Saturday, April 26, 2008

Dinner with Mr.Brain

Dinner at Beautiful Rainbow City.
Nasi Goreng Pattaya, RM 4.50.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Tasteless and Offensive

One of the regular blogs I visited almost daily, I was rather surprised that access to Jimbo's blog was blocked by the MOH, for having "unsur-unsur" Tasteless and Offensive.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Goodbye Vox populi

A politician, scholar, author, activist, blogger:
Rustam A. Sani.
1944-2008
Source: Malaysiakini

Vox populi used to be a regular blog I visited frequently for its thought provoking postings. However, I have been wondering why there was no more update since the last one on 18th Dec 2007.

Today, I was surprised to know that the writer had passed away due to heart attack in theTV3 1.30pm news.

I also learned that he had started a new blog recently, and in one of his posting early this month on 18th April, he had mentioned that he would be launching his two new books on the 26th April 2008.

It is just sad that he did not make it to the launch of his books.

RIP.

Star
M. Bakri Musa

Monday, April 21, 2008

Water fish

A friend recommended me, a nice Fish Head Bihun, according to him. The shop is actually located beside the highway on the way to the new immigration complex and opens in the evening.

Since Mr. Brain is here for a week, I brought him there to find out what so famous about this Hu Tao Bihun, cause I have not tried it either.
Mr. Brain said, "Not bad".
But for me, so so only lah.

So, what exactly so special about this bowl of bihun?

RM 7.00

Sunday, April 20, 2008

This dispensing stuff again

I am still not finished with the dispensing issue yet.

I am surprised that after I posted 2 entries on dispensing rights, I received quite a number of interesting comments, especially from pharmacists. Even now, I still get visitors from Google search looking for 'dispensing rights' stuffs.

Before I say more, let's see what some pharmacists have commented.

According to MPS's president, John Chang CP:

"Doctors are only familiar with medicines that they often prescribe, not knowing adverse reactions and drug interactions. However, pharmacists are constantly in touch with the drugs industry," he said. With the separation of functions between clinics and pharmacies, Malaysia will join the ranks of other developed countries around the world which separate the role of doctors and pharmacists." (NST)

These are the many medications I give out to patient with Psoriasis.

I usually diagnosed this disease in a glance. Most part of my consultation is to explain to the patient regarding the disease, as well as various types of medications the patient need to apply, including the various detail steps on how the medications are applied and their various expected side effects.

Am I in no better qualified position to do the explanation and counseling in regards to the medications used and their various side effects?

How much one be sure that the pharmacists could explain how exactly I want the patients to use the way I want them to use?

I can tell you, they have no ideas and that is why I kept a full range of medications on my table to show and teach the patients how to use them.

Here's some comment from one reader:

"My point is that if dispensing separation were to take place, a check and balance system will be in place. The doctors wins, the pharmacists win, the patients win. Win-win for all. Isn't that good?"

My question now is, how are we really be sure that what the doctor prescribes, is what the patient should get?


This was the third time I encountered this on the same day.

I wrote a prescription for the amount of 200 gm, and the patient only received 60 gm. Did the pharmacists understand how much 200 gm is? Did they see the patient and estimate how much the patient need it? NO, and I am so tired of writing new prescriptions again and again just to get the exact amount of cream I wanted the patient to get. I am just so fed up.
Here was another prescription I wrote for a patient.

I wanted to give out the 'cream' form and for 30 gm amount.
This was what the patient received, 'ointment' and only for 15gm.

When I called back to confirm, they admitted it was their mistake.

Therefore, if pharmacists are to check on the doctors' prescriptions, who are there to check if the pharmacists dispense the correct medications and amount or not?

So, does the separate dispensing system really work with the 'check and balance' concept that benefit patients.

I hope doctors would not get new role, that is, to check back on pharmacists.

Read more about my posting over Storyformydoctor 1.0.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Lunch talk

After a continuous seven weekend calls in a row, I am at least feel like I am breathing smoother these weekends. This month alone, I had missed three drug talks. So, today I did not want to loose the chance to attend one.

Despite been quite tired and lazy today, I wanted to attend this talk, because, firstly, I wanted to break away from my usual Economy Rice lunch. So, it was a good opportunity for me to try out some buffet lunch in the hotel, FOC.

Secondly, I wanted to listen to this special speaker I admired a lot. She is one of those great speakers that would not make you sleep.

I had similar encounter with her last year over here and looked like, she'd never changed much. Same hair style, shirt and pants. But, she is a good entertainer.

Friday, April 18, 2008

False positive

This is in response to Jason Chan's comment that he had never referred a case of false positive test.

Again, this was an 'urgent' referral I got for today.

How I wish some people would at least use 1% of their brain function to think before start referring cases to other people to see.

RPR: Rapid Plasma Reagin.
VDRL: Venereal Disease Research Laboratory.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Ridiculous

Those years been a Medical MO was real tough, especially when one was on-call. The pager never seemed to stop beeping, because the whole world would referred all sort of cases to you to crack your head. I used to curse these people (especially the O&G) for referring ridiculous cases for me to see.

