What a day.

Today, I managed to miss Macarthur (which was one stop from Campbelltown). Let me explain - there's no direct train from where I catch the train to get to Macarthur - our uni's unofficial train station. So today I would catch a train to Campbelltown, the station everyone thinks is the end of the southern train line, and catch a train from Campbelltown to the 'real' end of the southern train line - Macarthur. This train doesn't stop at Macarthur though, it heads all the way to Moss Vale, which is approximately 40 kilometres away. Me being me, I managed to miss that one stop, and ended up at Menangle Park, the next stop. Herewith, upon finding the next train was an hour away, and thinking that one stop would be approximately 2km or so, I hatched the brilliant idea to walk back to Macarthur. Boy, was I wrong. The road that appeared to follow the train station turned left...and then turned left again...and there was no end in sight. So after 20 minutes I arrived back at the station, caught the train back to Macarthur, and was on my way.

Our first real anatomy practical was pretty super (abdomen/groin region) - having surgeons/surgical registrars were pretty cool, they were really knowledgeable and knew how to teach (very important, one would think), so yeh pretty awesome. Only bugger was that whenever they'd ask some questions about stuff, they'd draw a blank look from us and in general, we felt very stupid. We also did some surface anatomy, though only for a half hour or so.

We also got exam results back - I passed with a 60 average, but as a result, was in the bottom 3rd of the cohort. Still satisfied though, gave it a fair amount of effort and will be looking forward to improving that result. I felt that my mark was quite equivalent to my effort in the HSC, maybe a little more (so, ATAR of about 98 as a guesstimation) - obviously theres not really any comparison, since there are so many other factors that come into play, but that could give an idea as to what to expect. Looking for a 70+ in the finals so I can even up with a Credit average for the year, so I've got a big task ahead of me... *nods*

Our first physical examination for ICM was also pretty interesting...pity our patient though, who persevered with us (well, only one of us was performing the examination, but I digress) for an hour as we learnt how to percuss (tapping the abdomen, listening for the resonance of sounds to indicate hollowness and the presence of liquid and solid) and to palpate (fancy word for using our fingers to search for organs), and were assured (or amazed?) at our tutor's statement that the entire examination should take, at most, 5 minutes. Which reminds me, I should be writing up some notes so I can recollect what she said about signs and symptoms...

I also got email notifications that my stethoscope had been sent via Aus Post today, and my order for textbooks from India (about $50/textbook inc shipping) got processed. Also got my Talley and O'Connor clinical examination book yesterday, and found out that I really did not have any book-contacting skill anymore :\ Lots of bubbles and even a few jagged edges. Bleh. So yeh, exciting couple of days :)