Sylvester Sim is through to the next round :)

Enough about that then. Change of subject haha. :P


O Captain, My Captain

A fond farewell to a certain surgeon who just left for HMDP. A wonderful mentor during my surgical attachment 3 years ago, he taught me well and always had such confidence in my abilities ( even though I felt I didn't deserve that kind of trust sometimes, haha :)). This guy pushed me into my first solo appendicectomy, let me suture the omentum ( even when I told him it was okay for me to "just serve as a retractor-holder, really" ), and once even ordered me to stay on the staff office's sofa and "REST!" while he went into the OT to remove an appendix when it was actually my job to do so ( I was post-call that day, and not feeling too well, I recall ).

He was also a close confidante and a good, good friend. Well-known and well-loved by all who've had the privilege of working with him, life will not be the same without his dry humour, immense generosity and calming presence ( "Don't worry, RELAX. Get 2 chest tubes ready. Call the blood bank for 4 pints stat. Prep the OT. DON'T PANIC." ) Really cool dude. :)

And of course, he's the inspiration for my blog title. When I first decided to start this site, I dedicated its website address to Kevin Spacey ( hence "spacefan" without the "Y" ), and decided on the title without hesitation, thanks to this surgeon's almost-daily intonation of " ** ( my initials -- he never called me by my full name ), IT'S A ZOO I TELL YOU!" ( usually reserved for bad calls, ward rounds or operating lists ).

Have a good year abroad, stay safe and healthy, and most importantly, have lots of fun ( not a problem, I'm sure )!

Hack, Cough

I've been hit by a kid-bug yet again. The flu this time, and it's making its rounds within the MO population. One guy just recovered, then I got it, followed by another female doctor. 2 straight days of oversleeping, honeyed brews and comic-reading later ( was too concussed to absorb actual novels ), I'm feeling better, thank goodness. Changing hospitals come Monday, and not a moment too soon. I'm fully convinced that being in KKH ( or within a 100-metre radius ) will render you susceptible to the invisible germ-infested sphere surrounding the building. Bet the police officers in the adjacent station would testify to that.

Anyway, the next batch of MOs is extremely shorthanded, which doesn't exactly bode well for waiting times and night shifts. Don't ask me how this manpower problem came about. I gave up on deciphering such mysteries a long time ago. But apparently, The People Upstairs aren't very sympathetic towards my current boss's predicament. "Long waiting times aren't a by-product of fewer doctors, but of inefficiency." Huh??? Not too long ago, I was on morning shift with 2 fellow MOs. The 3 of us are consistently the top 3 scorers in the department in terms of patient loads, with a peak rate of 5 minutes / patient for uncomplicated cases, which works out to 12 patients / hour, give or take a few. So we were seeing at an overall rate of, let's say, 25-30 cases / hour, together with a senior doctor ( whose rate I can't estimate ), and the queue was STILL raging full-steam at a constant backlog of approximately 10 waiting. Everytime we cleared a handful, another crop would show up. And for total nonsense, like "cough, flu", "fever for 1 day", "fell 1 week ago, requests skull Xray" and the like. And these people aren't that easily disposed of either. The parents ask a thousand questions about even the simplest of conditions.

"The symptoms will last about 3-4 days," you recite like a spinal reflex for the &*^%$ umpteenth time.
*incredulous look* "Oh IS IT? You mean, he won't recover by THIS AFTERNOON???"
*resist strong urge to slap said parent*

Yes, best not to put me in the paeds ER. Not too good to have a violence-prone doctor seeing you. :)


Laying Off

Believe it or not, I've completely stopped watching...

Survivor: Vanuatu -- because all the hunky men got voted off. Boo.

The Bachelorette 2 -- because it's getting lame lah.

All those cable TV series, like The Grid, Carnivale, etc. -- gimme Angels In America! And that other one with Alan Rickman in it!

In-theatre movies, even the ones I'm really keen on -- nothing personal, "Sherman". I just can't find the time or energy anymore. And fighting weekend crowds makes me nauseous. DVDs rock. :D


Life Of Pi by Yann Martel

Didn't have time to talk about this till now. Finished it earlier this week, and found it very enjoyable, probably because:

1) I'm an animal-lover
2) I love Martel's writing style
3) it's one of those rare works of fiction that enthralls till the very end, and provides a highly satisfying conclusion

Vividly detailed yet never dull. Encompasses all 5 senses yet seldom overloads. At turns horrific and endearing, hilarious and depressing, always mesmerizing. It's been a long while since I last came across a novel this delicious -- think the last one was Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil in, let's see, 1998. Fantastic.


Right. Another day beckons. Think I shall go watch bits of Troy again. ( DVD costs only $29.90 ) Adonises in togas. Yum. :)