Under pressure

Wow - what a weekend. Been at the BFs again. Got spoiled by him a lot. We also picked up a baby miniature donkey to foster for a while on his farm. So cute.

I'm back on the 12wbt bandwagon. I'm glad to say that missing last week didn't have any majorly negative effects.

This week - I'm at work all week until Sunday night. I will be: working out in the back room, cooking up a storm, studying for next weeks exams, and preparing my house after work for my parents who are coming to stay next week.

Today, I made a nice berry smoothie for myself and my housemate for breaky and a nice Thai pumpkin soup for myself and my workmate for lunch.

Oooh - exciting news. My blood pressure is down to 115 (systolic) now! Yay! Hibiscus tea must be working. I had a massive weekend (alcohol+++) and am feeling under pressure with these exams and my parents coming to stay, and I was nervous to have my BP read again, and I haven't been taking the three cups of hibiscus tea per day like they did in the study, but still I'm so glad to be "normal" again.

Nasty work

It's my last 2 hours at work for the week, it's 30oC, and I cannot wait to get home and get the barbie fired up (and the sav blanc opened).

I'm feeling good about this week and the study I've done at work. We weren't very busy this week so it made it a little easier. I also managed to catch up with some friends from uni (paramedic degree) and it's always great to do so.

I'm feeling a little sooky this afternoon as I overheard a nasty job unfold down at the beach. These types of things always make me want to go home and hug my loved ones and not let go. Life is so precious. My other superficial worries don't seem as bad this afternoon as they did this morning.

Xmas and work - wow

We had a massive 24-hours at work - there was so much work, and big jobs too, going on around the area and of course we got sucked into that vortex.

Very sad jobs too - sometimes this time of year can really suck.

Last night we got sucked into Melbourne and had trouble getting out due to, as per usual, there not being enough ambulances to meet the demands.  I did, however, get to do my first heroin overdose! We almost never see them out in the country.  We see pissed people that have hurt themselves.

It was such a stereotypical job too - at the top of public housing flats, many hands on-deck - police, fire, security, us.  Very different to what we're used to and quite a novelty.  Our patient was also stereotypically ungrateful for having his life saved.  It was just as it appears in the movies.

We were ramped (suck in the hospital triage with our patients on our stretchers waiting for a free bed) with our ungrateful OD and another crew brought in a drunk man in business attire who was virtually unconscious, and five weary ambos standing, waiting, and one ambo said around midnight: "It's Christmas now.  Merry Christmas......" and there was about five minutes of silence as we looked at where we were and who we were with.  This is our life.

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Tonight when I finish my shift I get to get on a plane and fly to Tasmania to see my Mum and Dad. I cannot wait :D

Grounded

I'm grounding myself for the next two weeks.  Well, at least for this week.  I am waaaay off track with my study.  Apart from my normal 80-hour fortnight, I did 43 hours of call-outs over night and 12 hours of an overtime night shift.  I also went away on my days off twice.  Yeh, I'm so behind.

I'm only at Code Yellow though, because I think I will be ok if I pretty much just study and do nothing else.  This time of year gets increasingly difficult, though, as I have two work Christmas parties to attend, another social function which I promised my friends I'd go to months ago (they get a little cranky that I can never make anything and booked me in advance) and I've put myself down to work an extra shift at a music festival coming up in my area.

My final exam (for this module) is on the 15th of December, so, yeh, I've got 18 days, 6 of which I'm free of work or social commitments.

Standby to find out how this all ends!  I'm off to finish my presentation....

MoH duties

Today was occupied by Maid of Honour duties. First, the bride-to-be got sized up for dress alterations, then a hair and makeup trial I also attended (a mere ~150km from my house. Picture.), then it was jewellery shopping for the bridal party, then dress shopping for the hen. Whew!

I came home to find my dog had escaped yet again. I'm now pushing the neighbours for a new fence as it is falling apart.

Just had a nana-nap, now I'm about to get ready and go out dancing!

The Hangover

My social life was reinstated last night.  It was a big one.  At 9am on the train home this morning, still in our party gear, coats and bags drenched in alcohol, and one iPhone lighter, my friend said "Have you seen The Hangover?"  Our adventures could certainly be drawn as parallels to that movie.  At one point I nearly lost my shoes because I decided they were hindering my dancing skills.  Needless to say, I spent all of today in bed.  My dog and cat loved it.

I just splurged $5.95 for a Box Office movie and watched 127 Hours.  I heard people had fainted watching the scenes where he self-amputates his arm.  I can see why.

Now I am a bit fuzzy in the head but have a bad habit for studying.  I just want to gently read a few pages on antibacterial agents in my Kaplan notes seeing as this week is Osteomyelitis.  I just also looked at my class discussion forum,  and will just flick through this week's case again and make a list of what I want to achieve tomorrow, albeit I will be lucky to find an hour.  Monday morning might be a final look over.

In TAM news, we took some self-portraits last night at the club, and this afternoon I saw them on Facebook and I was quite impressed at how well my body has maintained the tone the TAM workouts gave me, despite me not working out very often atm.  It is inspiring me to keep working out, even if it's irregular and my diet is up and down.  Also, Triple J had Itch-E and Scratch-E on Friday and it took me back to the mid-90's electro/rave music I used to love dancing too.  I NEED their music for my dance cardio workouts.  Very excited.

Reset and recover

I spent the rest of the week since my big exam getting flogged at work.   Then I finally had a free day yesterday which combined all my favourite things - sleep-in as long as I wanted, run with dog, bath, clean house again (finally), pedicure with my bestie, then out for tea, cocktails and dancing.  Yep, it was a great day.

