Hello Spring! The glorious poppies in bloom at Wagga Botanic Gardens.
Exams are done! Let the celebrations begin :D
It is a fact not universally acknowledged but acknowledged somewhat that prior to exams, some of us put our lives on hold.
(Self-inflicted lockdown.)
And so it was goodbye to aimless rolling on my bed, to sunshine and Spring, to fun and frivolity... hello to a paper jungle of a bedroom, to daily dosing of vitamin D supplements and the occasional stress-induced palpitations/feelings of impending doom. We've shared tears, sleepless nights, the "baby" (I guess exams can incite feelings of cluckiness?)... and of course that pesky psychosomatic diarrhoea come D-day. Yes, it was times like these that I/we asked ourselves what we were thinking to put ourselves through this?
But in the space of an hour, 4 stations, facing 4 pairs of examiners testing what 'knowledge' we had accumulated over the last 5 years, all the hard work has paid off - 5 years of Medicine down, 1 more to go baby! :)
Actually I have to admit I had a pseudo-Slumdog-Millionaire-turn-of-events!
For my pharmacology station, the case presented was of a lady 3 weeks post-partum who was suspected to have a pulmonary embolus. Just the week before, the Wagga crew had to do a series of non-assessable case presentations... I had decided to present a case on a pregnant woman who had a recurrent PE during pregnancy (amongst many other things) and focused on anticoagulation in pregnancy. What's more, for the anatomy station, the topic was on chronic pancreatitis. During my surgery rotation earlier this year, the case presentation I gave was actually on chronic pancreatitis. I guess someone up there was really listening when I was imploring to whoever would listen to help get me by!
And after the exams, we had over to Lake Albert for some post-exam shenanigans and a good old BBQ...
Lake Albert by dusk.
With Psychopathwitch, MissLovelyP and MrProjectRunway and an amazing backdrop of a sunset.
Caught: a Fat Duck!But hopefully we won't be eating this fat duck at THE Fat Duck ;)
So the top 10 trials of being a medical student?
(Warning: possibly ranty post to come...this was scribbled during those times cramming which I really did question why I was doing med in the first place...that's right being a trophy wife is actually quite difficult - just kidding! =p). Anyways here's the list:
1. Spending six whole years at uni. Yes we might get to make the most of the concession travel cards but that's because we're poor. We get to watch all our friends graduate, work and place a deposit on their first property and still find ourselves being a full-time student at uni. There are better chances being an electrician or plumber and probably a lot more sanity by the time we graduate as well.
2. Nurses and midwives. Being a medical student is the only chance it seems midwives and nurses can get back for all the times doctors write up "patient needs enema". (This however does not apply to country nurses and midwives who sometimes have been too good to be true!)
3. Exams that test you on six years worth of assumed knowledge. Law peeps get open book exams, not us. Plus no more spoon-feeding days means six worth of assumed knowledge = pretty much self-directed knowledge = Wikipedia.
4. Becoming a hermit / dubbed anti-social by your non-med friends (aka the rest of the world).
5. Getting shafted to places via an 8 word email. Point being me. A 2 line email delivering a 2 year sentence. And no it doesn't matter if you don't have the finances to support yourself during this time, nor if you just got engaged, nor if you find out your grandmother is in hospital with end-stage renal failure and might not get dialysis and you just want to spend your next 2 month rotation back in Sydney (as I found out a fortnight before exams)...nope these are not valid reasons for you to get out of your rural secondment.
6. B-blockers, anti-depressants and Temazepam. Doctors apparently have the second highest rate of depression / suicide (behind dentists). But as Quality Use of Medicine dictates, consider an appropriate medicine when a medicine is considered necessary. For the timebeing I'm sticking to my non-pharmacologic option...chocolate.
7. 100% employment... wait that was yesterday's news. So the government has doubled medical student places without facilitating an equal increase in the number of internship places available. International students have been notified that they might not be able to secure an intern placement after investing $40000p.a. to study here. That's nearly a quarter of a million dollars by the time you graduate...
8. When you realise it's only the start....and know that ahead of you are: 100hr+ weeks, sleepless nights being on-call and yes nearly another decade of study before you get to the end of all exams...
9 and 10: So I kindof stopped at no. 8 since I thought 8 points were quite depressing already, but if anyone has anything else to contribute - feel free to comment.
Of course having written all that, I do consider doing Medicine a privilege and that yes when you put your hand up for Medicine you are ready to accept the above. People enter Medicine for different reasons, I wanted to live a comfortable life (not too extravagant and not difficult, just comfortable and content) doing something that would give me reason to get out of bed every day (the ability to alleviate pain and suffering) as well as being able to have a family life and my priorities in check (GP, part-time consultant? we will see). The hope is that the hard work and sacrifice to get there will be worth it in the end*
*And my fortune-telling skills predict that it will be a yes. As long as you have a roof over your head, clothes on your back, family and friends you love, then that's all you need to be simply happy. Like I am now. It also helps that I'm post-exam and know I've passed ;) (Hang in there for Sydney medstudents less than a week to go!).
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