Dr Og's My Plate

Something made Dr Og sibei buay song recently. I had not long ago taken much effort to teach and help my daughter memorize this:

Then the Bee Kok president, Obama's wife, Michelle intro a new version!

Wah lau, you all can decide or not! Wait I get scolded by my bao bei daughter leh... ask her learn wrong things!

Also hor, Asians alot cannot lim guni la! Dairy products eat liao lao sai... I as a prooo-fessssioner suggest this one better:

1. Wine is now officially part of Asian cuisine with the mainland Chinese buying all the La-fite and La-tour! Now the ang mohs cannot afford their wine liao so of course you don't see it included in the western version! Wine is also good for health loh and one glass a day decreases your cardiac risk.

2. If you don't like La-tour and prefer to La-Kopi, drink kopi orh kosong! Unlike dairy, it has zero calories. Don't drink kopi how to survive the rest of the day??? Especially hang over from last night's wine!

3. Honestly, I don't really know what is Grain in the original version la. Dr Og only knows that here in Singapore, we eat RICE. Ok la, roti prata also can.

4. Bak You is also an essential part of our healthy diet. If no Lard, you will have no Bak Chor Mee, Char Kway Teow and every other (tasty) dish you can think of! Those who claim that Bak You is Bad For You, show me the evidence! Show me a single evidence based literature that Bak You is bad!

5. Starch and MSG is essential for making those thick thick broth that we all like so much. Especially shark's fin soup! Don't believe the Ang Moh when they tell you sharks are endangered la. The last I check, they are still attacking humans in Bondi Beach Australia leh.

AND since people so gian to know what is on My Plate in the hospital, this is it loh:

We have lots of peanuts. Quite good la, a whole plate of it! You are also provided free water cooler H2O for lubrication while they shove it down your throat. If not enough, can find KY jelly anywhere in the wards!

Tags: Fun, My Plate, Diet

10 reasons why your Dr so BCC (Bin Chow Chow)

Ever kennah black face by your doctor? Well, being a loctor is a very very pek chek job. Ten reasons why your doc so buay song during a consult....

1) He hasn't had lunch becoz patients like you tend to oversleep and all come just before lunch time.

2) He hasn't had lunch and becoz u decided to have your hair done first ( since you were late anyway) he is not gonna make it home to watch 爱 on Channel 8.

3) You were already late for your appointment but when you were called you went to toilet pang sai.

4) Even though you were in the midst of kegg sai (bowel output), you got your maid to enter the consult room so that the lokun cannot see the next patient.

5) You remarked that he looked too young (thereby insinuating he is not experienced enough) and caused serious ego injury.
Or you remarked that he looked very old (thereby insinuating that his self injected botox treatment failed) and caused serious existential anxiety.

6) You ask for MC but did not even bother to read wiki to at least get some symptoms correct.

7) You asked for sleeping pills, cough syrup, pain killers (when you have no insomnia, cough or pain) becoz your source in Geylang in hiding.

But of course it's not always YOUR fault!

8) His wife found out about the drug rep / clinic assistant / nurse.

9) His new Porsche kennah drowned in the flash flood.

10) He is just born that way with a buay song facies... Dun be so sensitive la!

When the Fat Lady Sings

Recently (ex) MM and (ex) SM stepped down. This triggered me into thinking about retirement. Many patients I have seen do not seem to understand that retirement needs to be planned and we need to learn how to slow down and relac lah.

Doc: Uncle you got any hobbies?
Ah Pek: Simi Orhbeee???
Doc: no, no uncle, not guiness stout. What you do when you are free?
Ah Pek: Feee? I work work work then go home jiat bah, koon la.
Doc: Er, what do you like to do when you are not working huh? Things you like.
Ah Pek: Don't haff.
Doc: You listen to music?
Ah Pek: No
Doc: Watch TV
Ah Pek: No, I work so hard everyday to support children, family. Where got time?

