This time tomorrow I will be on a plane pointed North. And East. To Canada! I am going to see my brother graduate from UBC Medicine. It’s going to be great, but between now and then I need to write my surgery exam, which isn’t going to be easy.
When I was up in Townsville a few weeks ago, I learned something very funny about my little nephew. Whenever there is music on and nobody is looking, he will often start to dance around. Sometimes he’ll let you watch, but he’ll usually stop when he knows someone is looking. I captured this groove one day when we were driving around. It kinda looks like he’s just bouncing around in the car, but if you watch you can see that it’s actually very intentional.
Well it’s been a long time since I’ve updated here, leaving people wondering where I am and what I’m up to. And pondering my spelling. I have been fairly busy trying to get my apartment together, getting a vehicle and even seeing my family up in FNQ.
I got back from the bush and had to study for a final and then had a few days off, and then got to jet to Townsville to see Jenn, James and Eli. There are a few pics of us, on Magnetic Island, just off the coast of Townsville.
Eli is a funny little guy, always ready to smile, and he’s starting to be much more intentional about his interaction with people. He used to smile like he couldn’t help holding back, and now when he smiles he really looks happy. Another time that he looks totally happy is when he’s groovin to the music. I took a short video of him in the car and will try upload it here in a bit.
Jenn and James took me all over, showed me the university and the hospital up there (I asked to see that, I don’t think it’s on the typical tourist timetable).
Since getting back I was swamped with getting into Surgery. This rotation started out really intense, in that we were there for every morning meeting and were assigned to a team and followed the interns or registrars everywhere. There was two weeks of orthopaedics at the beginning and now I have had a few weeks of general surgery, which is a bit more “go see what you’d like and not what you don’t, just make sure you study.”
In the meantime as well, I have finally bought a truck, which has proved to be a bit of a headache already. I brought it home, so proud, only to have it fail to start on the very first time I stopped it. It turns out there was a loose wire in the starter motor. I did not know what was going on, but was fortunate enough to have an old housemate of mine, Steve, visiting from Langley. He was able to be my starter motor, push style, for about a week. Then on the weekend I picked up some wrenches and pulled the starter. The fault was clear by that point, so I fixed it and re-installed it. It’s starting beautifully now. I just have a few issues with the fuel pump. I hope I can work those out too. Here you can see my repair:
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Steve was here for three weeks and we were able to go to a footy game together, see a bit of the area and chill and hang out like old times. Sometimes it seems as though neither of us has changed a bit.
I also bought a used bbq I found online, and was able to pick up, with my (trusty?) truck. I’m pretty excited about it, and have basically lived off it in the last two days. I want to get a few plants and make the apartment feel a little more like home. Plus study. A bunch. I have an exam in three weeks and it’s no small thing. Hopefully I survive, all I have to do is read and memorize a textbook…
I’ll try grab some photos of the truck, I never think to do it. Plus I’ll try show you where I’m living when I get my act together. Hopefully it’s soon!
While I’m in the picture mood I might as well throw in a pretty cool sunrise from a few days ago:
So it has been many months now since I have had a proper internet connection. I have been wandering the desert for 40 days… among other things. But as of a few days ago I am back online with a proper internet connection at home.
I have had a lot happen that I haven’t been able to record, which is a bit sad, but I will try recap it a little bit… except not right now cause I’m supposed to be studying. Other than internet at home, my big steps forward also include the purchase of a vehicle, and I have heard from my cell carrier that they intend to activate a data plan for me, which they have been refusing to do. They say it will take a week… As long as it happens I will be happy.
I am trying to use the internet… except it is really slow… dial up speed. We have internet on one of Shaun’s phones, sometimes.
PS… this is an old post from when the internet was too slow to even bother finishing it!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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