Oh my is that the time...

Right, so I guess I"ve been slack again. No surprise there...

It has been a over a month since my last post, close to two in fact. Are you honestly surprised though? I mean really, how many of these posts have I started by stating how long its been since my last post...

Anyway.

So in the time we"ve skipped over, I"ve managed to get through the final exams for the year in one piece (more or less), went and saw Wicked, underwent a sleep study, and been diagnosed as fat by my mother.

How nice.

Well the exams were... Well, they were.

Wicked was incredibly awesome. I know that word gets thrown around a lot, but it is.

The sleep study was... I dunno, I slept! I"m still waiting for results though, so we"ll see what happens...

Me being fat is quite true. It seems that I"ve managed to surpass a BMI of 25, thus making me overweight. Quite sad really :(
The result of which, I have eaten the least I have ever had this holiday season. I"ve also been jogging 5.3637km (according to the Google Maps Distance Measurement Tool) twice a day (6am, 6pm).
Hopefully I can lose 15 kilograms in the next 3 months, though that might be extreme. I"m aiming for at least 5 kilograms before I return to Adelaide though, after that, we"ll see how things go...

I"m also back on the Gold Coast, which is nice I guess...
I"ve continued my research into mangos and my conclusion remains the same.
I"ve gotten so used to living on my own that I don"t know if I can deal with my parents anymore. So far I"ve been surviving, though who knows how long I can keep it up. There haven"t been too many arguments...

Christmas was fun, had something in the range of 20 relatives come from Melbourne and Brisbane to have lunch near the beach, or more specifically, Point Danger.
It was very relaxing though not many of us kids wanted to be there, considering how hot and crowded it was... But we dealt with it. I spent time with my pride and joy, my second cousin. She"s 13 years old and the greatest person in the world :)

Aaaaanyway, thats me covered.

I"ll try update when something else happens...

Embryology is tasty

So we had an embryology prac today.

Summary:
1. Oooh primitive streak
2. Oooh primitive streak, primitive node and somites!
3. Oooh more somites! Neural plate!
4. Wow! Heaps of somites! Neural folds!
etc.

Overall, it was quite exciting, despite what I"ve said above.
We saw a super chicken (it had two sets of organs! Imagine the possibilities with two hearts, livers etc.), a not so super chicken (it had half a head...), a mirror image chicken (two chicks attached at the head), and a split chicken (2-3 bodies to the one head).
Not to mention the guinea pig embryo and the bearded lizard embryo.

Then the finale!

Smoked trout!

It was oh so tasty after it was dissected and we learnt about the nerves and muscles that came from each somite.

Mmmm... Embryology...

Oh now you"ve made a mess of things...

So after much thought, including a process of testing and brainstorming, I have decided that mangos are the messiest fruit to eat.
No matter how careful in the methods of preparation, I am still left with a stringy lumpy mess, a heap of skin, and sticky hands.

Despite all that, I still love mangos.
They are juicy and delicious! Best way to eat them would be straight out of the fridge on a hot day.
My favourite being one I"ve always known as a "Bowen" mango, but after some research, it seems the official name would be the "Kensington Pride".

It seems that even on holidays, I"m forced to learn. Luckily, I seem to enjoy this style of learning much more than the usual. Go figure.

Sleep...

So I"m trying to get into the habit of keeping this regular, even if nothing interesting actually happens.

Unfortunately, that leaves my blog material much to be desired (I can never make that line make sense in my head, but cool people use it and my mum says I"m cool so I thought I should use it then...).

Luckily, the 2 people who read this probably won"t care.

I"ve just woken up from a great night of movies, though really, it really should just be known as one giant movie. Yes, some "Esteemed Colleagues" (if I may borrow a term from a brilliant blog I"ve been reading, by someone in my class!) and I decided to have a movie marathon and went through Back to the Future I, II and III!
We ended up finishing around 2am, tired, hungry, slightly intoxicated (or was that just Shawn?) but wishing that there were more great corny 80s type movies like that (or was that just me...).

One thing I haven"t mentioned is that I have been sick for the last 2 weeks now. It all started with innocent symptoms not unlike that of the common cold. Unfortunately, they then progressed until my friends were quite sure I had fluid and quite possibly consolidation in my lower lung fields. The end-inspiratory wheeze and mid-late expiratory wheeze probably didn"t help things. Not to mention the cough that actually sounds less like a cough and more like I"m fighting for dominance against some inner force for the control of my lungs...
So anyway, I"m finally going to see the doctor today (it was either on Tuesday when I still had to study for my Renal System exam, or today...), but as always, my symptoms are hiding. All I have left is a pathetic little cough.

