Last weekend in Boston

Last boston weekend

Now i'm in New Haven..i'm missing Boston sooo much! All the memories of vanderbilt hall, longwood medical area, the tube, newbury street and of course, MGH..will be etched in my memory forever!

But it was a fabulous weekend to end off my stay in Boston! Nic came down from Yale, New Haven..and we had a sumptious dim sum lunch at Chau Chow in Chinatown. (Chinese food never tasted soo good!)
Nic, mark, doug (nic's cousin), steph @ chau chow

Nic really brought good weather with him! Boston turned all summery and pretty this weekend.. We had a nice walk across Boston common..where we saw people lazing by the greens, taking a ride in boats on the lake, and the animals werwe out and about too! Many squirrels scampered across our paths, and we saw a really adorable sight of a mother duck and her nest of ducklings! Aawwww...

Douglas, Mark, Nic & i had a really nice afternoon strolling along newbury street. Everyone was in their pretty summer frocks & laid back casuals and the al fresco cafes were all abuzz with people chilling over cappucinos and iced teas. The weather was also perfect for Ben & Jerry's ice cream..and the streets were filled with people licking their ice creams in sheer contentment.

Before dinner, we popped by Fenway Park for some phototaking. Vanderbilt hall is actually really near the park and Mark and I have been saying we must visit the stadium for a red sox game before we leave..but that never materialized. Well, next time I come to Boston i better catch a game! Fenway Park is the home of the Boston Red Sox, and resounds with the echoes of great baseball players: Cy Young, Babe Ruth, Jimmy Collins to name a few.

Dinner was another yummy affair. Met Joanna and other Sinagporean harvard students at Kaya, a famous japanese-korean dining place. It was a fantastic meal of BBQed succulent beef slices, beef tongues, kimchi, tofu, UNAGI (yay!!!) and rice.

Yups..anyways..i've had a really unparalled experience in Boston. And just wanna say a big 'Thank you' to all the nice Bostonians and non-Bostonians i've met..You've all made my stay in Boston a truly precious one, and i would not have given it up for anything else in the world!

Of course I can't forget to thank Mark for being a great hallmate! Thanks for helping me with my laundry..for all the conversations over dinners in the Vanderbilt kitchen..weekend breakfasts at Au bon pain or starbucks..Not forgetting that very good al dente pasta with pesto sauce and fresh juicy prawns that you whipped up..Not bad at all for a first try Chef Mark!

Bye MGH..I'm going to miss you!

I can't believe 4 weeks just flew by! What can I say but it has been an incredible experience.. No words can describe the sense of contentment and acheivement i feel in overcoming the steep learning curve, cultural barriers and long hours standing in the OR! Haha.

I'm really inspired by the surgeons here. Their drive for excellence is manifested in their work attitude and aptitude. The hours they work, the sacrifices they make..it's really their passion for surgery that carries them through.

I'm also really thankful to have gotten a great supervisor. I think he's a fantastic surgeon with great dexterity! He's allowed me to close quite a few wounds (subcuticular stitching) by myself till i got quite decent at it. I even got the chance to do some laparoscopic surgery like inserting the trochars into the abdomen and clipping the bile duct laparoscopically!

Anyway, this was a trip where I met many new people, including the other 2 overseas medical students who were in the same general surgery service as me--Yoshua from Mexico and Joe from Taiwan. We didn't really hang out much during the 4 weeks of posting cos we were so busy and we were in different surgical teams. But we finally decided to have dinner together on the second last day of our rotation..after 3 of us had finished presenting for Baker rounds.

It was great! We talked alot..and it was nice to find out i was not alone in feeling sick and tired of waking up at 4am in the morning,walking in the cold boston drizzle, being a little put off by cultural differences and so on..Plus as we exchanged stories about medical school life in our different countries, we realised medical students from everywhere were all stressed and overworked. Haha.

Another girl i met who stays in the same hall as me is Mariko..a really pretty Japanese girl. She's a great cook, always grilling salmon and vegetables and other nice dishes with rice in the kitchen. We always bump into each other in the toilet at night cos we both have the habit of having late night showers..Haha..but it's great talking to her. She's one of the sweetest girls i've ever met!

Another new friend i made is a Singaporean girl doing her masters in Public health in Harvard..Geraldine. She's really nice, and it was Mark who introduced her to me. Thanks geraldine for hanging out with us..it was great fun! And thanks so much too for the purple bedsheets--they made my room feel so much more like home!


It was a great dinner at Cottonwood Cafe..strawberry magaritas..slurp slurp! And yummy Tex-mex food!

