Auscultating : Course Taken in Sem 11

Wow, I have not written for, man 4 freaking months.

That must have been a record since my STPM days.

Well, I really have to admit, 5th year is VERY tiring. No wonder the seniors back then had to stop blogging after stepping into clinical years.

Before I go for the drama I have, let's have a good recap on what we had this semester :

1- Problem based learning in veterinary problem solving:

This course basically allows us to put our knowledge into situational problems and try our best to get a good timeline of how things happened, why they happened, what are the mechanism involved, who are the ones will be involved, where the problem actually arose and what can we do about it as veterinarians. It was an interesting course, I had to say that it was even more because I was the course rep; we had a fair share of fun with the highlight of us even writing and putting up a play as a presentation with a little coaxing from our group facilitator. The play was on Melioidosis, a zoonotic disease (disease transmitted from animals to humans) usually exposed to farmers and veterinarians alike. Animals usually only experience abortion or certain neurological symptoms; but humans get more extensive problems like undulating fever, pneumonia, joint pains and etc.

2- Exotic and wildlife medicine:

As the name suggested, its medicine of the exotics and wildlife. I personally think that I've learned more practical medicine in raptor medicine as compared to other kind of species like reptiles, amphibians, rodents or rabbits. This most probably was due to the fact that the latter species involved little to none exposure or practice during our rotations for which we can not even begin to apply what we have learned, let alone to actually take interest. The past year papers did have subjects on primate, elephant and deer medicine which I'd actually have interest, but the lecturer is on his study leave, so yea it got anticlimactic over there. I would consider raptor medicine if I have the chance, because raptors are just so cool! PS: The dude above is a Jambut Fruit Dove, native to Malaysia and usually reside in tropical rain forest. It was confirmed a male because females are not usually so handsome, only in green feathers. Sexual dimorphism at its best by nature!

3- Ruminant medicine:

For those who do not know what ruminants are; they are the animals with 4 stomach chambers. Does that ring any bells? Yea, the cattle(cows if you don't know), goats, sheep, camelids, and some times even deer. But we focused a lot on cattle and goat because they are more common as compared to their other counterparts. We focused a lot on infectious and management diseases because the traumatic or anatomical related diseases were covered in surgery. I always thought I would actually pay a lot of attention on this subject, because I loved them since I stepped into vet school. To my horror I had little to no will to pay attention in class, for which most of the time I was struggling to pay attention. In the back of my mind I seriously think that our curriculum and rotation probably have created some form of aversion of me towards the ruminant industry, but I really do try to keep my head in the game in learning about how the diseases come about, their pathogenesis, ways to know that its the disease for sure as well as the treatment and prevention methods. It's basically the same as other medicine subjects, but really, I thought I would love it more though.

3- Aquatic medicine

It was literally all about fishes and prawns. Like literally. I would say this is the subject everyone struggled, apart from those who had immense interest in aquatic medicine. I wouldn't say I struggled, because I actually do enjoy the classes, and only dozed off because I was too tired from night duties in rotation. Basically we learn about the anatomy and physiology of fishes and prawns, their management, the basic diseases we faced in Malaysia and how to overcome them, as well as some anaesthesia about aquatic lifeforms. We did not have marine mammals in this picture, probably because marine mammals are probably, not in the class of fishes to begin with. I actually digg this subject, but I wouldn't say I love it to the max. I'd actually enjoy most of the lectures when they made sense; probably about 20% didn't.

4- Veterinary Business

Despite everyone loathing about this subject, I would say the exposure to economical terms actually made sense. The whole subject went underrated because we had to make classes from 5 to 8pm ridiculously to make time for those who wish to have electives where lecturers are of high priority. Talk about monarchy? Anyways, this course is pretty damn underrated as well because I feel like the disease economy simply wasn't taught. I mean, when disease outbreak occurs I wouldn't know how to calculate the compensatory sum to the farmers involved! We are supposed to know this but the course doesn't provide the knowledge to; probably I should go to the lecturer and learn about it. On top of everything else, the lecturer who is coordinating the course is just too new to the curriculum, or rather our curriculum to make adjustments to the academical and practical needs from the course. I know everyone disliked the lecturer, but I would say she tried her best. What did I learn most from this course? Well, the most practical one would be the Marginal Physical Product. Which I need to get back in studying ASAP.

