Joke #1: The man with the flip-flops

Background (must know to understand the joke): Today is the 9th day of the 9 Emperor Gods festival. A taoist annual celebration to invoke and welcome the arrival of the 9 excellencies for a “visit”, before sending them back with colourful and grand procession. Devotees are dressed in white traditional costume, and are required to remove all footwear during the welcoming ceremony or any other ceremonies.

There is a middle-aged man, who wears flip-flops everytime he goes out anywhere after working hours. Now considering the climate in M’sia, this is not something out of the ordinary. But what may be extraordinary, is the pictures printed on the flip-flops.

This man has always been more concern with comfort and convenience, rather than its looks, as evident by the condition of the flip-flops.

So, 2 days ago at the 9 Emperor Gods temple, this man was seen wearing a different flip-flops. And out of fun/curiosity/tease, a lady relative asked this man what had happened to the Winnie, the Pooh flip-flops and how come he’s not wearing them.

The man replied, “Because I have to remove my footwear during prayer and put them aside unguarded. What if someone steal them?”

Everybody burst out laughing.

Starring:

The middle-aged man: Me dad.

The lady relative: Couz Wen.

Everybody who was there to witness: Couz WW, Aunty L, myself.

The provoking agent:

To be or not to be... (Part 2 of 2)

Four days later, as we proceed on to the 2nd part of my practical exams, which is known as short cases- 3 different departments other than that of the long case (Part 1 of 2), 10 minutes for each station comprising of examinations, probable diagnosis and discussion about the case.

The worse things about short cases for me (and probably for many others, as well) were the fact that it was so short a duration, one station after another, not to mention having to switch on and off for each station, which were all completely different system of examination. and to top it all, bringing 3 (in my case, 4) specialist examiners of all different departments.

Luckily this time, I was in the 3rd slot, meaning roughly after 1 hours and 15 minutes (i.e. 2 sessions of 30+/- minutes), i was called in.

With me, were a physician, surgeon, paediatrician and an obstetrician as examiners- 2 internal examiners ( i.e. own college lecturers) and 2 external examiners (i.e. invited doctors from government uni/hosp) for "quality control" because results must be agreed upon by all the examiners. The arrangement may not be the same for everybody as it was randomized but there must be both internal and external examiners.

Short case examination in many ways is all about the showmanship. Just do all the things you were taught to do, even if you know you won't find anything. Staying cool and calm is equally as important.

In that sense, since my Manipal days, I've always been grateful for the years of going through piano practical examination, back in primary and secondary school, when I had to perform in front of English ang moh examiners, whom I've never met before in my entire life and would probably never meet again. I feel that because of such exposure since my young age, I don't really get nervous "performing" in front of examiners. It's the waiting for my turn that bothers me still... And of course, the anxiety of not knowing enough to answer the questions.

Anyway, my first station was examination of the abdomen- a surgical case of an enlarged liver. Next station was lead by a paediatrician to a small boy with both legs deformity and walking tip-toeing. Lastly, was to a pregnant lady whose baby was too small for its age.

The last station was probably the funniest when I relate to everybody. I had always had problems understanding this internal examiner's speech. He tends to mumble, speaks very fast, and has a very strong indian accent, which until today, I do not always comprehend what he says. More often than not, I catch the keywords and guess my way as to what he is asking. But of all the days, that method just had to fail this time. It was so bad that up to a point, I had no choice but to say, "I'm very sorry, Sir. But I don't understand what you are saying." And that was when the other examiners tried to explain to me, in their own words, what the question was!! Lol....

That 30 minutes came and went like a blink of an eye. The next thing I know, I was being quarantined with those who had went through the exam and we were all busy relating our cases and what took place during the examination.

The fact that the last station was when the "miscommunication" took place, I felt really, really bad after that. I knew my examination technique was fine and I was able to pick up findings but the discussion that ensued made me really nervous that I might be called for reassessment.

Unlike after the long case, even though my exams was finally over, I felt worse than ever.

The next night, about 7.30pm, the reassessment list was put up. My name was not there. What a relieve!

BUT, not having my name up there, could also mean that it was a straight fail i.e. below 45%, in which case, I would not be eligible for reassessment at all. After convincing myself that I could not possibly had done so poorly, just because I couldn't answer a few questions, or answered a few questions wrongly (due to poor communication), I started packing up my books.

Either way, there's no turning back. I've decided that I want to be....

To be or not to be... (Part 1 of 2)

As you might have seen previously, the countdown at the bottom of the page had been over for about 2 months now (and I've finally taken it down). My final struggle started in August and had ended today, but the battle continues. Simply because the results will not be out until Friday.

Thinking back, the last 2 months actually passed quite fast. But it wasn't until towards the end, that the torture really took the upper hand. I mean I'm talking about 5 years of education boiled down to this final exam, and laying down the stepping stone for the rest of my professional career. It was so much of psychological turmoil, that at times I find myself.... completely spaced out- very much in my own world, at my own time.

And then the time finally came to show them what I've learned for the last 5 years of my life and how competent I am. I'm skipping the theory papers all together, because they were stupid. I'm jumping straight into the practicals.

First day of practical- 1 Oct 2009.

Going for practical exam run by my college means getting afflicted with hours of waiting for my turn. If being quarantined in a room with other just-as-restless students was bad, not knowing when is my turn, only served to make it worse! I waited from 8am until 1.20pm before I was finally being called. Then I was given an hour to clerk the patient's history and examine him, diagnose his problem(s), decide what investigations I would like to do and plan the course of treatment.

My patient was a very friendly 58 years old uncle, who was very much trying to help me. But in his enthusiasm, he wasn't answering my questions and had elaborated the whole story about it. Now don't get me wrong. I enjoy talking to such patients. In fact, I believe I would enjoy looking after him in the wards. But not during exam, when I only get 1 hour for everything!

To top it all, he had a special combo of diseases- diabetes, hypertension, stroke, and end stage renal failure on dialysis. And because they were all very common diseases, there's a wide ground to cover, not only in the history but in the examination as well. They are basically "high- expectation" diseases all seen in this patient. I'm only speaking in terms of final exam, I'm not even going to go into what the patient has to go through everyday because of his illnesses.

When I realized by the end of the first 5 minutes how tough this case was, I took a deep breathe, calmed myself down, smiled to the uncle and persevered.

Towards the last 10 minutes, when I was writing down and organizing my thoughts, uncle was still chatting away something about when he was in the army. I really couldn't response much anymore, other than occasional, "Oh ya ke?". When he learned where my hometown was, he got all excited because he was trained there for years. And that was also when he mentioned that the previous student who examined him was from Klang. Now that caught my attention and I stopped writing. The only person from Klang, taking exam on the same day, whom I know of was none other than M!

After the presentation and the drilling from examiners, I found out that M had the same panel of examiners as well! What a coincidence!

That was the 1st day of the 2 days of practical exam.

I actually felt a burden being lifted off from my shoulders. The exhilaration of finally getting it over with is actually difficult to describe. There was also a sense of satisfaction, that I had performed considerably well.

I had a peaceful sleep that night.