So day 2 of hand surgery is down.
It seems that I will need to start at 7:30am everyday and generally finish after 5pm.
So far, I"ve spent a day in clinic and a day in the operating theatre.
The day in clinic consists of me measuring grip strength, joint angles and pinch (apposition?) strength while the consultant drills me with questions.
The day in the operating theatre consisted of me standing around.
Well, until the last case which was a radial nerve repair. Seems that the orthopods that put a plate in for the fractured humerus got the radial nerve caught under a screw, so it had to be repaired with a graft.
I got to stand around but also take photos using the consultants flash camera (Olympus E-1 I think it was). That was fun. Sort of.
I"m tired of it already...
Showing posts with label Singapore. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Singapore. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Friday, July 1, 2011
Anaesthesia,: Epilogue.
So I"ve now finished my 2 weeks on anaesthesiology.
Twas a short trip, but I learnt a lot.
My introduction to anaesthetics was gentle. Starting with the basics, I was advised on what to learn and read up about, the basics of the risks involved, and the indications and contraindications.
My learning was encouraged by questions and revision of the basics. Practical skills were encouraged and with repetition, I slowly understood what needed to be done, and what to watch for.
It challenged me in my knowledge. It stimulated interest.
I definitely feel like I have learnt a lot and in particular, feel more confident with achieving and maintaining a patent airway.
I also got two intubations down (from two), which is a good start!
As a farewell, my mentor signed me up for a presentation and dinner.
At the Grand Hyatt Singapore Hotel, speech on Multi-modal strategies in the management of post-op pain given by Professor Schug of the University of WA and Royal Perth Hospital. It was a very interesting speech, concentrating on the benefits of COX-2 inhibitors in conjunction with opioids, as well as the use of pregabalin/gabapentin.
And the food.
Oh my the food.
Oh my.
Twas a short trip, but I learnt a lot.
My introduction to anaesthetics was gentle. Starting with the basics, I was advised on what to learn and read up about, the basics of the risks involved, and the indications and contraindications.
My learning was encouraged by questions and revision of the basics. Practical skills were encouraged and with repetition, I slowly understood what needed to be done, and what to watch for.
It challenged me in my knowledge. It stimulated interest.
I definitely feel like I have learnt a lot and in particular, feel more confident with achieving and maintaining a patent airway.
I also got two intubations down (from two), which is a good start!
As a farewell, my mentor signed me up for a presentation and dinner.
At the Grand Hyatt Singapore Hotel, speech on Multi-modal strategies in the management of post-op pain given by Professor Schug of the University of WA and Royal Perth Hospital. It was a very interesting speech, concentrating on the benefits of COX-2 inhibitors in conjunction with opioids, as well as the use of pregabalin/gabapentin.
And the food.
Oh my the food.
 | ||
| Tuna and Avocado Tartar, with Lavoche and Remoulade Sauce |
 |
| Previously a Cream of Mushroom soup |
 |
| Pan-fried Fillet of Cod, Puy Lentils, Gratin Potatoes, Glazed Asparagus, with Dijon Mustard Sauce |
 |
| Crispy Chocolate Praline Cake, with Raspberries and Vanilla Cream |
Oh my.
Friday, June 24, 2011
One Week
So one week down in Singapore!
Well, one work week anyway, but that pretty much counts!
Anaesthesia is vaguely what I"ve imagined it to be.
You check you"ve got the right patient, you inject some stuff, you make sure the patient continues to breath, you check your email and surf a bit, you inject more stuff, keep browsing, the surgeons tell you they"re done and you send the patient off.
Well I finally intubated a patient today!
First time, first go! Hooray!
Otherwise it has really been quite uneventful.
Well, one work week anyway, but that pretty much counts!
Anaesthesia is vaguely what I"ve imagined it to be.
You check you"ve got the right patient, you inject some stuff, you make sure the patient continues to breath, you check your email and surf a bit, you inject more stuff, keep browsing, the surgeons tell you they"re done and you send the patient off.
Well I finally intubated a patient today!
First time, first go! Hooray!
Otherwise it has really been quite uneventful.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Singapore, Day 4
This was so exciting that I needed to blog about it:
I got free lunch!
Ok, that"s part of what I"m going to blog about, but definitely the most exciting (for me). The food was significantly better than FMC, sort of on par with those "all you can eat for $8" places in Central Market. Which is acceptable, but not the greatest.
