The Epic of Muzza Wu

I am now half way through medical school. Clinical years thus far has been a very tumultuous start. There have been highs and there have been lows, there also have been so many days I have second guessed my decision to enter medicine and the thought of quitting has come to mind more often than I would like to admit. However, today's post will not be a post to complain, today's post is a reflection and a realisation...and not a good one.       As I get further and further into my clinical years, I have come to realise that it's not that easy to truly empathasize and think as if you are in the patients shoes. It is truly much easiser said than done and even if you think you are empathetic, you may not actually be that empathetic. As an illustration, in medical student one typically has to learn clerkship; to talk to patients to come towards a diagnosis. Well you see, as I talk to patients, my mind is rapidly thinking about what ailment this pateint could be sufferin...

Today I started my first day of a posting I've been vehemently waiting for since the first year of meical school! It was time for paediatrics! First I'll tell you why I love paediatrics so much. Back in my first year, I was privelleged to have been able to do some clinical work in the paediatric department during my respiratory block. It was then I clerked my first asthma case, saw my first cystic fibrosis case, clerked a fever for a toddler from a caretaker. The range of diseases in paediarics was so broad and I was always anicipating what interesting case I'd see the next time I had a clinical day. However, that's not the main reason I love paeds. It was in paeds where I actually thought that I was taking history was to help the patient as a whole. It is absulotuely loveley to clerk history from parents because you can see how much they love thier children when they talk about them, the pain in their eyes as they think about the child's suffering, the flicker of ...

Good whatever-the-time-of-day-it-is-you're-reading-this-post-at, if you've clicked on this post, you're either entering the University of Malaya's medical programme (UMMP-University of Malaya Medical Programme) this September or you're just a curious soul who is wondering what life in medical school at UM is like. Whatever you're reason, I'd like to thank you for giving my blog a read and I hope that I can help you accomplish whatever it is you've come here to do. Briefly, my name is M***** and as of me writing this post, I'm currently a first year medical student at the University of Malaya. I vividly remember the months before entering my degree life when I would scour the internet for blog posts on what life in UM as a medical student would be like to no avail. Most of the posts out there are about Minggu Haluan Siswa, MHS ( which I also made a post on, so feel free to check that out) . Thus, I'd like to share a little bit about how life at ...

          Every time I feel like I want to restart this blog, I always never maintain it but after becoming an avid reader of this one medical doctor's blog (I'll link him below), I want to blog about my experiences through medical school. So today's post will be about how I'm preparing for my final examinations ,or as we here doing medicine at UM call it Barrier Examination (BA).            Briefly, my BA is basically a week of 5 examinations which are PSST (Pathology Summative Spot Test), ASST (Anatomy Summative Spot Test), OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Examinations) and my two written BA papers. To know more about my individual examinations do read my upcoming post about the structure of UM's medical programme. Basically, I've been given a 3 week study week to somehow swallow all the things I learnt in my first year of medical school which contrary to most medical schools also include clinical and imaging lectur...

Greeting reader, You're probably here today because you (like me), have been accepted into the University of Malaya for your undergraduate studies. This post will be about my experience throughout the orientation week as a "freshie" of the first residential college, Kolej Kediaman Tuanka Abdul Rahman (ASTAR). A little bit about me first, I'm currently taking my Bachelor in Medicine and Bachelor in Surgery (MBBS) at UM and I did my pre-u studies at the University of Malaya (PASUM). Here Again ASTAR is not just a hostel, ASTAR is a home Day 1           So the day finally came. It was time for me to return to my beloved university but this time as an undergrad. I was thrilled to have a gotten a seat in UM's medicine program but wasn't totally thrilled about being placed in the First Residential College, KK1 (AT FIRST ONLY, later sumpah I thought KK1 was the best college). I came to KK1 with my dad and friend to register. I really wanted to share a ...

He stood there, water cascading down his face. Was it from the shower head or was it from his blood-shot eyes? As he heard the water droplets hit the floor, he is reminded of the undesirable curves that the water trickles down. A body which would be perfect, for a female. His much to large chest is a reminder of the sin of gluttony he is so guilty of. His arms are large but not in muscle but fat. The mountain on his lower torso which only grows in layers as he advances in age. The hair which grows everywhere is as dark as the thoughts he has when he tries to imagine his own image as “beautiful”. Worse still, he is constantly reminded of his scars inside by the scars on his face. Not a smooth surface but one torn from all the pain he’s been through throughout his short life. Some may say that he’s not half bad but he can’t accept that. He was born with the mindset of wanting nothing but perfection. Some say that he already has everything but when he looks in the mirror every...

Introduction Today's post is going to be about PASUM, my experience through it and how the program is structured (at least how it was during my time). A little bit about me before we begin. My name is Muzza and I was a PASUM (Pusat Asasi Sains Universiti Malaya) student of the year 2017/2018. Initially I had never intended to enrol in PASUM (I actually changed my mind the week before PASUM began) because I had never heard of the program nor really been interested in it. However after considering the prestige of the University of Malaya, I opted to give it a shot for a year. I enrolled in PASUM (taking Life Sciences) in 2017 under JPA's Program Penajaan 9A+ scholarship. A word of warning, if you really want to get into PASUM, study hard. Apparently it's quite competitive and a very popular program. They also don't take too many students in comparison to other public university foundations. And so the journey begins.  Academics So PASUM or sometimes referred...