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 : Malacca

Finals ended with me knowing my grades for 2 important medicine subjects; good to know that I managed to ace them. Let's hope my CGPA remains in dean's list so I wouldn't die trying to pull the grades up next semester.

Marching into the final year in the vet school ain't no joke; as we will be required to present 2 clinical conference cases in the final 2 semesters within one slot among the 14 Fridays of each semesters.

Being me, I got in touch with one of the consultants so that I get to tag along while she have appointments on cardiac patients.

Coincidentally,(trust me I did not know) she was the academician in charge of 4 Thai exchange students and one pretty damn good looking clinician from Khon Khaen University; and I was asked if I were free to bring them around to places they have YET to go.

My list was:
1- KLCC
2- KL Bird park
3- Petaling Street
4- Putrajaya
5- Merdeka Field.

But they all have been there. I literally ORZ-ed

Then I came up with another list:
1- Sekinchan
2- Tanjung Sepat
3- Pulau Ketam
4- Kuala Selangor
5- Malacca

Lo and behold, the last one of the list became their choice.

Well, I would if I were a tourist. The only qualm I had as the driver is the traffic.

Luckily, luck was on my side, I had a smooth traffic with 1.5 hours drive through and fro, each of course.

Malacca itself is a sigh seeing place, but its really much more fun if someone knew the history to explain. I had literally little to no time to get my facts right; while I've only managed to time their itinerary like 5 hours before I fetch the next day, so I just went there without any historical knowledge of each attraction.

Our first stop was A'Famosa, also known as Porte De Santiago. Well, the sun was blazing I almost died in the heat; but we had a great picture and climb up the port to the next stop; St Paul Church.

Spent  a little time exploring the ruins, taking pictures and noticing the lost of the St Paul's right hand; probably due to the war, it's a good place to hang out for picnic I would say. Either way, to me its better for historical enthusiasts compared to me.

Came to the Dutch Square and decided not to go into Stadhuy's museums simply because there ain't value for them. Walked around and rested from the walking, took pictures, and yea. Taking pictures is what we all did. But what else can we do right?

and yea, my arm length selfie is a must.

St Francis Xavier Church was apparently in their list, but I'd figure it's more like a touch and go because they had Sunday masses. It was beautifully constructed and apparently a Japanese enthusiast brought the first priest into Malacca and founded the establishment. Cool history. 

I enjoyed this part of the day most; and it was a good thing they brought this up. We went for a gallery tour on the Chen family's Baba and Nyonya Heritage Museum; where they offer a good nyonya tour guide to show us various cultural legacies available in the museum. From the altars, the architecture, the sewings and even a 1956 version of CCTV; I think the price of RM16 for a good tour to relate and know about the peranakan heritage is worth every sens. I personally feel that this was enjoyable because I could relate a lot, especially from a Hokkien background.

Heck, I even eat with hands when my grandma is around. I somewhat felt I had peranakan background because of my grandma as well; but who knows right? 

PS: I'm also 1/8th portuguese, which explains the size and height.

Spent the lunch in Jonker 88, the Thais loved the Asam and Lemak Laksa. Breakfast in Hoe Kee, was pretty disappointing for me.

Since we've managed to cover all their listed places,(there were more but not worth mentioning haha) we've decided to hit Menara Taming Sari, named after the legendary keris owned by Hang Tuah. It's a tower similar to the Solero shot machine, just that it ascends and descends much slower with a possible 360 view of the Malacca Straits. The view was fascinating, and RM15 for Malaysians is definitely worth going up. I wasn't too keen to begin with, but after the ride it was pretty impressive. The pictures you can take through the glass walls are breathtaking.

Our last stop of the day was Sam Poh Keng Temple, or Tua Pek Kong Temple. Only me and the clinician paid our respect because of our Chinese heritage. It was like other temples as well, just a little history on how Hang Li Poh was related to this temple due to the Sultan's love for her.

