Saturday, September 26, 2009

How a week without uni flies by...

First of all, I couldn't think of any more PBL case names that would fit this post, so I've stopped.
The one week mid-semester break is about to end tomorrow - between meeting with old friends, playing some Starcraft (old geezers, I know) with said old friends, and doing tidbits of study, the entire week has vanished into the depths of time and space immemorial.
I have a real knack for starting workbooks. Writing the name...and the subject; and then the year; then doing a nice title line (I don't do title pages, way too time consuming) for the broad subject (lets say; Physiology).. and then a subtitle for the particular section (let's say, Chapter 1), and then about a page of work. Of course, when I start workbooks, I'm always in the organisational, neat and tidy mode, so I can't write stuff about, say, the heart, where I have the cells. So I start another one. Repeat endlessly for as many books as I have in the house, and as many subjects as I feel like covering that day.
This used to be my procedure for high school studies - it made me feel good that I was starting a brand new book, turning over a brand new leaf, starting afresh and ready to summarise and/or take notes of something or other. Thankfully, during this week, my brand new workbooks were slightly more used - I think one of them has a dozen or so pages of notes *yay*. And therein was the limit of my study during this week.

Of course, now that I really feel like studying (on a Saturday; wow I have no life), vUWS (WebCT/internet portal of the uni) so happens to be on a maintenance weekend - so I have no access to Learning Objectives. So I guess I shall slip into watching another few episodes of Family Guy...or South Park...or the countless gigabytes of series donated by my ever-considerate old friends...

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Out of Breath

The first time I've ever wanted to really be over 18 was yesterday, when I was in the city meeting up with some friends from other uni's. Until then, I saw no reason to be over 18 - I have a debit card, eBay account and Paypal account all *supported* by my father, and voting isn't too big a deal for me (although I do pay attention to politics, ironically). But when there was only me and my friend who came from Perth left, we went to look for dinner, and saw "$10 Buffet!" which, you know, was kind of enticing. Until we saw the bouncers.
Who directed us to another bar (which also mentioned "$10 meals") which apparently allowed under-18s...
Which rejected us again.
And so forth and so on ($6 steaks) until we couldn't take it (well, I couldn't) and we went to eat something else.

Anyway.
Formative exam was a massive screw-up; unlike last semester's formative which was a breeze, this formative was a lot closer to the difficulty of mid-semester exams - and since I winged this one, chances that I pass are not good. PBL was interesting - we just started the respiratory system and will finish it off by the end of this semester (surprisingly close - I can't believe the academic year is nearly over!)
We had updates on our anatomy spot test (where you identify various parts of a cadaver) which was to be summative (i.e. counted) and our OSCEs, which are formative (i.e. not counted). Apparently we'll be getting a practice run for the spot test, but not for the OSCEs - fair enough.
We have a one-week break now though - time to do some revision and catch-up, so I don't fail the end-of-sem exams. Aren't I lucky.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

The Ironman

Well, clearly that was what our PBL guy thought he was. Some super tough guy, who doesn't need to listen to doctors, or attend any appointments with healthcare professionals. No, after staying in Emergency Ward for nearly a week, he thought his health was totally unimportant, and after all, whilst he was in hospital he's behind on his work - yeh, I mean, that is so much more important than your health. Our PBL case today, was a numbnut middle aged man who clearly thought that taking your medication regularly and not neglecting doctor appointments was the golden path to living long and prospering.

*achem*
Sorry about the heavy dose of sarcasm. This patient, real or not real, died because he did not listen to someone who knows more about his health and how to keep it, than he does. He walked out of Emergency Ward because he was treated correctly and was deemed to be reasonable human being that wanted to live. 4 days later, he comes straight back to Emergency Ward courtesy of the paramedics, and they can't save him anymore. Well done, I say! Well done! It ticks me off that the first patient that died in PBL, died because of his own stupidity, non-compliance and despite the health system's best efforts. We spent 10 minutes as a group, discussing ways to solve non-compliance - I think that a story like this might be able to shock all these people who think asymptomatic means you're fit as a fiddle and ready to go.