Of course, if I wasn"t such a cheapass, I could have paid a whopping SGD$1 for a plate of noodles or SGD$5 for just about anything (as mentioned in the last blog post...).
Note: SGD$1 = AUD$0.75
SGD$5 = AUD$3.80 i.e CHEAP.
What else I"m impressed with is the internet I"m using at the moment at a family friends house: 100Mbit connection. That is a theoretical maximum speed of 4x the best of what Australia has to offer (at least, until the NBN comes through... Someday...)
So I was having a conversation with one of the MOs which waiting for a thumb PVNS excision to finish up, and it seems that there are lots of pros and cons to living in Singapore.
Pros:
Minimal income tax - Even for earning $300,000 you pay about 13% tax. Above that rises to about 20%.
Food - The food here is spectacular, cheap and available all hours of the day!
Travel - The Singapore MRT is bloody awesome, reliable, fast and pretty cheap.
Internet - As mentioned, super fast!
Cons:
Pollution - Air quality ain"t the greatest here.
Rent - From what I can figure, quite expensive.
Cars - I also discovered something crazy about this:
Singapore have freakin' expensive cars.
Now, I don"t mean like, Ferrari"s and all that, but even just regular cars!
From what I can work out, in order to own a car, you must first be able to afford to pay a "certificate of entitlement". This is a sort of registering of the car with the government. I think they do this to put a limit/quota on the number of cars in Singapore (due to increasing pollution, population etc), which is a decent idea, as those that can"t afford, use the MRT which reduces carbon emissions etc.
So yeah, how much would cars be?
Lets see, I am contemplating getting a Ford Fiesta. You can get it on sale in Australia for a scratch under $20,000.
Second hand Ford Fiesta here? $70,000.
Seriously. What.
I got free lunch!
Ok, that"s part of what I"m going to blog about, but definitely the most exciting (for me). The food was significantly better than FMC, sort of on par with those "all you can eat for $8" places in Central Market. Which is acceptable, but not the greatest.
Of course, if I wasn"t such a cheapass, I could have paid a whopping SGD$1 for a plate of noodles or SGD$5 for just about anything (as mentioned in the last blog post...).
Note: SGD$1 = AUD$0.75
SGD$5 = AUD$3.80 i.e CHEAP.
What else I"m impressed with is the internet I"m using at the moment at a family friends house: 100Mbit connection. That is a theoretical maximum speed of 4x the best of what Australia has to offer (at least, until the NBN comes through... Someday...)
So I was having a conversation with one of the MOs which waiting for a thumb PVNS excision to finish up, and it seems that there are lots of pros and cons to living in Singapore.
Pros:
Minimal income tax - Even for earning $300,000 you pay about 13% tax. Above that rises to about 20%.
Food - The food here is spectacular, cheap and available all hours of the day!
Travel - The Singapore MRT is bloody awesome, reliable, fast and pretty cheap.
Internet - As mentioned, super fast!
Cons:
Pollution - Air quality ain"t the greatest here.
Rent - From what I can figure, quite expensive.
Cars - I also discovered something crazy about this:
Singapore have freakin' expensive cars.
Now, I don"t mean like, Ferrari"s and all that, but even just regular cars!
From what I can work out, in order to own a car, you must first be able to afford to pay a "certificate of entitlement". This is a sort of registering of the car with the government. I think they do this to put a limit/quota on the number of cars in Singapore (due to increasing pollution, population etc), which is a decent idea, as those that can"t afford, use the MRT which reduces carbon emissions etc.
So yeah, how much would cars be?
Lets see, I am contemplating getting a Ford Fiesta. You can get it on sale in Australia for a scratch under $20,000.
Second hand Ford Fiesta here? $70,000.
Seriously. What.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
3 days down
Hey there, didn"t expect a blog post so soon did you?
Well, I sent an email to friends and thought I"d edit it down a bit and put it here.
Yes, very lazy I know.
I don"t really have much of anything that is quite as exciting as other elective destinations, so you guys will have to do with a quick summary/diary entry of whats happened so far...
After disembarking the plane, I went with priorities first. I found myself some internet to let the masses on Facebook know I was still alive.
After that I managed to work my way through customs (impossible to find a working pen to fill out those immigration cards!) and snuck my 16kg of uncooked beef and fish through the "nothing to declare" line. Yes, thats right, my parents priorities on packing were to get fish and beef to family friends. Luckily, I was allowed to bring 2x23kg of bags, which is actually a ridiculously large amount. Packing everything I could think of amounted to about 20kg.
