Special Senses #1

Here I am, just one week into the Special Senses module and M.I.A. again. It was a tough week, considering how high I was before crashing into the abyss of medical science. *I miss EAMSC T_T* Well, it’s not the science. In fact, the science is what keeps me there. It is the medical education that kills.

A part of “going to school” means going through tedious cycles of PBLs and plenary sessions, not to mention dealing with some pedantic facilitators who are more than happy to point out every tiny bit of discrepancies from the Twelve Commandments of PBL. [I would like to clarify that this breed of PBL facilitators represent only a minor portion of all facilitators]. This is what effectively prevents students from actually studying; we are being preoccupied with stuffs that should’ve been easily bypassed.

On the topic of special senses itself (sight, hearing & balance, smell, taste), I am somewhat ambivalent. I think the physiology of the senses is one of the most interesting and understandable compared to other body systems, although it can be quite complex at times.

Studying anatomy and histology in this module will take extra effort because we are studying multiple unrelated organs at the same time. I will also have to overcome my squamishness when seeing diseased eyeballs. Urgh. I can stand the sight of exploding intestines, but it takes willpower to stare at an acid-injured eye.

However, I think I have made a progress in this side: I watched an entire cataract removal surgery on YouTube. The surgeon was sticking all these tiny devices into an eyeball as if it were a pincushion, destroy its cataract, and replace the lens. And I didn’t even look away. Oh yeah.

Entering the second week, I am bracing for the rough waves ahead. If you think this writing is incoherent, you should take a peek into my thoughts. Gotta get some ZZZs.

A new dawn…

… that stings your eyes and burns your skin. The agony eats you inside out.

My sixth semester officially starts tomorrow. Blurgh. It will be a long one, with four six-weeks modules before another break. The Special Senses module (indra in Indonesian) is set to kick things off. Guess what my first day will be? A lecture-a-thon from 8 AM till 3 PM.

Despite my previous post, I haven’t moved a finger to get me back on track for a sound academic life. And for that reason, I am giving myself a pat on the back.

By the way, I got my hair cut today, which is predicted to speed things up in the morning quite considerably. Now I’m just hoping that people can still recognize me.

Which reminds me I have to get up early every-freakin-day for the rest of the semester. Then, the image of Jakarta’s abysmal traffic just ran through my brain. Add the current random stormy weather to that chaos. FML.

On a positive note, Glee is coming back this week :D My wish that the traitor Kurt will get eaten by a troll is not coming true anytime soon, but I am still very eager to watch the new episodes. Along with that, I have a safe supply of 30 Rock, SNL, and The Simpsons to prevent back-to-school blues. Not to mention the steady stream of CSIs in AXN and the new season of American Idol.

Oh yeah, I am also very excited to work with the new “season” of AMSA-UI (the AMSA chapter in the University of Indonesia). We shifted the day-to-day leadership towards our juniors; hence, I am looking forward to even more fresh ideas and clever executions. At the same time, we starting the recruitment process for new AMSA members. Ah, new addition to the family :))

And, in three weeks, I will be going to Yogyakarta for yet another AMSA Indonesia event!

Wish me luck and pray for my sanity.

Transitions

Nothing injects me with more melancholy than the end of any long holiday. The prospects of trading these joyful anything-goes days with tedious academic stuffs that eats you from the inside is not so great in my book. Even though I’ve gone through this holiday-to-holysh*t transition for a gazillion times, I cannot simply brush it off with a “been there, done that approach”. Pity me :(

As said in Lord of The Rings that “one does not simply walk into Salemba”, I think I have unintentionally compiled a to-do list before waving the semester break bye-bye.

Sort EAMSC memories. I uploaded the pics from my camera and have tagged almost everyone in it, but photos are not the only thing I brought from Bangkok.

First of all, thank you to my AMSA friends for the beautiful souvenirs we hastily traded during cultural night ;p They are very dear to me. I have kept them in a safe place and I will immediately put everything in its rightful place.

Second, I have to arrange who will get which gift from yours truly. Although I am quite flexible on this matter, I don’t want to give a cutey sparkling little Thai elephant keychain to my professors. They deserve something with more dignity, and less sparkle.

Last, I need to properly store my souvenirs from the conference and the Bangkok tour I had. There are conference booklets, business cards, books, fliers, and other whatnots to give home to. Additionally, I am proud to admit that I splurged on sweets in Bangkok supermarkets. Yumm, those chocolate chip cookies sure are tasty.

