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Shep Insert #5

The weekend.

Friday
Visiting Tahbilk Winery. Had a beautiful lunch, a small intake of award-winning alcohol and a casual stop at Nargambie lake again for icecream.

Saturday
Early start to Mt buller, driving through Benalla and Mansfield. The snow coverage was decent but the weather deserved a [-5]. The first experience with snowboarding wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but still gotta do a bit of skiing to cure the 2 years hunger. I learnt that the secret to snowboarding was to pray. The drive down the mountain in the fog was quite dangerous but was rather enjoyable once on the road. Red bull was life-saving. Arriving at 'Home', it felt so touching to have friends cooking for you. It was like having a family that looks after you.

Sunday
Sleep-in day. Very sore after [6 hrs drive & 7 hrs skiing & only 3 hrs sleep the previous night]. Went to Campbell but it closed so went cheap-food shopping at SPC. Welcome back family from Melbourne :)

PS. At night, cars with high beam looked like Batman signal light.

Shep Insert #4

David: Now have a check on the tooth with your tongue. Does the filling still feel sharp or rough?

Patient: I can't feel anything. My tongue is all numbed

David: Should I put my tongue in there and feel the filling for you?

Shep Insert #3

Day 3-5

This is when work gets serious. It's been a slow start, not knowing where everything are in the surgery. It also didn't help to be called in the middle of having lunch because I thought I was going to visit private practice in the afternoon when I actually supposed to be treating patients. Patients are too nice but working progress has been shitty. When your first and second impressions looked so terrible in your supervisor's eyes, is there a chance for the third impression? Whatmore, my patient was treated the next day by someone else and told them how crappy I was. Finding some positives in all that, I had an opportunity to look through a dental microscope. I had trouble focusing under high magnifications but the image was already super huge and clear at 4X. The endo world with a microscope is surely limitless. And how awesome was Guttaflow (only if you know how to clean the mess)? It was almost like squirting Fuji IX down root canals. Working with BOH has been awesome, given that they love my three least favourite parts of dentistry; Scaling, Special needs and Paediatrics. Realising now that BOH is the perfect counter-part I can't live without, I'll be sure to make friends with a few before graduating.

At home, Davin's yelling "drink!!!" or "just sip" became ever more familiar and so the drinking continued among the 'serious discussion' group. Flu has been a Pandemic with people fallen (sick) like leaves. Bowling was the Tuesday night's outing with Nho Hoon topping the scoreboard at 123 points.

Dinners
Tues: Davin's homemade Nando Chicken Burrito
Wednes: Kelly's Pizza
Thurs: Aditi's Lasagne

PS. someone thought food in patient's mouth was a 'squishy' Fuji7

Shep Insert #2

Private Practice

Visiting one of the six private practices in Shepparton, here are some of the pointers.
- Patients are very nice in private practice especially in rural area
- The appointment book is booked out until september, which hints the serious shortage and demand for services.
- I havent picked up a sickle scaler for years
- Patients don't care how much you know until you show how much you care.

Sitting in the surgery overlooking the green scattered trees and bushes outside, turning on the sound of running water, with maybe a few kangaroos or two hopping by, endulging in the sense of tranquility, wouldn't that be a dream?

Shep Insert #1

Day 1-2

Leaving Melb for 4 weeks in Shepparton, it was full of excitement. The drive was fun when you have someone driving up with you, so you concentrate on keeping a close distance instead of just staring blankly at the empty road ahead. We were in Nargambie in no time. The weather was aunshine-perfect and so did the fish&chip by the glittering lake. we were in Shep within 40 minutes, our home for the next 4 weeks. The 'Pod' looks awesome with 4 bedrooms downstairs, 6 upstairs and a bathroom between each bedroom. Went to do grocery shopping and I'm (not)proud to say that our first bill was $292. We also met 2 lovely BOH, Michelle and Maggie which soon became very much a part of our group thanks to the overly friendly Bec.

The First night in Shep began and ended in a typical fashion, involving a few bottles of alcohol. A few ppl had a few too many which resulted in the house being filled with werid random noises and high pitch squealing throughout the night. We woke up to witness a random chair in the bathroom and Twister on the living room floor which hinted much about the unknown nightly activities. No need to say that in the morning there were a not-hung-over-cos-I'm-still-drunk person, a few zombies, a few cases of xerostomia and a few constant yellings such as "I'm indian. I don't get drunk", "... raped me", "I don't remember anything", "I sense the judgemental aura coming from my left" and so on so on.

