Tuesday, January 16, 2007

My First Time...

We have so many "First Time" in our lives.. There are "First Time" in everything... Below is a compilation of some of the interesting medical related events that I encountered for the first time in my life.. Surprisingly I can still remember some of the details although that was so many years back. I know I will enjoy reading this post again in the future :) The PRICELESS REAL LIFE experiences !! My Nostalgic Experiences. All these are now history.. HARI ITU DALAM SEJARAH.

1.First time dissecting a corpse/cadaver (real human leh!) : 19+ yr old
I did this on the 5th week of my First Year in Medical Faculty. First time dealing with & touching the real corpses & cadavers !! Don't play-play. Mmmmm...... Surprisingly no thrilled feelings... I was not scared at all. Is this considered as brave? or cold blood? or indifference? or don't care?

Remembering the hatred formalin used to conserve the cadavers to prevent the decaying process - The formalin cause tearing & giddiness to each & everyone of us (poor us) towards the end of the day. There are more juicy details regarding dissection on a earlier post that I wrote way back in 2005. Those who are interested can peep there (including the cadaver pictures).

2.First time conducting delivery : 22+ yr old
This was during my fourth year in Medical Faculty. We need to conduct minimum 10 normal deliveries. My first experience of watching a expecting mother giving birth to a baby is really unforgettable. All the pain, agony, suffering & sacrifices that a mum has to undergo & deal with from the first day of pregnancy till the day when the baby was born. The sacrifices that a mother has to made for her baby.

It was scary the first time I observed the amount of blood loss during delivery. And not forgetting cutting the perineum with the episiotomy scissor during crowning without any analgesia or pain relief. Ouch !! But apparently, the pain of childbirth is much greater then cutting the flesh.. And not forgetting the tearing of the perineum that might occur and the pain that the mother has to endure. There were no epidural for labour pain during those days.

The first delivery that I conducted was a G4P3 Malay lady, and her baby was a baby boy. Forget about the bloody part of conducting delivery.. Dowan u all to throw up :P After sucking and cleaning up the mucous and secretion from the nostrils and oesophagus and clamping of the umbilical cord, the baby was dried and cleaned up and shown to the mother for identification of the baby's sex. Then the baby was placed either inside the incubator (after placing the name tag) or given to the mother for bonding.

After delivery of the baby, that was not the end of the story yet. An IM injection of syntometrine was given to the mother to shorten the 3rd stage and to prevent excessive blood loss and favour the separation of the placenta. Needs to rub the abdomen and massage the uterus, and feel for the fundus of the uterus prior to applying control cord traction or CCT to deliver the placenta. Cord blood was taken for G6PD screening. After delivery of placenta, it was time to clean up the "mess", to evacuate all the blood clots, checking the extend of perineal tear and cleaning up prior to stitching. A great sense of achievement and accomplishment during that moment. Come to think of it, that little baby boy is now 11 years old. :)

3.First time doing Autopsy/Postmortem : 23 yr old
Can't remember what was the first case I performed the real life autopsy liao. This was totally different from dissecting a cadaver cos the body was still flesh, I mean the person had just passed away not long ago. We need to observe 10 autopsies inside the mortuary in GHKL earlier on before performing 3 on our own.

The first time I performed autopsy, I remembered cutting the scalp and opening up the skull...
Removing the rib cages with an electronic saw... Blood started oozing... The good thing was I didn't have to worry about blood loss when I cut the body cos he was dead. (unlike when doing surgery on alive person). Next, Dissecting out the liver, lung, intestine etc etc.... Weighing each organs separately & jot down the weight (just like how the liver was weighed in the wet market) Cutting & slicing the organ into slices to look for any pathology and taking samples for histopathology if indicated. And at the end, we dumped everything (including the brain) inside the abdominal cavity before sewing up the incision with a huge gigantic needle & thread..

4. First time performing surgery (refashioning of finger for crushed injury) : 24+ yr old
This happened during my housemanship time. That night was my second time doing on call duty as the HO on call in Orthopaedic Department. I was called to the casualty by the Casualty MO to perform refashioning of the middle finger for a guy with crushed injury. This was indeed a scary experience cause I never observed how a case of refashioning of crushed finger was done. That was my 5th day working as a doctor in Orthopaedic Department. The MO on call refused to come and just give order via the phone how to perform the surgery when I asked for help. You can imagine how stressful & tensed I was at that moment.. I was sweating when I performed the refashioning. Luckily I didn't tremble :P

Giving ring local anaesthesia to the crushed finger (half of the middle finger was gone). Using rubber band as tourniquet to prevent bleeding. Then clean & sterilize the finger with povidone iodine & isoprophyl alcohol as antiseptic. Nibbing and chipping off the broken bony fragments and smoothen it to the appropriate length.. Cutting off & trimming the excess flesh & skin so that the skin flap is able to cover the refashioned finger, before stitching back the finger stump. Although this was my first time, the end result still looked good.

