My life at IPS

It's a busy Monday at work. Very busy. I have already transferred to the 'Inpatient' department in SGH and it was a culture shock for me 2 weeks ago as everything was so different. From the way they worked here to the type of patients that I encountered to the amount of paperwork I had to endure. Well, I was very lazy to blog over the past 2 weeks. Partly because of the 5.5 days work week as well. Yeah, here at 'Inpatient', aka IPS, it's 24hour and hence, it's a 5.5 day work week here if u are lucky enough to get a 'office-hour' work week. There's shift work here too. With the weirdest hours ever... I will be starting my shift next month onwards. So to my dear friends out there... I would most probably be living a life of hermit every now and then...

Anyway, I was so lost and tired when I just transferred to this dept. I was not prepared to learn new things on that Monday and suddenly, my mind had to absorb so many things... and with all the extra paperwork in this dept, it's simply overwhelming. I was to go on 'Portable?'training, wherein u would go to the wards to do x-rays for patients who are too sick to be fetched to the dept. Ho ho ho... I had such a 'culture shock'. From GIC(general imaging centre), where u x-rays patients who are alive and ambulant just like u and me, to having to do x-rays for patients who are senile, unresponsive, unconscious, too sick to answer u or simply hanging by the thread... it was like a great jolt to my definition of the meaning of a patient. I had to get close to them in order to place the cassette behind their back for the mostly chest x-rays in the wards, and those tubings connecting to the patient really scared the wits out of me. What if I accidentally disconnected one of them? These are patients in the Intensive Care Unit and they are really those who are very sick... or to put it bluntly, dying...

To make things worse, I did not get enough rest on Sunday night and both Mondays and Tuesdays were so tough for me. My senior who was coaching me was the impatient sort, so I had to force myself to focus and concentrate on so many things at the same time. The directions and wards in SGH wore me down too. WHOA! SGH has a thousand over beds and hundreds of wards... Aiye... and my sense of direction is not very good u know... :p

On top of what I have typed, my mind was very much on the Pakistan earthquake. I believed I have written in my earlier blog about it. I felt so helpless reading and watching the news at home. I had such a strong urge to fly over and help them. Being an allied health personnel, it's saddening that I cannot help much for I do not even possess the most basic first-aid skills! SIGH! My heart goes out to the millions out there affected by the quake and all I could do is simply make monetary contributions in the comfort of my home. Tsk tsk. As I watched the news on how the DART team went over, I suddenly had the STRONG urge to join them. Maybe quit my job after my bond and go train so that I can go for such relief missions in future. Haha. But the entire DART team consists of only men! So sexist! And I personally know of someone who's in it. And who went to Pakistan. He's back already. I should go ask him how was the experience.

Just thought that that would be a much meaningful way to live my life...

Reading the book, 'Wanderlust', did not help either. I have finished the book about this girl who's being held back by her obligations at home and could not follow her dreams of traveling. This was only at the beginning but she managed to fulfil her dreams at the end... Danielle Steel accurately captured the emotions and feelings of what a person like the main character, Audrey, was having and the kind of confusion she faces every now and then. I could identify totally with her. Travelling is my 1st love and I would never give it up for anything... Audrey met her life-long partner on one of her trip too and I am always telling my close friends how I can foresee me either being alone for the rest of my life or otherwise, that special someone would be someone I would meet on my trip. Hah. That would be like a fairytale come true!

Yeah, yeah, yeah... As reality gives way, u have to wake up from all that slumber...

I was so tired of work on Monday to Wednesday... Stressed out by the kind of 'scrutinization' I received in the dept too. However, as my senior allowed me to go out on my own portable rounds on Thursday and Friday, I was less stressed and surprisingly could perform pretty well. Guess it was because there was no one there to watch me. I suddenly got more independent and was not so afraid of getting close to patients anymore. I had to overcome my fear and I did.