Stepping outside, I discovered one thing:
Singapore is hot.
I"ll say right now that going from 12 degrees or so to 30 degrees or so is killer. I have no idea how the Canadians do it.
Apart from that, what strikes you is the humidity, with sweat dripping off you as there is no way it can evaporate into the already water filled air.
Oh, the pollution and population ain"t great either.
There were about the population of Adelaide trying to get onto each train I wanted to get on. Luckily, I had 40ish kg worth of frozen goods to use to clear some space. It worked surprisingly well.
Arriving at my destination (family friend's apartment), it seemed like everyone smoked. The lower level is a shopping complex type thing (which I think is the same with every building in Singapore...) and all the shopkeepers would be chainsmoking their hearts out. The only places that weren"t smoke filled were the food places. Everything looked so appealing, especially after airplane food (fake scrambled eggs and baked beans? Really Singapore Airlines?).
Have to admit, the view from the 14th floor is quite good. The layer of smog you can see silhouetting the city not so much.
My cough has gotten worse, and seeing a doctor at the hospital (they have a staff clinic), cost $10 and the bastard barely examine me. Wanted to send me for X-ray until I argued that he was a fscking moron and to try, I dunno, doing a respiratory examination? He ended up prescribing some cough syrup (which I"ve discovered is one of the ingredients of what I believe the cool kids call "purple drank") which hasn"t helped spectacularly, and I"ve taken the first two days off.
Had a brief stint in the anaesthetic setting with a breast tumour removal. Got to experience the "Time Out" thing that they had in our Patient Safety Workshop, they found incorrect consent! The system works!
Surgeon still went ahead with it following the consent they got and chased down extra consent. Not sure how that worked considering the patient was under a general.
Had an infection control lecture with N95 mask fitting. Not exactly very exciting.
Then there was a 5 hour ENT (LaFort I) operation. That was hell boring.
The consultants and regs love to drill you here... Luckily, my "mentor" is really nice and is happy to explain things to me when reply with "I don't know..." Which happens quite regularly.
But yeah.
Food is great here though!
The hospital cafeteria is like a super food court! You can get so much asian food for so cheap! A plate of noodles for $1. Almost everything is under $5. Crazy stuff!
Anyway, I think thats all I have for now.
Ciao!
There were about the population of Adelaide trying to get onto each train I wanted to get on. Luckily, I had 40ish kg worth of frozen goods to use to clear some space. It worked surprisingly well.
Arriving at my destination (family friend's apartment), it seemed like everyone smoked. The lower level is a shopping complex type thing (which I think is the same with every building in Singapore...) and all the shopkeepers would be chainsmoking their hearts out. The only places that weren"t smoke filled were the food places. Everything looked so appealing, especially after airplane food (fake scrambled eggs and baked beans? Really Singapore Airlines?).
Have to admit, the view from the 14th floor is quite good. The layer of smog you can see silhouetting the city not so much.
My cough has gotten worse, and seeing a doctor at the hospital (they have a staff clinic), cost $10 and the bastard barely examine me. Wanted to send me for X-ray until I argued that he was a fscking moron and to try, I dunno, doing a respiratory examination? He ended up prescribing some cough syrup (which I"ve discovered is one of the ingredients of what I believe the cool kids call "purple drank") which hasn"t helped spectacularly, and I"ve taken the first two days off.
Had a brief stint in the anaesthetic setting with a breast tumour removal. Got to experience the "Time Out" thing that they had in our Patient Safety Workshop, they found incorrect consent! The system works!
Surgeon still went ahead with it following the consent they got and chased down extra consent. Not sure how that worked considering the patient was under a general.
Had an infection control lecture with N95 mask fitting. Not exactly very exciting.
Then there was a 5 hour ENT (LaFort I) operation. That was hell boring.
The consultants and regs love to drill you here... Luckily, my "mentor" is really nice and is happy to explain things to me when reply with "I don't know..." Which happens quite regularly.
But yeah.
Food is great here though!
The hospital cafeteria is like a super food court! You can get so much asian food for so cheap! A plate of noodles for $1. Almost everything is under $5. Crazy stuff!
Anyway, I think thats all I have for now.
Ciao!
