"Oooh... two LADY paramedics...!"

"Oooh... two LADY paramedics...!"

I was going to put that in the "Overheard" category but I couldn't be bothered.

I hear this ALL the time when I work with another female paramedic, which is also quite regularly as there is currently 3 females and 1 male at my ambulance station. I feel like saying "Why, yes! I even have my manual driver's licence!" ffs

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Fruitarian life is going great. It is so easy when you get the ball rolling. I say again and again, it is the easiest "diet" I have ever been on. The hardest parts are:

• eating enough fruit calories
• having enough ripe fruit around the house

That's it!

My update (and a long story about manifesting visualisations)

So, where am I at?

I'm back doing 100% high-carb, raw vegan lifestyle and feeling so good for it. It's difficult for the first few days as there is a little detox and water/sodium rebalancing, but I'm on the easy side of it now and find it very easy. I have realised I need a lot more calories than I originally thought as the minimum 2000-2500cal is really just for maintenance, and not for healing and a shift-working medical student that wants to go running and travelling the world person.

Health is my number one priority right now which also, apart from all the fruit, includes getting enough water, sleep, fresh air and sunshine. This can therefore take up a fair few hours of the day. We have been quite busy at work and my personal life is quite full atm therefore my studies haven't been all that they could be this week.

21 Dec 2012 is coming! Have you began to look at what you want to take in to the New World? No, Earth isn't going to blow up! It just is a prediction that it is the end of the Information Age and the beginning of the Enlightenment/Wisdom/Knowledge Age. Now is a good time to start considering what your life would look like if it came from a place of love and harmony.

Vision booking! I have a vision board but I've started a vision book now. Very exciting. I'm super-excited because I know how much they work! I have recently had another manifestation occur....

The Story

In high school there was this girl, DH, who was bullied quite a lot. She came from an under-privileged background, had the thickest glasses, the worst skin and hair, and to top it all of she had this very unattractive voice and she didn't come across too bright. Poor dear. She was an easy target. Unfortunately, although I don't consider myself a bully at all, I got swept along with it at times.

I used to dwell on the people that gave me a hard time at high school. I spent my early twenties using it for motivation to become successful so I could somehow prove something to them or myself, not that I'd ever see most of them again. Although now with Facebook, it is a little motivating again! Mostly now, however, I do things for myself and on my own life's journey without worrying about other people and their opinions.

So, anyway, as I used to dwell on my own tormentors  I one day had an epiphany that I, too, may have been someone else's tormentor  Then I remembered DH. It kinda haunted me for awhile, this idea that I could have been to someone what those horrible girls were to me. Actually, it haunted me for about two years. And about a year-or-so ago I started imagining bumping into DH and having a good ol' chat and somehow me finding a way to apologise for the years of misery I had contributed to her high-school life. In fact, I think I was sort of obsessed with this idea.

Then, at TCM school at the start of the year, there was a girl that sat in the front row. She sounded just like DH! I thought ot myself: "Is that HER?" But she was too young and had a different name. Maybe she changed her name? Maybe it's a sister? I mildly befriended this girl. She was a bit of a mess - her life was all over the shot and she seemed to be stuck in a victim-mentality to the point where ti was extremely frustrating to talk to her. But I persisted and I thought it was some-how righting the wrongs of my past doings.

Then, you wouldn't believe it! Last week I saw DH! Really, I did. I was at the hospital for work. It's a regional hospital about 100+ kms from our old stomping grounds. I heard this woman speaking and then she registered her details at the front counter and gave her full name. "OMG! It's DH!" I exclaimed to my inner self. Holy mackerel! She looked exactly the same, just fatter!

Then the weirdest things happened. I made eye contact with her and I had this sudden, overall feeling of contentedness  like everything was all right  There was no need to talk to DH, no need to apologise for being a stupid teenager. She was fine and living her new life, as was I. That was surprising.

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Anyway, that is the story. So be careful what you manifest, what you spend energy and time concentrating on because it will come to you. Perhaps with some delay. I find about 12 months to be a normal delay for this sort of thing.

Tips: don't use negatives such as "I don't want x" because all the universe hears is "x". So, don't say "I don't want to get cancer" instead say "I want to be healthy" etc.

Another tip: be very specific. I always said I wanted to be rich and then one day I was doing an assignment that pointed out that if I lived in Australia I was the top 5% richest people in the world. While that was good perspective in a lot of ways, what I really wanted was enough money to have the lifestyle I wanted without have to work for a wage.

Make sure it is what you really want. Do you really want a man with green eyes, or a man that looks at you with great love....?

Now to visualise and manifest that med school will be easy and enjoyable and that I will learn everything I need to be a knowledgeable and excellent doctor......

(Nb: I tagged this post "spirituality"as I believe getting in touch with one's intuition to be quite spiritual, however there is a lot of science supporting the thought patterns to actualisation relationship... Believe it or not!)

