Life as a Junior Doctor

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Maneki Neko, or the lucky cat, is a popular Japanese figurine that is believed to bring good luck and fortune to its owners. Whether you are a believer in its mystical powers or simply love its cute design, placing a Maneki Neko in your home can add a touch of charm and positivity to your living space. Here are some tips on where and how to put your lucky cat at home.

Firstly, it is important to consider the purpose of your Maneki Neko. Different colors and paw positions have different meanings and purposes. For example, a white Maneki Neko is said to bring good luck and purity, while a black Maneki Neko is believed to ward off evil spirits and protect against illness. A Maneki Neko with its left paw raised is said to attract customers and bring in business, while a Maneki Neko with its right paw raised is said to bring good luck and wealth. Choose a color and paw position that aligns with your specific goals and intentions.

Once you have chosen your Maneki Neko, the best location for it in your home is near the entrance, facing inward. The cat's raised paw is beckoning good fortune and welcoming positive energy into your home. It is best to place the lucky cat on a high surface, such as a shelf or table, to give it prominence and to elevate its importance in your space.

Another great location for your Maneki Neko is in your living room. Placing it on a shelf or a coffee table in your living room can bring positive energy to your relationships with friends and family. It is believed to promote harmonious and joyful relationships, so it is a great addition to a space where people gather.

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If you are looking to attract good fortune and prosperity to your home, consider placing your Maneki Neko in the southeast corner of your living room or bedroom. This is the area of the Bagua map that is associated with wealth and abundance. Placing the lucky cat in this area can help to enhance the energy of wealth and bring more prosperity to your home.

If you are looking to promote good health and well-being, the best location for your Maneki Neko is in the east or southeast corner of your home. These areas are associated with health and longevity, and placing your lucky cat in these areas can help to promote good health and prevent illness.

Finally, it is important to take good care of your Maneki Neko. Regularly dusting and cleaning it can help to maintain its positive energy and keep it looking its best. Some people also choose to periodically offer small gifts or treats to their Maneki Neko as a way of showing gratitude and respect for its lucky energy.

In conclusion, the placement of your Maneki Neko in your home depends on your specific goals and intentions. Whether you are looking to attract wealth, promote good health, or enhance your relationships, the lucky cat can be a meaningful addition to your space. By choosing the right color and paw position, placing it in the right location, and taking good care of it, you can maximize the lucky energy of your Maneki Neko and bring positivity and joy into your home.

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Failure is a natural and inevitable part of life. It can come in many forms, from small setbacks to major disappointments. Although it can be difficult to deal with, failure is an opportunity to learn and grow. It can teach us valuable lessons and help us build resilience and perseverance. It's important to remember that failure does not define us and that we can always try again and do better next time. Nonetheless, dealing with failure is never easy. Here are some tips to help you get through it:

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Hey it has been a long while since I have last updated the blog. I have completed my foundation training last year August and given an offer to do general practice training which I have accepted. Hence, I am currently doing general practice rotations which I quite enjoy to be honest. While I have seen quite a variety of patients in the community settings, I have come across a lot of patients who have suffered from chronic pain for years secondary to conditions such as osteoarthritis which I will be talking about today.

More often than not, these patients who have had osteoarthritis pain would have at least two or three medications that they are taking daily to ease the pain that they are having. Instead of depending on medications to ease the pain, there are a lot more ways to improve the pain that you are having with osteoarthritis. Below are the top five non pharmacological tips to help with chronic pain.

1. Continue to Be As Active As Possible

All too often when people are suffering from chronic pain, they will stop mobilizing or reduce their daily activities. As it is the natural and easiest thing that we can do in order to stop or ease the pain aside from taking painkillers, what people tend not to notice is that the brain acts as an amplifier telling them that ‘the more you move, the more pain you inflict on yourself’. Hence, it is important to keep your activity ongoing as tolerable as ‘motion is lotion’.

2. Take painkillers as necessary

Some people are very afraid of the side effects of medications so they would rather suffer with the pain that taking any painkillers at all. This is a very wrong concept as simple analgesia such as paracetamol and ibuprofen help to ease of chronic pain from time to time. But when it comes to opioid based medications such as codeine and tramadol, these medications tend to have more risks and side effects particularly in elderly population. Hence, it is not advisable to take opioid medications.