Its really not fair.

Well what do you know...

So I"ve just finished probably the hardest set of exams I have done or will need to do for at least another two years. Following the usual "go out and have a few drinks at the bar" thing, the "be right back, crashing from my sugar high" thing and the "lets go to the beach cos its almost a warm day" thing, I realised I didn"t really have much else do to, so I fell back on the usual.

I browsed the intarwebz.

I noticed a link on my browser which seemed strange to me, since I had forgotten all about it...

"Blogger: Dashboard" it read.

I clicked on it.

...

Would you believe that I have a blog?

I know, crazy right? Especially since I hadn"t posted anything for the last, oh, 4+ months.

Though looking over my previous posts, that seems to be the usual pattern of things anyway...

So yes, I"ll try posting again, but typing stuff is certainly a lot more effort than say, not typing stuff. So we"ll see how things go this time. :)

Summary of the last 4 months:
Learnt something about the heart.
Learnt something about the lungs.
Learnt something about the kidneys.
Became the MDA National Foosball Champion (long story, bit of a fail story, but I have cookies to show for it so nyaaaaaah!)

Summary of the last 3 days:
Tried to learn everything about the heart.
Had a cardiovascular system exam.
Tried to learn everything about the lungs.
Had a respiratory system exam.
Tried to learn everything about the kidneys.
Had a renal system exam.

Surprisingly, the respiratory and the renal system exams went well (with great thanks to my friends for being patient and teaching all there was about breathing and peeing!)

The cardiovascular exam perhaps not so well.

We shall see!

Oops...

So its been 2 months since my last confe- uhh... post.

My bad :S

It has been a ridiculously quick 2 months, and I"m wishing I could have extended it just a tad.

Exams are upon us.
3 exams in 3 days.
No swotvac.

Today is the first (human homeostasis), tomorrow is the second (identity, microbes and defence), Thursday is the last (doctor, the profession and society).

As usual, like before every exam, I am in my special zen-like state of mind.

It may be 6:45am, with the exam not occurring for another 2 hours, but I am prepared and in my mind, I am ready.

Or am I.

Hakkuna Matata.

We"ll see.

Nearly free... Sort of...

So I haven"t blogged in a while.
Sue me.
Actually, don"t, I think I"ll get enough of that in a few years...


It"s been pretty hectic lately, though with nothing much to show of it :S
We"re starting to get incredibly overloaded with the information they are throwing at us and expecting it to just stick, so I"ve been spending more and more time at the library and PBL rooms. I"ve almost reached the point where I"m thinking it could be cheaper to sneak in a cabinet and store stuff there and I"ll just sleep there overnight...

Totally off the topic of study, I got the new Nightwish album. It"s good. It"s goooooood.
Ahhh, I"ve been digging up my old "operatic metal/symphonic rock/whatever you want to call it" stuff and relistening to it all. Good stuff :)

Oh, holidays next week! Hooray!

Statistics

It has begun.

Statistics time yet again.

I"m currently sitting here in a stats lecture, in which more than half the class has already left. I decided now would be a good time to use free wireless internet to download all the notes I"ve been meaning to get, as well as figure out what all this stats business is all about.

All I"ve heard so far is that he mentioned the H2G2 improbability drive.

I think its time to go nap...

Learning, forgetting, learning, forgetting, rinse, repeat.

Its been a while since I"ve posted and quite a bit has happened.

First thing is that I got a haircut!

Yeah, a number 3 in fact, so its quite a big change. It"s quite amusing actually, I can"t stop rubbing my head. It"s the strangest feeling, quite soothing really...

On the learning side of things, we had a nice "Rural Day" outing to Port Lincoln (I think)
[EDIT: I"ve been told its Port Elliot... It"s a good thing I pay attention to everything around me...].
There, we learnt about our options in 3/4th year (I"m thinking Darwin!), but more importantly, we learned a few hands on things so much more interesting than all the theory we"ve been doing lately.

We learned a little plastering which was fun though messy with all that plaster of paris... In fact, I only just removed my cast :)

We learned to suture on some pig trotters, though I"m sure human skin is just a tad thinner...

We learned some basic emergency rescue from the SAAS, which was really basic revision from our Basic Life Support sessions, and especially for me from the work I"ve done with St John.

We also learned to cannulate veins on dummy arms which "bled" all over the place. This was
probably the easiest. I"ve noticed that after doing mouse tail vein injections, human veins are HUGE. I felt like I couldn"t really miss...

Unfortunately, I don"t think this sort of thing happens very often, so no more fun for a while :(

I think I bruised my finger...

