Welcome 2015

Third day of 2015. I'm in the room, practicing my ukulele. Yeah. I got myself a new toy in Alor Star. Time to pick up with my instrument skills. 

So far, 3 days of 2015, I've spent most of the time working and sleeping, and of course eating. Oh! Not to forget my cough. So my body has been very busy from top to toes. 

I'm grateful that I have kind people around me that gave me helping hands whenever I need one. In just 3 days, I received a lot of help from people around me. I don't know how to tell how grateful I am. I don't know how to show how much I appreciate their help. Billion thanks!! Good start for 2015. Thank you. THANK YOU. THANK YOU!!!

I hope 2015 would be a good year for everyone. Everyone, please be healthy, safe and happy. =D 

More importantly, DO GOOD. Be good to your family and friends, your colleagues, your customers, your neighbours, your pets, strangers on the street, people who need help.......... Only when we do good, the world can be filled with love and hope. 

On the other side, I would like myself to be good to myself too in this brand new year. =D 

Learn Ukulele properly.
Hopefully I can play a lot of songs by the end of the year, with good techniques =)

Be healthy and do more exercise.

Must be hardworking to attend zumba classes or go workout in gym. 

Take a break from work after PRP.

Honestly, putting such hobby aside is really painful. My food & travel blog is all about food nowadays. Travel part has been missing for ages already. 

Smile to everyone.

I wish everyone I meet with a smile. Even a stranger. 

A smile can make someone's day. I believe. Spread the positive energy and the joyfulness. =D

**Note: Only ukulele photo is taken by myself. other photos are taken from Google images

This Christmas is Different!

 

Merry Christmas to all my friends and family members, and to you (who are reading this blog post). =D

My Christmas wish for you is that you feel the glow and sparkle of the holiday season throughout the year to come. And may 2015 be a good year to you, fill with lots of lucks, happiness and joy.

25th December 2014. Christmas Day. Today, is a special day. It is different from my other Christmas days for the past 22 years. I am working. I am on-call for toxic cases (TDM). I am all alone at home playing ukulele and suddenly I received a call from HO. And so, my Christmas day becomes different.  

I am here typing this blog post in TDM room while waiting for results. Feeling..... erm...... neutral. Just being a little annoyed because I have to work due to other's forgetfulness. Oh well, since I have nothing to do at home (apart from learning ukulele), I feel alright. =) Holiday is suppose to be fun and filled with smiles. So I am not gonna have any negative feelings. Shooo!

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This is my first blog update in December. Getting lazier since I started working. Oopss! My life has been very busy and time passed really really fast. I can't believe that I've worked for 6 months and 9 days! Oh-Emm-Gee.. Life is good in Alor Star and I am working in a comfortable environment. Sad thing is, I have to see good friends leaving me after they finished their PRP. I hang out with them almost 24/7 and now they left and some are leaving soon. ='( I MISS THEM.

Appreciate every moment you spent with everyone around you. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Think differently!

Started to read articles about financing and came across with Warren Buffett's quotes. Good things are suppose to be share and hence I've decided to share the quotes HERE with my family, friends and readers!

Quotes that are short, but trigger people, at least myself, to learn.

-->  "Rule No. 1: Don't lose money. Rule No. 2: Don't forget Rule No.1"

--> "You don't have to be a genius to invest well. But, master the theories"

Asking a science student to deal with figures. It is a bit tough for me as I can confuse with credit debit, not to say ROI and Value investing. Time to read and learn something new!! =D

PRP Life: My TDM Journal (Part 2)

Continue from Part 1

TDM Day 4 (Thursday)
TGIT (Thank God It's Thursday)! Went to work happily because I planned to go home. Packed my stuff and rushed to work. Deep in my heart, I know it is gonna be a bad day. Machine was still malfunction and how should we run our samples? Go other hospitals? Sungai Petani? Penang? Kangar? or elsewhere?

Reached hospital and had discussion with the boss. Decision: bring blood samples to Penang and run. And, I have to go, without being able to claim back petrol. T__T 

After the discussion, I was quite worried as I was really new in the department, just 2 days experience. My friend and I were discussing and trying to think for a better solution. Boss doesn't allow both of us to go together. Sad. After 1 hour of mental preparation, I'm ready to go. 

Who knows, I received a call from another hospital, saying that they are willing to help us. They could help us with everything and hence I don't have to worry anymore. YEAH~~ Happily, we sent all the samples to that KIND hospital and waited for results. 

