Long weekend

A lot of the med students gathered back in Radelaide this long weekend. It was good to see all the people who had gone rural, as well as the city slickers. It was a good opportunity to exchange war stories from out first week on the job.

I thought I had had an interesting first week. What with spending a day in surgery and then having a sink hole open up in my garden and try and swallow me. But apparently my week was medically boring.

One of my friends was asked to relocate a shoulder (because the intern was too scared to try) on his first morning in the clinic. He also got to perform a mental block unsupervised.

But the best story I heard was from another of the rural girls. Her first night on call yielded a person who had had their ear completely bitten off in a fight. Literally the whole ear, back to the bone of the skull. It was disgusting... yet cool. And there were photos to prove it.

I can't wait to start on call this week!

Beeeep. Sizzle.

Got to assist in surgery today, it was an interesting time. May not have learned that much, but I've always wanted to get involved in the theater.

I hope I get used to the waking up at 5:30 though.

Health watch

Well I moved. I don't have internet yet, so don't expect any updates. I've run the twenty metres up the hill from my hospital shack to steal the free hospital internet.

It's quite pleasant here. There is a pleasing afterglow as the sun goes down. The lights of the hospital emergency department are glowing behind me. A pleasing view of the river is on my left.

All in all, the fundamentals are here for a good year :)

Excited? Much.

mo' problems?

I sold the Jeep yesterday. It all happened very quickly. Within 24 hours my first automotive love had transformed in to an envelope of cash. It was all a bit sad, but I was greatly relieved to sell it to a guy who obviously had the same passion I had.

He and his parents turned up to my house, sporting a brand new Jeep T shirt and two mix CDs he had hand crafted for his first drive. The opening song featured the lines 'cruising in my jeep.' It was all very cute, considering the guy was in his late 30s. But some things you quite simply have to do before you die!

As I heard the deep rumble of the engine rev, the sounds of gangster rap were cranked up and a tortured mother in the passenger seat smiled merrily. And then it was gone...

Call DR! ABC stat!

It's pretty much how I always imagined the scenario would happen. I'd be standing there shirtless, bikini clad women would be standing around me and someone would be down on the ground in need of help. And that's exactly what happened on Friday night to me and a couple of my medical colleagues.

After a late night swim we were on the hunt for food at Brighton. Just as me and a colleague were crossing the road someone riding along the footpath at a rather sedate speed slammed down on to the ground. Ominously there wasn't any noise from the fallen rider. So we wandered over to the young girl who had come off her bike. Her riding partner had pulled up just in front and was standing idly waiting for her to wake up from her awkward face down position.

And that's when my heart started racing. Unable to rouse the girl, my colleague began calling an ambulance. I put my hand in front of her mouth, but couldn't feel her breathing. 'Crap!' (or similar) I thought to myself. I rolled her on to her back and slipped off her helmet. Checking again, I still couldn't feel her breathing on my face. So I did a jaw thrust and much to my relief she inhaled and started softly blowing moist warm air on to my cheek. My third colleague rocked up, and a surf-life saver who had sprinted off during the previous moments arrived with a bag of resus goodies and oxygen. So we put her on some oxygen and sized her up for an OPA (as I was still holding her airway open) but she fortunately went to a higher level of consciousness (or something) because she took control of her own breathing.

Although I know it was extremely unlikely that their heart would have stopped, I was just so happy not to have to move on to the next letters in the basic life support algorithm. I've never actually done compression on a real person, and I still live morbidly in fear of breaking my first ribs.

As she was now more stable we put her in the recovery position and a few minutes later the ambos rocked up. Much like the scenarios they put you in at uni, you hand over the case and things very quickly are no longer your responsibility. Except this time there were throngs of people standing around watching, attracted by the flashing lights.

Like all things in life, once you've done it a few times it will be less exciting. If this happened to me as a veteran doctor I wouldnt be fussed. But this was the first time I've ever been called on to help a fellow human in a real emergency situation. It was a super adrenaline rush and it was a fascinating insight in to my mind and panic response. It took me a few seconds to become composed enough to act at the start, but amazingly, I think the deep-end scenarios they throw you in at uni had paid off. I hardly wasted any time in getting to the airway checking and didn't umm and arr about whether an ambulance should be called. Finally! I'm decisive under pressure!

Just as they were rolling her in to the ambulance she started coming to, so I'm chalking that up as a win to the posse. I'm glad I didn't have to do that one on my own!

2013

I have a feeling, this is going to be a great year. I'm excited!