The food at Durgin Park, north hall..near quincy market was great too! very boston atmosphere..had their famous chicken pot pie, crab cakes, corn bread and chicken tenders..plus lots of fries!! Also met up with my distant cousins..One's from jakarta--Jovita, and one's from papau new guinea--Marcy. We had great korean steamboat at this cosy restaurant in brookline..The beef slices were so fatty and yummy!

Fabulous Boston Spring!

Play in Boston 2

WHoo..the quote 'Whoever said shopping doesn't bring happiness doesn't know where to shop' is true! Yesterday was a saturday. I was at the hospital by 6am to do rounds cos my intern and resident were on call. We started at 6 and ended at 11! Cos we had to cover other teams as well.. By 10.30, my intern was grumbling that is was starting to feel alot like a medicine round. Haha guess some things cross cultures!

I was quite exhausted by then, and was ecstatic when my resident said to me 'Why don't you do yourself a favour and get out of here?' So I hit newbury street immediately! It's boston's quaint yet exciting street of shops--8 blocks filled with fabulous dining, boutiques and salons. I was happy as lark walking down the street, taking my time to browse through vintage clothing, 2nd hand kate spade bags & dkny dresses, people-watch the al fresco dining at Armani cafe, Stephanie's on Newbury's and Tealuxe, and spent a whole afternoon in Sephora at the nearby Prudential centre--I love the packaging of Philosophy, Too faced, Benefit, Cargo & Stila!

And to end off an already great day, Sabrina's brother and wife invited us to their place at MIT for dinner--Home cooked Hainanese chicken rice! It was Tracy's first time cooking but she did a great job! And it was just so great being in a homely environment eating home-cooked food!

Though we were stuffed, we still had cheesecakes from The Cheesecake Factory for dessert--fresh strawberry cream, godiva, vanilla bean, chocolate peanut butter! I think i've probably tried most of their flavours of cheesecakes already..Tsk tsk!

ANyz Mark's friend Sabrina is a really nice girl and we hit it off quite well. Here's some other pics..
We had dinner at Harvard's square's famous Bartley's burgers, where their burgers are named after presidents! Haha. But the burgers are fantastic..the meat is sooo thick and juicy and amazingly good..It makes the thin beef patties at Macs seem so miserable. And last week we walked an very long distance in the cold boston rain till our shoes & socks were soaked with cold rain water and our faces were beaten cold by the coastal winds just for good seafood. It's called the No name seafood i think..by the pier. We had totally yummy hot clam chowder, garlic bread, fried scallops and shrimps and the best best best boiled lobsters ever!

mark,lydia,tracy,sean,sabrina,steph

cHiLLiNg iN bOsToN

Boston-Play
I have to apologise the photos don't really follow any chronological order.. they're just haphazard memories of mine!!

Vanderbilt Hall..the hall for harvard medical and dental students. It's a nice building..which Mark keeps saying reminds him of Hogwarts. Oh well i would like to think Hogwarts was grander, but the interiors of Vanderbilt are nice and cosy. And i've met some really nice people too! Japanese, Taiwanese, Americans, Singaporeans..it's a cool place!

And my room though small is a cosy little space..I'm always glad to return to it after a long day in the hospital..Especially after i fixed the desk lamp--all by myself!Haha i went through quite alot of trouble getting the extension cord, the lamp, the light bulb..so I'm very proud of it! It gives the room such a warm orangey glow!

With joline and mark at cheesecake factory (prudential)..just one of our several visits there. Well..don't blame us--blame the cheesecakes! Especially the Godiva, lime raspberry, the toblerone and reese's peanut butter cheesecakes! ;>

Another visit to the cheesecake factory (cambridgeside) with Em & Nic who came down to Boston for a few days and some other Singaporeans studying in MIT: Jian Long, Kah Keng and Kah Seng.

With Joanna and her friend.. we were watching a dance concert..felt a tinge of nostalgia when i went backstage and saw all the dancers with their costumes, makeup, dressing tables, flowers..

More photos to come...

Heh i have more time to myself now cos I finally finished my presentation for the Baker talk! It was one of the most stressful events in my life. It's a weekly journal club-cum M&M meeting, and visiting medical students may be arrowed to give a talk..In front of the whole MGH general surgery department, attended by other medical students, interns, residents and attendings.

