David Graff – davidgraff.com Today with Dave, Downunder it's Tuesday, March 19th, 2024 @ 7:32 PM

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Back to Civilisation

Back in Maroochydore!  My final exam was this morning, and I just need to wrap up an assignment, and then I will be free.  The exam was fair and on topic, which is a rarity I have found.  Usually there is some oddity or curve ball that nobody sees coming… maybe there was and we just missed it.  It was a bit of a strange exam, in that there were only three of us writing it at the location here.  Everyone else either wrote it at their home clinical schools or in Brisbane.  We actually wrote the exam in a house that the university owns close to the hospital in Nambour, so that made it a bit more different… it seems like lots of the rotations were examining in the house at different times, so I guess I’ll get used to it!  My phone is back to kinda working, just trying to get data set up on it, my home doesn’t have internet and my room is just a pile of stuff, but it’s good to be home.  I can’t wait to have everything done and be finally free.  Free to set up my bed, so I’m not just on a mattress on the floor.  Free to go grocery shopping and do a bit of laundry.  Free to see if I can drag a fish out of the water nearby.  I’ll have to do some writing about what my Barcaldine experience was like, but now is probably not the best time.  I’ll get on that soon, maybe this weekend.  The sad thing is, I didn’t take any pictures.  I’m rarely good with that and this time seemed to last forever and to fly by all at once. 

Frazzled

With the end of rotation coming up, I am starting to get a little frazzled… There has been a lot happen in the last few weeks, and it has been a trying but good experience.  I am looking forward to completing this whole thing and hopefully doing ok.  I have a few projects that I need to complete that are kinda weighing me down, but the work of the rotation has been good.

I also am getting antsy for being home.  I have been on the road for many months now and just want to have a place of my own.  I had a taste of it a few weeks ago when I moved in, and I think being so close to it has made me less patient with living without it.  Just over a week from now I’m writing my exam and will be in Maroochydore, but right now, I’m in the middle of the state, listening to the bugs and the fans.  There are a lot of both.  My preceptor and I went out for dinner tonight, at 2130h.  After finishing work.  There were bugs everywhere, crawling all over us.  I thought to myself… how can you even describe what it’s like to just have grasshoppers and beetles all over you at a restaurant, and just think it’s normal… cause that’s what it is out here.  Crazy place.  Anyways, time for bed, lots of things to do in a short amount of time coming up.

Alpha, the beginning… of my suturing career

On Thursday and Friday my preceptor and I drive 1.5 hours east to a small town called Alpha, to work at the hospital and clinic there.  We have done so for the last five weeks.  this time however, I sutured a lady’s leg.  The other day I did cut someone, but didn’t need to stitch up.  Anyways, it was pretty great to do something like that to help someone… I am looking forward to seeing the pathology results to see what it was that we ended up removing.  Since the first one I have done a few others, and am looking forward to doing more.

A few good days in a row

The last few days have been pretty good, getting into doing things a little more.  I have admitted a few patients, done a few canulas and even written a referral letter to Rockhampton for a Royal Flying Doctors extraction of a patient.  It feels pretty good to know what goes on enough to do something that is a little bit useful.  Nothing is really difficult, and it’s definitely not anything someone else couldn’t do, but whatever.  This will probably be one of those things that you look back and think, strange that I was excited about such small repetitive items of routine.  Future me will think it’s dumb, but current me thinks it’s cool that things are actually starting.

I cut someone today

For the first time, I put a scalpel to someone’s skin today, and cut them.  It was actually really cool, I did the local, excision and dressing… did everything.  Some people might not think this is a big deal, but there was a time when I thought I shouldn’t do medicine because I couldn’t handle the blood and cutting someone.  After wound care, a surgical observership in first year and seeing quite a few excisions out here, I am happy to charge forward into it.  I think I did a good job too, which is really good.  I don’t think I will have to think back to “that first time”.  I might mess things up in the future for sure, but at least that first cut was straight and smooth.


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