My first mentally disabled patient =)

Friday mornings in Oral Med isnt exactly what I enjoy most, to say the least.

HnEs, intraoral, extraoral examinations, followed by loooong empty chats whilst we students wait around for the ONE consultant and ONE specialist running the whole clinic that morning to attend to our patients...

B.O.R.I.N.G.

But yesterday morning, Dr. Pemberton said to us,

"Who's up for a challenging case?" *with a naughty twinkle in his eyes*

I was curious and in desperate need of some excitement to wake me up, so I volunteered, not knowing what I've got myself into!

^^

" Ok, Kathryn and you, Pei, shall see James, a Down Syndrome patient. 45yrs old, complains of bleeding from his gums, and pain. Ask your usual questions, and look into his mouth and see if you can find anything."

OOOh this would be INTERESTING. I saw this patient in the waiting room whilst I was walking into the Oral Med dept this morning!

As we were walking out of his clinic into another room, Dr. Pemberton called out to us, saying,

"You might want to note that he has this unusual habit of sucking his socks."

=S Oh OK.

Heheh. So James came in with his carer, and it was quite a task to get him to sit on the dental chair even!

A different level of communication altogether =) I did feel like I was doing Paeds again, even tho he was a 45yr old grown man. =)

Kathryn did the history, asked the carer questions about James, the usual whats wrong, medical history, dental history, social history etc.

James was bleeding from his gums, and his carer only found that out when the socks he was sucking on is always covered in blood.

Then it was my turn, to examine his mouth!

James is very scared of needles, and I had to show him the 2 mirrors that I was going to put into his mouth to have a look around, and only then did he settle in the chair!

Asked him to open his mouth, but he kept looking at his carer, saying " Brew. I want a brew."

"Ok, James, you will have your brew. Open your mouth for this young lady to have a look first."

His carer had to bribe him with alcohol for him to BEHAVE on the chair!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

After we recorded our findings, came the very challenging part of keeping him in the chair until Dr. Pemberton could come n examine him! OMG the amount of time we wait around till a consultant/tutor is available is ridiculous in Oral Med, and I was getting worried that James would just walk out and leave the room without being seen first!

His carer told us that James has a very difficult behavioural problem, and he would start swearing any minute if he was agitated.

I asked James if he could be patient with us, and that the 'doctor' would come n see him as soon as possible.

For the entire 15minutes we waited for Dr.Pemberton, James turned to me every 2minutes, saying, "WHERE. DOCTOR WHERE."

This increased in frequency and I was getting desperate.

"WHERE. DOCTOR? WHERE."

I frantically ran to the nurses and told them I think my patient has very little patience left. Haha, in a few minutes Dr. Pemberton came out from his room, whilst James was still saying to me, "WHERE doctor WHERE." ( I swear it was sounding more and more like a chant at that time hahahaha)

"There James, he's coming. He's walking here to see you, can you see him?", I said to him.

Phewwwwwww. =) More talking and 'questioning' by dr. pemberton to the carer, at that point i swear james looked as tho he was ready to run out of the clinic anytime.

"Open your mouth, James. Let me have a look." DrPemberton says to him. James turned to his carer, said" BREW. After this. " and only when he got a nod of agreement that he willingly opened his mouth.

HAHAHAHA at this point I was cracking up like hell inside. SO CUTE!! =)

Bcoz dr pemberton wasnt sure what was the problem at first, he had to ask James to bite together and open his mouth a few times.

And James kept asking him, "Last one?"

"yes, last one"

Apparently not hahaha he was asked to open and close his mouth more than 3times so poor thing, and every time he was lied to, saying " LAST ONE!" >.<

As it appeared, James was traumatising his edentulous ( 'toothless' ) ridge with his upper existing teeth when he bites down, and he gets ulcers and bleeding from it. Doesnt help that he bites and sucks on his socks too!

Treatment planning for a Downsyndrome patient was not easy.

My consultant spent ages trying to figure out the best possible way to solve this problem. Cant exactly stop his habit of sucking socks, if he has the rest of his teeth extracted he wouldnt be able to eat, James might not be able to cope with dentures or anything we could provide him with..

IMPLANTS? Apparently not, too.

