I've never felt whiter

Yay sent me a link to Stuff White People Like, another wonderful blog:

#99 Grammar

It's a perfect description of me. That's not necessarily a good thing. But in my defence, it's my job to be like this...

This paragraph is particularly accurate:

"Another important thing to know is that when white people read magazines and books they are always looking for grammar and spelling mistakes. In fact, one of the greatest joys a white person can experience is to catch a grammar mistake in a major publication. Finding one allows a white person to believe that they are better than the writer and the publication since they would have caught the mistake. The more respected the publication, the greater the thrill. If a white person were to catch a mistake in The New Yorker, it would be a sufficient reason for a large party."

Endearing, no?

Halfway there

I've just finished my 4th rotation for the year - geriatrics. We get one week off (so generous!) and then it's back for the other 4 one-month rotations (gastroenterology, cardiology, thoracic oncology, Shoalhaven), then exams, then a slightly longer holiday, and then 4th year starts in October. It's a very busy year.

Geriatrics at a suburban hospital was soooooo cruisy. I arrived at 9am most days, and the registrar and intern told me to make the most of my cruisy term, and leave after lunch! I did that a few times, but otherwise I stuck around a little longer to do long cases and help with admissions and discharge summaries. I learnt a lot about all the paperwork an intern has to do. Can't say I learnt that much medical stuff - the main aim with geriatrics is to get patients mobilised and home or to a hostel/nursing home. I did learn what SIADH is though. One patient died while I was there. It was sad - the family asked how long he had left, and the consultant said, "It could be tomorrow, it could be next week". It was "tomorrow". And the death occurred in a 4-bed room, so the other 3 patients were quite traumatised.

It's been an interesting and busy month for me, apart from geriatrics.

We're on holidays from 8 December 2008 to 23 March 2009, and during that time we have to do 8 weeks of "elective", which basically means something medical, somewhere in the world. People tend to go overseas, although financially that wasn't really viable for me. So I applied for a scholarship to do my elective in Vietnam, and I won it! It's a brilliant scholarship through the Học Mãi Foundation. It covers airfares, accommodation, and living expenses. 6 of us are going for 8 weeks, and one for 4 weeks. I'm really excited - I loved Vietnam when I was there last year, and can't wait to go back. I'm going to do 4 weeks in Hanoi and 4 weeks in Danang. We also have to do some fundraising as part of receiving the scholarship, which should be fun. (Hope my friends and family have deep pockets...)

Let's see, what else has happened this past month? I farewelled a very close friend, who left Australia for good to travel the world and ultimately return to the USA. It was an emotional and lovely farewell. Hopefully I'll get a chance to visit him in the States someday.

I've also made a foray into the world of Internet dating! More on this in a separate post sometime, but so far I've chatted to several nice blokes, have been on one date (was OK), and am going on another first date this weekend, which I'm really really looking forward to. It's fun meeting new people!

And I started boot camp last week! I did it last year and loved it. So far it's been great this year too. I have a cold at the moment, so I'm struggling with breathing - it'll be interesting to see how I go on a 7km run at tonight's session...

So now we have one week off, during which I plan to study. A lot. A hell of a lot. And I need to keep studying consistently, because I must avoid a repeat of last year's Barrier-failure nightmare. *shudder*

ANZAC biscuits

ANZAC biscuits are my favourite biscuits to make (and eat). I make them all year round, but recently I made a couple of batches specifically for ANZAC Day. They're quick and easy to make, don't require many ingredients, and are very tasty! I made a batch for a family lunch on ANZAC Day, and another batch for my PBL group.