5- Clinical Rotations 3.0

Finally we are seniors in the rotations with juniors! Man I love it when I can get juniors to do the dirty work for me while I work on the medicine! That aside, 13 weeks of rotations were no joke. The rotations literally squeezed every little bit of our brain and body in getting out the reports, the patients, the files, the medications and man, the rounds. We had rotations for small animal surgery, small animal medicine, ruminant rotation 1 and 2, equine rotation, avian and exotics, pathology, clinical pathology, bacteriology, small animal clinics, radiology, theriogeniology, and last but never the least, swine. I thoroughly enjoyed all rotations because they all required us to put our learned veterinary knowledge into use for our patients, its just that we only put them into use in discussions because the veterinary officers are usually the ones prescribing and deciding what to do for the patients; apart from a visit to a farm with the lecturer who had no qualms in allowing us to make treatment decisions because he treated us as interns instead of students. Talk about cool.

So basically the first semester in year 5 went by really quickly, with a lot of things went on in between like clinical conference presentations and hosting,

class presentations, assignments, rotation reports and rounds,

secret santa, course night,

and my little trip to Japan for 10 hefty days.

Now you know why I didn't post.

On the side note, I don't think I would be able to post until my comprehensive examinations are over in July 2017 simple because I will be facing my Final Year Project beginning next Saturday, then continued by my FYP presentation, the thesis, then my second clinical conference, ongoing rotations, and then my CE.

It's going to be crazy, but I foresee it going to be fast as well.

2017 resolution? Ain't got nobody have time for that.

Maybe trying to get fitter and looking good in my own graduation.

Auscultating : Tri

Any readers who have been following should know what Tri is all about.

21st November 2015 marks the resurfacing of Digimon Adventure Tri in the theaters of Japan.

Well, as everything around the current franchise is limited edition only, Malaysia probably wouldn't have any airing any time soon.

I made an impulse and purchased over RM1k product from my Japanese friend's help online.

Well, this is the only childhood dream I'd wish I can chase after.

２０１１年１１月２１日。「再会」。冒険がまた進化する。

Buffetting : Little Updates

Life has been extremely fulfilling for me;

1- I'm stepping into clinical years, for which things now begin to get serious. I need to know things about medicine very comprehensively from A-Z like history taking, knowing clinical signs, coming up with differentials, confirming diagnosis, eliminating possible differentials, assessing the condition, as well as treatment. It's a long step, but I digg this a lot

2- N and I are back into the bandwagon. It's more like being attached rather than a relationship now. But I'm telling myself to keep my options. At one point I almost resorted to apps, only realizing I should delete them because its really pointless. My aim is to get good grades now.

3- Rotations now begin in clinical practice, for which I will enter different departments in the faculty including small animal surgery, ward, ICU and emergency care, labs, large animal wards including ruminants and equine wards. I enjoyed a lot working with large animals, despite the risk of getting fractures and summersaults like some of the juniors have gotten; maybe I really do enjoy working in the wards! I'm definitely tired because I'm staying so far from the university, waking up every day at 6.15 am to attend to patients at 7am is no joke; its very tiring throughout the day. But I like it. Things should change once I move in.

4- I'm moving out from my parent's into my own place soon. I'm lucky enough to have the house under my dad AND my name; making it an official house for me. It's a lot of responsibility, despite the fact that my parents are the ones investing the money in it. It definitely means my parents do love me a lot, and I need to work harder so their investments actually do make sense.

