Best quote ever!

So I was sitting at lunch today chatting with Delara,

Me: "I've learned to accept that I probably won't be having real fun until the end of November..."

Del: "Yeah...when I think about how much fun I'm not having, I think of my parents. They NEVER have fun"

SO TRUE. LOLLL I love my friends.

I can't believe I forgot how awesome medicine is!

Today was possibly the longest day of classes I've ever had in a long while. I had

8am-11am Respiratory medicine GLS

11-12pm Hematology and Renal medicine lecture

12-1pm Respiratory medicine lecture

2-430pm Rural, Remote, Tropical & Indigenous Health GLS

5pm-815pm GPSN Suturing & Plastering Workshop (not a mandatory session but I decided to go because I wanted to

do be able to do some suturing and plastering in my mid year placement in Emerald)

Holy shit right? I admit I have been feeling a little stressed over the this year compared to last year. It just felt like the work was neverending that I've lost my enthusiasm for learning new things. Funny enough though, after today's epically long and tiring day, I think I've finally got my groove back on. It definitely had to do with the suturing and plastering workshop. We got to practice suturing on a pig's trotters and did plastering on each other. For the suturing workshop there were 5th & 6th year med students, a registrar and some doctors who helped out. The pig's skin was a bit tough to penetrate but I think I've finally gotten the hang of it. For the plastering bit, there were 2 orthopedic technicians who worked at Townsville hospital who helped out. It was really cool and got me all excited for medicine in general.

The sutures that I did:

The plaster my friend did on me: (I got plaster all over my bb trying to get it out to get a picture of us)

So yeah, I can't believe I forgot how awesome medicine is!

Learning the proper rowing technique

This is a great site detailing the proper rowing technique:

http://www.concept2.com/us/training/technique.asp

This is definitely one of my future wedding songs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OayhO9K7LDs

He sings with so much emotion this live version gives me the shivers.

You Make It Real- James Morrison

There's so much craziness surrounding me,
There's so much going on it gets hard to breath
When all my faith has gone you bring it back to me,
You make it real for me

Well I'm not sure of my priorities,
I've lost sight of where im meant to be
And like holy water washing over me,
You make it real for me

And I am running to you baby,
You are the only one who saves me
That's why I've been missing you lately,
'Cause you make it real for me

When my head is strong, but my heart is weak,
I'm full of arrogance and uncertainty
When I can't find the words, you teach my heart to speak,
You make it real for me

And I am running to you baby,
You are the only one who saves me
That's why I've been missing you lately,
'Cause you make it real for me

Everybody's talking in words I don't understand,
You got to be the only one, who knows just who I am
And you're shining in the distance,
I hope I can make it through
Cause the only place that I want to be is right back home with you

Reflections on my 2 week Queensland Ambulance placement

I did my 2 week end of year placement with Townsville’s Hugh Street Queensland Ambulance. I rode along with 2 advanced care paramedics. I did 2 lines (lol doing lines make me sound like I’m doing coke) with them – basically 4 back to back 10 hour shifts with a 2 or 3 day break (can’t remember if it was 2 or 3) followed with a 4 back to back 12 hour shifts. The 2 paramedics I worked with worked very well together, were laidback and were very approachable individuals which greatly helped my learning as I never hesitated to ask any questions.

One thing that really resonated with me was their excellent bedside manners no matter what hour of the shift it was (boy oh boy, the 12 hour shifts were pretty brutal especially during the wee hours of the morning- I did fall asleep at one of the chairs while waiting for the patient to be admitted to ED and one of the paramedics got a snapshot of me doing this...very professional, of me I know). Be it infants, middle aged or older aged individuals of the same/ different race or gender, they were able to connect on a level with them for them to give them the sort of trust such the patients felt comforted. At the same time, the paramedics could also get a good medical history.

During these 2 weeks, I mainly observed though I got to auscultate a patient. That’s the extent of “clinical skills” I got to do. Taking blood pressure manually was out of the question since they carried automatic bp cuffs and I was completely fine with that. I was told to cannulate but I wasn’t trained to do so, so I graciously refused. Despite just observing though, I learned a wealth of knowledge with regards to ECGs, types of drugs administered and the methods by which they are administered that affected the drug efficacy. Some cool things I learned that I can’t wait to practice (who wants to be my pretend patient?!?!)

- For cannulating patients, you have to start in the distal arm before trying it in the cubital fossa

- I learned how to find a good vein to cannulate properly and how to cannulate patients in a bumpy vehicle (it requires some skills for sure!)

- For psychiatric patients, you can directly ask them bluntly if they wanted to commit suicide and expect them to give you an honest answer (how about that for not beating around the bush?)

