Guard of Honour

Soldiers rehearsing for their guard of honour duty to welcome visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao at Parliament tomorrow. (picture from themalaysianinsider.com)


And back home, these are the guard of honour President Hu usually inspects...

Come on lah!

(photo from flickr.com)

"I had headache. I took 2 Panadol tablets. After waiting for a while the headache was still there. So I took another 2. Then another 2, then another 2, then another 2...... so in total I took 30 tablets lor..."

"I woke up in the midnight, finding myself having cough. So I opened the fridge to get some cough syrup. But I mistook a bottle of Chlorox (bleach) as my cough syrup and took a cupful of it."

"I had severe gastric pain. My husband was not at home to bring me to see a doctor so I went to the kitchen cabinet to get some gastric medicine. It was very dark as I did not on the lights. I poured some medicine and drank it. Then only I realised it was not gastric medicine but Malathion(insecticide)."

And these similar 'stories' are being uttered again and again by different patients who are admitted to the hospital for overdose or poisoning. The most irritating part is these people always come at unearthly hours of the day.

Come on lah... Who on earth who has a sound mind will take Panadol non-stop like this for unresolved headache? And to put your bottle of Chlorox in your fridge? (the size of a Chlorox bottle is so much bigger than a cough syrup one anyway.) And since when does Malathion smell or taste like gastric medicine? (try go smell Malathion and u'll know it is so not easy to swallow it!!)

Young girls in their teenage. Mothers in their thirties with young kids. Young men still studying in college. These are the people who come to us with overdose, sometimes with real suicidal intention but most of the time just attention seeking - to show some 'colour' to their boyfriend/husband/parents... And most of them are unaware of the lethal effects of what they're taking, and sometimes it's too late to regret. They cause so much suffering to themselves and to the people who love and care for them.

Life is precious... love yourself and live life to its maximum!

Harrassed!

(photo from flickr.com)

I was harrassed today - sexually - by a patient!!!

Sounds juicy eh?

It was towards the end of another long clinic session when the last patient came into my room. The patient sat on the chair by my table and I took the blood pressure, with the patient's arm resting on the table. While concentrating on the column of mercury of the sphygnomanometer, I could feel the inner aspect of my thigh came into contact with the patient's fingers. Under normal circumstances, when this happens the patient would naturally withdraw the arm right? Well this patient did not - so I reacted by moving my thigh away.

Then this patient went on and on asking quite a number of questions. And after I have finished with the consultation, I requested the patient to wait outside the room for my nurse to give the prescription slip and appointment card. The patient seemed to ignore my request and went on talking. Upon my repeated request, the patient finally decided to leave the room but extended the right hand before leaving. Out of courtesy, I shook the hand. And guess what? It was a handshake followed by a tickle in my palm! Damn it!

Worst of all, 'the patient' was a middle aged MAN!! Argghhh! (Do I look like a gay??)

Clerking a dead body

(photo from flickr.com)

Sorry for the loooong silence. Have not been in the mood to blog the past few weeks...

Anyway... share an amazing story today.



In medical school, we were taught a standard set of things to do when we see a patient, in the following sequence:

1. History taking - ask the patient what is his/her complaints and gather other relevant information.
2. Physical examination - 'check' the patient physically eg. listen to the heart, lungs etc.
3. Investigations - ask for blood tests, X-rays, ECG etc.
4. Treatment

But in emergency situations, this sequence shouldn't be followed rigidly but actions should be taken to save lives first - eg. treatment first only after a short history and physical examination rather than a complete one.

One fine day, a patient who was quite ill came into the ward. A houseman attended to the patient. Since the patient was too ill to give a history, he had to take history from the patient's wife. The curtains around the patient's bed were drawn as the nurses were helping him change into hospital attire, and they left the patient after they were done with the changing.

Now this houseman diligently took a complete history from the patient's wife by the bedside, outside the curtains. After about an hour of hard work, he finally finished history taking and had a few differential diagnoses in mind. So, he put the file aside and stepped into the curtains to proceed with the second step - physical examination.

To his horror... the patient was lying still on the bed, cold, pulseless, no breathing and stiff - he was actually DEAD!!

Traumatised, the poor houseman had to write in the file after his documentation of a full beautiful history:"On examination, patient is dead."

Sigh...