5- I will need to pay a lot more attention to my grades now. The first 3 weeks have been slow and I am lack of adrenaline. But I managed to do some serious revision today with surgery; hopefully my weekends will get me more adrenaline to complete my studies on my tests next week. Oh yes, I'm having tests already soon.

6- Japan will be my current target for post-graduate studies. I'm looking forward to an exciting PhD title, probably I should start with my Final Year Project as I will need to get a supervisor soon.

Things are moving pretty quickly once I've stepped into clinical years. It's a lot to digest, but damn I missed this adrenaline.

PS: I'm typing this 1 minute before it hits 1am. I need to wake up at 6.15am tomorrow. I shall survive.

PPS: Weight management have been an issue. I need to get into a serious healthier lifestyle

Buffetting : Getting Real

It has been a while hasn't it?

A few updates:

1- Japan has been great. I wouldn't miss it because I'm definitely going back
2- I wanted to call off with N. But N wants to go for a second go. Should I bother?
3- Year 4 kicked in hard. For the first half of the semester I will be zombified because of all the rotation in small animal clinic, ward and surgery. I should survive.

4- I've decided to pursue internal medicine in companion animals for now, until I find a way to apply it in wildlife medicine
5- I've also decided which lecturer to go to for my Final Year Project. I was a little afraid to go to the lecturer before because she is pretty prominent and I wasn't sure if she would be open to the idea. However, the recent email I got opened up some doors, and I'm probably sticking to this one.

Life has been good so far.  I'm moving into my new house soon, and I can't imagine living alone in a house myself yet. But, I have to say I'm a pretty lucky boy.

Buffetting : Wonder

Have you ever wonder on how a person may actually think or act differently with different people?

Lately I've encountered several instances on these matters.

There's this lady, named N.

So far she hasn't got much people around her to mingle with, probably due to her extremely egoistic nature and overly sense of dictatorship; more than I do. The difference between me and her is, she bosses; and I try my best to work with people.

Anyways, I have had lunch with another 2 more other girls, S and D; whom I thought were her closest people to call as friends to mingle with. Little do I know, they weren't really all fancy her either. It was a huge surprise for me, because they were really close usually and they talk about all flower dowery stuffs all the time, with pink cloudy puffs around when they interacts.

So apparently apart from partying, working with N is pretty oppressing because of the ego she has. What really awed me was, I couldn't believe the only 2 other person, who actually talks to N like BFFS actually would have such views of her behind her? Its pretty shallow to me, but D actually took it pretty seriously now on.

Now, there's another person I was speaking to L,whom lately has drifted. But I couldn't really help to realize what he has been doing and interacting with the people whom he actually talked about to me before.

An example would be the G story. So there's this dude G, who was pretty enthusiastic about knowing L after coming across somewhere over the rainbows. Initially L was actually talking about how G was really sensitive about various stuffs, to the point that I personally feel that L didn't fancy G much. Just lately, their interaction somewhere over the rainbows became, extra friendly?

I'd remember L was also talking about this other dude A on how promiscuous he was, and how different views they have had. Yet, lately that seemed to be changing?

I have no idea what L is thinking, or the progression of the social interaction between these people. Maybe it has been positive over the course that I've missed.

But somehow, I feel like it doesn't really justify the views L have had and have discussed with me before. Like, if you can do this to other people, heck what would I actually be one day? A source of gossip?

While I'm pretty sure I don't possess such influence and magnitude for a gossip source in the blogosphere, you can't deny the possibilities right?

All I'm trying to say is, I'm a pretty clear cut person. I know my values, the people I mingle with and the views I have usually stay until something drastic happens for me to declare my views. While I do not expect everyone to adhere to my views of conducts, its doesn't really mean I actually wouldn't notice or be bothered when conducts contradictory to my beliefs is in the air.


It's like high school drama, but oh well. 5 more papers to go, and I can finally continue with the posts lost since aeons ago.

on the side note, I'm going to Hokkaido this August, so watch out for more pictures!

Buffetting : Kyoto Day 1- Fujimi Inari Shrine

As far as I'm concerned, I was going to ban MAS for the rest of my life on Day 1.