- They can administer oral glucose (glucagon), glucose via IV or via intramuscular injection (which I thought was pretty cool because when I was volunteering on SERT we only carried oral glucose)

- Patients with angina are usually prescribed with beta blocker drugs that help lower their heart rate, so when these patients are administered GTN (glycerol trinitrate) without having their blood pressures checked (uh-oh! Bad news bears), their heart cannot compensate the loss in blood pressure

- They administer various pain relief medications:

o Methoxyflurane (inhaled analgesic)

o Morphine sulphate (injected analgesic)- this one has stronger side effects like vomiting and nausea

§ It also lowers blood pressure so you’ve got to be careful if you wanted to use them in patients who just used GTN aka nitroglycerin

- Other than learn cool things, I got to visit quite interesting places. I got to see the inside of a holding cell at a police station, went and treated a prisoner (to be honest I was a little scared haha), got to visit Palleranda Beach. I definitely got to see more of the things I don’t see on a daily basis (i.e domestic violence/ assault). The one thing I wished I got to treat and didn’t get to treat was a drunken disorderly. I thought it would be fun since it would remind me of SERT and responding to all those drunk students saying gibberish and remembering, at one point in my life, I was like that.

In 1^st year of med we learned about interprofessional relations multiple times between healthcare professionals and it was during this placement that I saw it in play firsthand (between the triage nurse, the ED nurses, paramedics and the ED doctors and you could say the cops as well). The handover of patients to the triage nurse at the emergency department had to be concise. The paramedics had to paint an accurate picture and how significantly it affected patient care outcomes.

The most memorable activity that I undertook was transferring a patient to the Royal Flying Doctor Service. This patient was being sent home for pallialitive care. His partner was very emotional and I was also getting very emotional as well as she started talking about her children and how hard it was to lose the father of her children. I decided to steer the conversation away from her dying husband and got her to talk about her children and her future aspirations of them. This particular case was so memorable to me because I was moved to tears by a stranger (though I tried very hard to hide it) and felt her pain and felt honoured in a strange way that I got to spend the last few days of his life with him. What was also heartbreaking was the fact that the paramedics had told me that her husband might not even make it through the night due to his deteriorating condition and her not knowing it, but at the same time, me feeling like it wasn’t my place to be telling her that for fear of making her feel more devastated. In a way, I felt helpless. The bright side of things were that he had one of the most aggressive type of brain tumour and had 2/1/2 years of healthy life despite being only given 8 months to live. (I’ve changed the number of years and months to preserve confidentiality)

That’s the beauty of the healthcare profession. You see people on their worst days and at their most vulnerable and you hope that somehow you’ve helped in some way or another and though sometimes you’ll know, other times you’ll never know. I think what’s most important is that you did your best with the knowledge that you have.

How Your Friends' Friends' Friends Affect Everything You Feel, Think and Do!

I started reading Connected: The Surprising Power of Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives by Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler but couldn't be bothered to finish the book, so I went to their website and downloaded their powerpoint slides summary (I know, shame on me for being so lazy). Technically I've "read" the book now that I know most of the main points so you've got to give me some credit here. Anyways, here are some of the more interesting points that I learned about social networks from this book that I would like to share:

1. We have more control over our social networks than we think:

- we determine the structure of it (how many people we are connected to)

- we influence the density of the interconnections between our family and friends (introducing friends from separate groups to the other)

We control how central we are within our network

2. Our actions’ influence ripples through the network via 3 degrees – you are affected by others you don’t even know!

- The influence disappears after 3 degrees because of

o Intrinsic decay due to the information being corrupted

o Network instability- social ties become unstable at 4+ degrees

o Evolutionary purposes- us evolving in small groups

3. A person is 15% more likely to be happy if directly connected to a happy person

- At 2 degrees, 10% more likely to be happy

- At 3 degrees, 6% more likely to be happy

And each unhappy friend decreases the likelihood of happiness by 7% (Quick, defriend that negative unhappy individual who insisted on being your facebook friend! Haha I kid) J

4. Long term happiness is affected by

- 50% genes ß so we have a set point for personal happiness that’s influenced by our genes

- 10% circumstances

- 40% attitude

5. Most future partners are 2-3 degrees removed from one another

• The interesting thing is: The National Survey of Health and Social Life or “Chicago Sex Survey” reveals:

• 68% of people were introduced to their spouse by a common acquaintance

• 32% met via “self-introduction”

6. People care more about their relative standing rather than their absolute standing in the world

- In fact, in an experiment testing the relative standing phenomenon in the workplace:

- “The majority of people involved said they would rather earn a $33,000 salary with everyone else getting $30,000 than earn $35,000 and have fellow colleagues earn $38,000”

7. Social networks affect relationships by

- Influence opinions and perceptions

- Dictate our position in the network

- For example, we have indirect mate choice: the tendency to choose a partner based on what others value

8. Your Friends’ Friends Can Make You Fat

Wow, I didn’t know how much of an influence social networks could have! The joys of learning something new everyday J I love life. Also, I just accompanied my mom to pick my sister up from starbucks and was too lazy to take off my winter coat. I do look like a turtle poking its head from its shell. It's super attractive I know...

