Audio Break Fast Session

On the 8th of September 2008. History was made.
For the first time ever, the Muslim UKM undergraduates of Audiology, Batch 11, break fast. TOGETHER.
Weird, isn't it? You'd think we'd hangout gazillion times already after three years stuck with each other. And there were only 10 of us, excluding the non-Muslims!
Anyway.
So we managed to find time to break fast at the ever-expanding Chop & Steak. We had to reserve a table, that's how popular that place is. The girls came in early, of course, with nothing to do except picture-taking and drying our throats out. The boys came later, as expected.
When the food was served, everyone practically drooled just looking at the food. And once the Azan was heard, no one was heard talking as all of us dug in greedily into our delicious food.
What did we eat, you ask? Well, I'm going to type in what's the name of the meal and you can refer to my facebook account (re: Audio Break Fast Album) for pictures :)
Starting with the 'head of the table'. Marul had Morocco Chicken Fried Rice with cold water; Mazly had T-Bone Steak with Apple Juice, Miha had Sizzling Chicken with Apple Juice; I had Sizzling Steak with Watermelon Juice; Nora had Mix Steak with Lychee; Iema had Fish & Chips with Thai Honey Coconut Drink; Suriya had Sizzling Steak with Apple Juice; Suraya had Chicken Chop with Orange Juice; Khai had Chicken Gordon Bleu with Lychee and the weirdest combo had got to be Dalila's, which I deliberately type in last, where she ordered Roasted Chicken with Iced Coffee. 'Say what?' you say? I guess she misses coffee ;p

before

after


The session went pretty great; good food, good ambience and good company.
Hopefully there will be more hangouts after this, other than just breaking fast.

Tis the Season for... D0D0L~!

It's that time of the year again, the fasting month and it's already the fourth day. Time flies so fast doesn't it? Before you know it, it's RAYA! Hrmm. And what would make your raya even more special this year?
You buy Dodol Melaka.

Absolute good stuff, truly recommend it to have it served on raya. Or if you can't wait, eat during buka also can.
Don't know where to get it?
View http://dodol-melaka.blogspot.com for details.
Happy Ramadhan everyone! :)

22nd Birthday :)

I just had to write this.
I had the most amazing, fantastic, remarkable, marvelous birthday ever.
Seriously.
So I want to convey my thanks virtually to everyone who made my birthday wonderful. Coz everyone likes to be appreciated, right? :)

Firstly, my family and relatives. Thank you for the nasi dagang at breakfast, the wishes and celebration at home (sorry I made you guys wait til I come back), the scrumptious cake, perfume, personalized towel, kain baju kurung, sweater, card, car sticker (?), book, necklace, eye liner, lip balm and money. Lots of it.

Thank you to si kacak Faiz Mokhtar for the wish, birthday song, little gifts and the oh-so-romantic candle-lit dinner, not forgetting the coming (soon, I hope :P) birthday present, haha.

Thank you to Mas for the wish, cute birthday card, nice car freshener and the fabulous watch! Love it loads!!

Thank you to Fit for wishing and posting the super gorgeous brooches and selendang Lovely!

Thank you to Fazliny for the wish and cute but cannot-be-mentioned-here piece of clothing, hehe :)

Thank you to Sarah, Mer and Suat Wei for the wish, birthday dinner at Chili's and the lipstick. I totally love it!

Thank you to Dalila for the wish and lovely kain!

Thank you to Jun Xuan for the wish and nicely modified horoscope frame :) No wonder we're so compatible ;p

Thank you to Iza for wishing and coming all the way from Sg Petani (;p) to give the silky grey top with the cute paperbag (?) ;)

Thanks Aliah for the wish and cute black shirt and pink selendang. Can't wait to wear it on our next hangout!

Thanks Suriya for wishing on my birthday and giving me that HUGE adorable mug. Anyone fancy a cuppa? ;P

Thank you to Faetz for the wish and lunch (was that a birthday treat even? I'm assuming it is, hehe)

Thank you to Nora for your call, albeit belated ;p

Thank you to Amira, Nora (coursemate), Sam, Hana, Berett, Imran, Bank Islam (?, haha), Inda, Peanut, Jau, Jejan, Myra and Izzati for your smses :)

Thank you to Zack, Alex, Skynext (?), Zul, Iela, Amirul, Chidah, Azim, Etong, Mariani, Nadia, Abby, Shima, Odit, Ashraf, Irfan, Bulost, Haziq, Jp, Nazar, Zatil, Fadilah and Paktam for your virtual wishes, although I reminded some of you, haha.

