Scissorhands wannabe

Witnessed the first surgery in my life today... really exciting stuff. It was an orchidectomy (not cutting orchids, but one of the more intimate parts of the male body)

Many questions regarding surgery that I had all these while were answered within the 3 to 4 hours of standing there and watching Dr. Wong (of Pudu Specialist Center, where I was attached to) performing it... questions like 'When you cut someone open, won't they just continue to bleed?', 'How does suturing really work?' etc.

Also went on ward rounds with him, mostly seeing him do dressing on diabetic foot ulcers. Wouldn't want to post the pictures here or else your most recent meal might just rush out of your throat (If you're curious, just google 'diabetic foot ulcers' and you'll see them). As scary as it is, it is already a very common and real disease: one contributing factor being the high consumption of sugar in our diet (yes, I'm guilty of this too). Perhaps the govt should think of pasting pictures of the ulcers in sugar packets, soft drinks, chocolates (err... ok, maybe not the irresistable chocolates) & sweet packets too just like they had done for cigarettes.

The elusive letter

Since young we've been ingrained with a mission to chase after a letter of the alphabet.
Our parents tell us to study hard, send us to tuition etc. so that we'll get strings of it in our results slip.
The media highlights some people who'd take so many subjects just to get more of it.
The people around us gleam with more delight when they hear that we've achieved it instead of the 2nd letter of the alphabet (some might even ask "What happened?" if we don't achieve it).
Sometimes I can't help but wonder, "Is it really that important?".

Oh well, I guess we can't run away from the fact that it is the sole marker of our academic performance, and getting it shows how responsible we are in our studies.

In my quest to obtain the elusive letter in the recent exam, I got a taste of what Hollywood might have been in American Idol, haha. (Look at my previous post - You've gotta be careful what you wished for). Here's the story, besides the normal exam that everyone has to go through, there is an additional exam called VIVA (pronounced 'wai-wa'), which is an oral examination set up by the lecturers for students who almost passed or almost got a distinction to see whether we deserved to be elevated to a better grade.

So there I was, sitting in front of 4 of my lecturers and an external examiner where (instead of singing,) I was being grilled & bombarded with questions for about 30 to 45 minutes. Alas, not every story has a happy ending. I still didn't manage to grab hold of that elusive letter but I'm thankful for the opportunity to taste what VIVA is like, and the fact that God had guided me through the 5 weeks of preparation and throughout the entire exam.

Ps. If you're still wondering what letter of the alphabet it is, it's an A