O is for Obedience

when i was growing up, one of the common activities we would have to do in school was to turn our name into an acrostic.

i would always say that the O in my name was for Obedience.

as i grew older, it became a lot less cool to be Obedient. i remember in my very first PBL tutorial, i decided that the O was going to represent an Orsome Olympic Orange. i was pretty much happy to mention anything other than obedience.

there is a song i remember singing as a child. it goes like this:

trust and obey
for there's no other way
to be happy in Jesus
but to trust and obey

and now, i'm approaching full circle as i rediscover the worth of obedience.

UTI land

today, i was diligently attempting to complete an operation worksheet. by diligently, i meant i was trying to do it properly- assess the patient beforehand, take their history, scrub in for their operation. this is how it went:

nurse: can you put his catheter in?
me: uh. yes, but i think i'll probably end up contaminating it
nurse: okay then never mind, i don't have time to teach you right now

i proceed to ask my registrar if i should start scrubbing up

registrar: have you put a catheter in before?
me: yes
registrar: okay can you put his in?
(cannot say no to registrar, right???)
me *turning to nurse*: errr hi, i guess i am putting this catheter in after all

what then followed was a bit of a zoo, where i had the nurse, anaesthetist, surgical registrar, and scrub nurse all trying to tell me how to put a catheter in. and apparently everybody had their own preferences.

but then there was one unifying point- apparently, i was not picking up the patient's genitalia firmly enough. i was holding it gently and attempting to thread the catheter through, and then there was a flurry of comments about how i needed to be more assertive. the patient was already asleep by this point, thankfully, because then somebody said that i should pick it up like i would when ------. i was like, huhhhh?? so some kind soul said but she's a virgin!, which the others promptly attempted to clarify with how would you know? she didn't say if she was or not.

i finally decided to announce my presence by saying 'i'm not married'. this prompted a second flurry of comments which is too crude for repetition.

the surgery went on for way longer than i expected. by the time i got out, it was getting dark. also very cold and rainy. but when i checked my phone, there was a message from mum offering to pick me up from the hospital. she seriously is the best.

allied health

I feel like I ought to mention some of what happened last night, since I alluded to it in a previous post. Candice and I went to a KTV place for pre-drinks. There, I was peer-pressured into having my very first shot (vodka, in case you're wondering) by a bunch of 2nd year students. How sad. A couple of minutes later, my face and ears were so warm that I had to refuse a second round of shots in case I gave myself something like an etOH-induced version of malignant hyperpyrexia.

We made it to the club at 11pm. At this point I should mention that over the past couple of days, I've been listening to one of the pre-released mixtapes so that I would know some of the songs being played at the event. The DJ who released that tape was playing from 10-11pm, and seeing as we had not yet arrived by this time, my entire study was pointless. My sister assures me that these are songs that I ought to know, but I am sure that the next time I enter a club, there will be a whole new bunch of noisy songs to learn.

I guess it was fun. We made it home by 0330hrs.

I spent the majority of today drifting in and out of sleep. It was a very warm, typical lazy Sunday... except not a Sunday. For the past couple of years I've spent good Friday driving up North for Easter camp. And although I'm not going this year, it doesn't take away from the incredible love that Jesus demonstrated in being obedient to death by crucifixion.

Song of the day: Worthy is the Lamb
Book of the day: He chose the nails, by Max Lucado

blue swimmer crabs

there was a spectacular sunrise this morning.

i wish i had taken a photo of it, but as usual, i was in too much of a hurry to be on my way before the sun's rays can freckle my already much-too-freckled skin.

the river was unusually calm; it was one of those rare mornings when you just know for sure that you are going to see dolphins.

so i looked and i looked, for all of 90 minutes, and of course no matter how desperate i was, i couldn't see any. i am sure they were close by, though- i heard their characteristic gentle blowing.