Thank you to Kak Ija and Mr Sara of SunMed.

Thanks to BF, Mas, Sarah, Imran for wishing multiple times! :)

Thanks to GSC for the free movie coupon.

Thanks to Jusco and Diners Club for various coupons, although I didn't use most of them.

Sigh (happily). I just love birthdays :)

Clinical Attachment III: HTAR Klang

Upon entering the first semester of my final year, me and my coursemates were briefed on our clinical requirements. For the first time ever in the history of audiology in Malaysia (so the drama queen :P) final years will be sent for external clinic in selected hospitals: Putrajaya, Sungai Buloh, Klang, Kuala Terengganu, Seremban and Melaka.
Lucky for me, I was designated to Hospital Tuanku Ampuan Rahimah, Klang, together with Chun Suan, Umar and si penyibuk Luqman, under the supervision of Cik Siti Aminah.

I must say, it was the best clinical placement yet.
Firstly, the setting. It's quite nice although not completely equipped. I felt at ease working there and they're going to have MyHINT (a speech test) soon. Great! The only thing lacking (in my opinion) is they don't have enough chairs in the room. However, my supervisor did clarify that she doesn't want unnecessary people to overcrowd the room, which I accept as a solid reason even as my legs were giving out on me. (27/8/08: I went back on 25/8 and there were two green bar stools, which were supercool! So no lacking point anymore for HTAR Klang then. It's all goo0oo0od :P)
Talking about supervisors, Cik Siti is definitely a good one. I am all thumbs-up for her. She's patient, helpful, efficient, easy-going and really committed to her profession. I learned a lot from her and seriously, am more confident doing clinic under her supervision than anyone else. Other supervisors simply made me kancheong with their presence or trying-to-be-helpful-but-not interruptions.

I got to observe an ENT operation, tympanoplasty to be exact. It is a surgical procedure of repairing the eardrum. While changing out of the surgical gear, overheard the surgeons saying something like 'I shouldn't have blablabla...' followed by a 'Never mind, you learn by mistake...'. Excuse me? Did I hear her right? Mistake in the operation theatre?? Those sentences only confirmed my doubtfulness on doctors. I hope I don't have to experience situations where my life or my loved ones' lives are at the hands of the doctors. The movie 'Awake' is forever etched in my brain, thanks again to Mas.
Other plus points of doing the placement in Klang include staying at the Nurses Hostel which is just a less-than-10-minutes walk to the hospital and charged at the cheapest rate ever of RM1.00. Was a bit freaked out by the crows' nest in the room initially, but when cleaned, it was an okay room. Besides, on the weekends I didn't stay there as I went back home which is possible for me unless I was placed for example, in Kuala Terengganu. So yeah, quite enjoying myself during the three weeks.
One other important thing is, it's just a 10 minutes drive to the biggest Jusco in Malaysia (I think), Jusco Bukit Tinggi! I don't mind being placed anywhere; as long as there is a decent shopping complex, I'm a happy girl :)
Nothing but good reviews from me for HTAR Klang. Definitely a good place for clinical placement!

Lab Coats ≠ Cafeteria Coats

Ok this post actually goes out to all doctors, pharmacists, labbists (hehe, i meant lab people, e.g. biotechies, microbies, etc), and anyone else who uses the lab coats.
Last month my department invited a guest speaker, Dr Noor Ibrahim Mohamed Sakian, from UKM (of course) to talk about Infection Control, Professional Liability and Pediatric Sedation.
Basically, it's about hygienic practice in audiology. To cut it short, Dr Noor suggested that audiologists (including clinical students) should be wearing the lab coats and gloves during clinic, as currently we are not. However, mindful of his suggestion, it is not practical for audiologists to do so as we do not want children to be scared of us, as in their mindset: lab coats + gloves > doctors = traumatic experience. So what the audiologists can do is maintain a practice as hygienic as possible, e.g. using sterilized soap and not using the same probes on different patients.
Anyway, moving on from the talk, I actually want to emphasize on the use of lab coats. As most are probably aware, lab coats are mainly for hygienic and protection purposes. In fact, according to Jones, VA, white coats are sometimes seen as the distinctive dress of physicians, who have worn them for over 100 years (thus noting the traumatic experience of children as mentioned above).