Saturday, June 18, 2011
To Infinity and Beyond!
So I managed to pack all my stuff and move out of the Village.
Much thanks go to my friends for helping move things and for my housemates for helping me clean, else I would probably have missed my flight home to the Gold Coast.
Its kind of strange coming home. I haven"t lived here for nearly 9 years now, and most of my own things have been packed away in some dark recess of the house. Actually, I think most of my stuff was packed up even before I left. My mother is quite efficient.
So without a lot of the little things I have, the emotional ties they each represent, this house feels more like I"m visiting a relatives house. Its a very strange feeling. I know I will always be welcome here, and my parents encourage it, but despite that, I just don"t feel like I belong here.
So now with everything stored away (mostly at a friends place), I am in limbo, with no real place that I can call mine.
I look forward to finding out where I am placed for my intern year so I can find a place and move my things in. Its always nice to come home to a place you feel truly linked to.
In the meantime, I will be off to Singapore in about 15 hours. I have a bit to pack and then I have to get some sleep since I have to leave at 5am in order to make it to the airport. It still hasn"t really clicked that I"m leaving the country. I suppose when I step out into 33 degree, 98% humidity, something will click then.
So yes, Singapore for 6 weeks! Yay!
My beautiful girlfriend will be meeting me in 5 weeks! YAY!
I cannot wait :)
Much thanks go to my friends for helping move things and for my housemates for helping me clean, else I would probably have missed my flight home to the Gold Coast.
Its kind of strange coming home. I haven"t lived here for nearly 9 years now, and most of my own things have been packed away in some dark recess of the house. Actually, I think most of my stuff was packed up even before I left. My mother is quite efficient.
So without a lot of the little things I have, the emotional ties they each represent, this house feels more like I"m visiting a relatives house. Its a very strange feeling. I know I will always be welcome here, and my parents encourage it, but despite that, I just don"t feel like I belong here.
So now with everything stored away (mostly at a friends place), I am in limbo, with no real place that I can call mine.
I look forward to finding out where I am placed for my intern year so I can find a place and move my things in. Its always nice to come home to a place you feel truly linked to.
In the meantime, I will be off to Singapore in about 15 hours. I have a bit to pack and then I have to get some sleep since I have to leave at 5am in order to make it to the airport. It still hasn"t really clicked that I"m leaving the country. I suppose when I step out into 33 degree, 98% humidity, something will click then.
So yes, Singapore for 6 weeks! Yay!
My beautiful girlfriend will be meeting me in 5 weeks! YAY!
I cannot wait :)
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
On things to come...
Because everybody else is doing it, I thought I might as well too.
So most people in my year have just found out their rotations (well, "just" being 2 days ago) but I"ve been one of the totally lucky ones who knew over a week ago. I was one of many who was left with a missing term 1 due to the totally fair and perfect algorithm the magical School of Medicine computer uses to allocation rotations. Working fast, I managed to get what I thought was the best of the worst, but others were not so lucky. My heart weeps for the two people who had to do Chronic Condition Self Management, and my Respected Associate who had to do Neurological Rehabilitation.
Outlined below is what I like to call (for the first time) The Grand Plan:
Term 1: Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation
Location: Repatriation General Hospital
Probable job description: Fractured hips, femurs (heads, necks) and knee replacements I should think.
Personal thoughts: Could be hit or miss but its ok, I have company for this term and we"ll make the most of it. *sigh* At least the year can only get better...
Career opportunities: Physiotherapist, Masseuse
Term 2: Urban (Legend) General Practice
Location: My new favourite GP's practice.
Probable job description: Being Awesome!
Personal thoughts: Very excited about this one, I"ve been having my GP placement here and from previous posts, you can probably tell I enjoy it very much.
Career opportunities: GP, Batman
Term 3: Critical Care Medicine
Location: Flinders Medical Centre Intensive Care Unit
Probable job description: Watching and waiting. Then waiting more. Also watching.
Personal thoughts: Should get some good physiology and medicine knowledge here. Maybe do some management things.
Career opportunities: Intensive Care Specialist, Dr Robert Chase
Term 4: Emergency Medicine
Location: Flinders Medical Centre Emergency Department
Probable job description: Running around like a headless chicken.
Personal thoughts: If rotation quality was proportional to number of people wanting to do it, this would probably be the best rotation ever. It should hopefully be exciting. Alternatively, this could be so much work I might lose my mind. We"ll see.
