The BF

So.... I said I'd never talk about my love-life on here, but someone has become a major part of mine and it's hard to keep things separated. I've typed then deleted a number of posts mentioning him which never got published, but today I had to re-jig my schedule to accommodate my BF. Typical. LOL

My darling BF (boyfriend), who is atm in my mind the most wonderful person in the world, lives some distance from me. We have been seeing each other about 7 months now and we've just decided to try and spend our weekends together every week, in sort of a part-time living together arrangement until other arrangements have been made. This does severely impact my study schedule, but for two months I've been trying to get my study all done during the week and it seems to have been working well so far. I've also attended online lectures at his place and studied there as well, and he is so sweet and doesn't mind watching a some revision videos on the couch with me at home. Cute. He totally gets how important medicine is to me and wants to be as supportive as possible and not selfish like so many blokes are.

He is a social worker and works in Child Protection for the Government and is wanting to do post-grad psychology and become a clinical psychologist. He grew up on a farm and has those lovely country good-values and utter brut strength which is so attractive in a man (as well as his pure good-looks). So that is him.

It's all shiny and new and wonderful.

But I digress.

I can either drive or catch the country "fast-train" (in Australia, the fast-train is about 0.30x the speed of the Japanese Shinkansen) to his. Driving is a tiny bit quicker and both probably cost about the same as my car is so economical on fuel. I personally prefer the train because I can study on it, eat and drink, there's a bathroom on board (it's a long trip), and I can even sleep on it if I need to. I find it less exhausting. Remember that I drive long distances for a living!

Anyway, I've had to change my study schedule, but like I said, it is fluid as is life - things are constantly changing.

Also, I'm glad I can talk about my BF now because we are planning to build our sustainable house on his land that he already owns - 5 acres in the bush. The project is moving slowly but we have a long deadline of the end of next year which takes a lot of pressure off. Currently we are up to having it surveyed etc so I am sure I will start another page on here about the progress of the house once we break ground.

And.....lastly, my new housemate is finally sort-of moving in this weekend! Well, she is setting up her room and will be staying here on the weekends I'm away at the BF's, which is two a month. I have to clear out that room (it's currently my guest room. My gym will be the new guest room and the front living room will double as work-out space) today - there's not much in there, just two single beds and extra bed linen etc in the cupboards. She will move in permanently when she sorts out her job and hours etc.

The dog is very excited to have his best friend, my housemate, alternating weekends with his other best friend, my BF.

So, as usual, it's all very exciting! I love my life!

Kitty gets collared

I've had enough of kitty's killing. Today's dead bird was the last straw. Now she must wear this reflective and bell-adorned collar.

Running with the dog

I took the dog for a run today during my 10-hour fatigue-break. I normally sleep the whole 10 hours but today is my last day at work for the week so I got up earlier in the hope of sleeping tonight at a reasonable time.

The weather isn't the best today but I thought to myself that that is the reason I have all the cold and wet-weather gear. We managed to stay dry on the 2.5km run but my ears are still frozen.

So today I wont have much time to study at work as it is such a short day for me now but that is ok because I actually got ahead yesterday. I discovered that I need to take more regular breaks now that I'm actively in calorie deficit but I was still able to get a lot done.

Motivation = 0

I find myself in this position at the desk at work often lately....
So, yep, I dyed my hair back to my natural-ish brown a few months ago after experimenting with black first.
Motivation: I'm going away again this weekend so it needs to be done NOW. Also, I get to start a new case study today! Hoorah!


(PS I don't know why my phone is don't that weird grid thing, but I am too lazy to use my fancy DSLR camera I bought last year and upload it when I get home. I'll try and take some more attractive photos soon.)

Ok everybody PANIC!

I had my lecture this morning and I felt like I knew NOTHING! I'm at Code Yellow. This is not an unfamiliar territory - I seem to do this to myself every term.

Dreading the quiz.

I hope I don't stuff up my good grades with a crap score this term.

If I could have afforded it, and done 5 terms a year, I would be up to clinical placements by now my motivation would not be flailing.

Ugh.

But I must remind myself it is the journey and not the destination, and this is a marathon and not a sprint.

If this is a marathon, right now I'm on the really boring bit of the loop, right at the back of the course, it's flat and barren, but I've come too far to go back and I'm in the ranking for a medal so I can't slow down to a walk now.....

iPad and no service

I've been trying to blog this weekend but my iPad Blogger app wont work and I'm not get enough signal strength on my mobile anyway.

So, my boss quit and now he's been packing up everything this weekend. It's so sad. He has been going though his stuff and found a lot of old paperwork he doesn't know why he ever kept in the first place. It has made me think I really need to go through my draws in my study at home and the top shelf of my locker at work. I generally take pride in having a clear in-try and in-box.

Being a vegan is going really good for me! My diet and workouts have been going really well too. I just had to motivate myself a LOT and during the day if I think of inspirational things I write them in a memo to myself in my phone.

Study - I have done a bit this weekend but not as much as I should have done to catch up (for various reasons - work, personal life commitments). It's ok. I'm not panicking just yet.

Move on

The one good thing med school teaches you is to not get behind. If you get behind on your study too far, you simply don't have enough time to catch up.

I've had a bad week for study this week. Naughty me. I have no choice now but to do my best over the next 4 days and move on. One could probably adopt this philosophy to many aspects of their life.

TG it's stroke so I have at least some residual background knowledge from being a paramedic. Being a paramedic alone, I must add, is not necessarily enough to do well in med school (uh, duh) and in my four years as an ambo I have done extra reading and looked up cases in my own time to understand the pathophysiology much better than we were expected to know in paramedic school.

Vase

Oh no, my favourite vase that my friend gave me for my birthday about 6 years ago is leaking :-(

In this photo you can also see; the rose I picked from my own garden, the table ny friend gave me when she upgraded, one of the four chairs I snagged for $8 at the local opshop, the water feature I've had "in progress" for about 18 months, and the small vege patch with dog-proof fencing made from my old boundary fence when it fell apart.

Easy money

Well I've successfully managed to procrastinate quite effectively this week. I DID get to do my neuro quiz 2 last night at midnight, and my score of 60% will unfortunately have to do. I spent too much time on the ventricles and not enough on the lobes. Fark.

As far as the research project at work - my contact has suggested I email my uni(s) to see if I can get any academic credit for it. She sent me some examples of the sort of article I could produce with the same sort of epidemiological data from work. It looks achievable. My only concern is the examples have three or more authors and I'm on my lonesome. Hmmm....

The vegan thing has been going remarkably well. In fact, I don't think I realized I was already half-way there anyway. I'm also trying to reduce the amount of soda I drink, especially energy drinks.

I worked last night on overtime. I got paid 12.5 hours at double-time and literally did half an hours "work" which involved driving to the next town only to be cancelled due to a closer available ambulance. Nice. The rest of the time I watched tv (I'm starting to like the mind-numbing experience of watching tv again - I must break this habit before it forms), did my quiz, and slept. :)

I tried to study before the quiz but my brain was not functioning properly. I just thought "stuff it" and attempted it as I was running out of time limit. Oh well, at least I know they will be easy grades to pick up in the final exam.

So time to break my study drought and return to the books.

Smile

Smile everybody! It's Australia Day!

Skinny Bitch

So somehow I got reading another fitness blog yesterday and she recommended the book Skinny Bitch. Well, it was $7 on Amazon as an eBook so I thought - what the hell. I don't think I've ever read a book in only a few hours but I got through this one yesterday arvo.

I was tricked (and it worked).

This book pushes the political agenda of veganism. There's a whole chapter on slaughter houses and the cruel things people have said, and have been quoted, to do to animals. My minds eye has been scarred. I cuddled my dog all last night because I was so sad about what people do to animals.

I'm already a "friend" of The Institute for In Vitro Sciences and The John Hopkins centre for Alternative to Animal Testing but I might look a bit more back into this now.

I know slaughter houses aren't pretty places, but geez, it's much harder to not think about it now, especially after my terrible recent experience going roo shooting.

I think I have become an instant vegan.

