Initial days in Taipei....

I feel very sad now! Just when I’m about to save my blog entry, EVERYTHING DISAPPEARED!! ARRGGGHHHH!!!!!!! Anyway, I shall try to re-write now before I forget everything, AGAIN!

Finally, I see the sunshine peeking out from the clouds today! Yay, it’s a refreshing and happy feeling, considering it has been overcast skies and chilly drizzles ever since touchdown in Taipei. Looks great for a sunny beach party, but too bad, I’ve lessons in the hospital. Damn!

I am now in National Taiwan University Hospital (台北大学医院 or NTUH) in central Taipei for overseas electives for 2 months. I am currently doing General Surgery for 4 weeks from 10 Mar – 4 Apr before commencing General Medicine from 6 Apr – 2 May. In the 1st month, I have the company of Anson, Meng Chon, Weisheng, Mark Sim and Zhongyang but in the 2nd month, I’ll be alone out here! Hopefully I can find enough local friends here before loneliness creeps in then…

It has been 2 days so far since stepping into hospital grounds but gosh, I felt I’ve learnt way more than my surgery posting in Changi General Hospital (CGH), which was 2 months by the way! Right from the word go, I’ve been given tutorials and seen the operations of liver & renal transplant, breast masectomy and herniotomies (or herniorraphy as they call it here). Their etiquette in Operating Rooms (ORs) here is also way different from Singapore. They leave their OR doors for everyone to walk in and out and I’ve seen more than 10 people in 1 OR! In Singapore, we’ll be screwed upside down for doing so and students will be chased out like flies! Also, the way they scrub up, handle and clean their patients would get a big fat F from Singapore!! I’ll be very afraid as a patient for fear of getting bacterial contamination/infection, although I’ve yet to seen any post-op infection cases (because I’ve yet been in the wards… Haha).

Over here, the people give a lot of respect to doctors and likewise, junior doctors show lots of respect to their senior doctors. So far, I’ve yet to seen patients and relatives complain a single word to the doctors and they wait patiently for the doctors to talk to them. How rare it is to find a sight like this in Singapore! We’ll be sued if we let relatives wait for more than 1 min!!! Over here, I’m known as 陈奕勤医师. How cool is that! They are super pro-teaching here, friendly and would go their way out to solve students’ queries. Thus, the students like to ask questions here, unlike in Singapore when tutors don’t give a damn about us. My tutor’s name is 陈炯年医师. He specialises in gastric cancer and is a super friendly man with very straight and combed hair and big specs. So cute…! I also have a chief resident (senior registrar) by the name of 黄医师, who helps to give us plenty of tutorials. He looks pretty funny too but he is damn brainy! He always give us practical questions to think about and supplies answers whenever we have doubts. Thumbs up to him!

Over here, I admire the students for their quest to learn. They just simply are abl to absorb everything that comes along their way. However, they’re less clinically trained and are less willing to examine their patients. Still, I find it difficult to comprehend how they need to talk to their patients in Hokkien, type and write down notes in English and present in both Chinese and English. Haha, their English is damn cui here. However, as they want to keep up with clinical research and skills with the rest of western world, they’re forcing themselves, even the 80 year old professor, to converse in English for their morning meetings and morbidity & mortality rounds. Still, all of us Singaporeans find it hard to comprehend what they are even mumbling and their deciphering of difficult words keep us laughing all the time!!

Ok, it’s getting late. 12.53am and counting. I shall blog next time about the happening things that we do in Taipei. Shall go and dry my clothes now… Yawnz….