Advancing towards clinical years!

It is confirmed! I will be starting my clinical years in less than EIGHT weeks time! 

I am still pretty stoked about this whole idea of starting my clinical years. It will be the time when I get to learn from real patients PHYSICALLY, gather all the differential diagnosis for various difficult conditions and deal with emergency situations FOR REAL instead of getting all my simulated cases from papers and books which is something I have been doing for the past two years.

Although I am stepping into third year of Medical school, there is not a single day that I do not find joy in what I am learning and doing. I am still marveled by how the human body functions, how diseases are capable of causing an avalanche of complications in the human body, how modern technology had advanced over the years to aid mankind in improving healthcare and  combat illnesses. 

I am still in awe, for every piece of knowledge related to mankind's healthcare that I have learnt, learning and will learn.

In the course of studying during my pre-clinical years, we will not only learn about the current state of Medical healthcare level, but also the methods of treatment provided to mankind during ancient years. Other than the feeling of disbelief about what modern Healthcare Medicine brings, I could not help it but to feel thankful that I am born in this time. 

Take for example, contraception, which is the act of deliberately preventing a woman from getting pregnant.

Do you know that the ancient Egyptians actually make do with diaphragms made using a mixture of crocodile dung, oil and honey? There again, one of the oldest known condoms is made of pig's intestines. I am pretty sure there will be a lot of people who will feel grateful that hmmm such mortifying means of contraception are no longer available.

This article from The Telegraph entitled : "Britain could create first 'three-parent baby' "

 caught my eyes today. As I was reading, I have mixed feelings about it. I am glad that as the article mentioned, we finally have a way to overcome mitochondrial diseases but I am worried too about all the future consequences that might arise should this new technique come to approval.

In my opinion, humanity have already paid a certain level of price to accommodate the recent advancement of Human Assisted Fertility be it IVF, sperm donors, or fertility drugs, but right now the British thought of adding ovum donors to the list? There are gazillions of pros and cons flooding my mind regarding this new technique.

This is certainly something interesting and foresee-ably debatable in a long run, just like how "Abortion" still remains as a debatable topic and have yet to come to proper consensus in many countries.

Till then, we shall see.

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Jeremiah 29 : 11

the need to breathe, the need to figure things out

Things have been way to still and quiet here and rachelramblebabble. The last blog post I wrote was more than one and a half month ago I think, yes? no?

Nearly every single day during the past one and a half month just went by leaving me in a daze, wondering how can time actually pass so fast?!?! I think this urgent realization of time passing by so quickly amplifies itself as one starts to errhmmm *cough cough* age.

So what have actually been going on you might ask?

Things have been pretty batshit crazy since I am in the last two months of my pre-clinical years. Tonnes of studying, tonnes of assignments, tonnes of tasks to complete.  In fact, I am only able to come up with a new blog post right now, just as I have already waved goodbye to 75% of my finals. 

A few important decisions about life and the future came into thought during the past one month, and I am glad that God gave me the wisdom to put things into the right perspective. Just keeping my fingers crossed and praying real hard that things will turn out to be fine.

Oh another thing that is, I am pretty sure I have not brought this up in the blog. Remembered some what during Chinese New Year I submitted an application to become a mission trip volunteer by Malaysian Medical Fellowship? I got accepted into the Chiang Mai, Thailand team!!! Pretty stoke about it especially after I found out that Chiang Mai is rated 24th on the World's Favourite Place to Travel To list. Will be leaving Malaysia for a good one week in the end of July, and be back just in time for Raya.

Fear not, I have not lost interest in writing in rachelramblebabble, in fact I am still pretty enthusiastic about it. I am glad that I have this little corner of mine where I can pour out my thoughts and feelings about happenings and incidents BUUUUUUUUUUT I am indeed struggling with a few issues here about rachelramblebabble.

Firstly, I am still trying to figure out what is the essence or core of rachelramblebabble. Should I "pen" down amusing happenings, personal feelings, food adventures or my journey of becoming a doctor? I have a few blog posts written halfway during that period of time, but I could not bring myself to finish them and right now they are still in my drafts folder oh gawd please enlighten me. 

Secondly, I am really really really trying to figure our how "open" should I be in this blog. I think that over the years, I have learned and grown to be more reserved about my emotions and feelings. I have this tendency of building tall walls around myself, not to shut people around me from me, but rather to keep myself guarded and safe. 

