Pengenalan

Saya selalu melihat manusia. Itu memang adalah sikap seorang pengarang dan sikap saya sendiri. Melihat bukan usha, tetapi melihat dengan mata hati. Bukan bermaksud terpikat (aduh), tetapi maksudnya menafsir apa sahaja yang tersirat dari perlakuan.

Selalunya, apabila melihat kelebihan manusia saya akan lekas cemburu. Saya tak tahu apa reaksi sahabat sekalian melihat teman-teman yang memperolehi kelebihan berbanding kita. Acap kali pertanyaan berikut timbul: Adilkah Tuhan menjadikan dia lebih dan aku kurang? Kenapa dia hidup senang tak perlu bersusah payah? Kenapa – kenapa dan terus kenapa (bergantung kepada situasi yang akan kita ulas satu per satu di bawah).

Ah, kusut. Manusia memang kerap merungut. Itu memang sikap manusia, yang sukar sekali hendak bersyukur, seperti dalam ayat surah Al-aaraf ayat ke-10:

“Sesungguhnya Kami (Allah) telah menempatkan kamu sekelian di muka bumi dan Kami adakan bagimu di muka bumi (sumber/jalan) penghidupan. (Tetapi) amat sedikitlah kamu bersyukur”.

Jom kita lihat situasi demi situasi. Ini bukanlah semua situasi saya. Mungkin terilham daripada melihat papan tanda di jalan Oxford Road, melihat daun-daun berguguran di Whitwork Park, atau labah-labah kecil di dinding rumah (penulis sangat pelik, abaikan sumber inspirasi ini).
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Vakum Diri Kotor

Hari ini semasa mengemas dan membersihkan rumah, Allah memberikan peringatan dalam bentuk yang tidak disedari. Disebabkan lantai dan karpet rumah yang sedikit berhabuk, maka, penyedut vakum ku ambil dari tempat yang selalunya ia disimpan.

Maka, tengah hari itu puas aku memvakum seluruh rumah kecil dan comel itu dari ruang tamu, bilik hinggalah ke dapur. Setelah hampir 30 minit memvakum rumah, hati terasa puas melihatkan karpet dan lantai yang lebih bersih dan kemas.

Memang menjadi rutin harian untuk ku memvakum seluruh ruang rumah sekurang-kurangnya seminggu sekali bagi memastikan ia sentiasa bersih. Sewaktu ingin meletakkan semula vakum itu ke tempat biasanya, barulah ku sedari rupa-rupanya, tempat vakum itu disimpan sangatlah berhabuk dan baru ku teringat rupanya aku tidak pernah membersihkan ruang itu.

Lalu, aku berdiri sejenak dan bermuhasabah.
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I was rummaging the library in my home until I came across this book:

Its about Ibn Batuta who is famously known for his experience when he was travelling. Though the book is written like reading a children story book, but I pretty much enjoyed being a kid again reading the story.

Want to know what is the story?

Well… Once upon a time,Ibn Batuta was busy preparing for his next travel, so as the day pass, he felt something missing but don’t know why & what is troubling him. Until one day, he notice that his shadow was missing. Imagine in the midday, you have no shadow (no not even when he look under his feet).
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“I brought children into this dark world because it needed the light that only a child can bring. Liz Armbruster”

Paediatrics is always a rotation that I am looking forward to experience since I entered medical school. Maybe because for me, to be interacting with children is exhilarating or simply because I miss my nephews and nieces back home so a chance to meet infants and toddler is just an excuse to alleviate my longing for them.

Hence, as it was scheduled, I have the opportunity to start my Paediatrics Rotation beginning with the Neonatology Week. The only thing I know about neonates before this rotation was literally from the definition that I learned from the Oxford Handbook, which stated that neonates mean the infant in the first 28 days after birth. Other than that, to me, they are so small, fragile and susceptible to infection, respiratory distress, just to name a few.

