Peeping Through my Urban Jungle

Define: House Officer

2010-11-18T20:40:00.002+01:00

I'm now way into my second rotation and I managed to let my surgery rotation go by without a blog post. For the past 5 months, my life was just a ping pong between work and going to sleep... A life devoid of blogger and twitter... (And then you get people still pestering me to get myself on Facebook!)

So, what does it feel like working as a house officer? I recently wrote a 500 word article on MMSA's Fresher's booklet trying to summarise what I'm currently going through at the moment. I was going to copy and paste that article onto my blog. But then I realised that I need not bore you with lengthy articles when you have a anonymous genius who writes quotes like these on the Internet...

"We, the unwilling, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, for so long, with so little, we are now qualified to do anything with nothing."

That, dear ladies and gentleman, is the perfect definition of a house officer. Please consider this sentence seriously before you become a doctor.

The end.

Reason to Celebrate

2010-06-21T18:49:00.004+02:00

Results have come out on Friday at noon... When I was still out shopping for a Father's Day present in Tigne; only to be told by my best friend on arriving at chaplaincy, "Mar, results have been out for, like, three quarters of an hour!"

Yes... And I passed my exams! I'm finally a doctor. (A real doctor, you know, not a lawyer :P) I want to say sorry for breaking the news so late on my blog, but these days I've been feeling like I was living on space cake and hash cookies.

I just want to say thanks to all those people who supported me throughout this journey as a medical student. A special thank you goes to all those who helped me in my studies, bore with my neurosis and soaked me in prayer. Honestly, I couldn't have done this without you. It's true that I've worked hard and that I've studied lots. But, at the end of the day...

There is no such thing as a 'self-made' man. We are made up of thousands of others. Everyone who has ever done a kind deed for us, or spoken one word of encouragement to us, has entered into the make-up of our character and of our thoughts, as well as our success.

George Burton Adams

So... to all those who helped in any way... Thank you! :)

In the meantime, watch this space for more of my misadventures. They'll probably start in two weeks' time.

From My Calendar

2010-06-15T08:27:00.002+02:00

Four birthdays ago, a dear friend gave me this Calendar God's Daily Inspirations which I religiously (pun intended) flip through every single day. And this is today's Verse of the Day...

He will love you, bless you, and multiply you; he will bless the fruit of your womb and the
fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of
your cattle and the issue of your flock, in the land that he swore to your
ancestors to give you."

Deuteronomy 7: 13

I don't know whether it's pure coincidence or God's uncanny sense of humour... But it surely is an appropriate Bible quote right before an obstetrics and gynaecology practical exam!

When I'm on Duty

2010-05-27T14:55:00.002+02:00

*For the next ten minutes I’m going to ignore the fact that night duties can be tiring, tough and have the potential of turning you into a cranky individual as though you are in a permanent state of PMS.*

Amidst my surgery boredom (and trying to psychologically prepare myself for the ordeal to come on passing the 5th year) I decided to outline a list of things I’d want to do when on duty… For those rare moments when the hospital gets quiet in the middle of the night…

Decorate my pager with pretty stickers.
Set up a Wall of Shame at Doctor’s Quarters and post embarrassing photos of other people… You know… Just like on Facebook!
Offer a colleague (e.g. Karl) coffee… with Burinex… or Klean Prep… or both.
Fill the sofas at doctor’s quarters with whoopee cushions.
Gather everyone on duty in the Neuromedical Ward and order a Pizza by Luca. Then thank them with a prank phone call with weird complaints about the food. Aim of the phone call? A complimentary 16 inch pizza for the coming duty.
Write songs for Joe Demicoli to sing in the next Malta Song for Europe.
Spell out “This Food Stinks” with my lunch and dinner leftovers in the hospital canteen.
Sing out loud (for all the world to hear) Frank Sinatra’s Night and Day to my pager every time it bleeps. (I have this gut feeling that I should better get cracking to learn those lyrics.)
Race colleagues in the 1st floor hospital corridor… in wheelchairs! xD
Cover a sleeping colleague in shaving foam.
Buy a new bottle of water and superglue the tap on. Ask my colleagues to kindly open the bottle, record all the action on my iPod and share the stupidity with the rest of the world on YouTube.

Any more ideas are welcome... :)

The Difference Between Specialities

2010-05-18T17:25:00.011+02:00

A physician is someone who knows everything and does nothing.

A surgeon is someone who does everything and knows nothing.

A psychiatrist is someone who knows nothing and does nothing.

A pathologist is someone who knows everything and does everything, but only when it is too late.

Kudos to Samuel, who left a very lame comment on my previous blog post. He does come up with a good one from time to time... barely... But it happens. :)

Rant #2

2010-05-16T14:31:00.013+02:00

*WARNING! Possibly lame post ahead.*

So I’m typing this post with only one month left to go... not to start my exams but to finish them. God willing, on the 16th of June I’ll finish my final medicine practical at 14:15hrs.

Many readers at this point will fear that I’m going to start whining on how scarier things are getting with finals fast approaching. Indeed, the pressure is on, but I’m too tired to waste my time figuring out what I’m feeling at this point.

The anxiety started mounting to insurmountable limits since the day we finished psychiatry last November. With everybody reminding us how the practical exams have such a heavy weighting in 5th year, there was, and still is, much pressure on everybody... Pressure to perform... Pressure to have a good knowledge base... To make sure that consultants see your face for when the jitters get the better of you on the day and your performance falters. You know, a familiar face is, at least, proof that you’ve been around in hospital and that the dip in your performance is certainly not due to lack of effort.

Oh yes! The pressure was on way before the month of May. Pressure to get your clinical skills polished... Pressure to get all the physical signs right... Pressure to get the correct diagnosis... To get a pat on the back for your impeccable clinical judgement and for knowing all the impressive small print in the textbooks... The thing is that to work for such an astounding clinical performance in a space with finite resources, you see people competing for the best patients, the best tutors and the best seats during tutorials.

That is what, in reality, makes 5th year such a time of adversity – all this useless competition for nothing. After all, the vast majority of us are going to make it anyway, and our ranking has been out since February. And in the end, no amount of tutorials and fighting will outweigh the benefit of the work you do out of hours on your own or, perhaps, with a friend/study partner.

Nevertheless, 5th year is still perceived by many as a time of great adversity (!). And adversity doesn’t build character... it reveals it! I cannot say that I am particularly shocked by what I saw. I saw it coming from miles away. I mean, what can you possibly expect from people who, last year, spoke of a woman in labour as being “MY vaginal delivery because I booked this mother last week!”? But I was certainly disgusted by what I saw people do to each other.

After all, as much as it’s true that the pressures of 5th year are real, it is also equally true that it is just an undergraduate exam. There might seem to be so much at stake at the moment... We’re tired now... We don’t want that extra three months or one year studying medicine, or surgery, or obstetrics and gynaecology. We want to graduate with the rest of our friends. We need this job because we desperately need the money.

But they are, nonetheless, exams like all the rest. And no one needs to stop down so low just to get the pass mark. To be fair, the majority of people are stooping low for the A rather than the D which, in my opinion, is simply not worth it in the long run. If a medical student is so ready to give up their integrity for a silly distinction, then only hell knows what this person will be ready to give up to climb up the career ladder of success in the very near future...

Truth be told... I'm just too tired to care!!!

For All it's Worth!

2010-05-02T09:20:00.004+02:00

I've been meaning to pen something down for quite a while. But I was too caught up trying to keep up with my study schedule. For once in a very long time, I actually constructed a revision time table on an Excel spread sheet, specifically on the 6th of April which I called "My Race to the Finish".

Am I managing to stick to it? Not as much as I would like to. But it's there... As though I need it to remind me that after a tiring day of tutorials, ward rounds and seeing patients, I have to hit the textbooks.... That in exactly one months time, I would have already finished my surgery written and would be one hour into my medicine paper.

It's been like that for the past many years of my life (7+ years) that I feel like a ping pong ball bouncing from one desk bench to another, from one pack of notes to another and from one exam to the next (with a few, very intermittent, extracurricular activities in between). Devoting 90% of my waking time at home studying seemed like the natural thing to do...

Then came in the greatest procrastinator tool of all time... Facebook! Now, I don't have Facebook and don't intend to ever have Facebook, reasons for which require another blog post. But my other medicine friends who hang around with me in the library do, and they pay it a visit every now and again in between periods of study. (And on a very bad day, people study every now and again between very long periods of Facebook.)

Hearing them giggling stupidly at their laptop screens stirs up my curiosity and slowly, slowly I am lured into this display of photos and Facebook walls of people living a very different sort of life. During holidays and weekends, people go to parties, go on picnics and camping trips, go swimming in Easter (and sometimes even in February, you know, out of tradition). You get people making time to enjoy the sun, talking about the Pope and everything that's going on whilst I'm cocooned around the four walls of the hospital.

And people tag photos, type silly things on their Facebook walls... And I look at my books and ponder on the hours I spent with them and wonder to myself... At the end of the day, is it really worth it?

The Future of the Species...

2010-03-28T22:01:00.016+02:00

The Heart: A muscular organ in the centre of the chest on which the future of the individual depends.

The Uterus: A muscular organ in the centre of the pelvis on which the future of the species depends.

As you can see... I'm studying gynae...

Thought I'd post these plush toys to keep me a little company as I read about how that cute looking uterus can be destroyed by tumour...

Quote No. 1

2010-03-12T18:07:00.005+01:00

Just when I was asking what the hell I was thinking when I decided to become a doctor, I stumbled across this in my Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine (my medicine text book)...

The pleasure of a physician is little, the gratitude of patients is rare, and even rarer is material reward, but these things will never deter the student who feels the call within him.

Theodor Billroth

Oh God! Talk about depressing! It can't be that bad surely... Or is it... ?

If anyone can supply my morale with Gatorade... Leave a comment...

Three Years Old

2010-02-28T09:01:00.022+01:00

My blog is three years old today... with the first post being written on a Wednesday to herald the start of the Y4J Lenten talks Let's Face It back in 2007. And here I am typing the 80th entry today three years later.

Mind you, there was much to type and harp about these last couple of months, with the most tempting topic being the saga featuring the rattle snake Daphne Caruana Galizia crossing swords with the woman looking "like a cross between Worzel Gummidge and the back of a bus" i.e. Consuelo Scerri Herrera (a.k.a Consie). When the medicine and surgery starts getting dreary, I just find myself trying to get the latest scoop from her blog. Yes it's rude, crude, raw and quite off putting for some readers but I find the raw honesty and crudeness way too entertaining. Thank God there is no Wifi in our lecture rooms!

Then there are the more internal issues that people outside the world of medical school will find very boresome to read; and in my opinion, anything that doesn't keep people entertained is just not worth penning down at all! Thing is... Not knowing who your readers are makes it difficult to keep them entertained, isn't it? Blogs are usually faithfully followed by "friends", a word that I have to unfortunately use in inverted commas.

Friendships at medical school was something I never really had problems with (until recently). Friendships in community, admittedly, is a totally different matter for reasons that are numerous and multi-factorial (for example, me not turning up to meetings since before Christmas doesn't help the situation at all).

But now, with less than 3 months to go for the final exams, people at medical school really and truly change in the face of fierce competition... Including so-called "friends". I was lucky to have seen this coming from miles away. Any longsighted individual would have had a taste of "what is to come in 5th year" last year. All that had to be done was have Prof. Charles Savona Ventura dish out a logbook to a class of 60 students to complete in 7 weeks, and what do you get? Colleagues fighting and back stabbing each other over mothers giving birth as though these poor mothers are pieces of fish in a lake of killer whales... All so that they'll get their obstetrics and gynaecology logbook over and done with on time with the least amount of hassle (there would be pathology text books waiting for us at home).

And that was just a prodrome! Now, we're getting patients complaining that their abdomen has been palpated as though under a hand presser made of steel, just so that they can possibly get a feel for his small difficult-to-detect polycystic kidneys... Even if it has to take them 1.5 hours of the patients time and agony! Such students are few. The majority are quite a polite and considerate bunch. But unfortuantely, when they come with the best of their bedside manners, they would still be greeted with a disappointing:

"Ħaqq il-medical students li ħalaq Alla!"

And this wouldn't be from a typical Maltese qattani! Because when the house officer convinces the patient, "They just want to feel your loin. They have exams in 3 months", iż-żejt jitla’ f’ wiċċ l-ilma and his side of the story comes out as though he would have just been given three drops of truth potion.

There were other stories of the sort... like students crouching with their ophthalmoscopes seven at a time to see a poor blind man with Retinitis Pigmentosa whilst waiting for his transfer at an old people's institution. He was a very nice man but, fl-aħħar, he had had enough! And I don't blame him in the slightest! (Even though I didnt' get to see him.)

And your friend asks you for patients. You give him/her a couple. Then you'd expect him/her to return the favour. Wara kollox, kull qalb trid oħra... mhux hekk? And two things may happen...
1) Your "friend" may either just walk away and not give you anything.
2) Your "friend" will purposely send you the patients who are "social cases" with no findings, discharged a week ago or they send you to take a "good history" from someone who is deaf...

And this is just in a class of 57 5th years. I cannot even begin to imagine what the situation will be like in 4 years time when the 5th year class will be a 130!

Rant #1

2010-02-02T09:54:00.006+01:00

It's the 2nd of February and my blog has been on stalemate for 2 months plus. Reasons? Miscellaneous... Including the fact that things got very hectic after the psychiatry module. Since that time I...

Started and finished obs and gynae attachment
Finished and handed in my obs and gynae logbook
Celebrated Christmas and New Year's Eve/Day
Went to one funeral of a dear friend
Could have potentially gone to two others (including that of Prof. A. Cuschieri)
Got my driver's licence :D
Had a Family Medicine Exam in January (25th)
Had my Foundation Programme job interview last Friday (wasn't that bad)
Is close to finishing the surgery logbook as the list of tutorials piles on

In the meantime:

Surgery revision lectures are practically over
Obs and gynae revision lectures are also practically over
All 5th years have the fear of God instilled into them for the upcoming finals in June

Yes, in 2 months we did all that and still... NO PSYCHIATRY EXAM RESULT.

This concerned many of us, so one member of the class took the initiative to send an email vis-à-vis when the psychiatry exam result will come out.

The reply?

"I cannot give you a straight answer when the result will be issued, but I can tell you that progress has been made and hopefully in the coming weeks, the results will be issued.

Warm Regards"

I give up!

I <3 the King!

2009-11-30T20:05:00.003+01:00

Just thought of posting a summary on what this year's youth weekend was all about...

Now THAT is MY King! :)

The weekend was awesome! I honestly did not want it to end. And I just want to say a big thank you to anyone reading this post who made this youth weekend possible. Thank you. :)

RT: Practice Makes Perfect

2009-10-03T20:09:00.005+02:00

Summer has been rather busy with so much work to get done before turning a new leaf and start my final year at Uni. For a first time in a long time, I was actually excited to get started this year. Though the pressure really is at its best as the finals draw closer with every passing day.

For people with a voracious appetite for knowledge, 5th year can indeed be exciting. But the worrying hearsays regarding the tribulations I'm going to have to endure have commenced already. In fact, at this rate, I'm just really hoping that by June they won't get the better of me (especially in front of Dr. Parveen Kumar as, apparently, it does you know favours; 'specially if you're female like me).

Most people say the practical component to the final exams is the core reason behind all this terror. Though, in all honesty, what's scaring me the most is what will happen later...

But let's not go there and not think so much long term. Exams are an overwhelming reality as is and they have to be tackled very judiciously due to the heavy practical/hands-on compnent to them. And as stated in this very striking poster that inspired me to write this...

Still, all practice and no theroy, like I discovered yesterday at casualty whilst trying to learn something, is like sailing an "uncharted sea". Putting it in modern English... you feel utterly lost and confused in your sea of patient complaints and medicine problems... You would be asked very intimidatingly... "Allura tabiba, how are you going to manage this lady?" But whilst summing up the affairs of your brain, you simply draw nothing but a blank...

If you ask me... I think that is what really is scary!

June 2009 and June 2010

2009-06-21T12:36:00.008+02:00

Just a few thoughts of today...

1. June exams are over and passed Pathology.
2. Simon has reached his 300th mark on his blog. And I'm featured in his vlog... *embarrassing*.
3. Today it's Father's Day... It's suppose to be a nice family day today. Thing is, it is turning out to be anything but...
4. But that's not what my blog is going to be about. I just want to record a little something for myself... Though feel free to read through...

Last Friday was an ordinary day for most people. It was definitely an ordinary day for me, except for one thing... My best friend finished her 5th year medicine exams last Wednesday and Friday was the day she was going to discover whether she can be officially called Dr. Scerri. Problem was, results weren't due to come out before 2pm. I'm sure my friend's stomach was churning a lot more acid than usual... I know mine was.

So, I decided to keep myself occupied till the clock struck two. I then ran out of things to do until my sister came up with this big idea of going to Pavi supermarket to buy a BBQ at 1pm. Half an hour later, we were on a bus to Valletta to catch the 2pm bus at the terminus.

Then, whilst trying enjoy the bumpy ride on the 88, I get the phone call... The phone call I've been waiting to get since we become friends in 6th Form. Well... The news she brought was good... Very good indeed. After 2 gruesome years getting the right A level grades and 5 years getting beaten up at medical school... She is now a doctor, alongside a few other lucky ones. The blogger behind That Malignant Grin also surely has something to smile about. And I'm glad they do! I'm sure it was well earned.

Now... As we congratulate the ones that made it through medical school this year... We now wait in joyful hope for that person to be me... Hopefully next June... June 2010! But before that... Only God knows how much I've got to get cracking before I get there. *sigh*

Little Picture Composition

2009-06-08T17:15:00.004+02:00

The above picture is actually quite inappropriate to put up here since this guy is just starting PATHology and I just finished mine... Hopefully for good.