I prescribed antiobiotics and pain killer for the patient and gave him a date for further follow-up. Other simple surgery that I have performed myself subsequently are such as: tendon repair, wound debridement, I&D, SSG, plating, K-wiring, Caesarean Section, ERPOC for abortion, Tubal ligation (BTL), Appendicectomy, Excision of ganglion, breast lump(fibroadenoma, breast cyst), lipoma, sebaceous cyst, dermoid cyst, Saucerization, Circumcision etc etc.. Those were the days :)

5. First time doing CPR (cardio pulmonary resuscitation) : 24+ yr old
That was during my housemanship time in medical ward. A ESRF patient on Peritoneal Dialysis suddenly collapsed while dialysis in progress. During those days when we were on call in medical wards, we did at least one CPR every night, and at times can be up to 3 CPR per night (the unlucky ones)... This was nothing glamour at all, unlike in tv drama series. There are no heart thumping crescendo music to heighten the tension situation in real life and death emergency situations. No background orchestra music. No back slapping congratulations when able to revive the patient. No one will help to wipe your sweating forehead. No rewards, no compliments and no glory. And such tensed situations arised every now and then. If CPR failed, the next duty was to break the bad news to the family members. Towards the end of the days... a tiring body, an exhausted mind, Sakit tangan, sakit badan....

This is another long winded cheong hei post of my real life experiences. This is not the end yet. I would like to make this into a TAG (itchy hand mah).. My very first own home made tag. I would like to tag these few people to come out with their memorable First Times.. (First time baking a cake? First time io ka chng? First time acting as angelic angel? First time playing guitar? First time killed an ant? First time doing this or first time doing that? Anything will do, as long as it was meaningful and memorable to you).

1. May - A Rather Undignified First
2. LB - The 1st Time Ever I Saw
3. Angel - Five First Time©
4. Pink Cotton - First Times...*wink wink*
5. Ben - 3-in-1 Tag Debts
6. SA - 5 Things Post (About Gaming)
7. Butt - First times
8. King's wife
9. Kenny - My First Time
10. Bernard - My First Time

59 comments:

Anonymous said...

can't believe my luck... I'm FIRST!!!

First time being the first to comment on ur blog :)

All ur first times very keng la... 1st one i already pengsan...

The best is the 2nd one. Bringing new lifes into the world. How wonderful is that ^_^

rainbow angeles said...

FATT HAO!!!
*not yet read*

rainbow angeles said...

*finish reading... become hin hin*

Sei lor... I dun seem to remember that many First Times... how ah liddat?

-__-'''

YD said...

first time i arrived at this blogs with less than 10 comments yet. cuz everytime when i m here it is like 70 something comments! lol...

Anonymous said...

niamah fulat tahpei!!! how can so fast another tag wan?!!!!
sumore more cheonghei than me??!!!!! kakakaka
LD
LD
LD until pengsan!
ok, I got many 1st times!
1st time I made love
1st time I made love again
1st time I made love one more time
I like 1st times....

Chen said...

JL,
LOL.. might be can buy numbers liao?
If strikes & win $$$, remember to belanja us makan, okie?
kekkeke

Don't pengsan yet !!
No ghost picture here woh :P

angel,
very the fatt hao
now is the fatt hao season?
lol

u see stars & moon after reading?
sure lah u see..
now midnight liao mah..
of coz there are stars & moon up there :P

Don't remember ah?
Then write about the first time u meet the liuliu gang then !!
kakakaa

YD,
not so kua chiong lah..
mana ada so many comments wan? :P

LB,
u are still more cheong hei..
can measure from the length of the post !! kakaka
sifu of cheong hei ness..
or issit Carcar? LOL

CD
CD
CD

so keng geh your 1st time????

Anonymous said...

wow, i love reading things that is related to medical conditions, i find it interesting and, Lokter I salute u...somehow both of us are someway in the same field of saving people and the end result is either u are very satisfied or just get emotional carried away....at times...