Awesome day at the city mall

It's been a while since I've posted here. I have decided that I'm going to use tumblr for posting short thoughts and this blog as a basis for longer contemplations.

Anyways, I woke up today and was annoyed/ borderline pissed because some idiot was doing construction work starting at 830am. I decided to finally get out of bed at 9am and woke up to a message from JCU library saying that I owe them $60 for damaging one of the books I borrowed (I forgot to take the book out of my backpack when I put it in the laundry = water damage- note to self: books do not need showers and always check in the middle pocket for items even though you think there isn't anything in there). Then I went for breakfast and breakfast ends at 9am and surprise (not), my daily fruit and yoghurt favourites were already packed away (at this point I'm just like, nooooooo) and so I just toasted my bread. Clearly I wasn't having the best mornings of my life.

Then just like that, the lunch lady came out and asked me if I wanted to have some fruit and yoghurt and i was like YES PLEASE (without trying to look that keen) . Anyways, I decided to go to get a bikini with an Australian flag on it at the city mall. On the way to the bus stop, I ended up chatting for about half an hour with the lunch lady, who happened to tell me about her adventures in Canada when she was visiting Vancouver. She told me that the city mall was newly renovated. I ended up at a souvenir shop, got my bikini and chatted with the lady there for ages. She's moved around and lived in various parts of Australia so we were just talking about travels. She lives on Magnetic Island (which I thought was pretty neat). I was asking her about Australia and which parts of it are really beautiful and such (I wanted to plan for my midterm rural placement next year). Anyways, at the end of our chat, she gave me a raffle ticket and I continued browsing through the shop. She ended up giving me 2 more raffle tickets.

In the midst of exploring, I wandered off into this hidden photo gallery and in it I saw a brochure for a photography tution and inquired the guy behind the counter about it. Turns out that he was Ken Goldstein himself and the photographs there were all taken by him. (He's a professional photographer and one of his clients is Jupiters Casino so he does a lot of their special events- which I thought was pretty cool). I just said that I was just an amateur photographer and was thinking of buying a DSLR camera but not sure which one to get as a beginner. He then proceeded to give me an in-depth explanation of which camera he recommended me getting. He recommended the Nikon D3100 which cost about 700$ for the body itself in Australia, and when I told him I was going back to Canada in a few days, he suggested that I buy it there since it's cheaper (though he also does sell camera items). He also explained to me about camera bags and which ones I should get (he adviced me to stick with a brand called Lowe Pro) and the importance of getting a tripod and getting a good one but not ridiculously expensive (good value for money basically and based on necessity). I thought it was really cool that he didn't try to get me to buy the camera items from him. He also adviced me to stick with Canon and Nikon if I'm thinking of getting DSLR cameras since they are the only ones who produce professional quality products and also to always get lens from the same camera the body is from. He also told me about the private tution he offers- it's $400 for a full day (from 630am until 5pm). It is quite costly so I'm just thinking about it for now. He also offered to answer any questions that I might have when buying my gear (He just told me to look him up on facebook and just message him).

Anyways, by this time I was starving and bought myself a sandwich and while doing this, found out that the draw for the raffle tickets I got was happening in 10 minutes so I waited. WOO! I won $40 CBD dollars at the raffle that I could spend at any shop at city mall (I was super excited because though it was only $40, I NEVER GET THIS LUCKY!). I was thinking of getting some cook books and went to a used book shop and found that Jamie's 30 minute cook book was overpriced there. Anyways, in the same shop there was a tea store that I've never noticed before, so being curious, I started asking questions about tea and such. I ended up buying my mom 5 different tea blends with my CBD dollars (I feel compelled to describe these teas because I think they are such a treat! Hopefully my mom will feel the same)

1. Japanese Evening Mist - green tea with cornflower blossom, rose petals and calendula

2. Darjeeling- Black tea (apparently this is the champagne of tea)

3. Daintree & Wattleseed- Black tea blend (this is an Australian tea)

4. Blood Orange Tea- Green tea with orange (apparently it has a tangy taste)

5. Christmas Tea- Black tea with fruit, cinnamon, cloves and almond (seems suited to buy for the month of December)

I also got myself a cup of Japanese evening mist - it was super awesome.

She also told me about some workshops and tea tastings she will be doing next year. I think it's so exciting!!! Because of all this tea choosing shenanigans, I missed my 201 bus by 5 minutes and while waiting for the next one, the 202 bus came first so I took that. The bus driver dropped me off right across George Roberts (he actually asked me if I wanted to be dropped off there or at the actual bus stop!). Isn't that really nice?

I think it's just so awesome that I totally expected to have such a crap day and it turned out to be pretty damn good! People can be genuinely nice if you just take time to listen to them, even only for a little bit! I love Townsville :)