Just to put a marker on the day, today is the day that we undertake the first actual procedures on people we don’t know. Up till now we have practiced on each other. When we have been involved with patients, it was more a case of observing their pathology post diagnosis, and nothing remotely invasive. Soon, this won’t seem like an event at all, but right now, I feel like I crossed a bridge today.
A half world away, lives most of the ~100 people with whom I graduated high school. Except one of them lives here. I met her, randomly, at the gym tonight. It was good to see someone from so far back in my past. So far back that when I think about that time I feel like it (I) was a different person living then. At the same time, she was not surprised at all to hear that I was studying medicine, or the course of life I have taken. It goes well with the feeling that I am being more true to who I am now than ever before. Having someone else recognize that after all this time and distance was really great.
Petrol as they like to call it here. On July 1, there was a removal of a government subsidy on gasoline in Australia. A move made to try save money on their budgets. It resulted in a ~20 cent jump in gas prices. Sensing opportunity in the new-found perceived preciousness of petrol, the big grocery stores are running promotions that offer 40 cents per litre off fuel. This has hit the headline news, because you only get the offer if you buy $300 worth of groceries at once. The media is kinda in a stink about it because the offers are a little deceptive, and it’s not worth it to buy that much food to try claim the petrol discount if you don’t really want the food. Then, the grocery store combines the offer with less sale prices on their items, making their profits higher when people go searching to fill out the minimum purchase. The two big grocery stores are working hard to control the whole market here and it’s getting attention because they do abuse their near oligopoly from time to time. They do things like advertise specials and then don’t honour them at the checkout or just double the price and advertise it as a special when you buy two.
Most of this is just background capitalism to me, except that I do end up paying more for regular groceries here than I do at home. Sometimes I wonder if it is just that Australia doesn’t benefit from the closeness of America, and their demand for cheap food. Nevertheless, this is the way it is here.
But one reporter raised a good point that started me thinking about all this. The grocery stores are not charities. The fuel discount is not something they feel they owe the people that have supported them to these heights of capitalistic success. They will simply take back the funds through higher prices or less discounts. More tricks to increase the ARPU. And one of those U’s is me.
Recently I started getting the Canadian Medical Association Journal. It is striking to see the amount and directness of the pharmaceutical ads in there. I suppose I don’t really want them to mess around with weird messages anyway. Indication and efficacy is good enough for me. And it’s pretty handy to start getting exposed to the trade names and full names and doses of things. Maybe I’ll learn something by osmosis. I received the whole year of back issues so I will flick through them. Seeing them here reminded me of a fixture of my childhood memories, a stack of water soaked journals. I think it will be good to get me up to speed, keep me in touch with the Canadian medical climate and hopefully make me better at what I’m tryi to do.
After a long time away I’m back to it. Both here and elsewhere. The last month has been full of studying, feeling helpless and going nowhere, exam writing, time off, trying to rest and trying to make sense of it all. The exam was a gong show, with almost everyone doing poorly. I did hear a rumour of someone getting a grade in the 80s but it has yet to be confirmed. My colleagues around me were surprised when the person mentioned that “they knew someone” who scored like that. That gives you an idea of how the class did.
While studying I didn’t feel like writing much, as each day seemed the same for so long. Then I kinda dropped off the habit and here we are! I am back into class now, even tho the rest of the students at UQ are now on break. It’s great, cause like in January, we have the campus nearly to ourselves. We are doing the nervous system these weeks, which are pretty packed sessions. I’m glad we didn’t have a long break like last time, as it was very hard to get back into it after being away.
This is my 500th day in Medicine. It feels like every other day, except that it’s noon and I haven’t left the house. I got out of bed, put on a hoodie, made a coffee, and sat down to my desk.
My life is exciting. That’s why I’ve been writing so much about it lately.
Ever notice that, in any group of students, of those who have their laptops out in class, at least 90 percent of them are Macs? Even tho they make up 10 percent of the computer market, they are absolutely dominating it when it comes to showing off.
Compared to most people, I have a rather complicated, if not sophisticated phone system. I won’t go into all the details now, except to say that one of the features is time based control of my calls. If you are calling me from Canada at 5 am my time, your call usually goes straight to voicemail. This is designed so people don’t have to worry about time when they call, but also to stop callers that don’t know from waking me up.
Just recently, there was a 5 day window where that system wasn’t working, and calls were put straight through (I knew about it, but needed to have it that way to make the calls work). After months of the system diligently blocking nobody, three callers decided to jump through the temporary loophole to wake me up. Two of them were related to the recent election in BC, but they don’t know me, so it’s tough to blame. One was from a person who clearly knew I was in Australia, and needed my credit card number for a medical journal subscription. So she rang me up at 3:30 am! Anyway, phone is back in order and that can’t happen any more! Helps me sleep a little better. And no, I don’t need a ride to the polling station.
So… Feel free to call anytime. If you don’t know what time it is here, don’t worry about it, you can’t call at a bad time.
My Monday morning lecture on gastric pathology is a bit of a comedic scene. There are people in here wearing jackets, with the hoods up! There is even a guy wearing wool gloves. Where did he get them from I wonder? Anyways, it is so cold it here I am almost shivering. I guess I’ll have to go outside to warm up.
There are tiny ants here. Everywhere. They can, and do get through the screen door. They walk all over my kitchen counter, my desk and my bed. I have given up trying to kill them all. I think that’s impossible. They were here last year, and then they went away. I’m assuming they will again. It’s to the point that they come and go as they please, even from under my shorts and shirt. You get to choose between fighting them and your own sanity.
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