Set Free

with exam results out, and my ass saved from supplementary papers, i can finally say...

EUROPE, HERE I COME!

Cremasters

i was googling for some tshirt ideas of orientation. came across some funny ones, but this one really takes the cake.

LOL.


(c) Rougue Synapse

Feature Film

Video by Joseph.

Bike Hike

because of yesterday's 40k (about) bike hike, i woke up with aching limbs and back. >P still, many things to be thankful for, for the success of yesterdays 23 man entourage!

• a good price for an entire's day worth of bike rental - $12


• no major casualties save for a few slips and grazes here and there. perhaps the most valiant fall should be accorded to Perry who so gentlemanly turned back to some of us behind yelling, "watch out for the car!" and then in a flash, biked off course and crashed his bike. x)
  
• strong boys who helped to carry bikes up flights of stairs of overhead bridges.


• great navigators shawn joy joseph and quanyou who took turns to lead the way.


• a good weather, which gave us all nice tans, but threatened to rain in the later afternoon. it brought a nice breeze though.


• highlight of the hike would have to be liheng jumping off the bank into a longkang all for the sake of my bottle which was accidentally dropped in. even though in all honesty it wasn't the smartest thing to do (he could have gotten seriously injured by who-knows-whats-in-there; he could have been swept off by a sudden current; it was a free bottle that was already quite badly dented i already wanted to throw it away!) , it was quite gallant of him to do so. he ended up with cut toe and longkang-smelling hair. haha

perhaps the only zzz bit was lunch at macdonalds that made me so ultra thirsty on the way back. anyhow, (Y) to our organizers! :)

old wives tale

perhaps it is true after all. if you do well in Med school, there has to be something wrong with you.

Be a Pad!

Conversation with Sheila Wee on the release of Physio Results

[Editor's note: failing a subject in Med School means having to take a Supplementary paper which is held right smack in the middle of the 4 month break. Fail = no holiday]

* * *

S: hope it (her score) is enough to keep me safe for the rest of the hols! Safe and free...

G: haha like a pad

S: OMGAD GLORI (full name)

G: weewee pads! keeps you safe and free!

S: goodness you're so high today

G: sorry i think i should get back to studying

S: mug hard! and be a pad too! -gives you a pad on the back-

G: *faint.

Results

Biochemistry

today i am very sad. it is Sng's fault.

Medicine Year 1 CA2 Review

the year 1 CAs are finally over. i think i might have overstudied for this exam. and i don't expect particularly stellar results despite the effort i put in. oh well. reminder to self that knowledge is not an exam exhibit but is to be acquired. it was a rather interesting 3 papers this time, inclusive of our first practical exam (sortof).

Anatomy SPOTS 2008

studying in the Anatomy Museum. (one of the last few times we'll be there! see the Upper Limb specimens in glass jars behind? =p) Photo by Joy.

this might just have been the most interesting exam of our lives thus far. in the past, practical exams usually involved either cutting up potatoes and soaking them in water, drawing fruit specimens, mixing around unknown chemicals and making up results and watching a weight attached to a spring bob up and down several times. this time, it was way cooler.

for the unaquainted, SPOTS is the year 1 practical exam for the subject of Anatomy. there are 50 stations, each with 1 specimen, and a part (b) which is related question about the specimen. this means that in total there are 100 questions to answer. the exam comprises of both identifying Histology slides (meaning stuff at the microscopic level eg. sweat glands) and parts of the human body visible with the naked eye. what usually happens for a cadaveric specimen is that a pin is pierced into a specific structure of the body (usually quite intentionally so the answer is not vague) and students are required to identify either the organ, structure, vessel or nerve. students are fiven 45 seconds for every part of the questions, and have to move to the next station once the bell rings.