3. Strengthening Your Muscles

Chronic pain due to conditions like osteoarthritis generally results from usual wear and tear as we age. It happens when the bones are grinding against each other when the cartilages that acts as cushion have worn off. Hence, the next sensible thing that you can do apart from taking painkillers is to strengthen the surrounding muscles to help to bear the weights and relieve symptoms as well as improving the function of joints. Attached it the link that you can use to browse through tips for muscle strengthening exercise Arthritis action UK

4. Adopt a Healthy Lifestyle

Again and again, lifestyle modification is the biggest factor contributing to chronic pain relief. For those who are slightly above their average BMI or living a sedentary lifestyle, engaging in physical activities about 30 minutes a day for 5 days a week prove to improve chronic pain in general. It can be any form of exercise, as long as you are sweating and putting in effort. Additionally, diet control also plays a vital role in managing chronic pain as it contributes to inflammation as well as help reduce it.

5. Manage Your Mental Health

Last but not least, it is important to take care of your mental health when it comes to managing chronic pain. Often people tend to ignore their mental health aspect which is important as persistent pain can in fact lower mood and results in depression especially in elderly population as they tend to have reduced mobility as well. Most people tend to focus on the pain so much so that their lives are revolved around the pain that they are having. The video from Live Well With Pain explains the reason people should not let pain control their lives.

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Hey friends! It has been a long while since I have last updated the blog. I am currently doing my final rotation of my foundation year which is general practice in the community setting for four months. It has been an enjoyable experience so far since I have started back in April. I do have to admit that initially I was rather overwhelmed by the vast difference in terms of managing patients in the community settings compared to secondary care setting such as the hospital. 

For example, as the resources are rather limited in GP setting as it should be, I found it hard to adjust to investigating patients' complaints and issues, While I can simply order all the blood tests and scans  that I want for patient with cough and breathlessness in hospital which comes by reflex, I was always reminded by my supervisors that "would the blood results and scans alter your course of management?". When I reflected upon this question, it came to my realisation that more often than not I have over investigated patients while I was treating them in the hospital. Having said that, there are various resources available in the hospital that it comes as second nature for us to fully utilise them to ensure patients are investigated and treated appropriately prior to disharge. 

Also another stark difference between secondary and primary care is the amount of time that I can spend on each patient. Naturally as second year of training junior doctor in the GP setting, I am allocated longer duration for each patient instead of the usual five minute slot for each patient for a standard GP. The trick to see patient in short period of time effectively without compromising patients' safety is to brush up both clinical and communication skills by performing focused history and examinations.

As of coronavirus situation at the moment, GP surgeries have changed consultation methods in order to prevent transmission of the disease and abide by the social distancing rules through telephone consultations. Basically I would do consultations with patients through telephone and in the event that I have concerns over patients conditions, I would either arrange a walk in appointments or home visits to examine them and manage accordingly, be it hospital admission or manage in community setting with safety netting.

Apart from seeing patients in the surgery, I would help the GPs to go through patients' blood results and referral feedbacks and act accordingly. If the blood results are too deranged needed urgent intervention, I would call the patient and ask them to present themselves to the nearest emergency department. After seeing all the patients and sorting out the documentations, blood results and referrals, I would call it a day and leave the surgery. Generally the working hours for foundation training doctors in GP surgery is 0900 till 1700 from Monday to Friday. Hope the information helps you to get further insight of the way general practice works. Cheers!

Around 2 years ago, I was writing the post: 1 down, 5 more to go and without realising it, I'm in my last posting now. Left with the posting that I dreaded the most: Paediatrics. Everyone has this one particular posting that they dislike the most and for me, Paediatrics is that posting because I'm not really a fan of little humans. 

The Paediatrics posting itself is separated to 2 major subpostings: NICU and General Paediatrics. As I'm currently relocated for the second time due to COVID, but this time in a tertiary hospital. Thus, there are multiple subpostings within general paediatrics such as Oncology, Nephrology and Neuromedical. 

