Alhamdulillah, we entered another decade. It is 2020, guys! The year I've been looking for since I was a kid. All those 'Wawasan 2020' chants, I believe most of us still remember how excited we were when we need to draw things we imagine in 2020.
2020 means I become a year older, approaching 30's. Of course I feel old, but somehow we need to grow and move forward. We can never rewind the time, except in memories. Thus, I believe, 2020 is the year I would like to restart documenting my life, so I can recall and appreciate all things that going to happen later. :) sure, gonna use them to reflect myself too.
I started my 2020 in hospital, in which I had my night shift. Didn't have the opportunity to count down, but I was lucky enough to see live fireworks at 11pm (early one I guess). Emergency department (ED) never fail to have guests, I must say. Patients kept coming and cases that I've been expecting were real - those with burns and accidents. In medical setting, we call accidents as alleged MVA (motor vehicle accident) - it can be either motorbike (MB) skidded, motorbike vs motorbike (MB vs MB) etc - trust me, there are so many short forms for medical documentation which are not official but understandable.
Oh, back to the title, I rarely have new year resolution (I think) as growing older, I learned to put less expectation but still work hard to achieve something if I have put my mind for it.
So, this 2020 may see another part of my planning - to list down things I would love to improve and maybe you can try them too.
1. Prepare proper medications at home.
- I realised, there are a lot of cases in ED that really do not require patients to see treatment. It is not that the situations are not serious, but we do believe there are few cases that can be observed and proper care at home.
- For example, you have fever started around 8pm, instead of going to see doctor at 12am (4 hours later), why not you try to take Tablet Paracetamol 1 gram first, then observe the temperature trend. It is way better if we have thermometer at home so that the observation will be way better.
2. Read more.
- Since I have been binge-buying books during the previous Big Bad Wolf, I have been telling myself to read at least few pages per day OR to finish reading a book within 2-3 weeks. So, by the time the next Kuala Lumpur International Book Fair start, I have solid reason to buy more books.
- For now, I am controlling myself not to buy books even restrain from entering Popular bookstore.
- I decided to read more fictions, as I realized my brain is too tired to consume all facts / reflections in non-fiction books.
3. Travel more.
- Housemanship is obviously the phase where all junior doctors find it hard to juggle between work and life. After spending at least 10-15hours at work (the formal working hours), I find that my off day is only to be spent for sleeping or lazying around. I am too tired even to think, thus decided to sleep in my comfy duvet.
- This year, I would love to plan more trips around Malaysia and to attempt travelling around Asia or maybe Europe.
- I would love to plan for umrah again :)
4. To decide on further study plan.
- I am a family person, even before marriage, I love to spend time with my parents. Just, housemanship restrict me to do so. Even though my working place is just 2 hours away, I am honestly tired to drive and as mentioned before, I prefer sleeping.
- Studying is a another constraint. When I have spent 3/4 of my day at work, the time I have left is only for sleeping and relaxing. I find it hard to spend hours to do revision like when I used to be a student. I decided that I will try my best to study as much as possible during working hours. It works but honestly I still need to read back all theories - pathophysiology, the side effects, indications & contraindications of each stuffs.
- Haven't decide yet on which specialty I would like to further. A part of my heart says 'just stay as chronic medical officer' but due to current dilemma in health system, a part of my heart are considering to migrate - in which, I surely need to further my study to secure a better place.
All in all, I also have a plan to update my blog with at least 2-3 posts per week. Not sure how it is going to be, but will try my best. Short posts should be okay, I think.