Fifth post? I do believe its time to stop counting...

Trial... Four? I give up. I"m just gonna type whatever I want. Screw you all!

So I learned to percuss yesterday. Quite an interesting technique. Essentially useless since it doesn"t exactly give a definite diagnosis of... well... anything. You can hear a difference between solid (dull sound) and hollow (clear resonance), but is dependent on any number of factors. Its really fun to do though, and due to my inability to do it satisfactorily yesterday, I was consequently told to practice lots.

Well I practiced on just about everything. I now think I"ve not only bruised the finger that I"ve been hitting, but also the tip of the finger I"ve been using to hit...

I"ve decided to take a break from percussing (percussioning?) for a week. That should be adequate healing and adaptation time :)

Getting there...

Fourth post.

Trial Three: My thoughts.

So I"m sitting here trying to motivate myself into learning (again, I"m not sure how many times we learned this in undergrad...) about insulin production, function, and everything to do with diabetes. I"ve been browsing through assorted textbooks, articles and the intarwebz itself. Anybody else would probably be done by now, but not me. No, I"m too much of a time waster. This weekend flew by waaay too fast, leaving just today. This day stretched on for an eternity, yet still I sit here, at the very end of the day (as I check my watch its clicking over to a new day) frantically trying to find more information to complete my learning issues before PBL tomorrow. Some things will never change it seems.

Though it"s been a long day, it"s also been quite satisfying.
"Why is that?" You ask.

My mummy is here :)
"What does that have to do with anything?" You rudely exclaim.

Well my mummy makes good vietnamese food :)

I may not totally know all the functions of insulin off the top of my head, but my stomach will forgive me for it XD

Still trying...

Third post.

Trial Two: The important bits.

Exciting news, well, sort of I guess.
We"ve been learning about taking patient histories and to help this, we"ve been encouraged to wander the wards and ask nurses for patients we can take practice histories from.

Found an incredible patient today, a nice rare heart transplant patient.

Due to the usual confidentiality issues, I won"t go into it that much, but suffice to say, the patient was an absolute champion and very inspiring as to all life had thrown at them and they had still managed to get up and continue.


On a totally unrelated topic, my laptop finally arrived, which will help a lot in the lectures I"ll be going through. Its a decent 13.3inch one, so small enough to carry around with the power to last a few years :)

Trying to get used to this...

So my second post. I"m still not confident with this whole "blogging" thing, seeing as I really don"t bother with a diary or anything similar, but oh well... We"ll see how this goes:

Trial One: Diary style.

So I slept in today, which was unfortunate because I had a group meeting for an ethics assignment. Luckily, my group are in the genius category, so they really didn"t need my help...
We got quite a bit of our presentation done, which is always nice.
Its an interesting topic as well, basically the morality of withholding cochlear implants from D/deaf children just because the parents want them to be a part of the deaf community.
I"m learning quite a lot of interesting stuff regarding this, even though content isn"t really the point of the presentation.
We"re marked on the main ethical points, non-maleficence, beneficence, autonomy and all that jazz.

We had yet another biochemistry based lecture after that, which was really quite painful. I really should have tried to remember more of my first year biochemistry. Damned metabolism...

The day finally picked up when I went to a consolidation session to practice some of the clinical skills I had learnt previously. Of course, I ate a sandwich in about 3 minutes to make it on time, but that doesn"t matter.
Now, I don"t know about everyone else, but for me, its the practical skills that really bring everything together for me. So despite the fact that it was only taking the pulse and blood pressure, I had tremendous fun and felt a tremendous amount of accomplishment.

Had a basic diabetes workshop following that, did a blood glucose test (ie. plugged my blood into a little hand-held machine...), then practised drawing up saline (so much easier than stem cells!) and that was pretty much it.

Played some basketball with some friends from my PBL group after that. After the PBL topics we"ve had, we decided it would be best to keep fit. Amusing how you diagnose yourself with things you learn about :p

Dinner of chicken schnitzel with mash and a random assortment of vegies and salads, with a dessert of strangely dry bread and butter pudding. Average. I can"t help rating my food... XD

And now here I sit, I"m sated, I"m tired, I might have slightly sprained my ankle, but I am quite happy. I"m starting to get used to studying again, though lectures are still killing me.

Hmmm, I do believe its pub night. I might wander along and grab myself a beer :)

The saga begins...

I"ve somehow been convinced to start a blog.
Don"t ask me how, I don"t exactly know, but suffice to say, friends stick together.

So lets go back to where it all begins...

I"ve started medical school.

Be afraid, I know I am.