I took an overnight plane because it would save me a lot on lodging, as well as some logistic issues if I were to arrive late at night in Japan; which turn out to be a great decision.

What was bad was delayed flight by MAS from 2200 to 0230 in the next morning, a hefty 4 hours and 30 minutes delay; and my whole 1st day in Kyoto went haywire.

With great luck I managed to land in KIX at 1130, about 4 hours later than expected arrival in the ticket.

Checking out wasn't a problem because I literally could read everything around; what was a little problematic was when I wanted to leave the customs. An officer kindly stopped me to ask for my declaration form; and I had to fill it up because I never knew I need to declare stuffs like: I'm not holding drugs, not holding weapons etc.

I had a short chat when I've submitted my form, while she still kindly asked to check my backpack. If it were to be a grouchy one I would have been more careful; yet she was extremely nice so I manage to have a good practice of my Japanese with a local right before I begin my journey.

KIX was huge, and extremely impressive. I would wanna go there again and just spend one whole day exploring it again if I had the time. With ample Japanese I managed to navigate myself to the post office to retrieve one of the most important thing:


1) The B-sim made my travel for the 10 days so much more easier; I could get in touch with people, with places and even with food. The wisest thing to do for travel is always, be prepared. Although I wouldn't mind some adventures, I still want to have guarantees in some aspect of my travel.

The process of retrieving took me less than 5 minutes as I had the required tracking number. Setting up was a little hectic, but I managed to get connected anyway.

2) JR ICOCA-Haruka Package.

You can read more over here. Some people was thinking about a lot more other alternatives; I was only going to be in Kansai for 10 days with about 4 days stagnant hence the Haruka express was really worth my money, while the ICOCA card serves as a perfect souvenir and great Touch-n-Go in Japan for myself.

Everything was so organized along the way to Kyoto

The Haruka-Express connects KIX to the main towns in Kansai with the final destination in Kyoto Station; the station which I need to be in in 75 minutes. The package entitled you for a non-reserved seat, but the train was spacious and good enough for a 75 minutes ride and a good nap before a busy day.

As I reached Kyoto Station, the first thing I wanted to do was to get to my host's place. A good thing was I have already had the ICOCA card on me, I just needed to get to the right platform with the right rail-line to my host place. As my host's place was near Kokusaikaikan(International Convention Center), I only needed to take the Tokaido Main Line on the ICOCA card for 25 minutes.

Walking about the streets from the subway in my first winter experience wasn't THAT bad; but I have to admit only my hands were having problem coping with the cold.

Rumi' place was very very Japanese and I had the best Japanese experience in her place. But I had to put that to a halt first as I wanted to make use of the lost time from the delay. Originally planned to explore around Higashi-ku, I've decided to go for Fujimi Inari Shrine instead, thanks to the recommendation of a fellow host-mate Ms Liu from Beijing for a free and easy instead of my original plan.

From Karasuma line, I had to take a change in Kyoto Station using JR-Nara line to Inari Station, for which the shrine is just right in front of the railway station.

My suggestion : Buy some snacks and drinks in the convenient store before the sight-seeing because the hike will drain your energy, seriously.

side note: You will be seeing a lot of couple's pictures in my series of posts from Kyoto, because I enjoy taking their back silhouette a lot; there is an indescribable feeling behind them.

The whole mountain in Inari is filled with the torii, the gate-like orange structures which are stacked extremely closely to each other. Corporates in Japan fill this place up with these torii as they believe worshiping them gives a better return in the subsequent years in their business. Inari refers to the paddy fields, and paddy fields were the main commodities in the olden days; hence worshiping for a good harvest to the God.

It is peculiar that these torii doesn't have their faces facing towards the entrance, rather facing backwards instead towards the mountain itself, as there's where the God will be looking at.

However, these are just the tip of the juice the shrine had the offer. The best part is the hike.