Whilst many people believe (wholeheartedly) that I made it through, I'm still keeping my fingers crossed. Because, you see, if success in my pathology exam, or any exam for that matter, were to depend on the amount of highlighter used on notes and books, I should pass with flying colours (pun intended). Sadly, medical school rarely works that way. And today was enough proof of that. (Yes, the rumours about getting a 20 mark question on a three sentence-long condition in the biggest medicine book are very, very true...)

Now, I have obstetrics and gynaecology on Friday and Paediatrics following Wednesday. And for those people who are still wondering what the hell the word obstetrics means, here's the definition in graphical format...

Sorry for the lame post, but I really wanted to blog even though I had nothing of substance to say... Too tired to type out a decent post.

PS: Murmur rocks! Well done Claire and all involved.

Murmur is OUT!

2009-06-01T21:31:00.008+02:00

The MEP election campaign, with all the political drama and propaganda, has brought along with it much blog fodder. Sadly, now is one of the worst times to be on blogging mode. But, this entry is worth a mention... Nothing to do with the MEP elections... Far from it! And I promise to myself to keep it short...

MURMUR IS OUT!!!!

Cartoon has been drawn by Matthew Urpani and designed by Claire Vella who was editor of MMSA's magazine (Murmur) this year.

Can't wait to get a hold of my copy on Wednesday... *happiness* Even though I have a bitch exam coming up on that day! *sigh*

Twitterific

2009-05-26T15:46:00.002+02:00

As you may or may not have noticed, I've decided to form part of the Twitter community after the following sequence of events:

Twitter has been first brought to my attention thanks to Robert Galea's blog.
Miley Cyrus has admitted to E! News that she is Twitter obsessed... Thanks to Demi Levato.
Those two points above made me want to delve into what this "Twitter" thing is.
Discovered that many a medical student is twittering - it's infectious I suppose... but also...
Things are starting to get a bit lonely at home now that I stopped having lectures for more than a week. (with Prof. Paul Cuschieri managing to turn our last lecture into a class reunion after such a long time of not seeing certain faces...)

Having said this, exams start on Friday... Needless to say I'm lagging behind in studies. Hence, got to go. For Twitter updates, you can check the right margin (just under 'God's Twitter' entitled "Verse of the Day")

Tomorrow's Doctors...

2009-05-25T07:56:00.003+02:00

Our University class Yahoo Group has always been quite a hub of communication all year. All was done in an endeavour to keep ourselves updated with everything going on at medical school, from lectures to other leisure activities. But lately, the emails (in red) that are being sent are so shameful, that I thought they deserve a little mention. As implied in the previous sentence, some people know no shame whatsoever. (But repetition is justified, you know, for the sake of emphasis) It is during this crucial time of the year were people are asking questions regarding issues that have been dealt with many months before such as...

"I was wondering why the viva [oral exam] for pathology is held a day before paediatrics exam. Can you check with secretary whether this thing can be changed? [OMG! You've never had two exams in succession before?] i have heard from previous years that people end up failing their paeds exam or do badly. would a day or 2 make a difference for them? after all a viva in pathology never helped anyone but people still have to go and thus waste a day or 2 before paeds exam."

And whilst they're at it, these same people are, naturally, asking for the pharmacology past papers...

"Can anyone kindly tell me what past papers are available for pharmacology as last time i checked at papier i found only 3. (btw i checked a week ago)"

And... wait for it...

"Wasn't there supposed to be a full set of past papers?"

Kindly note that past papers have been put in the stationer's for everyone to photocopy ages ago by our class representatives. (Yes... We are so childish in our ways that we actually need the "prefect system" that one only finds in secondary schools in order to ensure that things are working in some order.)

And they are also asking for notes too, as though our class reps haven't done a good enough job to collect and distribute all notes available throughout the year. Naturally, these people would have found it pointless coming to the lecture since the PowerPoint used is, in 99.9% of cases, found in the Yahoo Group ready for everyone to download... And emails such as follows naturally ensue...

"Hi, does anyone have the notes from Dr. N. Spiteri about vaccines please? Thanks"

And someone rightly replied...

"sa fejn naf jien [as far as I'm concerned] we don't have any notes of Dr. N Spiteri, she had written them out on the white board"

Another bright mind sends an email on the same thread...

"Anyone typed them out and can send them on the server?" [:O]

Needless to say, no one really bothered posting anything on the server. And so, people continued their panick sequence with regards to the pharmacology that most medical students never touch until the last two weeks of the year...

"hi, [Yeah, hello there] does anyone have notes for gynae pharm pls? thanks"

"And what about ophthalmic pharmacology? Are there any notes? If not, can anyone kindly list very briefly what was discussed?" [You have got to be kidding me!!!!]

[And here come the email that bursts the bubble...] "Gynae and Obs notes werent given because of poor attendence + lecturer dispute with university."

The prompt reply?

"*******... [like lecturers are expected to give us notes!] [But... the persistence of some people never ceases to amaze me...] and what about ophthalmology?"

Now, I'm a very reasonable individual. There is no harm is asking the odd query here and there. But... To all those people who expect to be spoon fed, all so that they can stay studying comfortably at home whilst the rest of their colleagues go to lectures and ward rounds as asked of them... We are forth year medical students, who will hopefully manage to become doctors in around 12 months time... Supposedly respectable and responsible citizens of society, as our duties, after all, require us to be. So, next time, instead of resting on the Yahoo Group, come to lectures and do your job as a student properly. You are free to decide otherwise and just do your own thing, in which case, when notes are missing, stop sending the class mail and go sod off!

On a more sober note, the real doctors of tomorrow (i.e. the 5th years) are just a few minutes away from sitting their first written exam (at 9am and at 3pm). I'm sure that any prayers at this stage will be greatly appreciated. :)

SPHYGMO Exam Edition

2009-05-12T14:10:00.016+02:00

The third issue of SPHYGMO is out!!!

Check it out on the MMSA Website!

NB: This is the last issue of Sphygmo for this year and it is, very very sadly, also my last contribution to Sphygmo as editor. It's been a wonderful experience working with this year's Editorial Board and the rest of MMSA Media Sub-Committee. But now it's time to step down and move on. With 5th year round the corner and other commitments (including Faculty Rep), I already have more than enough on my plate as it is...

Why People Come and Go

2009-05-01T11:01:00.005+02:00

This won't be the usual "meant to entertain you" post. Was meant to write this for quite a while but was a bit busier than usual.

The reasons behind this post are three:

1. I read Benji's blog post called People Come and Go... And I wanted to reply to that.

2. Went to mass last Sunday which I found very relevant to point number 1 above

3. Saw a comic on Chalkboard Manifesto (see later) that, again, is very relevant to points 1 & 2.

As Ben put it, "This isn't just about y4j but everywhere we Christians go..." Likewise, this is not about community, or any other prayer group. So, really, any possible "controversy" is not intended. But this is something important to bring up...

This is because MANY people have asked me why bother going to church? A lot of people rightly wonder why the hell bother with mass. And I sometimes struggled with the question why bother with community!

Personally, I don't blame people asking those questions, especially when mass is perceived as being something as follows...

This is the misfortune of today! That church is somewhere you go to and not somewhere to belong to. Last Sunday's gospel (Luke 24: 35-48), we were given a glimpse of how the early church was... people talked to each other, shared with each other, broke the bread and ate together. A group of people become a church, a community, when people share. And as Jesus said in Matthew 18: 20, "...where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." In fact, even in the Bible, when Jesus appeared, He usually did so when there were a group of people.

Even in last Sunday's Gospel, more than three people were gathered in Jesus' name. And Jesus appeared to them saying, "Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have." Such people had the fortune of having such a profound and life changing experience of Jesus like never before.

Today, we can't touch Jesus directly. But the Bible says that the church is indeed the body of Christ (Romans 12: 4-5).

"Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others."

For people not to "come and go" they need to be given the opportunity to move away from Christianity as being a simple idea, and more towards Christianity as being a profound and life changing experience. For that to happen, an experience of God's love is necessary... A love which is today manifested in other people... Manifested in the church.

So, if community is so important, why do people miss out?

People nowadays speak about feeling close to God thanks to personal prayer, but still don't go to mass. When I went to 18:30 mass at Naxxar on Sunday (29th of March), this mentality was out rightly condemned when the priest was able to have his 15 minutes say on the pulpit. When I went last Sunday, the priest was a bit more understanding. Nevertheless, the community aspect of our faith is important and church is necessary.

This is a fact that is worth repeating, especially in the light of hearing many community/prayer group members say, "you should come to the meetings for God and God alone". But it's a flawed principle, that is not really Biblical when you think about it. Apart from what has already been stated above, God made it very clear in the very first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis (2: 18)...

"The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone."

It is not good... i.e. it is wrong... for man to be alone.

What is most striking is that this was said at a time when Adam still had a PERFECT relationship with God, with no hardship, no separation and no sin in between. And yet, God still found it unjust for man to be alone! Let alone now! Sin, with all it's consequences (doubts, fear, worry, sickness) now makes a healthy community experience even more essential to have a healthy relationship with God.

This is why Benji's observation is so important. As very rightly put by Ben...

"Am i really testifying the love of God by including, them talking to them and sharing with them?"

Again, this is not about not having our own group of friends. This is more about breaking our comfort zones to reach out to other people. We keep ourselves busy, immersed in things to do, projects to carry out, outreaches to organise, healing services to do, dances to rehearse, programmes to film, DVDs to make and websites to update. And in all this busyness, we forget the people who come and go. The very people we would have done outreaches for, the people we would have done programmes for, or Lenten talks, or healing services, and youthful worship... All to win souls for God.

And we manage. We lure new people into our meetings to give them a taste of who God is and how much He loves us. But then the worship stops...
The music fades...
The noise ceases...
The talk ends...
And then...

What do we do?

Little Tweets

2009-04-23T19:02:00.008+02:00

If I had Twitter and spoke in Tweets, here is what I would write about today (tweets in red)...

It's my friend's birthday. Gave her a present which she LOVED. But I think I left the receipt in the bag by mistake. :S

Sent my nomination for Student Faculty Rep. Not that I want to get too excited about it. No idea who other candidates are. We wait & see.

Saw MANY magazines lying around in the library & thought of patients @outpatients. They’d like something to read while waiting for doctor.

Went to take the magazines at OBGYN outpatients with two librarians who liked the idea. Maybe it will help reduce a few cat fights.

Was supposed 2have a lecture on menstruation & all its problems but lecturer didn’t come. Probably realised our class is 75% female already!

Still waiting for lecturer. Instead, the Dep. of Medicine secretary came to ask us if we’re going to the lecture @Boffa Hospital. We said no*.

* The reasons behind our "no" are plenty and, although my readership is pathetically small, they cannot all be made public on the Internet... And they will most definitely NOT fit into one tweet. However the reply we got to our "no" does make it as The Tweet of the Day, be it written in English or in Maltese. Here it is as it was originally said by the concerned lecturer at Boffa on the phone...

"Dawn huma l-istudenti tar-Repubblika ta’ Malta. Jitħalsu biex jistudjaw. Għidilhom biex ma jiġux!!!”

Or rather in English...

"These are the students of the Republic of Malta. They get paid to study. Just tell them not to turn up!!!"

And fianlly, my last tweet...

Writing a letter to concerned authorities in reply to the above. More tweets next time.

Now I know why Miley Cyrus is so "Twitter obsessed". I found writing out these messages kind of fun. Thing is... My day is rarely as interesting as this one.

Just a Thought

2009-04-22T09:29:00.004+02:00

From the Times of Malta:

"The allocation of doctors at the Mater Dei Emergency Department has never been ideal but was now going from bad to worse..."

"... it had now become a habit to send to this department newly graduated doctors before these were even given their registration license" which is "illegal in all western states, possibly even in Malta."

Although these young doctors "did their best to serve patients in the most effective and efficient manner" they, "understandably, took longer on the job because they lacked the necessary experience."

And Marquita wonders...

Maybe that is what the architects had in mind when they placed the Emergency Department so, so close to the mortuary...

KSU Elections... My 2c

2009-04-05T16:03:00.004+02:00

Yelling it out like it is in so many words...

Goodbye Jade...

2009-03-22T17:24:00.002+01:00

It's been a while since my last post and much has happened...

1. My blog is two years old and did not even notice! (again)

2. Matt's blog came to life! :O

3. The 7 weeks ordeal in the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department are over... for the time being.

4. Media is in full swing working on this year's edition of Murmur... and hopefully even Sphygmo

5. MMSA will be having elections on Monday

6. And someone's suffering in the UK has come to an end today in the early hours of the morning after an admirable battle against cervical cancer.

This post will be a little tribute to Jade Goody, originally a dental nurse assistant born and bred in Bermondsey, south-east London, who entered the public eye after propelling into fame in 2002 when finishing 4th on Big Brother. Since then, Jade signed up to many a series of lucrative television, newspaper and magazine deals, wrote her autobiography and launched a top selling perfume Shh... In the meantime, she was a mother of 2 boys Bobby (5) and Freddie (4) and also had to support her own mother Jackiey Budden after suffering from a crippling motor vehicle accident.

In all honesty, I wasn't really a big fan of Jade. And neither was the press in the very beginning. Jade often attracted press mockery for her appearance and supposed ignorance, being considered as a personification of all that is wrong with Britain today. She was loud-mouthed, brash and came up with (perfect for Sphygmo) PEARLS OF WISDOM such as, "Is East Anglia (Cambridge) abroad?" In fact, her brashness and big mouth were almost going to ruin her public image when she joined racially tinged bullying of the Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty in the celebrity edition of Big Brother in 2007.

However, since Jade received the devastating news that she had cervical cancer in August 2008, I started keeping a closer eye on her. For the past few months I stayed watching the last few days of such an ordinary person, with no particular discernible talent and with all the characteristics making her an unlikely celebrity... I watched her leaving such a mark in so many women's lives. The Living TV documentary of Jade Goody's battle with cancer entitled Jade has touched the hearts of thousands of viewers. Also, cancer charities noted an increase in younger women booking screening tests for cervical cancer. In fact, this tidal increase in women going in for smear tests has been noticed even by the medical profession, with doctors referring to this as the Jade effect.

Although most of her TV appearances were done to provide financial security to her sons Bobby and Freddie, I think as a medical student I owe Jade Goody a big thank you. When you really think about it, no health campaign would have, and will ever, manage to drive home the importance of taking regular Pap smears like this! So...

Thanks Jade for managing to see the silver lining in every cloud. May you rest in peace.

SPHYGMO Flu Edition

2009-02-09T14:22:00.003+01:00

The second issue of SPHYGMO is out!!!

http://issuu.com/sphygmommsa/docs/sphygmo_jan_2009

Hello :)

2009-01-23T12:37:00.006+01:00

Exams finished last week... In the meantime, I was contemplating on pressing the big orange "Delete This Blog" button, to delete this blog off the surface of the world wide web. But I had a friend complaining that she went on my blog only to find a very old and stale post...

So, I thought of posting today. Firstly... remember when I said that passing the orthopaedics exam is pretty much like doing this... ?

Well... I got to know two days ago that I did manage to do just that!

I guess that would be "YeY!" for me! But now, there are other obstacles to worry about, with the big one being called neurology this time. I felt crappy after the exam, and so did a lot of my friends. In fact, I got this message from a very thoughtful colleague that same day, you know, to try to cheer me up a little bit...

"Hey Marquita! I'm Cathrine.I just wanted to tell you that yesterday on Facebook there were people in our class who wrote that for number 2 of the neuro exam, everyone gave different answers... some said cluster headache, some brain tumour, some trigeminal neuralgia, optic neuritis! So no need to worry too much... Maybe there wasn't just one good perfectanswer! :) And as to number 3 everyone said it was difficult!"

Anyway... che sarà, sarà I suppose! At the moment I'm allowing my brain cells to enjoy their strike that will soon come to an end... either tomorrow or on Sunday... depends on whether I want to see this piece of crap on TV...

I'll at see whether my friend was right in saying that Kamikaze Lover is the worst of Philip Vella and Gerard James Borg... So far, I don't like what I am seeing on YouTube. It could either be the song, the main singer... or both!

Stress...

2009-01-14T18:16:00.004+01:00

It's that time of year for the vast majority of students I suppose. Martine posted a very useful post on how to keep yourself motivated when bored studying. But with exams (very scarily) fast approaching, stress will be more likely to feature than boredom whilst trying to cram into your (poor) brain all you can till doomsday.

So, here is something that you may find useful. Feel free to use and distribute the stress reduction kit below to all who may require it. This can be used on a prn basis (i.e. used as required), though its abuse is highly unrecommended, for reasons that will render themselves obvious later on.

Warning/Disclaimer: Please note that all treatments have their fair share of side effects, with the above stress reduction kit potentially causing headaches, bumps on the head and severe bruising, especially if not careful. Unconsciousness is possible on overdosing, though when that happens, stress reduction activity will cease automatically.

Wishing you the very best of luck!

2008 Summary

2009-01-03T08:08:00.007+01:00

"If the events of 2008 could be summarised in 20 words these would be the ones: euro, Morena, elections, fireworks, hunting, Lourdes, Mamo, kidnapped, Muscat, buses, Simshar, Karl, Nicholas, migrants, MITTS, privatisation, St John’s, tariffs, Piano and shootout."

TimesofMalta.com

The above inspired me to compile my own 20 words. Well... at least I tried to compile 20 but only managed to get to 15... which is kind of saying something about how eventful my life is at the moment.

Euro: I had to change from Maltese Liri to Euro with the rest of the Maltese population.

Election: 2008 was not just any election year... I got to vote in this one for the first time!

Newsletters: Well, Youth Ink is practically dead. But, I'm now taking care of Sphygmo, which is being made available online for the first time (saves a few trees together with the costs of printing). The Christmas/New Year issue is bound to come out soon (I hope).