So my background is I was vegetarian that ate little diary for a while. And I have been, what I call, a "part-time" vegetarian for years. That is, I am quite selective about what meat I eat and I probably only eat meat once a day on average (which is not much when you compare that to three times a day for most people). I make the best choices that I can, and I don't buy leather (my work boots are leather but they are standard issue and I don't get the one pair I'm entitled to a year), and I always get free-range eggs. I also like tofu and soy milk and rice milk.....

So now I'm a paramedic, a med student, a Masters student, trying to get fit and healthy, trying to live sustainably, trying to live simply, AND and friggin vegan. Ugh.

My main concern is when I travel - I might not be able to be so selective. But thinking about it, in Samoa it should be really easy as they have no dairy industry (they have coconut milk), no cattle industry (almost everything is imported frozen), and I think I can avoid the seafood too.

I plan to chronicle my vegan adventures here on this blog now too.

Wish me luck.

Word of the day

"Streptococcus bacillae"


This is part of my series about the days when I sometimes wakeup with a word in my head. It's usually something I've been studying and if often long and complicated, so perhaps I've been repeating it to myself during the day.

Anyway, this morning at about 3am (when my dog woke me to let him out) I had the word "streptococcus bacillae" in my head. It is not a real word, but a combination of the pathogens I was studying yesterday in my bacterial meningitis case study.

Too early 2

This morning began when I got rudely awoken by a phone call from New York - ok so I should have been up already but my alarm didn't work (I sleep through alarms when I'm that tired which is always worrying when I'm at home on-call). We have downloaded the latest version of Securexam and my fingers are crossed that I'll be able to do my quiz today.

It's research day today (wow - that came around really quick), so I'm just deciding whether to stay up or go back to bed for two hours before journal club.....me thinks beddy-bed-bed time.

Yesterday I had my new express 1-hour mentor meeting. It's too brief, but what can one do. My mentor thinks it's better to continue meeting weekly for the hour rather than fortnightly for two hours. My supposedly compensatory 1-hour academic advisor's meeting (via Skype until they can recruit some Australian academic advisors) really only lasts for 10 minutes, so I'm feeling a little ripped-off. I didn't feel well-prepared enough for my mentor meeting and I'm sort of kicking myself. I felt like a tool. I'll make sure next week I am the expert of hemiparesis.

In good news - I got a phone call last night from a student who is in his clinical rotations and he is absolutely loving it. He has managed to secure the best, most competitive core rotations at the best hospitals. It turns out he used to work for a pharmaceutical company and therefore....it's who you know sometimes. But what I'm so grateful for is he, and he classmates, are paving the way for the rest of us and doing so with a positive attitude. Big thank you to them. He also put my mind at ease a bit and said to keep over 75% in modules and I will be well -prepared for the clinicals. Whew. He also reminded me what a little gem Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine is, and I read a little in bed last night.

Too early

It's too early to be up on my first day off. The sleep bank part of my schedule will have to be moved to Wednesday.

I'm currently on a 10 minute break from my three hour lecture, which will be followed by my weekly hour Skype call with my academic advisor, which will then be followed by my in-person meeting with my mentor. Whew. After that I will attempt the weekly quiz, but I'm not that optimistic as I still haven't completed last week's due to technical difficulties which I hope to resolve tomorrow morning at 7am with a Skype call to New York.

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.

FA Organ Systems Review

I got my First Aid for the Basic Sciences General Principles two weeks ago, and my FA for the Basic Sciences Organs Systems arrived two days ago. I didn't get these two books intially because of the bad reviews on Amazon, but I have to say - I'm loving them!

I'm sure the second editions, when they hurry up and release them, will address the issues and I wish they would release an errata like they do for FA for the USMLE Step 1, but I can cope with them how they are.

For me, the visual lay-out is important. It needs to flow and be organised like the way I like my mind to be organised. I have spoken about the importance of gestalting before.

Anyway, I love them. I used FA Step 1 all the time. I almost never use the Kaplan versions "MedEssentials" due to the clunky lay-out.

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I've done a little more work on the research project this morning at work, so I'm happy with how that is travelling - nice and stress-free. I wonder if I can make it into the professional magazine we have called "Response" by Paramedics Australasia and whether that would be good enough as a "published" article for my residency applications as a start. For my Masters I will have to do something bigger and better but this will be an excellent learning opportunity and at the very least it will help me next year when I get to that stage.

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Pretty much loving life right now. This helped me put things in perspective this morning:

Enjoy....

Happy anniversary

Happy anniversary to me! I't s four years today since I started at my job. Woo-hoo! Oh how the time has flown by....

My co-worker today (30 years in the job) asked me if I thought I would still be here after four years, given that the average paramedic lasted only 7 years in the job when I started, and now that figure has decreased to five years (or so I have heard). And the short answer is - I was already considering medical school but if my ambulance service allowed me clear career progression and other things such as time off without pay to work, say for example in an aboriginal community or overseas doing aid, then, yeh, maybe I would have been more satisfied to stick around. But from what I've heard, the longer a paramedic stays, the more they cost the company, so, really, encouraging ambos to stay longer is not a priority it would seem.

Access

Internet access is obviously very important when studying a medical degree by distance. I am trying to figure out how I can access my mandatory lectures online when my work computer wont let me download Java, which is essential. And my iPad doesn't allow Java either, which I think is the worst idea Apple ever had.

My mobile phone allows a "hotspot" but I have to figure out how much data and speed I'll need to use Elluminate, and then I'll friggin have to dust off the old laptop which annoys me as my desktop and ipad are brand new.

Sigh.

Well at least my old laptop still works.

Speaks for itself

New plan works well

Well it was amazing what I accomplished yesterday after implementing my new study plan. It certainly helped me keep on-track and not get distracted doing other things.

Last night, after all my readigs for the day were done, and my eye-balls were tired, I was able to watch a bit of TV on the couch completely guilt-free! My house is still nice and clean and organised(-ish) and things are going great.

This morning I went for a run because I know I have enoug time for today's readings afterwards, although I am back at work which makes my study time a little unpredicatable for the rest of this week!

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My dog escaped again this morning but thankfully he seems to now always go to my neighbours house at the end of the street. She is retired and often sits on the bench in her front yard so I guess he reckons that's a pretty good place to go for company. He escaped by pushing out a front window (I have no front fence) which I only left open by about 5cm for airflow. It's one of those ones you wind out on like a bike-chain type thing. I hope he doesn't decide he can push it out from the fully closed position too!

The poor thing. I hope he can wait until I can have a second dog soon.

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I have managed to take my second step towrds this research project by emailing the grant people at the government. Apparently I need to register my profile on their system first.

Research day

Tuesdays on my schedule are research days. I attended my first Journal Club at med school. It wasn't as painful as I'd predicted, and it is really good practice to go through these articles as a group under the guidance of two experts.

One of my former classmates is ahead of me and is in her clinical modules. I heard they added a research block and she mentioned her clinical research project in the class today. It looks like I'll be doing a number of research projects in the very near future of my career. After this post I will work more on my current project proposal.

There is something about adding to the human knowledge-bank that is extremely appealing, and even more  so when it is about helping sick people. Today's article was about Alzheimer Disease and it feels amazing to be among doctors and clinical research scientists that are part of a human effort to combat disease. Humans, as a race, do some many things wrong, but I feel more optimistic when I think about the things we do right, like advances in medicine, science, technology, and space exploration! (Been watching too much Star Trek lately....)

Readings

I just counted up all the pages I was expected to read this week:  451! Four-hundred and fifty-one pages of information-dense medical textbooks in one week PLUS a three hour lecture, one-hour journal club and accompanying journal article (add another 5 pages), a weekly mentor meeting, and a weekly academic advisor meeting AND the 27 page case study... Ok so now that's 483 pages!

Not. Gonna. Happen.

If I studied 7 days a week for 8 hours a day that's 9 pages an hour (or the recommend minimum 40 hours would be 12 pages an hour, plus the lectures and meetings).

Faark - I better stop blogging.....

Stealing

The contractors building next door firstly asked to use my power one day (I only allowed them to for a few minutes) and now another group is stealing water from the house across the road (which was repossessed by the bank). I highly doubt they have permission.