it's quite funny because the process of taking the SPOTS exam is really not too different from being a sushi on a conveyor belt. you just go from seat to seat every 45 seconds (there's no 2nd chance to look at the specimen). it's quite a tiring process, having to go through 100 stations. and each time you look at something and wonder, "what the heck is that?!?!" that's about 5 seconds gone. (just for the record, joy mistook the penis for something part of the face) each time i couldn't figure out what the specimen was, i would sketch a bit of it on my question paper in case i remembered what it was called later. overall, this year's paper was comparatively tougher compared to previous years'. (well if you read my March 16 post you might have gotten the hindbrain question correct) conspiracy theory suggests that it's cos the Professors don't like our batch for being uncooperative and indignant during lectures. :( somewhat agreed.

anyway am very grateful to the people who were in the Anat Museum the day before the exam and quizzing one another on the various types of questions. it's also somewhat scary that by them some of us were already able to recite bits of Snell word for word. o_O one day we should have some kind of Anatomy jeopardy! :D with a real skull as the ultimate prize of course.

Biochemistry, CA2

comprising of 20 MCQs, how much can one expect? but 2 questions took me by surprise this time. they were questions on Biomedical Ethics! ?!?!?!? well, as a matter of fact, we DID have a lecture and a tutorial session on this topid, and everyone probably thought it was all fluff and subjective. i was honestly quite o_O!??! when i saw the questions. one of them went something like this:

"A patient who sees you is diagnosed for a (life-threatening?) genetic disorder but does not want to disclose this information to her family members who might be at risk. What would you do?

a) Disclose the information anyway without the knowledge of the patient.
b) Maintain doctor-patient confidentiality but ask the patient his/her reasons for not wanting to disclose the facts.
c) Decide not to inform the other family members.
d) Disclose the information against the will of the patient.
e) ?

well the correct answer is supposed to be B. yan yuan got it wrong and he was like all argghghhh about it because he actually studied from the notes of the bioethics lectures and tutorials haha! well i told him jokingly that he wasn't very ethical. =p

all in all i fared worse than i did for CA1 but didn't do too poorly either. i made mistakes i would have kicked myself for, but oh well.

Physiology, CA2

topics covered in this CA were renal, endocrine and reproductive physiology. highly challenging topics but equally intriguing. nothing much to comment about this exam, apart from the fact that Hwa Chong Bio is like 神. :D i thought the paper was more manageable than the first CA, but i shan't speak too soon until we get back our results. =/

* * *

what was a refreshing change to this CA was that we had MCF on the mornings of Biochem and Physio exams. it was a reminder to us that God comes before our exams, and also a prelude to the Easter weekend. how we so easily forget and shove God aside in the midst of our own pursuits, and the irony of it to be during Passion Week.

it's won't be long before we all have to get our butts back down to studying again, considering the professionals are in barely three weeks! but make it through this, and it will be the long 3 month break! :D c'mon, flee from sups or vivas!

relative stupidity

sometimes i think i am going to turn into the worst doctor in the world with poor foundations in physiology and dismal understanding of anatomy.

Photo Update

Birthdays, birthdays and more birthdays (Jon Tang)

notice how boring we are. same people, same place, same pose. -.- (Hulin)

good zi-pai-ing skills.


Then there's the mugging in the library, sometimes on the smelly 5th floor, sometimes on the not-s0-smelly 6th floor, and sometimes under our books.


alvin the noob.


so we decided to be cool and order pizza one day whilst studying. we are so cool indeed.


this is my not-so-smart friend who was trying to avoid the camera. she made a not-so-smart move, naturally.


Zhen Chong's baptism at Wesley! we are all being eggs to symbolize ZC hatching on his spiritual birthday! :D

Last day of Anat Prac - may we look back and reminiscent fondly

Dinner with Meelia Kyna and Chelly at Cedele. Being cheapos, we shared 2 slices of cake and ate it until they looked obscene (quote meelia/kyna)

Supper at Casurina after failed attempt to drive to Botak Jones. We arrived at 10:03pm only to find out the last order was at 10:00pm. -.- thankfully Chelly our best friend was all ready with her banged-up car. :D

Final Destiny

this feeling is so strange i feel so compelled to write it here.

it's a wednesday afternoon and i'm sitting here in some obscure corner in the library opposite yiwei and beatrice in the next cubicle preparing for the upcoming CAs. yiwei and beatrice have fallen asleep to Netters and baby Moore respectively. to my left are two M5s (presumably, they're reading Surgury and E-Medicine books). in front of me are probably M3/M4s talking about orthopedics, and the whole floor is swarmed with M2s who finished their COFM paper today (i think). lurking in other places are other M1s, also prepping for the upcoming CAs.

it's weird and scary because here i am, looking at all these people in the library and thinking, this is my destiny.