But that is still beside the point. My point is, people are using lab coats not only during their practice/clinic/research but also during their lunchtime, driving, everywhere!
And that practice, is so NOT hygienic. To quote Dr Noor, lab coats are not cafeteria coats! They're not suppose to protect your working clothes from curry spills! And are you not aware that you are spreading infections by wearing the lab coat all over the place?!
So please, whoever reading this, take note in wearing the lab coat. To be distinct among other professionals is fine; I mean, you studied for 5-6 years, of course you want people to know you're a doctor without having to introduce yourself right? But I am sure not wanting to spread diseases is also an important issue for anyone, so keep your lab coat in your lab/clinic/office okay? No need to wear it around. Plus it'll maintain the whiteness of the lab coat.
So please, do wear lab coats appropriately. Thank you.

Appreciating the Elderly

Being in the audiology field clinically since my 3rd year has exposed me to various types of patients from different backgrounds. However, one aspect common to all, in particular to the geriatric population is that there are families who do not take care of their fragile and old parents. Initially I was surprised and appreciative of independent patients who came in by themselves with their equally old spouses for hearing assessments.
In cases where they need to wear hearing aids, it saddened me when they claimed that they have quite a few children and none seemed to actually want to buy the aids for them. I mean, I know those things are quite expensive, but if there are let say, 5 of them and all are working, surely they could pool in money to at least buy for one side. There are hundreds of applications for hearing aids funding and not all are confirmed to get it. If working-children are able to buy the aids for their own parents, think of how many others who simply are not financially-able, will then deservedly get the funding.
And then there was a case, where his old man accidentally fell off his bike on road and consequently is wheelchair-bound, and has hearing loss. His son actually had the guts to say out loud ‘it’s so difficult to take care of this old man; he is deaf and complains too much’. I was shocked, but my supervisor at that time quickly retorted ‘He took care of you since you were born; now it’s your turn lah’. That got the guy to shut up.
Despite that, there are cases of those who really take good care of their elderly. I had the opportunity to observe a patient who has hearing loss and was accompanied not only by his spouse, but also his son and grandson. Talk about family love! But seriously, people should not take their parents for granted. They’re the ones who brought you into this world in the first place; the least you could do is take care of them.
Here’s a poem complimentary of my bestie, Mas, (a nursing student) which was actually her assignment to interpret, of which I still kept, glued in my clinical notebook. Very touching, and really motivates me to be a better person.

“Crabbit Old Woman”

What do you see, what do you see?
Are you thinking, when you look at me –
A crabbit old woman, not very wise,
Uncertain of habit, with far-away eyes,
Who dribbles her food and makes no reply,
When you say in a loud voice,
I do wish you’d try.
Who seems not to notice the things that you do
And forever is losing a stocking or shoe.
Who, unresisting or not; lets you do as you will
With bathing and feeding the long day is filled.
Is that what you’re thinking,
Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes,
Nurse, you’re looking at me.
I’ll tell you who I am as I sit here so still!
As I rise to your bidding, as I eat at your will.
I’m a small child of 10 with a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters, who loved one another –
A young girl of 16 with wings on her feet,
Dreaming that soon now a lover she’ll meet,
A bride soon at 20 – my heart gives a leap,
Remembering the vows that I promised to keep.
At 25 now I have young of my own
Who needs me to build a secure happy home;
A woman of 30, my young now grows fast,
Bound to each other with ties that should last;
At 40, my young sons have grown and are gone,
But my man’s beside me to see I don’t mourn;
At 50 once more babies play around my knee,
Again we know children, my loved one and me.
Dark days are upon me, my husband is dead,
I look at the future, I shudder with dread,
For my young are all rearing young of their own,
And I think of the years and the love that I’ve known;
I’m an old woman now and nature is cruel –
Tis her jest to make old age look like a fool.
The body is crumbled, grace and vigor depart,
But inside this old carcass, a young girl still dwells,
And now and again my battered heart swells,
I remember the joy, I remember the pain,
And I’m loving and living life over again.
I think of the years all too few – gone too fast.
And accept the stark fact that nothing can last –
So open your eyes, nurse, open and see,
Not a crabbit old woman, look closer –
See Me.

