Friday, December 29, 2006

Portugal, ABC and Happy New Year

Arrived in Lisbon last evening. Hard to imagine that they were our conquerors so many centuries ago. No internet outage here, heard from CNN (the only channel in English) that it will take at least 2-3 weeks before connectivity is restored!

ABC stands for Another Bloody Church/Cathedral. This applies when the main highlight of most European tours are visiting places of worship that their own countrymen do not even go nowadays. I must admit the architectural magnificence is awesome, but after a while, they are all the same!

My bought internet time is up. Adios. Happy New Year

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Espanol X´mas Trip

Spanish X´mas. At a Hotel in Granada, figuring out how to use the Spanish orientated keyboard without the "@" key directly in sight! Wasted at least 5 minutes and equivalent of 50 Euro cents worth doing that. It is still pitched-dark outside, with subzero temperatures, althought it is already 745am. Today, another of those sit-in-coach-longer-than-sight-seeing adventure I have in front of me. No wonder my back constantly feels broken. Less than 2 minutes left for my precious Internet time left, and I have to go now. I have prying eyes at the back of me - half the populace of my coach are children. Adios.

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Shanty, Shanthi, Shanti

Apparently, the words above mean Peace in Hindu.

May Peace be with you always.

Happy X'mas & New Year.


Will continue blogging after my vacation.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Headaches and Phaeochromocytoma

After seeing a patient who had a phaeochromocytoma (a tumour of the adrenal glands that produces hormones for our "fight or flight" response) removed surgically 2 days ago, co-incidentally, it precipitated an acute migrainous attack. It reminded me of the classical triad of symptoms that phaeochromocytoma patients have: headache, sweating and tachycardia.

The triad that I encounter everyday is: contemptuousness, migraines, and sick leave. Maybe it is a tumour after all!

Monday, December 18, 2006

Whipple's Triad

I am still bewildered with the medical terms that previous doctors coin to describe certain medical conditions!

Whipple's Triad was mentioned this morning, and not even the consultant knew what it meant. I supposed it was too unbelievable, and perhaps the doubt was further confounded by our prejudice.

Putting my prejudice aside for the sake of knowledge, I looked up my reference and low and behold, Whipple's Triad exists!

Whipple's Triad is demonstrated when a patient presents with (1) signs and symptoms of hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar) and (2) confirmed with a glucometer reading, and (3) the signs and symptoms is reversed by administrating glucose.

Before this, the Whipple's I ever knew was, (1) Whipple's disease and (2) Whipple's procedure.

Bravo! You never seize to amaze us.

BT

BT, or Breach of Trust.

The above happens when your superior promises you something that you have to wait for the equivalent of 2 trimesters of pregnancy, and when it finally arrives, you are denied possession of it, without giving any reason, hint of remorse, nor an attempt to be apologetic.

Lampoon

Lampoon means to satirize somebody or something with ridicule.

Have been getting the above with increasing frequency and intensity lately. It is my nature to adapt to these adverse conditions somehow, by keeping quiet, or relate it to my fellow colleagues. With the advent of Blogging, I feel it is time that I also give myself another conduit to share my thoughts and experiences by publishing it into this Blog.