Forces of Nature

interesting title? hehe.. bt let me tok abt wat happened earlier 2day first. There was tis horse, which suffered from severe back pain around the pelvic region (saddle sore) for almost a week now, and Dr Cool has been treating him with acupuncture (never seen it done on animals? hehe.. nothing's impossible for DrCool..) but to no avail. So Dr suspected sth amiss with this horse.. opted for ultrasound subsequently.

During the ultrasound, as usual, Dr relentlessly fired us with basic anatomy questions, but of course.. he explained and talked more than anyone of us (ayuz + fyan + me). Then he asked a very simple question, "wat articulates to the acetabulum of the pelvis bone?" hey.. vet-2-bes.. gues 90% of u surely know the answer right?

so here's a quote from Dr Cool + my "dialogue"..

"wat's the part of femur tat articulates to the acetabulum?"
"Head of femur"
"which head of femur?"
(puzzled) "the round structure, we call it head of femur."
"yah, but wat do you call the head of femur?"
(confused) "haah? err..the condyle..head of femur"
"which part of the head of femur?"
(LOST) "haaaaaah??"

after sum struggles, Dr finali told us the correct answer.."head of femur". (???!!!!??!!!) ok ok.. so here's the remnant of our "dialogue"..

"But I said head of femur earlier!!!"
"Yes, but after i threw a big stone on you, you began to lose confidence n became unsure of yourself! even after so much reading, you're stil doubtful of urself!"

omigosh omi omi omigosh!!!! at the very moment, i really wished to crush my fists into the padded-crush (horses are restrained in a box, called crush). realli reali reali reali fiery burning! y did i doubt myself?!! iisssshh.... haaaaah... luckily.. my facial muscles do not respond promptly to my heart's voice.. maintain my cool-ness. maintain...

LESSON OF THE DAY -> believe in yourself.

Though it's fiery within me, bt the weather outside expresses its mood in a totally different way - THUNDERSTORM. Then came an emergency call.. Trees have fallen on a horse!! quickly the vets rushed there..the horse has actuali ran back to its stable, and thank God.. he was only superficially (we hope) injured.. slight lacerations. we suspect he was on his way escaping after he noticed the trees inclining towards him..

say.. had it been a man.. surely panic would hav smothered him, and all he'll do is to stand on straight n watch the tree fall on him in awe, with eyes and mouth wide open, right? (tat's wat i usuali see on tv..)

LESSON 2 OF THE DAY -> horses are smart.. dun underestimate em. ;)

RACE DAY at STC !!

Thr were 8 races today, 5 prof, 3 amateurs.. there were supposed to be differences between the prof n amateur races.. but.. hmm... i just cant figure wat's the difference. Theoretically, amateur races are for horses which have been deleted from the prof race la. Expectedly, they should run slower than the prof's.. bt then.. hmm...

Today is the first time i've been to a horse race, LIVE.. the sun's burning, the crowd's growing, my head's throbbing, my throat's dessicating, sweat's uncontrollable, skin tanning.. but my heart's pounding enthusiastically, followin Dr COOL and his junior vets around the race field, watchin how they diagnose a healthy, unfit or lame horse. Interesting! I guess i have merely 5% of the skill.. gosh o gosh omigosh...

There were a few stages for the horses to go, before they started sprinting.. first, they have to parade infront of the public (for the vet to cek, and maybe public to view, the jockeys got on the horses there). After a few rounds of parading, the jockeys started riding the horses to the starting point, where there was a barrier (horses + jockeys sorta got locked up within it for maybe 1 second or so, before the flaggin). Once the horses got into the barrier, the vets (not all) quickly rushed into a jeep, and follow the the horses by the side.. guess? the horses run at an average speed of 100-120kmph! syok la.. for the riders.. :P fasta than a motobike can go legally.
;)
Tis' d barrier! al the horses n jockeys were chucked in those tiny boxes.. sometimes, a few nervous horses will freak n jump out of those boxes! Horses r powerful yet wonderful creature.. ;)

Wooo HahAahhh!!! bliv it or not,d jockeys' yells r so much more frightening than d cowboys'!

the race started at 2, ended at 5.30.. of course, all of us were terribly tired, worn out, and sunburnt.. on the way out, i saw lots of members of the public sitting, looking depressed around STC.. hmm.. perhaps lost in the bettings..

First Day at STC prac

Today is one of the most embarassing day of my life.. so far maybe. Went to Selangor Turf Club (STC) early tis morning, was late, but nvm.. then followed a COOL, SMART.. (BERGAYA oso) Dr n his junior vets walking up n down STC..

The first thing when i reached the Eq Clinic, I was sosooooo surprised, it's as though watchin a drama, sth like ER, where everythin happens so fast, and best of all, DR SHRI is a multitask man, any moment! wowowowowow... real impressive.. n inspiring.. while handling and treating some horses, he delegate ppl, watch ppl, advice, commend, teaching.. ALL DONE NON STOP, n almost at the same time, without break!