Looking for Subjects

Are/Do you:

1. An adult aged between 50 to 60 years old?
2. A native Malay speaker? (Malaysians please)
3. Have symmetrical normal hearing in both ears?
4. Have type A tympanogram in both ears?
5. Right-handed?
6. Live in Klang Valley?

If you answer yes to all of the above, CONGRATULATIONS! You are eligible to be a subject in my research :)

If you fulfill questions no. 1, 2, 5 and 6 but are not so sure about no. 3 and 4, you are welcome to see me and do a hearing assessment. For FREE!

If you don't fulfill any of those criteria but know someone who does, please do let me know and drop a comment here. Your recommendation is highly appreciated, seriously.

Basically, what I will have the chosen ones @ selected subjects do is to go for a diagnostic hearing assessment which includes Pure Tone Audiometry and Immittance Test and then do a speech test using MyHINT (also known as Malay Hearing in Noise Test) without wearing the EduLink and with the EduLink on both ears and in the left and right ears respectively.

And that's it! Easy-peasy. So anyone interested? :)

Clinical Attachment II: Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia

After a week in SunMed, I did my time in HUSM, Kubang Kerian for five weeks, or to be exact, 20 days of clinic (due to public hols, got sickie, and attended a wedding).
Was very excited to go there, as I have heard rave reviews from other clinical supervisors who were positively encouraging for us students to go there.
I must say, things were quite different in HUSM.
Firstly, the working days are from Sunday to Thurday. Honestly, I thought the time just flew by with starting the week on Sundays and Thursday being the last day of work for the week. I guess it has something to do with my mindset of the Monday blues and not having to go through that in HUSM.
Then there was the set-up and the supervisors.
For the set-up there were five audiological rooms. Each room being more specific for a particular testing, e..g.: room 5 for ABR and ASSR; room 4 for AABR and DPOAE screening.
There are 4 supervisors: Cik Su, Cik Roza, Cik Ninda and En. Khary, all of whom are UKM graduates of 1st, 2nd, 8th and 2nd batch respectively. And then there was Kak Sar, a technologist who knows the ORL department inside out; En. Adnan, also a technologist whom is just starting his degree in Audiology this very semester!; En. Yus of unknown origin but acts as the technologist at times; and Kak Lin who's the attendant of the clinic.
Anyway it was truly an experience doing my attachment there in HUSM. I learned some things I may not learn in UKM, but then that was the purpose of having us scattered all over the country in the first place right? And I also had my ears suctioned by an ENT doctor for free!
One thing for sure is: am I thankful and glad that I study in UKM and not in UIA or USM. Not that I'm insulting or anything, but those universities are still new in Audiology while the UKM students are blessed with experienced and excellent lecturers and supervisors.
Nevertheless, thank you to everyone in Audiology Clinic of HUSM for having me there. May we meet again, which I am sure we will! :)