Book: Ending the Search Beginning the Quest was published and printed, with lots of copies having been distributed for free already.

Exodus: The exodus of young doctors, including fresh newly graduates, has led to much commotion in the press and a concerned government. Yes... I think the issue did genuinely concern the authorities. In fact, they're trying to deal with the problem constructively such as trying to implement the Foundation Programme here and trying to provide specialist training. Well... ANYTHING is better than being tied down for two years (or else!), as suggested by quite a few members of the public in order to get back their tax money used to educate us "for free".

Exams: There were quite a handful of these, as to be expected. But... In 2008, the Departments of Medicine and Surgery held their first third year practical exams as part of the Medicine and Surgery progress tests last June. Very well received initiative and things ran quite smoothly on the day considering it was a first.

Behavioural: Behavioural Science is finally over along with third year!!!!

Travel: Went on a student exchange in Vienna with two good friends in July. Then went to London on holiday in September. It was great. But, I had to miss this year's outreach at Assisi. Apparently, it was a great success where people really saw God's hand at work!

McDonald's: This is where I spent the rest of my summer when I was not away.

Ratatouille: A Mater Dei Hospital worker had his salad garnished with the head of a rodent. Quite the scandal of the year! Nevertheless, Papillion still lives on to see the dawning of 2009... and still supplies medical students their daily coffees.

Strike: Although the strike that caused much havoc was the 4 day strike undergone by the public transport operators, this refers to another strike which mostly upset the students. Yes, I'm talking about 'Lecturers behaving badly' and 'students being used as bargaining tools' in the dispute between government and UMASA. There was a strike last summer and now, it seems that there is another one going on, with University examinations possibly being postponed if the current deadlock in negotiations for a new collective agreement for lecturers persists. Nonetheless, I'm still having my exams starting on the 19th January. So, I spent less time reading the newspapers and more time studying my neurology! (It kind of explains my blog deadlock lately.)

Chircop: This was not one of the 20 words in the Times of Malta article so I thought of mentioning it here. The medical community said goodbye to one of the most dedicated of people it could ever see. He was a dedicated doctor, a dedicated family man and also a dedicated politician... Karl Chircop. May he rest in peace.

HealthFest: MMSA held its first ever Healthfest at City Gate Valletta (yes, the same City Gate which the government is planning on rebuilding together with the Opera House site).

MSF: Médecins Sans Frontières came to Malta to provide medical aid to illegal immigrants.

Babies: No not my own! But some very old friends became very new parents with two new first borns coming into the world... both of them boys! Baby Matthis and baby Thomas, may God bless them both and their families.

Wishing all of you who read this blog a happy new year! May it be a prosperous one for everybody.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-23T14:47:00.005+01:00

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." (Jn. 3:16)

God - The greatest lover

So loved - The greatest degree

The world - The greatest number

That He gave - The greatest act

His only begotten Son - The greatest gift

That whosoever - The greatest invitation

Believeth - The greatest simplicity

In Him - The greatest person

Should not perish - The greatest deliverance

But - The greatest difference

Have - The greatest certainty

Everlasting life - The greatest possession

Author unknown

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas, with the true love, joy and peace that only Jesus can give.

On Yesterday...

2008-11-29T08:21:00.006+01:00

The first three hurdles of the 4th year steeplechase were over yesterday! Hopefully, I didn't drop any of the hurdles along the way. It's not so much the forensics and public health that are worrying me. But, over the past few months, my predecessors have been giving me the impression that passing orthopaedics is pretty much like defeating the impossible...

And yesterday I discovered why! It was a Bitch exam if I may say! As tradition I suppose (with tradition being 1/3 of a class doomed to fail). I just hope I won't be part of that statistic. Come to think of it, I don't really want ANYONE to be part of that statistic.

Otherwise, the rest of the day was OK. Had a Media meeting to discuss Xmas issue of Sphygmo and Murmur magazine, chatted with friends, went out and did not get back home till 2am this morning. And there are more blog worthy events coming up NEXT weekend (nope, sorry not this weekend), with one of such events being MMSA Health Fest at Valletta. I'll divulge details regarding that later on.

Sphygmo is Out!

2008-11-21T08:45:00.003+01:00

For all medical students of the past, present and (perhaps) future...

The first-ever online edition of Sphygmo is out!

I suggest visiting http://issuu.com/sphygmommsa/docs/sphygmo to read and download!

Now, back to my books!

This Little Paradise of Mine

2008-11-13T18:51:00.002+01:00

Exam fever is keeping me away from blogging, as I've said time and time again for the past x amount of blog posts. However, here is a little essay written by my 17 year-old sister during her English lessons entitled This Little Paradise of Mine. Funnily enough, she ended up writing about my little paradise. So... here you go ladies and germs...

This Little Paradise of Mine

I have you know that my life is one big roller coaster full of ups and downs, twist and turns and each minute seems to go by at the speed of light! I am a fourth year medical student, of 21. Exams never seem to far away, my 'To Do List!" seems endless, and being a member of the MMSA I do not have much free time.

However, just like anyone else, I need to rest. Sometimes I feel that I have to just get away from it all....(without getting out of the house and using up half a day in which I can easily cover two "Head and Neck" chapters. I do not go out much, and I am not what one might call a 'party animal', so I am more creative than others when it comes to my social life and this is my little paradise.

Mind you, its not much. It is only a stuffy corner, full of dusty papers on the desk which are covering the keyboard. I shall not call it my paradise because it is my computer desk, but rather it is a shuttle that takes me there.

I find my sense of well-being and tranquility in my writing.

I write about absolutely anything that comes to mind, as soon as I close my eyes, and travel in the middle of nowhere amongst the ocean of figments of my imagination. While people are down the block having a laugh over a bottle of gin, I am on the foot if the Great Wall of China, or I am a keen traveller exploring the most tropical safari. I might even be a lizard trying to find my way out of a maze in some one's backyard.

Writing helps me to think about myself, it helps me reflect on my life, which is very important as at this stage of my life, I always need to ensure that being a doctor, in the casualty ward, is what I want to do. Not that I always doubted it, au contraire, amongst my sisters I was always the surer one. I wanted to practise this profession since I was eight and I was always so passionate about it.

However, I am obviously not the same eight year old, and since one tends to get used to ideas grained into their minds, it does not occur to them that there are other options out there! And one tends to do things passively and the fire inside will slowly fade away.

My writing keeps the flame burning, reminds me who I really am and oozes me with self- confidence and with a fresh point of view with which I see my life, and the life of others... as a precious gift which one should treat fairly.

(OK... you can clap now... or even better comment.)

Orthopaedics, Forensics and Public Health

2008-10-25T15:29:00.008+02:00

Seeing the rate at which I'm blogging, posts seem to be dwindling down to one post a month. I doubt this scenario will change much for the time being. As I was privileged to observe from my predecessors, 4th year is the year where you constantly have to keep on your toes. It's not proving to be too bad so far. And for when it does, I do have a safety valve mechanism that will help preserve my sanity when exam pressure exceeds the preset limits. I'm helping out the Media Team within MMSA to having a smash hit newsletter Sphygmo. I'm the editor this year; which explains where some of my writing efforts are going.

The rest is all being seeped out into writing decent Epidemiology and Public Health notes so that I'll be able to write decent essays when the exam comes on the 26th of next month. Apart from that, there's also Orthopaedics and Forensic Medicine to study.

Orthopaedics is going OK, although that also still needs to be tested (hopefully only once on the 28th of November). It's quite interesting so far. I just wish it was just a little tiny bit easier...

Then there's also Forensic Medicine. It is nice though, mind you, not as exciting as CSI Miami, Criminal Minds or all those other shows aired on TV. Despite this, people who decide to do pathology and become experts in this field really do have a challenge ahead of them. Lectures always give me this impression that, just like in all branches of science, there are no absolutes to anything and that sometimes, it is not always possible to expect 100% certainty from your forensic findings.

To scientific minds, this may sound obvious. Unfortunately, in court, doctors are not questioned by people with such (brinlliantly logic and reasonable) minds. Instead, they're questioned by lawyers who never seem to get to grips with the fact that science is well known for it's grey areas and that no stupid questions need to be asked to prove that point during court trails in order to try decrease the court expert's credibility.

And for those people who are thinking that I should cut lawyers some slack, I'll just let the facts speak for themselves. Here are these questions, taken from actual transcripts, and see for yourselves whether lawyers can be very stupid:

Q: Were you present when your picture was taken?
Q: Was it you or your younger brother who was killed in the accident?
Q: Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning?
Q: Did he kill you?
Q: How far apart were the vehicles at the time of the collision?
Q: You were there until the time you left, is that true?

Not convinced? Take this exchange...

Q: Doctor, is it possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
A: No.
Q: Did you check for pulse or breathing?
A: No.
Q: Then how can you be so sure, Doctor?
A: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
Q: But could the patient have still been alive nonetheless?
A: It is possible that he could have been alive and practising law somewhere!

Or this one (a personal favourite if I may add)

Q: So the date of conception [of the baby] was August 8th?
A: Yes
Q: And what were you doing at that time?

Personally, I rest my case!

Back from London and Off to 4th Year

2008-09-17T15:14:00.006+02:00

Sorry for the lack of posts, but this blogger has been in London last week. Just got back Sunday early morning, only to start my 4th year this Monday.

London was nice; a good end to a very busy summer. There is a little part of me that would have liked a bit more 'recovery time' because the winter months are proving to be very hectic, with the work already starting to pile up at alarming rates. In fact, with so much on my plate at the moment, I'm just going to leave you with Bernard Levin's Quoting Shakespeare - all for the sake of not leaving you readers hanging. I first encountered this whilst at the Globe Theatre on the Southbank of London (on the opposite side of the River Thames to St Pauls Cathederal). Hope you'll enjoy this as much as I did, for it might be a while till you'll hear from me again.

If you cannot understand my argument and declare, "It's Greek to me", you are quoting Shakespeare. If you claim to be more sinned against than sinning, you are quoting Shakespeare. If you act more in sorrow than in anger, if your wish is farther to the thought, if your lost property has vanished into thin air, you are quoting Shakespeare. If you have ever refused to budge an inch or suffered from green-eyed jealousy, if you have played fast and loose, if you have been tongue-tied - a tower of strength - hoodwinked or in a pickle, if you have knitted your brows - made virtue of necessity, insisted on fair play - slept not one wink - stood on ceremony - danced attendance on your lord and master - laughed yourself into stitches, had short shrift - cold comfort, or too much of a good thing, if you have seen better days, or lived in a fool's paradise, why, be that as it may, the more fool you, for it is a foregone Conclusion that you are (as good luck would have it) quoting Shakespeare. If you think it is high time, and that that is the long and the short of it, if you believe that the game is up, and that truth will out, even if involves your own flesh and blood, if you lie low till the crack of doom because you suspect foul play, if you have teeth set on edge at one fell swoop - without rhyme or reason, then to give the devil his due if the truth were known for surely you have a tongue in your head, you are quoting Shakespeare. Even if you bid me good riddance and send me packing, if you wish I was dead as a doornail, if you think I am an eyesore - a laughing stock - the devil incarnate - a stony-hearted villain - bloody-minded, or a blinking idiot, then by jove - O lord- Tut, tut! - For goodness sake - what the dickens! - but me no buts - it is all one to me, for you are quoting Shakespeare...

Back from Wien...

2008-08-04T20:39:00.005+02:00

Managed to come back in one piece from Austria... the land of everything Mozart and everything Strauss. My colleague and I came back home Saturday evening.

It was an eventful trip overall; one that's a little bit difficult to describe. See, more than it being a long holiday or a “crash course in infectious diseases”, this student exchange programme managed to serve as an interesting eye opener to a lot of things. The most you readers might be able to appreciate is the fact that a lot of sightseeing was done in our free time. Vienna is as beautiful as people say it is. And hearsay that Austria is a beautiful country is all so very, very true.

We visited Vienna to the point were we exhausted our monthly travel pass (the Monatskarte) and got nauseated at the sight of Mozart and his chocolates (more often referred to by their more coarse-sounding title "Mozart balls"). We also ventured a bit outside Vienna. And once upon a Tuesday, we even crossed Austrian borders by bus and went to Budapest (in Hungary).

I did attempt to update you all throughout these 4 weeks, especially when we had our rainy days (five in all - not bad. At least not as bad as England). But the free Internet access at the hospital (AKH) never allowed me to do that. And the little Internet time I had on my hands was spent with family and a couple of friends. Nevertheless... I DID check my blog a couple of times but never found comments attached to my previous post. On seeing that I just figured... my readers can wait. They’re most probably very busy enjoying summer! So, I never felt pressured to blog.

But now that I'm back home, with my summer job at McDonald's leaving me with very little to blog about, snippets of my lovely time in Wien might eventually emerge on this blog... sometimes through pictures and sometimes through wordy stories... It all depends on how encouraging I find your comments threaded to this post!

Off to Wien!

2008-07-05T10:32:00.002+02:00

This blogger is (finally) off on holiday for 4 weeks. Computer access will be available but there's no guarantee I'll be posting much. I'll be too busy enjoying my time abroad. In the meantime, I'll take comfort in the fact that most of you would also be busy enjoying your holidays i.e. you won't have time to keep yourselves informed...

...

Ok fine... I'll try updating! :)

On a Wing and a Prayer...

2008-06-20T05:05:00.023+02:00

MD 2nd year: The foul, despicable period of limbo between 1st year, where everything is bright and shiny, and 3rd year, which is basically epic win.

Claire Vella

MD 3rd year: That state of euphoric bliss that leaves you wondering why medicine isn't for the faint hearted... As you forget that there was such a thing as second year that preceeded it and forth year and fifth year that follows it.

When compared to second year, third year was indeed an oasis in the midst of the previous dessert barren of any fun! (Well, at least in my case). And, somehow, even third year came to an end on the 16th of June with pathology II. Now, I simply await results with much anticipation as I think about me getting into 4th and 5th year – two scholastic years where medical school feels a little bit more like a film set for a potential movie entitled The Ossuary. (OK, so perhaps I’m exaggerating a bit). Nevertheless, it’s a doomsday I somehow want to welcome with open arms in a couple of months time. Anything is better than re-sitting or, even worse, repeating third year! You know, as they say… It’s nothing insurmountable; just very gruesome.

In the meantime, I'll just try to enjoy summer and feel happy for Italy for making it to the Euro 2008 quarterlies. They literally hung on with a wing and a prayer. But it was a perseverance that was very fun to watch on the 17th.

At least, it was a game that kept me away from The Times for a moment, whilst a good percentage of its faithful readers were disputing how I am potentially a major financial drain on the government with little resourcefulness worth investing in because it ends up going to the UK. Yes! People are at it again... Discussing how the government should shape my future as though I (and other health care workers) are state property! And just in case you’re thinking that these are my denatured neurons speaking just click on the following… UPDATED: Exodus of doctors worse than government saying – MAM. It was conveniently written on the 17th of June. I would have loved to comment but The Times tend to take a while to upload a comment. Eventually, I might be tempted to give some of these chicken heads a piece of my mind. Summer leaves me with very little else to do. Meanwhile, I'll just use this blog as a draft. Those who are not interested, the post ends here. Enjoy your holidays. For those who wish to carry on, take a deep breath before you continue reading:

As much as I would like to put all University courses and jobs/careers on the same level of difficultness, commitment and responsibility, these three years at University have proven otherwise throughout. Medical School is not a walk in the park, even for the most intelligent of students. It’s a course that really tests your nerve and stamina. And no matter how much you study, a grade above average is not even close to being guaranteed. I’m not saying that things are plain sailing for all the other students at University. But, starking differences are clearly present no matter what other people like to think!
However, we students still keep struggling through, at times on a wing and a prayer, with the hopes of becoming good doctors that can provide an excellent service to anyone who require it.
The life of a doctor is uniquely wrapped with a lot of responsibility, stress and constant pressure even when working within the 48 hour EU directive, let alone when we go overboard by double the amount of hours. One careless mistake, that can easily result when deprived of sleep, cannot be so easily erased with a putty rubber or a “Delete” button on a keyboard. Sure, medics who become doctors for all the right reasons will derive a lot of satisfaction from their work. But it is a satisfaction that comes at a very dear price that very few are willing to pay, and for good reason.
The country should really appreciate that, as much as it’s expensive to educate a citizen to become a doctor, health care services are even more expensive than that! One bypass operation carried out in a private hospital costs just as much as educating one medical student for an entire year. Mater Dei costs millions of Euros a week to be run the way it is currently run. And yet, the NHS is, very surprisingly, still a “free commodity” that very few Maltese people appreciate. Well, just for your info… The only reason why this is still possible is because 'low grade' doctors get paid peanuts. (Or should I say cashews in the light of the now not-so-new MAM-Gov agreement?)
Also... The stipend I get every month is, by no means, not enough for me to maintain an “expensive life style” and running around doing my own business in a flashy car. Go tell Jonathan Camilleri that my major mode of transport is even more primitive than that of the cavemen! I get from one place to another on foot usually, and the stipend I get is hardly enough to get me a new pair of decent slippers and a couple of bus fares from time to time! And if people think that we are not good value for taxpayer’s money, what about the Science B.Sc and the Computer students who get a lot more stipend and a lot more money on their Smart Card than we do? And tell me what these people will contribute to the country 'for free' after they graduate? Are the services provided at Smart City going to be dished out free of charge like Mater Dei Hospital?
Another thing to all taxpayers! My mum and dad both work and both pay taxes as though they are still single with no children of their own! Most probably, if my parents paid a lot less tax, they might be able to afford sustaining me through my University years without the governments helping hand.
Anyways, such comments are typical of a Maltese nation were all they're interested in is "Gimme, Gimme, Gimme".

