It has been a very confusing and blurry day today. For the start of the day, i already knew that it's going to be a busy day in OT. Although i am prepared, there is something that is out of my expectation. That is a new colleague would be in the OT for orientation too. What a day to have someone new around. i thought he will be with my senior but no he was attached to me for most of the cases. As he has many years of working experiences in this area, it makes no sense that i should be guiding him so i just shown him how to manipulate the machines and the procedures to process the requests. There was nothing much i could do as i myself has not done most of the procedures today as well and neither have i worked with the surgeon before.

Things have not gone well, as two pple operating the c arm. He dun know my style and i dunno his. In the end, i let him handle the machine coz think the surgeon also prefers that.How i know that? My intuition... hee hee Me too slow with shifting the machine and his first impression of me,,,,, already not very good as i dun understand his terminology too. =(

In the last case, i have no choice but to take over since one of us has to go off. I got comments from him that there is a problem with my technique. But i did not even shift the tube or make any other adjustments to the machine when i took over. The only damn thing that has shifted was that he shifted the region of interest off the centre of the ii and the region of interest was already near the edge of the table where there is metal lining the edge. That makes the compensation of the AEC differs from the last image. The image thus appeared too dark. first time like that, the second try also like that. My fault .... sigh someone even ask me to go and find my colleague back. what the ***** right. This is so damn depressing lor. it's the pride issue i know .. there is absolutely nothing wrong with the comment just that i cannot take it coz i know i could do it and i am not what he says i am.....however managed to get a better quality image later. And he has nothing to say. didn't bother to ask him what images he wants to print. i just anyhow print since he also dun bother to come and choose. Everyone is tired i guess.

i am going to be in OT for another week. Dunno why they like to schedule me for OT. My right thumb was already strained and can feel the pain whenever i try to lift it. Better not worsen the condition and hope that it will not affect the movement. if like this, i dunno how i am going to resume my piano lessons and sit for examinations later. ERGH---- and guess what, the old injury on my right knee seems to be acting up again today. could feel sharp pain while walking. This is not a good sign as well.

Mummy says she dun understand why i left my previous job to such jobs when i jolly well knows that i am not strong enough as in physically to handle the heavy duty machines. i also dunno why. =(

IVUs today was not at all smooth sailing. Both tubes gave me problems the entire morning. They took turns to be faulty when i need to do the tomo films. Hate the tubes manz,,, dunno when will they consider to change the tubes for the better. =P

i was also given a chance to witness the madness in AnE in the mid afternoon when they call for help. Since i was not orientated for the department, limited assistance was rendered by me. i tried my best to clear some trolley cases and learned how to register the patients etc.... as usual, i did the cases at my own slow pace. Guess it did not make a difference. But Mic says it's the presence that helps to calm the person down,,, not the quantity of work i did. hmmm... maybe he's right.

supposed to be on OT duties this week but due to many MCs clocked. i am always mobilized to cover other duties. Oh they recalibrated the ii today. Sigh,,, no chance to try that out..... maybe next week =)

i had a very good sleep yesterday.

Just came back from Orhard road. My mum wanted to buy a new pair of hush puppies shoes so we accompanied her to Orchard OG where the particular pair of shoes she wanted was on sale. Luckily for her, she could fit in the last pair left on the shelves if not i think we would need to make another trip down some other days. Then we proceeded up to takashimaya as i wanted to go visit bookstore. It has been a long time since i stepped into a bookstore. Actually, i had an intention to shop for a book to read. But in the end, i spent my time browsing through knitting and crochet books. And did not buy any books for my reading pleasure coz my mum complained that she was tired and wanted to go home and rest. Sigh.... sometimes that's one of the problem when u are there with others. Never mind, next time lor... shall go alone and start searching for some good books to read. i have stopped reading for so long besides reading reference books. Anyone has a good book to recommend?

just an update for the week.

It's finally friday. Last day to be slogging in room 6. The first two days when i started room 6 was not that bad coz the flow of patients was not as bad as later part of the week. Luckily, i have students with me. Without them, i also dunno how i can manage the room. When u are in room 6, the workload started to pick up towards the mid morning and would continue till around 530pm. Usually i found myself spending a portion of my lunch time to clear the last few cases. Rea;;y tired,... will update once i got sufficient sleep.

Today has not been a good day for me as expected. Before the commencement of work today,while i was cleaning the room in preparation for the day, my left eye twitched. In my heart, i was like "oh no!!... wonder what's going to happen today?" Then i swapped the room with another of my colleagues as she was not properly attired and was asked to cover duties for one of the colleagues who was on medical leave.