There are certainly more things for me to sort out about rachelramblebabble, and a lot more about life. I am pretty sure that as time passes, things will fall into place but right now, I still have another 25% more of my finals to work on, and all the batshit madness of my conference will start as soon as my finals is over! So you should be pretty sure that rachelramblebabble will be silent for the next few weeks again.

Anything amazing/amusing/ridiculous happened in your life of late?

Till then! Kthxbai!

"I will praise God's name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving."

Psalms 69 : 30

Tony Stark and Pepper Potts

kept me occupied this afternoon. 

Yes, this long awaited Iron Man 3 is FINALLY on screen! 

It was certainly an afternoon well spent, watching Iron Man 3. 

To be fair, I will try to be as subtle as I can be to not spoil the movie just in case any of you have not watch it because what I really like about Iron Man 3 is all the element of surprise in the movie. 

The plot of the story is simple and well-explained which in my opinion is to suit the understanding level of young teenagers with their superhero fantasy.

I like it how in there is more of Tony Stark in this movie, rather than him just being Iron Man,  clad in his alloy amour all the time. I get to experience the more humanly side of a superhero this time which is certainly a plus point for Iron Man 3. 

The villain for Iron Man 3 is played by Guy Pearce. His acting was decent to me, nonetheless Tom Hiddleston (Loki) still remains as the most well-played villain of all to me.

As for the ending of this movie, somehow I thought that it could be better, or maybe that feeling came from my sentiment towards Iron Man, knowing that this, will indeed be the final or hopefully not appearance of Iron Man.

After all the excitement that was built up in endless pre-movie on screen trailer, this is certainly yet another Marvel masterpiece worth watching.

Glioblastomas

are tumors that arise from astrocytes—the star-shaped cells that make up the “glue-like,” or supportive tissue of the brain. These tumors are usually highly malignant (cancerous) because the cells reproduce quickly and they are supported by a large network of blood vessels.

The occurrence of glioblastoma is rare, so so so rare that in most European and North American countries, incidence is approximately 2-3 new cases per 100,000 people per year and usually by the time patients are diagnosed, they have a median survival rate of 4.5 months without treatment; 15 months with treatment.

Glioblastoma took away a dear brother in Christ yesterday, leaving behind his wife and three young sons. Felt glad for him that in a way that he had definitely fulfilled the missions God had for him on earth and is home now with our heavenly Father for eternal life, yet still felt unjust and sad for his family because it is those that are left behind whom suffers the most. They will need to go through this unbearable degree of pain of losing someone so dear and loved to them. 

Unlike the toughest physical pain, labor pains which passes and will be forgotten once it passes, it is this form of emotional pain that just etches and roots itself deep within your heart, resurfacing with every opportunity it has, just so that you will not forget, this degree of incomprehensible, indescribable pain.

With the demise of this brother, we are once reminded of God's sovereignty, how God has the ultimate control over our lives and how His plans for us might not necessarily be the plans we have for ourselves way earlier.

Coincidentally, I came across this as I was tumblr-surfing.

"Mankind still have so much to do, but so little time and effort left
to allow great things to happen."

"He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

Revelations 4 : 21

Of happies and saddies,

So many things have happened of late! 

One of the greatest happies that just happened recently is this!

Krabi, Thailand

07.04.13-10.04.13

My friends and I just came back from a trip at Krabi, Thailand and it was a really amazing holiday. I have always enjoyed beach holidays, so Krabi is just perfect. 

It was a perfect getaway from all the neuroscience craziness we are all in the midst in right now(we are all Medical students) as in we have great values for food, scenery, food, entertainment, food, souvenirs and more food.

Krabi is just budget-able within a varsity student's means. It is not that touristy like Phuket, well when a place is a major tourist site, everything will be pricey and its not that there is no one else other than the fifteen of us in Krabi, there are, tonnes more Caucasians, Asians but the crowd is just nice to make you feel comfortable. 

This is our first overseas holiday together,
there will be more to come in near future, hopefully

I really really really had a great time there
and I certainly will visit Krabi again if given a chance.

Another happies will be, I AM TURNING 21 TOMORROW!

I am happy about it, not particularly euphoric, ecstatic, elated about it but well, there is just this deep sense of comfort within me that I am turning twenty-one tomorrow.

My friend once said, when you turn twenty-one, you have legally earned your right to a death sentence. That statement kinda left me dumbstruck but it reminded me once more how I am indeed an adult now I can no longer be in denial about it, I am solely accountable for my actions, and I still have so much more to learn, to see and to experience about adulthood though I cannot deny that I am enjoying that extra tinge of freedom I have right now.

