Saturday, April 3, 2010

Stayed up for 54 hours and counting

It's 10.20am now but I'll just count it as 10a.m.

Was up and awake since 4am of 1/4/2010.

Yesterday nearly died of fatigue and felt nausea but somehow managed to stay awake. Suddenly at about 11.30a.m., I developed stiffed neck on my right side and I can extend or rotate my head to my right. I believe the muscle involved is trapezius muscle.

I am quite proud because I did quite well in the CSU history taking session later in the afternoon. Having been in a half asleep phase is good as I didn't feel nervous or scared instead I was more focus on the nausea feeling I was having. Anyway, out of 4 stations, my partner and I split half so we took 2 each and in that 2 stations, the sp praised me lalalala~~ But honestly this is expected because we are in sem 5 already and taking history should be like walking to us.

This morning went to Ballet class and surprisingly I managed to remember the free work that was given. WOW~~

Honestly, there will be moments where the feeling of sleeping will be so overwhelming BUT if you manage to stay awake, you'll feel fine. I'll define "fine" as in awake and still can function (subconsciously sometimes).

Take this morning at 5am, I wanted to take my cup for a drink but somehow I could not aim and reach the cup holder. My hand landed next to it instead LOL

So far, I've downed 5 cups of coffee since Thursday so I can be said to be reaching the intoxicated level. I hope after 2 hours, I can finally complete my portfolio, go to my mom's office to print (it's 60 pages long!!) and hopefully sleep. Yet, I have so much studies to catch up.

Planning time I guess....where's my paper and pen. Till then =)


PS: I was feeling nausea because I was having an empty stomach and I think I was low in glucose so after June gave me a sweet, felt so much better. Besides, I had that nauseating feeling again this morning at 4a.m so I had bread and felt better (as if I'm pregnant right?). Yipee....just hope that I won't fall sick or have headache. My neck stiffness is gone too!! Thanks to yoko yoko =P

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Post sleepless weekend

- - - Monday- - -
Turned into a living zombie but was bearable because I bought 2 cans of coffee and drank one before lectures and one at about 2ish. Went to Mom's office and managed to stay awake til 11ish pm.

- - - Tuesday - - -
Started to feel the effect. I did not manage to buy any coffee so decided to survive on my own adrenaline because today is a loong day!!

After lecture at 10.30am, I had PBL and it was OK. At 12.20pm, I had to go to Hospital Seremban and I did not manage to sleep in the bus because there was a heated discussion among the people seating around me (June, Vidya and Zia). They were discussing about IMU and SRC and stuffs...

Hospital Seremban was not that bad and surprisingly I was the one who approached the patient and did most of the history taking. Luckily and sadly it rained. It was good that it rained because it was so cooling as the hospital was not air-conditioned. Unlucky because we had to get wet when we cross over to the clinical school.

On the way home in the bus, I was busy talking to June and Zia again and the people who sat behind us (we were in the 1st row) were impressed that we could talk non-stop for almost 1 hour LOL. Reached uni by 6.30pm, went to Mom's office again with Subway as our dinner and died off on her office table at 9.30pm. We left the office at 10pm.

- - - Wednesday - - -
I totally could not wake up but forced myself to do so. After finishing my house chores (sweep and sometimes mop floor, boil water and wash clothes), I went and took a 5 minutes nap and by 5.45a.m. left house for the train. Dead tired in the train and fell asleep a few times.

Totally could not concentrate in lectures. Was fidgeting around to stay awake and felt like the lectures took an eternity to end. After lectures, had CSU practice and I managed to stay awake. Most of the time I did not know what I said or did and just relied on my friends to correct me.

By 12.30p.m, I could not open my eyes. Walking out from CSU was a miracle so I decided to go home instead of staying back to TRY to study which I know would fail.

Sat the 1.15p.m train and when I was in KTM, I nearly fell 3 times because my knees gave way (no place to sit). Thank goodness I was holding onto the hanging belt (don't know what is it called). When the train reached KL Sentral, only did I get the chance to sit BUT when I was about to shut my eyes I heard someone calling my name. There MJ was, walked and sat beside me. I was so relieved when she told me "sleep la, I also want to sleep." And I really had a deep sleep and suddenly woke up when I reached my station. Salute my brain!!

- - - Way to rejuvenate- - -
Walked home, bathed, washed lab coat (stink after wearing it the whole day at Hospital and was damp when kept it on Tuesday) and slept from 3.30p.m. til 5.30p.m. Woke up, studied a bit then sleep again from 7.30p.m. til 9p.m. when my dad woke me up for dinner. Had to skip ballet =P
Slept again at 10.30p.m.

