mr. rosendorf

when i was in high school, i remember writing in my economics essays that a major component of WA's GDP was in the resources sector, etc. we'd always write about the mining industry in particular, and of china's demand for iron ore in particular. while i'm very grateful to iron ore for our economic prosperity, it's not the most interesting natural resource to me. what is of interest to me (and every other girl) are the pink diamonds, found only in WA's own argyle mines.

i know that i am not the only asian kid in a western country who likes to distinguish herself from recent migrants, unkindly termed FOBs (fresh off the boat- a little old fashioned, i know). but standing there in trinity arcade and staring at the posters of rosendorf's, whilst clutching a piece of scrap paper with the address scribbled, mum and i successfully passed off as very FOB. we were in an alley very reminiscent of the harry potter movies being mocked by those posters whilst searching desperately for some sort of door/entrance that would let us into the said shop.

i then decided that we had to ascend a flight of stairs to get to the mysterious location of rosendorf's, and we passed by a gentleman who was locking a gate. so we approached him and asked for directions to rosendorf's. what are you looking for? he asked. pink diamonds, we told him. you're looking for the right place, he told us. rosendorf's is the best jewellery shop in Australia. i'll take you there. so we followed him, and lo and behold, it was only 5m down from the arcade, along the main street. i figured he must be the boss, or a manager or something.

he then approached one of the sales girls, told her that we were looking for pink diamonds, and asked her to look after us. she assured him she would. mum then asked are you in charge here? and i said he's the boss. but the salesgirl surprised us both. he's mr rosendorf, she said.

last night's promise

I am writing this here so that I will be held accountable for my promise in the future. Last night, I was in ED looking for some patients to perform a musculoskeletal examination on. Well, I was debating between examining the patient with a hudson mask on and calling in a triage 4? 5? from the waiting room. Either option was quite inappropriate, and I was crippling myself with my indecision when the registrar I was supposed to meet walked into the ED.

It took about 5 minutes for him to sort out his business, and for me to realise that I wouldn't be able to examine any of the present patients. So when he said "do you want to scrub up for a case?", I was like, "Okay.." even though ideally, we're not supposed to scrub up for any case unless we've taken a history from the patient. I don't know how it transpired that he was more enthusiastic about me scrubbing in than I was. I used to love going into theatre, but I think that the last arthroplasty I went to (another story somebody else would be happy to tell) crushed my spirit.

So there we were, in theatre. It was a wound debridement. While we were washing it out (we took turns between sucking and washing), he gave me tips on the general things to include when discussing orthopaedic conditions: DEEP SCRATCH. And then he let me put in four subcuticular stitches, before showing me how to do an Aberdeen knot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npS7BSIyr_4
The same went for stapling- first he described to me what he was doing, then it was my turn to staple the other half of the incision. He dictated, and I wrote. And we both signed off the surgical notes.

After that, he met up with his intern and treated us to dinner. The intern treated drinks (non-alcoholic). And I? I "choped" the table! Kidding. I was made to promise that when I'm a registrar, I too will be nice to my students and treat them to meals.

So here it is, that I will be held accountable. To remember that not every registrar was too busy/proud to talk to and mentor (teach, talk to, and treat!) younger medical students. And also to remember the thrill of a medical student putting in her first stitch- in a person, and not your stuffed toy/ pork knuckle/ anything and everything you can get your hands on.

P.S. That wasn't the first time I'd sutured, thankfully- otherwise would seriously have humiliated myself. Or maybe I would have been asked to stop after my first stitch, like the first time I closed a port insertion wound. Haha. It was my first stapling experience, though!

Too keen?

Somebody once said to me that there are two types of clinical students- those who spend all of their time with patients, and those who spend all their time with books. Sir William Osler's famous quote comes to mind: "He who studies medicine without books sails an uncharted sea, but he who studies medicine without patients does not go to sea at all." In my typically smug, self-assured style, I decided to be somebody who managed to balance patients and books.

How wrong I was!

Three times in the past five days I waited at the train station before the sun had lit up the sky, and three times I left the hospital long after the sun did. Last night, I went back to the hospital after dinner purely because I wanted to see how my patient was post-op, and say goodbye before she was discharged. Is it so wrong to be interested in patient follow-up?

And the corresponding lack of book study is also true. I have done little study this week, and have not bumped into that nice chinese intern with his free tutes. But my time at the outpatient clinic was beneficial, at least.

I still hope to go on call..! I don't think I am being too keen, am I?

the first snows

So I got my wish for snow, but not when I was expecting it. You see, when I first arrived in Austria I had to wear something like five layers before I could leave the apartment. Since then, I have been attempting to train myself to tolerate the cold. I have been trying to master level 3 (layers) for awhile now, and thought that I would practice today.

Well you can guess what happened. It snowed. Some Austrians said it wasn’t really snow (something in between rain and snow), but it’s still snow to me. Anf of course today had to be the day the interns asked me to join them for some punsch at the old AKH christmas markets. So boldly we went, and it was rather tolerable (thank you, training!)- at first. At 7:15pm however, we found ourselves braving what felt like a blizzard and gale force winds. And the whole time I was wondering if I was going to get frostbite, or worse, end up like the little match girl.

Obviously I survived to tell the tale, but even now my toe is numb. I have no idea when (or if) sensation will return but I would very much like for it to.

Viennese palaces

So far I have mentioned the Hofburg (location of my perfect Sunday morning), but there are also the summer and winter residences, which we visited today.

Anna-Lotta and I live, in her words, “in the periphery of Vienna”. We do live in fairly close proximity to the Vienna woods. On the plus side, this also means that we are within walking distance of Schonbrunn palace, so we’ve visited the Christmas markets there several times already. Today was my first visit to the palace gardens.



We also visited the baroque Belvedere Palace. There is also a Christmas market at this palace, where we enjoyed (as is fast becoming our staple diet) some Bratwurst and hot chocolate.

a perfect sunday morning

I have not attended very many Masses, and today was the first time that I attended one in German. I am not sure that I understood anything of what transpired during the service, and if I am fortunate to attend another, I probably still wouldn’t know when to stand/sit. It was interesting that a lot of elements that I thought were characteristic of Buddhism were featured- incense, melodious speaking. But of course there were also a lot of plagal cadences. The Viennese Boys’ choir was amazing, and I am quite sure they will be the highlight of my trip to Vienna. Anna and I had quite strange seats in the wings, so we couldn’t see the priests at all, but we had a very good view (and acoustics) of the boys.



At first I didn’t understand why cameras were prohibited, but I realised when the priests and offering bags came around that it was, in every way, an actual service and not just a performance.

Likewise, photography was prohibited at the Spanish Riding School, because it distracts the Lippizaners. But the room was very nice.



I wondered why they had such an ugly carpet, but when the horses came out I realised that it’s actually hay…? Well I’m not sure if hay usually looks like that, but it was something earthy.

It was very cold and rainy in the morning, but sky lightened in the afternoon and the weather warmed up to a comfortable chill- this is taking into account the double layer of thermals that I was wearing, and so on. I am fairly certain I accidentally started skipping at one point down this path:

Finally, Christmas markets are going to dominate any evening in Vienna. This is not as exciting for me as it is for my Finnish and Greek (warm) wine-drinking friends, but the markets do sell very beautiful ornaments. Each ball is about $40 SGD (I’m out of touch with the SGD/AUD exchange rate, sorry!). I am certain the more intricate ones would cost significantly more.