Last option, extract all his remaining teeth, and hope that he will cope without any teeth. Patients do cope without teeth, you'll be surprised!

^^ it was quite a morning^^

Afternoon clinics didn't go so well though. Dentistry can be rewarding, but OMG so stressful at times. >.<

So the week ENDs, with a good night out in M2 with my flatmates! And BT's here to visit ^^

Have a HAPPY HAPPY weekend, everyone! =)

Dear Pei,

I have read through the attachment. Apart from some grammatical editing it looks good as your first attempt - well done.

Perhaps in the outcomes you could be more specific in one area?Avoiding the extraction of carious teeth?

You make a good case about dentist not filling teeth but taking them out. We would hope that if crowns were fitted the number of teeth extracted would decrease.

Iain.

Every little bit of praise and encouragement goes a long way. =)

Hahah prof Mackie always signs off with a 'prof' word, but now its FIRST NAME basis?

omg i'm so easily pleased. ^^

To my beautiful sister, Pei Ting =)

I have always believed in your beauty, your talent, and your quiet but gentle spirit =)

20years today! =) May you continue being the gorgeous person that you are =)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PT! May it be a blessed year ahead, filled with joy!

Lots of love, PeiLian jie jie xxx

Bag packing at Sainsburys for Bridges of Hope =)

Anyone living/visiting/studying/working in the UK would definitely have been to Sainsbury at least ONCE!

sainsbury brings back wonderful memories from first year, when Lucy (my british flatmate also my first british friend ) and her mum drove me there to get our 'first week of uni groceries'!

i still vividly remember feeling so intrigued with its rows and rows of 'foreign looking' goodies.
and the surreal feeling of walking thru the isles with a pair of british mother and her daughter whilst they selected their choice of bread, cereal, milk, crisps, yogurt, cheese, dips.

i still remember feeling lost. what should i get? cheese? but there's so many types i don't even know what tastes good. yogurt? what brand? so many to choose from!

hahaha all these 'nostalgia' only from a day of 'working' there!

Yup, today instead of being a consumer, i was packing grocery bags for customers in sainsbury, Blakeley!

Filling those familiar orange bags with goodies not mine, but strangers!

All in hope of a kind return of a few pennies for the poor and underpriviledged children in Peru, under this newly founded charity organisation, called Bridges of Hope.

Bridges of Hope aims to bring about educational, social and economic change in the lives of the South American communities.

I agreed to help out because I believe the money we raised will be for the good of those children. =)

5hours of continuous bag packing, my back was aching, i was starving, and i was beginning to see stars due to lack of sleep the night before.

i have to say though, british people are a generous lot. =)

I hope my day spent putting people's groceries into bags will indeed make her smile. =)

The lot of us (minus elizabeth and julie ) with our donation pails.

the experience was wonderful, i met many very different characters. Some very kind, others fussy!

one man actually told the cashier off. PLEASE STOP THIS CONVEYOR ITS DRIVING ME NUTS. and he went on about how charlie chaplin has this scene where butterflies and bugs were flying all over him and it drove him crazy. I'm GOING TO BE NUTS TOO IF U DON'T STOP THE DAMN THING. -_-

Whoah. Calm down man. Heheh this man wouldnt let me touch his bags or help him, but I wasn't surprised. Hahah what did u expect? -_-

But it was all fun and laughter for me. Bag packing is quite therapeutic omg i'm so weird. =S

i was challenging myself to do it as FAST as i can, putting everything in a nice order.

Hahahaha I KNOW LA SO WEIRDDD not to mention OCD-ed. -_-

x x x

OH.OH. OH. LAST NIGHT's CNY REUNION DINNER WITH MY DENTISTRY coursemates was really enjoyable. =)

We decided this year we shall all be lazy and not cook, instead go out for a nice big meal in a chinese restaurant.

So we went to TAI PAN for a scrumptious HOTPOT!! ( in malaysia we call it steamboat )

Wah I was DAMN PLEASED with the food man. It was amazingly finger-licking GOOOOD.

We had a wide selection of seafood, meat and veg for a very reasonable price of app 10pds!

Hugeass prawns with HEADS OMG I havent had in agesss. Scallops too, yumm. =)

The soup, for me, is the best part! tomyum, my fav! we had ginseng soup too, which was super good!