My friend said she allowed the builders next to her to use her power when she was at home which she billed them for but one day she came home and found them stealing her power without asking!

I'm glad I told these builders I had no external powerpoint, and that my dog is big and scary, and that I'm home 7 days a fortnight.

Where are the morals? I might have to padlock my taps and powerpoints!

Get the services connected already!

Neuro week 1

I just had my first neuro lecture - 3 hours zzzz. Actually, it's quite interesting. How can one not marvel at the human body, especially the brain?

Thankfully I have today off work because I haven't prepared enough for the quiz which opens....now. This term it is open for three whole days! Wooooowwww! I have tomorrow day off too so I might delay it, but, yes, I run the risk of losing time for my second case study which is on bacterial meningitis, which, along with stroke and trauma, are the only neuro focuses with have in ambulance practice.

It also never ceases to amaze me the level of knowledge we're supposed to have coming into the lectures. It's truly revision only. As students of this course we seem to teach ourselves almost everything. I generally prefer this. In my bachelor degree I preferred to just go home and read the slide notes or whatever. I found the lectures took too long to cover a topic. But, occasionally, I do miss live lectures, which is one of the reasons I think I trawl the internet looking for video lectures where I can, just to break up the reading. You can find a lot of these on my page page tab above called Resources.

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My dog is constantly barking at the builders next door. He hates their nail-gun as they put up the roofing frame. Sadly, my road is being developed. But on the other hand it should only increase the value of my own property as the new homes go up. The new neighbours seem very friendly.

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I started my Schedule in full today and I don't know why I'm so excited about it. I think it helps alleviate the mind of these stress of trying to fit everything in. Ever since I handed over my book-keeping to MyBudget and now MySchedule in place, my mind feels a lot freer to concentrate on the present task at hand. For some reasons I thought being spontaneous was freeing, but now I see with how far I need to stretch my finances and time, that detailed planning is much more liberating!

Almost a doctor

Free notes from almostadoctor.com



I've just added a "Resources" page which has links to the online stuff I use - a lot is free! Woo-hoo!

My schedule

I've already had to make some changes to my schedule. Firstly, I didn't leave enough time to accomplish the readings. Two days is definitely not enough. Other than that the trial run went well this week and I look forward to implementing it in-full tomorrow morning. I'm also going to limit my bloggings to max 10 minutes per day (it usually only takes me 5 minutes) and my Facebooking the same. The timer on my watch has come in handy a lot this week.

I slept for 19 hours yesterday. I drank two iced coffees and a cappuccino at my mentor meeting yesterday, which went really well btw. Coffee in high-doses (or probably more specifically caffeine) has a paradoxical affect on me. It really knocked me out and my afternoon nanna nap rolled straight into bedtime. Wowzas.

Today I bought a bucket to cart all my cleaning gear around to save even more time. I am really amazed at home quickly some tasks can be done and I'm sure they will be even quicker once a more regular cleaning pattern has been established.

I also put a collar on my cat with bells and reflectors on it to stop her killing. She hates it. I've locked her inside today to keep an eye on her so she doesn't injure herself trying to get the collar off. She hates me now too.

Well that is all. I am now going to try and get through the remaining readings for the neuro case (which is Multiple Sclerosis this week) and prepare for my lecture and mini-quiz tomorrow, and then, a new case!

One week down already!

My Progress

I've just worked out how to add a new page - it's called My Progress and there's a new tab at the top next the Home. It's to have an updated status and timeline of how I'm going through my studies. It nervously includes my grades too, so please be kind.

Wow - I'm getting good at this blogging stuff....

In the loop

I'm a little behind my own schedule, already, in week 1! But that's ok as I have the weekend off to go hard.

I have the readings to do which, as usual, are more than I have time for.

Yesterday I have no idea how I wasted my time at work. I was sorting out things and emailing back people and then the new oxygen bottle supply people came and blah blah blah. I began reading about the brain stem and then got distracted.

I have my weekly phone call with my academic advisor shortly, then after that I'll plan out my weekend hour-by-hour.

In other good news, I spoke with the new person at the MESA office today (the Australian OUM contact) and he was very optimistic about 2012 for OUM. And so am I. They have really shaken up the course a lot and improved it. Also, he put me (back) in contact with a student ahead of me who has managed to secure some amazing clinical rotations at the top hospitals in the state.

One thing I must admit in distance learning is that it's difficult to keep "in the loop". I don't know ANY of the students in my Masters degree and I'm only really in regular contact with two OUM students which I got to meet face-to-face at a dinner they had when the school had it's Melbourne visit from the accreditation body.

Ok so I must go back to the books now....

Endo grade

I finally got my final endo grade back. It was a little better than I thought at 82. I averaged my quizzes at 85 but only got 75 on the exam which really shocked me. I'm so disappointed I performed so poorly considering so many questions were repeated and it was my best (I thought) final exam prep ever. Whatever!

So, have to try and improve this term although neuro isn't going to take any prisoners!

BTW I have to get over 80 on my final pre-clinical in-house exam (which has other scary basic sciences in it which aren't covered very well in the case-based modules hence me studying molecular bio on my holidays this Summer) before they will let me attempt the USMLE Step 1, that is, 80% is virtually a "pass" at my med school in my opinion but noone got over 89 this term in the whole school. Go figure! I have no idea how this compares to other med schools.

Anyway, I think my grades so far are as follows:
1. Introduction to Medicine 83
2. Cardiovascular 84
3. Respiratory 84
4. Musculoskeletal 87
5. Endocrine 82

I'll try and post about how I go in  practice step exams etc, but OUM has had a major curriculum change starting this year with the ITM module becoming 20 weeks with hurdle exams, that is, if you don't pass the bi-weekly exams you have to, at the end of ITM, take a 4 week "foundation" course in that particular basic science are that you failed in. It seems really good. To recap, my plan is to attempt the IHE and if I am deficient in an area and need extra tuition, I will do the foundation class then. I have about a year to get up to scratch.

Ok that is all. I must go get this ginormous neuro reading done today. A whole chapter!

Research

So I've been in contact with the fairly young research and evaluation department (R+E Dept) at my work. I have been thinking for awhile I should try and get involved in some sort of project and preferably have something published to help boost my job potentials for when I'm a newly-minted doctor. The R+E Dept was extremely helpful and have encouraged me to do my own little project! Eek! The lady I spoke to also suggested that I use the project as the one I need to do to complete my Masters next year. I thought the gap was too long, but when I started reading through all the paperwork and deadlines for research grants etc, it's really not at all. I'll keep you posted with how I go and what I'm going to look at, but I think I have a pretty good idea how to tie in my three worlds of ambulance, in-hospital medicine/primary health care, and international health. Exciting!

Another thing she said is that there are 17 people in my ambulance service currenlty doing their PhDs! Holey-moley! It was about 2 years ago the first EVER paramedic got his PhD in a paramedic-related field. Boy, how things have changed since we transitioned into university-based training (for the old on-the-job model). This is encouraging news for an academic that likes to remain clinical like myself. Geez I'd love to be a doctor in the ambulance service....

Other update - my boss quit. I am now the longest serving member of my ambulance station at just 3.5 years, and the most experienced paramedic at 4 years. Geez. I don't have to worry about any big bosses reading this when I say I do not want to take over the newly vacant position. I'm already studing med, my Masters, I'm the Health and Safety Rep, and, oh yeh, sometimes I do have something that looks like a LIFE! The position does indeed pay well/better but it would annihilate my downtime and that wouldn't be good for my studies.

What else? Minimal study yesterday but I got a fair-few things ticked off my to-do list, some of which were imperative like paying my tuition fees! Now that was an effort! The bank lady made me repeat at least 8 times the amount I'm sending and each time it really hurt.

Home-made

Here is a photo of the spice box I made and one of the lunch bag my sister made for me.

Taking my lunch today...

Time-orientated

Back at work and yesterday was busy again but I did manage to finish reading my case study. It helped a lot that it was a short one. I also listened to more podcasts. I now have the readings to do today.

