never let me go

Sorry about this late post. Been busy with adjusting myself in the past few days.. and also with the open house that we had yesterday. I have partially recovered from the fatigue, heh. And during the open house yesterday, some medic seniors actually teased me about our posts on FB. Well, you started it first :P

My hug-giver :)

The title of this post is for me to tease Akmal Aliff's separation anxiety which he developed in our 2nd year :P When we had Izzuddin Iliyes as our naqib, he mentioned that his daughter Amirah Mujahidah illustrated some signs of separation anxiety and I told Akmal Aliff that it's basically what he had when I left him alone. Hahaha.

One of the things that he likes to do is to interrupt me at inappropriate times ;P

On the day of your departure, I thought it was pretty obvious I was going to appear some time during the course of the day (before you went through security that is). Because I didn't see you at all (intentionally..cause I was going to meet you at the airport anyway) after we had dinner the night before. I figured that would probably be the biggest hint. Come on la Akmal, takkan aku nak biarkan kau balik tanpa jumpa aku.

When I saw you at the airport, I wanted to cover your eyes from the back like I'd usually do with some of my friends. But since you were walking rather quickly, I simply had to startle you. Kah3, sorry about that.

Anyway, I could write so many things about you but I think I'll just write some things which I would like to make myself clear, hehe.

Because you were born 27 days later than me, I always think that I need to look after you throughout the times we were in Nottingham. Kononnya la kan. Padahal diri aku sendiri pon tak terjaga. Haha. 

Muka tipikal "malas nak layan" aku kat Akmal Aliff

Masa 2nd year, kau selalu bagitau cerita-cerita sedih kat aku. Pastu, aku sedar yang kau ni banyak jugak benda-benda yang membuatkan kau down. It was at that point that I promised myself not to tell you about my own sad stories. Ada je la a few stuff yang aku cerita kat kau yang sedih, contohnya result BMedSci project yang teruk masa 3rd year but most of the time, aku cuba untuk tak cerita kat kau. Because you already had enough in your own life.. which was why I didn't tell you at all about my biggest challenge in life to date - the triple failures of 4th year that put me on the verge of suspension.

Because of that promise I made, I ended up telling you the happy things in my life. Hehe. Like when I won the poster competition in 3rd year at King's Mill Hospital, I called you immediately and it was quite silly because it was nothing grand :P Or when I got full marks for my CFU - Community Follow Up presentation, I showed you my marksheet or when I successfully performed the Moro reflex on a baby during Paeds, I happily explained to you about it and even showed you the video on YouTube. Baru sedar aku banyak cerita kat kau pasal benda medic, sian kau haha. Well, kau pon cite kat aku pasal bende engineering jugak hehe. Takpela, nanti aku bagitau kau bila aku nak kahwin nanti ^_^

When I failed in my 4th year, I actually wanted to take a reduced workload in our usrah session for the juniors. I didn't mention anything about my failures but you sort of knew what was going through in my mind and you didn't give me that many tasks really during the period of Jan-May 2013 which I really appreciated. Kau pulak dah la final year :') So thank you sebab tak bagi aku banyak kerja. And I just have to say that you were a really awesome naqib. I told Hosni that you should've become the lead naqib earlier. Maybe that's the reason why Nottingham is like this; because I wasn't good enough, wallahualam. I actually envisioned you becoming a really great murabbi in the future, inshaAllah.

Panjangya post ni. Ok, just one last thing. It's about why I requested to become the imam during Isyak at the airport :D

Sebab aku nak bacakan 2 ayat ni untuk kau. Sort of pesanan terakhir aku sebelum kau balik Malaysia:

Al-Baqarah, 2:216

Aku nak kau ingat yang walau apa pun berlaku dalam hidup, bersangka baiklah dengan Allah. Sebab ayat ni membawa mesej yang sangat positif. Dan aku nak kau sentiasa cekal & tabah dengan segala cabaran yang bakal kau hadapi kat Malaysia. It's soooo challenging, so stay strong.