?!?!!?!?!

noe moe!

YESSSS. byebye to these heavyweights for now. :)



the CAs are finally over. i don't remember exams being so long-drawn and tiring, but the past month of studying was quite a strain (and it's only the beginning!). perhaps it was the added fact that we ended so late while everyone was already out partying that made it all the more sian. being in the library at 8am, leaving at 6pm and studying into the night makes you go quite insane after a while. and this insanity manifested itself in the strange things we did whilst studying. here's a picture of joy wearing a Spinelli paper bag.

Joy in a Spinelli paper bag version 1.0

Joy in a Spinelli paper bag version 2.0

seriously. o_O random things happened as we studied, with random people coming to visit kaiqian just for entertainment, and getting shushed by other people for making too much noise during our breaks. studying together helps you to keep awake (when you see even ahma studying so hard you better study even harder) and allows you to clarify anything on the spot. good stuff. :)

the three papers were well, manageable i guess. it took a lot of God's grace, love and encouragement to get through. whilst others have modules which (probably) means semester-over-information-drainage, whatever we learn now forms the solid foundation of all else we are to conquer. =o

on a random note i saw this on my way home today. here's to my fido dido friend. :D

happy holidays :)

He is my portion

exam preparations make people go quite crazy.

some people become angsty, others get frustated. some get unusually high, others become exceptionally sombre. some put everything aside to make time for studying, others go on doing their usual thing. some lose sleep over the stress, others begin to feel sleep all the time. people start sleeping at the break of dawn, and their days never end. (o_O) i must confess that i do become rather uptight as the exams draw near, being extra efficient in planning my time and running my errands. funny how something like exams get us all worked up like that. you'd think that as Medical students, with our CAs having a percentage of like 20% (as compared to the module system of 100%), it'd be easier on us. but i guess it's still a huge mental barrier that we've yet to break, this mould that we're all so fearful of growing out of.

thursdays usually put me in a dilemna. with VCF starting at 6pm and stretching all the way to 9pm, i cannot help but have the inclination to close an eye, go home, and have a good dinner, conveniently missing CG in the meantime. plus the added pressure of maximizing study time with the impending exams, blehhh. but somehow, i do end up being at LT29 at 6pm, putting things aside to rest in Godly fellowship. yesterday was no different. and it was particularly enjoyable as we studied the book of Jeremiah.

as we talked about the Israelites being all disobedient and rebellious, carving idols, worshipping the star, going through rites and ceremonies, the question in our study was, what was the message that the Israelites needed to hear, that they might turn back to God? my immediate thought was - torture them. take things away from them. make them suffer. then they'll learn. mwahahaha.

then my next thought was - am I not like them too?

in life we subconsciously carve our own idols. achievements, popularity, fame, money, acceptance. we go all out in our lives to strive for these things, and we never conquer them, there will always be something greater, a higher point to reach. Christians often fail too - we would pon CG/church to study for exams, we put our faith more in friends and what people think of us that what God would see as acceptable, we would put less in the offering bag to save money for our material wants. we don't believe that God satisfies, and so we put our faith in other idols to make life work for us, manipulating them to present ourselves pleasing to the world. God aside, me first.

God has said time and again, that He is our portion, our lot, our only sufficiency. it takes so much to pick up the cross and say God, You are my all. at the end of CG, i was reminded of the promise that God is more than enough for me. and the peace set in my heart was a far greater satisfaction in Christ than the 3 hours that i would have spent studying.

