exams

There are 4 OSCE stations.

1. Iron-deficiency anaemia. Take history and try to diagnose possible causes of iron-deficiency anaemia. The patient is well and do not have significant history except symptoms of anaemia. I was stuck on this station for a while. The only things that I could think for differential diagnosis were colorectal cancer, angiodysplasia, peptic ulcer, parasites and diet.
   
2. History of headache. Possible diagnosis were severe migraine, meningitis and sub- arachnoid haemorrhage. I think I did well except for answering the questions from the examiner.
   
3. Gastrointestinal examination on real patient with chronic liver disease. The questions were about liver function test, signs of portal hypertension and causes of decompensated cirrhosis.
   
4. Visual acuity and visual field. Questions were on the location of the lesion and possible aetiology. I need to interpret from a CT scan.
   

Overall, I think I can get at least a passing mark :).Now, I should not be thinking about exam. I just wrote the OSCE stations for future references.

Next on my agenda is going home :). I need to buy few souvenirs for my family and friends.

split

I met one of my old classmates in Friendster and while we were chatting about the past, I've realised that some of my classmates in high school perceived me as a quiet person. However, I am quite talkative whenever I am among my siblings. Perhaps, the situation or environment has influenced on how I am interacting with people.

I am extremely quiet and shy whenever I'm among strangers and I take some time to overcome my shyness. The point when I started to gain a bit confidence in breaking the uncomfortable silence was when I becoming a medical student. This requires me to talk to strangers a lot more than in the past. I used to stutter and speak differently from my own thought process. Many people have misunderstood me and it requires reasonable amount of effort on my part, to correct the situation. This is also prevent me from giving random comment at other people's blog just in case I might hurt someone's feeling. To overcome this, I try to talk slowly and observed how people converse with each other.

One of the impetus for me to be more talkative with strangers is exam (OSCE). OSCE assess how well a medical student talking with a patient and whether they are able to diagnose the disease.

It is not easy to talk comfortably with a stranger that you have never met before. Added that with the pressure of exam, and you need to talk with the patient in less than 10 minutes. You need to ask appropriate questions and try to diagnose the disease. This is a hurdle requirement and you need to pass this exam one way or another.

Now, if you meet me in the real life and see me of not greeting you, it might be that I am still unable to overcome my shyness. Yet I will be a totally different person with my family. I might have a split personality, I think.

search engine

Sometimes, it can be interesting to see how people find out about this blog. I use Google Analytics to analyse the traffic to this site and 40% of the visitors come from search engine.

August
14.31% Direct Traffic
53.54% Referring Site
32.15% Search Engine

Top Keywords

1. kembara di bumi melbourne
2. pelajar terbaik spm mckk
3. e-novel malay
4. ladybug layout
5. hafiz238
6. allahumma anta rabbi la ilaha illa anta translation
7. e-novel malay malaysia
8. ladybug "blogger template"
9. ladybug layouts
10. css version in blogger

September
14.50% Direct Traffic
45.69% Referring Site
39.82% Search Engine

Top keywords

1. ladybug layouts
2. ladybug layout
3. e-novel malay
4. hafiz
5. hafiz238
6. kembara di bumi melbourne
7. alam baqa
8. erti kemerdekaan
9. erti merdeka
10. kelebihan al-mathurat

October
11.16% Direct Traffic
44.00% Referring Site
44.84% Search Engine

Top Keywords

1. ladybug layouts
2. dock menu
3. date header+calender icon+blogger
4. kembara di bumi melbourne
5. kerja sebagai fruit picker
6. ladybug layout
7. peperiksaan blogspot
8. raya di australia
9. raya di melbourne
10. erti kemerdekaan
    

There are several patterns that can be observed from this data.

Some of the searches were seasonal and this highlights the important of having post which is related to certain important season. In September, keywords related to independence were among the top keywords and in October, keywords related to Eidul fitri were linked to this blog. The summer holiday in Australia start in November and hence the reason of searching about fruit picker ;).

Another pattern is writing about blogspot layout/template will attract traffic at any time. I think there are many people who are looking to modify their blogspot layout. I never know that there are many people who are looking for ladybug layout. This is quite a surprise for me.

Another surprise is to see that an old blog post is coming up in one of the searches. E-novel malay is referring to this entry which was written in 2004.

If you are keen in analysing the web traffic, you will be able to learn a lot and this information will be useful in the future. By analysing which keywords land your site in the search engine, you are able to plan your writing and design an effective marketing strategy.

