Backdated Entries

It seems SGH computers have banned Blogger from its list of approved websites. How annoying.

In any case, there're a couple of new posts here, so scroll down if you don't want to miss them.

The day after the Singapore Idol finals, breakfast with fellow MOs revealed that one senior ENT trainee actually voted! For Taufik! And you thought only squealing young girls bother. :)

My call yesterday was -- to put it simply -- crappy. Started out with a busy day of clinics, which gave me a throbbing headache by lunchtime, then got worse as the afternoon wore on. Finally finished seeing everyone at 5:45pm, after which I camped out in the call room, unable to sleep and ploughing through Mark Haddon's novel, before venturing out to grab some dinner chow from Delifrance, then disposing of an A&E referral ( from a fellow A&E trainee who's done 6 months of ENT before some more; eh, don't like that lah ). At midnight, I was paged to resite two IV plugs. and by then, I felt ready to lie down and get some shuteye ( my biological clock has been hotwired after 18 months of ER postings, such that I can only doze off after midnight, and wake after 8am. Which, of course, has wreaked havoc on my system this past month, since we routinely start work before 8 and finish after 5. )

So there I was, sighing as I lay on the pillow, when my pager went off. It was my on-call registrar, informing me he was about to perform an elective tracheostomy, and would I like to come into OT to see it? You see, earlier that same morning, I'd told the head of department at a meeting that I very much wanted to see this procedure. True, I was present during an emergency trach last month ( read 210 Minutes on The Lingual Nerve ), but it happened to fast I didn't even catch it. All I remember is: Get me the tracheostomy set! Jab, slash, shove ETT in. The end.

The leisurely version was much more useful ( though I would've preferred that it take place at a less insane hour ). I got to see the neck structures in proper detail, and my reg assured me that should the need for an emergency surgical airway ever arise in the ER, if the patient is already flat, just cut and stick the tube in, and worry about haemostasis later. I feel more confident already. :)

The rest of the call, sadly, was quite eventful. Anaesthetist's spouse admitted for an oesophageal foreign body necessitating rigid scope for removal. A page at 3am for something I can't even recall ( hope I didn't order the wrong drug in the process, haha ). Then another trip out of bed at 5:30am to submit an OT chit via computer for the aforementioned patient. Not a busy call by conventional standards ( those I did in medical departments were the WORST ), but I wasn't feeling too well to begin with, so it felt like Torture.

So...no more whining about my love life. For now at least, heh heh. Who would've imagined that a JC mate's innocuous comment would trigger such a major response from readers? Must tell him the next time we meet.

Will now take a long overdue nap. Have the whole weekend off, yay. :)