:)

Bad Student, Great Doctor

faaantastic.

of all the doctors i've come across, none have told me to "study hard, so that you'll become a good doctor in the future." conversely, most of them would reminisce about their mediocre grades in school, their near-failure experiences, and how the dean-listers mostly end up as "some GP" or "some cardiologist". all of them have constantly reminded me that "top students don't necessarily make top doctors". in fact, they would go on to add that top medical students don't do too fantastically in the end.

so i guess i could take comfort in the fact that as i'm tying this and trying to procrastinate looking at Histology slides, not feeling too confident about the upcoming CAs, i might well end up becoming a great doctor! just because i'm not gonna do well in school.

:D

an unexpected break

today is a weekday. we are somewhere in the middle of our academic term. and it's a holiday! i know it's generally nothing big for university students to have a four or even three day week, but it's a rare occurence in my faculty! (says a lot huh. xP)

in celebration of this unexpected break, i somehow had a really spontaneous pre-holiday day yesterday. because shawn wanted to go rock climbing, and since we had 2 climbers amongst us who knew the how-tos and where-tos, we decided to just go. the funny thing was that 2 days ago, it was semi-cancelled for some unforseen reasons and lack of people going (like 3?), but was later revived, with Bea, Wingyee and myself agreeing to go along. so that meant about 6 of us going. that same morning, perry agreed to go as well (and he happened to bring extra clothes that day). while we were already on our way to the CSC wall, Cedric called and said he was coming along. so we hung around the bus stop waiting for him. when he got off the bus, Julio happened to be on 95, so we asked him randomly to join us. and he was like, "oh okay lor." haha it was pretty amazing with 9 of us trooping down at 530 (we were darn late).

rock climbing has never been something i fancied really, but i thought it'd be fun to hang out and do random things, apart from studying. shawn was so excited and happy that while we were walking to CSC, he told me "can you imagine. right now we could be at the library mugging...but we're not! mwhahahaha". it was really nice as well to have a whole bunch of random people whom i know from different facets of Medicine (MCF, OG, Anat tutorial) just going to play. most people who know me well enough would know that i'm generally an anti-social person who would prefer familarity than anything else. but yesterday was nice. :)

so rock climbing itself lasted for about 2.5 hours till about 8pm. i did 3 routes and was too tired to go on (haha so loser). Diana Yiwei and Shawn the pros were like scaling walls in seconds (we timed!) while the rest of us were watching and going, "walau why we so noob". my third climb was the best out of all, cos Yiwei taught us the technique and it was much better than anyhowing. good stuff.

after climbing, Shawn, Bea and Wingyee said they were going to meet some people at Clark Quay, and asked if i wanted to join em. and very randomly i decided to go. thinking back it was quite out of character since i'm a go-home-early person...but i went anyway, thinking no school tomorrow! my mom sent me home, showered, and was off to a Jazz@Southbridge, on recommendation by Yukit/Jonk.

at the bar/pub thing, i met another random bunch of meddies, mostly from hall. there was a fantastic live band, and the vocalist was quite awesome. we ordered some drinks, but i stayed away from alcohol cos i promised my mom i wouldn't drink 0=). we were being noobs and trying everyone's drinks and celeste wanted to play cai quan (which i kept reminding her that was very low class -.- haha). we hung around for a bit, listened to the music (since we were next to the speakers and had to raise our voices a bit to talk properly), and chatted when the band was taking a break.

later in the evening some of us walked along the Singapore River just to enjoy the breeze and check out the night life. for the first time in my life i saw Clinic, which is a horribly disturbing place. thinking about it turns me off completely. for those who aren't familiar, it's a pub/club place with people in sitting in wheelchairs, hospital beds, the place lit by operating theatre lights and guests drinking from IV bags. how warped is that. gosh. also cos it was Halloween last night there were manymany people dressed up in funny things. at the train station i saw a roman soldier, some cowboys and cowgirls. at Clark Quay there were angels, devils, random transvestite-looking people.

i got back about 2am. (O_O haha) but it was nice. we should do this again sometime. :)

1. The girls

2. The guys minus Shawn

3. Diana the pro

4. Perry conquering the wall. (look at those gastrocs x))


5. Yiwei :)


6. Yiwei doing her stunt thing. O_O


7. belayers

8. Climbing on (Julio, Bea, Perry)

9. a very random group of people



10. Candlelight


11. Cheers


12. another random group of people :)

