Odysseys of George

It was an honour when I was asked to host a blogrounds. Grand Rounds is the weekly collection of the best in online medical writing. Each week, a doctor, nurse, patient or healthcare professional hosts Grand Rounds and compiles links to noteworthy posts about medicine.

Well just to inform all my fellow bloggers worldwide, that I will be hosting the Grand Rounds on the 11th December 2007 and submissions are welcomed. Please send your best articles to my email as is on my blog, drgcgeorge[at]gmail[dot]com, with the subject as Grand Rounds.

The deadline for submissions will be on Sunday 9th December 2007 at midnight(GMT+8). Please also give a brief summary of your submission.

Thank you

As I sat in my clinic, another doctor walked in and carefully unfolded a neatly wrapped paper. He then showed me the contents and asked me to guess what it was.

I know it isn’t clear, but care to guess?

“They look like gravel”, I answered. He smiled and said he thought as much. The story…..

This lady was told to have gallstones and decided to seek the aid of a traditional healer. This traditional healer took a lemon and started to rub it on her abdomen. He then cut the lemon and lo and behold, he showed her these stones and told her that it was gallstones!

I guess she was a little bit smarter as she second guessed him and decided to show these stones to us.

What shocked me is how many more people are out there believing such scam! Well, this is how gallstones look like!

or

So, please, traditional medicine is meant to be complementary but not primary treatment. And like what some would say - there are no simple way - no pain, no gain!

This is the 3rd APHS Congress and it was well done. The pre-congress was a workshop with lectures in the morning and hands-on TAPP procedure performed on pigs.

The congress went on the following day with the opening ceremony starting about 12pm. The congress was held at Suntec City, Singapore.

The dances for the opening ceremony was not great but just fine showing the harmony between various races.

Overall, the congress was good and very informative for me. Next year, it would be held in Beijing, China.

Well again and again, we are met with patients who were either wrongly diagnosed as having haemorrhoids or patients who by their own intelligence decided to diagnose themselves as having haemorrhoids.

Not all swellings that arise around the anus equals to haemorrhoids and not all bleeding from the anus is due to haemorrhoids. The pictures below is another example of a case being treated as for haemorrhoids because initially the patient thought that it was haemorrhoids from the stories her friends and neighbours told her. Later as it got bigger and more irritating, she decided to see two doctors, one that took her word for it and just gave medications without much advice and examination. I think the patient was also a little shy to be examined then. The other, examined her but then decided that it would be easier to call it haemorrhoids and treat it first only later referring her to us!

These are actually 3 large pedunculated frond-like growths from the inside of the anus.
Rectal papillomas?.

Well, NUH conducted its first international GIST symposium and I just had to be there to learn the updates on GIST(Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumours). It was an excellent symposium covering the entire aspect of GIST from the molecular levels upto what the future holds for GIST.

It was on the 13th September and thus, I boarded a flight down to Singapore on the 12th September. To my surprise, all the hotels there were fully booked and I managed to get an exclusive room up on the 27th floor! The hotel had a futuristic modern look and I felt like Bond, James Bond.

So, I decided to check out the hotel a little and this is what I have for your viewing pleasure.

My room.

the pool which I indulged myself in later at night!

The M Hotel

The jacuzzi beside the pool

That morning, the 13th we felt the earth move as the eartquake shook Indonesia and the fear of tsunami moved across Asia. The lifts were stopped for almost 20 minutes before they resumed normal activity.

As I took the flight back, I cannot help but to impress upon myself that the airport was filled with activity. It had the crowd, the flair and above all the cozy feeling. The orchids were alive and captivating.

And I sat by the window, seeing the plane take flight I saw the beautiful skies and its city.

I also noted the moon. It was the beginning of Ramadhan, the fasting month for the Muslims. it was the 13th of September. Selamat Berpuasa!

Jaws, the return

STAR 16th September

By Dr ALBERT LIM KOK HOOI

The poor maligned shark in food and medicine
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