The second night was spent much on cooking which wasn't too bad except the rice that looked more like mashed potato. There were games of Settlers of Catan, Boggle and Wii Beach Volleyball which saw me retreating to my bedroom with very sore arms. I don't know much of what followed after I left but surely, it involved some 'serious discussions' and Kelly overtaking Bec on the 'Chart' in less than 24 hours.

Status @ 40 hrs
- No fight among housemates yet
- Kelly AKA Squealer
- I S2 Dishwasher

Yes. But no meat

Today while I was working, I had an unexpected sms from my brother.
It was short and sharp to my brother's typical fashion and it said "yes. but no meat"

Now, what does that suppose to mean? I had no idea what he was talking about. so 4 words were what I had to work with.
The 'yes' implied that I asked something of him first and the 'no meat' implied it had something to do with food.
Now the time that I might be getting this kinda msg from my brother would be on weekends when I go shopping and he might've wanted me to buy something etc etc.
I started to think along the line of delayed msg that we sometimes get. I went food shopping on the weekend but didn't remember asking him anything.
So I went through my sent msg history. Lo and behold, the culprit msg, "hey can you eat spicy?".
But that wasn't for my brother. It was the msg I sent to a friend who was coming over on saturday for dinner.
Suddenly things began to make sense. In my family, I call my brother by his nickname which is 'A' and hence he is the first on the phone number list alphabetically.
The phone must have knocked around in my pocket and sent accidental msgs I didn't delete off the compose window.

Nothing more to it than that...except my brother would be expecting a spicy non-meat dinner from me tonight =(

Hot N Cold

I change my mind
Like a girl changes clothes
Yeah me, can't decide what to drink
You would know
And I over think
Dark or white chocolate
I should know
That you're so good for me

'Cause you're hot then you're cold
You smell like Milo
You taste like Time Out
I can't put you down
You look about right
You're brown and you're white
So good I drink up
Then I lick the cup

I, I don't really wanna pay, no
I, and I don't really wanna go, oh

'Cause you're hot then you're cold
You smell like Milo
You taste like Time Out
I can't put you down...

** couldn't get the song off my head the whole weekend **

Through the eye

Optimist

A man saw another man walked into the room with one shoe,
so he asked, "Did you lose a shoe?",
to which the man replied, "No, I've found one".

Is your glass half empty or half full?

Panching all the way

By the tune of "Jingle Bells"

Drilling out the hole
Filling in decay
Missed lunch time, oh no
Working all the way
Where the hell's that thing?
Time to panic, right?
What fun it is to look through the bin
We'll be here all night

(Chorus)
Oh, bell st hell, bell st smells
Panching all the way
Oh, what fun it is to work
In a self-sterilising place
Bell st hell, bell st smells
Panching all the way
Oh, what fun it is to work
In a self-sterilising place

Can't find that football bur
Did room three guys take mine?
Still writing on paper
Why not type online?
Fifteen minutes exam
We thought it's game and fun
Until we started a fight with Trang
Then no work gets done

(Chorus) x2


Disclaimer: I like Panch (a lot) and this lyric is only written for its entertainment value.

Dumb

I'm dumber than I look.
So if I look dumb...pls save me.

Bishops

Moving,
like two bishops.
Close in proximity.
Apart infinitely.

Come,
a bit closer.
Breathe a little slower.
Look a little harder,
and see.

Losing (a) heart
but won't lose the soul.
Sometimes, want to follow.
The path is too narrow,
and falling.

Kids. Love them or hate them.

"Kids cry easily but they smile and laugh just as quickly", someone told me a few days before my paedodontic clinics started but that said little about what to expect over the next 8 weeks. Some kids are breath-takingly sweet and some are self-absorbed annoying little dynamites.

I made kids cry by giving an injection. I made kids cry without giving an injection. I made a kid cry while giving oral hygiene instruction which struck me with the reality of kid's sensitivity. I had a flashback to 10 years ago when I felt the same way that kid felt. It saddened me that as I grew up, my thinking changed and I forgot to consider how I used to feel as a kid. Anyway, I'm happy that I'm able to sort out my feeling and do LA on kids without hesitation.