Bloody Brilliant

time for my weekly entry. :)

school was tough this week. i started off the week with a 3/10 for my TBL test (-.-) and being arrowed by a classmate to lead the PBL discussion which was terribly draining. then there was our first anat tutorial with Prof Tay (and his Tay Lakes) which was well, quite a memorable one with Nigel having to take off his shirt for Alex to use markers to surface mark his lungs and pleural cavities. sadly Prof Tay seems to really like calling upon me to answer questions, and i was assigned to present on a question next week. :( friday's anat prac was a looonnngggg and dragggyyy one cos Prof Singh was getting us all, confused with the compartments of the heart. added to the fact that he speaks r e a l l y s l o w l y a n d a l l, it was like -_-. with Prof Hooi ending his series of lecture on the Cardiovascular System, there was a need to catch up with all the text readings and getting all that understanding into place. because i so intelligently tried to be a smart alec and choose to present on ECGs for PBL, i spent and entire working into the night trying to figure out the vector diagrams and various leads.

nevertheless, this week also marked the start of the Biochem Break (BB!) which means no more insane typing and editing and formatting for me during lectures. and to end off the week, friday evening was spent at Dempsey with sj for some laid back high life. :)

school has been tough and it can only get tougher. i'm hardly prepared for tomorrow's TBL quiz (but i have uncharacteristically gotten used to that fact) and the long week of lectures and more lectures. yet there is always a constant reminder that God has placed me where i am right now, and the road ahead is one has been prepared for me. as i told some people in church today, there probably is less competition amongst peers in Medicine, considering how all we need to do is just to pass and get through. but i think the importance of excellence lies in that fact that all this knowledge that we acquire goes not just into making the grade, but in impacting precious lives.

and on a side note, we recently watched some clips on embryology and the development of a human heart. it illustrated how just one glorified blood vessel, folded, modified and contorted to form what we now know as the heart. i can't help but reiterate this again - i think the beyond the major structures and stuff that we can conceptualize, the beauty of creation lies really in the seemingly insignificant features that are put in place for a very significant reason, and the process of ONE cell so intelligently specializing to form a human.

often, i can't help but think, in a very literal way, "God, You are Bloody Brilliant." (quite bloody indeed. :P)

A little less wisdom

i seem to be updating only during weekends now. not that my time spent online has decreased, but the that words in my head just seem to feel better in there.

Wisdom Tooth Extraction

last week i went for my wisdom tooth extraction. make that wisdom teeth extraction, since i extracted both from the lower jaw at one go. i didn't have quite that much fear, considering that i know many people who have gone for such procedures without any major complications. well, the process was a short and swift one. the moment i got into the clinic, Dr Clement Goh took a few looks at my teeth and said, "ok i'm gonna give you an injection now." (insert o_O face here). that anaesthetic needle was huge! and it kinda hurt, seeing that my foot dorsiflexed as he put in the needle at several different locations in my gums. but after that was done, my mouth was nothing but a bunch of tingly sensations. (btw Dr Goh had to give me 2 extra anaesthetic jabs cos i could still feel regular touch after the first shot -.-)

so he went about drilling (yes, drilling. half the crown was shaved off, for reasons i don't know.) and poking and pulling. POP! the first tooth was out in barely 10mins. it wasn't too bloodly from where what i could see, nor could i taste anything since everything was being vacuumed out by the too-cool gadgets that dentists use. the second tooth was a little more traumatic than the first, because as Dr Goh was trying to yank out the tooth, i heart this CRAHKKK sound, which could have only meant one thing - that he broke the tooth! :(( well, it was a small chip and he managed to remove it shortly.

after the entire procedure i asked the assistant if i could take the teeth home (:p) and she put it into a ziplock somewhat grudgingly for me. (shrug) the next few days i took antibiotics, painkillers and antiswelling medicines while one side of my cheek swelled. at the peak of its swelling, i looked like i came out from Apple's Macbook Photobooth with the facial distortions. xP i also didn't miss the chance to fool people into believing that i had gotten into a fight with someone and got punched in the face. hah! to think some of them really bought my story! they might never want to come close to me again though, violent instincts. :P

now that i've got 2 teeth on my table, i'm considering doing some experiments with them. eg. leaving them in coke and observing the rate of disintegration. or burning them in fire. do give me good suggestions! they are my precious teeth. :)