When I got home from work I watched some Kaplan and generally stuffed around until I decided my new goal would be to stop studying by 9.30pm each night and go to bed (in order to sleep enough before waking at 6am). I stoped at 9pm last night and watched the first two episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise Season 3 which I just got in the mail. It was good to relax but I don't find watching tv as stimulating as studying so I don't know what's going on with my brain physiology but that doesn't seem normal!

I've also been implementing a new schedule to try and clean for 15 minutes a day during the week. I once saw a book with a similar title (I didn't buy it) and the concept has remained with me. I am keeping a record and will post about it at the end of the week.  The main gist of it is 15 minutes of cleaning a day Monday to Friday, then one hour of a "special project" on Saturday for which I have been thinking about how I want to spend my hour. Right now the top contenders are organising my wardrobe, cleaning the skirting boards, and organising the pantry. I got a bit inspired and made a small tray for my spices in the pantry. I used a shallow box (the one my Kindle came in) without the lid and covered it with fabric I already had using craft glue. I labeled it and it looks kinda good. I can't afford Conformerware right now, so fabric-covered boxes it is! The next one is for the pasta packets.

Anyway, I have been applying the "time-orientated vs task-orientated" theory into practice with the house chores. This is something medical students must learn about studying med. There isn't enough time to study everything so a student must switch their study plan to fit the time they have, rather than the task they have. It seems to be working well for my for housework this week.

Ok to the books now... I brought in Davidson's (Clinical), Robbins (Patho), and Guyton and Hall (Physiol), and a neuro textbook I borrowed form the library which is not the recommended one - I'll have to try and find the Nolte one....

Studying where I can

We have had an unusually high case-load at work for the past two days. I've resorted to listening to my podcasts in the ambulance and studying at the hospital while waiting for my partner to finish his case sheet.

Last night we worked until 3.30am so my study was done where I could. The picture is me studying by internal ambulance light at midnight.

Interesting morning

It's only 10am and I've already had an interesting morning. Firstly, driving into work there were 4 sheep just wandering the town's streets. Secondly, I went to a nice car vs tree. Noone was hurt.

TV for pets (3)

What's happening in the world this morning?

Please excuse my front lawn - it looks like it has the mange. It was all chip bark and I'm starting to seed some grass there. With the weather we are having my garden is starting to resemble the jungles of the tropics that I love so much.

Neuro

So I technically start the neuro module tomorrow, however I am late with my tuition fees. They won't allow me to enrol without the first month's instalment paid, which is ~$2000. I have up to the end of the week at the latest. After Christmas, going away and not doing any overtime, and being a little too relaxed with my money, I got myself behind a bit and I've had to grovel to my parents for a short-term loan. The way this year is shaping up, I doubt there will be any overseas trips happening (although Bali is on sale currently at $450 return....). These are the sacrifices we have to make I suppose.....

I did just get back now (on the train) for a lovely weekend away into (a different) country-side. It was wonderfully relaxing before I start back at med school again, despite my harrowing first experience "shooting" (hunting). I was just the driver and everything was done humanely and no meat was wasted, but it was dreadful. I wanted to see what happens for myself, and I even forced myself to watch the cutting up of the meat although I felt quite ill.  I said to my friends if I go with them again I will drive and not get out of the front of the ute.

If they weren't so safe with their rifles and strict with what and how many they kill etc I'd want nothing to do with it. They only shoot roos, rabbits, and foxes, and never wallabies and avoid getting female roos (due to the risk of joeys in their pouches). I would eat roo (kangaroo) if it was humanely shot and properly prepared and we only took what we needed and I didn't buy additional meat from the butcher's, etc. I just need to learn how to cook roo so it's not so gamey. I'll have to ask my friend in Alaska who makes moose spring rolls for some tips. I also need a special fridge to "hang" them in, which just feels so creepy. But logically, I think it's better to just take out one small roo out of a herd every few months and do it properly, than to consume a lot of meat from who-knows-where. After-all, roos are a real pest to the local farmers, despite how cute they are.  It will be a much greater leap before I'd see myself eating rabbit......

Anyway, my first neuro case study is Multiple Sclerosis. I asked my lecturer to email me the case study as I can't access my stuff on the OUM website until I've been cleared by the bursar and register. At least now I can make a start this week.  Also, I had a "first-pass" read of the FA neuro section and it looks intimidating to say the least. As a paramedic, I'm pretty good with strokes - both ischaemic and haemorrhagic. After that, I have no clue.

I also start back on-call tonight, so I guess I'll get organised for that now and try and do some study on-call (and wait for the comments to arrive from PETA...)

Train training

Studying on the train... Listening to the first neuro lecture podcast and flicking through FA Basic Sciences General Principles...

QandA

So I've been doing more BrainGenie biology (can't wait to do the chem section too) and looking at my new First Aid Q and A for the USMLE Step 1.  I see there are only a few DNA questions, and if they are they are very much clinically related, and more about lab techniques such as Southern blot methods etc.  So, my goal now is to go through the QandA book and revise the questions I don't know.  I will skip the ones that seem to be patho related in the hope that I will cover those in the appropriate coming modules, ie I should know the cardiovascular, respiratory, musculoskeletal, and endocrine ones by now but not the neuro, haem, immune, gastrointestinal, renal, reproductive etc.

From what I'm hearing from students ahead of me, the Final Pre-Clinical Exam, ie the in-house barrier exam before Step 1, is very difficult to pass.  A pass is >80%.  I am concerned.  I only got 75% on my last exam. At least it has motivated me to do better.

I'm feeling like I really want to be an emergency specialist right now.  I wont be too upset with general practice, and in fact I'd probably prefer only emergency and paediatrics ahead of GP.  If I did GP I'd love to do rural. I'd would LOVE to do emergency training in Australia or the US. Either way, I feel I need to, somehow, do even better this year. 

I think I can do it.  The pieces are slowly coming together.

The main thing I need to remind myself to accept is - in medicine, I can't go on auto-pilot. It's not easy for me at all.  I remember friends saying stuff like "studying medicine isn't hard; there's just lots to remember" and I've made similar comments in the past.  Well, I find some of studying medicine hard! I'm finding the biochemistry particularly difficult to understand in enough depth to be able to answer some of the Step 1 questions. I'm finding it hard to remember all the different clinical presentations of different diseases and what distinguishes one from the other when there are so many and so many overlap.

Studying medicine has already proven to be a formidable challenge and I'm really enjoying it! I've definitely made the right choice in career path.
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I'm really loving reading the Mothers in Medicine blog. I've never come across such amazing people and writing.  They way these women, and sometimes men, describe their dual loves for their careers and family, in a compassionate and intellectual way, makes me feel all gooey inside. Getting a peek inside the brain of a female heart transplant surgeon who flies in a jet with pregnant belly - priceless!

Butterflies

I love butterflies and this warm and humid weather we're having is making them come out in swarms! Beautiful!

I bought this plant when I saw it for sale last year because I noticed it was the same one I had seen butterflies hanging around on my walks with the dog. It grows like crazy and has these strange purple pokers covered in tiny flowers.
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I just looked this plant up in my What Flower is That? book and it is called a Buddleia Davidii and it's common name is "Butterfly Bush"!

Studying at work again

I'm up to my old tricks again - that is, studying at work during down-time.

I'm really hooked on the BrainGenie lectures. I'm taking what I'm learning there and cross-referencing the with my First Aid for the USMLE Step 1 and Kaplan medEssentials revision books. The lectures have helped me a lot - now when I look at the stuff in the books it is starting to look and feel familiar, although there is a scary amount of depth in the "revision" texts and the BrainGenie lectures did not go this far.  i will need to recruit more resources.  I also need to have a look at some practice questions to get a feel for how they want me to manipulate the information I'm learning.

I just spent the first hour at work revising my work Clinical Practice Guidelines, and now I'm back to my current BrainGenie addiction.  I've decided to go further than what I came for and use all their biology and chemistry lectures if I can, although this may take awhile to go through.  They are so interesting.

It's nice to study for pleasure for a change.

New Years Fitness Resolution

After working until 5.30am I got up "early" and did a workout. It is now only 3pm on 1/1/12 but I've already refused donuts, bbq shapes, chocolate and coke.

I got my Nintendo Wii in 2008. Today is my 1333rd day since I started using my Wii Fit!