Not sure whether its good luck or not, I started off with General Paediatrics. Everyday is a battle with those little humans. How I miss procedural works on adults (At least they don't shout into my ears). It is a dilemma everyday as you know you can't get mad at them because they are afraid but you are secretly annoyed/tired and just want to get your job done. The few voices that you can hear from outside the procedural room everyday are screams, cries and "Baby Shark Doo doo doo". I have played so much baby shark that its currently no. 1 on my suggested list on Youtube. Other than screams and shouts, we do get some pretty funny stories from the procedure rooms. I have colleagues that were bitten by toddlers (We just wanted to get a little blood :'(), toddlers that fake cry and when you tease them, they become flustered and also children who were not knocked out by 5mg of IV Midazolam prior to lumbar punctures (Adults would have passed out with that dose).

Done my neuromedical sub-subposting last week. It was quite an eye opening experience as I was able to witness all sorts of seizure patterns. I was even able to see a few rare genetic disorders which lead to recurrent seizures. Looking at different kinds of EEG patterns nearly made me cross-eyed (EEG is way beyond my brain capacity to understand). I'm thankful to my specialist who was kind enough to try to explain them to me although I just stared at her blankly the whole time (I was not having absent seizure I think, maybe I need EEG too). Thanks for your patience.

Currently, I am 1 month into this posting and hope I am able to come out of it in 1 piece 😐

Cheers!

While many people have succumbed to the disease since it has appeared to the world last December 2019, Covid-19 or coronavirus has not shown any sign of stopping anytime soon. Those who get the virus may show symptoms such as fever, cough, runny nose, loss of smell, and breathing difficulties or they may not show any symptom at all. Scientists and doctors are currently still trying to get better understanding of this disease, let alone finding a cure for it. One of the things that we know for sure is that it spreads through droplets. Since we are still unable to find cure for the virus as of now, the only thing that we can do is to stop it from spreading further. Below are some of the five simple yet effective methods to prevent coronavirus from mushrooming around your area.

1. Wash Hands and Use Hand Sanitiser

Washing hand with soap proves to be the best way to get rid of the virus on your hands. The coronavirus can remain active and linger on your hands for hours even though they are out from the hosts. The theory is that the soap will wash away the fatty outer layer surrounding the virus that sticks to our hands. The same theory applies to the alcohol based hand sanitiser that you carry around in your bag when you are outdoor and do not have access to water and soap. The video below by Ted-Ed tells you the difference between soap and alcohol.

2. Maintain Social Distancing

This is perhaps one of the most cumbersome tasks for everyone. It is undeniable that us human beings are social creatures and therefore it is just natural that we tend to stay in a group to socialise with one another from time to time. However, it is vital for us to maintain a social distance of one to two meter apart when we are out to ensure the the disease does not spread through contact. Video attached below showed you just how effective maintaining social distancing can be.

3. Wear Mask

As mentioned earlier in the post, coronavirus spreads through water droplets emitted from host to the victims. Wearing a mask does not only protect yourself from getting the virus from others, it also helps to prevent the cases from rising exponentially. While there are myths saying that wearing mask can decrease oxygen level in the body, that is not the case and it has been debunked through research done by the scientists. You could either use single-use mask or cloth mask as you like. Having said that, the video below shows the correct way to wear your mask.

4. Avoid Crowds

Going to places with crowds will definitely increase your risk of getting Covid-19. The risks are even higher for those who are vulnerable particularly the elderly, children, and those who are immune compromised with medical conditions such as cancer., respiratory diseases just to name a few. As the hosts may no show any symptom that they are infected, it is safe to keep yourself from going to a crowded place at all times. Governments of various countries have in fact ban concerts, marathons and conferences in view of rising covid cases. 

5. Isolate Yourself if You Are Sick

If you are developing symptoms of covid-19, the best thing for you to do is to stay at home and isolate yourself from others, including your loved ones. The isolation rules may vary according to countries, but generally you need to isolate for 14 days, be it home isolation or in a isolation center. If you are doing self isolation at home, you should not have any contact with your household members or going out from the house at all. If you are showing red flag symptoms such as breathing difficulty, you should go to the hospital immediately to seek for treatment,

I hope this post helps you to get a rough idea on how to fight against coronavirus and what you can do at the moment. Last but not least, I would like to thank all the heroes out there, not just the medical professionals but also those who are making sure the basic necessities and services are made available to the public during these tough times.