Anatomy CA 1

the M1s finally had our first official test/exam! even though it had a minor weightage of 5%, the amount of preparation that we had to do in reading up on upper and lower limbs was colossal. it was a simplistic MCQ test, 20 questions, which i think most of us underestimated, given that our mock test (FA) was considerably more straightforward. ah well, it sortof gave all of us an insight into the intensity of medicine students! althought it was a mere 5%, people were studying till the last minute (myself included :P). i'm semi-amused and semi-o_O at such behaviour. well i guess it does no harm to be zealous in being excellent (of couse not at the expense of other things).

Anatomy Tutorial Group 13

in the past 6 weeks, Dr Kumar has been my anatomy tutor for upper and lower limbs. on our second last tutorial, he treated the entier tutorial group to drinks at spinelli :) and even though the money he spent was probably negligible to him, it was a kind gesture that all of us in the group appreciated very much. so as a mark of gratitude to him for his fun teaching style and extra lesson during the term break to prepare us for the CA, our tutorial group decided to get him a gift! a part of this gift was a photo of the entire TG, which he indicated he would have liked before. we also gave him a bright orange self-designed tshirt, with a design that only doctors would appreciate heh. he really liked it! he even put it over his shirt for us to take a photo :) will miss his relaxed and fun tutorials.

Dr Kumar: (announces) "only pretty girls can stand next to me!''

(PS: i really thank God for how well this photo turned out, because initially we took a poor blurry photo, which i was quite troubled over. but because some people were missing then, there was an opportunity to have another one taken.)

The man himself - D Kumar and his cool tshirt.

Public Health Screening 2007

Free Medical Health Screening 2007
Toa Payoh, HDB Hub
6-7 October
9am-8pm
All are Welcome

Medsoc, in collaboration with MOH and its various subsidiaries, organised the annual Free Public Health Screening at the Toa Payoh HDB today. the objective of this screening was to emphasis the importance of early detection of certain medical conditions by being aware of the risk factors that we are exposed to. in the course of the screening, participants would have to fill up a questionaire which allows medical professionals to have a better understanding of their medical history (eg. family history of hypertension). this is followed by a series of test like measurement of one's BMI, blood pressure and blood glucose levels. participants could then proceed to have a short consultation session with full-fledged doctors who would then advise them on various precautionary measures and follow up procedures.

many medical students volunteered to help out in this event, in hope of getting a glimpse of the various facets of the medical profession. as noobish M1s, most of us were given the task of history taking and ushering. well, as most would understanding, almost 80% of the diagnosis of a patient's condition depends on how well history was taken, so it was certainly a good experience for us to be there. i learnt lotsa Mandarin medical terms, things like menopause, high cholesterol, Pap smear and many many others. had a great handicap in not being able to converse in dialect! and so i intend to go for a Hokkien language course. :)

liangyi randomly asked me to take a few photos for Pulse (a Medsoc publication) but i thought might as well do a do a good series out of it. so i borrowed sj's cam (as always =0) and here're some shots. i played with ALOT of Manual this time, and thankfully the photos turned out quite alright, with a little mess up on exposure here and there (overexposed manymany). Manual mode was fun to play with, plus the fact that even though it was an indoor event, the sun provided a nice warm light source so...no flash! :)

1. Zeying doing history taking at the first station.

2. that's Ray at his station. coming from UWC he had some difficulty with mandarin speaking participants, but after a while i think he slowly got the hang of it. :)


3. Milton with an animated elderly lady.


4. i thought this was amusing. this guy seems to be terrified of Richmond, hiding behind that cardboard thing. doctors are indeed terrifying.


5. later in the afternoon as the crowds started to grow, a few of us left the tables to go and attend to those sitting at the waiting area in order to facilitate the efficiency of the system. that's Zeying again.