BrainGenie for a non-scientist

I'm struggling through some of the science disciplines in my medical degree.  This is most likely due to the fact I did not do any science past grade 9 in high school except for a tiny bit of intro to biology and physics in my first year of my paramedic degree, and my terrible attempt at self-study for the GAMSAT.

Seeing as I'm working on becoming a doctor, and the USMLE Step 1 has some of this stuff in it, I thought I better learn what DNA is etc. Scary thought, isn't it? A doctor that doesn't really understand much about DNA and genetics.  Luckily, I only need a fairly basic understanding of these things and I came across a gem of a website called BrainGenie.com . It seems to be for primary and secondary school students but it is FREE, and has good quality, clear lectures.  I'm currently going through some of them now, and I might even refresh on my long division while I'm here.

The BrainGenie lectures wont be enough to do well in the Step, but it's a good starting place before moving on ad adding more detail.  I believe one needs a good foundation to build on.

I also have a "5th-pass theory". I heard it somewhere and kind of butchered it a bit.  It might even be a real theory of learning.  But my theory goes something like that the "first-pass" or first time you see a new piece of information, your brain is thinking "I've never seen this before. It is completely foreign to me. Scary". The second-pass you brain says "I think I've seen this somewhere before, but I can't remember what it is exactly". The third-pass "Oh this again, what is it again?" Forth-pass "Yep, I know what this is" and finally the fifth-pass your brain says "Oh! This old thing! Yeh, that's easy!".

Sometimes the first-pass needs to be gentle...

Back to reality

I'm well-and-truely back to reality - I'm back home, back at work, and back into studying!

Today is the last day of 2011 so I'm having my last McDonald's breakfast hehehehe.

On today's agenda - at work, so normal work duties which are minimal, but I would like to clear out my locker ready for the new year. We have new Clinical Prctice Guidelines and I was waiting for my new copy to turn up but it might be weeks so I will look at the electronic version instead.  There's my Masters readings and I can even do the first two assignments for one subject if I wish, presuming they haven't changed (much) since my first attempt.  Then there's the molecular biology I threatened to learn about of before next term (which starts on the 9th of January) and my academic advisor keeps asking me about but that is going down like drinking nails. I hope to find some good YouTube videos on that subject because my textbook is about the most boring thing I've ever read in my life.

That's about it.  Oh yeh and making my home gym more gym-like and less laundry-like and getting good, healthy food ready for my New Year's resolution.

Samoa skips a day

My medical school is based in Apia, Samoa. Tomorrow, they will skip Friday altogether and jump straight to Saturday, therefore jumping into Australia and New Zealand's date/time line/zone thingy-me-bob.

Samoa changes time zones


The picture above crudely shows the line that separates today from yesterday.  It 's just "Samoa" Samoa (formeryl known as Western Samoa) jumping forward into the West towards New Zealand, not American Samoa which makes it a little confusing. 

I see the logic that Samoa does a lot more business with New Zealand than it does American Samoa, nevertheless it would make a confusing short journey from Pago in American Samoa to Apia in Samoa.

Whew.

Just two years ago Samoa changed to driving on the left sid eof the road instead of the right.

They are going through a lot of changes atm as they move forward into their development.

Flying home

Just at the lil' airport on my way towards home for a wedding tonight.

Vineyards

Tasting too many wines at theocal vineyards....it is definately the weather for it.
Can recommend Goaty Hill...

ATVing

Just had a lovely afternoon on Dad's ATV on my parents property. There are heaps of butterflies and wallabies....very nice indeed.

Gone on holidays...

This is the view from my Mum and Dad's house.

Today is beautiful weather. Yesterday was my xmas and I got to eat lots of yummy food and drink too much champagne!

My flight was delayed for four hours from Melbourne due to a nasty hail-storm but I managed to make it by 3am!

Time for an afternoon nap me thinks....

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

Tight-ass home-maker tips

I just managed to score some curtains, railing, and rod from the local op-shop.  I'm so impressed.

The "good" op-shop (the big one with furniture) is only open 11am-1pm Fridays and Saturdays. If I'm passing by I often stop in to have a scout around.  I'm convinced that if you have a small wish-list in the back of your mind it's easier to wait for what is suitable/affordable than trying to find it straight away.  It's easier if you can accept that you can live without curtain netting until you find the right stuff.

All my windows came with blinds but I put up curtains in the bedrooms to block light creeping in through the cracks on the sides.  They were very cheap, light-weight ones from the cheapie shop ("The Warehouse"), in just simple charcol and gold.  In Cambodia, I picked up two matching massive king-size bed sized silk fabrics which I converted into curtains and look great. 

I've had my eye out for some netting for months. There are three windows in my house that could use netting for privacy but it seemed so expensive from the shops.  I found some that were acceptable in design/colour (not too old granny), were in good condition, and the right width and length.  Excellent.  There was also a good rail I got for $2, and I asked and they managed to find my a curtain rod tucked away in the back. Excellent.  Everything cost me a "donation" as they are moving locations - so I just gave them $8.

I'm currently washing the curtains and I look forward to putting them up when I have some time. I'll put up some photos when they're done.

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Edit: If you have trouble deciding what looks crappy old op-shop and what looks ok vintage, try looking at modern versions and think about what you like about them.  For example, my dear friend has top-of-the-range netting curtains at her house. I was checking what made them look modern and expensive, compared with the granny-flat ones I see at my patients houses. Some things to consider are:

• Colour - some colours look more tired than others, for example some cream colours can look like white that has yellowed with age, but some whites can look cheap too. Complimenting the rest of the room is a good way to have things fit well into a room.
• Texture - I'm really into the tweed-like textures atm. Consider whether a finer or coarser texture would look best to you in the different situations.
• Natural or synthetic - one of the best things I like about the bigger netting I just bought is it appears to be made from natural fibres, ie a wool/cotton blend.  This gives a sense of luxury and can be a real find in op-shops as it was the preferred material a few decades ago. Now it's all cheap nylon and synthetics.
• Pattern - a modern or classic pattern can be a world of difference from a daggy 1980's/90's one. I'm really into the deco era and shudder at the sight of anything I had in my house when I was growing up.
• Less is more - A few op-shop pieces, even curtains of furniture can looks good if they are maintained in a good condition. Having your whole place decked-out like students accommodation where you display everything you have every owned gives a slightly different feel. 
• Condition - as above, a well-maintained item is essential.
• Be brave - so what if your $4 curtain doesn't look so good when it's up? You only lost $4, not $240. Unless you're expecting a visit from Home Beautiful magazine this week, try again, get creative, express your artistic side, and try again.

Good luck.

Xmas to ambos

This is what Christmas looks like to ambos:

• Drunks
• Domestic and other violence
• Intervention orders
• Lonely old people
• Lonely people in general
• People awake causing trouble when they should be asleep
• Hoons
• Car accidents
• Emotional manipulation
• No time off/missing out on the festivities
• BBQ burns
• Food poisoning
• Alcohol poisoning

And that's just the ambulance staff!! hahahaha

When your life is not on hold

Wow. It feels so relaxing to only be working full-time on-call, without (mandatory) study.

It's amazing how many things in life can occupy your day when you have the space for it to do so. It's not all bad. Some of it is necessary in order to maintain a certain standard in my house and personal appearance, and to be able to help out friends, catch up on my Star Trek dvds (I'm going through the Enterprise series atm), and then there's that thing I really think is important called "sleep". I did a few things at work like organise my in-tray and catch up on some paramedic clinical stuff. I slugged on myself today also on some beauty products just for a treat.

I didn't study at all today. Tomorrow is Friday already. I've given myself until the end of tomorrow to sort out my house, as I'll have to pack on Saturday ready for Sunday's flight. Although I don't need all day to pack, I need to leave plenty of buffer-room due to my work. I am predicting this weekend might be busy due to the warm weather we're having and that it's a mega-long weekend and Christmas and all.

Today I probed my group manager about the possibility of part-time paramedic work and job-share in the region.  He was fairly optimistic about it which is a great reaction - quite polar from the attitude when I started.  I'm about two years off (in my conservative projection) from ceasing full-time work to complete my clinical placements in medicine, but I thought it might be nice to sow a few seeds early.  Two years can go fast in the paramedic world thanks to shift-work and people being on annual leave all the time, up-ward relieving, and so-forth.

