Have a Blessed Christmas..

Its Christmas already.. I came back from home yesterday morning.

I had a great time in Colombo. Did lots of Shopping, visited my friends and been to movies. Had great fun! Didn't study anything at all though :(

Yesterday hadn't been a good day for me altogether..Had a pretty tough day. Firstly, the train which I traveled collided with an elephant on the way! Luckily for us, the train didn't derail from the tract. But very unfortunately the elephant died in the spot. It was a huge one. We were in the middle of a forest line and we had to wait many hours before the railway people turned up , moved the elephant out of the tract and repaired the railings. The accident happened at 1am in the morning and we were able to move again only at 5.30 am - More than 4 hours delay..On top of this, I'm having a bad head cold and fever since y'day. Maybe its because I traveled in an A/C compartment on a very frosty night. I feel bit better today, and hope I'll be fine soon.

Well its Christmas today..I'm sure this day will be better than the one I left behind. Hope everyone is having a nice time.

These are some snaps I clicked away in a shopping mall l. I liked the decorations. (Pictures are not much clear as I took them with my mob :P Last one is blurred..I took it while on move. :) )

Merry Christmas Everyone..!

Joining in the Holiday spirit..!

Holidays at last..! Just 1 week though..:( *sigh*. Well still its holiday..!! :) I'll be able to get up anytime I want and do anything I want...at least for a few days..Yey! Isn't that wonderful..? *Whoops*

I know I shouldn't be feeling too relaxed as my exams are looming nearer and I'm supposed to be revising during these days..But..all the same- I couldn't help feeling elated and relaxed. Well, I'm not going to study anything today, at the very least :). I've spent the whole evening listening to my precious Harry potter Audio book (Currently 6th one - Half blood Prince) I'm mad about Harry and I've read the whole series more than 20 times..Nowadays I don't get much time to sit relaxing with HP and read..so I listen to the audio books instead, while I'm eating, driving, washing, etc..Audio books are good but still..there's nothing better than reading a book yourself..Yep, I prefer reading myself.

Christmas celebrations have begun already..Though the celebrations and preparations are bit quieter than usual. Or perhaps its just me imagining like that.

Another Christmas & another year ahead of us..I don't think the world has changed much except for the outbreak of few more wars and spread of poverty and sufferings..Even as you're reading this.. many people are suffering, killed or being deprived of food and shelter..in my mother land as well as in many parts of the world..There are many children around the world who doesn't even get the Christmas scent in the air.. As I think of it, I realize how very fortunate and blessed I am..If there's anything I wish for this Christmas, it is Peace and Love for everyone in the world.

I love this song by Late Singer Melanie Thornton -"Wonderful dream of Peace and love for everyone..." I love the lyrics and music.. One of my favorite Christmas season songs..

I wish this dream comes true someday..:)

I'm going home to Colombo tomorrow morning. I'm not going to stay there for long though. Planning to get back here on Wednesday and revise at least for 3 days.. Mom and Dad are not happy about me getting back early. They feel that I ought to stay till college reopens....Typical.. ;)

So Until I get back..BYE everyone..Have a great week end, Happy Holidays and Advanced Christmas wishes to alllll...:)

Another Rainy day..

Its raining again today..Well actually it has been raining ever since October.. I didn't get a glimpse of clear blue sky since then..The constant pitter patter on the windows.. and I haven't been properly dry for a long now..always looking as if I had been drowned ..Ohh..grrrr..I hate it..I wish this would be over soon.. We're frequently getting cyclone warnings as well..Thankfully, cyclone didnt turn up..

Its not as though I always hate rain..I lovvve it as long as I'm well inside my house, dry, warm and all..It feels like heaven when I sit relaxed with a hot cup of coffee in one hand and a book in the other, hearing the rain splashing against my windows..I even like getting bit wet in drizzling rain..But to get drenched in heavy rain for this loooong..Gosh..!! its too bad...I'm soaked to the skin.

I go to bed every day wishing that It'd stop raining in the morning..But never had that wish come true. It doesn't even dawn properly these days..Always dark..I hate to get off my bed, have a chilling bath, get dressed and go to university in this down pour..hmm but no choice.

On top of this, my university life is getting harder each day..Loads of work..I'm having to submit at least an assignment every week. Neuro lectures are driving me mad..The lectures are going on in a top speed and I'm having to to read it all up before every other lecture. To add to the list of worries, exams are looming nearer..and I feel as if I'm lagging behind in every module..I'm desperate to get a break..and eagerly looking forward for the Christmas holidays which would be on next week..


Below are the snaps which I took with my mob , back in October, when we last had a clear blue sky....Now all I could do is just to look at them and wish this rain to stop..




PS: Thank you so much for my friend hemanth who made a sweet post on my B'day this November.. :)

Happy Diwali..