I have today off but am feeling totally shagged and I have a big day tomorrow at work at the music festival "Golden Plains" at Meredith, so I'm just chilling out today, although I do admit I was reading through some almostadoctor.com respiratory notes in the bath.  I really miss not having study to do, even though I'd be too tired today anyway.  Weird.  I guess it's a habitual thing.  I have the Masters stuff to study anyway so I might gently look through that tonight on the couch.  Too bad it's so darn dry.  I like learning the epidemiology stuff but much prefer clinical.

We've nearly honed in on the bridesmaid dresses and they aren't too painful.  I'll be trying mine on in about a week. Oooh - that reminds me!  How exciting - my workmate reminded me yesterday I only have one more week at work until four weeks annual leave!  Thank the Lord!!!

Lunch

Had a nice lunch with a friend at the local cafe - was supposed to be just a quick coffee, but the menu is so beautiful and a nice glass of red went down so well with it....  I only had half my glass and am now drinking an energy drink to level-out.  Feeling pretty good and ready to study....

On day 3 of 8 revision days. Not covering as much as I'd hoped (I'm nearly recovered from viral tonsilitis now), but things are sounding familiar as I read them.  Hope it's enough.....

Today

Today I have the day off work but I had to get up at 5am for my lecture, that I didn't realise I needed to be prepared for until late last night (!).  Not that I can sleep before midnight anyway, but luckily I had just gone through that topic (lung cancer) with my mentor a few hours earlier and had unwittingly covered a few of the essentials.  Luckily again, my question was semi-easy and I had semi-recalled reading about that topic.  Wowsers.

My question was: "Classify lung cancer, including prevalence of different types and 'typical' patients at risk".  One thing is for sure, if I still smoked now, I would certainly quit after this week.  Last term doing cardiovascular I was reading about dilated cardiomyopathy caused from excessive alcohol intake, and I am now really scared to drink more than 3 drinks a week, although the grueling study schedule plus the marathon training I've been doing doesn't allow for much more than that anyway.

This afternoon I finally sent my missing tasks to my lecturer.  I think the student-teacher relationship is like any good relationship - it's all about communication.  I let him know as far in advance as possible what was going on and if I could have the chance to make up for lost grades.  Even, embarrassingly, I had to admit to missing last week's lecture due to sleeping through my alarm. That does not look good, but it was the truth :/

Now, I am going to squeeze 30 minutes of gardening in as my friend gave me some plants not in pots about 3(!) days ago, and if I don't get them into the ground, they are sure to die on my nature strip, and when he walks his dog past my place I'm sure he will be annoyed.

Tonight, I am catching up with a friend for a few hours to nurture both our sanities from our hectic lives.  I do feel guilty leaving the books, but it is the one night off I have this week and I need it.

10/10

Yes!  I finally got a 10/10 on my weekly quiz.  It was the easiest so far because it was clinically and physiologically focused, which are my strong suits, and the questions themselves seemed more straight forward.  It's good to get one 10.

Six hours later.....I just did my pimping session, which went for 6 hours, with one 5 min break, which I was unprepared for!  I thought it was on Friday.  Ooops.  Luckily my question was on PE which I luckily know something about through paramedic practice.  Then straight after that I did my presentation (picture shows notes/new scrap paper).  It went ok.  Sooo glad that's out of the way.  I'm just getting used to the pimp sessions now and the term is nearly over.  Oh well, I think there will be more of it to come in my medical career....

Life update;

Res exam - starting to think maybe I know more than I think and I was just comparing myself to last term, expecting to be more advanced.  I hope res is not considered an "easy" module, or I'm screwed.

Med - looking forward to the next term off to revise everything so far and get myself back to the level I want to be at.

Masters - still think I'll try and do it on my break.  I still want it and I don't want to have to wait until I'm 55 to be able to do the sort of work I want to do overseas.  Need to double-up and make up for lost time.  Got my welcome email a few days ago.  Need to quickly have a look at that and get some folders ready to hit the ground running after the exam.

Marathon - stupidly put my run off to the afternoon yesterday and it never happened.  Going to have a nap now (only had 4 hours sleep) and have a run before I go an meet my mentor tonight.  Have to do it today.  Plan this week is to maintain my 2.5km with 3 runs and beat my time on Sunday if I'm not on a call-out with work, or Monday morning.  4.5km starts next week.

Travel - Still only have my September trip planned and to look forward to.  Maybe some hiking during March break for a few days only.  As for next year, I'm considering doing a cruise with my friends that goes to Christmas Island and Indonesia!  Looks great.

Love life - Not going to mention it on this blog.  Sorry.  Private.

Social life - Maintaining it.  Just.  Thankfully I have a few friends that don't take it personally when I ignore them for periods of time.  Have a girls dinner tonight.  Trying to socialise once a week.

MoH (Maid of Honour) - I'm also getting used to the organza, satin, and sequins and have another wedding dress try-on with my sister next week.  This time one store is a place where I would even consider myself if I was shopping for big white dresses.  The dresses there are vintage-inspired and made of gorgeous silks and Chantilly lace.

Work - Going good.  Can't believe how many res patients I'm having this term.  If I do repro next term I will be sure to deliver a baby.....

An engagement

My sister had her engagement party yesterday afternoon in Melbourne.  They booked out the whole lovely courtyard at the Hotel, with private, open, bar, gazebo, and good freinds, family, and food!  The weather was perfect.  It was pretty much a perfect day in all.