Hearing in Poetry

"Our hearing is a choice and dainty sense,
And hard to mend, yet soon it may be marred,
Blows, falls, and noise... all these...
Breed tingling in the ears, and hurt our hearing."

~Physicians of the medieval medical school of Salerno.

For My Fellow Colleagues & Working Friends

*credit to Faiz Mokhtar :)*

Beware of Scheming Devils

Everyone should take note of this. I think it has been going on for quite a while but people are not really aware of it.

I was nearly scammed a week ago. It actually happened to my older brother, except that his X-Box's hard drive was 'lost' and mine was my camera's memory card and battery. So what happened was, my camera was broken and naturally I sent it for repair at the shop I purchased it from (in Digital Mall, PJ). They charged me RM50 just for the cost of quoting repair charges to Canon. I obliged, as I had no time to go to a Canon store myself. It took them 2 weeks to quote the charges to me, which I refused as it was too expensive, and another 3 weeks for me to get it back.

I remember clearly that I did not take out the memory card and battery, and the salesperson also did not give it to me. He only gave me the camera casing, so that only the camera is sent off to Canon. But when my boyfriend picked up the camera, he didn't know, and so he brought the camera back to me without the battery and memory card.

The next day both of us went back to the shop to claim the memory card and battery. I waited in the car as there was no parking, while my bf went to talk with the guy. They argued (according to bf) and bf let the guy talked to me on the phone. The guy repeatedly said he always ALWAYS always give back the memory card and battery to customers, or if he had taken those things, it would have been written on the receipt, which in my case, he didn't write. So I argued with him back, saying I know I didn't take those things, and said, 'why would I lie to you?!' He defended himself, saying he knows what he did, blablabla. I knew at that moment he's cheating on me and so I said 'whatever' and told my bf to take a picture of the shop (in case I want to write to newspapers or something).

My clever bf not only took the picture of the shop, but also the receipt. After we left the place, about 20 minutes or so the guy called back, asking how many GB was my memory card. I told him, and he said he found one memory card. I checked back my receipt of the camera purchase and reconfirmed with him and he said, he found both the memory card and battery. Huh. The photo-taking must have made him chickened out.

So I got those things back. But my brother wasn't as fortunate. The same thing went on, where the guy said no, he didn't take the hard drive or he would have written it on the receipt and all that BS. My brother didn't take pictures of the shop, so the thief got away uncaught.

But please, be very aware of these kind of people. It might happen to you. This is a public service announcement and it is the truth.

The Wedding Singer

Recently there were a lot of weddings going on, especially since it was a school break. I've attended some as the partner for Faiz Mokhtar, who was invited from his friends and colleagues. So far all of the receptions were held at the bride's or groom's houses. Each wedding (hrmm, maybe except for the Terengganu one) will put on full blast wedding songs, easily vibrating the guests' eardrums to the limits. Sometimes it was a live wedding singer; sometimes it was a record. Either way it annoyed the hell out of me because I really hate noise pollution. Plus, I'm an audiologist, I should be concerned about this. Someone should be out there with a dosimeter to measure the level of noise the weddings are producing or something.

Exposure to noise could actually cause Noise-Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL). There are 3 types of NIHL: Acoustic trauma, Noise-Induced Temporary Threshold Shift (NITTS) and Noise-Induced Permanent Threshold Shift (NIPTS). NIHL usually affect the high frequency sounds, although constant noise exposure will also cause it to spread to low frequency sounds. I will update more about this; but for now here are some pictures of me attending weddings with my partner in tow :) From here, we can see my boyfriend's fave batik :P



Seremban


Keramat


Kuala Terengganu


Muar


Petaling Jaya

Final Submission

I submitted my thesis.

No feeling. None at all.

What's that? Euphoria? Did I say that?

I didn't even make a copy for myself.

I forgot, actually, haha.

But yay, everything's settled.

Thank you so much to everyone who has helped.

Sincerely from the bottom of my heart.

The lucky ones, I've even highlighted in my 'Penghargaan'. You guys are the reason the thesis is completed.


"I can no other answer make, but thanks and THANKS!" - William Shakespeare.

Name-Drop in Movie. When Will It Be?

Last night I watched Night at the Museum 2: the Smithsonian (I think this is the title). It was dead boring. Funny but boring. There was no content at all! But, there was one scene that totally caught my attention. The scene where Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) was messing around with the Smithsonian guard, Brandon (pronounced Brundun- LOL moment). He mentioned about him not being a speech-therapist to teach Larry how to pronounce his name correctly (if I'm not mistaken).

See, even speech-therapists get a name-drop. In a box-office movie at that.

When will Audiologists get name-drops? In a song, even?

Nevertheless. Jonas Brothers voicing cupids? Total adorableness.

Beautiful Pressure in KL

Want to experience changing of middle ear pressure amidst gorgeous KL scenery?

You can do so, by heading up to Look Out Point, Ampang~!

The location is on a hill, so once you go up there, the atmospheric pressure becomes more negative than the middle ear pressure. You would feel a feeling of blockage. To overcome this feeling, you may perform the Valsalva maneuver. How you ask? You introduce positive pressure by pinching your nose and then slowly blow through your mouth. This will then equalize the middle ear pressure.