I spent weeks mulling over my presentation topic. But finally decided on a recent journal article from Annals of Surgery on a randomized control trial comparing partial hepatectomy to Percutaneous local ablative technique for resectable hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC). Doing a pubmed search, I realized there is increasing debate over surgery vs less invasive techniques for many tumors. I chose HCC cos I figured that was one thing I might know better than them (since HCC is quite an uncommon cancer in the US)

Well despite not having much sleep a few nights in a row, and being extremely nervous (I could not stop shivering that morning--both due to the cold and the anxiety), the talk went well! The surgical oncology expert said my talk was very good and the study was a very powerful one. Yay. What made my day was when my supervisor said I did a good job, and the presentation was 'as good as it could get'. When I told him didn't sleep the whole night, he let me off early (4.30pm) But I was in too high a mood to go back early to sleep! So had a feast at cheesecake factory instead!

wOrKiNg iN BoStOn

BOSTON-work (play will come later when i find time to blog again!=P)

It's been 2 weeks in Boston..but it's felt like 2 months or even years. These 2 weeks have certainly been one of the most unforgettable experiences in my life so far.

Not that it was FUN. No way. It was just so intense and demanding, yet so fulfilling and enjoyable. I've always liked working hard believed myself to have quite alot of drive and stamina. But compared to the general surgeons at mass general hospital I realize I a looonnng way to go..

I have always held some fascination and respect for surgery. There was just something about cutting through the skin and layers of fascia that seemed so violable, yet intimate at the same time. Then there were the people who practised this art—the surgeons themselves. These were people who with guts and grit—no pun intended—and seemed to thrive on stress and sleeplessness. Every hour of every day in every place—the operating room, the outpatient clinics, the wards—they made moment-to-moment decisions, about matters of life and death.

They were in the hospital by 6am latest to start rounds, then rush to the Operating room (OR) by 8am and operate till late in the day. After which they will do evening rounds and then head home--if there are no emergency night cases.

These 2 weeks I've been thrown unsuspectingly into this crazy world of theirs. In an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar faces, it really wasn't easy. My first few days were spend feeling cold, tired and sorry for myself. I felt so homesick. It didn't help I was attached to Baker team 5--one of the busiest teams in mass general. And my supervisor was Dr M L, a brilliant and skillful surgeon, but someone quite strict with very high expectations.

I had to wake up latest by 4am so I could reach the hospital for morning rounds. Then I would rush around to get the patient's files and charts. Then I would spend the rest of the day in the OR. These were probably my favourite times. I scrubbed up for all the cases, got to retract, cut, staple, use the GIA stapler, suture and even got to suture a whole incision using subcuticular stitching by myself!Of course my supervisor was watching over me the whole time so I had to keep telling myself 'keep cool steph'..

There really wasn't much time in between operations except to read up on the anatomy of the operation so you could answer the questions the attendings asked. It didn't help that the attendings in my team were all foremost surgeons in their field, having written books and lots of articles on their subjects.

Apart from anatomy questions they also asked things like who Kocher and Cushing were, what they were famous for, history of cancer etc etc. But it was fun. I realised that if I racked my brains hard enough and actually bothered to think, i could actually come up with the answers (though not always correct/complete)

I realised I never bothered to use my head much in Singapore. If a consultant or someone asked a question, I would: straightaway give an answer if i knew, or say whatever first came to my mind without thinking it over, or just shrug and say 'don't know'.. Or they would just give the answers straightaway without giving you the chance to figure it out yourself.

Here they gave you time to think as the surgery went on. And they wouldn't allow the interns or residents to help you. So there I was, finding myself very alone, watching the operation go on, yet racking my brains for answers and trying to remember anything I may have read before. It was stressful but exhilirating and addictive nonetheless.

My supervisor, a senior resident is a very smart, skillful surgeon. He was quite aloof at first but I've gotten to know him a little better. I guess he saw I was eager to learn. He is an intense guy but I like how he dispenses his advice..it's almost poetic! I'm someone who love quotes so I love it when people tell me important pearls of life, and I'll definitely remember them better..

'When I say pick up the skin, you pick up the skin and nothing else. One thing you must learn from this rotation is accuracy. It's very important in surgery, as in many things in life'

'When I move, you move. It's almost like dancing' (I was helping to grasp the skin as he cut the fascia')

'Even something as simple as closing the skin, you must focus. Cos if you do a perfect whipple but the skin gets infected, the patient can go downhill from there' (Can't remember exactly what he said but something to that extent)

Anyway I better go..it's like my only free saturday but I decided to use it to blog before I never get the chance to..(I gotta go for call on a sunday. argh) There's so much more I got to tell but i think it would never end if i carried on...

an eerily pretty night in boston as i walked back to hall one day