Reorganize school stuffs. Usually I would have done this at the start of the holiday as a part of my moving-on done-with-you ritual. However, something got in the way this year. Probably laziness.

The ritual starts with moving all the previous module’s materials to an external drive. Because my laptop is one of the centers of life, moving the files symbolizes my strong will to keep school out. And I just don’t like the digital clutter.

 

Then, repeat step #1 but in meatspace (that’s the opposite of cyberspace). As last the previous semester progressed, small ad hoc medical libraries sprouted in every corner of the house. Psychiatry textbook here, atlas of anatomy there, and I was surprised that no book chilled in the fridge.

Next, take care of the piles of medical handouts I-will-need-in-the-future but I’ll-forget-them-soon-anyway. By taking care, I mean buy a plastic folder and let them fall into oblivion there.

Last, prepare for the next module – NOT! The only thing I’ll have to rectify soon is my circadian rhythm, which is now more like a circus than a cycle.

Enjoy live as a free person. The most essential component of any school break.

Monitor the FAILblogs. Watch some weird viral videos. Read a novel. Load my preowned-by-dad iPod with cool apps.  Download the latest episodes of 30 Rock and Saturday Night Live (Eisenberg-Zuckerberg encounter was crayzeeh). Wake up with the sun shining directly above. Eat the whole mall. Come up with other activities normal people do on holidays.

If followed properly with great liberty to modify accordingly, those steps will certainly recharge me for another month of sleeping in class. Medical students rawkz!

AMSC: Jakarta upside-down

Life has been extremely good to me. Right now, I am currently on a long holiday. I’ve had 3 weeks and I still have another 3 ahead. If the absolute number is not that spectacular, let me put it in perspective. Other unis, especially the med schools, have shorter holidays than I do; in fact, some of them only get two weeks of time off. However, holidays are but facts of life. I need something more, something monumental. Thus, to top my happiness, I had the privilege to be a part of Asian Medical Students’ Conference (AMSC) 2010 in Jakarta Indonesia.

AMSC2010 is held by Asian Medical Students’ Association (AMSA) chapters of University of Indonesia (UI) and Pelita Harapan University (UPH). It was a week-long conference, from July 25 to July 31, with Geriatrics as its main theme. Participants come from countries with local AMSA, most of them in Asia. In Jakarta, they are treated to a vast array of scientific, social, and cultural activities; not to mention the opportunity to build connections and, most importantly, friendship. Many submitted their entries for the paper, poster, photo, and movie competitions; all of them are wonderful, some emerged as winners.

From Southeast Asia, there were delegates representing Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Cambodia. Other Asian countries in the conference are Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Mongolia, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Palestine. Additionally, we were more than happy to welcome delegates from Australia, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom.

So what makes the title of this post?

It comes from my personal experience during the conference. First, the conference required me to be in parts of Greater Jakarta I have never known that well. If it wasn’t for AMSC, I would’ve never been to UPH’s campus in Karawaci. The second day took place in Sapta Pesona building, which is the office of Tourism Ministry and in the Balai Kota for dinner. I knew the places, but that was the first time I went there. On the third day, I accompanied delegates to Kelapa Gading Mal, a giant hunk of a supermall made up of 5 malls. I’m not familiar with the mall, so it kinda felt like trapping them into a maze. And the most surprising discovery is…that there is a nursing home for the elderly very near to my house and I’ve been passing the location for as long as I’ve lived. I have to thank the organizers of the social visit.

Second, I was trained to see Jakarta in a very different light. While following the delegates everywhere, sometimes they ask me about the things they see: traffic jams, huge shopping malls, the capricious weather, strange foods, and all the little bits. I’ve been to Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, and the UK so I can see where the question comes from. For example, the girls are just blown away by the sheer number of shopping malls in the city because Australia simply does not have half as many. On the other hand, I gained new insights from other delegates like Mongolia, Bangladesh, and Nepal.

Last, there was a lot of movement. My house is in South Jakarta, almost at the southern tip of the province. Each morning, I have to outrun the delegates to the venue of that day. After the day is done, I tag along as they return to Mercure Hotel in Ancol. Ancol is in the very north of Jakarta. Heck, the hotel is by the beach! Not less than 3 times did I ride a taxi from north to south, at midnight the earliest. I once got home at 2AM and had to wake up again at 5AM.

