lunar.soliloquy

Been feeling a bit tired over the past few days. I think something's been going around and I've gone and caught it but my immune system's fighting it off and probably that's where all my energy's been going. Had fun at MTG draft, despite my brain functioning a bit slow (made a few stupid mistakes) but at least I won a couple of games. Yes Simon, I beat your deck after you ditched us despite you having that evil sword of vengeance in your deck. Anyway might as well try and do some work and salvage what's left of this slow-moving day.

Yup, today was the day I broke my clinical experience virginity. Heck, I can't even remember the last time I'd been in a hospital outside outpatient clinics, it sure was a hell of a long time ago. I guess being unfamiliar with the hospital environment isn't such a bad thing considering the reasons one would have to visit such a place. But i guess I should get used to it, and quickly.

I was lucky with my first patient. They were nice, answered all my questions to the best of their ability and waited patiently while I sat there thinking about what I should say or scribbling down notes. A lot of the time my thinking would be along the lines of something like this:

to self: ok, i need to ask about his bowel movements
i can't just say "how are your bowel movements?" cuz it sounds silly
how about "how are your bowels?"
no, that would confuse them...maybe "do you get constipation?"
no, thats too closed a question...
...
10 seconds later...
"are you going to the toilet ok?"

*SIGH*

Seems like it's something that's going to take a lot of getting used to, but I think the consultation went pretty smoothly as far as things go with being a 3rd year med student. Perhaps I really can do this doctor business. Well I guess not all patients are easy to handle but I'll get there. I guess I was worried I might be one of those medical students who dropped out after 3rd year due to being unable to "handle the challenges of the clinical environment" as it says in our guide books. I'm sure there are many other challenges in the clinical environment, but I'm not sure why I was feeling so nervous before my first patient encounter in particular.

It seems pretty stupid now that I think about it, I mean, what's the worst thing that could go wrong? Sure I might piss off some random dude (who'll I'll probably never see again) or make a fool of myself by trying to be all professional with my tie and name badge without actually knowing anything, but its not like those things haven't happened before in my life. And it's not like they can suspend my medical registration before I've even received it or anything like that (the worst they could do is confiscate my Student Doctor name badge), since we're not even touching the patients (yet) beyond hand-shaking. I guess it's just one of those things that's just a natural trigger for nervousness which you can't do anything about. Well you could use Bach's Rescue Remedy spray which some people use before job interviews to calm them down (it works on cats and dogs, apparently) but that's not something I'd rely on. I bought one of those sprays before my Med interview but I was so nervous that I forgot to use it *fails* but hey, I still got in without it so go figure. Yeah, I guess you can never get away from stressful situations like those in life, so might as well treat them as learning experiences to improve your success in your next encounter. I still need a lot of learning to do.

I had a pretty long day today, so probably might relax a little before getting into some work. The 8 o'clock starts over the past three days have begun to take their toll as well >< been so tired recently. Lucklily I start at 11 tomorrow and have a light day so I might join Simon at the MTG draft tomorrow afternoon. I should probably ring home too, haven't done that in a while...

Yea, so my first clinical experience was a good one. I'm actually even sort of looking forward to next week's wards already, surprisingly. Hopefully I can get that case history written up before then, on top of all the other stuff going on with uni (still need to pick hospitals, submit topic for critical literature review, read those research articles for medical assessment project, study, study and more study) and hopefully catch up on some sleep.

Sayonara~

Or not by yourself, anyway. It wasn't like I had a choice this morning, being slightly late as per usual on a Monday morning (having a bad sleep last night due to forgetting to turn my phone off and getting texted at midnight didn't help) and having to sit in the 2nd row from the front at the very end, being isolated from the rest of the row by a missing seat. I was picked on not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES (by 3 different lecturers) over the duration of the two hours I was sitting there @@. Not that I mind talking to lecturers or escorting guests from the building but being asked to go up in front of the class to make an announcement isn't the sort of thing that I'd normally sign myself up for. *fails at public speaking*

Aaaanyway so I've been looking into hospital choices for next year and it turns out I can spend 10 weeks back in Rotorua ^^ not that I know many people who are still there but it'll be a nice break from the big city and homecooked meals are always good. It seems like I'll be doing my first run (psychiatry) in Waikato due to the influence of a certain someone who also wants to do her first run there. Other than those runs I'll probably do the rest in Auckland or Middlemore and hope I don't end up getting balloted to North Shore or something silly like that.

I just finished washing up the dinner dishes in between writing this and it seems like now is a good time to get back to work. Apologies for the seemingly abrupt end to this entry.

Sayonara~

Greetings, fellow bloggers, friends and bored people to my world. I previously had my blog over at Windows Live Spaces, but due to various technical problems (ie. random crashing, laggy interfaces and lack of autosaves resulting in the loss of large amounts of text when the former presented itself) my motivation to blog was lost. Laziness and general procrastination playing a minor role, my space has not seen a single post in over a year. Perhaps Spaces has improved since then but I was keen to try something new, and Blogger does seem to be one of the more popular blogging tools on the web. Apologies for the rather plain layout and design, when I get time later I will look into making things a little more pleasant to the eye but for now you'll have to bear with me.

I won't bore you with the details of my life's story so I'll jump right into the scene right now. It's the Sunday of the first week back at uni (Second semester) and so far it's been pretty cruisy with only a few classes to attend (in the mornings usually, hurts the holiday sleep patterns but free afternoons are nice). The first 2 days back were spent doing a Quality and Safety course which all 3rd year medicine, pharmacy and nursing students (in no particular order) had to attend as part of our training (I think they emailed us about 3 times saying attendance was compulsory). Basically we were learning about how to handle medical error, assess risks in health policy and practice and work in a multidisciplinary environment. Generally the speakers were quite good (fell asleep in a couple of the afternoon ones though) and the refreshments were tasty (albeit scarce), making it a nice easy start to the semester. I did feel that the venue was unnecessarily extravagant, however. Surely a short 2-day seminar could have been held at, say, Tamaki (as like Maori Health Week last year) and the money saved used for better things such as printing costs for MBCHB 305 COURSEBOOKS WHICH WE HAVEN'T EVEN BEEN GIVEN AND ITS THE SECOND WEEK ALREADY??!! /rage.

Being a light first week back, I have been out a bit with friends which has been nice. Usually semester is so busy that I hardly see my non-med friends beyond bumping into each other on campus in which case we're usually both busy with uni stuff. Even during the holidays it's hard to keep in touch since I'm usually back in Rotorua with my parents, and the fact that I tend to procrastinate in general doesn't help. Hulucat Tea House is an awesome place to hang out, perhaps I could get some mahjong and card/board games going there in the future...

Doujin Overload was good fun like last year, bought a calendar and some bookmarks (which I'll probably lose within the next 6 months) with some really awesome artwork on them. Even if you're not otaku enough to understand the random in-jokes or know the manga the characters are from almost anyone with eyes can appreciate the creativity and skill demonstrated by those works of art (just as anyone with ears can appreciate a good piece of music). I never took up art seriously myself, but I know from my pianist years that its one of those things where all people see is the end product, and not all the hours, days and late nights spent making it into what it is.

Well I think it's about time I got back to some work, and perhaps turn in early for that 8 o'clock start tomorrow. Good night, and thanks for reading.

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