Slippery dippery

One thing I didn't reflect on yesterday was the issue of lubricants. When I was putting the bushes on the sway bar, I happily followed the instructions, which were short and lacking detailed information. I applied this viscous lubricant stuff they supplied in a little tube as I saw fit. Now I'm familiar with the petroleum based lubricants, and also the water based stuff too, but...

Under the assumption that whatever I got on my hand would wash off later with water or, at worst washing detergent, I spread the goo around with my finger. The sway bar worked amazing, but I just couldnt get the traces of goo off my hands - it was like some sort of nightmare, where the blood doesnt wash off! Water, dishwashing liquid, Omo. My hands were unstoppably hydrophobic and smooth. It was horrible. To make matters worse, everything I touched seemed to be imparted with this smooth property. I feel like my face is still oddly smooth from where my hands have touched it.

Anyway, two days later and the sensation has gone. I figured it must be a silicon based lubricant, which would make sense in retrospect. Still, icky stuff! Stay away from silicone if you can! (That's a general life suggestion too.)

Amusingly, I must have gotten some silicone on my face, as when I went to shave later that night, my poorly maintained electric clippers picked up speed. Yay for silver linings!

100 grit.

After what has been a rougher than usual week, I managed to crawl under the Jeep and replace the bushes. And it only took me two trips to the tool shop! On the plus side I now own a lot of shiny sockets, and it was an excellent excuse to use my mostly untouched torque wrench. The jeep is now a lot more steady on its feet as it goes around corners. One of the bushes had perished somewhat and was filled up with crud. Hardly helpful, I'll do the rears and the shocks next weekend.

I'm becoming more and more excited about medicine. The initial fear has started to wear off, and I seem to be keeping up with the work with the best of them, so I reckon I'll be okay. One of my greatest fears, which I shall disclose to you now is... needles. Well, needles that are going in to me. For a few times there I was getting really woozy whenever someone took my blood or vaccinated me. Since then I've lived in fear of passing out. However the last few times I've been jabbed have been great. On Friday they took my blood to see what I am, or am not immune to, and all was well. I'm keenly awaiting the time when I get to attack my fellow students to sample the claret that lies within (and then presumably trying it on real sick people!)

Having done a few IVs on mice, I think most of my patients won't wriggle so much they break their necks.

A knee? Me? Errr

I hate finding out that something you thought of as a disease, is actually a collective description for something caused by a lot of different diseases.

The Jeep

I have a jeep. It's a fun little thing. Well, when I say fun I mean entertaining. But I enjoy driving it. The great thing about it, is that it's American. So it is made of bits. There's no fancy engineering here. The bits just bolt on to each other. There's no intricate networks of anything. This weekend I'm gonna take a crack at my sway bar bushings I think. 6 months ago I had no idea what they were. In fact I had no idea what bushes did. Now I do, and now I'm gonna take a crack at replacing them.

I find this whole concept exciting, and that's probably really lame. However, i got a quote for getting my whole suspension done, and it was about 7 times the cost of me buying the parts and doing it myself. So I feel like I'm saving money and being productive.

If this whole medicine gig falls though, I'm becoming a mechanic. It's basically the same job after all.

Yay!

Thoughts

Quick update today. A thought on medicine, anatomy and bits and bobs.

I wish I spoke latin. I've looked at enough textbooks now to spot common trends with the words. So, being the smarty pants I am, I go look up that frequently occurring word, and it's always ridiculous. The latin word is always 'hole' or 'lumpy bit' or 'bendy bit.' Never anything overly smart sounding... I realise now why medicos keep the Latin version. People will happily pay a GP to examine their gluteal sulcus, but not the English equivalent.

Funny money.

Learning to learn

It's strange. One minute you're sitting in a lecture theatre learning about nothing related to medicine. Then 20 minutes later you're holding a brain and attempting to grasp the novelty of the situation, given the brain in your hand made the conscious decision to be there.

Strange strange paradox. Actually, I'm not sure its a paradox. But weird as.

Ugh, had to watch a video of myself talking to my SP. For some reason I chose 'excellent' to be my word of affirmation that day. I believe I said it five times in 90 seconds. Apart from the excellence of the situation, it went well. I reckon I have my first NGP coming my way... Yay!