This recipe came from my late Nanna. There are many variations, especially regarding the type of sugar used (some recipes use brown sugar, and some use caster sugar - though I like the crunch you get from plain white sugar), the amount of golden syrup, and the baking time (and temperature). Feel free to experiment - I've never baked anything other than this tried-and-true recipe. I'm a creature of habit.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup plain flour
• 1 cup desiccated coconut
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 125g butter, chopped
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 tablespoon golden syrup
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Makes approximately 24 biscuits

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Sift flour into large bowl, then add coconut, sugar, and rolled oats. Mix well.
3. Add butter, water, and golden syrup to a saucepan and melt it. Remove from heat.
4. Add bicarb soda to the melted mixture and stir to combine.
5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir well to combine.
6. Place small balls of the mixture onto a baking tray. (If you like, you can press lightly on the top of each ball so that the biscuits spread out when baking - but this can also cause them to crack.)
7. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown. Shorter cooking time = chewy biscuits; longer cooking time = rock hard biscuits. Cool on a wire rack.
8. Enjoy!

Breast is best

No, this is not a post singing the praises of breastfeeding, though its value is clear. (Still, who am I to judge those who choose not to breastfeed? I wasn't breastfed, and I turned out OK. But I digress.)

This post is to let you know that last week I finished my third rotation for the year, breast surgery. It was bloody good.

(Note: When I say breast surgery, I'm not talking about augmentation - I'm talking about mastectomies, lumpectomies, and axillary dissections for breast cancer, and removal of benign fibroadenomas.)

A few third years recommended it to me last year, and because I didn't have a strong preference for my compulsory surgical rotation, I took their advice. I didn't actually get allocated to it first time around, but I shuffled my rotations and squeezed it in. VERY glad I did.

It was a good mix of surgery and medicine. Not as much surgery as some surgical rotations because there are only 2-3 breast lists each week (half day each). So to fill in the time we had some oncology teaching, which was really useful.

The breast team were all really nice, and I got to scrub in for pretty much everything. For some surgeries, it was just me and the consultant. My job: hold the instruments and hold the boob. Heh.

• Best moment: Being told by the consultant that he preferred me to scrub in instead of the new resident because I had much more experience than her! He was brilliant - really made me feel like a valuable part of the team (which is unusual for a medical student).
• Weirdest moment: I had to massage a woman's breast for 5 minutes. Let me explain - the surgeon had injected blue dye into a tumour, and I had to massage the breast so that the dye would move to the sentinel lymph node/s. My arm got sore! Then when I went to scrub in, he told me that he didn't think it'd been 5 minutes (it had) and he wanted it done for a bit longer.
• Worst moment: The way these (male) doctors who deal with breast cancer every day still can't handle it when a woman starts to cry. Surely they must be used to it by now, and surely they know the right things to say and do. One registrar got all nervous and mumbly until I suggested that the patient might like some tissues, which he went to get (anything to get him away from the emotional woman!). One of the consultants completely ignored the woman in tears and proceeded to talk directly to her husband, not making eye contact even when he said things like "you'll get the scan before your surgery", etc. Aaagh! It's very hard to sit there and say nothing.

So that's it for me and surgery this year, unless I get to do a surgical term at Shoalhaven for my last placement. While it's fun wearing scrubs and actually getting the chance to scrub in for surgeries, it can get boring and it hurts my feet and back. I'm not keen on being a surgeon.

Now I'm on rotation 4 of 8 - geriatrics. I'm at a suburban hospital, which is lovely. I had a very cruisy day today with lots of practice doing MMSEs and long cases*. Fun!

* "Long cases assess student performance in eliciting and integrating a patient history, physical examination and basic investigations and as a consequence develop an appropriate clinical summary. The clinical summary includes developing a diagnosis, differential diagnosis and problem list to be presented to a senior clinician." (From The Faculty of Medicine at The University of Sydney.)

We get an hour to take a history and do an examination (unobserved), then 20 minutes to gather our notes, then 20 minutes to present to the examiners. Our long case assessment is in August.

Procrastination

I'm supposed to be working on an assignment today, but instead I'm procrastinating. Just for something different.

I just found this wonderful shopping site, Madeit: "...an online community where you can buy, sell and talk independent. Buy unique independent goods or sell your own."

It's like the Australian version of Etsy, which I also love. I bought my sister's Christmas present from this store last year.

I can see some major procrastination in my future...