Despite the ‘hardship’ I had to endure, AMSC is truly an unforgettable experience. New friends, great times, amazing activities, and tons of fun! Thanks to Facebook, it is even easier to keep in touch with people from all corners of the shrinking globe. I was in a deluge of friend requests, comments, and photo tags. Nothing more I could ask.

Slow, deep breaths

Out of the three exams I told you, there’s only one left. The anatomy lab was not as horrifying as I had expected. There was no obscure muscle or blood vessels to pull with careless abandon. In the ten-questions exam, the trickiest two were, as I had predicted, identifying segmental bronchi. However, even the bronchi are quite obvious and thus, did not require any excessive specimen-poking or wild guesses.

Earlier today, I had my integrated lab exam. By ‘integrated’, I don’t mean that all the departments get together and make a grand collaboration to test the students. Instead, they simply do their own exams together in one go. While it was surely not easy, it was not nightmare-ish either. Perhaps the previous modules has toughened us up – or brutally killed our fear neurons.

And here I am. Two days away from the very last exam, which covers half of all lectures in this module. I repeatedly comforted myself by remembering that I had at least glanced at the lecture slides, but still I cannot fool myself. This is an almost-emergency. In the normal campus atmosphere, I will be drowning myself in slides and textbooks as if I breath words of science.

But this is the last week of second year. Everybody has switched on the holiday mode a few days too early and we are definitely taking it slow. Nevertheless, I admit that this had better stop: we do have to pass the test to get a long peaceful holiday. Hence, I’m gonna post this and immediately choke myself with a bowl of medical knowledge – unless I can watch The Simpsons first.

Respi exam week

As it has always been the darkest before dawn, so has exams before holiday. I’m only a week away from my real holiday, yet exams stands in the way between me and bliss. This bunch of tests will wrap up the seventh -and last- module in second year of med school; there is no reason to not be eager. My heart is bouncing up-and-down like a 5-yrs old boy on sugar high, knowing that what it has been longing for is so close.

However, before I can enter that world of pure joy and laziness, there are three exams.

First is the anatomy lab exam this Monday. It will consist of 10 questions, ranging from the nose, down to the windpipe, and to the lungs themself. We will be asked to identify what structure is being pointed by the needle or tied with the string. While the trachea is quite obvious, it will be rather tricky to guess the lateral segmental bronchus in the medial lobe of the right lung, or bronchus segmentalis lateralis lobus medius pulmo dextra. Only two languages is accepted for answer: Latin and made-up Latin.

Another tip for respiratory system anatomy: you don’t have to squeeze the lung just because it’s spongy. Refrain from excessive lung-poking and you will be saved from the annoying rain of formaldehyde.

The next day, five or so departments team up like the Power Rangers’ robots to make one humongous lab exam that packs a mean punch. As usual, histology and anatomical pathology are there, and they will be joined by microbiology, parasitology, and clinical pathology. And also as usual, anatomical pathology is haunting students days before the exam itself.

Last, on Thursday, comes the second summative test. It is the typical multiple-choice exam but this time, it covers more than half the topics in this module. Four of them about tuberculosis. I have to know my RHZE. If I manage to exhibit a speck of time management, I’m optimistic that I can catch up.

A short pause in Palembang

 Last weekend, I took a very brave break from the ever-increasing studyload: I went to Palembang, South Sumatra, for AMSA Indonesia’s 25th national meeting. A bit of background first. FKUI has a vast array of student organization with a gamut that runs from the scientific to the stark raving mad. I chose to go easy on myself and picked only one to join. That happens to be the Asian Medical Students’ Association. AMSA-UI is the local chapter of AMSA-Indonesia, which is a member of AMSA International. I survived the year-long selection, and long story short, I genuinely enjoy being a part of the AMSA family.

I took off to Palembang on Friday, right after the last plenary session in the second year of med school. I arrived at about 4.30 PM and was picked up by the committee from AMSA-Unsri (Sriwijaya University). The opening ceremony was held at Griya Agung, kinda an equivalent of the state palace. Delegates were asked to don traditional costumes, a request I resourcefully fulfilled. I’m not the kind of guy who dress up, so instead of going all fancy, I opted for a white shirt, black pants, and a sarong for accessory. It was Jakarta enough for me.

