Wednesday, July 30, 2008


W.T.F


I am in a state of shock.

posted by nwxiang at 9:14 AM | 0 comments


Tuesday, July 29, 2008


Death isn't pretty


And neither are autopsies.

Gore-flicks? Yawn.

You know, the most disturbing thing is actually how I'm so minimally disturbed by it all.

posted by nwxiang at 8:18 PM | 0 comments


Monday, July 28, 2008


Wake up my idea


I think I must stop being mediocre.

posted by nwxiang at 9:21 PM | 0 comments


Friday, July 18, 2008


Moral of the story?



Sometimes hope is more important than truth.

How true is that exactly?

Not so important don't you agree?

Anyway Dark Knight is good. Watch it.

posted by nwxiang at 11:41 PM | 0 comments


Why the sudden rush of anhedonia??


Why so weak???? WHY?????

posted by nwxiang at 12:27 AM | 0 comments


Wednesday, July 16, 2008


One of the hardest questions in (medical) life


Today, our favourite eye consultant (yes, I'm doing ENT now, not eye... met him during lunch) asked us:

"What if you had to decide today what you want to specialise in? What if die die you MUST decide today, or you become toliet cleaner??"

No offense to toilet cleaners... I recognise them as a essential part to the normal functioning of the society and the nation. Anyway, this is such a painful and difficult question...

Maybe I shall deliberate on this topic again in a later post, due to time and energy constraints. But if someone forces me to make a decision like NOW, I will run screaming away...

posted by nwxiang at 12:47 AM | 0 comments


Monday, July 14, 2008


Conclusion


We are cursed.

posted by nwxiang at 11:55 PM | 0 comments


Thursday, July 10, 2008


Die from working too much


Labor bureau: Japanese man, 45, died of overwork (Source)

TOKYO - A Japanese labor bureau has ruled that one of Toyota's top car engineers died from working too many hours, the latest in a string of such findings in a nation where extraordinarily long hours for some employees has long been the norm.

The man who died was aged 45 and had been under severe pressure as the lead engineer in developing a hybrid version of Toyota's blockbuster Camry line, said Mikio Mizuno, the lawyer representing his wife. The man's identity is being withheld at the request of his family, who continue to live in Toyota City where the company is based.

In the two months up to his death, the man averaged more than 80 hours of overtime per month, according to Mizuno.

He regularly worked nights and weekends, was frequently sent abroad and was grappling with shipping a model for the pivotal North American International Auto Show in Detroit when he died of ischemic heart disease in January 2006. The man's daughter found his body at their home the day before he was to leave for the United States.

The ruling was handed down June 30 and will allow his family to collect benefits from his work insurance, Mizuno said.

An officer at the Aichi Labor Bureau on Wednesday confirmed the ruling, but declined to comment on the record.

In a statement, Toyota Motor Corp. offered its condolences and said it would work to improve monitoring of the health of its workers.

There is an effort in Japan to cut down on deaths from overwork, known as "karoshi." Such deaths have steadily increased since the Health Ministry first recognized the phenomenon in 1987.

Last year, a court in central Japan ordered the government to pay compensation to Hiroko Uchino, the wife of a Toyota employee who collapsed at work and died at age 30 in 2002. She took the case to court after her application to the local labor bureau for compensation was rejected.

A house officer can own him anytime. Lemme do some maths..

Assuming the engineer had a 8am to 5pm job, number of office hours per day = 9hrs
Assuming the engineer had a 6-day work week, number of working days per month = 24
Engineer worked about 80 hours overtime (outside office hours)

Estimated number of hrs the deceased engineer worked per month
= (9 x 24) + 80
= 296hrs

A house officer works from about 7am to 6pm everyday, thus number of "office hours" per day = 11hrs
A night call is about 24hrs (gross underestimate), so number of overtime hours with each call
= 24 - 11
= 13hrs
Each month, the HO does at least 6 calls.

Estimated number of hrs a HO works per month
= (11 x 24) + (6x11)
= 330hrs

This is actually discounting the weekend calls, which are about 2 every month, and are longer than "normal" calls. Hope we dun drop dead when we are HOs...

posted by nwxiang at 10:13 PM | 0 comments


Monday, July 07, 2008


This is so gonna be my next phone..



HTC Touch Pro. I'm salivating already. Details here.

When am I going to get it? Probably in year 5, or when I'm a HO. Haha.

posted by nwxiang at 10:07 PM | 0 comments


Sunday, July 06, 2008


"Dun get ur hopes up high"


I think the above is just one of the crappiest statements in the whole of human language. Utter bullshit. 废话.

No soldier goes into the battlefield without hope. No sane one. Not even if its a 1000000 to 1 fight. Either you fight to the end, hoping for some miracle, or you run. You fight, hoping that you will live. You run, hoping that you will live. My point is, even in moments of unimaginable adversity, in the face of impossible odds and in the depths of darkest despair, one will still hope. And the moment you stop hoping is the moment you stop breathing.

We human beings are slaves to our emotions. And unfortunately, hope is one of the strongest, or most intense of them. More often than not, to hope or not to hope is not a conscious decision. And once you have started to hope, there is no on/off switch to flick, let alone a dial to adjust your "hope settings" to "moderate".

So next time when you want to say "dun get your hopes high" to someone else. Think again. How would it feel to be on the receiving end of one of mankind's most meaningless statements? 希望越大,失望越大? 谁不知道? 说点别的吧.

I rest my case.

posted by nwxiang at 11:11 PM | 0 comments


Wednesday, July 02, 2008


Exciting dream


Few days ago, had this dream that I was a HO/junior MO in the hospital. A patient collapsed in the ward, and I called code blue. Jumped on the patient and started CPR. CPR CPR CPR. Den the resus trolley came. Attach cardiac monitor leads. VFib rhythm. Charge. Clear! Shock. No vitals. CPR CPR CPR CPR. . Charge. Clear! Shock. No vitals.

Ok I know I missed out large chunks of the advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) protocol... budden its just a dream ok? I would be damn mad to be able to recall the whole ACLS while sleeping (-_-"). So lemme carry on describing.

Yup. So after a few cycles, somebody (nurses or other doctors maybe) just said stop. But I kept going on CPR-ing and shocking like a maniac... CPR CPR CPR shock CPR CPR CPR shock..... while the others kept saying stop...

Den. Sinus rhythm returned. The pulse returned. The patient woke up. And it was all so freaking intense that I just broke down and cried.

One hell of a dream. Shiok.

posted by nwxiang at 11:21 PM | 0 comments