- - - Thursday - - -
Woke up at 4p.m. and did house chores. Tried to mug up as much anatomy and pathology notes because there's an exam at 10.30a.m. after lectures!!! Was sleepy already by 5.30a.m. so took a 5 minutes nap. Went to the train station at 5.45a.m.

Bought the can coffee and drank it before lectures and BOY I WAS SO AWAKE and felt SO FRESH!!! Was awake throughout lectures and did fairly well in the test too!! Went home by 4p.m. after I did some studying and had fun in ballet class. Currently, energy level is about 65% out. Planing to stay up to TRY to finish the portfolio again BUT tomorrow after lecture, having MMS then PBL then CSU!!!

Another long day....so should I stay up??


PS: Some people should just avoid library because they just don't know how to SHUT UP!!!! Grrr....

Sunday, March 28, 2010

record

- - - Thursday night- - - - 11.30p.m.- - -
Decided to take a cup of coffee to stay awake to try completing as much Snell as possible....

- - - Friday morning - - - 3.30a.m. - - -
Persuade myself to go to bed for the sake of Friday.

- - - 5.30a.m. - - -
Woke up and did the normal house chores. Took the 6a.m. train after drinking another cup of coffee.

- - - 6.30a.m. - - -
Still awake and managed to read some notes in the train.

- - - 8a.m. - - -
Had JP for 1st lecture and Dr.Nilesh for the 2nd lecture. Surprised that I managed to stay awake and even grasped quite a lot of info from the Dr's speed talking.

- - - 10.30a.m. - - -
Went to Student Representative Council room to complete the ECA form.

- - - 12p.p.m. - - -
Went and helped out the Community Service Club Welcoming Party. Had-all-I-can-eat-pizza as lunch.

- - - 2.30p.m. - - -
Had CSU and had a great doctor teaching spine movement.

- - - 4.30p.m. - - -
Continued with Snell.

- - - 5.00p.m. - - -
Took a cat nap.

- - - 5.20p.m. - - -
Woke up and felt fresh so continued with Snell.

- - - 10p.m. - - -
Continued with Snell in room then went and did PBL.

- - - Saturday morning - - - 1a.m. - - -
Fell asleep.

- - - 5.30a.m. - - -
Woke up and did house chores and then went for a short jog with Frog then ballet class.

- - - 12p.m. - - -
Started/ continued Community Medicine Portfolio.

- - - Sunday morning - - - 12a.m. - - -
Still in front of computer with the portfolio.

- - - 4a.m. - - -
Still in front of computer with the portfolio, progressing slowly.

- - - 6.30a.m. - - -
Went for jog to release the pent up stress.

- - - 8a.m. - - -
Started/ continued with the portfolio.

- - - 2p.m. - - -
Felt like it was already 6p.m. Weather was hot and humid. Felt a little sleepy.

- - - 7.20p.m.- - -
Still in front of computer with the portfolio. Mentally tired. Came and blogged. Remember about decorating Jon's board in conjunction with "Save the earth Week". Feeling stress.

- - - 7.40p.m.- - -
Will ignore the board's decoration for now. Will publish this post and continue working on the portfolio.

- - - end - - -

How long can I stand before I fall sick/ get more crankier than the current me?

Friday, March 26, 2010

Bad day

Had replacement class at 8am by Dr.Nilesh. FYI, Dr.Nilesh is from India and his Indian accent is still quite strong and he speaks very fast YET he's the best anatomist I've known so far. He's so knowledgeable that he just want to tell you everything he knows hence the speed of his sentences. I would die if I ever miss his lecture and hence this post.

KTM has been improving BUT on the replacement class day, it was late and was stopped between Segambut and Putra for 1.15 hours!!!! I take the 6.08am train and will usually reach uni by 7am if the train is puncture. That day, at 7am, I was still in the train 2 stops away from the station I was at and it was Dr.Nilesh's lecture!!!

I was so worried/ anxious/ scared/ pissed that I put my earphones on, increase the volume to maximum and listened to MCR shouting and singing away. It was helping at the beginning but after 30 minutes, I was so worried that my whole buccal mucosa's epithelium was being chewed on.

Thank goodness, I arrived in time for the lecture and I even managed to release the pent up anger before he started his lecture LOL.

Today, I retired from my club's post. Yeah!!! Had all I can eat Domino for lunch. Satisfying!!!

Today, had 2 hours of winks before I went to uni and surprisingly I survived til 5pm. Had a 15 minutes nap and here I am still awake but tired.