With everyone's legs screaming after the whole day walking under the scorching sun, I got everyone to the Capitol Satay so that we can start waiting before the line gets crazy. Good thing that we got there about 20 minutes before the line went berserkishly long, while we too only have waited 20 minutes only before we got our seats. It was a good experience, the satay broth was freakishly good with the combination of peanuts and spice; when it was piping hot some how everything went 10x better. I'm glad the Thais enjoyed it, and they were really just doing it because it wad fun doing it, not because they really wanted to have it for dinner.

So where did we have our dinner? Same ol' Bak Kut Teh in Serdang near the Wisma Boston. Surprisingly everything was good tonight because I'd swear I have worse servings here before. The soup base was sweet while the pork vinegar just killed me from inside. Their dry BKT wasn't my favorite, but the Thais thoroughly enjoyed it.

Before we called it a night, we went for our virgin arcade dance off in the Mines. It's very fun when you have something in common to go crazy with, especially with foreigners. 

It was a great outing, I was just glad that my lecturer asked me for the favor while I too enjoyed it all the way.

Auscultating : Ending 2015

I can't believe this is the last day of the year already! One more year's ending to welcome another year's beginning; by the time this happens in another 365 days I would be in my last year of undergraduate vet school! Hopefully by that time I would be able to secure a good post-graduate program.

Yet, as they say, keep your hopes there but never too high.

Let's see what 2015 have been all about:

January 2015:

Most of the time was actually spent on practicals and gaining weight I would say. The mediocre week in Penang for equine rotation and 2 awesome weeks of small animal rotation in Healing Rooms went by extremely fast, I barely have had enough time to digest everything. With finals end and stepping into immediate extra-mural practicals, I have little to no space for any personal development. Yet, time was indeed well spent.

February 2015:

I finally fulfilled one of my teenage dream to step into Japan as a conference participant of Vet Youth Summit Japan. It was literally the best decision I've made in my life, as the whole trip there literally opened up my horizon of views, thoughts, perception and decisions; allowing myself to actually feel it in my blood that the road I've paved for myself up till today was worth while. Meeting new friends from all over the world and making a point that I'm pretty much a natural attention seeker wherever I go, I fell in lover over and over again in Japan when I had the short 10 days stay. While spending the first Chinese New Year away from home and alone was a different type of undertaking, I'd thoroughly enjoyed my walk down the different path.

March 2015:

Stepping into the clinical years of veterinary school surely have taken its toll on me. The subjects now require extensive understanding and much more memorization of details and bits which I've not dealt with before. Plenty of skill-related development was also required throughout the attainment of knowledge at this phase, but I sure have enjoyed all the moments, despite the late night sleep and tiredness after a whole day of lecture or surgery class.


April 2015:

While we have had intensive classes back to back, the best thing about our faculty is that we make the effort to put ourselves into the whole "Holistic" category kinda thing. I'm pretty sure we are the only medicine or science based faculty which organizes annual sports and drama event to instill the organizational abilities, sportsmanship and creativity skills in all our faculty members, including the lecturers. Majilis Silatrahim this year was all about Crime and Justice, and all I need to dress up as was my dad's retired police uniform. While most seniors complained that I was the fattest and most corrupted policeman they've seen; I sure have had fun in getting the attention I needed


May 2015:

While most people died trying to stay in the class, I died trying to get out of the class. This time of the year marked the 2nd time for me to fly out of the country to Bangkok as a volunteer under IVSA in the 2015 WSAVA Congress. My semester results might have screwed up big time because of this, but I did not once regretted my decision to do this because I've met so many people and veterinarians all over the world, not to mention make a huge declaration to the Malaysian community that I exist.

On the other hand I've finally stepped down as my last stint of organizational position as the PEC President of the university, not like I've done anything great, and continued with my studies full time.

June 2015:

June marks the end of the 2nd academic semester of the year and one step close to nightmares like practical tests, oral tests and finals. I totally went through a nightmare this semester because of all the extra-faculty activities I put myself through. Despite my results turning out to be pretty much the worst in my whole DVM life, I'd still say I've survived the semester well. All I wanted was the semester to end fast and for me to continue with my practicals I've been dying for in Thailand and Japan.


