nambour week 2

mood: excited about tomorrow.
state i'm in: damaging the dalton.
tune: bryan ferry 'time on my hands'.

nambour viewed from the west

a few things are starting to take shape as the second week of my internal medicine rotation comes to an end. most importantly for the short term, i think i am gaining an understanding of what is required by my assessors. but even more exciting than that, i am starting to feel as if i have some worth within the medical team. i have made a couple of contributions to patient management (21-hydroxylase adrenal antibodies may yet prove to be my coup d'etat of the rotation), and am slowly coming to grips with form after form and reams of progress notes to be filled out. i feel i am making some encouraging headway.

however, nothing hardens my resolve to become a doctor more than the tremendous power of the relationship between doctor and patient. when a patient or one of their kin shakes your hand, and thanks you, or expresses their faith and hopes in you... well, it is very difficult to describe the power of that connection. there is such an enormous gravity beholden to the plans we make for and with our patients.

this is not a rant about how much power a doctor might have, and how intoxicating such power might be - i would hate it to be viewed as such.

what i would like to express is the immense pride i am filled with in myself, in my profession and those affiliated with it, including the patients themselves, for embarking together on the endeavour to reach a common goal - that goal being the most satisfying outcome for the patient. so often this runs in the face of our own naïvety or the challenging nature of many of the patients and their circumstances, but there is never an instance when we have nothing to offer, even if it is merely genuine compassion. it is such an awesome feat to witness at such close quarters.

storm front rolling over alexandra headland

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images: mine

g'day

mood: calm.
state i'm in: where's the cheese?
tune: mylo 'zenophile'.


this video reel of bloopers from 'come and get it' just surfaced earlier this month. who'd have thought peter russell-clark would have had such a potty-mouth...

nambour week 1

mood: a little down...
state i'm in: such a pleasant place to not be on holidays.
tune: tori amos 'cornflake girl'.


i took today off, which means my first week in nambour was over prematurely… just a three day week to start with.

whilst seeing a patient yesterday, a man in the next bed arrested, which must be the most exciting thing that has happened thus far. i have not seen such a cataclysmic convergence of medical staff before in my short career, from a nurse tapping me on the shoulder to help, to her then realising I was a lowly student, then grabbing the intern to check the patient, then there were a dozen then twenty or more hospital staff members standing around observing this man’s chest being compressed to a third depth, or assist in handing something requested by the resuscitation team. i just stood idly by and watched.

other than that, my first week has taught me that really i have few answers. i cannot answer my supervisors with certainty of my correctness, and i cannot answer many of the patients’ queries due to concerns of not saying what the reg or consultant would say. i cannot do the job as good as anyone else can, so it makes doing any job at all tough.

nevertheless, i am willing to persist for now, in spite of my mother’s warning me to beware of the noravirus infection in nambour general, pressing on hoping to one day become competent in something.

the most i can say for now is that my efforts in my first week have been a quite self-deprecating endeavour.

at least life on the sunny coast is pretty good - beach nearby, friendly locals, and a comfy house to live in with a couple of good roommates. not all complaints up here.