Once you reach Look Out Point, you would most probably forget everything as the view on top would simply blow you away. It blew me away. Simply fascinating.

There were several restaurants where you can enjoy the scenery and stimulate your palette at the same time. The food were okay and affordable. The price is not that cheap, and not that exorbitant. Me and my friends had our supper at Haven @ d Peak, which is the highest restaurant there. After that we headed to the Menara Tinjau, the highest point, to take in the awesome night view, and of course some picture taking :).





After much snapping, we went back down to KL. None of us actually did experience any changing middle ear pressure going down. But just so you know, going downhill would of course cause more positive middle ear pressure, thus you should be performing Toynbee Maneuver to equalize the pressure. Just a simple maneuver: pinch your nose and swallow.

These maneuvers could be applied especially when you are boarding the flight or diving; this helps to prevent barotrauma.

So what are you waiting for? Head on to Look Out Point, now~! :D

The 4 Years Journey

As posted in facebook, I thought this song reflects best my ups and downs in becoming an Audiologist. The 4 years journey has been a bittersweet wonderful experience, all of which I would treasure til my last breath. Here it is.

Miley Cyrus - the Climb

I can almost see it
That dream I'm dreaming but
There's a voice inside my head sayin,
You'll never reach it,
Every step I'm taking,
Every move I make feels
Lost with no direction
My faith is shaking but I
Got to keep trying
Got to keep my head held high

There's always going to be another mountain
I'm always going to want to make it move
Always going to be an uphill battle,
Sometimes I'm gonna to have to lose,
Ain't about how fast I get there,
Ain't about what's waiting on the other side
It's the climb

The struggles I'm facing,
The chances I'm taking
Sometimes might knock me down but
No I'm not breaking
I may not know it
But these are the moments that
I'm going to remember most yeah
Just got to keep going
And I,
I got to be strong
Just keep pushing on, cause

There's always going to be another mountain
I'm always going to want to make it move
Always going to be an uphill battle,
Sometimes I'm gonna to have to lose,
Ain't about how fast I get there,
Ain't about what's waiting on the other side
It's the climb (yeah)

There's always going to be another mountain
I'm always going to want to make it move
Always going to be an uphill battle,
Sometimes you going to have to lose,
Ain't about how fast I get there,
Ain't about what's waiting on the other side
It's the climb (yeah yeah ea ea)

Keep on moving
Keep climbing
Keep the faith baby
It's all about
It's all about
The climb
Keep the faith
Keep your faith

Whoa a oh oh


1st Year 2005/2006


2nd Year 2006/2007


3rd Year 2007/2008


4th Year 2008/2009

Ear Joke?

I was hanging out with a friend when we saw a woman with a nose ring attached to an earring by a chain.

My friend said, "Ouch! The chain must rip out every time she turns her head!"

I had to explain that a person's nose and ear remain the same distance apart no matter which way the head is turned...

Lol.

They Walk Among Us !

Essential Steps to Safe Clean Care

This is especially for those who visit the hospital. It is important because patients in the hospital are at risk of infection and this may prolong stay and delay recovery.

1. Hand washing
The single most important way of reducing infection is by washing hands. Clean your hands regularly, especially
- before and after visiting patient
- on entering and leaving hospital
- after using the toilet and bathroom

You may use soap and water, but if your hands are visibly clean you may use alcohol gel instead, which is usually placed at the entrance to all wards.

2. Manage children
Children should be discouraged from crawling on the floor and must be supervised at all times.

3. The environment
Help keep the hospital environment clean tidy by:
- disposing rubbish into the bins
- cleaning off any mud or dirt on foot before entering the hospital

4. Flowers
Flowers have been sort of like a traditional gift for the patient. However, it is actually impractical within hospitals as it pose risk of infection.

5. Wound management
Avoid touching any wounds, drip, etc on patients. If you accidentally do so, wash your hands immediately.

6. Isolation room
Get permission from the nurse counter before entering the room.

7. Visiting hours
Adhere to the hospital policy and the visiting times. Try to limit the number of visitors at the patient bedside at all times as patient needs to rest.

8. Personal hygiene
Shower frequently and change into clean clothes regularly. Do not walk about in bare feet, wear slippers or shoes. Visitors who are coughing and sneezing or feeling ill, avoid visiting patients in hospitals.

SOUND in Audiology

I was studying and found this simple yet straight-forward facts of sound in Audiology. The word SOUND can be used to easily remember the things that could cause hearing problems.

S = Sensory overload

O = Old age
~ age-related hearing loss usually does not lead to deafness but to auditory isolation.

U = Undiagnosed tumors or under-treated infections

N = Non-functioning ear canal or bones
~ anything that blocks the ear canal reduces sound flow

D = Damage from drugs, trauma or pressure
~ certain drugs have a toxic effect on hearing.
~ trauma and pressure trauma can damage the ear and also cause hearing loss.

As easy as ABC. Hear well, always! :)