July 2015:

Stepping into another country for practical for the 2nd time and my 3rd flight of the year, Mahidol University in Kanchanaburi was the bomb. I had the chance to be part of the wildlife rescue team to go into the forest reserve, had great time over the weekend in the natural forest, draw blood from elephants, monitor the anesthesia of a tiger, draw blood from a horse, vaccinate 100 to 200 sheep and goats, deworming flocks of chicken and geese, explore Kanchanaburi a little bit more in the Tham Ma Sae gorge and railway station, and the best of all; made friends with so many Thai friends plus a Spanish or two. Mahidol University have offered one of the best rotations I've ever had. I'm forever lucky like that. The only downside I had throughout the placement here was the weakness I gave in to hope for a 2nd chance with T; only to know that in fact T and I were just over for real. I was so done with the answers T have given then. T unfriended me on the social media once to allow both of us to move on at one point, only to readd me again later on while we have yet to spoke to each other since then. On the other hand, N began to have advances when I was shown to have a few Mahidol acquaintances.

August 2015:


Do I have to say more? This was the BEST month of my life this year. Why? Japan, JAPAN, JAPAAAANNNNNN. I've spent 6 months planning the whole up to 30 days stay in Japan with budget of RM6K, and experienced Japan throughout the whole Island.

Before my practical, I went to Osaka again to finish up my unfinished trip back in February.

After that,  I've managed to conquer the South Japan Island;  Yamaguchi for 3 weeks as I was having my laboratory practicals there. I've learned a lot on lab skills including first hand PCR, immunostaining, immunoblotting, ELISA test kit using, anatomical slides staining, post mortem on a horse as well as first hand experience of clinic consultation plus surgery practices in Yamaguchi University.

Apart from that, I was extremely luck to have great friends to bring me to Hiroshima, Shimonoseki and Kitakyushu, while I explored Hagi, Tsuwano and Yamaguchi myself.

With a good ride to Ube-Yamaguchi, I again had great friends in the North Japan Island; Hokkaido for 5 days around Sapporo, Arakwa and Otaru.

Before I end my trip; I had a great 6 days tour around Central Japan of Tokyo with a bit of help of Tokyo friends around Tokyo vicinity and relived all my childhood dreams with Digimon.


September 2015:

Finally the real clinical years have begun! Stepping into the faculty again at this point was super exciting because it simply was just so fun! New subjects with a combination of old ones plus complete freedom to practice our skills and knowledge on veterinary medicine at this point was just simply amazing! Stepping into DVM 4 was definitely what all vet students have been waiting for in their lives. I've not been enjoying studies as crazy as this since STPM!

October 2015:

I finally stepped into small animal rotations in the wards! I've never had so much fun before, despite the fact that I need to wake up at 6 am in the morning and reach home only about 10pm at night; I thoroughly enjoyed my rotation in wards learning about the medicine and surgical protocols I will be using in the future to treat my patients! Despite all odds of having my original last Course Night in my last day of rotations, I've managed to make it to the course night with my Yukata piece I got from Osaka!


November 2015:

The whole November just went on and on with numerous numbers of tests which I do sulk a lot about, but still adamantly enjoyed the torture my lecturers put me through. While maintaining a considerable busy life schedule and sufficiently standard in my academics, I'm pretty happy I've managed my time well and not stumbled in my academics like I did in my previous semester. Being more attentive and high in attendance in class do have its perks in getting better results.


December 2015:

As the year mark its end with my semester ending as well, I've finally settled down with my new home with certain tolerable amount of furniture to throw a small welcoming party in the last day of the semester. People from my both academic years turned out and they enjoyed each others' company very well, I have never been more blessed to get the best of both worlds from Vetsouls and Kakijalan. I might have been cursed with the split identity, but I'm definitely blessed with different pots of good soup for the soul.

Stepping into 2015 means, stepping into another year of reality and adulthood. I will begin taking in tenants for my new home while I continue to hone skills to be a full-fledged veterinarian.

It's somewhat exciting yet intimidating, but I'm sure my bold and brawns will conquer all.

On the other note, thanks to Alex and Jboy's recommendation I've finally got myself hooked up with one of those apps they have for dating. I guess I need to broaden my horizons, despite a few surprises of faces I've seen around.