Anyway, off to bed to try and keep this adequate-sleep habit going...for now.

Australian bureaucracy

ABC Radio Australia News:Stories:Australia blocks Pacific doctors from training programs

A Guide to Working Abroad for Australian Medical Students and Junior Doctors

A Guide to Working Abroad for Australian Medical Students and Junior Doctors

Masters

So I'm doing some reading for my Masters subject, which doesn't commence until late Feb, but as you may recall I dropped out of this subject about a year ago and I retained my hardcopies of the first 5 modules and their readings, and my first assignment.

I'm also looking at the new cool educatin portal work has put up. It has learning packages in the forms of videos and quizzes. Well, actually it only has two videos at the moment, but that is where it is growing to.  Our new Clinical Practice Guidelines have also been released and I can't wait to get my new hard copy soon.

This is my classroom

My study is all tidy and vacuumed ready for another round.

Another new med school in Aust

Rob Oakeshott delivers new medical school | The Australian

People just don't get it

I don't know how many times I've tried to explain my work situation to people. They just don't get it.

I love the look on people's faces when I describe my roster: utter disbelief.  Try explaining it to my university lecturers - the word "excuse" has been thrown at me a few times, and it happened again today, soI'll try and break it down again, as an example week - this week.

Monday - off during the day, overtime tonight 1830-0700
Tuesday - off during the day, perhaps sleeping depending on how busy Monday night was. Start on-call at 1830.

Tuesday 1830 - Sunday 1800
I'm on-duty 0700-1830, and on-call 1830-0700. That's 24 hours of the day, continuous for a week.  I go into the ambulance station during the day when there is one computer and Elluminate, Skype, and other programs essential to my study are blocked and cannot be un-blocked.

During the night I go home with the ambulance and pager. I can do what I want within an 8km radius of the ambulance station, providing I can be ready to respond from the station within 10 minutes of receiving a page. This means things like swimming, running distances greater than 3km, cooking a roast, having a glass of wine, dyeing my hair, etc are all very difficult to do whilst on-call.  There is very little within 8km of my station. No restaurants, no cinema, nothing except my house and a small supermarket open until 9am during Summer trading.

What happens if you work all day and then get paged all night? Generally we keep going. I have worked 24+ hour days before Not such a good idea when you're diagnosing and treating life-threatening emergencies without back-up, working in an unpredictable and sometimes dangerous environments, and, oh yeh, driving an emergency vehicle sometimes at high speeds in all sorts of traffic and weather conditions.

Fatigue breaks are a life-saver. Fatigue breaks are 10 hour breaks where we cannot be disturbed, paged, or contacted. This is the "bali" or "mercy"  signal. The "I cannot go on any longer" call. It's just enough time to go home, try and switch my adrenal glands from "stress" to "relax" maybe have a shower and something to eat, maybe feed my dog, and try and sleep for about 8 hours while they are building a house next-door, pray to God nothing happens int he town while I'm off, and then get up and find a new uniform and do it all again.  It's really great when I've been up to, say, 7am, tried to sleep during the day until about 3 or 4pm, go to work for a few hours, then come back home and try and sleep at night when my body clock is out.  I often can't sleep that following night for ages (I wonder why) then I still have to be up and at work on-duty at 7am. My circadian rhythm says: "Hey! You had me awake until 7am the day before and now you want to get up at 7am!? WTF!?" It can switch like that, back-and-forth, for the week.

All of this, and it's completely unpredictable which nights I'll work all night on call-outs, where and when my fatigue breaks will be, when my down time will be, which nights I'll finally get to eat a home-cooked meal etc.

So that is how my roster is. This is why my academic advisor can't understand why I can't give her an exact day and time to call her on Skype when I can choose anytime this week. This is my life.

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Good things about my roster:

• We get paid well for having no life. Call-outs are at double time (double rolled-in rate, actually, which includes penalties etc) and even when we're on a fatigue break, we still get paid.
• Most times, we only do about 3 jobs a day. "Jobs" take about 3 hours each, with leaves us with 15 hours in the day of "down-time".  It is best when the down-time is during the day as we get paid single time for the day shift anyway, and nights are busy where we get our double rolled-in rate.
• There's always overtime going due to dropped shifts and fatigue breaks.
• I live <1km from my work. I often walk there when I can.
• I have a  work vehicle (the ambulance) when I take home. My private car does little kms.
• During my down-time I have few work duties. We have a cleaner, sometimes we put away stores, we clean the ambulances when needed  - the rest of the time I can study medicine.
• I get 10 weeks annual leave a year.
• I don't do actual "night shifts" so if I'm fatigued at 1am, I can stop working at 1am for example. 
• Rosters like mine are often in small rural towns where the work is much better quality, i.e. the cases are genuine - the patients are actually in need of our services and not wasting our time.

I love my job - there is no question about that. But my roster is sometimes a killer, and it's difficult to explain to people why I can't commit to a Skype session.

The aftermath

Trying to get my life back on-line.  I have half a day off now to organise the other areas of my life that got neglected and de-prioritised while I was studying.

Today's goals:

• Groceries shop
• House work
• Mow lawns (unlikely)
• Take a look at finances/tuition fees
• Print boarding passes for Tasmania

This week's goals:

• Finish off and print out final (post-exam) revision notes for endocrine system and store for final pre-clinical exam in 2013
• Clear cupboards in guest room and second bathroom for new house mate
• Hang newly framed picture of Potala Palace
• Make a study plan for Summer break (Masters, microbiol, PT, neuro)

Results

Well I've spoken to two other classmates and 75 seems to be the going mark for the exam. 75 is the new 85. I feel I deserved an 85 in my mind but it is some-what comforting knowing it was the exam and not me.

It's my work xmas party tonight which should be fun.

Endo over

I just did my two quizzes and final endo exam.  The two quizzes wen really well. I got 90% for each. Then I did the final endo exam. I thought I'd done ok, maybe my normal around 85% but I only got 75%. I don't know why.  I felt way more confident than that seeing as for my quizzes I averaged around 83% and had done heaps of revision and a lot of the questions were repeated except for, maximum, 5 questions on reproductive hormones I didn't know very well but think I got at least one or two of those right.

So, I've calculated my overall module score should be around the 80% mark which is, depressingly, my lowest grade yet.  Even lower than biochem.  I was thinking I'd get my highest grade.  In fact, I'm so shocked at how bad I went I've emailed the curriculum coordinator to double-check all my answers were recorded.  I can't believe it.

A little bit down now but glad it's over.

My dog is big but cute

My dog is doing this thing lately where he gets all cozy amoungst the cushions on the couch.

That's his "Why are you studying and not paying attention to me?" look.

Free Google books medical textbook list

If you haven't heard of Google books yet, it can be a little gem.  Not all books are available on there, and the ones that are are usually missing pages due to copyright restrictions and you usually can't print the pages, therefore you might have to supplement with borrowing from the library and/or photocopying the pages you need, before upgrading to a $1 secondhand >10 years old version, and then finally being able to afford the lastest edition (or at least one less than 5-10 years old).  It can be a real pain if your med school references specific pages in specific editions which is what my med school does, but you can still work around it if you're really tight on cash.

Here are a few links to books that are on my core textbooks list at my med school.

Lippincott's Biochemistry
Davidson's Principles and Practice of Medicine
Robbins Pathologic Basis of Disease
First Aid for the USMLE Step 1
Guyton and Hall Medical Physiology
Martin Neuroanatomy

There's quite a few more textbooks in my well-established library now, but that's just some examples of the ones I have in hard copy which are available in part online for free.

If I was Google books and book publishers I would make everything available and just charge per page or per view in a sort of iTunes format. They'd make money for sure!

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Study is going well but I'm sort of getting bored of it. Can't wait til it's over and I can start a new topic.

Revision day 9/10

Well darn work has gotten in the way again.  I was called out until 4.30am this morning so had to sleep until midday today.  Back at work again now.