Anonymous said...

you're kidding, right? this is an even cheong hei-er meme than the cheong hei 70 questions. you have great first times. I think I might sit this one out till later, requires too much thinking, not enough braincells to last till a few months down the road. KIV, k...

Anonymous said...

Alamak, this is not my 1st time kena tagged by u... LOL. Nvm, i really ran off what to blog... good to do this tag. 1st time... hhhmmm... *scratch head*

Chen said...

monkticon,
hehhee.. I used to write lotsa medical related posts in the past (more than a year ago).. It's bad to get emotional or too carried away. Most people will face with that problem in the initial stage, but with times.. the condition will improve :)

Will tell more stories in the future :P

may,
now is the cheong hei season !!
Blame it on..
blame it on who leh?
who is the culprit who started the cheong hei-ness? :P

sure, sure..
no problem...
no hard & fast rules here :D

kenny,
yeah loh..
not first time loh
dunno how many times liao..
must count-count with fingers :P

mistipurple said...

wow. read part now chup first. anything for an excuse to take a break from the pics. will continue after chup. interesting. *rub oil to nose* *respect loctor*

mistipurple said...

*follow Angel hin-hin after reading*
i wanted to become a nurse. but because i physically not strong, i decided better not endanger patients' lives at the crucial moment, or becoming a nuisance assisting doctors. i took the application forms twice to apply in different years. i think it's my first call in life.

Anonymous said...

yeap lokter i've manage to control myself these days, infact I've been reading your previous postings on and off, I often read blogs from the beginining wan...hehehe ...I'm already at your september 05 at this moment...gerori~

ah nel said...

i tot u will say 1st time kiss,date,luv...

Pink Cotton said...

WAHHHHHHHH me kena again!

EEE i like ur post! =)

but ho!!.teecher teecher! i got question!!!

1.how come the cadaver macam dno hv skin wan?and macam cannot see the face wan le

2.ha??autopsy is like that wan ka??everything dump inside?later when the soul goes up to heaven got no brain wo 'x'

3.heheeh ok i still more interested in child birth...is that why u don wanto hv bb??oops 'x'

Pink Cotton said...

hmmm still cant think of any significant first times...except for....WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA 'x'

Anonymous said...

so cheong hei... lucky no tag me... i also dunno how to go and recall all those 1st time *dizzy*

Anonymous said...

so cheong hei first time first time post... luckily no tag me... i also dunno how to recall back *dizzy*

c a r c a r said...

*pengsan*

i think i better go back and think my first time....posting rendang chicken, maybe later, maybe not :D

Chen said...

SA,
Wow… u are together with your wife in the labour room during the whole delivery process? It take guts to witness such events..
I know there are husbands who fainted during the delivery process :D

Hehehe, I’m not that old yet :P
I worked for almost 9 years… That delivery was conducted during my 4th year in uni ;) Wonder how the little boy looks like now.

LOL.. now u are good in "pengsan-ing" too
Hahahhaha

Yeah, I tagged u…
Love to read your experiences :D

misti,
Hhaaha… need to take a break from the “picture” wan meh?
I tot mostly people will only take a break from “words”
Hiak hiak..

Wow… Dunno u wanted to apply to become “White Angel” in the past leh..

How’s the renovation process going on? Everything runs smoothly?

monkticon,
Reading my earlier posts?
Wow.. u are indeed hardworking !!
There are 600++ posts altogether..
Kekekke… enjoy reading and u are allowed to doze off once in a while in between :P

Chen said...

ah nel,
itu ah.. sudah lupa tarikh bila loh.. :P

pink cotton,
I like your WAHHHHHHHH too…
Very de Pink Cotton :D
Your signature WAHHHHHHHH :P

Cos we use the cadaver whole year long mah..
We dissect the facial skin and facial muscle too…
That’s why lidat loh :P

Still have brain mah.. just that it’s in different place
So, not considered as brainless yet :P

Having children very leceh lah.. no freedom woh :P
WAHHHHHHHH….. I want to read your “that” significant first time !!!
kakaakkakk

will,
u also very cheong hei mah..
post the comment twice? :P
kekekkekekek

can recall wan.. depends on whether u want or dun want only :P

carcar,
If I know carcar is free, I will tag carcar too for her first time.... cooking curry kai
*still waiting for your kari kai post*
tick tock tick tock…

Anonymous said...