In paedodontic clinics, we've seen it all. We saw award-winning parents. We saw bad parenting. We saw a 6 yrs old acting like a 15 yrs old. We saw a 15 yrs old acting like a 4 yrs old. We saw Fuji 7 being used. We saw conseal and clamps running out. We saw a dentist "probed" fissure sealant out of the window. We saw all the Nguyens in Melbourne. We saw little angels and demons.

I've yet to extract a baby tooth. My only potential extraction patient didn't show up which means that I've never successfully extracted a primary tooth given that the only primary tooth I attempted earlier this year was a failure and I went home with a cramped forearm.

I've yet to do pulpotomy even though I came across many large decay cavities. Unfortunately for me but fortunately for those kids, they remained as filled cavities, as opposed to root canal treated and crowned. After expressing disappointment to a friend, he casually whispered the devil's words, "you can just slip".

At times, I didn't have much sympathy for patients who failed to turn up to appointments. Within these last few weeks, a simple truth finally came to me that human are human. We have good days and we have bad days. Sometimes (most of the time), patients don't want to see a dentist, just like sometimes, dentists don't want to see patients (especially when we are down physically). My demonstrator once told me "As much as they love you, they don't want to see you if they can help it".

After 8 weeks, not only did I learnt about kids, I learnt much about our friends. Some people hate kids. Some people are good with kids but still hate kids. Some people like young asian girls. Some people like young boys, specifically 9-10 yrs old. Some people ARE like kids. Some people like to steal other people's patients. Some people's mood fluctuated according to the nurse they had or had not.

So after nine exams, nine fissure sealants, eight preventives/scaling, six fillings, one stainless steel crown and popping rubber dam clamps out of the mouth twice, what else can I say? Prescribe TLC.

It's been a nice ride kiddo.

TP

Consent?

Just call

"well u should have just called me to hang out. I was pretty lonely last year..."

Sometimes you wish you could've taken things back and do it all over again but that's just a fantasy.
"Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free." was the famous quote from Shawshank redemption which reminded me that fear is our biggest obstacle in achieving anything. We fear a lot of things: fear of the unknown, fear of change, fear of rejection, fear of failure. We let opportunities fly by without knowing what could've been or how it may have turned out. And on rare occasions, things happened that made you realised what you've lost and made you regreted not taking chances. Like the movie 'Sliding doors' starring Gwyneth Paltrow, a seemingly insignificant event can split your life down different paths and the lives you could've had became parallel universes. So when the next fork on the road comes, which path would you go on? Where do you want to be?

Time to stop being afraid.

Think

Think of the ski.
Think of the snow.
Think you wouldn't wanna roll
down the slopes with me?

.
.
.

.
.
promises
.
.
.
.

.

The Devil ate chicken for dinner

45 mins: Manchester United 0 - 2 Tottenham Hotspur
Final: Manchester United 5 - 2 Tottenham Hotspur

Who said we couldn't do it?

PS. Thanks for your blessing.

TimTam

Windy night. Been dark for a few hours. Head numbed from watching people running around the island. Throat felt dry. Neck, stiff. Eyes half closed, tired from prolong exposure to computer screen light.
Ears picked up a door sound, slamming in the distance. Brother went hiking. Noone else lives in this house. Paused window media player. Sitting still in the dark. Pupils dilated. Ears tuned. Took a bite of TimTam. Silence spreaded. Swallowed TimTam. Paranoid. Hearing things again. Loneliness does that to people. The wind slammed the door?
Getting up slowly. Bedroom door was wide opened. Thought of a hostile attacking by surprise crept to mind. Watched too much hollywood crap. Nevertheless, feet automatically side-stepped towards the far side of the room, circling to see beyond the door. Hand held an invisble baseball bat.
Noone... ahh nutz.
Walking past the door, the noise downstairs became apparent. Brother's friend? but the light was off. This seemed sus. Holding my breath. Slowly crept down the stairs. One hand held up like a pistol. why? dunno. Half a Timtam in the other hand. Stopped half way down. Swallowed TimTam as quietly as possible. Stuck my head over the side of the stairs. The footsteps approached. The dark outline of a tiny bearded man emerged from the dining room. He turned and looked at me.

Oh it was my brother.