Exam starts in 30 minutes! Here we go!
There are very few days left for me as a medical student. I have an all encompassing exam on Saturday and that is it.
This is on the way home from the hospital, and I always love coming around the corner and seeing the sun set over these hills. The view is not to last however, there is a construction site hiding in the glare.
For a guy who really uses a computer a lot… I went without a one for a long time… back in the beginning of September my laptop decided to pack it in. Because I was a too busy to actually figure out what the problem was, and didn’t want to risk sending it away to anyone, I held on to it. My brother in law was kind enough to lend me his to get me through the OSCE on September 10, and then I was moving towards going back to Aus before I knew it. When I got here, I found out what the troubles were and I found a place that can do the fix. After sending it in, in blind faith, I got a call that everything was back up and working well. So we’ll have to see how it holds up, since the shop told me sometimes the fix doesn’t stay. Anyways, it’s good to have it back.
This is one of the local beaches… About five minutes from my house, about a kilometre away. I can hear the waves crashing at night.
This is about 20 minutes from my house, a pretty famous local spot.
There is lots different around here, on the website and in my life, but from what is written down it is hard to tell. I haven’t been writing here for a few reasons, some described below, some not. For the first time since having this site, I completed an update of the underlying software. It was something I was basically scared to do because everything was working and I didn’t want to lose it all and then be in a big mess. But, developments are underfoot that have finally necessitated an upgrade. The previous version had been released October 26, 2007… that’s even before I was accepted at UQ! It seems as though the database came up alright and everything went off without a problem… there was nothing to be afraid of I guess. I had read some nightmares of everything disappearing, which they maybe fixed the problems since then.
But that’s not all that is different. I now have a job to look forward to at the end of my second post secondary degree. The last time I graduated I had no idea what I would be doing. This time, I know the time, date and place that I will begin work. Contract signed. It is a very good feeling to have some future security. My application to Alberta went well, but I needed to make a decision about which way to go. After a massive amount of consideration I have decided to undertake internship in Australia. It is a one year commitment that essentially completes my degree with a year of paid hospital work. After which I will achieve ‘general registration’ which will allow me to work as a doctor in Australia in a broader sense.
I do have my second thoughts about Alberta, especially as the process is about to go into the next phase on Saturday, but I couldn’t keep straddling the fence forever, and to continue to straddle would mean thousands of dollars spent flying back and forth across the world and missing time from my program here, in the final run. Let’s hope I have done the right thing!
So for a lot of reasons, I have stopped posting here. But I have come to conclude that I don’t like that I have stopped. The reasons I slowed down and then stopped ranged everything from being afraid of giving away too many patient details to simple tiredness to stress and to habit. I stopped being in the habit of posting and that changed things. Now, when I look back since April 1, so much has happened, without it getting recorded here. And in retrospect, I think that’s a bit of a shame. I have been to many international cities, written important exams, delivered more babies, and been at some pretty lifechanging events. My brother got married (Congrats Mike and Alicia), and I am now doing my elective term at a hospital here in Edmonton, Alberta… in Canada. I had half-written a post when I got back from Melbourne in May:
Melbourne.Back from Melbourne, more than a week now. It has been so long since I have updated here and I’m really sorry. Sorry that I missed the chance to record a pretty neat time in my life. Over the last two months, I have delivered babies, done surgery, studied and travelled to a new city. And it all slipped by undetected by this website.
A lot of my absence can be explained by my MCCEE exam bearing down on me, and more recently, the Obstetric and Gynaecology final also stressing me out to the point that whenever I feel like sitting down to the computer in a mood to do something, that something should be study instead of updating here. I’m not sure if it’s counter productive or not, but I’ve been mentally cloistered for some time now. And now I’m free again.
But I was not free really. I wanted to think I was free but I still had to wait for the results, which were pending. It was stressful as it was a competitive based scoring system.
Well… the mum did most the work. I caught a baby today is much more like it. But it was still pretty amazing. To be continued…
Some days are better than others. Sometimes everything feels like it goes your way. This was one of them for me. To be continued…
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