Not a good look?

OVERHEARD NEAR THE AMBULANCE
An on-duty paramedic quickly stops at the local hardware store with the ambulance an in-uniform to buy a shovel for some lovely Spring-time gardening after work. As she walks out of the shop very proud of her purchase (as they had exactly what she was looking for), and with a little skip in her step as she walked to the ambulance she is asked buy a road-worker:

ROAD-WORKER

"Is that for when they don't wake up?"

PARAMEDIC

"We like to bury our mistakes...."

Things are not always as at first they first seem....

OVERHEARD IN THE AMBULANCE
Two Advanced Life Support road crews, one Community Emergency Response Team and one Intensive Care Ambulance were dispatched to a motorcycle versus vehicle accident involving one male patient with a compound (bones sticking out of skin) fracture to the lower leg. The third crew ("<CREW>")arrives on scene and provides the despatcher with a Sitrep ("situation report" aka update of the situation)...

CREW (ON RADIO)

"Despatch from <Crew>"

DESPATCH (ON RADIO)

"Go ahead <Crew>....."

CREW (ON RADIO)

"This is a patient with a broken TOE after falling from a 50cc in a backyard while wearing thongs. Cancel the Intensive Care Ambulance........."

Study addiction

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but I think I'm actually addicted to studying. I think this because I've had to cut-back on courses, I continue to study even when I feel sick and have no reason to do so, I study for entertainment, I study in the bath and when I get home from work, and most of all I think it's an addiction because I study even at the cost of my health.

Meanwhile,I'm so happy with the progress I've made in the last two days. Studying without deadlines is a good way to study. I have even made my own YouTube video but I'm not sure I'll post it publicly as I am too fussy and am not happy that I left out the central spinal as a location for grey matter.

Today is all about cranial nerves. This time I want to know them back-to-front. I want to known their origin  tracts, where they emerge (foramans) and where they synapses. I want to know their pathology and lesion locations.

Ok back to it.

The 5th pass theory

I have a theory, which I have shared before, about the 5th-pass idea of learning a new topic. I first heard it from another student while studying for GAMSAT, so it may actually be a real theory that I'm in-advertantly plagirising. Anyhoo, here it is.

When learning a new topic, it takes 5 times of studying that same topic to retain it.

1st pass - brain does not recognise foreign word/idea. Mild confusion and panic sets in
2nd pass - brain recognises it has seen this word/idea before. Not as much panic but still confusion.
3rd pass - brain feels smug - it knows this complicated word.idea. Still doesn't understand it though but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
4th pass - brain begins to get a grip and opens itself up to learning this new word/idea. A vague understanding is achieved.
5th pass - brain begins to consider this word/topic "old hat". Greater understanding is achieved and the information may be manipulated and explained from a different angle.

In med school, you really need to get to at least 6th or 7th pass to be able to answer USMLE-level questions.

Today (and yesterday), I am doing the central nervous system. Here are the resources I have used to get to the point where I'm starting to understand it to the level where I could possible re-draw from memory the tracts and possibly figure out where a lesion may be in relation to the presenting clinical manifestations.

1. School notes
2. Davidson's Principles and Practice of Medicine - CNS chapter
3. Dr Najeeb lectures
4. Hand Written Tutorials lectures
5. Wikipedia
6. First Aid for the USMLE step 1
7. Googled images of the spinal cord tracts
8. Random YouTube videos that catch my attention
9. YouTube video "Memorise the Parts of the Brain" (my favourite)
10. Residual knowledge

I still have a long way to go!

My journey through medical school - the story so far

Above is a picture of all (except my neuro which is at work) my folders from studying medicine at OUM so far.  I have got them together to go through while on deferral before returning later next year.

I'm not sure why I only have one Endocrine folder. Also, I have not yet done GIT (gastrointestinal) but I have a folder there as I was trying to get ahead with some study between terms previously. I'm not sure what's going on with the "extra clinical lectures" at OUM any more since their course revisal.

So what have I achieved in 2 years at med school? 6 out of 10 of the pre-clinical modules. That's right, I'm only just over a quarter of the way through! Bear in mind that - I'm only doing 3 out of 5 terms per year before deferring, and I began my academic year in March (not January) in 2010.

One of my favourite rules of life is that everything takes twice as long and costs twice as much as initially thought. Med school seems to fit quite nicely into this idea.

The good news is - I'm super-keen now to get back into it. I'm totally motivated and ready to focus on this one degree only!....

Well, I can't blog anymore as I am due back at work from my fatigue break. 

Misogynist

I'm working with The Misogynist today.

Patient: "Is this job hard?"
TM: "Nah. They even let girls do it."

TM: "Have you been sitting in this chair?"
Me: "Yes. Why? Is it too low?"
TM: "Nah. It's just weird."
Me: "Weird?"
TM: "Kinda girly."