Monday 23/10/06 0330hrs
“ala canggung, ala canggung la la la le la le” that was the alarm went off from my mobile phone that woke me up from my deep sleep. Urghhh! At this hour I would give up everything I’ve own just to keep myself in bed. I had to get up though, in 4 hours I had to be in Navan. I was cursing myself while heading towards the shower, thank god that I packed everything last night before going to bed. Got ready and had a bowl of crunchy nut cereal and a cup of coffee I finally made my way out to the car. I had a small thermos mug filled with Guatemalan Antigua coffee which beans I bought from starbuck’s at Cork airport a few days before ramadhan. This particular coffee behaves like a stimulant drug to me, I get all hyper and jittery which means in my case I get manic when I drink it, just what I need to keep me awake throughout the trip, gotta drink it before fasting starts though. I left my house at 0500 hrs, thinking hmm 3 hours that should be enough to get to the destination on time.
Monday 23/10/06 0630hrs
Traffic was pretty much bumper to bumper on this Naas-Dublin motorway at this hour. “ what the hell is going on?! It almost 7 o’clock for god’s sake!” I stuck in traffic, the sun wasn’t even rise yet and at least 40 km away from Navan and that how far it was from M50 motorway after the tollbooth. I was maybe 5-6 km away from M50 at the time and hardly moved an inch in the last 10 minutes. I started to get a bit irritable. Anxious that I was going to be late and anxious that my car would go overheated. Yes my car had been a bit strange in this past months, meant to get it checked out but for unknown reasons I never did, hmmmm, well the thing is if I stop for maybe 10 minutes with the engine running, the temperature scale hand would soar up to the highest point you know the reddest part of the scale. The “STOP” sign will light up and keep blinking like mad that every single time it happens I swear I could see the bonnet explodes and my life starts flashing before my eyes. Talking about being dramatic. I got really restless at this point the temperature hand just about to reach the forbidden zone. I prayed and kept on praying, the last thing I need was my car stall in this traffic jam. My scrub smelled like coffee I spilled earlier. The lid of that stupid mug wasn’t securely fit and most of the hot coffee ended up on my lap instead of my mouth. Damn! I knew it at that moment the next 24 hours of my life gonna be hell.
God knew how relief I was when I crossed the tollbooth in one piece and sped up to N3 route to Navan. I looked at the clock it was 10 minutes to 8 am. I was already late.
Monday 23/10/06 0810hrs
I guess I was about 15 km away from Navan when the traffic came to a halt, again?! This road should be empty at this hour as very few people were suppose to go inbound to Navan, it should be the other way around. What a luck! Turned out that there was an accident up ahead, shit! That would definitely go to my hospital and I was the surgical on-call, basically that was for me and I better get my ass over there before them.
I got to the hospital a little after 8:30 and headed straight to the dayward, thank god I wasn’t the only one who was late. So I carried on working as usual.
Monday 23/10/06 1115 hrs
My bleep went off and it was casualty, great! It started already. Rule of thumb if you were on-call and casualty started ringing you before 12 pm, you might as well just move in to casualty as you basically looking at a very long day and night. I never wrong at this. So yeah that road traffic accident (RTA) I told you guys earlier made it to the hospital. Surprisingly she was okay, oh yes it was a young woman in the car by herself thankfully, just a broken wrist a couple of cuts and graze here and there. She was so lucky, so I thought. I examined her, something not quite right with her tummy, managed to get an urgent ultrasound. She went straight to CT from ultrasound room, my suspicious was confirmed that she had liver laceration with intraperitoneal bleeding but she was stable. I knew it we had to transfer her to a bigger and better hospital with liver unit and I had to go with her. At that stage I had 3 people admitted already and time just turned 3 pm. It was a terrible day in general, the weather sucked and medical team had 3 heart attacks already when I got to A&E and again it wasn’t even 12 pm.
Monday 23/10/06 1900 hrs
After a quick drink and snack for fast breaking, I jumped on the back of the ambulance with the liver lady. We’re heading for a hospital in Dublin. It was quite a long ride considering all the sirens and the lights were on, we managed to get there despite a little lost along the way as none of the accompanying people been to this part of the hospital ironically and transferred the patient in one piece, phew! What a relief. We headed back to Navan. I hate ambulance ride, anti-emetic I took right before we left worked wonder otherwise I would be on the stretcher instead of the patient. We got back at about almost 11 pm. Went up to the wards did some jobs and finally lay down on the bed at about 1 am, only then I just realized it was eid.
I recited takbir, the touching and moving malaysian’s way of reciting takbir, not aloud just to myself, at that particular time I wish I was at home. I know I told some of my friends before that I didn’t really feel anything or anxious at all for the eid but at that moment how I wish I was with someone or some people at least I’m close to if it weren’t my family. Okay in another word I feel a bit lonely and kinda sad. Then I spent the whole night okay not the whole night but most of the night replying text messaging to everyone particularly those in Malaysia. I called my parents and god, it was good to hear their voices. I felt much better, much and much better!
Tuesday 24/10/06 0400hrs
I came down to casualty again, a couple more patients to see, I probably was asleep for about 30 minutes when the bleep went off, damn you bleep! As I was talking to one of the patients, my phone rang and it was my brother in his cheerful and happy voice wishing happy eid, actually he needed my grandmother’s house phone number, that cheeky lad. Luckily I was awake what if I was asleep? Sure I would get really cranky and give out to him regardless it was raya or not, the thing is I could never bring myself to that angry, cranky person and my brothers and sisters know it, that’s why it has been going on for as long as I’ve been here and will keep on happening I tell you, not that I never mention to them, they just don’t care I guess. I love them very much and that gives me the strength to put up with them.
Tuesday 24/10/06 0730hrs
I got up after a little snooze, I felt a little fresh and went to the shower. Prayed fajr and about 8 am I did my own eid prayer, I know I wouldn’t get a chance to do it as we had theatre today. It was such a long day and I was dying to get out of here, not that I got somewhere else to be but I just wanted to go to sleep. I left at last at 6:30 that evening, after a ward round that I came along half-heartedly. Checked in at the B&B and the rest the of the evening was a blur to me. Next thing I knew I woke up in my work clothes in the middle of the night and when I looked at my watch it was 3 am Wednesday morning. I went back to bed and just before that I wish myself “Selamat Hari Raya!”