It had been weeks since I last scribbled something in this blog.. Been very busy with my studies. It had been a very hectic week. Lectures and Clinical visits had been driving me mad all week. Oh..I cant really say enough how very relieved I am to reach the week end. Anyways..Its Diwali on Monday and I'm going home tomorrow. I'll be back on Tuesday..
So My Advanced Diwali wishes to all my blogsville friends..Have a great Diwali all.. :)

My new 'Laser' eyes..

I'm back with my new 'lasik' eyes.. Thanks a lot to everyone who wished me luck for the surgery.. It all went fine.

I was a bit tensed when I presented myself at the hospital half an hour before my scheduled time. I was the first to go and I was the first on the surgery list as well. Soon after, an elderly British couple joined us. As we were waiting we had a nice long chat and I came to know that the English lady has already done the laser surgery months ago and now her husband was about to do the surgery as well. She told me that there is nothing to be scared of and the surgery would be very simple. That really helped to raise my spirits a bit.

But..Gosh..! the surgery wasn't that easy at all..! The surgery was done under local anesthesia..they just put anesthetic drops into the eyes, and that's all. The prob is that you have to witness the whole surgical procedures on your eyes with the same eyes and you cant even blink or move your eye balls..Ohhh..that was verrry uneasy to me. They placed a glass shield like rim between the eyelids so that I wouldn't be able to blink... I felt really uncomfortable as I watched the surgeon cut a flap in my cornea and all the rest of it..I wont say it was painful..but really that was some uneasiness beyond words..Sometimes I thought I felt pain, but I might have imagined it..I don't know.

My right eye was done first and as I lied down there waiting for the surgeon to start the next eye, I felt really scared this time..because I knew what was coming..That made the second surgery even worse..But it seemed to finish a bit quicker than the first one..

After the surgery, they just told me to wear the sun glasses and wait for sometime. Then after a while they checked my eyes again , said I'm perfectly okay, and I shall go home for the night. They told me to come for a check up on the following afternoon. Before I left the hospital that English lady told me to be prepared for a tough night. How very correct she was..!. That was the worst night in my life. I felt like as if thousands of knives were inside my eyes and I couldn't even fully open my eyes. My vision was all blurred and wet. I felt terrible.

When I woke up next morning, it was all fine, except that my eyes felt a bit heavy and sticky..But otherwise my eyes felt like new. My vision was damn clear!!. I was so happy that I instantly forgot the previous day's pain.. The surgeon checked my vision and said Its all very fine. As I was told, my eyes are very dry now and I have to follow up the drops to avoid eye ulcers. Now the post operative follow up is the tricky part.. I'm having to apply 3 different drops every 4 hours, avoid getting into dusty areas and also having to wear the cooling glasses whenever I go outdoors. Also I have to be careful enough not to rub my eyes. Well..so far so good and I'm now back to my routine life which is full of lectures, books, hospital..and all..

Hope my laser eyes will keep up with all those strains..:)

PS:

For those who dont't know, here is a brief explanation of how the surgery is done -

In LASIK eye surgery, laser is used to create a thin, circular flap in the cornea. . The surgeon folds the flap back out of the way, then removes some corneal tissue underneath using a laser. The laser uses a cool ultraviolet light beam to precisely remove very tiny bits of tissue from the cornea to reshape it. When the cornea is reshaped in the right way, it works better to focus light into the eye and onto the retina, providing clearer vision than before. The flap is then laid back in place, covering the area where the corneal tissue was removed.

LASIK..!!

LASIK- that's the acronym for laser assisted in-situ keratomileusis. More simply -Its an eye surgery done with Laser rays to correct the refractive error. And guess what...I'm going to do that Lasik thing for my eyes tomorrow evening. My left eye power is -2.5 and my right eye is -0.5. Few months before only I found out that I have this problem in my left eye. Started so suddenly actually. Ever since, I've consulted many eye surgeons and all of them said nothing to worry and to wear glasses. I tried to do so even though I hated wearing glasses. But wearing glasses brought me headaches. So..I sometimes rarely wear glasses during lectures and thats all..It again resulted in recurrent headaches. I also felt as if my vision was getting worse each day. . I've never liked contact lenses as I've always had an idea that it would be painful and time-consuming.

Recently my Dad came to know about this laser treatment which would bring back my normal vision without glasses, and he kept insisting that I should do that..So, finally I agreed to that. Actually I agreed to that rather enthusiastically but now that I'm very close to doing it, I feel a bit scared..

I'll be leaving to colombo tomorrow early morning. My surgery is due at 5pm tomorrow.

I'll catch up with you all after I come back. Hopefully I'll be back here on Monday.. Until then - Bye everyone. See you all with my new LASIK eyes.. :)

****

The following are lovely pictures from Hemanth..Thanks a lot buddy :)

Lonely Navaratri..