So there i was happily doing the cases until the long spine cases came in. As i has not been orientated before for the cases, i seeked help. The erect bucky was alright... i saw R doing it before.. and she also shown me how to stitch the images too. The real "killer" came when there were request for left and right bending. Nobody has demonstrated to me how to use the trolley before. So naturally, i approached someone else to do the case and something went wrong after that. Later, i realised that there was a certain orientation to the trolley and the cassettes before we could obtain a well aligned image. And the worse thing was that, she did not do as supposed which resulted in errors and have to repeat again. As it was near end of her shift, she just asked me to repeat the views without explaining what's wrong with them. Another person also dunno what to do and the mess just snowballed. There should be a more systematic ways to do things lor. Later, then i found out that the cassettes were orientated upside down which resulted in the misalignment and that placement of the patient would also affect the alignment of the images. The final straw came when someone told me later that one folder could only stored about 6 images anything more than that will result in errors. Then why in the first place, u never do that. We have definitely more than that lor . It would definitely help the patient in reducing rad dose. i was utterly pissed off manz. i finally got the images requested with the help of those who are willing to stay back for a while to settle the mess. Thank you pple.....

hee hee ... my mummy is still the person in this world whom understand me most... hee hee ,,,, i just told her the other day that i got my locker already... guess what ,, when i got home from work today ,, i found two bags of biscuits on my chair...... she bought four different types of biscuits for me to store up in my locker so that i will not strave myself to death while working. i asked her why bought so many ,,,, her reply was short and sweet,,, "my gal has always love to have a variety of choices ,,and will not like to eat one type of biscuits for several days." And that is very true... i always like to have a variety to choose from and have different gravings throughout the day. That's the way i stored food or snacks in office last time too.. think she dun want me to lose anymore weights ....

We went to the "Study Medicine & Health Science Australia Open Day 2006" to see how is the Bsc degree for imaging science modules like. University of Sydney did not show up although that is what we are interested in. There are basically three universities offering this particular course. And it seems like Curtin University turns out to be a better choice in terms of obtaining a full credication and recognition to practice in Australia and other countries without a year of provisional probation. The course fee pretty steep though,,, and u know what's the good news.. with my Bsc degree ,, i can register for the Master course straight ,,there is no need to go for the degree course as i thought i would have to go through. And only curtin university offers the course ,,,the rest will need me to obtain Bsc in imaging science first before proceeding to the master course. See how lah ...two years of full time study may not be a good time at the moment . (",)

In just a month time since i started work, i have lost a total of 2kg. That's way too much taking into account that i am already underweight. Now with the weight of 41kg, is not fun at all. Well, i stopped snacking in between meals unlike in the past. In addition, my metabolic rate increases especially when i need to apply more strength to lift patients as well as operating the heavy duty machines. There is a lot more walking and moving around compared to last time. Imagine when i have a deskbound job, i barely managed to gain some pounds and tip the scale with only 43kg. Sad right... oh due to the early turn in time compared to the past, i have stopped taking supper before bedtime. Guess that did not help much in maintaining my weight as well.

try something new today. i was pretty amazed with my "ear" power. hee hee ... i was able to come out with part of the score of the song "kiss goodbye". This time was not just the treble chef okie .... including the bass... Not sure how i managed to do that ... coz i used to have problem with that. Will continue on then will check if i catch it correctly. But i cannot differentiate the time signature for the score. Think too long never go for aural examination. hee hee

My parents have always succeed in giving surprises on how innovative they can be. My mum went to buy a set of toyguns with "bullets" that can stick to mirrors or other smooth surfaces. We use the "bullets" as a support for the fish so that we dun have set up the plastic partitions which he refused to be confined. Well, it proved to be a better alternatives and it allows minimal contacts of his surface areas with the walls of the aquarium. Although he still could swim well, he is very happy to be able to keep in the upright position. Good for his skin problem too... Hope things go well for my dear little fishy. =)

Hee Hee.... already one month since i started work. Still felt tired everyday after work. And it has been the daily routine of sleeping -wake up-work. The cycle continues day in and out. kinda no life but i am confident that i can resume my normal lifestyle soon.

Something caught my attention while clearing my gmail account. One article publised in medscape discussing about imaging xrays causes cancer. Upon reading the article, the radiologist is discussing on the radiation dose given to patient via CT scans. In his opinions, the multislices CT scans is causing more harm to the patients and suggests that we should consider more of MRI procedures rather than CT scans. However, i am not very sure of the facts as has not personally measured the dose rate generated by CT scans. Of course, as radiation workers, we do our best to give the lowest possible dose and not compromising the image diagnostic quality. Sometimes i wonder with the new developed technology such as CR, are we reducing patient dose or are we increasing it as image quality differs between the conventional and CR. But with CR, the repeats rates are greatly reduced as we could still adjust lattitude level to get the images required even with wrong exposure factors. And with the help of the engineers, maybe they could find a way to reduce patient dose even further for CT scanners. Never doubt the advancement of the technology.

i was having fun in Operation Theatre these two days. It is really different from the world outside. i still have to master many techniques in order to be competent to work solo in OT. The first case i did went well except i was not very sure why the images appeared so dark. The second case i fumbled as i could not seem to be able to get the toe in the centre of the image and the images appeared even worse than the first time. Was it because i released the exposure button later than required that result in poor quality image. My senior said could be the tube not my problem. He would check on the tube. If nothing is wrong, then it will be my problem. (hmm have to figure that out soon). The third case i used another machine which was indeed easy to maneovre and produced nicer images. Also did my first trauma OT today. My senior is so precised in the positioning of the II, only required slight adjustment then could get the region of interest in already. Dunno when then i could do that manz... ..... Before i went in OT, i thought i would have problems with the ii machines, they are not very easy to handle. The old machine is not that difficult after getting accustomed to it. The newer machine is slightly easy to push around but i still need to practise the manoevre of the different parts of the C arm in order to be efficient in OT radiography.

Oh that reminds me... i need to start my driving lessons if not i will need to sit for the advance theory again.