Yes, I am alive

I haven’t updated this blog for a while.  I have been quite busy lately; however, there are some posts I want to write so stay tuned.

By the way, a few weeks ago I wrote a post about conscientous objection.  I was going to write a follow up, but atm I am sooo over ethics so don’t hold your breath waiting for it…

No Optus

On Tuesday an Optus power cable was accidently cut and caused huge problems for their customers in South-East QLD and Northern NSW.  Being with another carrier, I would be inclined to laugh mockingly at the unfortunates… I would, but I drowned my phone last week.  Unlike humans, CPR is (unfortunately) not an option for mobile phones.

Still, in a way I remained unaffected by the events of the other day.

And I dislike…

Time zones.  Le tour de France, Wimbledon, the Ashes etc etc.  All designed to make me as tired as possible for work/uni/whatever the day after.

Medical shows on the ABC

As an addendum to this post, I should also point out that Rear Vision on Radio National this week is on the history of medicine.  Also, on Catalyst at the moment they are running a British series about the human body.  It’s really infotainment, but I still find it interesting and have learnt some things I didn’t know.

Lessons Learned

After completing a whole 1/8th of the degree, I thought I might make a few points about how my perceptions have changed this year.

A selective approach to lecture attendance:

In my science degree, my lecture attendance was close to 100%.  However, it turns out that in medicine lectures are often irrelevant, cover topics I already know, vary little from the lecture notes or don’t give anywhere near enough detail.  Also, the lecture they continue to schedule for Wednesday at 8am on an otherwise empty day is just not tempting enough to drag me from my bed.  Basically, I now glance over lectures beforehand and decide either yes (rarely) or no (more commonly).  Not that I want to denigrate the effort the lecturers put into their work, but I do have to ration my time wisely.

Getting over the awkward touchy part of clinical skills

Yes, some organs are not in convenient positions.  That’s life.  My first attempts at clinical exams were a bit nervous and awkward, but I now try to approach the “patient” with confidence, sensitivity and tact so that I can just get the job done.  Of course, I am more talking about fellow students, friends and family members here (I haven’t seen too many patients yet), but I think I should still be able to translate it across.

It is possible to have a life

So far the workload has not been as heavy as I thought it would be.  There is still a fair amount of work to get through each week, and it would be very easy to fall behind, but that doesn’t need to stop one from going out or playing sport or working a bit (or blogging occasionally…).  Okay, I haven’t been able to fit in the Spanish lessons I wanted to do, but it’s certainly not as bad as I thought it would be.

Being organised

Knowing what work needs to get done each day, each week and trying to get it done.  Motivating yourself to actually do the work.  Figuring out an effective study plan and sticking to it.  These are the kinds of things that one needs to get on top of  early in order to cover everything that needs to be covered.  Not necessarily hard, but it does take persistence.

PBL can be fun

I’d heard bad things about PBL before I started, and maybe it’s just the group I have, but if you can add a bit of colour and humour to the process it does make it seem to make it so much less painful.  This might also depend on the tutor - mine have been fairly good.  In fact, even my comparison of the functions of mucous (protection and lubrication) to condoms, the cilia to “ribbing” and my description of the different types of mucous as “different flavours” didn’t cause them to bat an eyelid (well, okay, maybe one eyelid).

We are nerds

We try to hide it, we try to deny, but there it just is.  Not even in my science degree could I bring up nerdcore hip-hop and have two people around me yell out “MC Hawking!“.  This year I made a pun comparing sage advice with thymely advice and had people actually laugh. That is just so wrong.

I could probably come up with more, but you know…. study.

Blood Gases

DB over at DB’s Medical Rants sometimes posts some interesting clinical problems for readers to solve.  The latest was an ABG problem (here, update here, solution here).  I was puzzled by the results because they didn’t seem to represent a huge problem that might indicate asthma or something…  While I didn’t figure out the answer, I was happy with my general approach.  It appears that have actually retained some knowledge from last semester. Fantastic!

Men and birth

Just thought I’d point out this piece at the ABC website looking at the birthing process from the male perspective.

Desire

I’ve been getting into Ryan Adams’ music recently, but he’s kind of alternative/country so he probably isn’t to everyone’s taste.  I first came across him when he released his song “New York, New York” - the video clip to which was filmed on September 7, 2001.

Probably my favourite song by him is Desire.

Desire

Two hearts fading, like a flower.
And all this waiting, for the power.
For some answer, to this fire.
Sinking slowly. The water’s higher.
Desire

With no secrets. No obsession.
This time I’m speeding with no direction.
Without a reason. What is this fire?
Burning slowly. My one and only.
Desire

You know me. You know my way in.
You just can’t show me, but God I’m praying,
That you’ll find me, and that you’ll see me,
That you run and never tire.
Desire