a feast of geek and good-looking goodness

So I've been trying to do some renal study lately in a relatively last minute attempt to actually understand it five years into med school, and, at the suggestion of my mentor, emailed the renal consultants to see if I could spend a morning with them on the ward during these holidays. I know, ultra geeky, I admit, going into the hospital on my own volition during my spring break but I figured, hey, it's only one morning and I knew my mentor had a point when he said I'd probably learn more from two hours on the ward than two hours of studying renal at the library... plus, in the very least it'd motivate me to actually try to study and understand renal. The renal consultants -- who have a 100% pass rate with their registrars (=residents) in their final specialist exams -- were more than happy for us to tag along on their ward round and then talk to some patients afterwards if we wanted to. I say "us" because when I told a couple friends/my OSCE study group, they decided to come along.

And you know what? It turned out to be an AWESOME morning. Yes, I learned so much more from (what turned out to be) the three-hour ward round. There turned out to be quite a big entourage and furthermore, quite a lot of drama! They had about 10 patients which is pretty epic for Renal, and some really interesting cases, not to mention an almost-code where this really young guy developed sudden onset of severe chest pain and respiratory distress ten minutes after his straightforward renal biopsy procedure. One of the nurses started calling for a doctor and there was a lot of rushing and plugging in of machines, etc, and just standing back and watching the registrars and house surgeons kick into "ABC-mode" was freakin' amazing. So much to learn from! Lesson of the day: just don't freak out. LoL. It's all about being calm and collected.

And man, during the course of the morning, WE GOT GRILLED. And with both the renal consultants there for the round it got pretty intense at times, but in hindsight it was great teaching. You'd think all my renal study leading up to this morning would've helped, but it's truly amazing how in medicine it's all about thinking laterally -- we got grilled on basic pharmacology, microbiology, general medicine, all in the context of reanl issues, plus loads of first principle concepts which we too often (sadly) failed miserably at (yet undoubtedly learnt heaps from). So all in all a very worthwhile morning.

I got home around 1pm for lunch. I was only gonna take a short break before heading back into town to get some study done at the library but I started to read some more Austen and, enveloped by the warm afternoon sun, I got hooked! Four hours later I was done with Northanger Abbey, much to my surprise. And dude, it was AWESOME. Henry is definitely up there as one of my favourite male Austen leads. :) If only I had time to get the video out before flying out on Sunday. I will, however, stop by the bookstore and pick up my next read, Wuthering Heights, which was recently highly recommended to me by a friend of mine. I caught up with her tonight for dinner and a movie, Coco avant Chanel. The movie was pretty good -- Alessandro Nivola... mhmmm... and that's about all I wanna say, lol. And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes the proceedings for the evening. Goodnight and good luck. :)

[cue the randomness!]

Three days till I leave for rural GP placement up north, and I am beyond ready. Ready for rural isolation, spring-summer warmth, and study hibernation. :)

My one-week spring break has been pretty productive. Downside is I can't seem to shake this virus I caught a few weeks back: it started as a relatively simple upper respiratory tract infection (coryzal symptoms, muscle ache, malaise), but a week ago I got viral conjunctivitis! And a bit of a tummy bug too. After I figured out it was probably conjunctivitis I went to the doctor and he said it wasn't uncommon for a viral URTI to end with conjunctivitis and/or gastroenteritis. Seems I got the whole lot! A combination of seasonal viruses this year being quite bad and the fact that all this busyness/exhaustion/being run down has meant my immune system was/is below par this year! I just can't seem to shake off the darn thing, even weeks later. So after a weekend of doing nothing but sleeping and watching the 7th season of 24 on dvd, I was back at the library bright and early Monday morning. I wish we had more than just that one week of study break before exams... one can only dream. But I digress. This week I've tackled the two subjects I've always dreaded studying -- respiratory and renal; two subjects I gave up trying to understand in 2nd and 3rd year lectures, and the two subjects I avoided to the best of my ability on the wards. But pat on the back for me -- I've tackled them head-on, and (I think) I have won. [pause] ... maybe... hopefully... lol. Well, I guess we'll see soon enough!

Other than that, just trying to catch up with various people before I head off for my five weeks of med-school-imposed beach-exile! Yes, did I mention our place up north is a Bach?! Right by the water? And we have kayaks and boats and archery (allegedly; random, I know), in a town with one of the highest number of sunlight-hours in the country. Sweet! I cannot wait to start going on some hefty runs again -- it's been waaaay too long.

I've also started reading yet another Austen classic, Northanger Abbey. I had been reading Sense and Sensibility but despite getting more than halfway through it, I got too impatient and was DYING to know what happened with Edward so yes, I succumbed and got the BBC dvd -- go on, judge me. I know, I'm judging myself. But man, NO REGRETS. And so, on to the next! The great thing about Northanger Abbey is that it's not one of Austen's well-known novels; to be honest I'd never really heard much about it, and going into it blind (re- plot) definitely has its upsides. :) I promise, no dvd till I finish this one.

Movie and dinner with a friend tomorrow (Coco Chanel -- should be good), studying and packing Saturday, and then I'm off!

I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS YEAR IS BASICALLY OVER.

I have to admit, one good thing about exams? It forces you to really study... and, not surprisingly, I've been learning freakin' loads lately... especially the stuff I'd been avoiding for five years (there's really no way of getting around it in medicine), which, in the context of becoming a doctor and all that helping-people business, is probably a good idea, yeah? :)