The journey never ends

When i started this blog, i was a junior medical officer; not knowing where my path wuld lead me. I had interest to do paediatrics but somewhere along the way, I've chosen to be an anaesthetist. It has been an ongoing journey and i am still learning, gaining experience and expertise to practice this wonderful art.
I feel blessed that along the way, I've crossed path with senior consultant anaesthetists, either directly or indirectly for me to absorb their experience in building my own wisdom. I've had the opportunity to exchange my views with Emeritus Prof Alex Delilkan (still my anaesthetist idol!) ever since i was in med school and now as a qualified specialist. I am thankful to have been under the professors of UM ( Gracie, Patrick, Wang, Lucy, Marzida) during my Masters training which had widen my horizon. Of course my stint in Perth was excellent, where i have my role models who i want to emulate.
Coming back home, now i have with me Prof Karis; one of the UKM Anaesthesia founders and a very senior Consultant.He is my current mentor and I believe I have a lot to learn from him. Not just the discipline but on managing a department and hospital.
Alhamdulillah,  i feel truly blessed to be with all of them in my journey of practicing Clinical Anaesthesia.

Nuang summit via Janda Baik

 Do you think i would just sit down at home and not go out? Of course not!I am an outdoor freak and I will be restless if I am to just stay put at home or just plain city life!
Last Saturday as part of the EBC training, I joined Saf & Pakcik Burn to climb Nuang. But it was not the usual route which is from Ulu Pangsun; which could take us the whole day to do up and down. Instead, it was a route which i have heard but not explored; via Janda Baik. It was definitely the shorter route and more feasible for a relaxing day hike.

The day started with all of us meeting up at the Petronas station. After all members were identified (Well, Saf who was leading us on behalf of Deeno didn't know who's who..) we were off to Janda Baik for breakfast. It was a hefty nasi lemak but it was needed for the early morning carbo load! The starting point was near a small river and after du'a we were off! And of course, had to have our feet wet hahaha

 The sweet smell of the tropical rainforest.. how i've missed it for the last 18 months.It was humid and sweaty but it was a nice feeling to be back outdoors. The climb was fairly easy, nothing to technical but the mencanak part was still mencanak! In Perth, there was none of this as the bush was about flatlands!
The group moved at a reasonable pace and we arrived at the summit after 4 hours climb.

 The weather was good and the skies were really clear! I've never seen the surrounding from the mountain top as my previous summit was when the clouds were surrounding the peak. Subhanallah.. You can see KL from here. It was certainly nice and to amaze God's gift!

The climb down was rather fast as Amir wanted to be back before 6 to send his children for swimming. I followed him as I thought of going back early too. Amazingly it took us about 1 hour and 40 minutes to reach the starting point! I did force myself to descend and not too sure whether it was a good idea! It was to test my muscle fitness and we will see hahaha
Overall, the first outdoor outing was excellent and I can foresee me doing lots of this hopefully with the family in the near future.

Home sweet home

It has been 2 weeks. Arrived in KL on the 12th of February; leaving all my Perth's sweet memories. It was not easy to leave i can tell you but I guess life has to go on. A lot of my peers asked me why did I come back since I've seemed to have embraced the Aussie lifestyle? haha Not an easy question to answer :(

I am still with UiTM; and i have pledged to set up something here, something big and perhaps a legacy for the future generation. Being the first batch of anaesthetist employed by UiTM, its my duty to honour my promise. Of course there will always be the dilemma of self vs needs. Ethically, this is the right thing to do for now. I have a unit to set up, students to teach and true.. Rezeki Allah di mana-mana.

I can foresee a lot of obstacles incoming, as how it has been for the past 18 months. I left and came back and we are still in square one. Not much of a progress. Its easy to blame here and there but the reality is the planning was bad. It is not easy to set up something big but a proper planning term is important to realize that. Insya-Allah, if we are sincere to do something, god will reward. The perseverence is the challenge as how my two initial colleagues went tangential in our destiny after a year post Masters. One is happily in the private; earning tonnes of money and the other in her business; seemed well too! I am still here, maybe an idealist; but not to be worried, i am a realistic idealist. I do give time for things to work and move on. Otherwise, it is such a shame to see such potential being shot down and put to grave. That is one thing i would not want to see; a project with so much promise demise.

Dengan lafaz Bismillah.. Que sera sera.. !

Thank you.. thank you..the last week in Perth

MAfeitz Mamat

13th Biannual RA Workshop in RPH

It was a priviledge to be involved in this workshop organized by Prof Krishna Boddu. I stayed one week in Perth to be involved in it and i reckon it was a superb experience facilitating an oversea's workshop. The stuff we do is not much different from the local Malaysian workshop but having to deal with the participants which are Consultants can be a bit intimidating to start off with.

 I was given the task to man the animal lab pig station. Yup you heard it right.. pig station! It was an experience i would not trade it with anything else as it was my first time handling an anaesthetised pig! I am thankful i was entrusted to man this by Krishna and i guess it is time since I was the Regional Fellow. I was also involved with the ethics video for Adriano's session as i was roped in to be one of the actors for it! It was fun and certainly having seeing yourself doing the spoofs can be a bit embarrasing.. haha but i certainly had fun :)

As any other workshop, it was tiring but at the end of it I was certainly satisfied.It was worth the trouble to stay here another week and a good end to my stint in Perth.

Shakti's farewell visit to Perth

Shakti was the one who made me come to Aussie 18 months ago. As i made a visit to his place earlier this year, he wanted to come to Perth when I'm still around.. so the circle is complete :)
He was only here for 3 days but i can tell you his activity here was super packed! I was trying to show him "MY" Perth and I reckon he did see Perth how I saw Perth. We did the walking, cycling, running, Jacob's ladder ( which Shakti hates the most.. haha) swimming and just purely physical activities! It was as if having a boot camp here and he was certainly whipped!
Swan River loop, UWA, Kings Park, Cottosloe.. it was just pure adrenaline bringing us around.. haha Good workout and honestly I was totally knackered after he went back!

 It was also a reunion for the 3 of us, the ICU team in PPUM 2010 and it brought a lot of memories :) Who would have thought a few years later we would meet up in Perth for dinner and career? This certainly tells you that you cannot predict what the future holds for you.

I brought Shakti to all my favourite places in Perth and it was my Au revoir to this place. Rottnest will always be my favourite Island and i am glad that I did say goodbye to it on my last week in WA.

Farewell radio melayu

Had my last sit on the console last Saturday..2 Feb 2013. It has been a fruitful year to be on the radio.. a priviledge and such an experience out of my box!
Thank you Encik Kamarudin, KAk Sharifah, Abang Zul and Hilman.. we were great together!
And to Imran aka Aaron, Good luck bro for your stint with Radio Melayu :)

The end of one and the beginning and another

Indeed, the adventure which began with an email to enquire for possible opportunities has come to an end.
I do feel a bit sad having to leave this comfort zone that I've been on for the past 18 months; and now it is over. Really-really over .. :(
I've not manage to blog any post last month as I really do not know what to say or write. Denial took its place and i was behaving as if i am not leaving this place for good. The real deal was when i sent off all my boxes; and then reality hit me. Yes I am going slowly.. slowly..

                                            Regional anaesthesia team

Thank you Perth.. It was a fruitful stint.. a good one.. and I am a grown man now :)