I think that’s enough ranting on my behalf. Feel free to comment. Kudos to Anne Marie for the forward! In case you're reading this... thanks loads Anne! :)

4 down and 2 to go

2008-06-06T16:10:00.005+02:00

With more that half of my exams complete today, I thought of treating myself to a well earned break after studying so much surgery and medicine (and perhaps a bit of that obligatory pharmacology). Very little helps me unwind better than this space.

Not that I abstained myself from breaking entirely. Staying cooped up at home is tiring, and most of those tired moments were spent looking at other people's blogs and observing how every author treats their blog differently: Some treat is as an online diary... Others use their blog to give their opinion on just about anything and everything... Some people share thoughts and ideas they deam inpirational, whilst getting the occasional few who turn their blogs into advice columns. And then you get those people (in actual fact the vast majority), who treat their blogs with utmost neglect. Anyhow, all this got me thinking on what to do with this blog of mine.

When bored of visiting all the links on everyone's blogroll, the narcist within me has read a couple of my old posts to try and get in touch with the real reasons why I took my writing online. After a bit of soul searching, I later realised that this blog is nothing but a reflection of an ever growing desire to be a good source of entertainment to other people. Making people laugh on MSN is what got me into this 'blogging community' in the first place (although Daphne Caruana Galizia doesn't really believe in such a thing as a blogging community). Now, whether I actually have 'stand up comedian potential' or not, that I do not know. All I know is that there are a selective number of people that do find me amusing, and being credited for my sense of humour is something that I find very rewarding. It might sound lame, but it's the truth. So... Moral of the story? Come to think of it, there isn't any take home message in this post!

Well, after that random thought, here's an update...

Murmur 2008 is out! Claire Vella and all the editorial team deserve a big well done for all the work they put into this 15th issue. But now, I'm already starting to think on what I can possibly write for Murmur #16... Perhaps I should keep myself on journalist mode, with my eyes peeled for any interesting bit of something to writ about. Or I can just keep working on the funny side of me and come up with something a bit more humorous. In the meantime...

Announcement!

2008-05-28T07:31:00.002+02:00

Pass the word round please... especially those who don't have exams.

Everybody Needs Good Neighbours

2008-05-25T13:35:00.007+02:00

No, there will be no sour grapes in this blog post. Sure, the Eurovision surprises this year were very disappointing (in my humble opinion, victory should have been Ukraine's) and countries just couldn't avoid voting for their neighbours (Denmark anyone?). Yet, the greatest disappointment of all was this - no Terry Wogan on BBC Prime. :'( I miss the way he cracks me up every year, even though the (crappy) Eurovision voting strategy is getting the better of his cynical sense of humour. (Anyway, anything is better than Eileen Montesin!)

Seriously, I needed Terry Wogan! Studying gets depressing after a while and I was looking forward to some decent fun. Surgery is my first exam this year, starting 30th May, hence explaining the picture of Justine's Hoops 'under the knife'. (Cool photo Justine. It's very you.) All will be over on the 16th of June.

And whilst the question on everyone's lips is whether we should boycott the Eurovision due to lack of neighbours, my question is this: Will I need a "good neighbour" to pass my exams this year? Well... I don't believe in stooping down so low and compromising my integrity in that way, for the sake of an extra mark or two (that aren't even guaranteed).

But the summer heat and the exam stress are getting to my head; my neurons are being abused and they're not thinking straight. Hopefully, I will manage to pass yet another year without the need "good neighbours". Or rather... Hopefully, everyone will manage to pass without needing "good neighbours" or "UoM Bathroom Notes in Medicine & Surgery".

Anyway, may I conclude that this space will be very uneventful for the time being. Perhaps, after exams, I'll get to post more often and tell you a little bit about my mini-adventures in Vienna. Got accepted on student exchange and I'll be away for 4 weeks: 5th July - 2nd August. Till then, there's a lot more studying that I have to get back to.

Something from my Inbox...

2008-05-21T08:52:00.006+02:00

My Inbox is usually graced with a lot of Spam and rubbish. But here's an email I got that deserves to be posted on my little slice of Internet. It's not the type of post Sandro Vella would feature on The Maltese Blogosphere; but I sincerely believe there is truth in the article below...

SATAN'S MEETING: (Read even if you're busy or you're just not bothered)

Satan called a worldwide convention of demons. In his opening address he said:

"We can't keep Christians from going to church."

"We can't keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth."

"We can't even keep them from forming an intimate relationship with their saviour."

"Once they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken."

"So let them go to their churches; let them have their covered dish dinners, BUT steal their time, so they don't have time to develop a relationship with Jesus Christ."

"This is what I want you to do," said the devil. "Distract them from gaining hold of their Saviour and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day!"

"How shall we do this?" his demons shouted.

"Keep them busy in the non-essentials of life and invent innumerable schemes to occupy their minds," he answered.

"Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, and borrow, borrow, borrow."

"Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to work 6-7 days each week, 10-12 hours a day, so they can afford their empty lifestyles. Keep them from spending time with their children. As their families fragment, soon, their homes will offer no escape from the pressures of work!"

"Over-stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still, small voice. Entice them to play the radio or cassette player whenever they drive. To keep the TV, VCR, CDs and their PCs going constantly in their home and see to it that every store and restaurant in the world plays non-biblical music constantly. This will jam their minds and break that union with Christ."

"Fill the coffee tables with magazines and newspapers. Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day. Invade their driving moments with billboards. Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, mail order catalogues, sweepstakes, and every kind of newsletter and promotional offering free products, services and false hopes."

"Keep skinny, beautiful models on the magazines and TV so their husbands will believe that outward beauty is what's important, and they'll become dissatisfied with their wives. Keep the wives too tired to love their husbands at night. Give them headaches too! If they don't give their husbands the love they need, they will begin to look elsewhere. That will fragment their families quickly!"

"Give them Santa Claus to distract them from teaching their children the real meaning of Christmas. Give them an Easter bunny so they won't talk about his resurrection and power over sin and death."

"Even in their recreation, let them be excessive. Have them return from their recreation exhausted. Keep them too busy to go out in nature and reflect on God's creation. Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, plays, concerts, and movies instead."

"Keep them busy, busy, busy!"

"And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled consciences."

"Crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek power from Jesus. Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family for the good of the cause."

"It will work! It will work!"

It was quite a plan! The demons went eagerly to their assignments causing Christians everywhere to get busier and more rushed, going here and there, having little time for their God or their families. Having no time to tell others about the power of Jesus to change lives.

I guess the question is, has the devil been successful in all this? This blog post might make 'BUSY' sound to mean: Being Under Satan's Yoke. But now it doesn't have to be that way...

PS: For all those with exams... Wishing you the Best of Luck.

(I know some of you with Os and As are actually close to finishing. Hope your studies pay off!)

It's that time of year...

2008-05-14T10:04:00.006+02:00

I am currently in the above state of being, hence the lack of posts. It's that time of year I suppose, where exams:

Leave you with nothing to blog and no time to blog: The stuff I can blog about is extremely limited since my life stopped to a halt whilst missing out on various birthday celebrations and other activities: paintball, birthday meals... Anyway, I won't continue whining lest I instill an unmovable depression in my readers (and Happy or Sad, a Mood Can Prove Contagious). But colleagues of mine do get bored of their medicine at some point in time, allowing themselves to get distracted and spend a bit more time on Maltastar.com and Di-ve.com for any news concerning our future as doctors. But again, it's depressing stuff and the few it concerns have heard it all before from the fifth years who are happily leaving this country.

Make the hay fever season worse: All throughout May, my mother has been complaining that I need to see a doctor because I'm all the time sneezing and consuming too much toilet paper. When bored of renal, I was happily browsing when I bumped into this: "Changes in immune regulation in response to examination stress in atopic and healthy individuals" Höglund, C. Olgart, Axén, J., Kemi, C., Jernelöv, S., Grunewald, J., Müller-Suur, C., Smith, Y., Grönneberg, R., Eklund, A., Stierna, P. & Lekander, M Clinical & Experimental Allergy 36 (8), 982-992. Apparently, my excess hay fever symptoms can be happily attributed to the 30th May - 16th June period.

Make you gain the pounds: It's amazing the things science is ready to prove to the rest of the world. Physiological reasons have been discovered behind a friend of mine once saying "my sister told me third year is hard but it's in fifth year when you REALLY gain the pounds!" The reasons why are nicely summed up in this lovely graph below:

Glossary of Terms (for those not privileged to have Dr. G. Buhagiar teaching them Biochemistry):

Leptin: The hormone that's meant to suppress appetite. Hence, having too little of it ends you up spending more time with the fridge; and woe betide the fridge if you find it empty.

NPY: has the opposite effect of leptin i.e. it's the glue that keeps you bound to the fridge.

Cortisol & ACTH: They're stress hormones that make you want to get into unnecessary arguments with Adriana Crocker (the Medical School Administrator), leading the poor individual indulging in chocolate to fight away the guilt. And the pounds keep on piling.

Oh and PS; another thing that's not helping the situation: my uncle had to go to the A&E last Wednesday with crushing chest pain. It didn't come as a shocker to me since he had all the pre-requisites to get him to Mater Dei. But family remains family and it was something else to worry about. He's now been discharged but is in need of by-pass surgery.

And the leptin keeps itself supressed whilst the NYP continues to surge. At this rate, the next thing to pity after exams are the bathroom scales.

On Syntax Errors

2008-04-26T09:45:00.006+02:00

For the past month, I've been trying to juggle with assignments and studying, hence my scarce posts. In the meantime, Paul is successfully keeping the world updated with everything that may or may not really matter. (Thanks Paul.)

Well... Deadlines are fast approaching and essays are almost done. They were the cause of much stress and grumbling by many a third year that spilled into a Family Medicine tutorial with Dr. Philip Sciortino. His reply was one: That assignments are a necessary evil because our educators want to make us think and be proficient at expressing ourselves in writing.

Well, students argue that we have more than enough "waste-of-time" writing to cover for that (Behavioural Science anyone?). But, as a student who is trying harder to look at the silver lining in every cloud (even when not present) ... Maybe the University wants to avoid us making these stupid medical bloopers on patients' files when we finally (and painfully) become doctors:

The lab test indicated abnormal lover function.
The baby was delivered, the cord clamped and cut, and handed to the paediatrician, who breathed and cried immediately.
She has no rigors or chills but her husband says she was very hot in bed last night.
She can't get pregnant with her husband, so I will work her up.
Whilst in Casualty she was examined, X-rated and sent home.
Both breasts are equal and reactive to light and accommodation.
She is numb from her toes down.
On the second day the knee was better and on the third day it had completely disappeared.
The patient has been depressed ever since she began seeing me in 1983.
I will be happy to go into her GI system, she seems ready and anxious.
Patient was released to outpatient department without dressing.
Discharge status: Alive but without permission.
The patient has no past history of suicides.
The patient expired on the floor uneventfully.
The patient's past medical history has been remarkably insignificant with only a 40 pound weight gain in the past three days.
She slipped on the ice and apparently her legs went in separate directions in early December.
He had a left-toe amputation one month ago. He also had a left-knee amputation last year.
Many years ago the patient had frostbite of the right shoe.
The bugs that grew out of her urine were cultured in the Casualty and are not available. I WILL FIND THEM!!! (Hmmm... I have the perfect person who can help you... as a microbiologist he wouldn't be able to "resist the temptation of taking a swab and looking for microorganisms")

And finally…

The patient left the hospital feeling much better except for her original complaints.

Courtesy of: The Doctor's Lounge

My suggestion to avoiding such silly mistakes? Assignments are not the answer. The answer is doctors shouldn't be working a 120 hour week... (Paul feel free to continue).

Writer's Strike!

2008-04-01T18:54:00.006+02:00

“Medicine is my lawful wife and literature my mistress; when I get tired of one, I spend the night with the other” Anton Chekhov

After a book, a Murmur article, MMSA T-shirt slogan and a Feb/March issue of Youth Ink, it's back to spending more quality time with my "lawful wife".

The thing is, getting out of this adulterous relationship with writing is going to prove a little bit difficult for two reasons:

Behavioural Science: I've this year's Behavioural Science Weekend coming up this week, which can only mean spending what would be left of Saturday and Sunday writing my process notes; describing how the sessions with our psychologist have geared us towards becoming 'finer' doctors with one one more dab of sunshine happiness. Next Thursday, it's off to the Alexandria at PV. The boredom ends Saturday afternoon.
Family Medicine Assignment: This assignment is the next best thing to constipation. It has this remarkable capacity to induce writer's block even in the most talented of individulas, with hard, dry, difficult and infrequent production of sentences. Hope I'll manage to find a good laxative by 30th April!

Hence, although my assigments are very medicine related, I can't really spend time with the real love of my life... And all because of a load of bollocks.

Ending The Search Beginning the Quest

2008-03-19T14:49:00.003+01:00

The moment I’ve been waiting for months on end happened yesterday, at 13:15…

“Marquita, its Evan. There’s a big chance that the printing press will deliver the book printed, ready to be dished out, today.”

It was simply exuberating news that made me rush to the nearest phone booth to break the good news to Tutzi…

“Tu, there’s a big possibility that the first boxes with the book will be delivered right at your door step at around 17hrs…”

Until I met Nazju (one of Evan’s employees) with the books at 16:50pm, there was a whole ecosystem of butterflies in my stomach. I was excited, but also very sick with worry. I was afraid of any possible misprints that would make me want to rewind back a few weeks. I was afraid the cover would turn out to be all pixilated and crappy…

Still, what was done was done. I muttered a prayer to God, thanking Him for everything and asked Him to bless our work. In the meantime, I wondered whether the white Fiat Uno right in front of Mireva book shop was Nazju’s car. At the sight of loads and loads of white boxes in the boot of the car, my heart went into tachycardia. Yep! It was definitely Nazju’s car! And the books were in there!

I opened one of the boxes on our way to Tutzi’s house. The result was amazing. Eventually, I got to discover a few booboos here and there. But, the joy of finally seeing the book ready after 18 months of sweat, tears and teeth-clenching effort totally outweighed any possible negative feeling precipitated by inevitable human errors.

But what is this book that I'm talking about?

For those who didn’t read my previous posts…

It was September 2006 when I went to Y4J’s Youth Team weekend in Gozo to plan the work and activities of the year ahead. It was on the 9th of September that Tutzi coined this great idea of dishing out information about Jesus in the form of printed matter whist outreaching in schools. It’s a date I recall well because I remember having to miss my friend Joelle’s graduation party because of this weekend. Anyhow, my mind instantly went on publishing a booklet like the one I was given at the MV Doulos once. And so, Tutzi honoured me with the responsibility of seeing that the project gets done.

Technically, all she wanted was a simple, easy to produce pamphlet. But I’m famous for my gross misunderstandings. So, instead of making a pamphlet, I wrote a book entitled: Ending the Search Beginning the Quest (Mit-Tfittxija għall-Għarfien). I wrote the text in English which we planned to translate into Maltese, in order to make one bilingual publication that could reach a wider readership. And I made all the arrangements with the owners of Mireva bookshop, who were great people to work with from the first till the very last day.

When Tutzi realised this, she was having second thoughts about this big project, whilst remaining flabbergasted at how I managed to blow things out of proportion. But I showed her that I was willing to put my heart and soul into this; that I had people helping me and that God was by my side. On Chris’s wedding (25th November 2006), we discussed all these issues and Tutzi gave me the official go ahead.

From that point on, there was no turning back. Tempting as it was at times to just give up on the whole thing, we just persisted on till we got to a very gratifying end result yesterday.

All glory to God for helping us all complete this book.

And thanks to all those people who helped out in some way or another.

Re: Naxxar Accident

2008-03-13T18:55:00.002+01:00

There has been a lot going on recently. Elections alone gave me plenty of opportunities to keep the blog up and running. But, in all honesty, I've been too busy trying to get my first book printed. Now that the politicians got their 1s and 2s, Veritas Printing Press found a much awaited printing slot for my humble work of art (it's still currently a major source of headache but we're approaching the end slowly).

So, I'm not really going to talk about elections. After all, time waits for no one and news is always plentiful. I wish it weren't the case as what made the headlines yesterday was a real tragedy. I'm not going to dissect the incident and give my opinion on the matter. All I know is that innocent people have been negatively affected by this: Two people missing, feared dead; other bystanders injured and three houses reduced to rubble. Families who once had a roof over their head, a place to call home, suddenly lost it all.

To some people, this news happened a lot more closer to home. A friend of mine (an MCAST student, also from Naxxar), happens to know one of the victims of this accident. Mr. Edward Bugeja (602860 M) is an MCAST employee in great need of any helping hand available. A solidarity letter has been sent to me which, I believe, deserves a place in my little slice of Internet. Here's a the letter I got. For all those who can help, I encourage you to really make a difference to this person and his whole family.

Re: Naxxar Accident (Bugeja Family)

Following the violent accident in Naxxar on Wednesday 12th March 2008, MCAST was shocked to learn that one of the families affected by the disaster was that of Family Bugeja. Mr. Edward Bugeja (602860 M), who is an MCAST employee, has, as a result of the accident, lost his house and all the family’s belongings.

Should any one like to make a monitory contribution, please deposit funds at any BOV branch in account number: 40017049454, Bugeja Family (Naxxar Accident Fund).

We are confident that through your generosity and support we will be able to show our solidarity with a colleague at this very difficult moment.

Sincerely,

Stephen Vella
Deputy Director
Institute of Art and Design
Malta College for Arts, Science and Technology

ID: 322667(m)

How Could I Have Forgotten?!

2008-03-03T04:50:00.010+01:00

I just realised now that my blog turned one year old on 28th February i.e. 4 days ago. So...

Happy Belated Birthday Oh Bloggie of Mine!!