However, I am not planning of using this blog to get additional income. This blog will stay as a personal blog and occasionally I will write and talk about blogspot layouts/templates. Part of my hobby is to design website. At least, I will be able to put my knowledge on CSS into practice.

update

It has been a while since I last updated this blog. Life has been busy.

The summer holiday is so near. The only thing that stands in the way is the exam. I think I've forgotten of what I've learned in the first rotation. This must be one sign of aging and I need to revise my notes again.

In retrospect, I have learned a lot this semester. It is quite amazing of what I have achieved so far and to think that I'm already more than half way of this course...that is a bit scary though. Can't really imagine myself to be responsible to write drug prescription for sick people.

Anyway, back on the subject of holiday...there are few things that I've planned during this summer. Hopefully, I will be able to reach all my objectives this summer.

Medical Abbreviations

It has been a while since I last updated this blog. Beside the busy schedule that I have, I am not sure what should I write here.

Anyway, I would like to introduce the common medical abbreviations that I have learned so far from my three rotations. Every time I look at patient medical records, I learned new medical abbreviation and sometimes it can be confusing to read.

First rotation: Neurosciences, Opthalmology, Ear, Nose & Throat Surgery.

AF - Atrial fibrillation
AMI - Acute Myocardial Infarction
AVM - Arteriovenous Malformation
CCF - Congestive Cardiac Failure
CIDP - Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy
CRAO - Central retinal artery occlusion
CSF - Cerebrospinal fluid
CVA - Cerebrovascular accident
GBS - Gullain-Barre syndrome
GCA - Giant cell arteritis
ICP - Intracranial Pressure
IOP - Intraocular pressure
MS - Multiple Sclerosis
MSA - Multiple System Atrophy
PERLA - Pupil Equal and Reactive to Light and Accommodation
POAG - Primary Open Angle Glaucoma
PSP - Progressive Supranuclear Palsy
RAPD - Relative Afferent Pupillary defect
SAH - Subarachnoid Haemorrhage
SOL - Space Occupying Lesion

Second rotation: Haematology, Oncology, Infectious Diseases and Breast disease.

ALL - Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia
AML - Acute Myeloid Leukaemia

CHOP - Cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin (hydroxydoxorubicin), vincristine (Oncovin), prednisone

CLL - Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia
CML - Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia
DCIS - Ductal Carcinoma In-situ
DIC - Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation
EPO - Erythropoietin
ITP - Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura
LCIS - Lobular Carcinoma In-situ
LRTI - Lower Respiratory Tract Infection
MGUS - Monoclonal Gammopathy of Unknown Significance
MM - Multiple Myeloma
NHL - Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma
NSCLC - Non Small Cell Lung Cancer
PSA - Prostatic Specific Antigen
SCLC - Small Cell Lung Cancer
STD - Sexually Transmitted Disease
TTP - Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura
URTI - Upper Respiratory Tract Infection
UTI - Urinary Tract Infection
VAD - Vincristine, adriamycin and dexamethasone

Third rotation: Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Gastrointestinal & Hepatobiliary Surgery and General Surgery.

AAA - Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm
AIH - Autoimmune Hepatitis
BPH - Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia
CLD - Chronic Liver Disease

ERCP - Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography

ETOH - ethanol / Ethyl alcohol
EUS - Endoscopic Ultrasonography
HBV - Hepatitis B Virus
HCC - Hepatocellular carcinoma
HCV - Hepatitis C Virus
IBD - Inflammatory Bowel Disease
IRS - Irritable Bowel Syndrome
IVDU - Intravenous Drug user

MRCP - Magnetic Resonance Cholangiopancreatography

NASH - Non-alcoholic Steatohepatitis
OLT - Orthotopic Liver Transplantation
PBC - Primary Biliary Cirrhosis
PHT - Portal Hypertension
PSC - Primary sclerosing cholangitis
SBP - Spontaneous Bacterial Peritonitis

Duration of Time
It is common for medical professionals to use this abbreveation for time

x/24 - x number of hours
x/7 - x number of days
x/52 - x number of weeks
x/12 - x number of months

Medical Prescription

This is quite common and can cause confusion if not written properly

time
mane - morning
nocte - night

Frequency
bd - twice daily
tds - three times a day
qid - four times a day

Route of administration
po - per oral
pr - per rectum
IV - Intravenous
IM - Intramuscular
tab - tablet
supp - suppository
sc - subcutaneous

Ending with x
It is quite common to see few medical abbreviations ending with x :). I guess this is a trend among doctors and nurses.

Hx - History
Sx - Symptoms
Dx - Diagnosis
DDx - Differential Diagnosis
Rx - Treatment
Mx - Management