I really can't be bothered with my revision notes anymore.  I'm seeing flaws in them everywhere and I'm getting really disheartened because of it.  I've been watching some Kaplan videos on endocrine physiology instead which is going well, but there are so many of them to watch and I'm afraid I'm not retaining much.

I found out I am doing neuro next term so I can look at that as soon as I've done my endo exam.  I also looked and I forgot I enrolled in two Masters subjects next term - I don't think I'll do both but I'll wait to access the course materials before I withdraw before census date (cannot miss the census date again!).

My house is an absolute disaster and it's starting to do my head in but I can't do anything about it until after the exam.  I hope none (else) drops in on me unexpectedly before then.

Big weekend planned of fun - can't wait!

Revision day 8/10

I'm back at work today and have done a little ambulance work and am now studying and trying to memorise my revision notes.

I'm making a few quick notes as I go through of things I feel I don't properly understand why the answer is the correct answer and a few physiol/biochem/pathology processes which haven't organised themselves in a meaningful way in my mind yet which I am worried I will therefore forget after the exam.

That is all. Must go read and re-read these notes now because I want them done by today so I can look at a few other things like the videos.

Revision day 4-7/10

Revision days 4-7 were spend not studying anything other than my lovely revision notes.  I had a work function in the big city and then public duty at Meredith Music Festival.  Today is presentation day and the last lecture for endocrine.  Woo-hoo!

So, revision days 8, 9 and 10 will be revising my notes and hopefully watching Kaplan and reading some other pathology notes at work during down-time.

All is going well and I can't wait to be done in a few days so I can start looking at other things.

Doctor in Training

This is me watching my Doctors in Training lecture at my desk. I <3 my new mac.

No matter what I do though, the pictures from my phone (Samsung Galaxy II) always upload sideways! I also don't know how to rotate it once it's in Blogger. Tilt head for now....

You know you've been studying too much med when....

...you start to describe butterfly wings as "lobes".

Revision day 3/10

I did very well yesterday, if I do say so myself, which, of course I do.  We didn't turn a wheel at work so I got cracking at 7am and kept going through to 5.30pm where I stopped studying and did a few branch duties before I went home.

My revision notes are looking friggin fantastic, if I do say so myself.

Keeping with tradition, I've banned myself from Facebook until I've done the exam which helps eliminate at least that distraction.

I studied so well that when my neighbour asked me to join her for a bbq at the park I was able to attend guilt-free!  The 3 drinks went straight to my head and I slept straight through from 10pm to 8.30 am so now I'm feeling pretty good this morning to keep going.  I've just accepted an overtime shift at work tonight from 5pm so my goal now is to get a lot done before then, despite the weather being so beautiful today.

It will probably take me from now until 5pm to finish making these revision notes as there are over 100 questions and quite a few are clinical vignettes which is a paragraph or so of writing. I have 14 pages so far (!) of just revision questions, so it's a lot to organise and I have to watch the end of a few lectures to get a few more questions.  I'm also sorting them into weeks which are themes, such as "the thyroid gland and hyperthyroidism" and "the adrenal gland and Addisons" and then under each week I've separated the questions into science disciplines, i.e. embryology, anatomy, physiology, pathology, pharmacology, etc. I'm hoping this will help my mind in gestalting.  If I had more time I might colour-code a bit more than just the headings and subheading, but given my schedule for the rest of this week that is unlikely.

And, no I haven't been able to start watching my Kaplan or Doctors in Training videos yet.  Next week maybe.

Overheard in the ambulance

OVERHEARD IN THE BACK OF THE AMBULANCE
After quite a lot of coaching and coaxing by the paramedic to try and get the elderly female patient to use the penthrane inhaler correctly (penthrane is an analgesic methoxyflurane which is inhaled through the mouth using an inhaler which is confusingly shaped like a whistle.  It can also have some neurological side effects similar to drinking alcohol...) the patient finally got enough pain relief on-board.

ELDERLY PATIENT

"Thank yooooooou"

PARAMEDIC

"That's alright.  All I want to do is make you feel better."

ELDERLY

 

"I looooove yoooooooou...."

Exam revision day 2/10

Yesterday we were so busy at work I only got about an hour of study done.  I used that time going through my practice quizzes from week 1.  Some of them are from my case study, some were given in the lecture, and some I jotted down after the weekly quiz that I could remember after each week.  That in itself was actually quite good revision.  I have about 20+ questions for each week which makes about 120 in total for the module. I think there's 100 questions on the final exam, so I reckon my revision notes are going to be a good asset to me.  Stay tuned and I'll let you know!

So now I'm going through all of the revision questions I have for endo and seeing how many I can get done today.  It's easier to motivate myself and concentrate on revision questions because I know I'm not wasting my time doing those, rather than reading some obscure chapter which may or may not be useful to me at this stage.

I also started watching some of the Kaplan DVDs yesterday but kept getting interrupted (how dare people call for an ambulance when I'm studying!) and then I put them on again last night and I fell asleep in the couch at 8.30pm I was so tired.

Ok back to the revision questions.  I'm retyping them all neat, underlying key words, making sure I understand why a correct answer is a correct answer and why the incorrect ones are incorrect. Some of it is pure rote learning but not much - those ones I'll cram before the exam.  As I'm retyping them I'm actively revising rather than just zoning-out.  I'll be sending my revision  notes to my friend in my class too, so that motivates me again to make sure all the answers are correct so I don't stuff her up.

Hopefully I'll finish these notes by today or early tomorrow so I can do the Kaplan videos, my Usmleworld Qbank, and I also bought a few Doctors in Training USMLE Step 1 videos for "Solid Pharmacology" and "Solid Internal Medicine" (Solid IM is new to DIT).  I've bought a few of the appropriate endocrine lectures.  They are usually $12 each for about an hour plus notes, but they often have sales where they are $9 each, so if you go on their mailing list you get notified of these.

Excuses

I get approached a lot by people, especially other paramedics, about the possibility of them studying med.  I must say, of all of them, only about half again would consider OUM.  It's just too alternative for most.  I've fielded a few phones calls over the past few weeks. It must be that time of year.  Only one I know is actually going through the application process now (power to you!) and one or two are studying for GAMSAT this Summer.


The amount of times I've been approached by people that have a bucket-load of excuses and never go through with it is incredible.  Most common excuses are "can't afford it" and "don't want to go back to study". The most honest reasons I (barely ever) hear are "I'm afraid of failure", "I don't want to be at the bottom of the pecking order again", and "it looks really hard".


I remember when I did the MedPrep course (and excuse me if I've already told this story before) and the lecturer said "If you don't give it your best and keep trying until you get in, one day you'll be sitting the in the GP waiting room with your children telling them the story of how you almost became a doctor".


I had an anatomy lecturer in my paramedic degree that told the class how he used to be a medical student.  This guy was about 55 and used to being a medical student was still his identity.  He had to go to work at that same university every day and teach medical students and he couldn't even hide his regret. Imagine that?


Blaming your children for not doing something is gold. I mean, how can I reply to the best excuse of all which is "I can't afford my mortgage if I got back to medical school".  It's so true.  You probably won't be able to afford that mortgage you have. And I know the feeling.  I mean, I did almost exactly the same thing - I chose OUM to retain my lifestyle over moving 3000km away with no money and the prospect of another 4 years of two-minute noodles.


My point is; we don't all have to act on our dreams of someday becoming a doctor (or an astrophysicist or whatever). But if you think you might be that person in the GP waiting room one day, sitting there in regret, which your children can read all over your face, then that might cost your soul more than your mortgage repayments.


I don't want to put even more guilt on parents, especially seeing as I'm currently childless.  I just want to say there's lots of people who are "want to's", who are "gonna be's". I ask those people to really think what's stopping them. Is it the lifestyle change, or is it fear of something else?  It is a hard thing to do, I know.  And even if you can admit to yourself it's fear of failure, acting despite of that fear can be almost impossible.  I know it.  Because I'm the opposite.  I just have to act - I can barely contain myself!

Studying for final exam

Today is the first day of study for my final endocrine exam in 10 days..... and  I don't know where to start.

I'm at work so I need to get myself sorted out asap because I never know how my day, or week, will end up.

Ok, off to start looking back through the case studied and practice questions.

