It sounds hectic.
Yes it is.
You know what they say that..medicine is only for those who cannot imagine doing anything else?
Yes, I cannot imagine what am I going to do if I were not a doctor.
I cannot sketch, I am useless when it comes to being creative, I am clueless about designing, numbers, organizing, talking and many more!
So just be a doctor, okay? haha.
Being a doctor has been so amazing.
I don't think that I will ever have a job quite so fun ever again. (I like to find fun in everything that I do, so...it might not be so much fun for everybody hehehe)
I will not tell you that it's easy, it is a very long process!foundation, 6 years of medical school, 2 years of housemanship, years of residency..and even longer years of specialization, and finally you get to be what you have trained all your life for.
It will be worth it.
At least that was what people has been telling me all these years, haha
I was 26!
Muda remaja sangat , doctors mmg start keje pon dah tua hahahahahha~~
Honeymoon masa houseman, cuti sehari pon Encik Lebah drove us to Kuching, pegi pantai!
After I graduated in 2009, and after I took six months of rest!
(yes you should go backpacking, travelling around the world, well at least New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, for me hehe, you should enjoy the sun, go to the beach, go to cafes, eat whatever, before you are doomed to start housemanship in Malaysia!)
I was placed at Sibu Hospital, Sarawak.
Yes, Sarawak.
My husband (during that time, he was still a boyfriend, hehe) was also placed there.
There were few others with him, but they all bailed out at the very last minute
(well, I guess they were uncertain of the joy, fun, and adventures that Sarawak will give to them!)
So he went there alone.
and..I have been to so many difficult places, so Sarawak, Borneo is just another challenge, and I took it with a brave heart!
and I am very proud of myself~~
I went there about 2 months after him.
I would have gone to Sarawak any way regardless of him being there or not.
Why hesitated? If it's good it's wonderful, if its bad, it's experience, no regret!
Many were afraid of doing housemanship in Malaysia, let alone in Sarawak.
My advise, go to Sarawak! Go somewhere far from your comfort zone, you are young and free!~
Naik boat, naik helicopter, pegi rural areas, dont just stay in Klang Valley, bed of roses, go see the real life of our people, the struggle to live, to survive and then you will learn.
Many have succumbed to the extremely demanding ,heart-wrenching, and tough training during housemanship.
But it had made you who you are today.
Anna and Najib doing the nights call together, and bersengkang mata berhari2 di emergency depatment aahhahaha, how romantic!
during that time, I know no bedak, no lipstick, no eyeliner whatsoever, since I got that panda eyes for free hahaha~~
Houseman.
The lowest in the hierarchy of a hospital. (at least, that was what it felt like!)
I was about two months behind my husband in each postings, and coming back from New Zealand, made me feel so clueless about working in our Malaysian wards.
Obviously, there's no more phlebotomists. no more fancy equipments, no more friendly people, haha!
They were all looking so exhausted and angry.
I did not blame them, as the workloads were huge.
I earned the nicknames of "Otago", "Otago girl", "New Zealand HO (house officer)" since my first day, and my first posting was Paediatrics. (just kill me!)
It took me about one year to lose the accents, and master the skill of malaysian english haha.
There were only about ten of us, the malay fellas doing housemanship, in the whole hospital, and everybody else around us were speaking Chinese!
I used to laugh (well, actually annoyedd!) whenever I got the turn to jot down the management plan, and my fellow collegues were speaking Chinese, they soon realized that it was not appropriate, and spoke English, finally. sigh~~
But I got to pick up some chinese words, and at the end of my housemanship training, I can make quite good guess on what they are saying despite of not knowing foochow.
I would say, Medicine and Paediatrics were the hardest.
The toughest of all.
Many have fallen.
I remember, my first day of houseman.
I was afraid to take lunch break, dinner break, and I came back to hostel at 12am. ..and I had to tag for more than two weeks.
(new houseman required to do tagging with senior houseman from 7 am till 11 to 12 midnight for about 2weeks back then!)
It was tiring, and depressing not seeing the sun for weeks..! But I did not crumble. (with the help of friends and Encik Lebah, of course!)
I managed to absorb the pressure well, I became skin and bones due to hectic schedule being a houseman. But i learned heaps.