I tuned my mind to psyching myself to like what I am doing. It is so true when the moment u like your job, u do not feel like u are working at all! Geez. This old adage is so true to its words. I had a hard time forcing myself to go work. In this dept, I have to come early and go off late. It's so different from GIC whereby u can turn up and go home on time and every minute is taken into account. Even if u only have time for half our lunch, they will give u back the time by letting u off work early. In IPS, no such thing. I practically had less than an hour lunch every single day in the 1st week and went home later than the stipulated time. Oh man. I hate it. But I have to adjust myself to this new dept and way of working.

I did it. I have come to accept my job and see myself as a professional still polishing up my skills. Still learning new things along the way. Don't ask me how I did it, but perhaps it's the people or simply just a matter of getting used to all the paperwork and the style of working in the dept. I have been assigned to do different thigns over the past 2 weeks. The 1st week was 'Portable' and the 2nd week was 'Room' training where many modified views are being taught to me and certainly new skills and knowledge passed down to me as well. Being able to relate the reason for the x-rays to the diagnosis and making sense of that particular connection makes it all the more meaningful. I was taking in new information every minute.

I learned to be more patient as well to the patients too. No pun intended. I have to! These are warded patients and most of them (98%) have difficulty standing up for long, and not to mention moving around. Teamwork in this dept is henceforth very important and I have seen that displayed. There are so many male Filipino radiographers here too and they are really nice and laid-back people. Nevertheless serious when it comes to work.

I have learned not to be afraid to ask. I have made mistakes definitely, but who doesn't? As long as u can remember what to do right after that and u will be forgiven... The biggest surprise I got myself was that my lust for travel is being stamped out at the moment. Did I caught u off-guard there? Yes, to all those who know me well enough, I am really not craving to go anywhere now. As I'm typing this, I am serious about it. I have borrowed guidebooks to read last weekend, but the fire in me has died down for the moment. Even me myself is taken aback at what I'm feeling. It's good that I can focus on my work now and look forward to each day. Looking forward to learning new things and that's what keeps me going on. It's not mundane right now as I'm being exposed to different things and I have so much more to learn to perfect my skills.

I'm sure the travel bug in me is still alive. It's in my bones. It's just dormant at the moment. It needs a rest. Someday, I'm sure it will bite me real hard again... until that day comes, I'm happy with what I am doing now...

I'm assigned to 'Operating Theatre' aka OT training this week. Yeah, they do take x-rays in the OT and with all the tension(sometimes) in the air as the surgeons are doing their case, u have to be most alert all the time. There are many things that one may fear in this aspect of RG. The heavy machine, the fear of not performing well enough, the fear of angering those demanding doctors and nurses, the fear of repesting an x-rays and getting a scolding... the list goes on man... and in this dept of mine, the trainer(Mr Par) is a strict man who kinda favours those who can pick things up fast and who are keen to learn.

I'm not bragging, but I think he's quite happy with my performance today. It was so busy and I was actually left alone to run a room all by myself today for sometime! Mr Par and Rajeev(the other OT radiographer) actually ran in and out today to see how I'm doing, but I was still left alone at some point in time! And on the 1st day of training somemore! Mr Par apologized to me as he does not leave his students there on their first day but things really cropped up today and he had to entertain the new machine's engineer who was here to test out the machine. There was only 2 RGs, but 3 OTs needed the I.I.!(a special kind of x-rays machine)Hence, I acted as the 3rd full-fledged RG although I was supposed to follow Mr Par. Geez. Lunch which was supposed to be at 12 turned out to be at 115pm! I was famished! I have to bring my own food this week as only 2 RGs are entitled to the free food in the O.T café. Mr Par kept asking me if I had eaten and even offered me the watermelon from the café! At the end of the day, he even thanked me for helping him out! :p Haha... To tell you the truth, I am very surprised things turned out so well on my 1st day.

It's getting late. I need to turn in early. I wake up at 6am this week in order to arrive at the department at 730! I will write more when I have the time!