The Highs and Lows

I have to admit i had a few days of stress and exhaustion last week. The low days of being in Gen med rotation, but the good thing about lows is the only way is up! I was exhausted after netball Tuesday night since we played at 9pm, but picked up after the game even if it meant i couldn't sleep from the high of sports afterwards! After surviving a busy week complete with research
tutorials, talking to an inspiring Aboriginal patient (who turns out to be a famous footballers grandfather!), having tutorials with our registrar and consultant and fitting in exercise it was nice to have a break over the weekend even with large assessments coming! The truth is it is hard to know what to study for them, and if we have the feeling of not knowing what to study then maybe it is a good sign that we are ready for the assessments and in actual fact need a break and time out to recuperate before them.

So on Saturday Kyle, Emma and I drove to Mandurah in the afternoon for a lovely afternoon of High tea for a friend in medicine's 21st birthday. They had a lovely house and outdoor undercover pool! Her family did an amazing job cooking so many delicious foods! it was wonderful to chat with her family and people from medicine :) We were about the first ones to arrive and the last ones to leave getting back around 8! I loved spending more time with Kyle too as we don't get to these days being so hectic. There is a photo i took at the Mandurah beach before we went to the High tea of Kyle doing taekwondo, I insisted on taking his picture with my new camera he got me for my 22nd! :)

Sunday i always do washing and the gym in the morning and had a catch up with Kyle for a quick coffee at a lovely little cafe in Dalkeith at Lo Zucchero cafe, it is a little Italian one with award winning wood fired pizzas! Kyle and i have made it our mission to try find little 'hidden' cafes around and find the best coffee/chai latte we can :) mission accepted!

I was looking forward to this afternoon... i now have behind me 2 assessments which i passed. One was an observed case presentation. What it involves is seeing an unknown patient, taking their full history and doing doing a relevant clinical examination then presenting the findings and differential diagnosis and your next steps/investigations to your examiner/doctor. I was really nervous and had studied lots of differential diagnosis and possible outcomes i could get! I passed, i talked to a lovely lady who had vomiting and diarrhoea which in the end was due to a campylobacter infection from chicken. However my examiner was so 'chilled' and relaxed about the exam that he left the room when i was taking the history and didn't want me to do an examination! So although i passed i feel a little cheated, i didn't actually do the whole thing! He said he looked through my log book of patients i have seen in the past 5 weeks and feels i am on the right track and didn't need to do one... very trusting and relaxed doctor he is! I was a little deflated after being worked up about it so much but in the end i know i can do the examinations and i did feel accomplished by coming to the correct conclusions of an infection causing the patients symptoms and said the correct diagnostic tests. So a pass is all i needed. The doctor did said i had a great rapport with my patient and mentioned i would be a good physician which was nice to hear :) Its good to have those little comments to lift you up and on-wards!

We also had a ward case presentation with our consultants, they were really interesting listening to each others presentations and learning from our cases and the questions our consultant would ask us. I learnt about Pancoasts tumour which the neurology case i mentioned beforehand has been diagnosed with and a possible metastasis further down the spinal cord. I also need to look up farmers lung and bird fancies disease related to interstitial pulmonary fibrosis. We all passed those though... double ticks for the day!!

I feel relieved, now with 2 and a half weeks of Gen med left i just have one more ward case presentation and an Aboriginal case study to do and i can just focus on my practical skills before it is the end of gen med :) i do feel like i have progressed so much in the past few weeks already!! It is almost a shame to not continue with the diverse learning we are getting but i think a slower rotation is needed for next one, fingers crossed i get a good placement!

In the back of my mind i am still contemplating whether or not to be a late entry to the state championships 1500m this Friday?? I could go to the oval tomorrow morning before the hospital and do a trial run. I can't get it out of my mind but honestly don't think i am fit enough to run it against the others. I haven't even been training!! Maybe its because everytime i go to Kokoda i speak to people who say i inspire them when i run up and down the hill, one lady suggested i go to Malaysia and do a 4.5 hour hill run!! I'm not that fit :P but they motivate me and i do miss track running. Soo... reasons for and against trying the competition:

For: I miss and love track running, i want to feel the adrenaline rush of running as hard as i can with my spikes and feel like i am flying again. I should take all opportunities that come my way and not be afraid of making a fool of myself. I don't know what next season will bring (even though i want to focus on the track next season!) so should just try.

Against: I don't know how fit i am, i would make a fool of myself, i will hurt my foot again with my spikes and bring about an injury (which will heal in a week), i am putting too much pressure on myself, i won't be allowed to compete entering late and not competing throughout the year so am wasting my time.

Which side is stronger?? So plan... do a trial run at MacGillivray oval tomorrow morning and if my time is OK i will email Kylie Wheeler to ask if i can still compete and go as a late entry for Friday night. My fitness is the deciding factor so i will let it decide tomorrow :) easy...