Mobilise!

Home. Home. Homee. Happy.

I got home on Saturday. Just. Normally I have a very high threshold for calling something a miracle, or at least declaring divine intervention. But I feel as though this satisfies my criteria.

I had booked a taxi for six am. By five past six when it hadn't turned up I was slightly annoyed. I called and they reassured me it was on the way. Ten minutes later I called again, knowing that check-in closed at seven and my taxi was still absent.
"Oh well actually, you see he's still twenty kilmoetres away, all the taxis are elsewhere or already at the airport. He will be there in twenty minutes or so." My frustration level grew, caught in indecision. Do I sink my hopes on a twice dodgy company?

Annoyed and desperate I shifted my way down to the street corner, in the hope that something might happen. Anything! And I definitely began praying that either my taxi would turn up, or another would at least spontaneously appear.

As six thrity rolled around I was getting stressed. And then, amazingly a taxi pulls in to the petrol station right next to me.

"Can I grab a ride?" I yelled desperately. It was not the taxi I had booked but I no longer cared. Graciously the driver said yes, and I hopped in while he filled up with petrol. "My taxi was meant to be here half an hour ago and I need to get to the airport."

The driver empathised with how annoying that was and then responded with. "You know, it's funny. I'd just dropped off my last passenger for the night. I finish at six. I just thought I'd duck in here for petrol, even though this isn't my usual station and I've never been to this servo before."

Anyway. I was thankful, he earned a tip. I got to the airport with ten minutes to spare and I have shaken the dust off the feet of that dodgy taxi company. I don't know what your threshold for miracles is. I don't usually think that Gods primary care is traffic flow management, but to me, then and there. I think it counts.

A dollar is all I need

I don't mind the public transport system here. It's only $1 for a student and a ticket lasts for three hours. Plus there are not many cars in Darwin so it all seems relatively quick when compared to the bus in Adelaide.

This week was a good week actually. We finally had an inpatient with an array of complex issues. Made me feel like I was doing medicine again. The most amusing part was when I was asked to make a referal for our patient to another team. The surgeons aren't all that used to having to look after patients. So the intern let me make the referral to the oncology team to see whether they would be willing to take of the care of the patient instead. Always a good idea to let the medical student try and shift work on your behalf! Just kidding.

But I made the referral, and the lovely registrar on the other end of the phone quite literally responded to my kind request with:
"Haha! No."
But still let me make my case. She only grilled me gently and told me that I had done a good job.

It's hard to believe that my job next year will be doing that all day every day.

The other thing that happened this week was that the hospital was at 'Escalation level III'. Which it seems to be more or less every day. Essentially it means there isnt  a single bed left in the hospital and that the emergency department is double bunked.

Now hospitals being full isn't a new or unique thing. It only affects me because they start cancelling elective surgeries because there isn't anywhere to put the new casualties. And so, with lots of my surgeries scrubbed I got Friday afternoon off to enjoy an early start to another long weekend.