i ingat blogspot sudah makan my comment ma... mana tau keluar jugak... *smacks forehead*

mistipurple said...

your pics like movie scene. scary mah. i dare not click larger even. but very tempted. then i think this is not movie better not. cannot psycho myself say not real.
respect lah you doctors. *kiasilang* made of different material you people. *respect again*

mistipurple said...

one thing hor, the formalin liddat how to study properly? can wear masks or not? or else hin-hin everytime after class very cham.

mistipurple said...

i spamming already. might as well ask questions now since appropriate. or else next time you post nice nice food pics, i suddenly ask.... "embalmers must be use formalin to preserve bodies temporary for the wake hor? maybe they using masks, or else very hin like that whole day." :P

mistipurple said...

spam kaw kaw.
masks can stop fumes meh?

Anonymous said...

Hahaha...I know...there are other blogs oso I read from start...so kinda take time to finish everything...but at least got something to read during my free hours...hehehe

mistipurple said...

alamak. forgot answer your question. went over to SA's, then suddenly remembered. delayed effect. maybe "midlife crisis" as what's Angel asking about at her place.
regarding my reno. it's the second day today. doubt if the contractors did much. tore down some walls. i think it's usual for them to be kancheong towards the end. normally they will be doing other contracts at the same time, and gather all the manpower together when they panic for time. the bane that contractors and clients go through universally i guess. unless i am some VIP. *wink*

Anonymous said...

Chennnnnnnnnnnnn~~~~

Knew this was comin' when I saw the post.. like tag.. until I saw the senarai nama mangsa-mangsa (kidding!) yang kena tagged.. I can hear Kenny screaming your name liao.. hahahahaha

wahh.. all your first times very power leh *salute* something that I'll never dream of doing.. I liked no.2.. so touching, feel like.. like, wana cry liao.

:)

OK lah, will do this tag just for yoooou... :D if I could rmb my first times.. :P

Anonymous said...

wow wow wow!amazing! your many first time are so wei da. i make sure i read every biji word of it. they are so meaningful! doc, u r so wei da~

MNG said...

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

*pengsan*

*waiting for lokter to give CPR*

Send shivers down my spine.....

One question, have u ever deal with death during operation?

King's wife said...

Ewww...no wonder I am not a loctor!
Yau tag???? I just finished 2 wor.

Anonymous said...

waa... your memory really good loh! 酱久的事也记得!

Chen said...

Will,
hahhahaa… and I saw you kiasu-ness in Angel’s post too !!!
LOLOL
U must be facing some sort of midlife crisis liao??
Ahaahaha

Give u a bat to smack your forehead :P

Misti,
This is more interesting than movie scene.. cos this is real stuff..
Movie scene is tipu punya.. kekkekee :P

Hah? made of different material?? :O
U made me sounds like alien lidat..
Kekekkkkeke...
I’m human too, just like u ;)

No lah.. we didn’t wear mask during dissection session..
Only wore those cheapo disposable gloves.
But we do wear mask during autopsy session :)

Gua tarak faham your question regarding “embalmers must be use formalin to preserve bodies temporary for the wake hor?”
Dun understand so cannot answer liao… Can clarify your question? :D

Your contractor so malas one..
Wanna do last minute job ah?
Must piak with sotong liao !!

Chen said...

Monkticon,
I always tempted to read other blogs from the beginning too..
But never do so..
malas mah...

At times I will click on the archives to read one or two posts..
But not following all the way from the beginning..
That one very time consuming leh

Hehhee.. might be can treat this as "reading novels" at free time in the future :P
LOL

butt,
Butttttttttttttttttttttttttt, don’t get so emotional :P
Lolololol
U really very clever hoh? Know wat I gonna do liao.. kkakaka

Oops.. I haven’t send out the photo yet..
Cham cham cham...

Sure u can think of wan,
u so clever :D

orange,
ahhaha, Thanks :D
Hope u didn’t fall asleep half way while u reading every biji of the words :P
Does it sound like reading novel? ;)

Chen said...

papercrazy,
pengsan no need CPR wan lah.. :P

Death do occur during surgery, especially those high risk cases with expected mortality or patient with multiple medical problem to start with..

Yeah, I dealed with such cases before.. not as the surgeon but the one standing at the "other end" of the operating table.

One of the most memorable on was the one occurred on 11th September 2001 – same day as the terrorist attack at WTC in NY.
I have written a post on that in the past. Click here for further details.

