My very first

Today, I did my very first spinal anasthesia on a patient. I mean on a real patient. Not a dummy. But a patient. An alive patient. Who is about to go for an elective C-section.

Dr Matthews asked me to scrub in for today. And I thought sure, maybe he just wanted to make me feel more involved by scrubbing in. I scrubbed in with the help from a lovely midwife, as I had not scrubbed in for 3 months! I took ages to scrub in! The bit where I had to don the sterile glove is the trickiest part. I always struggle to put on my gloves gracefully. Hehe. By the time I was all sterile, Dr Matthews has already finished setting up the sterile field around the patient's back. Huhu.

With my hands clasped close to my chest, I walked to the patient. Peeking over Dr Matthew's shoulder, I tried to get a closer look at what he was doing. Then suddenly, he asked me to grab a stool, which I did. He grabbed the stool next to me. Then he asked me to palpate for the iliac crest and find the suitable level for insertion of the needle. Which I did. He helped me through this as I was not so sure of what I felt. Then after a few explanations, he asked me to hold the needle. Ok, I thought that was all he wanted me to do.

But noooooo.

He, then, told me to start and poke the needle at the patient's back. I was like, woahhh. Hold on a minute. I have not been taught how to do this before. Yes, I have seen it done like a million times. Yes, I've read the procedures from books. But I have not had a proper teaching on how to do it. All I know is from what I have seen and from what I have learnt from the books! But no, he insist me to do it. So, i was like, gulp, Ok!

So there you go. I poke in the needle after he had injected the local anaesthetic. And then poked in the finer needle for the spinal. First shot, it bang straight to the bone. After 3rd attempt, it went pass the ligamentum flavum and straight into the dura space. CSF leaks out of the needle, and that was it. I was in! After infusion of local anaesthetic, within minutes, she told me she could no longer feel anything from her nipple below. Hahahahha. Walaaaa. It works!

God, only Allah knows how scared I was at that time. Miraculously, alhamdulillah, I did not even think about anything apart from getting the procedure right. Only later I got to think of all of those things that could have gone wrong. Worst comes to worst, I could have damage her nerves and cause her to be paralysed for life. Which, alhamdulillah, I did not. The thought of it just send shivers down my spine.

So there you go. My very first experience of spinal anaesthesia. The highlight of my day. Hehe. Oh well, there is always a first time for everything, isn't there?

p/s: tick tock tick tock. the time is running! :)

Eid Mubarak :)

Eid mubarak to all the muslims out there. With or without family, with or without close friends, Eid is still Eid. And it deserves to be welcomed with warm smiles and happiness.

Keep these ugly feelings aside for a change. Keep it in a box and seal it tight and shove it in a place that is too deep to be dug, or too far to be reached.

Smile. Don't cry. Laugh. Don't whine.

Allah has created Eid as a day of happiness. And a happy day it shall be.

Be strong my dear self.

Eid Mubarak peeps.

p/s: it is getting nearer ain't it? Weee~

Its slipping away

Oh no. Ramadhan is coming to its end. Interesting, how my feelings towards Ramadhan changes as I grow older. I remember how it was back when I was a child, or even as a teenager. Ramadhan was viewed solely as a month where I can have nothing to eat nor drink. I used to whine everytime papa forced us to go to terawih at the mosque during the nights of Ramadhan. And when Ramadhan ended, I was so happy that I finally got to eat again. Huhu. Teruk betul.

But now, things have changed.

I finally got to understand why Ramadhan is associated as the holy month. The ni'mah of fasting throughout the day. The ni'mah of breaking the fast after a long day of fasting, even if it is just with a sip of water. The ni'mah of reading Quran after every prayers, especially during the night. The ni'mah of Tarawih, especially when it is done in congregation. The ni'mah of Lailatul Qadr, that is if we are lucky enough to meet the sacred night. The ni'mah are unbeatable. They are undescribable. They are beyond words, subhanAllah.

And now Ramadhan is slipping away. In few more days, it will be gone. But just because Ramadhan is gone, it does not mean our 'amal ibadah has to be put on hold til the next Ramadhan comes! Lets all hope that Allah will make us istiqamah with our amal ibadah. We do need them as much as we can for our next stop.

Raya di perantauan

I can't believe a year has past since we last had our raya together. Gosh, and now the holy month is about to come to its end. Syawal is approaching. I have a feeling that this coming Syawal will not be the same without you girls with me. Perhaps that explains the loop of emptiness that I am feeling inside. I miss you girls already...very much.


http://smsawomen.blogspot.com/2008_09_01_archive.html (click on the link for the video recorded from last year)

InsyaAllah, this is my fifth raya abroad. InsyaAllah, this is my fifth raya with me being away from my family. But why do I have a feeling that this raya will be the hardest for me? A 'rainy' raya, that is what I am expecting.