Career opportunities: Alcoholic, George Clooney
Term 5: Unconfirmed
Location: Hopefully, Singapore General Hospital
Probable job description: Messenger boy
Personal thoughts: Hopefully I"ll be doing anaesthetics and general surgery.
Career opportunities: National Service, Ending sentences with "la"... la.
Term 6: Cambodia
Location: National Pediatric Hospital
Probable job description: Picking on little kids, stealing pocket money, etc.
Personal thoughts: This one should be fun! I like paediatrics :)
Career opportunities: Paediatrician, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
Term 7: Vacation
Location: Asia
Probable job description: Being on holiday
Personal thoughts: This will be a lot of fun, aiming to go to China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan.
Career opportunities: Dumpling King, Communist
Term 8: General Surgery
Location: Mt Gambier
Probable job description: Generally surgerising. Some surgery on generals?
Personal thoughts: Surgery is the topic I"m least excited about, but who knows, rural general surgery may be more exciting than urban general surgery (which consists of hernia, hernia, laparoscopic cholecystectomy, hernia, colonoscopy, colonoscopy, colonoscopy, colonoscopy, endoscopy, endoscopy AND colonoscopy).
Career opportunities:Obnoxious Pretentious Twat Surgeon
There we go. The plan is out.
So who"s excited?
So most people in my year have just found out their rotations (well, "just" being 2 days ago) but I"ve been one of the totally lucky ones who knew over a week ago. I was one of many who was left with a missing term 1 due to the totally fair and perfect algorithm the magical School of Medicine computer uses to allocation rotations. Working fast, I managed to get what I thought was the best of the worst, but others were not so lucky. My heart weeps for the two people who had to do Chronic Condition Self Management, and my Respected Associate who had to do Neurological Rehabilitation.
Outlined below is what I like to call (for the first time) The Grand Plan:
Term 1: Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation
Location: Repatriation General Hospital
Probable job description: Fractured hips, femurs (heads, necks) and knee replacements I should think.
Personal thoughts: Could be hit or miss but its ok, I have company for this term and we"ll make the most of it. *sigh* At least the year can only get better...
Career opportunities: Physiotherapist, Masseuse
Term 2: Urban (Legend) General Practice
Location: My new favourite GP's practice.
Probable job description: Being Awesome!
Personal thoughts: Very excited about this one, I"ve been having my GP placement here and from previous posts, you can probably tell I enjoy it very much.
Career opportunities: GP, Batman
Term 3: Critical Care Medicine
Location: Flinders Medical Centre Intensive Care Unit
Probable job description: Watching and waiting. Then waiting more. Also watching.
Personal thoughts: Should get some good physiology and medicine knowledge here. Maybe do some management things.
Career opportunities: Intensive Care Specialist, Dr Robert Chase
Term 4: Emergency Medicine
Location: Flinders Medical Centre Emergency Department
Probable job description: Running around like a headless chicken.
Personal thoughts: If rotation quality was proportional to number of people wanting to do it, this would probably be the best rotation ever. It should hopefully be exciting. Alternatively, this could be so much work I might lose my mind. We"ll see.
Career opportunities: Alcoholic, George Clooney
Term 5: Unconfirmed
Location: Hopefully, Singapore General Hospital
Probable job description: Messenger boy
Personal thoughts: Hopefully I"ll be doing anaesthetics and general surgery.
Career opportunities: National Service, Ending sentences with "la"... la.
Term 6: Cambodia
Location: National Pediatric Hospital
Probable job description: Picking on little kids, stealing pocket money, etc.
Personal thoughts: This one should be fun! I like paediatrics :)
Career opportunities: Paediatrician, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
Term 7: Vacation
Location: Asia
Probable job description: Being on holiday
Personal thoughts: This will be a lot of fun, aiming to go to China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan.
Career opportunities: Dumpling King, Communist
Term 8: General Surgery
Location: Mt Gambier
Probable job description: Generally surgerising. Some surgery on generals?
Personal thoughts: Surgery is the topic I"m least excited about, but who knows, rural general surgery may be more exciting than urban general surgery (which consists of hernia, hernia, laparoscopic cholecystectomy, hernia, colonoscopy, colonoscopy, colonoscopy, colonoscopy, endoscopy, endoscopy AND colonoscopy).
Career opportunities:
There we go. The plan is out.
So who"s excited?
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