Jeng Jeng! The engineer came at 12pm and fixed our dear machines. *claps* Then, we are able to run new samples that are sent to us in the afternoon. Reported results. Done with our work. Sit and wait for call from that KIND hospital. *dot.... dot.....dot......*

At 5pm, we called that KIND hospital to trace results. (We should finish work by 3.30pm but we waited till 5pm because their hospital finish work at 5pm) GREAT! They only provide us with VERY VERY FEW RESULTS. Only 15% of what we've sent. WHAT??!! Then, they told us that they plan to do the rest the next day. 6 hours of work and only did so few, and now they say they wanna go home. We were really helpless that time and decided to travel to that hospital to get our samples back. Precious blood samples. =3

Used 2 hours to travel to the hospital and reach back our workplace around 9pm. Threw all our blood samples into the machine to run and had KFC as our dinner while waiting. Thank you boss for the treat and thanks for the drive. Waited for results, key in into the system and informed the results. It was already 12am when we finally finish our work and leave hospital.

7.30am till 12am work. What an experience. 

I really "appreciate" what that KIND hospital has done to us. Please don't offer to help when you don't have the ability. Gave us hope and gave us a hell-like day. "THANK YOU"

致：2013年的我

致：2013年的我

亲爱的我，2013年的这个时候你快乐吗？是不是很开心有人每天定时定刻和你聊天？是不是有时候觉得有点烦？现在的你，可不那么想。

你知道吗？那个人从你的生活中消失了。可惜吧！现在的我觉得疑惑且不习惯。我可以慢慢适应的。只是想说，有些东西，不会永远存在。珍惜及把握当下吧！爱你。

                                                                                                                        2014年的我

PRP Life: My TDM Journal (Part 1)

Therapeutic Drug Monitoring (TDM) is a part of pharmacy service in hospital, which many people aren't aware of. TDM provides service to measure the medication concentrations in blood, mainly focus on drugs with narrow therapeutic index (which means the drugs can be easily under- or overdosed; and may have serious adverse effects if the level is out of range). Hence, TDM is important to help the healthcare team to individually adjust the dose according to patient's latest condition. 

Being a provisionally registered pharmacist (PRP), I have the chance to attach to TDM department in my hospital for a month. I was quite happy to attach to this department as it is something different. We need to deal with machines, blood samples, calculations, etc...... Unlike outpatient and inpatient department, we did not directly supply medication to the patients. TDM department provide results of current drug concentration in the blood and provide recommendation to the healthcare team. Doctors will then decide to follow our recommendation or not, to provide the ultimate care to the patients. 

Sounds interesting isn't it? But let me share with you my first 3 days of attachment in TDM. Most happening rotation ever! 
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TDM Day 1 (Monday):
My first day in the new department and I felt a little stressed up. I've deal with patients in Outpatient Department (OPD) for a month and now I'm in the room, full with machines. Machines aren't my kind of thing because I'm literally a technology noob. Oh well, I'm glad that I have an awesome friend entering this department together. With her around, I feel calmer. 

So the first day was HECTIC. I'm new and yet there are many samples flooding in. Oh no, why during my first day?! Well, I have to run samples from antibiotics, anti-epileptics, to immunosuppressants (which normally run every Tuesdays).

We were so busy until we have to skip lunch to finish our work. And yet, we still finish our work late, around 6.30pm. What a day. But I'm grateful that I've given the chance to learn so many things in a day. Challenging. =)

Serum Serum! My buddy for a month!

TDM Day 2 (Tuesday):
Second day in TDM and I was quite tense since 7.30am. First day experience was quite a shock to me and hence I was hoping that Day 2 will be less hectic. BUT, our TDM boss took off. Hence, left 2 of us and we'll need to find other senior pharmacists to consult when we have problems. 

Things went quite smoothly in the morning. We centrifuged blood samples, send them into the machine, record result, etc etc.... *phewwwww......* We still manage to go for lunch, which was quite a great relief.

After lunch time, we had a surprise waiting for us! @_@ There's a serum sample from other hospital, which looks like urine. It was kept in a urine sample tube and there's a ball of unknown bugs in it. Fungi? Bugs? We had no idea what is it and it looks really disgusting. *just feel like vomiting* We called that hospital and confirmed with the pharmacist what is in the tube. They insisted that they sent us serum sample in urine tube. But well, with that disgusting bugs, we can't run that sample anyway. Grrrrrr....... 在TDM的日子，真的是度日如年。

P/S: That ball of bugs grew bigger at the end of the day. I really wonder what was that. Disgusting bugs. Tsk tsk....