Action! Potential?

Well, I feel that Flinders is taking a discretely military approach to first aid training. They let you go nuts and do CPR on a dummy whilst watching you through a one way mirror... I feel completely inadequate now, and ready to be built back up in to a real person. I started off with the whole DR!ABC thing, but unless you've actually had to use it before... argh.

It's an interesting exercise really. They make you realise you know nothing, so they can teach you effectively. Either way, I'm intrigued to find out whether my dummy was dead, or really dead by the time my three minutes of agony ended.

Urgh, again. And just when I was feeling so confident since I could effectively use a microscope.

My kind of learning

PBL so far:
Wise tutor: "You're overlooking an obvious one" (referring to causes of abdominal pain)
Enthusiastic PBL group: *thoughtful silence*
Wise tutor: "What else could cause these symptoms. Something you young people should know about..."
Several enthusiastic group members: "STD's?"
Wise tutor: *Laughing* "No... *laughing more* alcohol."

Whoops.

These beans are like kidneys

When I first started, I didn't know anything about the kidney, other than it looked like a bean and produced urine. Now I know the kidney consists of a man in a capsule, who has little feet and an intolerance for high pressure situations. Or something like that. Fascinating stuff this biology shin dig.

In fact, the highlight of last week, was learning how to use a microscope. Well, actually it was more like zoning out while a man talked about microscopes, and then getting bored and working my way through slides for entertainment purposes. I think I'm going to enjoy histology!

This week I get to star in my first short feature with an SP, and the give a plastic man a few chest compressions. I'm excited, but dreading the though of having to watch a video of myself fail terribly. Actually, the short feature will hopefully be painless. It just involves asking a person (an actual paid actor!) why they came to see you today, repeatedly, until you get all the answers you need, or they die of whatever they were sick from. Should be amusing!

Problem Based Lumpage

Well, that's one and a half weeks down. I spent a little time trying to figure out what that means for me. Apparently, that makes about 1% of a doctor. I'm not sure if that translates to a one percent improvement in your health merely by my presence, but I guess we'll see. If my years in science have taught me anything though, 1% isn't really biologically significant.

So how was the first week? Well, it has been enjoyable, I'm less nerve wracked now and starting to feel a bit more comfortable around the joint. It's weird being around so many people again, but enjoyable. It seems to be an alright bunch of people. The corpses, though mentally intimidating weren't that bad. It was weird, because I wasn't sure whether I was going to be grossed out by them or not (even though I've seen bits of people in pots before, but whole dead people is another story!)
So I sat down at the end of the lab, having befriended another scientist fleeing the research system. I couldn't help but notice the smell from the body 6 feet away, covered by a 'tarp.' Though the top of its head poked out, almost casually. It smelled exactly like trizol, I kid you not. It took me back to those crazy days of honours, where extracting RNA was pretty much all I did. Then the anatomy guy, who is quite an excitable talked excitedly, then cracked open a dead person right next to me, a super strong wave of trizol like odour washing over me... and it was fascinating. I think the thing that was most unpleasant was the fact that the skin was pretty much like leather. The actual inards were captivating, and putting your fingers through peoples hearts and exploring the coronary arteries was really fun. I think one amusing chap, who is a hybrid between body-building Adonis and genius lawyer, turned medical student said it best. "This is pretty interesting, hey." It truly was. Weird though...

The rest was fun, the whole PBL gimmick is neither underwhelming or overwhelming. I am just whelmed. I think my groups make up is weird, as we don't have any nurses or pseudo medicos in it so we seem to know very little and have to catch up a fair way. On the other hand, we're all on the same page so it's good.

It has been interesting though, I have met a few nurses and ambos, and sat in on a fascinating discussion about people who try to commit suicide with panadol. In short, it doesn't work well. It fries your liver and you take two weeks to die - slowly and painfully. I'm not an advocate of suicide, but pro-tip. Don't use panadol.

Which brings me to my final dither. They seem to be really concerned about our mental health. I reckon I had 4 or 5 different lectures on not being depressed, and making sure I have a GP. It was a worrying sign, but I can't imagine mental health is any worse in med than in phd research students. The working conditions there are heaps worse...Well, I will survive.

Hey hey!