I must admit...shame on me to have neglected this blog in this way. But, without sounding too presumptuous, I guess it happens when you would have 'bigger fish to fry'. Lately I've been really busy with things. Ten days before the Y4J Lenten sermons, I had to sort out what computer freaks would call "an interrupt". I was working on editing my first booklet Ending the Search Beginning the Quest, which took the best of seven days to do. The producers and I really went out of our way to try get it printed by Wednesday 27th of last month; all so that Y4J would get down to distributing it (for free) at one of their most hallmark activities. We managed to have everything ready on Monday 25th, specifically at 11:40 AM. Thing is, we didn’t manage to get it printed on time, reason being…

No big heads? No big bucks? Then, no big priority!

That is, because of work related to the elections, our work had to be shunned to the side for a while (even though we were promised otherwise). I guess printing presses also have their own bigger catch of fish to fry :( Oh well, a bit more waiting won’t hurt anyone I suppose. Should be ready by approx. 14th March.

In the meantime, here's a little teaser which I'm currently using as a desktop wallpaper. It was designed by Romina Tolu, who deserves a very special thank you for giving her 200% in effort to get things done on time (even if it meant spending less time with her twin sister who came back home from Italy for just two days. In case you're reading this Mina, thanks loads and I'm very, very sorry things turned out the way they did). More on how the book came to be in future posts...

Missing Blogger...

2008-02-18T04:12:00.010+01:00

This will most probably be the shortest post ever. I'm too busy to write at lenght for now. In the meantime, look out for the following...

WHERE? ST. JULIAN'S PARISH

WHEN? 25th FEB till 1st MARCH

TALKS by FR. RAY TOLEDO

For more info check out the new and improved Y4J website.

http://www.y4jmalta.org

Pass the Vodka

2008-02-06T15:45:00.000+01:00

Talking about Morena's success two weeks after the MSFE 2008 is pretty pointless. So I won't go into petty discussions over something that the whole nation was never really hyped about in the first place. However, other successes have happend recently that need recognition and deserve the above title:

I did pass my theory driving test. Now all I have to do is try sit for the practical, pass the test and get my license.
Youth Ink January issue is out, and there are quite a humble amount of subscribers.
The website team has experienced a lot more fuitfulness right now and this is how it is spelt...

www.maranathamalta.com

And there was the community Lenten Weekend. Absolutely fabulous. Also, last but not least...
I'm officially on my way to publishing my first booklet (which I was meant to finish last year). It's all part of this big project "In the House" hitting St. Julian's Parish very very soon.

In the meantime, I'm trying to figure out a way how I can study all my medicine (and surgery, and pathology, and pharmacology), get my hands on a few patients to practise my clinical skills and juggle with a never ending list of tutorials.

Simple: I'll just have to cut corners...and my blog will just have to suffer...

And for dessert...Muffin on a Snell

2008-01-18T19:23:00.000+01:00

2008 is proving to be very eventful so far, despite the blog draught recently. But, I rarely come home with a writing mood. Plus, when I do, I write for Youth Ink, now that I've committed myself to issue this monthly for a whole year. I made people pay a €6 subscription for this, hence the priority.

But, there are other less "nerdish" things going on. I've no mid yearly exams this year (thank God!); just a few tests at the end of February and a theory driving test coming up this Wednesday. Unfortunately, it's the least I can say for this poor second year (and so many other forth years). He's doing good though, using the Neuroanatomy Snell I used to possess last year as a platform for muffin photo shoots. Exhibit A:

In the meantime, I'm looking forward to spending the weekend of Carnival with friends. It's a Lenten weekend, but there will be some degree of dressing up for the Saturday party. The theme? 60s night! A very similar disco party was organised quite a few years ago by the Bungee youths, back when Tutzi was still in community. I wasn't even part of community at the time. I just watched most of the action on tape the Christmas of 2006. It looked fun! Hopefully, this party would be translated into funness too (at least by Simon). I sense it plucking a few "nostalgia strings" for some people; others will just have to work a bit harder at finding a costume.

Last but not least...I'm off to Austria for a month this summer on SCOPE exchange. And my friends Christine and Malcom are coming with me (hopefully)! Not sure if I should stay there for three weeks or four though. Christine and Malcom have decided on a three week stay, something that I'm a bit reluctant to do. I guess I'll just consult other friends of mine after exams.

And for all of you reading this, if you have exams, I wish you the best of luck!

2007 Review

2007-12-31T10:54:00.000+01:00

"There are no uneventful years. Each year leaves a trail of highlights, low lights and head-scratching moments."

Di-ve.com

Inspired by this article here, I thought of typing out the last post of 2007 by writing a "2007 year in review"...of my own life...

January: On the 1st of January, I finished my long essay "Target cells for gene transfer"...or so I thought. You see, some scientists who didn't finish writing their paper by the stroke of midnight, announced their gene therapy research accomplishments on the 9th of January. When I came back from my holidays, my tutor (Dr. Balzan) said I should add this to my essay as it's a very relevant discovery. So, I officially finished my essay on the 13th of January. In the meantime, there was the episcopal consecration of Mgr.Paul Cremona as the new archbishop of Malta.

February: This blog was born, on the 28th of the month, thanks to Martine Cauchi and Matthew Urpani's rants on the Internet. I also had to go to a Behavioural Science seminar in Halland (i.e. Hell Land reigned by creepy crawlies), which added to my list of assignments...

March: There were the Let's Face It! Lenten sermons that made me put to good use my "budding writing skills" (perhaps...). This was also the month I had my first HepB vaccine (1 out of 3). I also had the opportunity to cast my first vote at the local council elections...but I wasn't even bothered. BUT...my interest in politics received a burst of growth hormone.

April: There was a blood donation campaign organised by SCPOH - MMSA. I tried donating blood but *surprise, surprise* I wasn't able to. According to the nurses, I was actually eligible for a blood transfusion! There were also the usual Easter celebrations which I wasn't able to enjoy fully because of exams.

May: I was getting ready for my finals...and technically even Olivia Lewis. But, the song Vertigo didn't manage to get through :( I had my Physiology paper 1 on the 28th and Physiology paper 2 on the 30th.

June: Exams finished with pathology on the 22nd. In the meantime, Mater Dei was abused by Mother Nature, with level -1 looking more like a swimming pool with the heavy rain on Monday 4th June. On that day, the Life Cycle participants had a training session in Sicily. Also, Dun George Preca was declared the first Maltese Saint by Pope Benedict XVI.

July: I started working at McDonald's Bay Street. Also, I got my exam results...I made it to third year. A bit before that, on the 4th and 5th of July, there was the Mater Dei "open weekend", attended by more than 80,000 people (by the way, I was one of them...:), at the MMSA stand in the morning and selling Life Cycle lottery tikets in the evening). There was also the Isle of Man MTV festival were there were "tens of thousands of people" (but I think it was less than 80,000, hence Mater Dei wins, Maroon 5 and Akon lose).

August: I turned 20 on the 15th.

September: I started my clinical years at St. Luke's Hospital on the 15th, and I stopped working for McDonald's on the 30th. Also, the first consignment of Maltese euro coins arrived in Malta to help introduce the European curreny to a very confused nation (my grandma still thinks in terms of "xellini"). The Maltese euro coins feature the Mnajdra temples on the one, two, and five euro cent coins, the Maltese coat of arms on the 10, 20 and 50 euro cent coins and the eight-pointed Maltese cross on the € 1 and € 2 coins i.e. no more crabs, luzzus and Widnet il-Bahar anymore.

October: There was the famous MAM-Gov agreement that will bring about a few changes in working conditions for doctors in the very near future.

November: There was the even more famous Mater Dei migration, which included the transfer of the Medical school. Meanwhile, there was the Youth Weekend If you Dare... Also, Youth Ink (a new Marana Tha community newsletter) came to be.

December: I just had a very merry little Christmas with family and friends, while others were busy closing down the St. Luke's Hospital incinerator.

And to all my faithful readers, I wish you all a happy new year!

Merry Christmas

2007-12-23T19:25:00.000+01:00

Kudos to Marija Farrugia for the above image.

"Open Sesame"

2007-12-11T14:47:00.000+01:00

A surprising number of people have asked me to update this blog of mine. And so I will, by explaining why I haven't updated for so long. Well, I happened to be working on a little newsletter of my own for the community I form part of (read the "If you Dare" post just to refresh your memories). I christened this newsletter Youth Ink and it basically aims to build the church using Microsoft Word. Somehow, I sense that it's going to pick up rather nicely, even though I might not be using the best of building blocks. It so happens that "Microsoft sucks" appears 14.77 times more than "Apple sucks" using the AltaVista search engine...just for your info (all according to this simple survey here done by people with nothing to do).

It's been almost a month since we've moved to Mater Dei. I won't be going into my experience as a medical student over there. There's my behavioural science assignment for that. All I can say is that, during that month, we students were experiencing some degree of difficulty getting into the wards and theatres. Members of staff were only able to gain access via a programmable card which we did not have and, somehow, some nurses and the security people weren't able to understand that 0.25 of our education is done during wards rounds (with 0.05 done at lectures and the rest being up to you to so your homework at home). Please note also that our practical skills are going to be assessed at the end of this year (i.e. third year) and we're expected by our tutors to roll up our sleeves and start practising.

But, kudos to MMSA and any others involved, we finally managed to get access to wards (we found the magic words..."Open Sesame"). We tested our "staff cards" today and they work practically everywhere. Now, all we have to do is pick a colour that we fancy (red, green, yellow, brown or blue) and get down to some decent history taking I guess...

Announcement! ;)

2007-11-18T08:47:00.000+01:00

As from tomorrow at 8am, lectures will be held at Mater Dei.

Kudos to Colin Mizzi for this (unofficial) advert.

If You Dare...

2007-11-16T14:39:00.000+01:00

Around this time last week I was getting myself ready for this:

Well, let me announce (fashionably late) that I dared go to this weekend. It was an amazing boost overall; I just wish I can experience this all over again. It surely gives me something to blog about other than boring issues taking place in hospital.

Obviously, the idea of boring differs from one individual to another. I could be getting many eyes rolling on this post. Most probably, people who came to this blog through the MMSA website would have preferred finding an article about the good, the bad and the ugly of World Diabetes Day (WDD). MMSA could have given me something to blog about without all the controversy - a controversy that occasionally helps Ms. Caruana Galizia keep her Daphnicle going twice a week on The Independent (for when she's too bored talking about politics). There was a time when simply saying that I believed in Jesus was a daring thing to do since it guaranteed to stir quite a lot of debate in any conversation. Currently, I rarely find people in the mood to argue about the matter. The majority would be simply nauseated by the fact that "born again Christians" (as we're called, I got to know) could be such a bad advertisement to the very faith they're so dearly devoted to. As much as this fact is, sadly, very true, it is also very true that...

“There are only a handful [of Americans] who hate the Catholic Church, though there are millions who hate what they think the Church is.”

Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Well, on a lighter note, there were two people at that weekend who were a little bit more daring then others (if I'm allowed to stretch things a bit): they allowed be to have a go at performing neurological examinations on them at 7:30 in the morning. A free license to stay hitting people with a tendon hammer...what more can a medical student ask for? Well, I didn't ask for much really but I certainly got much more than what I asked for.

And for any Marana Tha youth out there reading this blog...thank you for such a fantastic weekend.

Migrating North

2007-11-07T17:36:00.000+01:00

And so we are migrating - just like the ducks, the Starlings and the Purple Finches. In our case, the word "migration" refers to nothing more than a move (or should I say, THE much anticipated move) from one hospital (St. Luke's) to another (Mater Dejn)...how exciting! : It all started this week on Monday with the cardiologists. In fact, The Times has reported that Prof. Albert Fenech was given the honour to carry out the very first four angiograms at Mater Dei's new Cath lab (rumour has it there are already three holes in its gypsum walls. Maybe they'll be patched up with new master pieces coming from MCAST sutudents).

But, as the cardiologists and the cardiac surgeons were given the privilege to be the first to try settle down on new pastures, the Borg Bros. red van removals are still around with loads more shifting to do. Patients are still on the wards and students are still taking bloods, trying to look for Vacuette needles, only to find that these too are being slowly transferred to Mater Dei. Oh well! I attempted to use the much dreaded syringe, and pitied the patient in the meantime.

Still, it has been officially stated that the student body, too, is migrating with the birds in the sky (in our case, pigeons) on the 19th of November. The only difference between medical students and our feathery friends is that we stand a chance of flying off to a "slight turn for the worse" (birds migrate for better weather conditions). Various MMSA members have visited this new Medical School. Unfortunately, I wasn't one of them but from what I was able to gather:

there are offices for the administrative and academic staff
5-6 lecture rooms which we have to share with the IHC (Institute of Health Care) students
a "study room" seating not more than 16 people, which must also be shared with the IHC
and, for now, no library that the librarian knows about. Although, the medical school library at St. Luke's Hospital, will be experiencing some degree of movement. In fact, it's going to be closed tomorrow (8th November 2007) from 12:15 till 14:30.

This is, at least, what we've heard and what we've been told. All will, hopefully, be sorted out on the 19th of November. Till that day, all we can do is hope that this migration won't disrupt so much our teaching schedule. Not that there is much anxiety about the whole matter. If there's really any emotion you can squeeze out from the students, it would be confusion rather than anxiety. But, for those few who are secretly feeling anxious over the matter, I'd suggest the following alienation strategies:

Most Med students have to get cracking for World Diabetes Day this weekend. Speak to Darlene for more details.
Dear forth years, you are blessed with having forensics, public health and orthopaedics exams to look forward to.
As regards the 5th years, you people shouldn't even waste your time reading my shit. It's simply not worth it!

"Doctors won't walk barefoot while still living a (sort of) life"

2007-10-31T16:48:00.000+01:00

The last post took a lot of effort to write but didn't prove very popular amongst you all. But, just for continuity's sake, I can't but not write about the recent happenings that took place between the MAM and the government.

Di-ve.com leaked some interesting information last Sunday at 17:30 CEST; information which was worth copying and pasting for a doctor friend of mine to read when bored of studying for her MRCPs. The article title hinted that the government was actually concerned about this exodus of medical professionals, despite less recent claims of its inevitability*, and has plans (inspired by the proverbial case of dangling carrots on a stake in front of a donkey) to plug the brain drain.

Surprisingly enough, this agreement took past MAM (Medical Association of Malta) proposals to make working conditions less disheartening for all doctors in the public sector very seriously. The government was simply waiting for the MAM's approval before signing out an attractively looking package that could make newly graduates consider willingly working for the people on who they'd have studied. Since the salary was, undoubtedly, a major issue at stake, every one's wages have been increased. Consultants are being courteously rewarded do they choose to dedicate themselves to working solely with the government at the expense of their private practice, and the younger doctors might be provided with learning and specialised training opportunities to help them advance in their careers.

Although I was certain that the majority of doctors would have agreed to this package, an extraordinary meeting was still held the following day (Monday 29th October) at Medical School, 20:00 CEST, to allow the MAM and all its interested members to discuss things democratically. Needless to say...

The extra-ordinary general meeting of MAM approved the proposed MAM-gov
agreement.
Votes in Favour = 250
Against = 40
Invalid = 1

thanks

Martin Balzan

MAM - gov Agreement approved - 30/10/2007

These "new and improved" working conditions, as described quite well in the Tuesday (30th October) local papers, will come into play as from 2008 till 2012...something else to look forward to other than the Euro changeover...

* See previous post for further details (I just have to make you read it do I?)

A Tiny Newspaper Review

2007-10-24T18:09:00.000+02:00

I admit that this blog will be slightly different (and much longer) than usual. Another note for my regular younger readers, this blog might it be more appreciated by people who would have accessed this webbie from the MMSA (Malta Medical Student Association) website. ;) But, don't let this discourage you to keep reading on. In the meantime, I’d like to thank the person(s) involved for this recent and invaluable source of exposure.

This Monday, there was much discussion among my colleagues regarding how the exodus of junior doctors is, and could further, negatively affect the national health care service. The local press happened to have made "a bit of noise" about the matter in last Sunday’s papers. This explains our hustle on our way to CCU at 8:45 in the morning, and also while waiting for Dr. R. Xuereb, who never turned up to tutor us through the ward round.

The fact that “scarce resources are bleeding away” has been the subject of much debate more than once. I used to listen to Dr. Martin Balzan’s claims of Malta losing more than 50% its doctors (on Bondi+ for example) with much scepticism. So, hearing my friends cite valuable literature resources on the subject caught my interest a great deal.

MaltaToday stated that the majority of final year Medical Students are studying with the hope of doing their housemanship abroad. Alas, I didn’t manage to get my hands on a copy of that juicy piece of news. But, another article on today’s paper of The Times has conveniently extrapolated some of the information printed (for those who are still waiting for the MaltaToday website to be updated with last Sunday’s news). Relevant figures were used as a good introduction to help Lino Spiteri vommit his bile on the poor remuneration doctors are receiving in the public health sector:

“Malta's most abundant resources are becoming rather scarce where it matters most. That is what the growing threat of an exodus abroad from the medical profession is telling. There are many Maltese doctors working abroad. And, as reported by MaltaToday on Sunday, some 35 more would like to join them soon.”

The reasons why this is happening is pretty obvious, especially to people who spend a good part of their day at St. Luke's hospital. Doctors complain of finding it hard to cope with a growing demand for their services, hours-long queues, and patient waiting lists. Working conditions are poor, the pay is low, workloads are heavy, and there's little opportunity for career advancement (an understandable excuse so as not to make everything sound like "it's all about the money").

That same Sunday also saw one of the letters to the editor on The Sunday Times titled “Doctors’ condition at A&E”. This letter drew attention to the fact that the A&E is suffering as a consequence of the loss of its resources, particularly expertise staff, “to other specialities or overseas where working conditions and salaries are better”.

All these ‘reverberations’ in the local press seem to support the MAM in fearing a brain drain among doctors - a brain drain that will severely affect the country, despite these views being belittled by the government. A spokesman for the Health Division said on The Times in March 2005, “that although the possibility of a brain drain does exist, this was not likely to be imminent”. Dr. Deguara sees this phenomenon of doctors leaving the country as the inevitable consequence of us being a small island. Due to its size, Malta limits newly graduates from expanding their medical knowledge, whatever the area of specialty chosen.

