My time as a hobo in the dorms of UQ is now over. And so is my fourth and final Sports Day, which was yesterday. Sports Day is a day long get together of all the years of medicine, with the fourth years dressing in pink. It was a great day. I am looking forward to having a regular home to live in, back at the coast!
So it is well into February and so much has happened this year that I suppose it’s time to make a post to acknowledge it. My holiday was filled with family and friends, my new nieces, my nephews, and my siblings and their partners. It was so great to be home. Busy, which is funny to think, because everyone else was working, raising kids, generally accomplishing things, while all I had to do was hang out with them. But still, it was a lot of it, and I’m so thankful for the people back home.
After the longest break of my degree, I have returned to Australia. Upon arrival I spent a quick weekend recovering from the travel and time change, and then headed to Brisbane for Ophthalmology at The Royal. I don’t really know why, but despite being stationed in Nambour, I have the first half of this rotation in Brisbane (a 1.5-3 hour drive, depending on traffic). So, I am living at King’s College again. I lived here when I was looking for an apartment in 2009, that’s why some things feel different, and some things feel the same. Same sweaty nights, same mosquitoes waking me up at 4 am. All part of the process I suppose. And when you think about all the things I have sacrificed for this crazy journey, this is just another small piece.
Right now I am on Cardiac surgery at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, which is pretty neat. Yesterday I watched an 11 hour procedure, which involved a double bypass, an ascending aorta graft and an aortic valve replacement. The patient did not breathe, had no pulse, no circulation, no bypass pump, no brain activity… for 80 minutes. To accomplish this, the patient was cooled to 18 degrees C! Then when we were done, they simply reversed everything, and the heart started to beat again and they closed up, and we went home! Crazy.
Anyways, I am going to get to sleep, since I’ve had long days, early starts and short nights lately.
So I’m back; I did in fact make it. I just got really busy and didn’t update. I spent two weeks in Vancouver visiting friends, which was great. I stayed with my sister and brother in law and their TWO kids! I met one of my three new nieces, Audrey, for the first time. She’s amazing. As I write this update now, I have met all my new nieces and love them like crazy already. They are all amazing. And the same age. Like magic-cross-mother triplets that are going to grow up together. The house gets a bit crazy with all the kids around though! I like it.
Vancouver was kinda busy seeing friends, and kinda chill just staying home with the kids, and I love doing both. Canada is so crazy. Beautiful buildings, huge facilities, and retail excess that is really only appreciated when you have been without it for years. I went to a Leonard Cohen concert with a friend on a last minute whim, which was awesome.
I’m in frozen Alberta right now, and have seen a few friends here already. It is so good to be home. Even though by being home I got massively sick and almost made some action shots in our family photo-shoot. Everyone was together for the first time that day, and I felt so terrible. Spent most the day in bed.Since then, I have recovered, got my strength back, hit Red Deer for some culture (Movie with Andy) and back again for some Christmas shopping cheer the next day.
Today I got up early with Dad and went out to Windermere and Invermere to pick up Grandpa and bring him here. We stopped by the cottage where we had so many good times over the years. It has been too long since I have seen it. We’re back now and just taking things easy before dinner. I’ll add some photos here. It’s so crazy how different this place is to where I live downunder.
One hour from now I will have taken off for Auckland! I am changing planes there and coming straight thru to Vancouver. Looking forward to seeing everyone, can’t wait! Except I could wait to leave the warm in exchange for the cold and dark, but it seems I have to take the good with the bad.
See ya soon Canada!
December 1 is touchdown in Canada, headed to Vancouver first, then I’ll head to Alberta for Christmas, then back to Van to catch my return flight! I’m looking forward to everything there, not the least of which is Tim Horton’s… I mean, my new nieces hehe. I’m flying New Zealand, so I guess I’m going to see the youngest country again, twice. Kinda wish I was stopping to cruise around, cause it’s really cool, but I’ll be alone anyway, so it’s just as well that I’m coming home. See you soon!
These are a few weird facts I came across… Not my video, but I liked it. I always love stuff like this. I’m not so certain about how much fact-checking went into this project though. Here‘s where it all started
This rotation is one of the most full on of them all. I suppose it’s still just one step, but it feels like the step has a lot of expectations. But it’s the difficulty that makes me want to work more, and harder at it. I’m loving it, and wishing I could have spent the whole year here. Except I don’t want to give up my other experiences either 
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Some have been good, some have been bad, each one takes me closer.
Well, I have not posted for two months. In some ways, lots has happened. In some ways, very little. I went to Townsville, had a great time. I saw my Mum, and even had coffee with her on my birthday. I passed Psychiatry, which was a huge relief. I think Psychiatry messed with my mind. It left a permanent mark, that’s for sure. I turned 30. That is having lasting effects as well. I have been evaluating my life a lot / too much. This song came on the radio the other day, and it felt like my life story:
My mind is a combination of isolation, stress, disillusionment and boredom. This whole thing really is a weird time in my life. I feel like I have lost a lot of who I am. There are parts in me and my life that are dying. Some parts are dying at the hands of others, some are just withering away. I am paying a huge price to be here, sometimes it feels like I am paying with the actual substance of me. Combine that with other things that are growing in me, and I find I am different. I was something when I showed up that I will never be again. I don’t feel like it is “supposed” to go this way. But that’s another question that drives me nutty. What is it supposed to be like? Why? Part of the reason that I haven’t been posting is that I don’t want this to be full of my internal turmoil. But I’d be lying to everyone and myself to say it wasn’t there. A lot of the things that were going on here are still going on.
My General Practice rotation was great. I remembered why I started medicine in the first place, and worked with a preceptor who did it really well. There are a lot of ways you can “doctor” well, but this guy did it in a way that I really respected and aspire to. It wasn’t that he was just great at diagnostics, or that he was nice, it was that he was both, and took his job seriously and worked at creating an experience for the patient that helped them with their life. He took the craft of being a GP to a higher level. I was happy to absorb from him his style and approach, and would practice his techniques in the role plays that we would do at the end of the week. I spent a ton of time with him, too. We were expected to spend 16h per week at the clinic. I did about 30, sometimes more, per week. Thankfully, he was happy to have me, too. I went to his farm and vaccinated his cows, hung out with his son and had dinner at his house with his friends twice. Next up for me in the rotation department is a rotation actually called Medicine. It will be hospital work, wards and stuff. It’s one of the big ones, the other being Surgery. I feel like it’s going to be a pretty intense learning experience, as the expectations at the end are pretty high.
Right now, I’m sick. Sore throat, viral URTI in my opinion. It’s pouring rain, which is an experience in itself, for lots of reasons. I am on holidays, but have an assignment to do with my group, which is kinda annoying because I simply hate assignments, and it’s destroying my break by making me feel like I should be here doing it, and when I am here, I am feeling like I am trapped in the house. So that pretty much brings us up to date.
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