I was DAMN HAPPY. Ate SO MUCH.

worry about my expanding waistline later la haha =)

Here's us, dipping our chopsticks for a successful and prosperous year of the OX!

Yup, thats my year! =)

PS. mummy, pa, pt, pw thanks for the cny card! peiyong too! =)

Just another random thought this morning..

I miss the feeling of exhiliration driving a BUMPER CAR at top speed, without a care in the world.

IT'S FRIDAY, ALREADY??!!!

OMG. -_-

The PEI who walks with a RHYTHM.

I am PEI who walks with a RHYTHM.

My patients HEAR me from FAR.

Before I open the doors to the waiting room to greet them with a big smile.

Before I pick up the phone to say a cheerful hello, how can I help you?

They all say, PEI, I KNEW IT WAS YOU BEFORE U CAME OUT TO GREET ME!!! =)

Wah. My footsteps really that distinct ka. -_-



On another note, OMG clinics are starting to WEAR ME OUT. =S

yES i disappeared for a long time now. every time i open my blog page, trying to pen down some thoughts, I end up closing it, nothing written, TOO LAZY and tired to even think. not to mention write. so i presume my evening of relaxation with a nice re-run episode of Bigbangtheory/gossipgirl/desperatehousewifes/uglybetty/onetreehill ( of course my reruns are not only twice, theyre infinite bcoz HAHA its all in my harddrive =) )

after which my eyes are so tired, body aching, mindlazy that ALL MOJO TO DO WHATEVER DEEMED PRODUCTIVE IS ALL GONE.

So ends the rambling of another very pointless post.

Can I start this post by saying the same thing I did the last time?

I AM SO FLIPPING LAZY ITS NOT EVEN FUNNY!!! -_-

I wonder. What makes me THIS lazy? Why am I whining about my lack of motivation to do anything at all, when the fact is I could DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT???!!!

Like start working. My workload is PILING UP. No kidding. >.<

Anyways. This year's Chinese New Year will be so much more cookie-filled compared to the previous years because of the my 2 Rachelle housemates!

Big one & Small one, thank YOU for being so thoughtful! ^^

OOOOh MORE JAM TARTS!! *squealss with excitement* ( I've already had quite a few from the jar that big one brought, and today small one arrived with MORE!!! )

Nothing beats the sight of delicacies from home, its been 3 years since I've had proper CNY goodies! There's MORE, ribbon biscuits, the rolled thingys with dried prawns or floss in it, etcetc all under the kitchen top!

Not to mention SO MUCH kaya to last us a lifetime hehe just exaggerating. ( I finished one whole tub big rach brought for me already! >.<>.< )

OOOh and wasabi green peas, YUMMS! ^^

Last but not least, COFFEE BEANS coated with chocolate from Columbia! My first time having them, I have to say I'm not a big fan of raw unbrewed coffee beans >.<>

I love the sight of FOOD. ^^

I'm such a FAT face!

No not kidding.

I've been told a few times that my face has grown ROUNDER over the holidays its depressing!

This morning when I called home mummy said to me, " Oh. I realise your face round liaw la pl. How come. U eat alot ka? But then your body still the same la."

"Gee thanks? I feel better now?" >.<

HOW COMEE LARR??!!!

OK. I have to admit I do enjoy my food very much. But I eat healthy what! And I exercise too what!

*grunts*

Now now peilian, lets not be so superficial.

Its not that I'm unhappy, or dissatisfied with the way I look, its just an observation I made ( and also people around me ) on the facial anatomy that I possess.

Let me analyse.. hmm.

My hypothesis:

1. Fatcells have a high affinity to travel to the area below my chin, and on my cheeks.

2. I am Chinese from a certain part of China ( DUH). My dad mentioned to me before that people from that region all have round faces and tiny eyes. And the tiny eye problem seems to be aggravated by the fact that the fat deposits around the eye, making the eye have very little space to 'pop out'. Lets not even talk about double eyelid.

3. In my previous life, I was a bear. I need to store fat in the winter to keep me warm. Don't ask me why just my face though.

4. I have a big head. Therefore there is a bigger surface area for fat cells to travel to.

5. I have genetically inherited my dad's high amount of fat receptor cells. And the part of the body most packed with these receptors, unfortunately, is my face.