Oh gosh...admire admire admire...

But the worst follows.. he tested our anatomy.. very basic.. like the components of the limb bones, knee, joints.. omg.. i cant even answer sth as easy as tat! Well.. at least i'm stil a student, stil hav time to correct myself.. bt.. looking foolish in front of sum1 u admire is surely the last thing u hope to happen.

anyway... learned my lesson well.. study, read, learn.. juz cant run away from it.

Dancing competition

Went to Great Eastern Mall w Tee,Yee n KWhye to watch the National xxx ( i dun rmb) Dancing Competition(Finals). Interesting really!

The competitors were actuali secondary school students, reprsenting their schools like Chung Hwa, Jit Sin, SMK Seri Kota.. all over the country! There were very funny dancing steps.. and very gentle.. there were even traditional dance, ballet, modern dance n a little of cha cha too! But the most exhilarating part was during the modern dance by Chung Hwa, when 1 of the beautiful model-like dancers stripped her outer suit, exposing merely a strap of tube ( i think only abt 15cm width) covering her chest! woooo... wasnt the crowd excited! screamings .. photographings.. n droolings (haha!) took place immediately..

Sad for Dav--s, for he surely wil knock his head hard against the wall yelling, "Y WASNT I THERE? !!!!!" 2 bad for u my fren... :P

4th day of PM prac

Had a very funny dream yesternit.. i actuali reared 2 leopards in my house - the leopardess n her cub were actuali my secret pet at home, and i was trying to protect them from the tiger, which can transform into a lion! gosh.. n frustratingly..the silly, but cute cub kept running and jumping gleefully in n out the house as though there's no danger lurking.. but his look was exactly like my little Toffee.. the ears all pulled backward all the time. But the moment my family came home, the lion and leopardess vanished.. leaving the cub behind, still hapi though. funny funny dream..

Talking abt today.. our prac was actuali properly scheduled, so tat in case there aint any necropsy on any day (like today), there's always a back up plan. Today's back up plan? nae... haha.. revision, which indirectly means, our own suka sukak time.

But tis mornin we saw how the staffs transfered all the carcasses (stored in PM cold fridge) and buried them behind our faculty.. first they dug a 5-6ft deep hole.. put the carcasses in, and covered it back. It was ... hmm.. a peaceful morning, no prayer done before, during and after transferring.. no wrapper.. not to mention coffin.. all the animals share the same pit... and.. the smell was horrendous. gee.. i kept shifting places coz the wind kept changing its direction.

Alls well ends well.

Histopathology day

Today is actuali the 3rd day of my PM prac, but since all we've been doing since early tis morning are all related to histopath.. so theregoes my title.. ;)

Histopathology is the field where you study the cellular components of a sick tissue under the microscope.. but in order to make the tissue look-able under the microscope, it must go through a very long process... which takes more than 5 days! Naaa.. this is wat we learned.. first..

1. u've gotta fix the tissue ( using alcohol, formalin, etc.. even salt.. hmm.. but tat's not quite practical...).. so wat we do is to immerse the tissue in the solution, this wil require at least 24 hours.. the next step is..
   
2. to process the tissue, which involves dehydrating the tissue, then clear it, then impregnate the tissue with wax and finali embedding the tissue with wax. wow... all these can actuali be done using a single machine, called... THE processing machine, haha... actuali i dun remember the name, but gues wat? it costs more than RM100000!!!! hmmm... can actuali buy a low cost house liao.. anyway.. the embedding is done using a separate machine, a special machine which is made of 2 sides, on the right is the HOT and on the left is the COLD (freezing cold.. ) so you can see the magic of physics with ur very naked eyes.. how the molten wax transform to "candle" in a matter of seconds!
3. after tis we simply cut the wax+tissue with a super sharp bladed machine - called the microtome (trust me, tis time) coz there is no other name for it. ;) then put the micron-thin film of tissue onto a slide, stain it.. and ta tanggg.... it's ready for the microscope!

Next my Pathology lecturer Dr Hair "trained" us how to look for lesions (abnormal structures in the tissues) under the microscope. YOu wouldn't have believed this.. we've been sTrAiNinG our poor little eyes with the microscope, looking at the same 6 slides yesterday TRYING HARD TO OBSERVE, NOTICE, SEE, LOOK, VIEW, or whichever term u like.. we tried.. real hard.. for hours.. yet.. our effort was all in vain. sigh..

the ironic thing is.. with Dr Hair's guide today, we managed to see the lesions in less than 30 minutes! gosh... now i've learned... how important is certain individual in ur life.. without them.. u may just go round n round in circles.. as though you're blind-cuffed on a roundabout. (hey, hinting somthing here.. catch it if u can, leave it if u dun, haha)

SO.. lesson of the day.... appreciate everything u hav while they're stil there... ;)

PostMortem Practical - 1st day

Came back to Serdang from KB yesternite.. and stayed at Tee's house. Funny, i'm sure i've been to her hse a few times, well at least 3-4 times.. but still couldnt find it.. well, alas after a call to get her hse #, i reached my destination.

