a reminder from the past

5 years ago, I wrote an email that will be send in 5 years time. It was an interesting experiment to see whether I could receive this email later in the future. There were several uncertainties such as

1. I might not be using the same email in the future.
2. I might already passed away
3. The company who kept those email has bankrupt or the database has been ruined by unprecedented event
4. If the email is ever received, it might not passed through the spam filter.

Nevertheless, I participated in this experiment and to my surprise, I received that email few days ago. This was the post I wrote 5 years ago. 

This email had certainly brought many memories. It contains my hope and prediction for the future. It contains several important personal milestones that I wished to be achieved in 5 years time. Few of those milestones, I have managed to achieve it, but there were several which are still in progress or somehow has dropped off from my priority list.

Now, the big question for me would be to do some self-analysis whether I have become a better person in those 5 years time. Those day I was a student and now I am currently a husband and a government employee. I used to have lots of free time and now with the working environment I am in, the concept of free time need to be modified and adjusted according to the opportunity available to me.

An interesting email indeed. A good and unexpected twist after 5 years

The life of a houseman officer

In a short word, it is extremely busy and stressful.

Once you graduated from a medical school, you need to work for at least 2 years as a houseman (junior doctor) before you can pursue further specialisation in medical field. That is the scenario in Malaysia.

Within these 2 years, you need to do 6 postings which are Medicine, Surgery, Orthopaedic, Obstetric and Gynaecology, Paediatrics, Accident and Emergency (A&E). This year, the Ministry of Health introduce the seventh posting which is Anaesthetic. You can choose either to do Anaesthetic or A&E as your final posting. If you choose Anaesthetic as your last posting, you will be automatically being absorbed into Anaesthetic department once you finished your housemanship years. 

How is the routine lifestyle as a junior doctor? Depending on which posting you do, you can either start working as early as 4-5 am or come to the hospital around 7am. You typically finish your work by 10-11pm every day. Although there are few postings where you finish your job by 5pm and you can go home to rest in bed. 

In term of oncall, basically you start your work as usual and continue working throughout the night and finish the on-call period by the end of next day. If your routine working day finished at 10pm, then your oncall finish at 10pm the next day. Sometimes where the oncall is not that busy, you may get few hours of sleep. Otherwise you won't be able to sleep at all for the next 36-48 hours. You will be extremely sleep deprived by the end of your oncall. 

Despite that, the situation in Malaysia is improving. There are more doctors graduating from various medical schools in Malaysia to some extent, there has been rumours that doctors may be jobless within the next few years due to the sheer number of doctors in Malaysia.

Will continue writing about this some time later. I have to sleep early tonight as I will be oncall tomorrow.

an old dusty blog

That's how I would describe my blog. It has been 7 months since I last updated this blog. So many things have happened and I'm not sure what I should write here as my first post in many months. In fact, this would be my first post in this year!

I have been working for about 3 months now. Working life has been busy and I have to learn how to cope with stress and all sort of challenges working in Malaysia. It is quite different from being a student in which you don't held any resposibility looking after patients.

Hmm, I think I would stop here and continue writing some other time :)

Wedding Invitation

Assalamualaikum, I am inviting you, my blog readers to my wedding reception. May your presence bring blessing to the ceremony. Thank you.

The adventure

Alhamdulillah, I have arrived at Malaysia on 7th December. Since then, I have been extremely busy managing all of my wedding preparations and greeting few of my relatives here.

My adventure at Melbourne has ended. I have changed the blog title and haven't decided what will be my next blog title.

Graduation day on 5th December was one of the happiest moment in my life. After 6 years of studying at medical school, finally my friends and I have managed to pass all the exams and celebrate the graduation day together. It was not an easy journey for all of us. Sometimes, when the challenge was too hard, few of us were thinking of quitting from medical school.

When I came to Melbourne 6 years ago, I don't have any idea what will I be in 6 years time. To get a place in a medical school is a challenge in its own right and to graduate as a doctor is another difficult hurdle too.Alhamdulillah, my journey is over.

The next chapter of my journey will be a test to measure my own capability to cope with continuous daily stress at workplace. Working as a young doctor and at the same time managing your own family will be an exciting adventure. Hopefully I will be able to be a good doctor and a good husband at the same time.

I will upload my wedding card in my next entry. Till then, I am inviting all my blog readers to come to my wedding reception on 26th December 2009 and 2nd January 2010.