocently asked me why I am working till so late and not home yet. Now, I don't know whether to laugh with him or just reach over the phone and strangle him. Grrrr...
I broke all records and headed home at 7pm. 7pm!!! Nobody goes home at 7pm. A good extra SIX hours!! Forget all dinner plans. I collapsed at 9pm.
The next few days improved however. Since it's Raya, my Malay colleagues brought their own specialty and lunch was provided. Hehe. Tried so many new things.. buah salak (dry fruit.. really different), tapai (erm.. tasted like rotten food), buffalo meat (trust me, the only way to describe how it taste is well, buffalo), lotong (vege mix) and a whole lot more which I can't remember their names. Went visiting to colleague's house too.
Am glad I was there during Raya. It is certainly different from KL. Opened my eyes to this culture and it is really a BIG BIG thing over there.
Will be on call again next week. (Boy, I am so in demand)
posted by Charis at 4:39:00 pm
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