Today is the last day of Navaratri and tomorrow is vijayathasami. For those who dont know - Saraswati pooja is celebrated on the 9th day of navaratri, for Goddess Saraswati (the presiding deity of the spoken word).

This year I couldnt go home for saraswati pooja due to my heavy schedule. This is the first time I ever missed a saraswati pooja at home. Some of my batchmates cut the lectures and went home of course. But I didnt feel like missing the lectures and so decided to stay despite my mom's persuation to come home. Well it wasnt easy to decide to stay...It took me looongg to decide on this issue and now I regret my decision. Because the lectures were cancelled yesterday and today and I'm stuck here on my own for absolutely nothing. Alone in my room...missing my home, family and pooja..I just wish I had gone home...

A month at hospital..

This post was long overdue. I drafted this post days ago but haven't published it . Just now had the time to read, edit and publish it.

Well..I can hardly believe that a month has already elapsed since I started my basic clinical training at Teaching hospital, Batticaloa. Phew..it had been a really busy month. The best thing about last month is that we didn't have any lectures apart from the hospital appointments. The worst thing is that only our batch had any work to do , while others enjoyed their holidays.

Okay, let me first fill you up with what I had been up to over the last month...

I'm starting my 2nd year MBBS , next week. Before that I had to complete initial clinical training at our teaching hospital. Whole point of the hospital programme was to give us some exposure of the hospital environment, and make us realise the team work involved in managing a patient. We were supposed to learn basic clinical skills and patient -physician communication skills as well.We had to work under 4 consultant physicians in 4 specialities - Medicine, Surgery, Gyn&Obs and Pediatrics.

The teaching hospital I had in my mind and the one I saw were quite different. It doesn't mean that I had never been there before. Of course I had been there. All those times I just kept to the lecture theatre and clinics and all. Never spent much time in the wards. Now that I had spent many weeks throughout the hospital, I realised how much it has changed. Something which caught my attention instantly was the cleanliness and odor-free environment of the hospital.. and trust me, it's something very uncommon for the Srilankan government hospitals to be clean! I soon found out the reason behind this unfamiliar cleanliness. There were numerous sanitary workers with red-black uniform , working all over the hospital. They belonged to some private company called "Will-shine"[ I liked that name ;)]. Thanks to them, my hospital days were odorless and headache free :)

More than anything else, it made me realise the importance of team work in patient management. Even though those 'will shine' people don't have any medical knowledge they are an ineluctable part of the health care system. Every where i went and everything I saw in the hospital emphasized teamwork. Doctors cant work alone. They need nurses, ward attendants, labourers, laboratory technicians and even sanitary workers.

"Less 'me' - More 'We' ; this is what team work is all about" One of the surgeons told me this. Now I know how very true it is.. Now I know what it takes to be a good physician..

My Desktop Story..

I've been Tagged by Saranya. Thanks Sanu. :)

So, here is the screen shot of my current desktop-

I change my desktop pictures frequently- at least once in a week. I like my desktop fresh and new everyday. It makes me feel fresh as well. I don't have any serious criteria to select my desktop wallpapers. There is only one rule - Any picture that attracts me on the very first sight is fit to decorate my desktop ;) .

What do I love about my desktop?

Nothing very specific about this one, honestly. I just liked it for its simplicity and contemporary look.

Still Rogers Court!!!

Roger Federer is back..He won the US open title for the 5th time in a row. His 6-2, 7-5, 6-2 final victory over Murray came at the end of what has been an awkward year.

Sure, Federer had shown himself to be vulnerable this year, suffering from mononucleosis early in the season, getting thumped at the French Open, and abdicating his crown at Wimbledon. His forehand suddenly wasn’t as feared. His imperiousness had been punctured by the rise of Rafael Nadal.

His defeat by Nadal in the French Open and at Wimbledon highlighted his struggles. Then came the quarterfinal defeat by James Blake in Beijing, a player whom Federer had beaten eight times out of eight.Yet, in the middle of his troubles, he won the Olympic doubles gold medal with fellow Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka.

How quick we are, though, to predict a star’s fall. All because the Swiss, who had reigned over men’s tennis with a velvety game and an iron hand for much of the last decade, only made it to the finals of two Grand Slams (losing one he’d won five straight years 9-7 in the fifth set) and the semi of the other. How lackluster! How pedestrian! Federer’s rule, it was said, was over. He’d dropped to No. 2 and was plummeting, never again to win another Slam.

Not so fast..!!!!

In thrashing Andy Murray and capturing his 5th consecutive US Open and 13th Grand Slam, Federer showed us, and perhaps even himself, that we were all much too anxious to write off a player of his ethereal caliber.

I missed that wonderful final as my dishtv receiver didn't work last Monday. I was really looking forward to that match and....gosh!! what a disappointment. Anyway, I managed to watch the highlights later.

("It's all about the wins, and that's why this is huge, this is massive." -- © Guardian News & Media Ltd 2008 )