who we are

It's my birthday post! As always..haha

Dear readers, I'm currently in Lincoln for my 4th attachment - Critical Illness. You know what? I've been blessed with 3 nice consultants for the past 3 attachments. I really hope the 4th one will be nice as well because it is during this attachment where I will have to sit for my resit (see what I did there? Nope? Never mind). I really need as much free time as possible.

Anyway, let's talk about my birthday. It started in the morning with me going to the city at dawn for usrah :D What an awesome way to start the day huh? Then, I met the people I care even though it was for a short while. Later, I stole Ashraf Zakwan and we had awesome time at Caffe Nero and Subway. Most of the time, I kept telling him that I didn't want to go to Lincoln today. Such a baby, haha. 

A birthday pack! Hahaha

Then, I packed my bags anyway cause I didn't have a choice :P The train ride itself was an hour long. Once arrived, I called the numbers for the taxi but none answered. I overheard from a lady who was at the train station saying that they're all busy. And I'm like..really? Busy for what? It's Sunday. There were around 4 people in front of me queueing for a taxi which didn't seem to arrive even after 15 minutes. Then I decided to begin another Amazing Race adventure by walking to the hospital. Hosni did tell me it was about 30 minutes by walking but I was ready to face the challenge. I used my trusty iPhone 5 and followed the directions on Google Maps. After several minutes, I've apparently went the other way, lol! So I had to make a U-Turn and had to walk in front of the people who were still hopefully waiting for a taxi. Sedikit malu di situ tapi kalau dalam Amazing Race, confirm diorang kena eliminate cause they're still there! Haha.

As I was walking, I realised that I'm approaching the bus stop and checked my phone that the next bus was coming in the next 7 minutes or so. My bags were pretty heavy. They consist of kicap, vaio, periuk nasi, ribena drinks, kuali tefal, buku final year, buku resit, my birthday mug, shoes, crocs and so much more. I didn't think it's a good idea for me to walk 30 mins to the hospital with a kicap in my hand. So, I decided to catch the bus. During this time, I kept telling myself that there's no way I'm going to give up and said that I'm going to make it. Kan bagus if I actually have this spirit for my Paeds resit ;P Nonetheless, I managed to hop on the bus and made my way to Lincoln County Hospital.

I know, macam nak pindah terus tapi minah sebelah bilik ni sepuluh kali keluar masuk bilik pon tak habis lagi barang dia ;P

The road to Lincoln County Hospital was hilly and filled with branches. No kidding, I had to kick a branch out of the way cause it was blocking the road as I need to drag my huge brown bag on the pavement. Guess what? I also had to carry my bag up the stairs, yeah!! Hahaha. When I arrived, I felt so happy. I always have a good reaction when I see the accommodation provided for my clinical attachments. It's pretty good and very clean. The only drawback is that my flatmates have the obsessions of playing with their room doors. I'm so going to wake them up for Subuh with my alarm. Dapat berjemaah sekali kan, hehehe. 

Look at the size of the table. I can become a nerd in no time.

Today, as a 24 year old, I'm very thankful that Allah has given me these 2 traits - my sense of humour and my sense of optimism. I'm thankful that I'm able to see the funny side of things; to be able to laugh easily and of course, my optimism which helps me to move forward & be persistent in searching for the silver linings in life. It was an awesome birthday. Allah reminded me of the personality that He has given me whilst I was carrying a kicap in my hand. Couldn't be better ;)

And of course, thank you for the wishes via email, Whatsapp, FB, letters and iMessages from my family members, my bestfriends (thank you for the black pens, I brought it with me to Lincoln), my friends and everyone else! 

Let's make a wish shall we, make a du'a that we will never lose ourselves..that we shall always be true to who we are and be thankful for the personality that Allah has blessed us with. That's all for now, need to get some salmon for tomorrow...

i promise

In January, I sort of made a promise to a consultant in Paediatrics, 4th Year module that I will be more focussed and will continue to aim high. No problems with the latter one but with the former, it fluctuates on a daily basis cause I have so many things in my mind right now. I bet my Mum and Dad would probably worry when they read this part ;P (Don't worry, I'm okay huhu). 

"Adlan Wafi, you've fought very hard in May..but that was 4th Year. Would you like to begin a real war?"

I need to sort things out, be determined, ignore friends who made me feel bad (or at least, give them my plastic smile), seek help, get closer to Allah, ask my friends to pray for me and believe that everything will be fine.