Have great new year people.

Buffetting : Klang Vetsoul One-Day Trip

Before the semester break begin, the Vet Souls decided to head over to Klang for a one day eating ot thanks to the initiative of Polar Bear and Heart. We didn't go anywhere else apart from our food escape and series chasing on Officer Geomancer in 2 different houses with AOD.

This trip was a literal 1-day-5-meals escapade:

1- Breakfast

Famous Bak Kut Teh from Seng Huat. The portion and taste was so so on that day even Polar Bear felt the standard went down the drain. Always ask for a reheat if you find the soup is too cold because its really 10 times better when piping hot.

The portion in the picture is small, so I had to have 2 to get me filled. Maybe the large option would be suffice for one go. 

The best landmark to locate this shop is Klang KTM station, as it is right underneath an overhead bridge between the shop and the police station in Klang. Waze your way through and you will be fine.

2- Brunch

Belle being the typical Klangite suggested the Klang Cendol and Rojak for our brunch. Well, they were okay, I would still prefer SS15 Cendol and Rojak over this any time from a cost-effective point of view.

Done for stomach in the morning, we stopped by Belle's place for a good catch up and AOD drama-thon until lunch. That was the first time in Vet Soul travel history which everyone were actually not looking forward to the next meal because the food ain't digested yet in our tummy.

Nevertheless, what's planned must go on; hence we headed to Berkeley for the Fatty Pan Mee

3- Lunch in Taman Berkeley, Fatty Mee Hoon Kueh

The place was packed with people but the turnover rate was pretty high so it was totally fine for the 10 of us to get our spots. Our food came by about 10 minutes with great piping hot smoke. The mee hoon kuehs were cooked just nice with the flour aroma when you eat them, just how I like them. Some people don't like the idea of the flour-ish taste because it was deemed uncooked; I say otherwise. The only weird thing was, cili padi was used instead of the typical belacan. Their Q-noodle is also worth a try because its handmade and goes well with the same pork and stock from the mee hoon kueh.

This place is definitely a great one to go to for a quick meal or 5-meals challenge

Post noodle war, we headed to Heart's house to complete our movie marathon before the next battle in 1986.

4- Dinner, Cafe 1986 opposite Aeon Bukit Tinggi. 

Owned by Heart's sister's friend who was also borned in 1986, the place boasted 3 storeys of boutique, saloon, manicure and pedicure parlor as well as the cafe.

The in house salad was just so so.

The food was good because they only offer limited amount, which turned out to be quite the turn off because of the same reason as well.

The chocolate mud cake was my favorite because the cream and cake were both dense and thick. The ganache wasn't super duper sweet as well making the cake a good pick.

It has great ambient with great selection of drinks for catch up with friends; yet a high number of guests without food orders wasn't served because its not profitable to them either.

The mango maester is pretty good too.

Couples probably find this place quaint for a night out, and I really would come this far for the nature of my relationship in the future.

The boxer chicken wing is a must order! The presentation was kinda bad but its really good when the meaty juice explode in your mouth.

What the cafe boasts most is the pork burgers! Get your hands on them, as they only offer 2 varieties which are the Hawaian and Smoked Pork Burger. They were really good as the patties were made into perfection using different spices while the cheese goes so well on the patty itself. 

Their pasta selection was pretty vast too, and the salmon cream spaghetti was pretty good with generous salmon slices topping with a creamy white sauce. Not as overwhelming as carbonaras, but as good and thick.

Apparent burgers are meant to be eaten upside down so that the fillings are sustained by the cusp-shaped under-bread!

5- Klang Fried Chicken (Tan's Brothers) in Taman Klang Jaya, Jalan Seruling.

I am lack of photos because it was a take away and I was running low on enthusiasm. But that KFC is really worth the money of RM3 to be better than the commercial KFC, like dead serious. The queue will be long unless you want different parts; we were lucky because the thigh was on surplus that night. Do give it a try when you are there!

The outing will not be successful without Polar Bear and Heart's planning! Great thanks to all who have made the whole trip livelier!

Next post will probably continue on the onion toxicosis!