I miss everyone right now. My hormones seems to be taking its toll over me.

The unplanned trip

Brussels was OK. The whole trip was OK alhamdulillah, considering it was an unplanned trip. I know before this I whined about how costly the trip is, but now that I come to think of it, we actually had landed ourself on a very good bargain!

Our ticket includes a return trip to Brussels AND a 3 days 2 night accommodation in Brussels Hotel.

Eurostar is great! (Pardon me for being so jakun. It was my very first time travelling via Eurostar. hehe). Yes, we had to travel all the way to London for it. But, I personally think it was worthwhile. I don't have to care so much about what I can or can NOT put in my luggage (oh yes, the do scanyour bags, but i obviously do not carry a gun around, so that is ok for me.) I don't have to stress out about exceeding the luggage allowance. I can carry even up to 10 bags if I want to (which obviously I did not do because I don't have enough hands to carry 10 bags around!). The waiting time is much less reduced. The ambience in the train itself is very comforting. And most of all, I don't have to worry about crashing everything the train shooks. Huhu.



Our hotel is even better. It was right in front of the tram stop, which is extremely convenient. When we book the ticket, we ordered for a standard single room each (why we ordered separate room is a bit too complicated to be explained in this blog.) But alhamdulillah, instead of a single room, we got ourselves a double deluxe room which can fit up to 4 people in a room! The room itself costs even more than the total money that we had to spend for the whole package! Alhamdulillah. I guess Allah is just making things easy for us as we had to endure so much problem before we could even get to Brussels.

We did not do anything much on our first day. It was only on our second day our trip officially begun. We went to Atomium, Mini Europe, Grand Place and Maneken Piss (which really pissed me off.hehe) We break our fast in Grand Place, eating Belgium waffle. That was amazing. Hehe. All in all it was an-OK trip.

And alhamdulillah, Eza managed to get her 6 months visitors pass! Haha. So that makes our trip worth it.


Mek dah nak balik dah. Benci tul. Kirim salam kat orang kat rumah. Esp Ma n Pa. Cubitkan Qeefee and Damdam for me!

p/s: Now, should I restart counting? Hahha.

Salam wbt :)

Want to be a paramedic? Read this. Heheh

Today, I have spent the whole day with the paramedics. I had been looking forward to it ever since I've started this A&E rotation. I did not had the chance to follow the ambulance peeps during my A&E placement in Malaysia during my 6 weeks electives. So I was quite eager when I found out that Dr Stephenson had allocated each of us a day with the paramedics.

I was in from 10 am til around 6 ish. By the end of the shift, my head has gone all woozy. The ride in the ambulance is definitely NOT a pleasant ride.

If you want to be a paramedic, these are some key points that you need to know beforehand!

1. You have to be a skilled driver. You must be able to drive at high speed, selit selit in between cars, driving onto pavements and be extra alert whilst driving. With the speed you are driving, you are very much prone to have an accident!

2. If you are not the driver, you have to be able to NOT to vomit throughout the whole journey. It is one bumpy ride, I tell you. You must have a strong stomach to be a paramedic! (I could have vomited if I were not fasting! )

3. If the seats in the back are full, you must be able to stand throughout the ride without bumping your head onto the headboard or falling over and hurting yourself. There is already shortage of paramedics. Don't hurt yourself!

4. You must be able to cannulate or intubate or able to perform any other related practical procedure whilst standing. (Remember, it is an extremely bumpy ride!)

5. You must be able to do basic life support by yourself! Things get more tricky when it comes to chest compression. One hand has got to hold on to the rail for support, so that leaves you with only hand to do the chest compression. Which is ridiculously tiring!

Oh I could not think of anything else to write. I did have fun with the paramedics yesterday though. Chris was superb. He has been a paramedic for 20 years, so you can guess how many interesting stories he has to share! He is just brilliant!

So now I am halfway through my A&E rotation. And for this week, I will be doing the nights shift. From 4pm til midnight til Friday and 7pm til 3 am shift on Saturday. Wohoo. Obviously it is not wise for me to go back to Sheffield in the middle of the night, so I will be staying in the hospital's accommodation for this whole week til Sunday. I have almost finished packing my stuffs. Man, my bag is extremely heavy! Loaded with food food and food!! Brahim, serunding, sardine, milk and everything else. You just name it. Huhu.

Hope I enjoy my night shifts this week. At the same time, I hope it passes by quickly as well. Haha. I will miss my comfy bed.

p/s: Halfway through Ramadhan! Fast, ain't it? Ramadhan Mubarak peeps.

Salams :)