I was very hapi to see her, coz it's reali been a while since we last met.. so there we chatted from 11pm - 3.30am! non stop! a lenghty heart2heart tok which i missed for so long.. anyway, what we chatted are basically secrets. ;P

So there i woke up at 7am tis mornin.. tot PM prac starts at 8, but everything seems to move so slow.. washed face, took breakfast... etc etc then i turned to look at the clock, GOSH! it's already 8! So quickly i walked to UPM, which actuali took me 30 minutes or so.. then i tot.. 30 min compared to Lata Berkoh journey which my frens took at Taman Negara few days back.. cheh.. nothing ler....

Worse.. i got plenty of mosquito bites (total >20 on each leg! itch like crazzz!! brrrr. . . ouch! ), n gues wat? Waichat has it too! Planned to go to PusatKesihatan.. bt the bus service realli sucks.. 30min.. not a bus in sight, well, yah.. at least there were 3 buses stucked, or immobilized at the library bus stop (cheh!). Just as i tot to walk there.. eik?!! Kok Ang suddenly appeared!! hahahaa.. my saviour....

Today's case is very interesting. DYSTOCIA. know wat's tat? it's difficulty in labour, probably due to prolonged gestation where the fetus grew so big it couldn't come out, or the fetus' got abnormal positioning which causes the difficulty, which happens in this case.. the calf's leg (carpal joint) was flexed. kesian, the calf's head was stuck halfway out the vulva when the dam passed her last breath! (see the pic below) Otherwise both the calf n dam were healthy.. sayang...

2 heads.. 1 body.. :'(

Very tired.. n sleepy rite now. but since tis is the first day i'm using tis blog, haha... i'm highly motivated.. mental strength is always stronger than physical. It's tru.. trust me. Think positive.. n things wil go ur way.. SOMEHOW> ;)

DVM4 Taman Negara trip

DVM4 trip to Taman Negara, 6-9April 2005..

some ppl says it boring.. not attaining its achievements... and al sorts of things you can hear from them, but who cares? well, at least i don't care.. and never will.. coz i believe tat it is how you live things up, tat decides whether or not it's interesting or boring... successful or a failure.. tho' been sleeping for only 2 hours everynight (the tent floor was so hard, my head kept complaining to my mind! :p ), but i enjoyed the trip very much. . really, really really.... ;)

went swimming w frens at LubokSimpon tat evening.. oli, ikin, ck, weiyee, chris, kamal n zul, bainun, zana, fati, it was so much fun, having not touched the river for so long, splashing water with special kungfu, laughing, yelling.. and a disastrous synchronised swimming, :P it's as though life is back to childhood then, where there's no worry, no burden.. just enjoy the very moment you have.
then it happened that whn i was "teaching" weiyee how to swim or stand-in-the-water, she suddenly exclaimed, "pam! my feet couldn't feel the river floor!" calmly i stretched out my arm to pull her towards me, where the river is shallower, and didnt i realize tat instead, i was pulled into the deeper side! after a lil struggle, pushing weiyee afloat, while i try to stay afloat myself.. i finali lost my energy.. and gave up pushing anyone atop the water level.. as expected, both of us quickly drown.

Haha.. thank our mighty graceful God, at the very same time, i saw Zul's concerned face, and he stretched out his long arms, one to weiyee, one to me.. pulled us up and brought us to safety. Heck, it sure was easy for him, coz he's so tall.. deep for us = shallow for him.. hehe.. But gratitude instantaneously filled up my heart .. and he became my saviour of the nite.. haha!

Bravo Zul~! luv ya! ;)

I went river rafting as well.. it was a little disappointing at first when we reached the starting point, coz i was expecting a rough, splashy white river. instead, a calm wide river was all that's staring straight at me.. hmm... NEVERtheless.. the journey was full with laughters, play, screamings, crazy stuffs.. like chanling kicking dennis off the boat.. oli spurting water at my face.. the 3 gutsy guys (ck, oli, dennis) who daringly jumped into the river later couldnt' push themselves up into the boat.. so we, people on board, have to pull them in, with all our mights. There was even a time when me, ummi, fansuen, n ck were sprawled across the centre compartment of the boat! it was fun FUN fun FUN fun FUN fun and JUST FUN~~!! and FUN~! ;D

a purrfect place for chess... especially when u cant sleep at 3am! ;) tx kerel, for the ches set. :P

Gua Telinga.. make sure ur on dark shirts only.. bags.. eerr... :)

going back.. hmm.. where's sg tahan??? obviously the 3 hansom macho guyz x understan y am i n wyee stoopin? isk isk.. :p

a bien tYt !