“However, it will still be necessary for doctors to go overseas for training as the small size of our population does not offer the necessary breadth to achieve specialisation.”

“Doctors who are leaving the island are almost all junior doctors going abroad for specialist training,”

This doesn’t seem to be bothering the minister so much; at least not as much as the MAM. After all, the number of medical students keep increasing every year. The past 10 years (1995 – 2005) has seen a net increase of 162 doctors in St. Luke’s hospital, despite 50% of doctors have left the country (many of who express absolutely no wish to come back home). Also, the fact that the course opens annually without a numerus clausus since 2001 means that the number of graduate doctors can only keep increasing.

And as the Ministry of Health assures the public of the unlikelihood of us experiencing a sever shortage of doctors (as in the 1970s), Dr. Mary Rose Cassar tries to entice current 3rd year medical students to specialise in Emergency Medicine due to the present staff shortage. As Dr. Deguara counts his blessings, the letter written by Dr Mario Tabone-Vassallo (president of the Association of Emergency Physicians of Malta) reminds everyone that a loss in the quality of adequately trained medics is still at stake. "But isn’t Malta known for it’s superb undergraduate training?", one may ask. Well, we certainly have that reputation (although the medical student of today wonders how the medical student of yesterday made it through the disorganised education system). However, we medics are always told that we never stop learning…that “the day we stop learning is the day we stop practising” (Prof. Josanne Vassallo). Medicine remains an apprenticeship; a skill which muct be attained and not only taught, which my justify the statement below written in the above cited letter to the editor:

“A&E is not the place for junior or inexperienced doctors, because this imperils patient care, quite apart from contributing to delays in the department and risk stressing other physicians.”

But life is a stage full of ironies. With all this talk about Malta potentially suffering from a medical brain drain, one might be surprised to see the real reasons why one of the two urology wards and a paediatrics ward at Mater Dei, together with 13 operating theatres, will not open when the migration process from St Luke's Hospital is completed.

“When contacted yesterday, the president of the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses, Paul Pace said a shortage of nurses was the reason why new services and extra operating theatres would not be able to function upon migration.”

Bibliography

The Times Some wards, theatres will remain closed Wednesday 24th October 2007
The Times Scarce Resources Bleeding Away Wednesday 24th October 2007
The Sunday Times Doctors’ Conditions at A&E Sunday 21st October 2007
The Malta Independent Half of graduate doctors leave to work abroad – MAM study Sunday, March 25, 2007
The Times Fears of brain drain among doctors 6th March 2005

New Wing at Mater Dei Hospital

2007-10-19T19:03:00.000+02:00

A panel of doctors was asked to vote on adding a new wing to Mater Dei hospital. The Allergists voted to scratch it and the Dermatologists advised no rash moves.

The Gastroenterologists had a gut feeling about it, but the Neurologists thought the administration had a lot of nerve, and the Obstetricians stated they were all laboring under a misconception.

The Ophthalmologists considered the idea short-sighted; the Pathologists yelled, "Over my dead body!", while the Pediatricians said, "Grow up!"

The Psychiatrists thought, "the whole idea was madness"; the Surgeons decided to wash their hands of the whole thing, and the Radiologists could see right through it!

The Internists thought it was a bitter pill to swallow; the Plastic Surgeon said, "This puts a whole new face on the matter".'

The Podiatrists thought it was a step forward, but the Urologists felt the scheme wouldn't hold water. The Anesthesiologists thought the whole idea was a gas, and the Cardiologists didn't have the heart to say no.

And in the end, the Proctologists left the decision up to some asshole.

(Complements to a friend of mine who cared enough to share this with me. First sentence has been slightly altered from the original for the purposes of entertainment i.e. no such new wing is going to be added to Mater Dei Hospital).

Muse

2007-10-05T18:02:00.000+02:00

My muse seems to be on vacation and has forgotten to send me a postcard. And my fingers have been too lazy resting on the mouse instead of typing on the keyboard. It's been an eventful 7 weeks with nothing in particular to say. A month and a half of busyness severely lacking in 'fun', 'excitement', entertainment and photos.

I didn't get myself sloshed at parties. I didn't even go to parties. I didn't jeopardise any one's furniture when pillow fighting with my friends - I didn't go to sleepovers. I never complained of sunburn - I hardly touched the sea. I didn't visit Dr. Joelle in casualty with a sprained ankle or dislocated shoulders - I didn't get a chance to play football (or netball, or water polo, or diving, or rugby). I forgot how it feels like to live like the Teletubbies over the hills and far away - I didn't go to Gozo (you know...Gozo...the island of the three hills). Instead I took the pleasure of reading other people's blogs to relive that kind of summer, with short postings coloured with loads of photos and double the spelling mistakes.

In the meantime, I took the liberty of tempting my driving instructor to swear at me when I drive too much like James Bond 007 around roundabouts. He says I should use the breaks when I turn corners. Well, maybe it's "a sign" that I was born to work in the A&E and drive ambulances ;).

Yet, it seems that it's going to take me a while before I get my licence, and will power without the money doesn't really get you far (excuse the pun). Hence, I used to spend 40 hours a week fighting against obesity "the Atkins's way". I sold McDonald's burgers with large fries and large Diet Cokes, watch people eat them, wipe the tables and trays and, sometimes, even clean behind customers when all would have been digested and excreted. You see, with some people, stools had a habit of ending up on the floor 10cm away from the toilet. Being quite acquainted with all sorts of biological hazards (blood, stools, urine, sputum etc...), I'd volunteer to take others out of deep shit (literary), whilst letting my other colleague (usually Lucienne) wash and disinfect the toilet. It became routine eventually...Lucienne and I checking out the toilets for any similar surprises, sometimes hidden under a mountain of blue toilet paper. However, despite working a real lot together, there were occasions of communication breakdowns along the way. This once lead to my apprentice, mop in hand and bucket in the other, unlock a previously locked toilet door ("Marquita must have locked it by mistake"), only to find an urgent case of micturition happily emptying his bladder, whilst totally ignoring the very dirty floor just 10cm away from where he's standing.

Well, I had my last shift at McDonald's last week as I started my third year at Medical School three weeks ago, only to end up going to the wards in the morning smelling pretty much like a McDonald's toilet in need of cleaning after a UFO (Unidentified Foul Object) would have landed 10cm away from the toilet seat.

Happy Birthday

2007-08-15T08:27:00.000+02:00

Today is my birthday! I'm now officially 20...and I'm actually quite happy about it. It feels like as though I've entered the best decade of my life. Could be my colleagues though who, very sweetly, gave me a very special morning with the little things that make all the difference. The messages at 7am from all those who worked overnight at the take away window helped me kiss my teenage years goodbye very bright and early. I woke up to several messages from other friends and a Mandise muffin with a candle on in our crew room, just before I started my shift at 9am. And, despite turning 20, my colleagues apparently thought you're never too old for soft toys. Got a real adorable elephant; couldn't stop hugging it when I got home (I didn't manage to get down to doing some "growing up" before today; maybe next year). Got a birthday card ten minutes before I left work from all the Youth Team, most of who are at Soul Survivor in the U.K. They said they were sorry for not beign around to celebrate. Funnily enough, despite the "lack of celebration", I don't remember my birthday ever feeling this special. So, for all those who brightened up my day...thanks a million! I really wasn't expecting this at all!

I'm lovin' it!

2007-08-11T13:05:00.000+02:00

Spending 45 hours a week at McDonald's for the past month and a half inspired me to come up with a list of fifteen annoying things to do at any local McDonald's restaurant. Please note that this has been written solely for the purposes of entertainment. This post is not meant to put any ideas into any one's head. Although, if you actually fall into the temptation of doing anything of the following, you wouldn't be the first and you surely wouldn't be the last, guaranteed.

15 Annoying Things to Do at McDonald's

1. Go up to the front counter and stay asking a tired employee how much everything costs, just to sound like you're looking for the best deal. After seven minutes of staring at the menu and frustrating the counter with your questions, just leave without ordering anything. If you'd be with a friend, just turn to your friend before leaving and say, "OK. Now we'll come here tomorrow. We'll have time to save 206 1c pennies in the meantime."

2. Order an XL Double Whopper® with cheese. Whilst you're at it, order a strawberry sundae and show them a BK (Burger King®) voucher.

3. Ask for twenty sachets of ketchup and twenty sachets of mayo.

4. With the extra sachets of mayo, squeeze all the sauce out onto your tray liner in the form of a smiley face. When it would be time to go, just leave the tray on the table for the McDonald's people to clean up.

5. Order a large size Extra Value meal for yourself, insisting that you want no salt on your fries. Then, when all is ready, ask for two sachets of salt.

6. Speak to the front counter in French. And when the front counter politely indicates that no one knows French, all the better. Act like you just don't understand English: keep uttering in French, getting angry in French and, towards the end, sulk in French. NB: Polish and/or Chinese is just as good.

7. If you're having Chicken McNuggets, let the counter ask you what sauce you'd like with your nuggets. And when actually asked, look confused until you get the counter to list you all the sauces available..."Barbecue, Sweet & Sour, Curry or Mustard..?" Then reply loudly, "Ah! Yes! I'd like some Ketchup please."

8. Order five cones and two large Diet Cokes, insisting that they'll be put on the tray for you to carry on your own. Then, just let gravity do its work and drop everything on the floor.

9. Kindly ask the counter not to put too much ice in your drink. Exactly as they give you your soft drink, stay examining it and angrily ask for the manager. If asked why just say angrily, "coz the drink isn't filled to the very top red line. I want my drink filled till the very top line if you don't mind. After all, you expect me to give you every one cent and similarly, I expect you to give me every drop I'm entitled to."

10. See whether there is a Filet-O-Fish burger in the food bin just behind the counter (the thing where all the food comes down from the kitchen). If there isn't, order a Filet-O-Fish meal. If you haven't been yet served in under three minutes start complaining about how inefficient the service is. State that belonging to a minority group (i.e. being vegetarian) doesn't change the fact that you are a McDonald's customer who deserves to be served in under three minutes just like everyone else. Take the opportunity to complain about the lack of variety there is for vegetarians and that now, with the new Salad Plus range, you can't even take half the salads available anymore. Whatever happened to the old Garden salad...or the Tuna salad?

11. Take photos of the front counter with their ridiculously looking green Shrek caps.

12. Order a McFlurry Baci. Then peep into your ice cream and say, "Is the cup usually left half empty?" Then, ask whether you can have more ice cream, even if it means paying an extra ten cents.

13. When ordering an apple pie, ask whether it is made with apples...just in case.

14. Get around ten of your friends with you and order altogether Lm20 worth of junk food. When all has been neatly laid out onto your trays say, "Sorry, I forgot to tell you it's for take away!"

15. And finally...go up to McDonald's Baystreet with fifteen of your friends at midnight and just stay loitering for an hour. Exactly as the restaurant closes at 1am (or 2am if it's a Saturday), invade the take away window (which now stays open till 5am seven days a week).

Bye Bye Second Year

2007-07-21T16:46:00.000+02:00

I got all my exam results a while ago and I had to change my blog profile slightly. ;) You see, I am now, officially, no longer a second year student. Results came out a few weeks ago, but I wasn't able to break the good news before; McDonald's is keeping me too busy to stay blogging often. Also, I took up driving lessons and I'm trying to meet up with a few friends occasionally, when I have the time and energy. And all through winter I thought I was going to get some sleep this summer...

NEWS FLASH: Marquita DOES have a brain!

2007-07-10T15:26:00.000+02:00

A very challenging University year has made this poor blogger doubt the existence of her brain. Luckily, at the point when it was almost made certain that her cerebrum was as good as that of a vegetable, she bumped into a simple quiz on the Internet that looked very reliable and capable of restoring all hope lost. This quiz, taken when bored with nothing better to do, revealed that Marquita does have a brain...which happens to be orange i.e. her favourite colour. :) (Just thought of posting a little something which I happened to find interesting).

Your Brain is Orange

Of all the brain types, yours is the quickest.

You are usually thinking a mile a minute, and you could be thinking about anything at all.

Your thoughts are often scattered and random - but they're also a lot of fun!

You tend to spend a lot of time thinking about esoteric subjects, the meaning of life, and pop culture.

What Color Is Your Brain?

It's Official! Mother of God it's Finally Ready!

2007-07-03T12:56:00.001+02:00

The first week of holidays has been quite a busy one with many things being "made official". First and foremost, it is now official that I work at McDonald's Baystreet. I worked my first shift last Friday. The 29th of June i.e. that same Friday, also saw the official release of Shrek 3.

Now, since McDonald's is in some sort of partnership agreement with Eden cinemas, the latter's business becomes our business. Not that it could possibly interest the readers targeted for this post, but McDonald's is getting into the spirit of this Shrek movie: decorating the restaurant appropriately (ah! Felt just like Christmas), ordering the staff, from manager to crew, to stay wearing little green Shrek ears while "on duty" (yes, I'm a medic even in summer), selling Shrek baseball caps for Lm2.50 and organising a host of Shrek parties which (I can safely assume) are especially organised for the little ones. Point to note: there is no such party at Baystreet...

Thirdly, the hospital Mater Dei (or should I say Mater Dejn?) has also been officially inaugurated in the above stipulated date. Of course, two "open days" followed that to celebrate the government's pompous accomplishment with the rest of the nation - Mother of God It's finally ready! Many stands were put up on site so as to make the hospital a bit more attractive than the beach or the cinema (Mater Dei vs. Shrek. What's it going to be?) Not that it was all that necessary, honestly. The fact that the public was left on tenterhooks for almost a decade and a half, as everyone was kept informed regarding the fate of this white elephant, was enough to send 80,000 flocking to this new hospital. I must admit, I was part of the 80,000 but I really didn't bother taking a tour round. At this point, one could wonder how much more ungrateful can today's young students be. As a future doctor, I should at least be proud of having a government that "invested" so much in the health sector. After all, we're talking about one of the most state-of-the-art hospitals in all Europe (I think). Well, these two open days don't signify the celebrations of a hospital that is up and running in full swing motion, explaining my lack of enthusiasm towards this project. A good hospital isn't just about the building; the system running Mater Dei is equally, if not even more, important that the fancy and colourful surroundings (with compliments to MCAST students...good job guys).

A very flashy Mater Dei magazine came to my hands lately. I actually took a good look at it - I guess a significant percentage of me is still interested in the happenings of this new hospital. And for good reason - I got my first two exam results (out of four) and (drum roll please) I passed in both. Now that my 3rd year is more and more on the horizon, I naturally find myself wondering where and how are my last three clinical years going to take place. As students, we are still left in the dark as to what's going to happen to us and our education facilities. Interestingly, however, the migration process described in the magazine "Sptar Mater Dei L-aħjar għal saħħtek" has been comprehensively divided into 4 phases, specifically as follows:

Fażi A: Migrazzjoni ta’ żoni pubbliċi u l-amministrazzjoni
Fażi B: Migrazzjoni tad-Dipartimenti ta’ l-Outpatients u servizzi anċillari
Fażi Ċ: Migrazzjoni tas-servizzi Inpatient
Fażi D: Faċilitajiet edukattivi u dipartimenti oħra

The Prime Minister (PM) promised that the hospital will be fully functional at the end of this year. All I know is that similar promises have been made before and the government has failed to keep his word, creating great inconvenience to the public. We can take current events as examples - the St. Paul's Bay Bypass. Quick words with the Medical School librarian back when I was still stduying suggested that Phase D might be complete in 2010 - the year in which I'm expected to graduate. Some nationalist leaning relatives of mine told me not to bother with such information. It got brushed off, saying that the source of information is pretty unreliable...it's coming from a librarian after all (if you get the hint).

Still, I had nothing better to do last Sunday than joining the Mater Dei crowd after Alive on Sunday mass at University chapel (min imaqdar irid jixtri). I thought it was a good way to simply to meet a few friends of mine and do something useful with my time. MMSA (Malta Medical Student Association) had its own stand opposite Outpatients, where my colleagues were happily playing doctor and taking blood pressure with their newly acquired stethoscopes. Ah! The bliss and enthusiasm of making it to the clinical years... Well, I'm a bit more of a St. Thomas - I'd like to receive all my results before actually thinking about what steth to buy for myself. In the meantime, I'll just keep helping people who are in greater need of my assistance at the moment. Joelle is taking part in this year's Lifecycle Challenge and I decided to help her out by selling "a few" lottery tickets.

Some good has come out of those two open days...people were with that "good feel" feeling now that they were given access to this glorious hospital and the altruism towards renal patients (exhibited by the ticket and bracelet buying) seemed to have complimented very well with the occasion. Honestly, I dare not complain. The Lifecycle challenge is one of the few things I actually believe in since it was in its infancy back in 1999. I was barely 12 years old, but the compassion I have towards the sick has been ingrained, most probably, way before my very first birthday. Both friends and family know me for this zeal to give everything that I've got to such people. Other friends of mine say that it's quite a disgrace that we actually need to stay fundraising to help cover the horrendous expenses at the Renal Unit, especially when the government was ready to set up this huge hospital considered as the biggest project ever undertaken in this country. Yet again, problems open doors for opportunities: sport lovers can channel their talents, dedication and energies into something very positive. And also, it gives Eileen Montesin some kind of story to keep the nation hooked to the stupidest TV series ever aired on national television: Dejjem Tiegħek Becky!

It is Finished! Last but not least!

2007-06-22T16:32:00.000+02:00

What seemed to be an insurmountable nightmare in October has, hopefully, ended today. My annuals are officially over. Note, I didn't say second year is over. Resits are still a possibility, especially with the knowledge that 5 failed Physiology and 3 failed Anatomy. Yet, I honestly don't want to be part of those statistics. After all the effort I put in, I want to close the chapter entitled "2nd year Medicine" for good.

