After the chapter level competition held two weeks ago, the branch level competition was held yesterday at the branch HQ in Penang. 75 members from the three chapters in Penang participated. The chapters are Island, North Seberang Perai, and Central and South Seberang Perai. Here are some shots of the action.

Cool Slideshows

The challenge trophy went to the North Seberang Perai chapter this year. Congratulations! (But we’ll take it back next year! ;-))

Eastcoastlife tagged me with this one: “If you had to live on a deserted island for a year, which 5 bloggers would you bring with you and why?”

Wow… if I chose any five bloggers, would they go with me?? That would be assuming too much. Haha. Well, just for argument’s sake that they would go with me, here they are:

Captain Jean-Luc Picard is the Captain of the USS Enterprise. He’s resourceful and witty, always keeping his head (shiny) in all sorts of perilous situations. I wouldn’t be caught in an uninhabited island without him.

Ah Pek is the poetic handyman who doubles as a blogger with a multiple bloginality. He’s someone who’s practical and got some radical views on life and how we live it. Mostly, he asks the questions and leaves us thinking. I first came across Ah Pek thru his stories about an “entrepreneur” who had some not-so-legal dealings in oil tankers. I really don’t know where the stories are now. He’s a fun guy to be marooned with. * Mental note: remember to pack the ohkau.

Added: know what? He’s the only one who’s tagged me with a meme I couldn’t do….. yet.

George is my friend of 15 years. He’d be great companion to have on an island cos:
1. He’s a surgeon and if I’m sick, I’d rather be in the hands of a surgeon. *ahem*
2. He’s a diver. No problem in surviving in “deserted island” environs.
3. He’s a good pal to talk to.

Jimbo is the brainy one (he’s an PHYSICIAN, you see). He’ll solve all the problems that need any thinking on the island. You can count on him to analyse any issue and come up with a good conclusion. Here’s an example of the analytical thinking:

The conclusion was that …. go read.

So, if i’m going to get sick on a deserted island, I’d want a physician’s thoughts. Hehe. (Pheww! Hopefully that avoided a surgical-medical feud).

LB Wong, because it’s his wet wet wet fantasy to get really wet.

And because he’s always asking, “i s a n y o n e O u t t h e r e ?”….. which is helpful ‘cos what do you expect 5 fellows on a desert island to be asking?

All the photos were “borrowed” from their blogs without their permission. OH… come on, if i asked first, it wouldn’t be fun, right? Anyway, I hope they won’t mind.

Now… perhaps the five gentlemen would like to proceed to take up the challenge of naming five bloggers whom they would like to be with in the event of being MAROONED ON AN ISLAND?

We often take for granted the simple act of drinking. Where does the drink go? Here’s a drink of barium, which shows on an X-ray. This is done to diagnose patients with difficulty in swallowing.

However, this patient couldn’t swallow properly, food and drinks get stuck in the throat. See the bulge marked with red? That’s a tumour blocking the smooth passage of food down the oesophagus. So, be happy that you can swallow well.. it’s something that we don’t even think twice about when we drink.

Now, what are the risk factors of oesophageal cancer? Among them are cigarette smoking, gastro-oesophageal reflux and too much of these:

A hard message to swallow but as Mary Poppins says, “A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down.”

Eventually, after drinking, the water goes gets excreted. The majority of the water excretion is done via the urine. A urogram shows the passage of urine from the kidneys at the top to the bladder at the bottom.

Here is the reason that children in Malaysia are getting Hepatitis B vaccination.

A forty-something-year-old man presented with abdominal pain for the previous few weeks. He had history of being a Hepatitis B carrier but was not on a surveillance program. He was not jaundiced. Abdominal examination detected localised tendernass. The CT scan shows a mass in the right lobe of the liver.

“Surveillance” is the serial follow-up of patients who are at high risk of developing further problems. For example, Hepatitis B patients are at high risk of developing liver cancer. All patients with chronic Hepatitis B infection should be on a surveillace program. For those with neither Hepatitis B infection nor immunity, i.e. Hepatitis B surface antibody is negative, get vaccinated.