At-Taubah, 9:41

Ayat ni agak popular. Infiru..Berangkatlah.. Berangkatlah Akmal Aliff, baik dengan rasa ringan maupun dengan rasa berat. Jangan berhenti okay. Keep on going & sentiasa jaga hubungan dengan Allah. Kalau rasa down, pergi ziarah ikhwah kat KL tu. Ramai kann.

Okay, tu je kot. Sat lagi nak pergi Manchester dah. Sorry sebab aku tak cakap banyak waktu kat airport. Thinking back, I never really said anything to any of my friends whom I said goodbye to and even if I did, it won't be that much.

Thanks sebab bawa usrah dengan aku for 2 years, thanks sebab jadi usrahmate aku sejak 1st year and thanks sebab selalu peluk aku :')

You always say that I don't hug you back when you give me one. The truth is, you got my hands pinned down most of the time. Huhu.

"I take his hand, holding on tightly..and dreading the moment when I will finally have to let go."

Take care Akmal Aliff. I will see you again inshaAllah...

long night

This is a post dedicated to Ahmad Syafiq Hamzi. This story happened exactly 2 weeks ago when we went to I'tikaf Perdana IKRAM UKE 1434H. Being medical students, people tend to approach us and ask us all these questions about their health..which is fine but it should be noted that we are not qualified yet to be trusted upon.

So he came to me and asked about the sudden onset pain which occurred at the 1st MTP (metatarsaphalangeal joint) which is the joint which your big toe bends at the foot. It was swollen and quite warm. He couldn't recall any trauma or anything that might be causing the pain. My top diagnosis - GOUT.

Because everything that he mentioned to me was very classical of this condition:

1st MTP (common site), sudden onset pain, swollen & hot.

It wasn't that severe when he first presented in the afternoon but after Subuh the following day (on Sunday), it was pretty severe. Everyone already went to sleep because most of us were awake the other night. And Capek was practically limping. He can only mobilised with the help of another person as a support.

(I feel like I'm writing a case report)

He said that the pain was so severe and from what I've learnt about gout in final year is that, the pain can be really dreadful. So, I knew it was time for him to go to A&E (Accidents and Emergencies). 

I was the one who went with him since Hosni had to stay to oversee the programme. And when we arrived, I was surprised that we get to see the nurse pretty quick. I'm sorry Capek but although you were in pain, I was pretty excited to see a real life clinical scenario happening in front of me. All the questions that the nurse asked were relevant and it's technically how I myself would approach the problem. I also told Capek to keep my identity as a medical student a secret since I didn't look forward to being questioned by Leeds consultants. 

After that, he had an X-Ray in which I was..
"What?! That wouldn't show much. You should aspirate it!" 
Lol. All of these were my inner monologues. I guess they just want to do the X-ray to exclude other possible reasons for the pain. 

Then, the long wait comes. It was soooo long, I actually thought Capek was hallucinating :P He had a stronger painkiller (codeine) when we initially arrived which could explain his hallucinations. Me on the other hand, learned to sleep by using my arms to support my head..which actually worked.

After about I don't know for how long, the doctor came and talked to us. It was gout! Yeay, I was right. Haha. And Capek was given diclofenac (strong painkillers) and was told to go to see his GP as soon a possible in which he didn't because he's leaving the UK in the next 2 weeks which is today!

It had always been a dream of Capek to be featured on my blog. So here you go! Lol. He actually said that he had a dream of me writing about him on beingme xp

I knew that you were happy that I came with you to A&E. Well, since you're leaving soon, and even if I had to go to the A&E to spend some time with you before you're back for good in Malaysia, then let it be. You'd do the same right? But you'd be bored to death to hear the medical jargons. Hahaha.

Have a safe flight today! Take care, make lots of doa whist on the flight. Thanks for everything and today, I made your dream come true ;P sort of...

summer sunshine

Hello everyone!

It's Ramadhan as you know it. And of course, I tend to make myself busy in this blessed month hence the reason why being me hasn't been updated for sooo long.