Anyway, for the first time ever, I'm going to show you an excerpt from another blog of mine which is definitely closed to public and only read by 2 other people :O Surprised? Hahaha. This post was written on January 20, 2013: 

This is a trivia; during the meeting with Dr N, I didn't tell him that I also failed the whole Obs and Gynae module. He already expected that I was a high-achieving student. Didn't want him to think that he was utterly wrong in reading me. Haha.

The good thing about making this promise is that it becomes a motivation for me to overcome my impediment. The scene between me and the consultant keeps replaying again and again in my mind..making me realized that I was in that room talking to him on a rainy day and I said that I will try my best.

One last time

In November, hope is stronger than fear...

one last time

It's November!! Time is running out..

Dear readers, I worry about a lot of things. One of them was the audit that I needed to produce by the end of my 4 Week Primary Care attachment. I did an audit already in January for my SSM (Special Study Module) in Rheumatology and I made it clear to my supervisor I wasn't in the mood of presenting/publishing it because it was during the time when I found out I had the triple failures. So yeah, it was similar around this time as well. I wasn't aiming to win any prize. I've only started writing the audit this Sunday because I had so many other things to handle and I wasn't even sure on how to write it cause it's different than the one I did for Rheumatology. The first audit I did was mainly on numbers and figures. So, it was pretty easy for me to manipulate the data. This one; it was on "Assessment of paediatric referrals". Like, what on Earth could I write about that?? So, it was a little bit of a guesswork and a little bit of a risk because I didn't want to do something which my GP (General Practitioner) didn't expect from me. 

So, I went in today to my GP surgery (aka clinic) for one last time since it's the last day of my Primary Care attachment and I joined his clinic from early in the morning cause he asked me to. The only reason why I had to come was to get the result for my audit so yeah, I was a bit anxious today. 

When I arrived, he revealed to me that he thought it was really good. So, I thought, "Ok, I think I'll pass". After a few moments in his clinic, he said "Let's mark your audit". And I was like, "Ok, this is it". He opened up my audit and commented that it's exactly what he's hoping for saying that he's going to use it for the meeting and he acknowledged the use of colours in my audit. And I felt, "Yeah!! Finally, someone appreciates my choice of colours in my coursework." Lol. Then he began filling in the marking sheet. I tried to look away but I just can't, haha. I saw him ticking "Excellent" for every criteria and I was surprised :O

I think he was just being nice. Well, he is really really nice, funny and friendly. So, that probably contributed to this result, haha. And then I realized that I am now technically a nominee for a prize :O because to be a nominee, I need to attract full marks from my GP.

In Final Year of Medicine in Nottingham, there are 7 prizes available for students and one of them is the Vale of Trent Clinical Governance Prize which is awarded to the "student judged to have written the best report during the year 5 Primary care attachment".

Try and look at this list and guess which of these is the one that I'm actually aiming for :P

I am a nominee! Yeay, alhamdulillah :D For something that I didn't plan for anyway, haha. 

I meant, I did aim to become a nominee in 3rd Year for CFU project but though I didn't become one, my marks were good alhamdulillah. In 4th Year, I aimed to become a nominee for Paediatrics and I succeeded but I failed to meet the requirement to move on to the next stage - obtaining a first class mark overall for the module. (If you didn't know what happened to me, I failed the Knowledge exam last year. So on the last week of this month, I have to face my demons. Okay, that's a bit exaggerated. Maybe just a little demon because it's Paeds..comel, haha). In 5th Year, this is definitely the very last coursework we ever had to do and ever had to submit to turnitin, inshaAllah. Tak nak coursework dah. Lepas ni ada elective report je and benda2 kecik. And what a better way to end it with a nomination? Huhu, again alhamdulillah. Not planning to win it though because after all, it was done in 2-3 days O_o 

I even have a 0% plagiarism level :D

The main point is, no matter what you do, Allah is the one who will award you for your efforts. You can try and spend weeks on your coursework or exams or whatever your endeavour may be, but if He doesn't want to give you the result that you want, then you just won't get them. Because He has a better plan for you. Just like what He did to me in January. But strive you must..because that's our responsibility.

And this excellent ending of my Primary Care attachment; I shall take it as one of my silver linings :)

So Adlan Wafi, let's strive for #RememberNovember so we can get back to focus on Final Year of Medicine...