So much to do, so little time

Now that I'm on the other side of my hideous mid-yearly exam, I can start doing/thinking about other things. Unfortunately my brain is so full to the brim (nay, overflowing!) with mental to-do lists that I've been tossing and turning for the past hour trying to fall asleep, but to no avail. I need to off-load.


St John's First Aid duties and shifts at work:

• Wednesday 10/6 (1830-2300) - "Pink Concert" First Aid (FA) duty
• Thursday 11/6 (1600-2100) - Shift at work
• Friday 12/6 (0830-1530) - "SACS Fun Day" FA duty - CANCELLED
• Friday 12/6 (1800-2100) - "Fire Water" FA duty
• Saturday 13/6 (0830-1730) - Shift at work
• Sunday 14/6 (0930-1500) - "MS Walk/Run" FA duty

Social and family stuff (not many on this one!):

• Wednesday 10/6 (1330-?) - Lunch with Raidah
• Return calls and reply to long overdue emails, sms and facebook messages :-S
• Try to spend at least a few hours with the 'rents, sis and bro-in-law :-/

The varsity list (sadly, it's never truly holiday time):

• Finish off CCS notes (--> week 17)
  
• Print BSC notes for past 17 weeks including anatomy to take to Mudgee (don't ask...)
• Do week 17 and 18 group LOs and submit online
• Prepare week 17 grand-rounds presentation
  
• Write up past 5 weeks' worth of reflections for professional portfolio and update clinical skills log-book

Preparation for Mudgee:

• Pack bag --> clothes/toiletries, steth, scrubs, varisty work, lap-top, camera, dvds and books
• Practice clinical examinations/skills that I may need in Mudgee: taking/writing/summarising a Hx, antenatal examinations, injections, suturing, cannulations, intubations
• Withdraw some $$$ from the bank to take with
• Buy some sustenance food (ie chocolate) for long train ride to Mudgee
• Get a present for my mentor (any ideas??)
  

Miscellaneous:

• Clean room
• Apply for a credit card
• Call Centrelink
• Sleep, if there's time left-over :-P

(Indicates they've been done, yo!)

Nobody knows

I get a bit frustrated sometimes when people make assumptions about the medical profession, and associated lifestyle, which I suspect aren't necessarily true. "Suspect", I write, because as a 2nd year student I personally know very little (yet!) about what's actually involved. However, some truths that I have come to observe, for example, include the fact that it's really not a very glamorous job, nor does it necessarily lend to a particularly comfortable lifestyle, despite the money that may (or may not) be involved, etc, etc. In brief, I feel like people on the outside rarely appreciate the demands and realities of the profession. Big deal, yes? Well, not really... because earlier on this evening, I came to realise quite an ironic twist to this phenomenon (which is probably already obvious to the well-organised mind): how much do we know about other peoples' professions?

So, my best friend Jess has just started teaching this year. First year out of uni, she's landed a full-time job as a kindergarten teacher at a well-established school. Now I don't know about you, but the image that's conjured in my mind when I think of teaching kindergarten is that of having a jolly-good time finger-painting and story-reading to a group of cute and innocent, rosy-cheeked, 5-year olds (let's add rainbows and bunny rabbits in the backdrop for good measure). Right? WRONG!! What she described to me tonight over dessert and coffee, was nothing short of trying to tame rascals in a juvenile detention centre. She has this child in her class with demonic tendencies who frequently breaks into violent outbursts and starts to throw things at the other children and my poor friend. Then there's the kid who likes to sit under the desk for reasons only God will ever know; and of course, being sheep, other kids follow suit and rebel accordingly in their own wicked way(s). Play-ground duty --> more like zoo-keeping duty!! Put those aside, the real challenge of course, is trying to deal with the bureaucracy of the place; with an unsupportive principal and his humble side-kick ass/principal, who turn a blind eye, tell her to pull herself together and do her job :-O

They don't know what we do; but then again, we don't know what they do either.

What would you do?

So while I fix my blog, I thought I would share this thought-provoking (albeit random) quote that I stumbled upon while I was flicking through one of my cousin's photo albums on fb. I believe it was taken at the University of British Columbia in Canada:



Simple as it is, it really moved me, no actually - scared me - when I first read it. I'm a massive control freak - I spend a lot of time finding out exactly what happened, what's happening and what's about to happen. But this... this... this just challenged me in such a peculiar way. I have an exam tomorrow and I know there are going to be a lot of questions that I won't know how to answer. But all that is just trivial compared to this question. I really don't know how to answer this one. What would you do?

Well, that's just annoying...

I was trying to clean up my blog and delete unpublished posts when I accidently deleted ALL my posts. Aw :-( Does anyone know how to retrieve lost posts? Grrr... this must be some sort of punishment I'm getting for procrastinating rather than studying for my mid-yearly exam tomorrow. Le sigh!