I spent about an hour and 45 minutes from the entrance to the top of the shrine. It has been a long while since my last hike, I swear my lungs were literally burning from the cold air and a profuse inhalation due to my body needs. 

I followed the trail by passing the original stairway hike which everyone gave up from the base of the mountain, and managed to see a different side of the shrine.

You'll be surprised on how many residentials they are in the mountain, confusingly with the same modern outlook in every other levels of the hike.

After a long hike, which almost everyone passed, trust me you will not regret what you see:

This was possibly one of the best scenes I had in Japan, with the right time, right place, right weather and with the right people-no one around me. I took my time strolling, enjoyed my first winter, reaching the top in the evening and with less crowd in the area. The sight was breathtaking, and the ecstasy from the tiring hike totally boost one's morale to its peak.

The hike down was easier thanks to gravity, though I spent my time walking around the town before I take the train to Gion for my night exploration, despite my tiring body.

when it hits evening, the station had less than 10 person lingering around, as compared to the afternoon.

Ironically, Gion somehow was 1000000 times more bustling than Fujimi Inari at night, serving its Shopping Street name very much to par. From the Shrine, I took the Keihan Lin to Gion-Shijo for a pit stop and tour around the most bustling place in Kyoto at night.

I was supposed to look for some Geisha or Maiko to snap pictures, but I had little tough to no luck with them throughout my stay in Kyoto. However, I managed to get myself one of the best ramen I had in Japan, even better than Ippudo could offer.

You should look for Miyashi Ramen, for which it is in the Kiyamachi Street, by google map default search. A good stroll will lead you there as the area ain't that huge. 

The taste of the broth was very porkish at first sip, but it turned out to be the best broth I ever had. The lard managed to blend in with a great combination together with the spring onions, while the char siew was just too different from the sweet ones we have in Malaysia. I had to finish the broth because it was so damn good and the only regret I had was to not grab another bowl of rice to go down with it. 

The price of the Ramen was 600YEN, pretty pricey by default but Ippudo was much costlier. The ramen did its job for cooling me up in a cold winter night and a tiring day, and so far it is still the best one I had. 

After a good strolling in the Maru Maru for some Blue Label Burberry hunting for my sister and mom, which turned out to be a dud due to the wrong season of bags, I went back to the hosts' place for a good night sleep.

Overall, day 1 was insane. But at least I managed to do these:
1- Visit KIX
2- Visit Kyoto Station
3- Visit Fujimi Inari Shrine
4- Visit Gion
5- Have authentic Japanese Ramen
6- Hike Inari Mountain
7- Be in Kyoto

Buffetting : Tied up

I guess getting back to the usual curriculum timeline is much taxing than I thought.

6 subjects, each with their own heaviness definitely taxed me alot.

I barely have time to think about updating my Japan trip.

Or maybe because it really just takes that much of time to put everything into pieces.

Not to say I'm dreading my semester, its fun but its really taxing.

This was my shack for  the 3 nights in Kyoto. Loved the host, the bed, the attic, the bath tub, the neighborhood. Great area near Kokusaikaikan, and the climb to the attic was really fun.

And being a club president surely didn't lighten things much, at all.

I just hope I don't screw up my first test.

Buffetting : Hectic

As much as I want to flaunt great looking pictures, my schedule doesn't permit me. What's scary is test 1 is in just 2 more weeks while I'm freaking out!

Maybe this can just be one of the teasers:

These are the multiple shrine structures named Torii( 鳥居) only found in the Fujimi Inari Shrine in EastSouthern Kyoto, accessible via the Keihan Line right infront of the shrine itself. The main reason this place is filled with these is due to the worshiping of corporations, including famous ones like Uniqlo to the Inari mountain to get the blessings from the God.

This is my first majestic view of the Fujimi Inari prefecture from the top of the Mount Inari. It was a long climb, it literally took my breathe away; but it proved my love for Japan 7 years ago was never wrong.

Now that we are done with the teaser, time for me to get back to renal pathology.