DONE!!!!

Okay I swear this is the last post about my bionic arm - which is bionic no more :(

Just cannot resist posting pictures of the hardware.. I mean... it was in my body o_O. How crazy is that?!

Two plates, 11 screws.

Infamous 'six-sided star' screw heads.

Even surgeons need directions :P

Okaaaay. Done!

*whew*

I feel morally obliged to publish these photos.



May they stop ruling my life! Mom's gonna make me bathe in 'flowered' water to stop the current of 'sui'-ness that seems intent on following me around. -_-

home = food :D

Three weeks has passed. Two weeks since my botched surgery, and the screwdriver is STILL NOT HERE. I am getting thoroughly sick of how this piece of hardware is ruling my life. Am going to give a USPS a call today.

Why didn't they send my screwdriver via UPS?! :(

Three weeks of gastronomical adventures. I have been snapping photos of everything I eat, and places I go, much to the amusement of my friends and family.

Things I lust for in college...Char Siew Pau

Teh Tarik!

Sesame balls for Caitlin, Saki and Eush

Beef Murtabak, Tandoori Chicken

Fried noodles, Lor Bak, Or Kuih, Bai Tang Gao, Lemon Tart, Yam Duck, Spring Rolls - Typical Chinese family celebration spread

It seems as though I have a much greater appreciation for all things Malaysian now that I've been away for awhile. Obviously, there is no comparison to the food-Malaysian food will always hold the #1 spot in my heart.

But even my greedy soul agrees that it's so much more than that. A friend of mine claims that Asian countries 'smell' different than Western countries. While I don't have quite as sensitive a sense of smell yet, I suppose there is some truth to that. It's just..different. The sights, the smells, the people, the sounds.

Gurney Drive - sadly they're reclaiming it to make more land

Uncle reading newspapers at dim sum place

Ahh.. the biscuits! (yes we call them biscuits not cookies)

This time home I've been rather confined to the house. Partly because all my friends are working, partly because I'm just lazy to step out of the house, partly because I haven't sat around and done nothing for awhile, so I'm stocking up on that experience before charging on for the next few years.

Must... be.... productive. I swear I will.. just gimme a few more days :P

summer bliss

It just struck me that I've been back for a week by now. Time flies when you're doing absolutely nothing. And it's even better when you have a legitimate reason NOT to do anything! Whee.

Looks like I'm going to not be able to use my left arm normally for the entire month of June. Which sucks, because I had such big plans to enjoy the sunshine and humidity here in Malaysia. Right now, I haven't really ventured outdoors since my botched surgery. Initially it was due to the fact that I couldn't really bear the pain. Whatever possesed me to think that it wouldn't hurt?! =_=

Now, I'd rather not go outside because my dogs will jump at me. And right now, I definitely do not relish the thought of my left arm being mauled by this fat golden retriever and skinny Alsatian. Both are hyperactive, and get extraordinarily excited by me just poking my head out of the house.
.
I really should buck up and start being a little more productive than sitting on my ass in front of my computer, or watching movies, or reading trashy detective novels. Seriously.. the plot of every bestseller detective novel always falls along the same lines: hot-shot cynical detective who's down on his luck meets case of his life. Along the way meets another Mr Super-detective/Ms. Super-detective. Sparks fly. Both are antagonistic at first sight, but with strong feelings of attraction to each other. As case progresses, both are drawn together inevitably. Finally case is resolved, with some bloodshed, and detectives proclaim love for each other. The End. Or something along those lines.. the boy/girl theme is always there. Why am I still reading them?!

I briefly considered looking up MCAT stuff online, but just as quickly dismissed the idea. Am not quite THAT ready to face up to reality yet. Surely I deserve a few weeks of rest?

Was also re-reading my previous blog posts since it's conception. Have realized how bloody emo I sounded. Heh. At least I can look back at those times ruefully now.. it's always nice looking at things in retrospect and realizing that they weren't really as bad as your foolish then-self thought. Yet there's nothing in the world that would make me relive those horrible times (okay I'm sounding ridiculously melodramatic here).

Zhijun commented yesterday that she never would have thought I would start blogging. Well neither did I.. I think I'm famous for being super private =_= Still, I guess it's kind of a relief to just write and type and bang away at the keyboard. I think at some basic level I'm just another one of those narcissitic, attention-seeking emo people who wants people to NOTICE them. How sad to realize my shallowness!

screwdrivers, anybody?

Damn.... the wildest things happen to me!

I am rather hesitating to write this here now, but I'm going to go ahead on the off-chance that maybe someone can actually help me. Sigh. Not that I'm expecting anybody really to be able to help, but stranger things have happened.

I went for surgery yesterday to remove the plate in my arm that was put in two years ago from the accident. Everybody assured me it was a simple procedure, and it IS a simple procedure. Just cut, remove it, close. Easy-peasy!

I got to the hospital at 7 am. After waiting for a loong loong time, I finally was wheeled into the OR. It was strange being the patient (not that I'd ever been the doctor). But during my internship I would follow Dr. Bohl around, and observe pretty nonchalantly the patients in the prep room being wheeled into OR. It's been awhile since I've been the patient (not to sound like a regular to the operating theater!), and the last time I was there I was so doped up I don't remember a thing. This time, I had plenty of time to muse about how nervous I was feeling, how weird it was to lay on the bed, feeling pretty much helpless and small. NOT a very nice feeling for control freaks like me.