Pathology exam at Medical School was not so bad...at least compared with my other writtens. And I doubt my colleagues would beg to differ. Apart from the fact that most people left this three hour exam after 1.5 hrs, two guys actually decided to stay drinking beer throughout the whole thing. They wanted to start celebrating early I guess (yup! Resits are certainly not an issue). At precisely 10:15am, I got distracted by a huge "click"...they even decided to open their yellow Cisk cans together! Funny how it contrasted with the way invigilators took their job extremely seriously, following us on our way to the toilets, lest we fall into the temptation to use the library downstairs with the exam paper still in hand.

Well, I was one of the extreme few who managed to stay for the whole three hours. In the meantime, I was honoured to hear many (ex) fifth year medical students literally shout with joy at the news that they now have a "Dr." in front of their name. Sadly, there were a couple who didn't make it and will have to go through the ordeal of resits before celebrating. Well...it happens! The scariest thing is that it could so easily happen to me...in any year. The very thought that my present euphoria of not having to study anything when I wake up every morning could end so abruptly when I go on my eSIMS to view "the fruits of my labour"... it's just scary. I tried to get my mind off things by spending time with a few friends, bummed a lift home from another and got the hair cut I so desperately needed. But I can only put my mind at rest when I get those blooming results...(excuse the whining. It shall stop here).

But, till that day dawns I'll just relish the thought..."What shall I study tomorrow?... Hmmm... absolutely nothing!" xD And God, if you're reading this...please give me the luxury to keep relishing that thought daily till mid September, when I start my third year. Thank you.

The Final Countdown! (No not for elections...)

2007-06-19T06:57:00.000+02:00

These three weeks have kept me too busy to update you with the obvious; examiners have managed, exam after exam, in making me feel like I have become the epitome of stupidity. From the 28th of May till 8th of June, the exam schedule was pretty crammed and exhausting. Nevertheless, it seems like I'm surviving i.e. still (1) breathing with a (2) pulse and (3) conscious. But all this studying has robbed me from the joys of blogging about some pretty interesting current affairs that have happened lately. Not that I'm one of those that keeps a close eye on the news, but any happenings centred around Mater Dei hospital and the new Medical School is bound to arouse some interest, even in the indifferent citizen. Luckily, this guy over here has found the time to patiently keep all his readers up-to-date with the disgraces of our country and his opinion towards the matters. For those who have been living in a world of their own: you know the 4th of June? When it had happened to rain very heavily? Well, let's just say that after my 1st Anatomy paper, I wasn't alone in ending up drenched on my way home from Uni at 2pm. Mother Nature deemed it a good idea to give our new, glorious Mater Dei a nice clean before its grand opening at the end of this month. I was in my mother's car when it happened (yeah, I didn't manage to walk in the rain). With her behing the wheel, in the traffic created by the storm outside the new hospital entrance near San Gwann, I was able to watch the nation's pride and joy (il-perla tal-"perla f' nofs il-Mediterran") putting up a new, unplanned outdoor swimming pool. Together with the meals, TV and Internet, the pool would have contributed to the creation of a hospital looking more like a theme park (click here for Ref) than a teaching hospital.

Well, exams are over soon. My Anatomy final is officially over today. True...it just had to end with a real nerve wrecking practical, containing neuroanatomy questions from the labyrinths of hell. As I tried making sense out of the pre-dissected dead carcass, X-rays and photos, some parts of the spotting test felt pretty much like a guessing game. Now, it's just Pathology (the study of disease) on the 22nd of June. And then I'd be free...free to be a pain.

Exams Start Tomorrow...Let us Pray

2007-05-27T18:10:00.000+02:00

The best of "William Wordsworth" dedicated to students (including me) undertaking gruesome exams tomorrow till end of June.

Test Prayer for Suffering Students

Now I lay me down to study,
I pray the Lord I won't go nutty.
If I should fail to learn this junk,
I pray the Lord I will not flunk.

But if I do, don't pity me at all;
Just lay my bones down in study hall.
Tell my teachers I did my best.
Then pile the books upon my chest.

Now I lay me down to rest,
And pray I'll pass tomorrow's test.
If I should die before I wake,
That's one less test I'll have to take.

AMEN!
Esmily Wishneusky

What? You actually thought I was going to post real poetry? Good luck to all those who are doing their exams. And for those who finished (or don't have to take exams anymore), just enjoy your summer without beign pains in the bottom. ;)

Abdo Frenzy! Starring spleen and abdominal pain...

2007-05-18T14:08:00.000+02:00

Why abdo frenzy? Well, it so happens that in this post, the abdomen (i.e. the tummy region) is going to feature quite a bit, with special attention being given to:
1) The spleen
2) Abdominal pain
Actually, only these two points (too many) are going to be the highlight of today's post.

The spleen

The spleen is one organ found in the abdomen we don't often talk about; most probably because it rarely gives anyone any trouble. It could also be that it doesn't do anything interesting in the adult except for destroying blood cells when they retire after 120 days. However, the spleen was once thought to be the seat of "black humour" ("to vent one's spleen) and sadness, caused by an excess of "black bile" (melancholy) that gives the organ its characteristic disgusting colour. It's within the latter context that the spleen is going to enjoy its few seconds of fame. It's not a vital organ in the adult but I still have mine in place, and it needs to be "vented out" a little bit after a very interesting case of abdominal pain that hit very close to home.
Abdominal pain

The causes of abdominal pain range widely; so much so that when a patient presents with abdominal pain, an incompetent pre-clinical (and sometimes even clinical) medical student is bound to leave something out when listing out the possibilities that could ultimately lead to a correct differential diagnosis.

I was studying at medical school library when I receive a message from my mother at 3:15pm. "We're taking Erika to the ER". :S Naturally, I was worried sick and when I met them at the Emergency department moments later, I see my sister get out of the car, holding her tummy like her intestines were about to fall out, with her face all cringed. She was obviously in agony. However, as my brainwashed self suspected an appendicitis (i.e. an inflamed appendix), my gut feeling smelt one of the biggest farces that I could ever write on this blog (at least before I get to ward rounds in third year).

After a bit of running around to get to the right department, blood tests were carried out, (mid-stream) urine samples collected, X-Rays taken...obviously with long hours of waiting in between. In the meantime, I tried studying for as long as I could without getting too distracted by the unfortunate circumstances. Library closed at 7pm but Erika was still in ER. By the time I arrived home, the medical staff finally found out what the problem was. My family came back with my sister totally relieved from pain just 15 minutes after I arrived home and ate everything I could find in the kitchen. Naturally, I asked what the problem was.

To spare any unnecessary embarrassment for the patient, I will not directly state the answer to this clinical case. Instead I'll just end by saying...God bless laxatives ;)

Got myself a job!

2007-05-12T14:39:00.000+02:00

Just a quick post to let the world know...99.9% I got myself a job this summer - selling burgers in one of the most famous fast food franchise in the world. ;) Summer 2007 is going to see my third return to McDonald's Baysteet. Now, I'm just waiting for the management to get back to me and give me my uniform. In the meantime, it's back to studies to avoid having a "too busy summer" with resits.

2 weeks till doomsday

2007-05-11T15:34:00.000+02:00

Long time no blog...reason being that I have only a pitiful, remote number of fans to feel obliged to. Also, as you can imagine, I have particularly nothing interesting to write about; unless you want to know how my studies are going and what I would have actually learnt during the day.

Spending lots of time at Medical school library trying to get some work done. Yet, the only things I seem to learn at the end of the day are:

Our memory stores are not sufficient to carry all the expected information
Most of what we're meant to know is utterly useless
As much as we're adviced to focus our energies on what is important, it is not what is important that comes out in exams.

Whilst I was neglecting my blog, I thought no one could have a life lamer than mine. Then, I watched the semi-final eurovisions yesterday and watched Olivia singing Vertigo. As much as my heart went out for her when she didn't make it to the finals...I kind of felt way better about myself. At least I'm actually doing my first two "finals". Olivia didn't even get a chance to go through the final round in Finland. That's going to give Peppi Azzopardi quite a lot to talk about on Xarabank "live gewwa Helsinki". That should make life more interesting...

Friday the 13th: Just for your Info

2007-04-13T09:44:00.000+02:00

The origins of this superstition that Friday the thirteenth is an unlucky date has variable, but deep, historical roots. It kind of originates from two seperate fears: the fear of Friday and the fear of the number 13. Just for your information, tradition holds that:

Eve tempted Adam with the apple on a Friday.
The flood in the Bible, the confusion at the Tower of Babel, happened on a Friday. What Biblical verse or scholars they quoted to support this...I have no idea!
There were 13 people at the last supper of Jesus, with Judas the betrayer having been the thirteenth member of the party to arrive.
Jesus was traditionally crucified on Good Friday. But in this case, as the name implies, that particular Friday is one Friday we should all be thankful for.
The pagan lunisolar calendar had 13 months in some years, while the solar Gregorian calendar and lunar Islamic calendar always have 12 months in a year. Hence, 13 was considered to be a pagan, bad, bad number.
Friday was also considered to be the witches' Sabbath and, on that day, each week, twelve witches and the Devil met - thirteen evil spirits in all.

So it is only understandable that having a Friday the 13th, two unlucky things, gives you the impression that you're heading for doomsday. But, is it understandable? We now live in the 21st centuary where we do know better. Or do we? Well, psychologists believe that Friday the 13th will become a day of bad luck if people focus on the day because people will create their own bad luck by paying attention to the superstition. Yet, we still have a term that specifically describes the phobia of Friday the 13th: paraskevidekatriaphobia. And even when the fear wouldn't be that extreme, most people would not get married, start a new job or close on a house on Friday the 13th. I personally don't like stocking on the idea of Friday the 13th holding such ill luck, partially because I know from first hand experience that bad things, big and small, happen to me all the time (my friends can confirm).

Apart from that, although my day was not so exciting, it was actually rather good. I actually managed to wake up early to get to St. Luke's Hospital at 7am to start studying at 7:30am. Then, I visited my old school and spoke to enough aquaintances that really made my day. So...how was your Friday the 13th?

Happy Easter!

2007-04-08T13:24:00.000+02:00

Happy Easter to all of you people reading this blog and to all your loved ones! I think it's high time for another post for all my secret fans that seem to have very little to read.

On Tuesday, I had a passover meal with a few friends of mine. First time I officially drank wine, and it is not going to happen again till next year. That day managed to confirm that I do hate wine and that I can never grow to like it. Otherwise, the food was great, the place was nice and the people are having a decent life going on that's much better than mine right now. Though, sadly, Martine's sunshine just wanted to strike for the day. And I must admit, I missed a few other friends at certain points (those who know what I'm talking about, I'm sure you understood! Those who didn't understand, you're not exactly expected to).

Also, Joelle's birthday present finally arrived the next day - on Wednesday after two months of waiting! (My friend's birthday was on the 9th of Feb. It explains the tortoise on the left). So, on my way to Medical school library, I went to pick up "Jesus MD" at Mireva. Thought I'd buy her some food for the soul this year which she seemed to like very much. She said it was cool and I think she meant it by her efforts to try and make time for it, despite being so busy. She's thinking of reading my present whilst at the hairdresser's. Well, I think that if she'll keep that up, I'll guarantee she'll read the book in absolutely no time at all! ;) (I doubt you're reading this but, in case you are...sorry but I can't help being mean.)

Those are basically the highlights of the week. I could have had more if I wanted to. There were many Easter activities that I could have attended. But, sadly, I had to decline with the hope of celebrating my victory in summer. If there was something that really struck me on Tuesday was that the Jews celebrated their freedom from slavery in Egypt before they even got out of there and into their promised land! :S Living with the attitude of celebrating victory before it has been attained seems nice...gives you a reason to celebrate everyday of your life. But, I guess I'm very far from being Jewish in my ways...very very far.

Being a Hero is in your Blood!

2007-04-04T08:10:00.001+02:00

Can't help using last year's Blood donation campaign slogan. It took me ages to come up with it for last year's blood drive, so I thought I might as well use it. So...a blood unit is going to be set up at University by the Malta Medical Student Association (MMSA) as indicated in the above poster - 16th, 17th and 18th April next to car park 6. I'm not directly involved in this but my friend is. Plus, this is one of the few causes within MMSA I love to support.

If you're wondering whether you're eligible to donate: firstly, you have to be 18 years old or older. If you're 17, you can donate with your parent's/guardian's consent. You must weigh at least 50 kg/110 lb (up to now I am a very good candidate). Also, you must be in general good health. But, this being very vague, I'll try be give a few specifics...

Haemoglobin levels should be above 12.5 g/dL and your blood pressure should be normal (120/80). But these are things the doctors and nurses will check on the day so I wouldn't worry too much about them. Those who have certain blood conditions like Thalassaemia or blood clotting disorders you most probably won't be able to donate blood. For those who are anaemic, make sure you're free from any symptoms. But, like I said, the doctor will have you checked on the day.
If you suffer from allergies you can donate as long as you didn't get an infection and you're not on medication. But again, when in doubt, you can ask the staff on the day.
If you've suffered from food poisoning or gastroenteritis, you can donate a week after full recovery.
If you currently have an STI (sexually transmitted infection), you won't be able to donate in this campaign. Some other time maybe, depending on the STI. For example, HIV and Hepatitis B are STIs but if you've got those, then you cannot donate blood. Sorry...
If you're on antibiotics, a 72-hour deferral is required before donating after yuo're healed from the infection (72 hours is approx 6 days).

Having said all this, there's one thing I'd like to make clear. I tried making sure that the above bulleted information is correct at the time of typing. But this blog is not the Gospel of John. When in doubt, just ask a qualified doctor. Trust me, not all of them bite. And if there's someone out there that finds something wrong with what I typed, or has a question, please post a comment. And even if you just think that this site is cool/crappy/boring/plain stupid/dumb/funny...just post.

By the way, don't forget your ID. I can't promise I'll be there on the day. I'm not very lucky when it comes to donating blood. They always find something wrong with me apart from being a serious mental case. But I'm working on it with the hope of donating this time. In the meantime, do consider saving a few lives without the pains of getting a medical degree...

Another Birthday

2007-03-27T21:59:00.000+02:00

A medical student's blog should, typically, have pictures of stacked books and stressed individuals hard at work splattered all over. Yet, this post is not an account of what topics I managed to study during the course of the day.

Today was my friend's 21st birthday and we decided to go on the Logos II to check out the books there before the ship leaves at the end of this month. Well, always better than starting off a birthday with a Hep B vaccine! We met at Medical School at around 9am and we caught the bus to Valletta. On arriving at Valletta waterfront, we discovered that the book store opens at 10am; we happened to be there half an hour early. So, we just relaxed a bit and enjoyed the sun whilst eating the two hot cross buns I bought that same morning on my way to hospital. I tried compensating for not having enough time to bake my own cake for the occasion. At ten, we hit the boat for a bit of bargain hunting. I managed to find something interesting for myself, whilst trying to convince the birthday girl to get her hands off junk she doesn't really need. Our little shopping spree had to end at 11am so as to go to lectures (or rather, what was left of them).

After University, I rushed home to get ready for a job interview as a local leader with EF. I guess it went pretty well. I'll let you know if I managed to get the job next week so keep posted. In the meantime, I must finish an assignment...due tomorrow.

Hep B!

2007-03-20T20:35:00.000+01:00

Today was Marija Farrugia's birthday. To be more precise, it was my friend's lucky birthday. She turned 20 i.e. she's officially no longer a teenager. We decided to start celebrating this glorious day bright and early...to get immunised against Hepatitis B. Well, you can't say that we don't get an A+ for originality. So, we met at Medical School (in St. Luke's Hospital) at 7:45 am. We were suppose to meet 15 minutes earlier but we both ran a little late. Plus, I had to buy ourselves two muffins; unfortunately, they came without the candles. Anyways, we found the infections control unit closed despite being told that we were suppose to find it open before 8am. That gave us a bit of time to eat our sweets and observe our surroundings were bugs don't just stop at the sink outside the infections control office, but they even reside over there. Amongst the many posters, there was one saying "germs travel". Believe me, these people have no clue how much germs travel in this God forsaken hospital.

At 8:20 am, we were 'warmly' greeted by the nurse, "Intom min intom?" (Who are you?) We explained that we were 2nd year medical students who were told to go take the Hep B injection on Tuesday if possible earlier than 8am. That triggered a series of grumbling and muttering because:
1) The nurse had lots of work to do and said that she didn't really have the time for us ("Ghax jien bhal llum ikolli xoghol iehor")
2) She claimed to be the only nurse on duty, even though there was another one of her colleagues with her the whole time ("U llum inzertajt qieghda wahdi")
3) We were suppose to have come between 10am - noon. Go figure that she was the exact same nurse who told us last Wednesday to come today earlier than 8am!

Then, we finally got our Hep B. She took a much longer time grumbling then getting us both immunised and fully eligible to start ward rounds next year (obviously grades permitting). Oh well, patient care in this country never ceases to amaze me. Sometimes I contemplate on the possibility of us, as future doctors, making history in the health care system. Even Jesus' second coming occurring next month sounds more probable...

Well, after St. Luke's off we went to University. I skived all the lectures to get some decent studying done. It turned out that the living anatomy session was actually good. I'll have to see if I can join some other group on Thursday to get the tutorial I was suppose to go to today. In the meantime, I must finish thorax!

Jesus: The Face of Love

2007-03-18T13:03:00.000+01:00

Fr. Ray came up with the most brilliant conclusion to these sermons. We ended this event on Saturday with a Youth Mass and the homely was all about Jesus being the face of love present in the Eucharist. This mass was one of the liveliest I've ever been to. It made me realise that the church can be alive if it wants to. True, there were some people that criticized the parish for having four drum kits just behind the alter. But, if it takes four sets of drum kits to bring the church to back to life a bit, why not use them? Is the church's architectural integrity so important that you're ready to risk celebrating mass with empty church benches in the future? That was Fr. Ray's very bold reply to all the criticism.

