Oh my!

It"s been said before by many people and I realise its true, so I"m going to have to say it one more time: I really need to blog more.

Unfortunately, I"m just plain lazy.

On a happier note, I think I"ve finished the 2nd year of Med school.

OSCE's have been passed, so barring some freakishly superfailed surprise, 3rd year appears to be on the menu for next year.

Exciting!

Not so exciting is that one of my best friends down here will be doing 3rd year in a rural area, about 4ish hours from Adelaide [EDIT: More like 6 hours...]. This means I won"t really be able to see them barring the occasional get together when all parties are free (yeah, like that ever happens!).

So yeah, sad times :(

Gonna miss the RoL, such good times...

For now, I guess its just time to make the most of my holidays...
Back home to the Gold Coast on the 12th!

Local Anaesthesia

Strangely, I"m still kind of excited by this so I"m going to have to blog about it.

Yesterday we had a Local Anaesthesia Workshop in which we got introduced to lignocaine, the different mixes it comes in (such as various percentages and with adrenaline) and injection techniques.
The techniques were described to us and drawn out on the whiteboard by the tutor (lets call him "Harry O") and we were then expected to proceed to perform that technique on a foam mock up of skin or toe.
The skin one was pretty simple, poke it in, inject along three lines to cover part of the area of the lesion without pulling the needle out completely, pull out the needle and reinsert in an area that has been anaesthetised and continue until the entire area is completed. Note that a maximum dose is of 3mg/kg of lignocaine or 7mg/kg of lignocaine+adrenaline, which usually still works out to be in the 10s of mL, so you should be fine...

Anyway, when we reached the toe/finger part in which we learned to perform a ring block, which in itself was pretty straight forward I guess. Inject vertically as close to the bone as possible, withdraw the needle but not all the way so you can reorient it and inject horizontally, then withdraw and inject on the other side of the bone by way of the previously anaesthetised area.
The hard part was that Harry O decided to stand in front of my and watch my injection.
I decided that a good start would be to not stick myself with a needle. Done.
Perhaps I should probably not hit the bone either. Success.
Alright, now lets see if I can do "withdraw but not all the way" thing. Success.
Ok, going surprisingly well, now to do the final injection on the other side, again, avoid the bone. Success.

I was done!

Harry O then leaned in towards me, at which point I was expecting a tip, perhaps a hint on methodology or technique (I had changed grip on my syringe a few times), but his words were "That was done as perfect as anyone could have done it. Very well done."

I don"t believe I have ever recieved such a compliment in Med school. Ever.

Even more surprisingly was that following the class, he asked for my name, just for future reference.

I think I"m ready to take on these exams.

On loss and farewells

Farewell to a passionate lecturer, a knowledgeable teacher, an encouraging taskmaster.


Journey on Bren, you"ll be in our thoughts.

Occupational Medicine Essay

Instead of starting my essay (due in 18 hours), I"ve decided instead to blog.

Note how that always seems to happen with me?

I only ever seem to blog when I"m terribly bored, I"ve been forced into it, or I"m avoiding doing something very important.

This case involves the first option.

This essay is in no way important as all it involves is a maximum of 1500 words (-10% leeway... or 15%...) of drivel. I"ve never been the best at driveling which is why I"d never make a good blogger.

So where was I?

Oh yes, telling everybody about my last few weeks!

Actually, this has now gotten me bored... If anyone really wants to know, they can ask me themselves.

I"m going back to my yogurt.

You lazy %*&$!

So I"ve been told that I should blog more.

Yeah, like that"ll happen.

But out of respect to my drugged up, racist, pretentious knob of a colleague, I"ll try to almost pretend to make an effort.

Unfortunately, as I"m sitting in a "Pharmacology of NSAIDs" lecture which has come about 16 months too late, I really can"t think of anything to blog about.

How about a summary since my last blog?
It would go something like this: GIT, ERS, KEITH!, B&B, M-

See what I did there? I just listed the main points of what has happened in the last few months. Thus, a summary. Also note that I only got to the M of MSS. That is because we are still in the early stages.

I"m a special child.


There. Done.

20!

Hooray! My 20th blog post!

...


Obviously I"m dead bored and needed an excuse to post something.

I just had a vaguely interesting lecture on diarrhoea which would have been much more interesting had it been a week or so ago, when we actually started to learn about it...

Unfortunately, these lecture theatres seem to have their thermostats tuned for penguins or people with slightly more blubber than I"ve built up for myself.
I need to bring a jumper next time, despite the fact that it is 35 degrees outside...

Currently in a lecture about colorectal cancer screening. Its actually quite interesting and the lecturer is doing a pretty good job keeping my mind from wandering... Too much... Of course, here I am typing a blog post...

A shout out to my fellow classmate who decided he needed to make a dramatic entrance but perhaps thought otherwise when entering through the door behind the lecturer and proceeding to walk across the stage with a slightly embarrassed smile on his face. Go PTR! See? I am paying attention to this lecture...

I do believe it is time to continue listening to this lecture...

Deja vu!

So its the New Year.

Again.

Except this time we have the moon to blame.

Silly Lunar New Year... (or Chinese New Year)

Its the year of the Ox (thus, or a nice pun, Happy "Niu" Year) and this happens to be my year... Which is kind of sad because it makes me old. But also the 3rd multiple of 8, three eights, 888, somehow rhyming with "rich" in mandarin/cantonese and thus lucky and good.

Riiiight.

Done.

So I think I"m done.

Finally.

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

A Whole New... Year.

So 2009 is upon us.

Hooray.

I"m not sure what the excitement about a "New Year" is, considering its exactly the same as the last few. The only way you even notice is when people start correcting your correspondence by crossing out the 2008 and writing 2009, or saying "Hey, I noticed you wrote 2008! Hahaha I do that all the time too!"

Though I do hope everyone had fun on New Years Eve. I certainly did! In bed and asleep by 10pm, it was a brilliant night :)

As of current, I am lazing about doing not much.

One thing I have started doing though is a new exercise regime.
Did I mention I was a Fatty McFatcakes? I forget.
Anyway, I"m massive, but the jogging I"ve been doing (I believe it was 5.3637km, twice a day) has had a negative effect on my knees, so I"ve decided to switch it up a bit.

Monday: Bike riding (Twice a day)
Tuesday: Interval workout - 2 minutes fast, 5 minutes jog/walk to recover. Rinse and repeat. Alternatively, if there was an oval, I"d do 1 lap fast, 1 lap slow. (Twice a day)
Wednesday: Normal jog (5.3637km, twice a day!)
Thursday: Tempo run - 10 minutes at a light pace, followed by 15 minutes at a heavy pace, followed by 10 minutes at a light pace. (Twice a day!)
Friday: Rest/walk - Sleep in the morning, walk in the evening
Saturday: My normal distance except at a faster pace (Twice a day)
Sunday: Walking in the morning for 5.3637km, Jog in the evening for 5.3637km

So yeah. We"ll see how that goes :)

Oh, also I got diagnosed with sleep apnoea and will have to use a CPAP machine. Hooray for me.