Saturday, September 10, 2005

the whole world is going bongus.

hurricanes and typhoons are creating havoc. it's so devastating watching everything, yet so touched to see the stars rallying together at telephone lines and performing and urging people to donate.

yet another body parts murder... this time filippino maids!! ohmygoodness....

i wanna watch be with me. ok out of point.

anyway moving on to happier things...yesterday's celebrate-the-start-of-recess outing with my dearest tutorial mates was a blast! starting with shopping at factory outlet store at holland v...then XO fish slice bee hoon...and zi char dishes..ate until i almost burst. then was teas+chill out at essential brew. =) nice place to just hang around and talk. had a wonderful time. =) thanks a lot guys.

ohoh i passed up my stem cell assignment and 3 lab reports!! exhilirating...

today spent many hours at boys hostel. it was family day. so the boys brought their families and had a day of fun, games and talent-time and food! we decorated the place...had lunch...helped set up colouring-competition and judge it. then had high tea buffet which was good! from elsie's kitchen. then we watched the talent-time where the boys performed...it was good! and real heart-warming to see them here doing things like these rather than outside joining gangs and rioting.

then went to church for a YAG mooncake festival special fellowship. missed the worship. made it just in time for the mooncake-making masterclass. ha~ it's so interesting! and we all broke into groups and DIY! so nice. me and edwin did it for our group. not bad. it looked decent. haha~ actually its really quite easy to make. then we ajourned to the rooftop for dinner. so nice!! it was windy and the view was nice and the place was decorated with lanterns with a paper hanging from it. on it was a riddle which we were supposed to guess. my team, blue team won! haha~ i managed to solve some. dinner was yummy. it was potluck with food from everywhere. had a wonderful time fellowshipping.

i'm so tired from this week. so so tired. apart from usual school stress and all...with relationship woes (which are getting resolved..thankfully..)...it's a long long week. thankful for this break.

just watch house. i think its the best medical dramedy ever! it's both so heart-wrenching but yet so funny. this episode deals with a mysterious disease that hit 2 babies and subsequently spread to 4 other infants (who were showing mild symptoms) in the hospital. they took a bacterial infection approach and placed them on 2 of their strongest antibiotics. then their kidneys started to fail as a side effect from one of the drugs. so they had to take one drug off. but it may kill them if that drug was the one that was fighting the disease. so how to choose? dr. house had no choice but to take one each off each of the 2 babies. risk one baby to save 5 others. it was a tough choice. how could u condemn one baby to death? but as a doctor...i guess you have to do what's best for all involved.

then one of the babies died....so they increased dosage for the other working antibiotic in the rest. after autopsy of the dead infant dr. house discovered a severely damaged heart and led to cardiac tissue damage and subsequently heart failure. then the other babies were not responding to the antibiotic! oh nooo...

then they realised it was a viral infection!! ohmygoodness...then they started to brainstorm for virus that are confirmed not and the "maybes" judging on symptoms and the autopsy results. then narrowed it down to 3 viruses which were isolated in the blood of the infected infants. but only one virus is killed the first one cos she didn't have the antibodies from the mother. ('cos antibodies are passed from mother to infant during pregnancy). so they tested the blood of the mother and found antibodies for only 2 of the viruses. the culprit was echo 11 virus. which lodges in the intestines of adults and causes diarrhea etc. but like all viruses, it can be fought by your own immune system generating its own antibodies. (that's why when u have the inFLUenza virus, you shouldn't be taking antibiotics! antibiotics are only for bacterial infections.) but infants do not have a developed immune system. that's why it was so lethal, it killed the baby.

ok anyway i wouldn't have understood if not for my microbiology lectures. so there. relevant ok my studies.

but i like it alot! =) the show i mean. anyway word of caution which was mentioned in the show and by my microbio prof...

do not take antibiotics when you don't need them!! some doctors just prescribe you antibiotics because they couldn't isolate your problem. so they think antibiotics will do the trick. but in fact....your body may build up resistance towards these antibiotics! so the next time u really need them, it wouldn't work anymore.

so scary. u know how tiny viruses are? and yet they kill so lethally...just look at HIV..we still can't win.

sigh.

This girl posted at 10:35 PM