I do not know, is it normal that once you have hit another milestone in your life, thoughts will start to flood through you and make you wonder what is ahead for you in another ten, twenty or thirty years time? I know it did for me, there has been a lot of reflection and thinking these couple of days, for me, about life and I am still praying to God to paint me a clearer picture about it. 

Do not get me wrong, its not that I am unhappy about how things are for me right now, I am happy about how things are for me right now. 

I have my family who love and adore me to bits though they might not be really expressive about it most of the times ahhh well that is what that happens when you are an Asian but it is also through their tiny actions and seemingly insignificant encouragement that reminds me how much they love me, and I really really really love all of them.

I have an amazing boyfriend whom self-acknowledges that his sole duty is to make me a happy princess HAHA even if that means a lot more teasing and bullying FROM ME ahhh he is all in for it, heh I love him deep down to the core too. 

I am on my way to be what I have dreamt of ever since I was what, thirteen or fourteen. I still have another three more years to go before I graduate to be a doctor, I am very very very excited about that and the current advancement of the Medical field in terms of technology and theory, they still never cease to interest and fathom me. There are still so much to explore, understand and learn about our amazing human body.

I have currently reach this juncture of life where I am contented with the people I am surrounded with. There are good friends to share with and good acquaintances to have a good laugh with.

Life is quite settled and good for me, as a twenty-one years old young adult, I could not thank God for blessing me enough.

So there you go for all my happies, well they should really be happies seeing how much I wrote about them haha so I will make my saddies real short and neat because they are hmmm saddies.

Saddies number one : I did not get to participate in our 13th General Election. In a couple blog post prior this, I mentioned how excited I am if I am able to vote for this coming 13th GE but oh well, it did not happen that way for me, so I have another FIVE more years to go before I can fulfill my duty as a Malaysian.

Saddies number two : I mentioned too in a few blog posts before this about my application to the Malaysian Medical Fellowship to be a volunteer of their mission team. About two months have passed by, some of my friends have gotten theirs and I have not received any news till now, so I guess that is it. I could not deny that I am rather disappointed and upset about it because I have taken up a lot of courage to set my mind straight to be a blessing to others. On the other hand I could plan for another holiday with my friends yay.

Basically today I wrote about the two happies and two saddies for me. What are your happies and saddies?

Turning TWENTY-ONE in two weeks time,

Gosh time really does fly.

As much as I want to continue to be in denial about me turning into an adult well you know when you are an adult people expect greatly from you in terms of maturity, responsibility, capability yada dida nada I need not go on, yet some part of me could not help but to feel relieved or joyful that I am going to be twenty-one so so soon.

One thing that I have been very excited about, which is also related to my personal pass into adulthood is the 13th Malaysian General Election.

Now wait! Before you roll your eyes and judge me for acting up like a mad crazy 50 years old politician, allow me to share with you a few reasons why as to my interest in this upcoming election.

It appears to many, young or old that this loooooooooooooooong-awaited election will be an interesting one. As quoted by one of the taxi pak cik "sekarang ini zaman moden media, Kerajaan tidak boleh lagi menipu rakyat, apa-apa pun rakyat boleh tahu." In my opinion, this 13th General Election will be a tough one for Barisan Nasional which is equivalent to the Democrats in the United States and neither will it be easy for our very aggressive Pakatan Rakyat which is equivalent to the Republicans in the United States.

Personally, I could not help but to feel slightly worried about the future outcome of this GE. I am not trying to be pessimistic about this but just by looking at the vast increment of our country's National Debt, the future of our country do not seem to be really promising for the winning party be it BN or PKR.

I really do hope that I will have the chance to participate in this GE or else it will be a long five years wait for me again and by then I will be in my mid-twenties, I will definitely not have the same thoughts or perception about our Malaysian political standing as I do right now in my early twenties. I do not marvel at this opportunity to vote just for the sake of voting, but rather I have came to this realization (and hopefully many other young adults who are eligible to vote too) that as a citizen of my own country, I have the right to define the future of my country and since we are living in a democratic country, we must reinforce our role in  gaining support and understanding to the voices of the nation from the government, all for the betterment of our country.

"This is the confidence we have in approaching God. That is if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us."

1 John 5:14

A good day indeed

I had the chance to experience God's kindness and love through a good Samaritan today.

Her actions reminded me how God send His one and only beloved son to earth, to help the woeful soul, to awaken the doubtful ones, to empathize the longing soul and to die for us, the sinful ones, for our salvation, so that we will have eternal life in Christ.

Today is really a good day, which I will give all my thanks to God.

And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, 

“You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”

Mark 10 : 21