What is this?

Somehow, I think these Medical people are ridiculous as far as this region is concern. Now, my major bulk of referrals are from the Medical unit. It kind of pissed me off when people started referring me cases like VDRL (Venereal Disease Research Laboratory) or RPR (Rapid Plasma Reagin) positive cases to manage without using their brain first.

I can't imagine, I used up most my time seeing rubbish over here.

I can be nasty or sarcastic sometimes, but just to say sorry that, I am actually not what other people used to think I am.

I kept reminding myself to be patience, patience and patience. After all, is that what life supposed to be?

Monday, April 14, 2008

New kids on the block

Blogging, an increasing trend now.


Sorry, this is some sort of advertisement.

This is for fans of Dr. CSL, a famous actor, now a blogger too!

More mushrooms after the 8th March Tsunami over here:
TV Smith's Post-Apocalypse Bloggers.

Dear friends, have you got a blog?

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Am I dreaming?

Found.

I picked up this note at the ground floor car park this evening.
What should I do with it?

Strangely, sometimes I found money in my dreams, but I seldom dreamed of picking up a note. In most of my dreams, I found coins. The initial excitement usually turned into nightmare as the more coins I picked up, the more coins appeared. This could be quite scary, because I had insight that I always knew it was not real.

Friday, April 11, 2008

Aquaria

I seldom go shopping with friends. This is because I'd always end up be someone's bodyguard. One friend likes to look at garments and fashion, one friend like toys, one friend likes to look at camera, one friend likes books and one friend likes computers.

So boring.

So, what do I look at?

DVDs of course.
Pets.
Aquarium.

I plan to own up an aquarium.

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Dinner treat

Dinner at Rainbow City.

I like this scene.

I was about to start my dinner by having the first sip of the Sai Yong Choy soup, when Mr. BP lab called to say he has cleared his PACES. He is truly amazing. Believe it or not, one could also pass exam without "physically" be there. Perseverance pays off. Congratulation dude! I am waiting for my treat.

Cytusm's belive it or not

This red highlighter is 16 years old. I bought it in 1992 when I first entered university and it is still working.

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Broken

Broken.

I was quite upset that my regular breakfast glass that I kept more than 10 years was broken.
No Milo for today.

New.

Never mind.
If the old one does not go, new one will not come.

Sunday, April 06, 2008

Land of the Merlion







First time driving into foreign land today. Kind of scary cause things were total alien to me. I completed a near round island journey. In between, I broke some traffic rules. Kind of worry, and I am still shaking currently. I hope to cross over to the other side again one day and I hope I won't be barred from entering.

Great adventure, but very tiring.

Friday, April 04, 2008

TGIF

Here is the first IT fair of the year organized by PIKOM. It is held from today till Sunday.
Somehow I felt, this one was not as exciting as the previous one. Most of the electronics and computer gadgets were still very expensive. There was no good bargain at all. Take for an instance, a 2GB Kingston pendrive is sold for RM27 when one could find it in Low Yat for RM22.

This time, I desperately needed a printer. The bargain atmosphere was so uninviting. There seemed to be not many competition. In the last fair, the printer I was looking for was sold at RM199. This time, the cheapest I got was RM 225. More expensive, damned it!
We had dinner again at Stulang or 'sister' of our Gurney Drive back in PG.

For the past one week, the number of visitors to my blog had shot up hitting > 5o a days. Most of the searches were for Dr. Tan BH, after the news of her death. It sounds like, one is more valued upon death.

Personally, I don't really know her well, although we had worked in the same hospital for few years. Our relationship was just that of a 'Hi' and 'Bye'. I had few conversations with her during the dinner drug talks organized by MMA. She was one of the regular 'kakis' from PGH who attended dinner talk often.

I also remembered her as a person full of confidence when she presented a studies and won 1st runner up in last year's scientific meeting organized by PGMES.

She definitely looked more stunning in real person than in her photo. She was a true rare beauty one could find in the 'medical' community. She was all elegance in her sense.

I felt a bit sad and touched to learn that the journey was just too short for her. Nevertheless, I felt proud of her that, in the very last moment of her life, she created new 'life'.

Thanks to Chev, who is a very good friend of her, I began to learn more about her through a new blog created specifically in memory of her.

RIP Dr. Tan BH.


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Thursday, April 03, 2008

10 reasons why doctors should maintain the rights to dispense

I am surprised to find some GPs have Podophylline in their clinics, in view of the difficulty to obtain this chemical in the government clinics. Podophylline is used to treat anogenital warts.

This post has moved to Storyformydoctor 1.0

MMR: Doctors dispensing medicine II.

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Nice seafood

This was the lift I needed to take to go up to the 5th floor of the parking bays when I did locum.

I am a kind of person who has difficulty in saying 'no'. So, I agreed to cover for a day of locum for three hours. Despite been so tired, the money was well earned.

Justin happened to be back for the weekends and I treated him for a big meal at Tebrau.
Nice Belacan Tou Miu and Grilled Stingray.
Plus, this wonderful Kam Heong Lai Liu Har (Mantis prawn), all for RM51.