Saturday, December 02, 2006

Ob·fus·cate -tr.verb : to make obscure or unclear; to darken

Ophthalmology over, and it was a pretty enjoyable posting. Learnt quite a lot of very important things in this posting, like how to properly do a direct ophthalmoscopy, and adopting the correct posture to catch the optic disc every time; how the red reflex and pupillary examinations are very important parts of the eye examination in addition to the fundoscopic examination; how to spot eyes that have pseudophakic lens; how to manage emergency opthalmologic conditions such as red eye and acute visual loss, and other important but not-so-urgent things like chronic visual loss. Certainly a very valuable posting in terms of increasing our knowledge about eye conditions; I totally disagree with Prof KDR's view (expressed during a "feedback" session with the Dean's Office some time back) that the short postings can be taken out of the M4 programme and skills like ophthalmo can be "learnt during E-Clinics". Rubbish.

SNEC was certainly a great place to do the ophthalmology posting; there are many nice doctors around who are quite happy to teach and spend a bit of extra time letting us do some direct ophthalmoscopy in the clinics. Of course there are those that are nice but don't teach, and others who are neither nice nor teach, but these are few and far between thankfully. My one assigned OT session with a Dr C was possibly one of the most fruitful OT postings since I did GS at TTSH; even though he was late by 2 hours I was glad I stayed around to watch him operate because he kept telling me what he was doing (which was very important because I had absolutely no idea what he was doing) during the operations, and taking time in between to chit-chat with me haha. Such nice surgeons are a rarity.

It's funny but the thing I didn't enjoy about the posting was being asked to do direct opthalmoscopy; it was worst in the first few days because the learning curve was rather steep and I had problems even finding the optic disc. Not to mention the tearing and headache I got from straining my eye to see through the narrow field of vision, and the hemifacial spasm from keeping the other eye scrunched up. Not too much fun at all. And I hated the question "So, what did you see?" when I couldn't say I saw anything. Haha. The abnormality-spotting rate improved with practice, but the tearing, headache, and hemi-facial spasm did not. But in the end it was still a good experience. Hopefully ENT will have less eye-strain.


Went to SITEX at the Expo yesterday with Raymond after our respective posting tests; I realise I keep going to these computer fairs to go all goggle-eyed over the shiny tech gadgets and jaw-drop at the prices, but end up buying nothing all the time. This must be the 4th or 5th computer fair I've been to since last year without buying anything. I keep thinking that an external hard drive would be a nice thing to have. As would be a printer-scanner, a digital camera, a new mouse, and a DVD-RW drive. But in the end I decide that they are all only luxuries and not necessities (I have to think that because if I wanted to buy them I would have to pay with my own money, haha), and so I just sigh and go home, and think that maybe by the next IT fair I'll have saved up enough to get a portable hard drive to store my multitude of anime series in.

I was being a typical Singaporean, to Raymond's amusement, because I was enticed by the offer of a goodie bag (with notebook, mousepad, pen, and a lot of other stuff) when I sign up for membership with some website that sells computer hardware (Www.hardwarezone.com, I think), but I didn't sign up in the end. Haha. And after that some person we passed who was giving out pamphlets said something about a lucky draw which got me all excited. I'm terrible.


I brought my mom to Toast to have lunch today (my treat), and had the Chicken Caesar sandwich this time, while she had the Masala Chicken Wrap. The sandwich was awfully filling because the bread was huge and the slabs of chicken inside the sandwich add to the space-filling-ness of the meal. But it was good stuff, I loved it. Mom complained that she couldn't finish the wrap because it was so filling, but she thought it was good also. I really like the affordable huge portions.


And lastly, a survey thingey from Raymond's blog. It's been ages since I last did something like this. Not particularly accurate, but I was totally amused by the last line - the image of me selling snake oil is particularly hilarious.

You are The Magician

Skill, wisdom, adaptation. Craft, cunning, depending on dignity.

Eleoquent and charismatic both verbally and in writing, you are clever, witty, inventive and persuasive.

The Magician is the male power of creation, creation by willpower and desire. In that ancient sense, it is the ability to make things so just by speaking them aloud. Reflecting this is the fact that the Magician is represented by Mercury. He represents the gift of tongues, a smooth talker, a salesman. Also clever with the slight of hand and a medicine man - either a real doctor or someone trying to sell you snake oil.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Avaris / 12/02/2006 10:14:00 PM

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