Saturday was mostly filled by the meeting itself, over which I presided. On that task, I was accompanied by two other delegates, one from host Unsri and another from UGM (Yogyakarta). Half of the meeting was spent for yearly report from each university with AMSA. AMSA Indonesia had 20 members, 18 of which attended the meeting; the meeting also welcomed 3 new members. Therefore, there are now 23 univs in AMSA Indonesia. The meeting ended with the national leadership’s report and the election of advisory board.

The fun part of the day was dinner. We were treated to a feast at Riverside Restaurant on the waterfront of Palembang’s famed Musi River with a view of the Ampera Bridge. The whole span of the bridge, and also its two soaring towers, were lit up to crown the night sky. The program for the night is quite entertaining. In spite of Along with some singing, there was a presentation for Makassar’s bid to host the national work meeting in September and open campaign for the next AMSA Indonesia’s top post, Regional Chairperson (RC). The campaign was heated but friendly, like the atmosphere in a real family debate.

On Sunday, we had a meeting in the morning and an excursion after that. The meeting continued the previous night’s Q&A session for the candidates and then voted the new RC. Right after the meeting, delegates were taken by bus to a pier in the Musi River near the dinner venue. We were then spread to a number of wooden motor boats to go to Kemaro Island in the middle of the river. The island is somewhat far from the pier, and as we approached the island, the Musi gets wider and wider. I have already known that the Musi is big, but I had no idea that it was so big that huge ships can be anchored in the middle.

 The Kemaro Island is a small island with a pagoda and Chinese temple. We had a picnic in its park and savoured Palembang’s renowned cuisines: pempek, martabak HAR, tekwan, model, and mie celor. It was a real picnic where we sat together on a mat, enjoying our meals. The trees provided a welcome shade from the blazing sun, and wild chickens are closely spying on us – or our meals, they didn’t say which. It was undeniably the best meal during the whole weekend. Another highlight of the island is the Tree of Love. Despite its name, couples are advised against taking pictures there as it may, let’s just say, predispose them to breaking up. Don’t ask me why.

 

I flew back to Jakarta that evening, and exams are ‘eagerly’ waiting for me. Well, at least the trip refreshed my mind and motivates me to work hard so I can go to Makassar this September. But seriously, I have to work on my exams. I have an acid-fast bacilli staining for M. tuberculosis lab test and clinical skills quiz tomorrow (Thursday). Next week, I must brace for a storm of three exams: anatomy lab test, the integrated lab test, and the second summative test.

 

Jakarta!

Just a few days ago (June 22, to be exact) Jakarta celebrated its 483rd anniversary. Netizens took to Twitter and Facebook to share their love for the city. The media ran articles about Jakarta’s history and rapid development. Local shopping centers joined the party by taking part in the Jakarta Great Sale Festival. Last and as usual, poorly-designed and easily-misunderstood banners by the city council are flown all over the city.

In written media, the attitude towards Jakarta can always be simplified into a sentence: ‘Despite its frustrating <insert negative points here>, Jakarta is a wonderful city because it <insert positive points here>’. Popular negatives include traffic jam, pollution, lack of green areas, and atmosphere of utter chaos; on the other hand, the positives center on how Jakarta is growing very rapidly and how Jakartans generally have more fun than their neighbours across the strait. (We got Beyonce a few years ago because some wacky Malaysians thought she was too entertaining to do a show there.) But this is not news.

What actually stole my attention was the banners. White background with green design. Green, green, green. Everybody’s going green. The Governor’s smile graced the banners and beside his face, a sentence along the line of “with our diversity, let’s make Jakarta an environment-friendly service city" bravely expresses its designer’s confusion. And we say, “WHAT?”.

Living in an environment-friendly sustainable city is every citizen’s dream, and changing Jakarta into one is our responsibility. In fact, most Jakartans I know are currently trying to reduce their negative impact on the environment. For example, plastic bags are beginning to lose favor and the Bike-to-Work community is thriving. I, along with many friends, actively choose to reduce our paper use by going paperless as often as possible and printing on both sides of the paper.

However, I still cannot make any sense of the banner. First and foremost, its green theme suddenly popped in without prior brouhaha. While Jakarta has been known by many names, I have never heard anything so defiant like ‘Green’. The lack of empty campaign is quite surprising actually, because if you need to get a lot of mouth (and no action) on an issue, you can always rely on Indonesia’s government. Perhaps they are not trying hard enough to fool us.

Next, what on Earth is a service city? A city that provides real public service so that its citizens can achieve high quality of life? Definitely not Jakarta. Just take one example. Applying for a Jakarta-issued national identity card can take as long as waiting for the Halley comet – and as expensive as lunch for ten people.