This post is actually about my trip to London last month. I haven't met Aiman Ismail for so long and it was time for me to meet up with some of my friends whom I haven't met during my falling period of Jan-May 2013. Yeap, it's a pretty long period for a self-administered social lockdown. As you've probably read, I was punishing myself for my failures in Nov 2012. 

That's that. Let's talk about the trip :D

Jaulah pre-Ramadhan 1434H

Adlan Wafi - Muhsin - Faiz Sahri - Izzat Fahimuddin - Munir Naqiuddin - Aiman Ismail - Syukri Choki2

(susunan mengikut kedudukan dalam Estima :P)

6-7th July 2013

I arrived in London on Friday, 5th of July. It also marked the first time I arrived in Finsbury Park. I don't know why..but despite the fact that I have so many friends in London (and a lot of them have gone back to Malaysia), I've never actually been there..which is sad in a way because I could have spent time with them during the previous years & we could've done so many things together. Oh well, it is all part of Allah's master plans.

The original plan was for me to hang out in their house for a day and go back to Notts on Saturday. But noooo, instead of that, I became the driver for our Jaulah which also marked the first time I drive in the UK with my full driving licence. 

Us :)

On Sat, 6th of July 2013, here are the things that we did..

Yeap, driving for the first time with a full licence

I went strawberry-picking for the first time. It's something which I've always wanted to do but never got the chance to, until last month

The picnic before the strawberry-picking

Along the way

Them :)

Then, we went punting in Oxford

Violence against a child

Whilst waiting in the queue

Sunshine

I just have to say that I like this photo

Post-punting

And I have to say that Abang Faiz really do have some crazy fun ideas

And on Sun, 7th of July, we went to Ashford because they wanted to go shopping. I wanted to go there just so I can spend time with them, huhu. Later in the afternoon, we went to the demonstration in solidarity with Morsi and Egypt..

We had lunch at Tuk Tuk with ikhwah from Soton

And it was time to return the Estima back to the owner, Pak Cik Azman who happily lent it to us

It should be mentioned though that before we sat at the table, everyone except me was worried that I might miss the train back to Nottingham at 9.30pm. I wasn't worried at all since I can simply catch the next train, heh. They on the other hand were checking their phones for the next possible train and thinking of the best way to get me to London St Pancras Station in the quickest way. So yeah, none of those faces in the photo above were smiling if it was taken a few minutes earlier.

When we arrived at the nearest tube station from Pak Cik Azman's house, I told Syuk that, "Kelakar la, semua orang risau kecuali aku". 

And he replied, "Adlan, inilah yang dinamakan ukhuwah" with a matter-of-fact tone.

I commented, "I know.. and I like it :D".

Long story short, we made it to St Pancras for me to catch the train at 10.30pm and since the ticket that I have wasn't valid for this train, I had to buy a new one. And ikhwah being ikhwah, they just have to buy the ticket for me. So sweet, haha.

And Akmal Hayat was too kind for being the person who picked me up from the station when I arrived on Friday and to send me off on Sunday (alongside Aiman that is).

By the way, our jaulah was showcased in a local newspaper in Malaysia :P

Let me share with you something that I heard from Imam Adam Jamal of Iqra Centre during I'tikaf Perdana IKRAM UKE 1434H last weekend:

"A believer always wants to be with good company"

Well, guess what? You guys are good company. Hopefully, wherever you guys are, you would provide the ambiance and illustrate qudwah hasanah naturally to those around you. So the people around you would experience the good company which I felt when I spent time with you guys.

I've always been jealous with Londoners and their epic jaulah. Cause I don't get to experience that at all. But going on a jaulah with you guys, at least dapat la tempias sikit-sikit, heh. 

And don't you think it's unique how the members of our jaulah are made of? It's made up of people who are BFG (back for good), people who I haven't known that much and people who I've known all along. I'm thankful that I've gotten to know you guys better and thanks for letting me be part of it :)

Alhamdulillah ala kulli haal. Thank you Allah for giving me a great weekend.

And the summer sunshine would bear witness of the times that we spent together during the days leading up to Ramadhan...