So, anyway, the rest of my week was good. Productive week, and Formative (yes, I know it doesn't count, but it's good to know where you're at) Exam #2 is coming up, this Friday. So yep, good time to go heads down. Also, hope all you UNSW first-year meddies snapped your exams :)

Monday, September 7, 2009

School's Out

Hmm. I was struggling to find an appropriate title for this post, but I guess this one suits, since the day is *sort of* over.
Alright. ISAN09! Some stats: 2 day conference, 8 Symposiums (lecture sessions) running through the two days, 2 Symposiums running in either of our 2 lecture halls at any one time, 30 presentations (one presenter unfortunately was not feeling well), and a cumulative 9 hours of total hard-core concentration. Phew.
The symposiums I attended were Microneurography I (Chaired or introduced by our own Vaughan Macefield, UWS Represent!), Gravitational Stress, Imaging Central Autonomic Control in Awake Humans, and Clinical Applications of Neurotransmitters. Impressed? Yes, I was blown away by the average IQ in the conference as well :)
First one; Microneurography is a method of measuring electrical impulses in nerves all around the body (but mostly in the arm and leg since they are the easiest to access). That symposium was all about refinement of techniques in using this to record activity in nerves - actually quite difficult to concentrate in, but I managed to get most of it down in notes.
Second one; Gravitational Stress - this was all about research regarding nerve activity in Space and microgravity (i.e. zero gravity). Sounds exciting, yeh? Unfortunately, the presenters from Japan and France were difficult to understand, and the material was (in my opinion, anyway) rather in-depth and specific. It was still interesting to find out how they simulated microgravity on Earth though; and some of the gadgets they used in space to record vitals.
The third and fourth were just yesterday; the Imaging symposium was pretty full-on, whilst the Clinical Applications of Neurotransmitters was more interesting for me since it had some clinically relevant stuff - such as reducing High Blood Pressure in individuals by de-activating the nerves in the kidneys, with some pretty dramatic results. So I thought that was really worth looking into; and in reality all of the research presented at this conference was pretty cutting-edge; we had information from studies which had not even been published yet, and was still in the process of submission. So yep, chance of a lifetime.
Meeting some of the researchers was interesting too; I met this person from Canada who actually held an Engineering degree, and was applying mathematics to the waveform model of nerve activity! Since this conference wasn't strictly medical, it was great to see the mixture of scientists and clinicians from all around the world, sharing information but also quite enjoying themselves in Sydney :)
The conference ended with a brilliant idea from one of my friends who suggested to Vaughan to take a picture of all the delegates. They were all quite game to take a few (ok, many, since there were numerous cameras) happy snaps, and nothing completes a meeting quite like a happy group photo with one particular scientist's taste of The Beegees playing on his iPhone. Nothing. Well, almost - Vaughan then introduced his iPhone (or iTouch?) and played The Presets, then suggested a breakdance party. Professor Macefield Rules :D
Today, in comparison, was not as exciting. Our PBL group assigned EBM roles, discussed a little bit, and went off on our merry way; PBL this week was quite interesting though - for once we didn't have a concrete diagnosis by Monday - which means some sleuthing around for the week! Aweeeeesome.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

It's Never Happened Before

What hasn't happened before? Well, me winning in Minesweeper on Expert was what hasn't happened before. Minesweeper Expert was a constant source of rage and bereavement for me - I have this print screen titled "THISISWHYIDONTPLAYMINESWEEPEREXPERT.png" which highlights how I had nearly finished the entire board, and it all came down to one coin flip, which, by Murphy's Law, meant that I lost. This happened a multitude of times, and even today, until finally, I outwitted the probability table and finished in 542 seconds. Granted, I'm not going to break any records anytime soon, but the satisfaction is really keeping me on a high right now :)
Another thing that hasn't happened before was me speaking for 15 minutes straight. I've never, ever been able to do that. Ever. But the opportunity presented itself in the form of PPD's Reflections statement sessions; 2 hour sessions with your PBL group, talking about your life story. Multiplied by 11. Heh. It's actually quite fun, learning about where people come from; I quite liked it, and I think most of us did as well; the saying "I don't want to hear your life story" definitely didn't apply here.
Yet another first was me not sleeping through a particular (though excellent) lecturer for the first time. He is absolutely brilliant, but his voice...is...rather.....calm...and....mellow..........zzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZ
BUT. Not today. Hah.

On top of all of this, ISAN09 is coming up in just 2 days time! Whoopee! This must be the greatest week ever. Winning Minesweeper, interesting PPD and ISAN. Oh, except on Friday it's PBL again. Akk. I would look forward to it if I did work this week, but alas. Various priorities popped up ahead of PBL (such as learning a song - Superchic[k]''s "Stand in the Rain"). Just goes to show how you can have a life outside of Medicine. :)