Ultimately, it is a sign of pure ignorance and shamelessness to put up such banner. The go-green motivation is noble, but when we put that banner in Jakarta’s context, it is just sad. As the world proceeds to embrace more advanced green-living principles, Jakarta consistently fails in fulfilling the basics.

Just another example, flooding is a common complication of rain in the city, and when traced, it comes back to people who throw away their thrash to the streets or into the rivers. In addition, the city government neglected their duty to regulate the development of gigantic, green-space consuming multi-use shopping centers.

At the end of the day, I can only sigh with shame. I love Jakarta. I have tasted the cities of Europe, America, and Australia, but I have always foolishly said Jakarta is better. As the years pass, it takes more and more effort to do declare my unconditional love for the city. But, finally, I can only say “Happy Birthday My Dear Jakarta”.

Six Weeks to Breathe

I woke up today with the sun staring down on me. “The early bird gets the worm,” the sun said, “but you’re no bird. You do need a lot of sleep!” I turned to see the clock, and the short hand has already left its usual position above the depressing number 6. As my soul starts to come back, I went to the kitchen and made myself a full breakfast. I enjoyed it thoroughly, tasting every single bite. No rush at all. A beautiful day is waiting for me, and I’ll be relaxing on the couch with Salinger’s The Catcher in The Rye.

But this is not a blog for fiction or happy glowy stuffs. This is a medical student’s blog. Expect lots of violence and gore with a strong mix of self-hatred. Only Glee can glow here.

Two weeks ago, I had gladly hugged cardio goodbye - although I really suspected that it wasn’t so happy to let us go in one piece. Without any drumroll, another module swiftly took its place. Respiration module, affectionately called ‘respi’, will enter its third week tomorrow; as usual, modules run for 6 weeks and I have three breathless weeks ahead.

 

Respiration is a challenging topic, if not downright difficult. Definitely not for the faint-hearted. There are a zillion topics to cover, from the microscopic structure of the alveoli to the public health aspects of tuberculosis. Among the basic sciences, physiology took first place in the Torture-the-Students contest. As a whole, it is not too scary, but some topics involving laws of physics and intricate biochemistry will devour unprepared students.

In the clinical stage, tuberculosis owns the spotlight. There are at least 4 lectures on the disease alone; starting with its pathogenesis and ends with rational treatment for TB. A group discussion session is also dedicated to the ancient disease – and yours truly has stepped forward to volunteer in delivering the report for plenary.

To be honest, I have set a high target in this module. My grandparents are pediatricians specializing in respirology; so naturally there will be a little extra burden, but on the other hand, I have my own experts to consult with. I’m looking forward to getting through respi unhurt. What doesn’t kill me will make my holiday perfect.

Done in A Heartbeat

It’s always been like this in every module. Each module is always preceded by the pre-module excitement, which is actually a cry of freedom carried on from the previous module. Into the module itself, the first weeks are filled with lectures on basic sciences; thus, there are tons of new things to discover. This phase is quite engaging, if not challenging. On the the following weeks, lectures come from the more clinical departments. Lecturers from this department do bring interesting topics to the table, yet they are very unpredictable in making questions for the exam. Out of this dilemma was born a love-hate relationship with the departments.

During the last weeks of a module, life seems to painfully decelerate to make sure that each module can torture students more thoroughly. In cardio parlance, the Earth experienced severe bradycardia and students are congested with clots of exam materials. Finally, the ‘longed-for’ exams come and, poof, buh-bye module!

For now, I am happy to announce that cardiovascular module is DONE, DONE, and DONE. Well, I don’t know if I passed all my tests, but after weeks of systole, there’s no reason to not enjoy this rare period of diastole. (Sorry if my allegories burn your brains). To review, the two multiple-choice summative exams were relatively easy; the anatomy lab exam was hellish; and the path and histology lab exam was somewhere in between.

This weekend is all the time I have to stop and smell the flowers before I choke myself on the respiratory module.

This Week in Med School

To my delight, the first exam in the cardiovascular module was not that horrible. Most of the questions are straightforward and there was no need to overanalyze stuffs. Even better, the bane of preclinical students, anatomical pathology, did not trample us with fancy-schmancy morphology; in fact, there were specific hints in all of the questions. Identifying the diseases was more like identifying Paris by looking at the Eiffel Tower. There were a few hurdles, especially in cardiac physiology, but overall, the exam was manageable. Now I can get back to life – for a while before anatomy ‘fever’ sets in.