修行法语书法比赛 Chinese Calligraphy Competition

文良港观音亭主办, 冼都中文华小三机构协办
修行法语书法比赛

日期: 25-10-2009星期日 (农历九月初八)

时间: 8.30 am – 1.00 pm

地点: 吉隆坡冼都王岳海大礼堂

宗旨:
本亭为庆祝观世音菩萨圣诞暨纪念本亭开山祖师明智上人以及本着提倡优良传统文化及发 扬书法艺术的精神，特举办此修行法语书法比赛。

资格:
凡对书法有兴趣者，不分种族、国籍，皆可免费参加。

组别:
A. 初小组 – 小学一至三年级
B. 高小组 – 小学四至六年级
C. 初中组 – 预备班至中三
D. 高中组 – 中四至中六
E. 公开组 – 不限年龄
*（每位参赛者只限参加一组）

规则:
a. 比赛的题目内容和纸张由本亭规定和供应（笔墨自备，赛后笔墨请各自带回清洗）。
b. 书体不拘。
c. 格式：除初小、高小和初中组须根据所供应的赛纸的格式外，高中组及公开组可自由发挥。
d. 所有作品必须落款，唯公开组还须加盖印章；否则作废。
e. 得奖者可获得奖金一份及奖状一张。

评审:
本委员会竞赛主任将邀请数位在书法界资深的人士担任评审工作。评审的结果为此次比赛的最终成绩和决定，任何人不得有异议。所有参赛的作品全属本亭所有。

截止日期:
参赛表格必须最迟于10月18日之前，交到或电邮至冼都王岳海大礼堂的办事处报名。
地址 : Lot 475, Jalan Sentul, 51000 Kuala Lumpur.
Email : sjkc@hghconvention.com

传真 : 03-4041 7497
询问 : 江采娟女士012-376 3447

奖励:
初小组 – 优秀奖 RM50.00 x 10 份；特优奖 RM150.00 x 3 份
高小组 – 优秀奖 RM70.00 x 10 份；特优奖 RM200.00 x 3 份
初中组 – 优秀奖 RM100.00 x 5 份；特优奖 RM300.00 x 3 份
高中组 – 优秀奖 RM150.00 x 5 份；特优奖 RM400.00 x 3 份
公开组 – 优秀奖 RM200.00 x 5 份；特优奖 RM500.00 x 3 份

* 体温监测 :
由于A型流感猖獗的现况，参赛者必须接受体温监测，以策安全。体温过高者，恕不接受参加。



书法比赛筹委会成员

名誉主席 : 释宗莲法师, 王鸿财董事长
比赛顾问 : 夏振基老师, 刘宗胜校长
主席 : 侯玉华先生
副主席 : 林胜存先生
竞赛主任 : 夏振基老师(正), 尤东暐医生(副)
秘书 : 丘善中
委员 : 江采娟女士, 杨天生先生, 罗兆彦老师, 许维朋先生，
许伟麟先生，叶国兴先生，伍振峰医生。

亲子书法班

昨天随子固先生（夏振基老师）到亲子书法班去帮帮忙，见那么多对书法有兴趣的家长和孩子一同来学习书法，心里很是感动。那些家长之中，甚至有几位是不谙华文者哩！


窗外细雨纷飞，教室内大家气淡神闲地作书。


英姿各不同。




学书不仅是练字，还练心。


心到，笔到，意到。


夏老师在指导学员。


母与女...


母与子...


爸爸、妈妈、女儿...


妈妈和孩子能心平气和，专心地写字，度过一小时的高素质时间(quality time)，多么难得啊！


雨过琴书润，风来翰墨香。

Visitors from Nepal

I first met Bhante Saddhatissa and Bhante Kolita, two learned and diligent Nepalese monks when I went on my pilgrimage tour in Nepal back in 2003. They showed me around the important religious sites in Nepal then.

Last month they were here in Malaysia for 2 weeks. Their main task here was to raise funds for the Buddha Bhumi Buddhist Center back in Kathmandu, Nepal - the first monk training center in Nepal with a holy mission to revive Buddhism in the homeland of Lord Buddha. I've helped them raise some funds among my dhamma friends and also arranged for them to stay in Asrama Dhammapala in Nilai with Bhante Sakkaro's kind permission.


Bhante Saddhatissa.


Bhante Kolita. Bhante is from the Shakya family - the same clan as Lord Buddha! So looking at his features, you may have a glimpse of how did the Buddha look like!




With Bhante Sakkaro.


After a lunch dana.

p/s: If you are interested to know more about their work in Nepal, kindly visit their website here. They are still very much in need of funds. It would be great if you could help with some donations too. Sadhu!

Collapsing

Consultant: Tell me, what's a collapsing pulse?

Houseman: Err..... Oh! It's the pulse of a patient who's on the verge of collapsing.

Consultant: ...... (to laugh or to cry??)