Back to it...

So it seems I haven"t blogged in so long, I don"t even know where I"m up to.

Quick summary of the last week or so (if you want more info, you"ll have to ask for it...)
Tuesday, 11th of May: Handover. Wards. JMO teaching - A visiting ophthalmologist gave a quick spiel regarding outreach clinics - I jumped up as soon as he was finished to talk to him and spent the afternoon making the necessary arrangements.

Wednesday, 12th of May: Handover. Journal Club. Wards. Bedside Teaching. Tried to get a miniCEX done, consultant was busy. Went out to the Beachfront for drinks at trivia night.

Thursday, 13th of May: Woke up at 5ish to catch a taxi at 5:45am to the airport. Flight was slightly delayed but had a nice chat with the ophthalmologist during the wait and eventually got into a little 2-engine (pressurised) 9-seater plane that carried the pilot, the ophthalmologist and myself. I felt like I had my very own private plane. Continued chatting with the ophthalmologist about life, the universe and medicine, while the pilot did his thing. A short flight later (20 minutes or so), we arrived in Daly River and got into the 4WD to take us to the clinic. The little town was cute and quite developed, though we learned that it had a very high suicide rate. A little sad there. The morning was spent waiting for patients to come in (which they didn"t until 10:30 or so) so during that time, I learnt the basics of ophthalmology, how to do visual acuities, how to take intraocular pressures, how to visualise the optic disc using the indirect method, and the basics of the slit lamp. It was fun. Over the course of the day, I proceeded to assess each of the patients in these things, with the ophthalmologist giving them the slit lamping and calling me over to look at things. We ran late as is the norm with these things, finally getting into the plane and getting back home around 6:30pm. It was a fun day and the ophthalmologist was amazing. Total mancrush.

Friday, 14th of May - Handover. Teaching rounds with miniCEX, did well. Finished up on paperwork and went to chat to the ophthalmologist again. Learnt to spell ophthalmology (you think I"m kidding...). Renewed mancrush. Finished up with the NTCS and handed in all my ID and pager. Went out for drinks at the Trailer Boat Club and Ski Club. Managed to get to the airport way too early. Checked in. Napped.

Saturday, 15th of May - Caught the flight at 2:40ish am. Got to Adelaide at 6:15ish am. Got home and accompanied a friend to the airport and to Ikea for breakfast. Went shopping. Came home and decided not to sleep, but to clean up my room. For some reason, it looked like someone had broken in and messed everything up. I realised I had left it like this when I left, a month ago. Oops. Went to a friend"s house for dinner. Slept, wonderful, wonderful sleep.

Sunday, 16th of May - A blur of sleep and nothingness.

Monday, 17th of May - O&G begins. Long day, lots of bajingo. Giggling at naughty words.

Tuesday, 18th of May - O&G continues. Still giggling at naughty words.


Tired. Sleep.

Short week.

A short week pretty much covered with me being sick (An actual flu! Gosh!) and trying to avoid writing an ethics essay (from henceforth known as The Worst Essay Ever).

Tuesday morning started with the biggest rainfall I had ever seen in Adelaide for a long, long time. The thunder and lightning was also quite pretty! As I had been so sick (poor baby), I considered using the rain as an excuse not to go in (Yes, thats right. The rain would be the excuse, not the headache, hacking cough, raw throat or muscle aches), but as it approached the point of no return, the rain stopped and I was forced to get ready and go in for ward rounds... Which were uneventful.

On the other hand, it did allow me to find the details of the patient I wanted for my ethics assignment. Oh, don"t get me wrong, I did plan this all out ages before, I just managed to forget exactly which patient it was... Little boys with croup all sort of merge together after a while...

Wednesday and Thursday passed by pretty uneventfully as well, with quite possibly the most ordinary Paediatric Grand Round ever... The free food was almost not worth sitting in on that presentation.

So Friday and a week off! I woke up really, really early (After having a dream in which I really didn"t wake up early and I was terribly late...) to catch the bus in order to make it to the city by 7:45am so I could make it to the bus to Millicent. Somehow I managed to get to the city by 7:15am. A tad early, so I dozed ever so nicely in the bus terminal to the soothing heavy rock of the instrumental disc of Nightwish's Dark Passion Play. After hours on the bus which were plagued by technical difficulties (a leaking roof), roadworks (everywhere!), dangerous conditions (lots of rain!) and bogan attacks (literally, a bogan attacked a poor mother concerned about the welfare of her children in the presence of cigarette smoke), I managed to arrive safely in Millicent.

So here I am, its freezing, but its a nice calm place that makes me want to sleep 18 hours a day. I"m not entirely sure why. Maybe its something in the water...

Or maybe its the civil wars that seem to go on in these parts...