 

Last Saturday, I attended a minor surgery and circumcision training. This is my first time going to such event and as expected, I was very excited. Well, my mom was enthusiastic too; somehow, the thought of me tinkering with some kid's penis is entertaining to her.

 

In the minor surgery session, I was taught to do 3 types of basic sutures. I won’t get technical in this post, but you can look them up here, here, and here. We trained to suture sponges, but we used real surgical tools. And that’s when I realized that suturing involves pushing a needle through a person’s skin over and over again. If it wasn’t so cool and necessary, it would have simply been barbaric. Looking at my stitched sponge, the trainers said I did quite a good job, but maybe that’s a code for “thank you for not slicing us”.

 

The circumcision session was eye opening. Who knew you can learn to do circumcision by doing it to a candle penis wrapped in two layers of elastic gloves? In the beginning, it was somewhat awkward for me. The trainer, who happened to be a girl, explained the basic anatomy of a penis to a group of penis-owners. To my relief, there was no new information on penis anatomy. Then we proceeded to the circumcision itself. It was a little hard (no pun intended), but the trainer assured us that real genitals are not that stiff (except during certain times, of course). In the end of the training, I got my first minor surgery certificate. I won’t be cutting anyone open anytime soon, but there was that unmistakable sense of achievement.

 

Today, the president of RI visited my campus as a part of Alumni Awakening Day. The background story would be very long so here’s the summary: FKUI was founded by the Dutch and its students was instrumental in the national awakening movement which ultimately led to Indonesia’s independence. My favourite part of the story is how Abdulrachman Saleh spread the news of RI’s independence using a simple radio in my school’s physiology lab. In the nascent republic, doctors from FKUI served various position within and outside of the government. It is of utmost importance that the current FKUI embrace its noble past and emulate that fighting spirit to build an even better FKUI and Indonesia.

Just One Day

The physiology lab time for EKG went smoothly, producing 2 normal 12-lead recordings. Now that I have actually done it myself and analyzed the result to find out if it is normal or not, EKG is not so scary. Surely the spikes are still daunting - and I haven’t even dipped my toes into pathologic EKGs.

 

There is something far more important than EKG: a one-day holiday is just around the corner. Ascension of Jesus Christ is a national holiday in Indonesia, and this year it falls on May 13. I am really fond of these mid-module holidays since they put a stop on the overflow of information from lectures, lab times, and group discussions.

 

On ordinary days I have to cope with ridiculous amount of materials. Due to time constraints, virtually no one can absorb that kind of load each day so we med students have to prioritize. Anatomy: urgent; radiology: clueless. Coloquially, we say “X out of Y slides” with X the number of lecture slides digested and Y the number of all slides for the next exam. The ‘out of Y’ part is frequently omitted because we don’t even have the energy to care.

 

That’s were holidays come in. On holidays we obviously get no new materials; thus the brain-demand is not increased. Additionally, we also have more time to study, which increases the brain-supply. If a module is a race between a hare (lecturers) and a turtle (us), holiday is the part where the hare sleeps and the turtle continues fighting forward. The expected postholiday result is, of course, a better-prepared student.

 

But that only happens in the world where Indonesia have competent leaders and my mom is the Queen of Narnia. Holiday is a day to oversleep, overeat, and overstupidify. This is the time to be human again and live life like we are meant to. Well, if it’s any consolation, the academic pace also picks up a bit; but you can already guess the overall result. Hey, it’s not my fault Pondok Indah Mall is ultra-tempting.

That Spiky Thing

EKG. The sheer awesomeness of the word blows me away.

 

In the cardiovascular module (that’s the module I’m studying right now), students are taught all about EKG: the underlying physiology, the correct technique to record EKG, and the interpretation of an EKG recording. However, what looks so cool and easy on TV can be somewhat frustrating in real life.

 

Tomorrow, I am scheduled for a physiology lab time. EKG party time! It would be great if we could just walk in, plop some electrodes, fire away the 12 leads, and go home. But no, life is beautiful and sadistic like a dominatrix; there is a pretest for few fortunate students and also a compulsory group discussion after the lab time.

 

If you are sad, depressed, or anxious about anything…you should feel better already. You don’t have to care, let alone learn, about some cryptic grass-like code.