KW,
Good things come in 3 mah...
U just finished 2, this is the 3rd one loh !!!
Don't break the good luck chain !!
kekekeeek

DG,
Must remember those memorable events mah...
Or.. might be I have selective memories :P

Anonymous said...

aiyer...i have to force myself to read this post ah...hen kong pu!

Anonymous said...

Wah.. doctor really go through everything under the sun!! When you come on Sat, can bring your most gory pixes-ah??

mistipurple said...

hehe, i always confuse loctor.
i mean, don't know is it the embalmers use formalin to preserve bodies. if so, then they also hin-hin at the end of the day.

Chen said...

RS,
very kong pu meh?
this is not ghost stories or horror stories woh...
this is my real life experiences woh..
LOL

kat,
not to the extend of going through everything under the sun lah..
hehhehe....
i'm not so li hai ;)

wat gory pict u wanna see ah? :P

misti,
embalmers.. i dun think they will preserve the bodies. No such indications mah :)

Babe_KL said...

wow that's a very enlightening reading... i just heard today dat during childbirth dat there is one moment where the mom will be in the same state as a death person for 7 seconds. dat person said some docs agreed, some dont over this. i just hope all husbands will appreciate wat their wives went thru and love them for wat they did to carry on their family name.

mistipurple said...

wakakaka! embalming is not preserving ah? hahahaa. o dear o dear..

Unknown said...

Uahhh... kena from Chen.. ok saat gi wa buat.

Chen said...

babekl,
same state as a death person for 7 seconds?
*in deep thought*
I observed quite frequently the husband are there together with the wife during the first childbirth..
And for the subsequent second or third childbirth, some of them are no where to be seen.
When indications for emergency Caesarean Section arise, the husbands are still no where to be seen and worse still they are uncontactable via phone !!
^&%$#*
So sad...
Not one time liao but have seen such cases plentiful time... :(
Childbirth is not something without risk.

misti,
heheh, what I meant is since those bodies are going to be buried or cremated in few days time, no indication to preserve them mah.
Or are we referring to or talking about the different things? :P

bernard,
Terima kasih manyak-manyak :D

Anonymous said...

wahh..this is very good for your resume!!

i'm like watching csi all over again

sengkor said...

if u ask me to do a post mortem, then the mortuary will have the first time someone pengsan while doing it.

c a r c a r said...

my kai is up

Chen said...

goober,
CSI ah? Salah channel liao
No crime occuring here leh…
no malpractice here :P

sengkor,
Hope there is no The First Time someone doing CPR inside the mortuary :P

carcar,
Finally the kai post is up...

Fatt Kai Wan loh!!
Hou kai lah…

Anonymous said...

Whatever gory pixes you have, the gorier, the better!! Muahahaha....!!

Is fatt kai wan really a medical condition-ah??

Anonymous said...

Which uni did you graduate from? From my guess, it would either be UKM or UPM ;)

Chen said...

kat,
I don't have gory pix lah..
I mean... no headless or hantu pict :P
LOL

发鸡瘟 is a medical conditions for the animals, not in human :P

clair,
UKM. During my time, there are only 3 local universities offering medical courses, namely UM, UKM & USM (unlike now). UPM only started offering medical courses years later.. :)

Anonymous said...

Dr. Jekyll, you are truly amazing!
Thde closest i come around to is dissecting engines. LOL

Chen said...

cocka,
I presume those in medical lines all went through the same experience as me ;)

Dissecting engine?
LOL...

How about dissecting ayam?
or u don't dissect ayam cos it's your own species? kekekke

cooknengr said...

What's up Doc, intersting read...darn, late to work liao.

Anonymous said...

fascinating..
very enlightening entry here..
thanks for the info doc.. :)

Anonymous said...

Unbelievable! You delivered your first baby at 22 years old? You are one courageous young lady =)

I was just reminiscing back on the birth of my baby 1 year ago and happened to read this interesting meme of yours

Chen said...

cooknengr,
Thanks :)
I just came back from KL yesterday evening. Feel so lazy to wake up this morning..
duh..

anon,
I'm glad u enjoy the post :)

kittycat,
hehe.. Those were the days :)

Lucas is oredi one year old?
so fast time flies..

L B said...

Haha, still waiting for your First Time Ever You ..ahem, ahem....

Chen said...

LB,
wah.. abuthen, i sudah lupa liao when is that :P

but i still remember your entry.
Kkkkkkkk