Interestingly, during my first day of the rotation, I went to the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) ward round and I saw quite a number of premature babies in the ward. I am so surprised at how small they are as compared to a normal term baby. It was amazing how the care of those babies was done meticulously and at how was everything kept septic. I can’t remembered how many times do Prof. R reminded us all about washing our hand and the importance of applying the alcohol gel onto our clean hands thoroughly as we move from one baby to the another. We saw quite a few interesting cases such as a baby who had polyhydramnios(excessive amount of amniotic fluid) and after an X-ray was done, the only thing that was visible on the X-Ray was her stomach. Thus, her attending doctor was suspecting an atresia(a condition in which a body orifice or passage in the body is abnormally closed or absent) in some part of the gastrointestinal tract so he decided that she had to be transferred to Dublin for an expert opinion and an appropriate surgical intervention.

Besides that, I did enjoyed my brief visit to the postnatal ward to observe a demonstration on the neonatal hearing screening test, saw the BCG team do an intradermal injection( I only recently discover that the reason they give the injection intradermally was because they are actually injecting the weakened alive Mycobacterium tuberculosis), attending a breastfeeding class and a baby bathing session.

For some people, all of these might not be so wonderful and some even think “Oh these are just simple things, why bother going? It is so much better for me to go study in the library”. I am not condemning people for everyone has the right to choose what they want to do. All that I am trying to say is that we might not get everything from the text books. For example, it was my first time attending a breastfeeding class because I never thought that breast feeding would be that difficult and awkward, for I thought that mother was created to be a mum so somehow it was natural for them to breastfeed and they must somehow have the intuition programmed in them to do breastfeeding the right way, so why bother attending a class? However, that was not the case. It sounds simple, but it was not that easy. As they said, there is always a first time for everyone. Maybe I came from a different culture and background where breastfeeding has been somehow a tradition to be passed down in a family for generations. It was like a norm for me to see my family members or people around me breastfeeding so it was inculcate indirectly to me that breastfeeding is the best, cheap way of providing the right nutrition and antibody for infants. Like back home, during the confinement period, a first time mum, will always have the luxury of her mother or mother-in-law to take care of her and the baby and one of the lesson and support that you will definitely receive from them is in term of breastfeeding advice. I was affected on how encouraging was the breastfeeding nurse to the mums. She made an interesting analogy about breastfeeding is just like the process that you’ve been through during the learning process of cycling a bike and driving a car. The more practice you make, the better you’ll be doing it. She emphasized to the mums about three key things needed while breastfeeding; perseverance, patience and practice. To me these values are even truly applicable in anything you do in life.

Other than that, I really enjoy this rotation for we were asked more about how did we felt about something and what do we think about certain situation. One thing that I learned from neonatology week is the beauty of reflection because I have read this quote somewhere from Confucius saying that ‘ By three methods we may learn wisdom, First is by reflection, which is the noblest; second is by imitation,which is the easiest and third by experience which is the bitterest.’

Indeed, from my perspective, first step of learning in life is about to reflect other than listening, observing and reading. Therefore, though sometimes deep down inside I questioned myself, what do I learned from reflecting? Almost anyone can do a reflection! It is not even a rocket science! However after an out-patient clinic session with my doctor, it was an eye opener on how reflecting on what you have observed, experienced, heard and thought was actually helping you to  process and internalize what you have been throughout a day! The beauty of reflecting about what you have done during the whole day was even a practice taught by our Prophet, Prophet Muhammad saw, peace be upon him. He said “Whoever among you who is better today than yesterday, He among them are successful; Whoever among you is the same today as yesterday, He is among the losers, Whoever among you is worse today than yesterday, He is among the wretched”.

Hopefully, insyaAllah with the coming 2012 New Year, we will all contemplate on this beautiful piece of Rasulullah saw reminder for us to always be a better person in every single thing we do in life until our last breath on Earth.

Wallahu’alam.

Assalamualaikum wbt.

Seluruh Crew Ataphijau mengucapkan setinggi-tinggi tahniah dan jutaan terima kasih kepada team modul Tahajjud Cinta dan team teknikal Tahajjud Cinta The Fallen untuk kali ini. Tidak lupa juga kepada semua sahabat-sahabat yang hadir memeriahkan Tahajjud Cinta The Fallen yang lalu. Semoga ilmu yang ditimba sedikit sebanyak menjadi bekal untuk mendekatkan diri kita kepada Allah.

Insyaallah, kita jumpa lagi dalam siri Tahajjud Cinta akan datang.