Anyway, in the OR the anaesthesiologist put an IV in me.. very skillfully I must say. It hardly hurt at all! There was also this funny thing he put on my forehead - apparently it's to monitor the brain waves. He injected the anaesthesia, and I felt a strange liquidy thing pulsing through my veins (or maybe that was just my imagination). Things started to get woozy real fast, and the next thing I knew I was awake, my head pounding like it was going to explode. I felt like I could hardly breathe, and was gasping and gasping. Not a very pleasant experience at all, to say the least. Somehow I managed to gasp out the fact that I felt like I was going to die (heh), and the doctor came over and gave me something (morphine I think). The nurse also gave me an oxygen mask and told me to breathe in and out slowly and deeply.. which I did. It helped somewhat, but it seemed like eternity before I finally calmed down and could relax again.

The pain. Ugh. Well.. let's just say I've forgotten how painful these things can be. It didn't help that I had this weird misconception that it wouldn't hurt so much just because it was a simple procedure! Of course I woke up with that throbbing pain in my arm, so much that I thought I would start screaming. I suppose the painkillers hadn't kicked in when I woke up. Still, it was pretty unbearable for the first part of it, and it only got better after I fell asleep.

Despite feeling really dizzy, I couldn't really fall asleep at all. They wheeled me back into the ward, and I lay there for awhile drifting in and out of consciousness. My parents came in soon, and then I had this sudden urge to call Caitlin. Don't ask me why... maybe it was the bonding experience we had through the accident. Heh.

******
OMG OMG OMG OMG. THE DOCTOR JUST E-MAILED ME.

******

Anyway back to the story before I explain what that above sentence meant. I was very insistent about calling Caitlin, and I couldn't understand why my parents were so reluctant for me to do so. My mom then took my hand and told me gently that they didn't manage to remove the plate. I'm not proud to say I started bawling my eyes out at the end of that sentence. She went on to explain that they couldn't do it because the screws that were used in my plate was different, and they didn't have the proper screwdrivers for it. Man.. I really started to sob the place down then. I was sharing the room with 3 other people, and thankfully my mom drew the curtains around me so I had some privacy.

I don't remember how long I cried. But halfway through I started laughing.. at the irony of it all. I dunno.. I'm thinking the morphine must have done funny things to the neurotransmitters in my brain, thus the yo-yo mood. Hm. Anyway.. I still insisted on calling Caitlin. Unfortunately she didn't pick up, so I left this really convoluted voicemail. Then I tried Saki - voicemail. Finally I called Eush. She was asleep, but she did pick up her call. She was so confused... poor Eushie! I started sobbing down the phone again... and she didn't know what to say at all. I must have traumatized her so much. Heh. Poor girl had to put up with my emo-ness.

Anyway.. like all things, everything calmed down after awhile. I drifted in and out of sleep. There was once when I felt so antsy and started talking non-stop to my mom. After which I had to go to the bathroom, and I felt like my wind was knocked out of me. NOT smart of me to be so hyperactive after anaesthesia. I even had to be wheeled out of a wheelchair to the car - I think I'd just have collapsed on the ground if you got me to walk.

Before I got discharged the surgeon came around and talked to me. He was so sorry about it :( Everybody was.. it was just totally unexpected. He said he had called the agent, and apparently these screws were new and not yet launched in Southeast Asia. So they couldn't get the screwdrivers from another hospital around here if they wanted to. At that point I suggested contacting the doctor who operated on me, and also the doctor I shadowed during winter term to see if they could help me out.

Subsequently I came home, slept off the anaesthesia. Woke up at an ungodly hour again. Have been checking my e-mail obsessively since waking up.

*****

So, the OMG is because I saw that I had a new e-mail in my gmail inbox, and it was the surgeon who operated on me replying me. He said he contacted the agent from the company, and they're going to send it over! HOORAY!

Ok, I'm exhausted with all this typing. This emotional rollercoaster thing is tiring. AHHHH.

:D

it all comes to an end eventually..

I suppose I never thought this day would come, but here I am - sitting in front of my old home computer, the fan on full blast behind me. The house is comfortably silent, with it's familiar creaks making up the background noise at 3.30 am. Yes, jet lag does funny things to you.

I'm home.

It's weird to be home. Not in a bad kind of way though. I walked out of the airport in Penang and was immediately sticky all over. Ugh. Yesterday I went out for a walk with my friends at the local Youth Park, and without even trying I was perspiring like mad. Hooray for tropical humidity! Sweating just makes the bath at the end of it so much more worthwhile. Heh.

This semester ended on a much better note than it started out to be. Waaay better. It wasn't exactly that I got more productive, or that I necessarily did more things.. but somehow my mood lightened, things stopped bothering me so much, time-wasting was not such a torture anymore. This semester has been an enlightenment to me in my ability at : cramming for exams, staying up late, sleeping as procrastination, eating as procrastination, 'blobbing' around campus in desperation for some human contact (and more procrastination). Oh, and let's not forget the triathlon that took Caitlin and and I all of -two- day to train for. Haha.

It also helps that grades are out and I didn't do as badly as I thought I would. Or rather.. given my effort this semester, it's amazing enough that it turned out the way it did. I suppose at the end of it I did realize I wouldn't be failing any classes (insert a *slap slap* moment), but it's also not very nice to think about the way I approached my classes. Ok 'nuff said before I start sounding even more like a pretentious little prick.

Man.. I had all these plans of things I wanted to do when I got back home. Unfortunately, inertia and lethargy is setting in...AAAAAH. Must.. Be...Productive! I promise I'll be more productive after Monday.. I promise I promise.

For now.. I'm going to stop here. I hope I've entertained Szerlik enough with this post. Not that it is a very cheerful post anyway. Ugh.