In your end-o

Today we did the first half of the student presentations.... and I'm going next week!  I've finished my presentation this morning in case I was first up and to get it out of the way before revision week next week.

It's nearly the end-o of the endo-crine module and I really like endocrinology.  I also really liked biochem, cardiac and respiratory so far (not so much musculoskeletal).

My lecturer said she's doing neuro next term, so I guess neuro is on the list of possibilities for me.  In fact I think she said she was going to request that I be in her class because she is also my academic advisor right now (I'm supposed to have one in Australia but there is none currently in that position) and she wants to tutor me in molecular biology and other basic sciences to help me for the USMLE.  It is such an amazingly generous offer, but half of me is thinking "oh no, not MORE study!  i have bought the textbook to do the MITOpenCourseWare free online course in mol bio, so I hope to do that over my 4 week break.

I have been concerned about my finances for enrolling into next term, but I've decided I will find that $3000 somewhere, even if it means borrowing it, which I really don't want to because of the high interest of repayments and my budget is already stretched - so repayments with interest is not exactly ideal.  Plus, I have those clinical modules coming up for which I need to SAVE money, not borrow it.  That is why I was hesitant to borrow, but I've decided to do so anyway (if I need to - I have a few pay cheques coming up before then) to get these preclinical modes out of the way.

I just got sent a Google-alert for the following article which is talking about the numbers of females in medical schools has now passed the number of males and they are predicting soon there will more female doctors than male doctors in Australia, especially in certain specialties - no points for guessing that those specialities are the "family-friendly" ones some of the female medicine specialties.

Rise of women doctor numbers in Australia

(PS the title of this post is a quote from Scrubs)

Meerkats

I got home from taking a patient to the new Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne last night at about 2.45am.  It has a giant two-story round fish tank in the emergency waiting room, and a meerkat enclosure! It also meant my day was 21-hours long!  It hurt.

In the ambulance on the way to pick up the patient (it was an inter hospital transfer) I was on my iPad working on my presentation for med school.

When I got home I stayed up finishing it off so I could submit it before the 9am deadline.  Now I'm back at work again and trying to write down some notes to make it sound good when I present it.

Wish me luck.

Oscar's Law

Today I got to meet the Oscar from Oscar's Law.  Oscar's Law is a campaign to help all the "Oscars" by abolishing puppy factories.  Oscar is a dog that was rescued from a puppy factory.

A personal appeal from Untitled founder CJ

Is Wikipedia or Google the best website on the internet today?  Hmmm... tough question.

Anyway I just made my donation to Wikipedia's annual appeal.  It's ad-free, for crying out loud!  And I use it ALL the time.  I got told once by a reliable source that they did research and found Wikipedia to be more accurate than Encyclopaedia Britannica (or one of those big ones) - edit: I just researched Wikipedia's accuracy on Wikipedia and it says "as accurate" as Britannica, but I'm unsure of how accurate that article is.

Untitled will always be ad free also.  Firstly, I find ad annoying and especially on personal blogs.  Secondly, I did the AdSense once and didn't even make 1c.  So, I promise here today on this post, this blog will always be ad free (links to my own personal wish list is excluded if I can finally one day figure out how to have a link to my wish list on here and allow things to be sent to me without my home address being revealed).

Anyway, random.

Update on proctor

So.... I rang my internet provider again, just to see if anything had changed, and they told me I had gone over my limit and was being shaped.  I thought this was strange because I had just changed my plan as I analysed my usage over the last few months and I was under 5GB per month.  He couldn't tell me what I was downloading due to privacy (but I was like - it's my internet!) but he told me the day I used the most.  I looked through my history without any luck.  And then I looked at my credit card bill - I paid for and subsequently downloaded the Usmleworld QBank that day which cost me 1GB!  Well, I dunno if it was all Usmleworld but it was on that same day.  Geez.

So I changed my plan up again to 10GB and at the fastest speed but still no luck with the Securexam software.  Then I got out my LAN cable (ethernet) and I tried and tried, I turned on and off my internet router, and I restarted my mac, then I shutdown and then started up my mac again, and then finally I could get enough speed to get into the friggin quiz.  Geez.

I read in the local paper that the National Broadband Network (NBN) is starting to be rolled-out in the next town to me.  Maybe by the end of my degree my internet speed will be fast enough to use software from the US.

Ugh.  Sigh.  Whatever. As long as I can do my final end of term exam without stress.

Now to do my presentation while on-call.  Can't wait for this term to be over.

Remote proctor hell

In case anyone was wondering if I've completely lost my marbles due to all the cooking and de-cluttering and little studying... the answer is most definitely yes!

Kidding.

I tried to take my weekly quiz for med school this morning and my "bandwidth test" failed.  Repeatedly.  It says my internet is too slow.  WTF?  Geez.  I can't win.  I'll try later while on-call until my time runs out and then I'll email the coordinator once again.  I'm sure I'm off his Christmas card list.

I was on the phone to North America somewhere yesterday morning, way too early for me anyhow, and we went through a few diagnostics.  I'm starting to think upgrading my iMac to the OS Lion wasn't such a hot idea.  I also couldn't take the practice test on the OUM website because it isn't there.  WTF?

So after studying and avoiding studying yesterday and today for this quiz, I have been called into do some OT at work and I'm gonna take it in the vain hope I can scrape together enough funds to allow me to study next term.  Very vain hope indeed.

The good thing is my study mojo is back, and not soon enough.  I have my presentation to finish in the next 36 hours and I also have to try and get it from Keynote format to Powerpoint which I haven't done before.  Hopefully that will work without a hitch.

And then there's next week - revision week! (Add sound effects suggesting doom here).  Eek!

Well, I must go get back into the uniform and check my life at the door on the way through because herein starts another cycle of day-shifts spaced with on-call shifts until..... Tuesday 1830h.  Sigh.

Home-made marmalade

Before I moved out to this little town you could say my motto was something like "Can't cook, won't cook".  I even considered doing one of those bachelor's cooking night courses at the uni. Out of shear necessity of needing to eat more than just 2-minute noodles I started cooking (occasionally).  Cookbooks drive me mad.  I don't like to stick to set volumes and times, but I do draw inspiration from recipes I find online or wherever.  I prefer to improvise and get creative.  I think that's what I like about rural and remote medicine - you don't always have every latest and greatest test or piece of equipment at your disposal.  But I digress.....

Here is my recipe for home-made candied burnt-orange marmalade I made (made-up) yesterday instead of studying.  A lot of the recipes I saw add pectin, but I did not.  I used citric acid as a preservative, and lemons, but I have no idea how long they will store for.  I'll be keeping mine in the fridge until my preservative skills improve.

Candied burnt-orange marmalade
Ingredients:
10 oranges
2 lemons
1 cup of water
4 teaspoons of citric acid
1 cup of castor sugar
Saucepan
Jars for storing - wash well in hot water to minimise bacteria and allow longer storage
Labels
Makes only about 500mg - 4 tiny baby-food jars.  Double recipe as required.


Thinly slice four oranges and two lemons with their rind still on.

Cut up the remaining six oranges but discard the rinds.  Cut the flesh into chunks about 1-2cm cubed.

Places the oranges and lemons into a non-stick saucepan.

Begin to cook on a moderately high heat and begin adding some water so they don't stick.  Continue adding the water so the oranges and lemons reduce but don't dry out too much.  Stir as necessary.

Add the citric acid and stir-in well.

Add the castor sugar and continue reducing the juice and water on low heat and mix in well.

Keep a good eye on it now as it will start to candy and burn.  I've got no idea how long this takes - maybe 15-20 minutes.

Once everything looks jam-like and there is no runny juice or water allow some of the rinds to just burn a little on the pan and then remove from heat.

Put into jars.

Can be used as marmalade on English muffins, or as I prefer in cocktails or ice-cream.

Burnt-orange cosmo
30mL vodka - any, seriously.  The cheap stuff is fine.
30mL Cointreau (or Chambord for a bit more berriness)
Cranberry juice (or pomegrante juice, or even ginger beer for the "mule" version)
Candied burnt-orange marmalade
Chilled martini glass

Mix together and enjoy responsibly!