I used to think that these Ah Peks were just having me on. I imagined that they were having lots of fun in Desker Road on weekends distributing their CPF payouts. But having spoken to many over the course of years (plus they never asked me for viagra), I realised that the generations born prior to 1960s had it ingrained in them that the only route to success was hard work. They sloughed their life away for their family and did nothing for themselves.

The problem being when they retire, they suddenly find themselves with no work to do, no hobbies and having absolutely no idea how to pass the day. The children are busy with work and their spouses may find them to be a nuisance at home since they are not used to having them around. They find themselves irrelevant and becoming a relic more than anything else. The loss of role can lead to much stress and many psychological woes.

So what should Dr Og do when he retires from blogging (medicine being only a delusion of mine)? I was thinking of politics but gave up the thought as I don't fancy sweating in a blue shirt shouting to a crowd of 30,000 in a stadium. And honestly, you will never see me in a red shirt coz the only time I'll wear one, if I ever do, is during Chinese New Year.

Indeed sibei cham if you cannot find something sane to do!

Next up, Dr Og's (patented) Preparation for Retirement Programme ... Akan Datang

Tags: Retirement, Medicine, Singapore

Singapore M.D.: A Lifetime to Master

Singapore M.D.: A Lifetime to Master

Residency, Ageism and Me (Yes it's always about me)

So the first batch of Duke medical students will be graduating this weekend. Congrats wor.

Totally unrelated, I was ignored when I asked for free tickets (offered on Twitter) to Zouk this Saturday. Dr Og just asked for fun la (my principle, anything free just ki chew first) and really given my age, lack of vitality and that I will be cheonging at Shanghai Dolly ( sorry I cheena one) on Friday, it is unlikely I will be able to survive Zouk on a Sat night.

While I did suffer some narcissistic injury when the fellow twitter did not offer me the free tix ( and worse ar never follow me on twitter), I also knew that my time in Zouk is (long) over. This has nothing to do with ageism. Do you see ah peks running hundred metre sprint?

Its not just the young ones who get to enjoy everything! There are also other stuff whereby being older works in your favour. The older folks have seats choped for them in MRTs and buses, can scold you if you take their seats and Stomp you until you apologize! They can also get senior citizen prices for movie tix. No wonder all the ah peks gather at Yangtze.

What Dr Og is saying is that whatever your age is there is a right place for you... I used to cheong Zouk but now I reminisce and spent Saturday resting. One day it will be my turn to be hanging around Yangtze getting cheap tix to 肉脯团19 but until then I stick to bit torrent.

So what do you do when you have people who are older than Consultants (hopefully not Senior Cons) graduate and needing to do housemanship meant for young Drs? They invented the Residency.

Ok, not exactly invent coz this one is basically copy cat the US of A. As these graduates are older, they cannot be put through the same vigorous training that Drs since the time of modern medical training started in Singapore have been put through. They will die! Like if I go Zouk on Saturday. They need to rest. So, less patients for them in clinics and even if they do night calls they cannot see more patients than the no. of fingers they can count on one hand. (Hopefully dun get one so old cannot even count fingers la).

This is all very good coz they can now continue to study very hard for their postgrad, publish sibei cheem and solid papers in renowned journals (as depicted in the newspaper article) and do all the things that Dr Og and the doctors of his time were not able to do coz we sloughing away seeing patients. I was told I may soon need to vacate my clinic slot to make way for the residents. I will also need to supervise them even though I am not appointed as a faculty member and will not be getting any head count for the work. Plus I will need to see the cases which traditionally can be managed by junior Drs since now we must protect their workload. The patients will have to pay to see a consultant even if they do not need that level of care.

When the residents become specialist themselves they will discover that they never received an essential training which we oldies have mastered to survive public healthcare, the art of seeing many many patients at one setting...But it's really all ok, since they who have invented the residency have a ready backup in the form of FTs where the supply of Drs is seemingly endless.

Tags: Residency, Medicine, Singapore