what i did see were blue swimmer crabs. i've never seen them in this part of the river before, but they were abundant. tess went into the water and tried to befriend one, but it zoomed off. those creatures are really fast! you really don't get to appreciate their speed and quirky swimming when they are bound and crowded into a fish tank.

i kept looking, my heart and eyes turned to the river on my right. on my left were the two dogs, one of them harassing me to throw a tennis ball. i did. the ball ruffled the shirt of a passing runner. he turned back to look at me. i sheepishly called out an apology. he raised a hand in acknowledgment and continued running.

when i went home, i told mum all about how i wanted to see some dolphins this morning but instead just saw two wet, sandy dogs and a whole lot of blue swimmer crabs. she then said she'd never seen them here before, and how she wished she'd joined me on my walk this morning.

i wonder if there's a lesson to be learnt in that.

happy palm sunday, everyone xx

old but new dresses :)

university is going well, the chaos of the last two weeks is over and i am settling into a nice routine and getting on top of all my assessments.

i'm definitely just an average student, though. i was presenting an old case to two registrars yesterday, when one of them stopped me and asked me a question. while i was frantically casting my thoughts into oblivion, the other registrar smoothly described what had happened, and the rationale behind it. needless to say, i was pretty shocked.

"you are presenting a patient on the X team", she said. "i'm on team X. if you present a patient from that team, of course i will know the case".

(mind you, this case was from weeks ago, and i was having difficulty recalling it when i only really had to know TWO cases this well, compared to something like two hundred. plus she was not on the team when the patient was in hospital).

"at that time i was away on leave but i still know the patient".

oh okay then. no wait, excuse me? what did she do, come in and read all the patient files during her leave? and am i suppose to develop superhuman memory between now and graduating?

on another note, candice and i both decided to go to an event next week. we've never actually been clubbing together before (i've gone a few times with my brother), outside of big family parties. so this morning we started pulling out dresses and modelling them in front of mum.

it was really fun! as usual, we kind of got carried away and just started pulling out one dress after the other. i didn't see my siblings very much over the summer break, so we didn't get to show-and-tell our shopping purchases like we usually do.

and in the whole process, i discovered even more dresses that i've never worn before. yay! it's the thrill of buying a new dress, without the price tag.

unfortunately, during the modelling process, mum made me drink 1.5 cups of freshly blended juice. when i protested, she said "diarrhoea! then your stomach flat". when i tried explaining that it's not good to lose weight by inducing diarrhoea, she countered with "this is how people detox. they flush out their intestines".

how could i argue with that? she was describing home-made picoprep.

energy!

reflecting on the academic year so far, i can see my motivation levels plummeting...

week 1: 6 day week
week 2: 5 day week
week 3: 4.5 day week
week 4: 3.5 day week

oh dear. but from week 4, i have discovered the therapeutic effect of taking friday morning off . ie even better than taking friday afternoon off. i think i am human again. to celebrate, monday shall be free cannula insertion day :D

random funny conversation i came across while checking my msn message log for an address for tonight:

2/26/2010		2:59:51 PM		J says				S: mmm sigh im so lazy i just want to sleep all afternoon J says: notemaker wont be pleased!!!!!!!!!!! S says: she's malfunctional! so whatever
2/26/2010		6:39:15 PM		O says				! S's really gonna get it from me now :P

(I asked S to take notes for me while I was overseas ^_^)

goodbye, summer

according to the weather forecast, we are going to be experiencing a sudden drop to autumnal temperatures on thursday. finally. but yesterday i found myself sitting in the sun during all of my breaks. could it be, that when we are finally about to get the cold weather i've been dreaming of, i've learnt to appreciate the sun's warmth?

yesterday i had another navigational adventure. it involved me catching public transport (ha!) to a hospital i haven't been to in years. so once i got off the train, i identified the top three most doctor-y looking men, and proceeded to stalk them. they promptly brisk-walked off in three different directions. ugh. so i ran after one of them and called out "excuse me! hi, do you know where X hospital is?" he was going there himself, so i followed him. the end :)