Too many Surgeons... Too many O&G... We need Microbs

It's a fun day. It's definitely a fun Medical Microbiology lab. We finished our gram stain in 10 minutes, and half hour discussing, and we BLAH...

Prof. Ng took us today. I'm not quite sure what his title is, Dr. or Prof., but I guess it's only out of respect I'm addressing him as a Proffesor, because he is one GOOD one. He barged in intimidating us all, showing us how HE does HIS gram stain, and wanted everyone to follow his way of "barbequeing" the bacteria. Now seriously, it was just the way he dried his stain, he just swift over the Bunsen burner, and not what we studied in the manual where we have to put it under a lamp and let it dry naturally.

"In the real world, you won't have any time to let it dry that way. You will be too busy."

But the way he did his work, I guess he's got style. I mean... STYLE! He taught us to do our work near to the burner, for the fact that it's sterile. Now, our manuals didn't even mentioned that. And all this while before, we dumbly snail-speedly smear the bacteria not realizing what we did are actually not done in the so called "sterile" compartment.

Prof. Ng walks around observing how we followed his steps preparing gram stains slides of the microbs to be studied today. He gave us 10 minutes to get all the slides ready, and he said he'll teach us how to use the microscope HIS way. And while he walks around, he BLABLABLA-ed a lot. Not that I don't like it, I actually started to like him more and more as he talked his "crap".

"That's not how I do isn't it? Did you see how I do?"
"No, no, no! Everybody gather around here. And YOU don't move! Everybody, tell me, is his method correct?"

"You did this in STPM right? There's a sterile compartment around the flame. The reason I did this is because I want to do it in a sterile condition."
"Don't BARBEQUE the microbs! Just do it swiftly and softly. You don't want barbequed microbs."

And his "craps" continued into something more realistic.

"Anyone planned to specialise in microbs? NO? Everyone wants to be surgeon. I tell you, there's too many surgeons around. By the time you graduate, surgeons are all over the place. And there's too many OBG as well."

"I was trained during the British era. So, I'm not trained by locals. You are trained under locally trained doctors. So they never know how to do things."

And he kept talking and talking and talking. Until, 15 minutes later, he asked us to gather around a table. We're finally watching how a PROFFESIONAL Medical Microbiologist use his microscope.

"Firstly, push up the condenser, push down the stage. Get the maximum light into the microscope. I'm a lazy man. So I do my oil immersion first. Then, put the slide on the stage, slowly push it up. Slowly until you see a light reflection. See that? D'you see that? Now, use the fine tuner, and walah, I see them already. Okay, first group. Done. Now second group. I'm a lazy man, so I just push it over like this. Yea? Get that? Okay, the third group. There, they're all there. You're third group isn't well done."

Basically, that was his instruction while he taught us how to use the microscope lazily but effectively. It's not 100% the same, I might've trimmed and exaggerate a bit here and there. No shit, but honestly, I have to admit, his lazy working ways WORK! I don't mean to say he's lazy and all, he's the one admitting over and over he's a lazy man. He even said, "Medicine is a relax subject." But, that man honestly got me IMPRESSED. Intimidated I may be at first, but I have to agree he's one hell of a GREAT man! I prepared my slide in 10 minutes, yet I saw all my cocci and coccobacili all so clearly. Holy shit...

Later on, the way he taught tutorial and the way he carried out his discussion, it's awesome too. Everyone in the lab was impressed. Or at least I'm pretty sure same-skinned labmates were. There's something about getting diarrhoea is normal in Malaysia, but it's a big deal in Australia where he was trained, because, "Australian food are very hygienic, but here, you know...". And he put everything we need to know into somethin so brief yet easily understood. It's too bad we won't be getting him again next week, as the lecturers are rotating every week. But then again, I guess it's a good session. Awesome session I must say. No wonder WC told me "if you get Ng, then it's your lucky day. He's GOOD!" HAHA.

Anyway, I'm showing you some agar we had in labs today. I don't know how to do the caption beneath the photos, still trying to learn that skill.

Pic#1: Haemophilus influenzae on MacConkey agar. Imagine if the mucoid colonies appearance is actually GREEN. It's not possible on this agar, it's the selective differential medium, but I'm not sure about the other medium. But really, if it's green, I guess it'll be like.. EEEWWWW

Pic #2 & #3: Salmonella and E.Coli on MacConkey agar. The difference where E.Coli can ferment lactose and appear as pink colonies while Salmonella can't and appear as pale colonies.

So... there you go. It's a good day. :-)