good time

The driving lessons

On Wednesday, I began learning back how to drive. After so many years of not driving a manual car, getting back behind the wheels of a manual vehicle can be quite awkward. Surprisingly, my first stall occurred closer towards the end of my first lesson. I expected it to occur sooner. My instructor is really nice, he doesn't make me nervous and was very patient to have a reckless driver like me as a student. It's just so funny to drive a manual car again. I always laughed on my own in the hallway when I got back home thinking of the silly things that I did while driving and how my instructor managed to maintain his sanity despite my incompetence. 

I could actually feel the adrenaline rush of driving again. It felt so good and I need to get my license pronto so I can get back on the road.

When I was driving, I kept telling myself "Don't kill anyone, don't kill anyone". Lol. And my instructor said that he likes my confidence and the driver nature in me. He's funny, I know. And when he asked me how to spell Wafi, I said "W..A..F..I" and he replied, "I like it" (this is like his favourite sentence).

Yeah, I like having you as an instructor as well and hopefully, everything will be fine.

Taking bloods

The butterfly

As a medical student, you are expected to be able to take bloods from patients competently. Ever since I became a 4th Year medical student in July 2012, I haven't had the opportunity to take bloods. The last time I took some bloods was in CP1 (Clinical Phase 1, 3rd Year Medic). So on Thursday, I was on Gynae on-call when the F2 (Formula 2 doctor) asked me to take bloods from a patient that I just took a history from.

My reaction towards the request by the F2:

Source: link

Cause it has been a while. So I was pretty excited to take bloods using the butterfly. I was pretty nervous at first and yeah, adrenaline was kicking in. For me, it's still a big deal to take bloods as a student. After getting the equipment ready, I was ready to stab the patient. I said "sharp scratch" and inserted the needle. I saw the flashback (flashback means I'm successful and is shown by the return of blood into the plastic tubing when the needle accesses the vein) and got excited cause the needle's in the vein. I took a tube and attached it to the butterfly to retrieve the blood..but none came out and I was like "Nooooo.." (monologue). I really want to begin my 4th Year with perfect beginnings. I twitched the needle slightly and out came the blood ever so quickly. The patient exclaimed, "Ooooh, it came out so fast" and I replied, "Yeah *eyes gleaming* ". Success!

I went back to the F2, showed her a tube of  bloods and hoped for some positive reinforcements. 

Her response, "Please write her details down". 

Yeah, it's not a big deal to these doctors. They take bloods like everyday. But I still enjoy taking bloods. It's just so much fun. And if I decided to go into Psychiatry, I don't think they take bloods that much so I might as well enjoy doing it now before I'm no longer able to do it.

* * *

Some things are enjoyed by some people while at the same time, they may be considered dull by others. So Abdul Haq Mohaidin, kau bosan! 

There are so many things in life that are perceived by others differently. The way to embrace these differences is to respect others' opinions. But if you're studying Economics, it's going to be hard for you to have a sense of empathy as demonstrated by my housemate.

As for me, I love driving and taking bloods. I do love a lot of other things but that's a different story...