Tsunami after massive Japan quake made me worry

I just heard about the news that Japan was struck by a magnitude-8.9 earthquake off its northeastern coast, triggering a 4-metre tsunami that washed away cars and tore away buildings along the coast near the epicentre today at 0546 GMT. I thought of the Kato family once I see Alex’s post in facebook. I’m worried. I’m down. I’ve lost contact with them recently. We used to email our recent photos to each other. Sometimes I would post them a CD or cards. I didn’t know why I couldn’t email them now already. Hotmail had been giving me delivery failed notifications since the day of my graduation here. I thought of sending them pictures of me graduating. I looked around in my room here in Medan for their number. I remembered I called them from Indonesia before and had a short conversation with them about my studies here. *slaps of regret* I should have keep all these important numbers properly. It wasn’t saved in my phone and I really didn’t know why. I hope they are fine over there. I bless them with all my heart!

This feeling now was exactly like the time I felt on the 26^th December 2004. Remember the Tsunami that year which hit the Pacific region including Sumatra, Indonesia? I was in Japan that time and there were news which says Tsunami hits Malaysia around Penang too. That morning, okasan (it means ‘mother’ in Japanese) woke me up quickly to tell me about it because she wasn’t sure which part of Malaysia am I from and I quickly called home to ask about my family’s condition. Now, on the 11^th March 2011, I’m in North Sumatra, Indonesia having the same feeling for them in Japan.

My ‘family’ is in Nagoya. All I can do now is just to pray for them.

I remember I promised them I would visit them once I complete my high school. Too bad, the year I completed my high school was a very busy year for me. I attended National Service, took a fast-track course of Foundation in Science and continued by entering the university for my first year. Then I told them I might come when I graduate from this university. I miss them. I miss the triplets. Let’s just hope my ‘family’ and friends there are safe and sound. Pray for them. God bless!

Hello, I'm NEW in dentistry

I never had holiday since I entered my co-assistant life. Being a co-assistant is not as easy as many people think. Now I finally understand how dangerous it is being a dentist. This coming week will be my 6^th week in clinical. I already got eye infection, infection at my lacrimal gland. A week after I had my first infection, I got another one at the same eye. It was so painful. It hurts even when I blinked! Not only that, it itches. I went to the ophthalmologist, she only gave me anti-microbial to ease the itch.

This is how I dress up ever since I got my eye infections. There was once where the patient asked why I must put on that big mask. Face shield mask is to protect my entire face especially when I'm doing scaling for the patients.

The first week of my clinical life was all about applications and tests. They gave us a pretest, just because they wanted us to study at home. What are our scores in the pretest? It doesn’t matter because they will only count our post-test results. Then we started looking for patients for the 2^nd week. Oh, the question is why do we LOOK FOR patients? LOL. Of course, there are patients who came to clinic but why do I still go look for patients? Well, I guess the answer is because I want to get my minimum requirements done on time so that I can graduate on time. We have 32 co-assistants in the current department I’m working at and we only have 10 dental units. Working hours on Monday till Thursday will be 9AM – 2PM; Friday 9AM – 12PM; Saturday 9AM – 1PM. We have to be there at least an hour earlier to sterilize and prepare all the things we need of the day. Last patient only can come in 2 hours before the clinic close. We all must ‘fight’ for the units to use, otherwise we won’t get our minimum requirements done.

Apart from the dental unit problems, we also have problems with patients. There are some treatments where patients have to come for a few visits. In case of patient who didn’t come for the required visit, then our lecturer will cancel our case and we will need to find a new case and treat the new patient again. There is a case we need to handle, which is to call back the old patients who come more than 3 months earlier to come back for checkup. So there, needless to say, we used loads of credit on phone calls for sure. I think I really look like one of those insurance agents, calling people nonstop to tell them to come back for checkup. Some answered us politely, giving us reasons why they couldn’t come back. Some would scold. Some changed numbers. I called one, who had passed away. I got no idea what I should say other than the word sorry to the family. I seriously never thought co-assistants have to do all this phone-calling jobs. Sighs.

We are all already stressed out of the problems we’re facing and there, the biggest problem of all, I shall say is our lecturers. We have to know which lecturer favors what kind of students. There is a lecturer who prefers us to use English rather than Indonesian language, for example. We have to discuss with lecturers about how we are going to treat the patients. They want us to do things fast and yet they always delay us for the discussion what treatment should be done. How ridiculous. There was once where I went meeting this one lecturer, he looked so sleepy, he told me to wait a while. Right after he said so, he slept on his table. WHAT! I’m stunned. I was so speechless. That case of mine had been pending for 2 weeks. Even the patient called to ask me for her next schedule. Sighs.

Perhaps it is all the university’s fault. Everything looks just so disorganized. Getting into clinical life is all about learning and practice all by ourselves. I heard the next batch of new co-assistants will be entering clinical in the April. I wish them luck joining us in this new life. Well I really hope hospitals in Malaysia won’t have problems like this when I’m back later.

Well, there are also fun in clinical life. I had new friends here.

We went supporting our faculty's soccer team previously in their match with another faculty, I forgot which.

That was the first time I'm watching live in Medan. I still don't understand the game though. We just went there and supported with one of the lecturers.