Statistically Corrected

Met Prof Baharuddin today for sample size calculation. He's the reknowned statistician in the whole of FSKB, UKM. He actually pursued statistics because he loves it. Hard to believe anyone could ever love the complexity of statistics but I guess someone has to right? If not who will teach us ignorant students :).
Anyway.
He told me the formula that I used for the proposal presentation was absolutely wrong because that particular formula is actually for those doing a prevalence study. So malu! coz pandai-pandai saja, hehe.Blushingly, I asked him what is the right formula for my study.
He asked me what is the study and I just handed him a copy of my proposal presentation. First, he corrected my title, to quote 'it should be among older adults not in older adults'. 'Aye aye sir' I said to myself, and thought, 'hrmm, funny how the deputy dean @ my supervisor had let it pass and I am corrected by the statistician whom I am meeting for the first and probably last time'. He arrived to the objective of my study on measuring benefits, so after scrutinizing the very small font of my statistics notes, taught me to use which values to put in in the most suitable formula.
He advised me to do a pilot study on 20 subjects that fulfill the inclusive and exclusive criteria in order to get the values. Being a smart-alec, I was like, '20 subjects?? Okay... can I use the results from the pilot study's subjects as the results for the real study's subjects?'
And he said I can't. I then whined on where am I going to find so many subjects and he said to me that if you want to simply guess the number of subjects, don't come and find him to innocently ask him to teach and then not applying what is taught. I came to my senses and agreed, because it's like an insult to him right, if I do so.
After that he relented and said I can use 10 subjects for the pilot study. I asked him if he wants to be my subject and he agreed! Yay. So i guess it was kind of a win-win situation where he got his msg across to me (on understanding what he said and applying it) and I get a subject in return.
Hope he's a cooperative subject, that is, if he fulfills the subject's criterion first, of course :)

Thesis Proposal Presentation

Firstly. Yay, I'm done with it ;)
It was a 3-day marathon of presentation after presentation.
I presented yesterday (17/7). And my supervisor said it was okay~! A relief, (and a success, may I add? 2 friends said it was ok too and one even said, to quote, 'like so bergaya saja'. hehe :P) considering I have never met her!(supervisor I mean) Just came up with it based on the one-time meeting with the co-supervisor and continuous discussion with fellow thesis-mate.
FYI, before presentation day, I presented it roughly to my boyfriend, my cousin, my aunt and two speech students. To make sure that on actual presentation I tak syok sendiri, hehe. And they understood well! But admitted that it was a bit technical, of course.
So what is it that I proposed, u ask?
I'll try to explain it in laymen terms.
Basically, it is an advanced research of one of my seniors. As I've mentioned in an earlier blog, she did the same thing except her population is the schoolchildren. So her findings revealed puzzling results, where the benefits of bilateral are similar to left-unilateral fitting while the benefits of bilateral is higher than right-unilateral fitting.
As it is generally known, the right ear hears better because of how the brain works. It's called the right ear advantage. So from her findings, my senior hypothesized that when wearing the EduLink on the left ear, the benefit of EduLink (which has been proven where wearing it is better than not wearing it. To quote my bf, 'Duh, that's why it's created in the first place') combined with the right ear advantage leads to the similar benefit of bilateral fitting. The right-unilateral fitting on the other hand, with only the EduLink benefit and no left ear contribution resulted in the obvious better benefit of bilateral than unilateral fitting.
Am I making sense so far?
That very hypothesis justifies this research where I'll be conducting it on the elderly population. Studies have reported that the older people have decreased right ear advantage. So I need to find out if there is a right ear advantage effect that influences the EduLink fitting, besides determining the relationship between both variables.
I think that was a very straight-forward explanation.
With a good start on the proposal, I hope I will be on the right track all the way :)

The First Meeting (Finally!)

Friday, 11th of July was a significant date in my thesis history. I finally get to meet my supervisor! Mind you, co-supervisor. My main supervisor, the 'mother-of-audiology-in-Malaysia' to quote a certain clinical supervisor, had to attend a meeting at the last minute and re-scheduled my meeting with her with Dr Cila instead.
Nevertheless. It was a very fruitful meeting.
The night before the meeting I frantically put up a mediocre proposal for my supervisor's attention. I must say, I was thankful that she discussed about the thesis first before seeing a little bit of my proposal. I thought my proposal was an embarrassment, it was nowhere near what she and Dr Siti wanted. And she was very understanding on the fact that it was my first ever meeting.
So she set things straight for me and my thesis mate and gave very useful journals.
She advised to get as much literature support as possible, or in her own words, 'need to read more' and be critical of the journals read. Oh and get a larger thesis notebook (She actually showed her own collection of thesis notebooks that she had over the years. 'saje nak eksyen la tu', hehe just kidding Dr Cila! ;p).
The meeting got me quite motivated to do my best on the proposal presentation later on. But now... I am so bogged down with all the journals, I don't think I can read any more.
HeLp!