Tribute to my dearest friend

 My dearest friend and colleague, Chiam is leaving us for good, and we were all saddened by the news today. She'll tender immediate resignation to pursue a better future in aesthetics. Wise move indeed. No on-call, no emergency or resuscitation, no heart drop moments in the hospital when patient collapse, no x-file cases to ponder (and make you wish Dr House exists) and most importantly for her: no nonsense from the housemen (as she is in charge of the dreadful HO roster). Aaahhh..What a blissful life and I'm starting to envy her already!

Chiam and Me at Kota Kinabalu for a thalassemia talk

I first met Chiam when I started working in my current hospital 3 years ago after 2 years spent in Terengganu. She worked in UMMC for a year for her intership (sounds more glamourous then housemanship kan :) and was transferred here to bamboo river. With fresh face and no experience in paediatrics, she was forced to perform the work of a medical officer after just 2 weeks of tagging. Just imagine, with limited experience, she was expected to be in charge of neonatal ICU, taking care of the very little delicate premmies to the very severe term babies in shock with persistent pulmonary hypertension (life threatening condition that is). She supposed to learn to intubate, resuscitate the newborns, obtain IV access (which can be difficult) etc... and goodness me, she sure learnt fast! I could still recall teaching her to set long line (please bear with my medical jargons) and hats off to her, nowadays, she has master the skill wayyy better than my shaky old hands :(

One of the trips we had

I love Chiam for being expressive and a drama queen. She gets easily excited, tells stories animatedly and a jovial person. She is also one of those I know who is sensitive and can shed tears in matter of seconds whenever she was upset or even angry. Housemen are surely scared of her as she can screw them like h*** for the mistakes that they did. But then again, she can just tegur and said hi to the same screwed houseman whom she bumped into along the corridor.

Girls weekend getaway..

She's definitely is my accomplice and BFF in the Hospital to the extent that HOD thought there was some click problem in the department. My other boss called us the M (am) sisters (Chiam and Maryam, gottit?). She help me with my work, I also help her and we go back on time together gether. We almost always end up doing the same rotation (me and Chiam in Clinic, then NICU, after that she went to general ward, I'm again down in clinic then we ended up in NICU back together again). 


We also gossip, carpooled (at one point in time when she stayed in Shah Alam before moving back to Ampang), share our love for digestive biscuits and coffee (then she converted to tea and I still stick to coffee), go out for our cherished Friday lunches, attend courses together (even stay in the same hotel room). I'll definitely miss hearing her calling me Mary!!! Lets go makan! or Mary!! I have something to tell you! She is eveything to me and I think I'll be affected the most once she leaves us.. sob..sob


Did I tell you that she is MSG addict? Yes, Chiam and junk food / instant noodle go hand in hand. She'll shop for bags full of potato chips, kerepeks (chocolate included) and the main supplier of this kind of food for our on-call room. Sigh.. who will provide us with all the stress reliever munchies after this??? 


Chiam, I love you for who you are. You are my dearest friend and you'll be surely missed. I'm sure you'll make tons of money in private practice, upgrade your free Perinatal Congress green bagpack to an LV, you white Vios car to an Audi, but please remember me and slot on your busy schedule for a lunch date with me & Za whenever you are free.

Good luck in your new endeavour, dear!!! I hope you'll be happy there..