We all, the housemen, usually sneaked in to the pantry looking like hungry zombies and ate the hospital food (the leftovers of course, huhu can i cry now? haha)
Looking back at it, being a houseman, was absolutely torture (due to long working hours back then, and shortage of staff) but was a fantastic experience!
And the pay was quite good for newbies, (you get extra allowance if you work in Sarawak ehehhee)
So countless fancy restaurants for dinner that time hahahah (I wish I save some duhhhhhh!)
I was intrigued by the seriousness of the job, and the amount of expectations from everybody, just killing us all haha.
During that time, I kept telling myself that this will be over in two years and you will look back and laugh about it! And I did~~ :)
Memories in Hospital Sibu, Sarawak~~
Double chest tubes, flail chests, patah riuk, CPRs, kes sembelih2 org, omg!! I love the adrenaline rush!!
I remember that most of our time were in the hospital.
I can barely remember, the time that I was free during housemanship.
We worked seven days a week!
And we survived!
Even got married during the second year of housemanship! haha.
My husband and I, enjoyed our housemanship training, despite of all the hardship,We made good friends, Faridah, Nurul, Hanif, Hisham, Abu, Ahmad, Shiv, Robert Lau (ini karakter pembuli houseman terbaik!), Brian, Priscilla, Naomi, Mei Ting, the twins, many more, the MOs, the specialists, the nurses, the MAs, I could not name everyone here, but they are good friends and acquaintances!
We helped each other and usually went out for dinner together during postcalls (after 36 hours of staying awake, we still manage to go for food, karaoke, movie nights and badminton!! So much energy back then! haha tgh muda remaja la kan~
Sweet sweet moments having your husband as your fellow colleague;~~
We can talk just about everything!
..He knows exactly what I am talking about, and we can express our excitement or likes and dislikes towards anything haha it usually about hospitals, diseases and treatments and attitudes and whatever related to medical profession haha!
Loser sungguh doctors kann hehe.,
We enjoyed helping each other during oncalls~~
..Spend the nights in tiny oncall rooms, and had to get up at 3 or 4 am to help him take bloods of the whole dengue ward, haha, and I enjoyed this so much.
He would stay in the oncall room whenever I was oncall, and helped me buy food, making sure that I eat..hehehe..mmm..Mmg sehati sejiwa betul time tu rasanya chewah! macam grey's anatomy gitu.:P
We can talk in that strange language of medicine and people wont have a clue ooopssss!
It is just so exciting to go to work with someone you love hhahaha sorry if it sounds so cornyyyyyyy heheehhee :P
Work hard also means play hard, so day off or holidays will be so meaningful and precious, so yes, went to europe during housemanship for honeymoon, and seluruh sabah sarawak and peninsular Malaysia, till now dah tatau nak kemana!!
...the not so sweet moments ???
Being scolded for silly mistakes in front of your husband and he could not do anything other than smiling haha
You were in the same department and in the same hospital, but have not seen each other for days!
When you had the day off, and your husband still working = not going anywhere, might as well just go to work and spend time together in the emergency department!!
When you are just so tired working, day off equals to sleeping the whole day and not talking to anyone including your husband!! hahahahaha
When you both are so busy, and have not seen your family or relatives for quite some time, and missing out on all the weddings, kenduri kendara and people were like, where have you both beeeeenn???!!!!
And now,
after Sarawak, after Kuala Lipis, another district after another,
after all the dramas,
hardwork in the hospitals,
we got pregnant with Ammar, that has changed everything.
We realized it's not always about us anymore, hehehe :P
We decided to venture into non-clinical medicine, and landed in Putrajaya.
And it is a great place for us.
We learn the other side of medicine, and still doctors! (coz people usually generalized doctors equal to blood and hospital only hehehe)
Contributing to the world of evidence based medicine, policy making, health economy and such.
We have definitely found our passion.
After all these years..
But above all that,
Seeing the sun and the sunset, everyday.
Having the luxury of time with kids,
is so so priceless.
Alhamdulillah~~thank you Allah for this opportunity
p.s no matter what kind of doctors you gonna be, be a great one, a humble one, a caring one, a loving one, and enjoy your work doctors!