Got to do PBL, Com Med portfolio, study....
I was so stress yesterday that I felt like crying but couldn't. Ballet classes are taking up a lot of my time. Kinda feel like giving up sometimes =(

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Welcome back??

OK, it's my bad and it's my fault for abandoning you for the past 1 month but I was busy hence limited/ allowed myself to use the computer only during the weekends.

There are quite a few issues that I would like to blog about. Don't say I didn't pre-warn you (any readers left? LOL) that it'll be a LONG post.

***

Community Medicine week is over and MSK (musculoskeletal) system has started. It's interesting as we need to learn about the bones and parts of it. Spending time with Bobby was fun and it was better when he allowed me to touch him =P I'll post his picture up when I have the free time.

As I enter the second week of MSK, I'm starting to feel burned out. Sleeping less than 6 hours and trying to stay awake in the afternoon is just testing my mental power. Every time I enter the train (KTM), even though I am standing I can actually fall asleep and I nearly fell a few times. Ballet is also taking up quite a lot of my time and energy. I sometimes kinda dread going for class BUT recently I found out that it can be a place to release all the pent out stress especially when frog is around =)

***

For PMS (partner medical school) students, we were required to write a narrative entitled "Your future plans and general career aspirations after graduation from PMS/IMU Clinical School (typewritten, not exceeding 250 words and in Font 12)". So after getting less sleep and more tired that usual, I managed to produce a not-too-bad narrative.

Now the issue I would like to address here is how some people would only approach you when they need help. So on the day we have to submit our narratives, there were some who have not talked/ approached me for some time appeared and asked for my help. I honestly didn't mind but after helping them, only did this thought sunk in "why ask me and not your other closer friends?" When I told my mother about it, she was a little unhappy that I offered to help because this narrative is quite important as (apparently) the PMS choose/consider us based on our narrative (besides our results). Quote her:
"this is a competition, everyone should do it by themselves so that it's fair."
BUT there were some who had their family members writing the essay for them so is this still call fair?

***

Last month, I joined the Eco Friends Club because I thought the club needed people since one of IMU's policy in forming club is that there must be at least 20 members to start off. Besides, the founders are Jo Yee (a HELP friend) and another batch mate. Innocently I went there to increase the number of members but end up being in the committee board. I am willing to help out and commit myself BUT there were so many meetings and most of the time, I'll be sitting there quietly listening to the founders and the teacher-in-charge discussing about certain issues. The feeling I had was "I could have used this time to study."

Point to note- our club is not official yet- hence most of the time in the first few meetings were discussions on how to persuade the lady in charge of clubs to make us official. HOWEVER, I am glad that FINALLY we have something that I can help out!! The Student Representative Council is organising the Earth Day and they wanted us to help out in handling the poster competition. Yeah, at least in the meetings I can contribute a bit and not waste time =)

***

Recently or I should say this year onwards, I have been feeling very annoyed with my family members. Everything they did just irritate me and make me feel angry (for no reason!!). I feel bad but after a while I would justify my feelings and the guilt just evaporated. This week, I have not had dinner with my family as I buy my own dinner and eat while study in my room while they go out for their dinner. Reasons for my actions are:
1. We have to wait for my mother and brother to come home from work and they usually reach home by 8ish and by time we go out for dinner, it would be 9ish
2. I wake up VERY early hence I got to sleep earlier but late dinner is just making me fat and unhealthy!!
3. If I have my dinner at home, I only need maximum 15 minutes while I'll waste almost 1.30hours if I join them for dinner
4. If I spend more time with them, I'll feel more irritated and annoyed =P

There you go, my valid reasons!! I sometimes just can't wait to fly away...

***

Yesterday, my sem3 juniors asked me to help them at the CSU (clinical skills unit) and I gladly went and help since I understand what they are going through. I am happy that I actually took the initiative to teach them what I know because besides refreshing my memories (sem5's OSCE exam also include sem3's stuff), I got a SP for my future practices!! Yeah!!

In addition, I got praises from the juniors which helped me a little in my inferiority complex which I have been experiencing since I came to IMU. I always felt that everyone around me are so smart and I will be expelled anytime soon since I am not as good as them. I confess that this is one of the motivation that keep me studying all the time. I know feeling this way is bad and maybe I am not as bad as I think I am but I actually feel it deep down that I am a no good. Reaching sem5 is honestly a huge surprise for me but standing in front of me is another hurdle that I got to leap. I must pass sem5 and I will try to do it without putting so much stress on myself (which was what happened in sem3 and hence that result).

Pray for me people...

Hopefully I'll resume blogging by next week =)
Til then, take care people...
My favourite study place- the aquarium =)