6. I am ignorant to the existence of exercises for the face. Chew sugar cane to strengthen and tone my facial muscles? Hmm later look like Hercules how?! Lazy lar! >.<

Hahahahaha I'm so jobless as you can tell. Clinics have been downright DULL can almost die wan you know. But I have to say as long as things go well and stay uncomplicated, dentistry can be quite therapeutic.

However how often is life uncomplicated? >.<

Anyways. before I go I have something else to say.

I AM SO FLIPPING LAZY ITS NOT EVEN FUNNY!!! -_-

*Spot us!*

We were ambushed by a group of Turkish school children in Istanbul, whilst we were strolling around.. now I know what it feels like to be a 'celebrity'!

Although I'm not sure about the reason behind the unconcealed excitement of these kids.

*raises eyebrows*

Anyways they were so enthusiastic it was adorable ^ ^ And of course we were abit *bangga-fied*, who wouldn't be? ^ ^

Still in holiday mode.. cham.

=S

Hello 2009!!!

New year already??!!!

I am back in my freezing cold room in Manchester. So much for thinking that England will be much warmer than the places I've travelled to in the past week!

So much to blog about, I don't know where to start!

OK lets start with christmas eve, when my holidays began. ^^

I hopped on the train to London, and was greeted by pei, helen and ang at Bayswater station.

But NO DUCK RICE coz Four Seasons tutup!!! =( *sobss*

Nevertherless meeting them was the mark of a start of my long awaited vacation. Duck rice or none, still HAPPY. ^^

Then, Christmas Day.

Started the day singing christmas carols with Pei, Helen n Sarah!

Yes, SARAH! After 3 looong years! =)

That night Helen and the Londoners hosted a wide spread of CHRISTMAS yummyness in Floyers. Ate till our hearts content, enjoyed each other's company^^ it was a good night with good food. Thank you, Londoners. =)

Very early the next day the 9 of us started our journey to ISTANBUL!!

Turkey boasts of a colourful vibrant culture very different from the typical european countries ^^

I shall let the pictures do the talking ^^

Hehe maybe a little narration to help ^^ The 3 guys in our trip ; HanBoon, Ang n William doing their 'thing'... -_-

And the 6 girls (Pei, Menaka, YeongChinn, myself, Helen n Yinhui ) doing our 'thing'!!^^

With many scenic places to boot, what made me happier was..

Having breakfast on the terrace every morning overlooking gorgeous scenery! ^^

Yup it makes a typical breakfast of cereal, bread, egg and salami taste much yummier when u're surrounded by beauty!

Pashmina scarfs of every design you can even think of, beautiful turkish lights and decorations, I loved the colourful vibrancy of the GRAND BAZAAR! ^^

See what I mean? ^^

What makes it better is, you can HAGGLE for the best price for your purchases! ^^ Heheh what pleases us girls more than thinking that we have haggled for the best price no one else could get!

*Hahaha nothing beats the thrill of bargain-hunting*

Also,if there was anything else that made us EXCITED in turkey, it was SO MUCH of Turkish SWEETNESS! Yes, in the form of deserts, what else? ^^

The best shop to indulge your sweet cravings, without any doubt, is OZSUT! Nope they didnt have to bribe me to say this here, all they did was make the best rice puddings I ever had in my life!

Before I went to Turkey I was doubtful rice in any other form could taste even close to 'decent'. Or should I say edible. England's Muller's rice, for one, is yucky. ( for me, that is ^^ )

I never liked bakhlavas, neither did I have any preference for Turkish delights, but I came back from turkey a changed person! These sweet stuff can be so sinfully yummy, made in the right way! ^^

It helps that the waiter in OZSUT adores the group of us too ^^ awwwwwh ^^

We went to Bulgaria too, but it was so cold there i only remember the word COLD. Heheh what do u expect, -15 degrees celcius!!

Also too much meat. Poor bulgarian animals, they must only live to be slaughtered. ^^

HAPPY NEW YEAR, peeps!!

May this year be one filled with much zest and joy! Continue JUMPING, PeiPei, PeiLian, Helen!!

*JUMP FOR THE STARS!!!* ^^