Well, for us to have such a set up that we felt very necessary, it took a lot of our time and effort to mount. And what we set up last week, we had to dismount yesterday. Believe me, I cannot say that I fully appreciated scrubbing off the double sided tape on the marble church floor at 9:30pm (together with the help of other people of course). However, when it comes to spreading the Good News, there are cases where the ends do justify the means of evangelizing.

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2 Corinthians 4: 16-18

Mary Magdalene: The Face of Faithfulness

2007-03-18T12:34:00.000+01:00

What was considered to be a mega big insurmountable project in August is finally approaching the end. We talked about the face of faithfulness on Friday. Leana was a very convincing Mary Magdalene. She actually managed to cry during the whole interview. I wonder whether she ever considered using this skill to get what she wants with people. Anyway the Friday session was good for a number of reasons:

1) Friday's news item was the only one I did not manage to take care of compiling myself. Tutzi wrote the script. Not that she didn't do a good job and that I am some decedent of Shakespeare, but it did help me appreciate my budding talent as a writer just a wee bit more. Anyways, good job Tutzi! I know it's not easy to write a play from scratch.

2) More importantly, a real lot of youths made the step to give their lives to Jesus. That is what made all the sweat and tears to put up these Lenten sermons all worth while. The 'funny thing' is, we spent so much money to promote the event and, yet, the people that came to the sermons where there thanks to their friends and not thanks to our adverts. Poor Martine was thinking of retiring when she found out. (Martine deserves a big well done for all her hard work and dedication. When you see her, tell her, "Prosit!" And Martine if you're reading this...Well done!)

3) The theme song was played twice for the first time throughout the whole week. Couldn't help not being flattered...but...all for God's glory, all for God's glory. I'm glad they were able to worship Him with it.

Friday ended with fellowship at McDonald's in St. Julian's. Whilst everyone was looking at the menu, my eyes went straight on this big poster "Recruitment Day" that gave me something to chew on other than an extra value meal. They want summer workers...and I desperately want a summer job. I filled out an application form to work with EF and they still didn't get back to me. So...Marquita is still on the hunt to do something useful with herself during the holidays...

The Thief: The Face of Forgiveness

2007-03-17T09:47:00.000+01:00

Thursday brought with it "my first harvest"...my long essay is hard bound and ready to be handed in! All I have left is Behavioural Science assignments were we have to stay writing about our feelings. It's not enough going to the Halland Hotel for three days talking about your feelings and trying to associate your mood with particular colours. You have to write everything down and stay processing everything in three 1, 000 word essays to see whether you managed to show significant personality improvements during those three days. You obviously all know how I'm going to write those 1, 000 words: 5% decency and 95% crap. Amazingly enough, that is how you do well in behavioural assignments.

Despite all the nonsense I still have left to do, I went to the forth session of Let's Face It!. Thursday sessions are usually dedicated to encouraging people to go to confession. In fact, we even provide priests for confession. So...what better face to discuss than the face of the "good" thief? (Quite paradoxical isn't it? I mean...how can a thief be 'good'?) This created a tiny problem when featuring our usual interviews - you cannot interview a thief dying on a cross can you? So, we just imagined that this guy had Robert Rizzo as a kid brother that witnessed everything at the foot of the cross.

Fortunately, Fr. Ray's talk was pretty short! Not because it was boring but because we had long ques for confession. Ushering all those youths was quite a headache that made me land on my bed stoned when I got home. But I won't complain. After all, we were just getting exactly what we prayed for!

Peter: The Face of Failure

2007-03-16T13:34:00.000+01:00

On Wednesday, I had lectures at Medical School at St. Luke's. What better time to have a tiny heart-to-heart with Joelle? She impressively managed to give me a few minutes of her time just moments after I messaged her (she had duty on that day i.e. a long shift last for approx. 36-48 hours). The thing is, new feelings of failure keep cropping up from time to time i.e. I need to be scheduled for open heart surgery again.

Keeping with the general theme of that day, we discussed Peter as representing us all in our moments of failure. Stephan acted out the part of Peter in the Y4J News interview really well. I saw some real good (unexpected) talent which could be explained by either of the following possibilities:
1) He's a brilliant actor
2) He's been in Peter's shoes many times before
3) Both of the above

In any case, he deserves a real big well done for delivering so well. Fr. Ray also gave a good talk, which I found particularly encouraging, and Sam is getting better and better at animating meetings together with the rest of the band.

Hence, generally, Wednesday was a reminder that hard work does pay off some time or another, despite our failures and mishaps.

Judas: The Face of Betrayal

2007-03-14T19:05:00.000+01:00

So, Tuesday was all about betrayal, represented by the face of Judas. The part of Judas was well acted out by Steve on the left during the Y4J News interview. And Fr. Ray surely dissected the interview very well during the talk. The turn out was good, the sound was better than Monday...can't wait for the rest. Me thinks that I'm going to end up with a huge empty feeling when all this will be over. Still, the 'unofficial' exam time table came out and I'm not happy with it at all. The most important exams are crammed within the first two weeks of the exam month. Although it is still unofficial and changes are possible, they're very unlikely. By the way, don't tell anyone about this...I've been told that we suppose to be totally oblivious to how are exam time table is going to be for now.

Barabbas: The Face of Fortune

2007-03-13T16:58:00.000+01:00

I was supposed to have typed this post yesterday but I was too tired to do anything when I got back home. I didn't do the desired amount of studying but a lot went on yesterday...

Long Essay Done!
I officially finished my long essay and I took it to Copy Club for it to be hard bound today. Alleluia! That's one assignment I'm very glad to get rid of!

The Kekoo Experience
I went to buy a new text book (yep...towards the end of this scholastic year) at Kekoo in Naxxar just before going to St. Julian's for the 1st Lenten sermon. I must admit it was a "unique experience" with the kisses on the cheek (which he apparently gives to every customer), the free biro plus a ten minute autobiography of how his unbeatable prices and numerous amount of friends are taking the piss out of Mireva, Agenda and Indigo bookshops (with the latter shop being, today, non existent).

The 1st Lenten Sermon
The 1st Lenten Sermon was a pretty good start. The sound system was a bit disappointing (we're used to far better I guess). Otherwise, everything was simply great; from the drums and the dances to the talk given by Fr. Ray. Yesterday we talked about Barabbas representing the Face of Fortune. We introduced him through a "Y4J News Item", where he was interviewed by Martine "live from Jerusalem". Then there were the vox pops...lol...Matthew and Ian looked so good on the screen. :) The Archbishop came (fashionably late) and he led the adoration at the very end. Andrew took a few photos that can be found on the y4j website. They're not so clear but I don't have any pictures of my own so I'll have to make do with these...

This is the Day...

2007-03-12T06:50:00.000+01:00

Decided to wake up early to do a bit of studying (to compensate for this evening). Today... (drum roll please) "Let's Face It!" Lenten sermons start.

Must admit, I'm not exactly looking forward to them, which is pretty sad as the whole team tried to contribute as much as possible to reach out to youngsters this Lent. Yesterday Youth Team had to be at St. Julian's to set up the place. Obviously I didn't go; my books require to much of my attention for me to be too generous with my time. Maybe that's the reason why I'm not so enthusiastic about these sermons at the moment...because of this fun sucking course I'm in! Not that I didn't know what I was going in for when I applied for it but anyways, I'm sure the rest of the Youth Team did a fantastic job at decorating the church. Maybe it will help me get into it a bit more. Seeing everything come together always feels good!

So...see you people at St. Julian's Parish church between 8pm-9pm. For those of you who cannot come or simply do not even bother to be bothered, I'll post daily updates on this blog...hopefully add some photos too. That's it for today. I'll post again later today.

"Spring Shower"

2007-03-10T11:13:00.000+01:00

Time for a now post. Yesterday wasn't one of my most fruitful days. It must have been the weather. The very, very bad weather. I had a lecture at 10am and turned out to be pretty important i.e. I wasn't able to stay at home just because outside happened to be drizzling. So, I went out, walking it all the way from home to University without an umbrella. Since it hadn't rained for a while, I simply forgot where I left it and I had no time to stay looking for it. So, you can imagine how I ended up after 15 minutes walking in the rain. Apparently though, the Heavens thought I wasn't soaked enough. While trying to cross the road I was waiting for the cars to stop, and along comes a Maltese bus. It just had to drive into a huge puddle with an inappropriate speed that, basically, got me soaked. I went for the lecture dripping. One of my lecturers saw my hair, my face and all my clothes drenched, gave me her umbrella and suggested I should go back home and change...to avoid catching a cold! :S Catching a cold? With wet hair and clothes? ...

I must admit, there was one time where I lived with that misconception till one fine day I was given a life home by Joelle (M.D.) and said that I, as a medical student, should know better. So, let me try do something useful and pass on the same enlightenment I was given (by the way, I hope that this will not be the cause of any arguments with your parents at home).

1. The climate is only an enabler and not the cause of the cold
In simpler English, you need the "cold virus" to get the cold. You do not pick up infections from cold weather. You get germs from other people who sneeze or cough in your face or transmit germs with their hands to objects that you touch. A little detail for those who can take it...research shows that the most common way to get a cold is from someone who has a cold, sneezes on his hands, and then shakes yours.

2. But doesn't cold weather make the immune system weaker, or something of the sort?
For the anti-science individuals who are surprisingly reading this post, the immune system is a defence system found in the body that fights germs and infections all the time. But chilling does not really weaken your immunity (body defences). In 1958, some guys who had very little interesting things to do wrote a paper in the American Journal of Hygiene, (Vol. 68, pp. 659-65): "Transmission of the Common Cold to Volunteers Under Controlled Conditions". More than 400 volunteers were exposed to viruses that cause colds. Some were exposed to very cold temperatures while wearing heavy coats, some to 60 degree temperatures while wearing underwear, and some to a very warm 80 degrees. All had the same rate of infection. This shows that the crucial factor that determine whether you get a cold is being exposed to the virus that causes the cold.

Nevertheless here are a few No Nos that will remain despite the research:
1. When you're late for school/work and you're unable to find your umbrella, don't take your sister's! (Oh! A bit of rain won't hurt anyone.)
2. When your parents tell you that you cannot leave the house without being warmly dressed, don't print this blog post and scoff it down their throats. If you really want to make your point make sure you remain civil throughout. Also, there are more reliable educational sites out there written by some doctors and professors that can never be phoned by your concerned, feel-like-they've-been-disrespected parents.

Life isn't so bad after all!

2007-03-06T20:41:00.000+01:00

"Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord." 1 Corinthians 10: 17

I have very little clue of what that could mean. If it means sharing with other people how good God was to me yesterday, then I'll be abiding by the above in this post. And for good reason...

You remember that booklet Y4J is trying to release, hopefully very soon? I mentioned it in my previous post. Well, basically it's going to be done in both English and Maltese; yesterday, I got the last piece of translation. I sent the whole thing to the proofreader today. What a relief! After 5 months of nail biting worry...cannot wait to see it printed...

What also came in yesterday were all the illustrations...including those I was suppose to get Saturday morning at Uni! (Again see previous post if have no clue what the hell I'm talking about)

Also, my mobile's battery went kookoo when I needed it most. Luckily...because of the fact that the mobile I currently owe is a vintage (Nokia 3310), I managed to find a Nokia battery lying around the house. So...I got a functional battery without having to actually go buy one. So I guess yesterday didn't go so bad...eh? What you say?

Yeah...God has His ways of making me smile. I just hope He makes me grin from ear to ear when I get my final results in summer. Just read a blog of a 1st year Med student (Matthew for those who know him)...said that these two years don't contribute much to your certificate. Thing is, it is extremely difficult not to expect at least a decent grade when you would have worked your ass off for so long.

Anyways, like one wise lady reminded me (i.e. Joelle's mummy :)), we reap what we sow. I just hope I would have reaped enough sweat and tears by the 26th of May :/

So how are you feeling?

2007-03-03T18:54:00.000+01:00

My secondary school days have given me few friends, but they gave me friends that stood the test of time. We've been classmates for nine whole years practically. And during that time, they all got too well acquainted with my fair share of ill luck. And it was my ill luck that broke my mundane Saturday morning today.

As part of our Lenten sermons, Y4J will hopefully release a booklet aiming to introduce young people to Jesus. Today, one of the illustrators had to meet up with me at University to hand me his drawings. I gave him the liberty of coming at any time between 9am - 1pm, as I was going to be there anyway to study. He said, "OK, no problem! My mum can take me there." Well...to cut a long story short...he just didn't turn up. And just when I started packing up my things at 1:30pm, he finally messages saying, "My mum cannot come to University." Love is patient says the Bible. But I am not love, hence, my patience has its limits. God I cannot believe that this booklet is more stressful than my University assignments!

Oh well! Best count your blessings ej? After all, up to last week, I spent Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning at a Behavioural Science weekend at the Halland; or as one of our class reps rightfully put it...Hell Land. For those people who are unfamiliar with what this weekend is, I'll give you a briefing:
1. It's compulsory
2. You and your classmates get to be split into groups (and no, you cannot suggest with whom you'd like to stay) and each group will have a psychologist or psychiatrist leading the several sessions that would have been assigned for the day.
3. Depending on the tutor, you get to talk about utterly useless things like how to be a big softy when taking to patients and how you can work more as a team with various health professionals including your consultant (oh gosh! These people seriously need to get to terms with reality). I heard that some tutors were quite good. Mine wasn't so bad. There was one thing that bugged me though...the word "feeling" was used in 50% of the questions she asked us. We actually started off our 1st session with her asking us, "So how are you feeling right now?"
4. Sometimes, you can take part in role plays were the bitch lying within can be totally unleashed as you get to be the ruthless, insensitive doctor with a larger than life ego - various role models to choose from. That was the only part I enjoyed. I got to be the psychiatrist that did not want to tend to worried patients after clinic hours. Two people in my group actually clapped at the end! :S And, trust me, I'm not a good actress. I guess I can be naturally mean!
5. Then, when it's time to eat you can do one of two things: either cook your own meals (recommended - the Halland kitchen won't mind giving you the necessary utensils) or you eat their stuff. I'm not a fussy eater so I went for option number two, obviously at my own risk. Friday evening when I went out early so I don't know how dinner was. My friends said I didn't miss anything. I took their word for it, especially when I heard that the Halland staff had made Faraaz an omelet (coz he doesn't eat meat) and he spent a whole night pucking it out. :( Poor Faraaz!
6. Also, you have to make sure that your room is clean and tidy in case any brown visitors might decide to show up unexpectedly. Quite a good number of rooms had cockroaches. And one particular room had a good number of cockroaches. The hotel happened to be arranging the water works during our stay. Something went wrong and one room got infested with creepy crawlies. Luckily this year Sullivan, the organiser of this thing, actually took our comments seriously (for once) and has actually tried to "challange the hotel" on this cockroach case (O yes! Because the Halland did not want to belive us when we complained about the matter. They said they wanted evidence.) But then again, this is Malta; usually nothing is done on anything.

"So, what will you take home with you after this weekend?" Simple. Gastroenteritis and empty Pif Paf cans!

Hello People!

2007-03-01T18:42:00.000+01:00

If life is a roller coaster ride, then I could have got through the day without wearing a seat belt. Today wasn't exactly eventful. All I had was one lecture, to which very few people came (and who would blame them? It was biochemistry - no one would want to spend three hours on a bus to get to a 3/4 hr lecture with Hunter and back home again). For the rest of the day, I was at home studying...trying to get ready for our first revision lecture tomorrow: Embryological Development of the Brain and Cranial Nerves. I'd like to greet his "lordship" with questions...Mr. Zrinzo is expecting questions. The problem is...I've been studying all day and the only difficulty I have encountered so far is this: "How in the hell do you expect me to remember the course of the 12 nerves in your head?"

But the day wasn't all that bad...it had its nice intervals. When I went onto "My Go" to send a few messages, I saw the "Let's Face It!" advert we talked about yesterday in our (Y4J) Admin Team meeting. Came really cool! Got me all excited again for the upcoming Lenten Sermons.

The above advert is what appeared on Pink magazine already. And, believe me, there are going to be a lot more reminders all over the place...from Uni to Bay Street. For more information, visit http://www.y4jmalta.com. Do try come; you won't regret it I promise. After all, all of us are really working hard with the hope of getting to know better who God is this Lent.

So...please come...please, please, please, please...

For those who cannot come...just spread the word.

That's all folks!

How this blog came to be...

2007-02-28T18:23:00.000+01:00

Welcome to my blog folks! A blog that wouldn't have been created had it not been for a few friends of mine on MSN...

It all began when I added more MSN contacts once - a time which it's light of day I thought I would never see. Then, there was this guy called Matt, who had this website on his nick... www.omegatango.blogspot.com. Being a curious individual, I went to check it out. Turned out to be yet another blog of an enticingly written, but very ordinary life that made me ask, "But why do people bother?", whilst secretly considering having a blog of my own. Then, today, I was talking to Martine Cauchi, again on MSN. I asked her how she was getting along and I ended up talking about me...my life...wasn't intentional seriously. But that's what we talked about. Well, the conversation seemed to be appreciated...with a series of "lol"s and "hehe"s and "hahaha"s that led me to contemplate on becoming a full time comedian if I flunked in my MD studies. When I shared the thought, Martine suggested I should have a blog of my own...creating another blog about yet another ordinary life. And, hence my blog was created.

I won't keep ranting...you'll get to know me better as we go along (I'll try post as often as I can). Feel free to drop by, say what you have to say...whatever. And all of you Dutch friends from the Maternal Health workshop 2006...please don't be afraid to post. You can do so in Dutch...I'll get the gist of what you're saying no problems! - thank God for www.freetranslations.com