What a Wonderful Day...

Yes, what a day indeed. Why?

Because I passed General Surgery with flying colours! YAY!! Alhamdulillah....

I guess this time luck was on my side. And plus all those sleepless nights really did pay off.

Started the day with pre-exam jitters with tachycardia and hyperventilation, as usual. If the exam would be anything like last year's (we had the same prof for general surgery then too), then I really should prepare myself for thorough Q&A session during viva oral, and that explains why I had a mild panic attack prior to it. Haih...

First phase: Practical with the patients. Each of us were given a patient and we were asked to interview and examine the patient carefully and thoroughly. My patient, a sweet 80 year-old lady, came in with only a complaint of irregular bowel movements and stool composition, and after a full check-up she was diagnosed with cancer of the right colon (ascending colon) and scheduled for surgery the next day. So when the examiner came to me, I was asked about the patient, her diagnosis, the investigations (blood tests for liver, kidneys, glucose, CBC; barium enema; colonoscopy and biopsy to check for malignancy of the tumor) and surgical treatment suitable for my patient (right hemicolectomy with ileocolic anastomosis, or, if the tumor is unresectable an ileo-transversostomy or bypass should be performed). Phew! Lucky thing I managed to do some last minute revision early that morning about colorectal cancers, else I might just go duh there...

Second phase: Written exam. Quite a tough one actually. 10 questions in all and none too apparent too. Had to do some major brain-digging to vomit out the correct info. It was a miracle I didn't have hematemesis at the time. Urghhhhh...

Third phase: Viva oral. Prof was in quite a good mood today eventhough there were more students today than yesterday (a couple of students that were supposed to go yesterday actually bailed and ended up joining us today, sabar je lah). As my answers were satisfactory (albeit a few mistakes that I made due to confusion, which thank God I had managed to figure it out during the viva and told her before she started to question me about it), she didn't grill me like I would have thought she would. And seeing that my marks for Thoracic Surgery and Cardiac Surgery was good (un-sangkarable betul lah!!) she added everything up and gave me an A!!

Melle got an A for surgery!!! Melle so happy and relieved... ^_^

Alhamdulillah, one down and four more to go. Got time will update.

Next up: Orthopedics.


n.b. Again I was lucky, to get such a nice and cooperative patient. At first she was a bit standoff-ish (which I suspect is due to the fact that I'm a foreigner trying to put my hands on her, hmmm....) but at the end of my practical phase she was talking away non-stop and as I was leaving she had even hugged me and kissed my cheeks, wished me good luck and all the best for my exams, and also reminded me to be a good and worthy doctor. Almost had a break down then and there, luckily managed to run out of the room before the tears spilled onto my cheeks. Sigh.... Tetiba rindu kat tokne lah! Waaaaaa...