6. quite a task to be standing up all the time, speak in Mandarin nonstop, and fill up the form without a table. I think this is Ray with his thigh as a makeshift writing surface.


7. the 2nd station of the screening was the measurement of one's BMI, Body Mass Index. here the M2s were involved in making the measurements and doing the calculations.


8. 3rd station, measurement of blood pressure. here's an M3 (i think) putting on the _____ (insert name of pouch thing) on for a participant. shawn and i had the opportunity to learn a bit about this station, how to adjust the bladder (of the sphymomanometer) and such.

9. here's a shot of her looking real serious at taking BP despite the lens pointing right into her face. :P perhaps my pick of the lot.


10. here's Milton again, at the 4th station, where blood glucose levels are measured. just a prick at the tip of your finger and it's done.


11. real random photo. i think this lady was quite O_O at the shutting of my lens the moment she turned around. haha anyway she's waiting for her turn at the blood glucose station.


12. so far we've seen almost all elderly at the health screening, but several young people were there as well. here's a little indian boy peering (anxiously, perhaps) at Milton who's about to prick his finger for the glucose test, all ready to go OUCH!


13. STEP #1. prick the tip of the finger.



14. STEP #2 clean off the initial blood the oozes out (not shown)
STEP #3 squeeze a drop of blood onto the strip attached to the machine.


15. as mentioned, participants then proceed for a consultation session with doctor, some of whom i THINK are consultants. :)


16. the Dental students were a huge part of this event as well! here's a dental student giving out brochures on toothpastes.


17. the dental segment had a similar flow, with the questionaire being the first station. next to each booth is this iconic stand with a complete set of brilliant white teeth! which you'll see in coming pictures.


18. there you see the iconic set of teeth again! the dental students take effort to explain the important of brushing one's teeth thoroughly and the methods of doing so.


19. an elderly folk listening intently, seeming quite amused. (??)


20.

21. there were also set ups which allowed dental students/dentist to perform routine check ups for the participants. here's a light hearted moment between participant and doctor. (sorry for the blue hues, dunno :P)


22. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.


23.


24. little boy getting his teeth checked.


25. a large majority of the partipants fell in the >50 age group. some of them came as a group from a nursing home or community centres, which is why they're wearing name tags.


26. part of the exhibition was providing information of various conditions and their preventive measures. these booths were set up by various healthcare related organizations like the Singapore Heart Foundation.

27. at these booths participants also get to check their risk factors (eg. weight) to assess the likelihood of them acquiring certain problems.


28. here's Ian explaining to a participant what a Faecal Occult Test is and how it can be performed individually.


29. at the end of the screening, all participants get a goodie bag! :) these bags do look familiar...

30. of course, as with all events, there was a formal ceremony for the GOH to attend to. the GOH for this event was Dr Lam Pin Min (extreme right), MP of Ang Mo Kio GRC, and also a doctor as KK Women's & Children's Hospital. here's him cutting the ribbon. next to him is the Dean of the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, Prof John Wong. and to the left is Medsoc president, Chew Lip.


31. he toured the entire exhibition, talking to participants and also medical students. but the highlight of this tour was when he was invited to take the BP of one of the participants. here you see him getting ready. forgive me if i'm wrong, but is that a look of anxiety on his face? :P


32. some people say there exists a "doctor look". well, i must say that this instance is certainly one where Dr Lam really looks the role. decent, intelligent and composed.


33. well of course Dr Lam executed it successfully! but i overhead his conversation with the Dean, Prof John Wong after he did so, "haha phew i passed. i haven't used a stethoscope in very long. (given his duties as an MP)" hahah that might explain all that perspiration. :P


34. Random show of Prof Wong accompanying Dr Lam during his visit.

35. Here's Dr Lam touring the dental section. they stayed here for real long, and I've no idea why.


36. later Dr Lam himself had the opportunity to be advised on brushing his teeth by one of the dental students! with a great smile like his, don't think his habits differ much from the ideal. :D


37. HAHA to end off, a random photo of a cute kid. more than that, check out her coolio shirt! if you can't see, it says "I'm in charge here. The parents are just for show" ahaha her parents must really love her. :)