Of blood, brains and glory!

My overall experiences of med school thus far have been pretty low key, somewhat tedious and, for lack of better words, quite boring. It's certainly not due to being so exceptionally talented that I find the content insulting to my intelligence - nay, almost the opposite! It's that a lot of the time I'm completely lost, either failing to comprehend the basics of what is presented to us or failing to see what the point of it is. Add to that our pathetic excuse for a clinical program (no hospital placements at all till 3rd year!!) and what you have is a med student soldiering on from week to week, head down, shoulders hunched... sometimes walking, often tripping... reaching for the light beyond the seemingly endless tunnel that is the pre-clinical component of the course. Excuse, the cynicism, it gets better.

Then, rather unexpectedly, you are granted a week of mercy - a week where uni is interesting, things actually make sense to you, and people - real people!! - are placed bravely under your care... and you allow yourself to quickly bathe in the glory of life as an active and diligent knowledge-seeking member of society. Perfectly aware, of course, of the transient nature of this phenomenon.

This week, with the start of neuro block, was my week.

I studied Neuroscience in my undergrad degree. I know the brain inside out and the other way 'round. From the minute biochemical neurotransmitters to the gross anatomical structures; I have devoted many hours trying to unravel, for my personal interest, the mysteries inherent within. I've done research on neurodegenerative diseases - I've found no answers for the betterment of humanity, but have answered *so* many of my burning questions.

I love the brain - I don't think I'll ever cease to be fascinated by it. The brain to the body; is the sun to the solar system. It is the only organ that cannot (as yet! :-S) be viably removed and/or replaced by a mechanical, electronic, or allogeneic substitute. Death, medico-legally, means having irreplaceable loss of brain function as indicated by a persistent flat electroencephalogram. Culturally and mythologically speaking, the brain is believed to house the soul and essence of self.

My highlight of the week was definitely dissecting a whole brain (with a perfectly intact arterial system!) out of my cadaver's cranium. I don't yet have any achievements at med school to be proud of - but, if I may so humbly point out just this once, that my partner and I were the only people to do so during our anatomy session (admittedly no one else did, not because they couldn't, but because they weren't interested in doing so when all they needed to do was look at a plastic model). Other thrills included being lectured on Parkinson's Disease by one of Australia's finest neurologists (who'd invited a PD patient to come with him to demonstrate the cardinal signs of the disease), and testing the good ol' cranial nerves during our clinical skills session.

My week was topped off with a St John's first aid duty at one of the most violent amateur rugby matches I have ever seen. Broken noses, dislocated shoulders/fingers/knees, concussions, sprains and strains. Oh my! I've had a very sheltered life :-S There were two games happening simultaneously on the oval and it was chaos! One thing I reflected on in hindsight was that I feel like I'm becoming a bit sloppy with formalities - I was forgetting to do simple things like gain explicit consent and explain what I was doing to the casualty. I think it's because we do so much clinical work in simulated environments at my uni, so it's easy to omit these essential details without dire consequences. Still, it's totally unacceptable to just jump in and ask someone "what happened?" without even exchanging names, for example :-S Anyway, I'm going to sign up for the 4-day new members' workshops run by my division in August - they'll cover everything from Senior First Aid, Advanced First Aid and Advanced Life Support. The SFA will mostly be a refresher, but the AFA and ALS will be completely new for me. Looking forward to learning something in the way of organisation and fluency in multi-tasking - and hopefully putting an end to this sloppiness!

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I'll leave you with a link to a youtube video of "Candy" - one the most delicious songs I've heard this year. The voice is that of Scottish artist Paolo Nutini - he sings in his native accent, with a soulfully mellow voice that is mature well-beyond his young years. Another favourite song is "Million Faces". Check him out!