Back to the Butterfly Effect

I did so much community and environment work for Trinity college last year which i absolutely loved. I have come to realise though that since the end of 2011 i have been so drained from it. It took more out of me than i could give, but i want to get back into it! It's not so much the organizing that i like which is what i mostly sis last year, but it is the participating and contributing. You don't always have to be the leader, sometimes the hardest part is not to lead but to be the follower, all the leader needs is that one follower to step up and then the domino effect can be produced to make a difference in the world. I am determined to once again be part of my old friend... "The Butterfly Effect".


The most memorable and enjoyable contribution i made to the world last year was something i did not organise, was not part of college and was not so close to home. It was the Global Poverty Project's 'End of Polio' campaign. The campaign aimed to help eradicate the Polio virus from the world, a devastating disease which leaves those affected paralysed for life. It is 99% eradicated but we should not settle for less than 100%!

Polio is an infectious disease that invades the nervous system and can cause irreversible paralysis and even death.

It is highly infectious, and can have debilitating impacts. While it can strike anyone, at any age, the disease mainly affects children under five years old.

Polio swept throughout the world during the 1930s – 50s - causing widespread fear and panic. Schools were shut down, public spaces closed and families barricaded themselves in their homes to protect children against the rapid spread of this potentially fatal disease. Hospital wards filled with iron lungs and manufacturers struggled to keep up with demand for crutches as previously healthy children lost their mobility and were paralysed - all as a result of this incurable disease.
A simple public health intervention could not only protect future generations from the debilitating impacts of this disease, but also write a story of success that will reinvigorate public support for the life-changing impact of foreign aid investment, and prove that progress in the fight against extreme poverty isn’t just possible – it’s happening right now.


Now, thanks to decades of investment in vaccination programs, polio cases have been reduced by 99% - from more than 350,000 to 1,349 in 2010 - and the number of polio-endemic countries has been reduced from 125 to four. But the disease continues to threaten children in some of our world’s poorest communities.

The world has proven tools and tactics in place to beat this disease; and with full funding, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative - the public-private partnership leading eradication efforts – could tackle the last 1% of cases. But a $590 million funding shortfall for their 2011-12 program currently threatens eradication efforts.

We know that the continuing existence of this debilitating disease risks the livelihood and futures of vulnerable communities; threatening to pull them deeper into the cycle of poverty.

The campaign involved an article to the newspapers (i got one in the Bunbury Mail!), a flash mob in the city to raise awareness and get the petition signed and an amazing concert on October 28th 2011 for the first day of GHOGM featuring Featuring R&B superstar John Legend and Aussie hip-hop sensations Bliss N Eso, The Getaway Plan, Calling All Cars, Hungary Kids of Hungry, Owl Eyes and Andy Bull; the Concert also included an inspiring line up of speakers, including: Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd, Australian of the Year Simon McKeon, polio survivor Rotarian Ramesh Ferris and Nigerian health care worker Catherine Oluwantoyin. It was an awesome night with 4,000 people who came! 

But what i loved the most was the sense of community and passion, being with people with a similar goal and acting to help our world in any way we can.I want to get back involved with volunteering and having a voice. After 6 months away from it all i want to get back into it and i have an opportunity next Thursday - the Global Poverty Project is having a talk about the 1.4 billion reasons Poverty project and the way forward with a number of guest speakers including the 2012 Rhodes Scholar Vinay Menon, End of Polio campaign manager Michael Sheldrick and Global poverty project presenter Ashlee Uren. Hopefully i can find a new way of involvement there :) Here is a link to the YouTube video of our flashmob in Perth CBD... i am the one doing the cartwheel when the first group comes in, everyone did an amazing job! ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRoVq5XJXPA 

Lest We Forget

The Autumn weather has been kind to us so far, the nights are getting cooler, bed is getting more comfier and the days are shorter but the days themselves have been beautiful. A few of us had a trip to Kings Park last Sunday for a friends 21st birthday at Synergy Parkland, it was sooo good! It was just nice to relax and laze around the park like 'normal' people and forget our uni studies for a while. We played frisbee and football and joined the hundreds of families having BBQs and enjoying each others company. It is definitely something that should be done more often whether we are celebrating someones' birthday or not :) 

Thankfully this week we were still able to have ANZAC day off. The night before i had a lovely dinner at Sorrento restaurant in North-bridge with the Karatamoglous and Dorkhams from Bunbury. I have to admit it took me 50 minutes to find the place after i took a wrong turn and ended up going North on the Freeway!! But once there we had a lovely time chatting and of course people watching for those unique individuals who wear leopard suits on a Tuesday night! I had a nice time :) But it did mean i got back late and didn't make it to the dawn service this year. Instead i ended up going to the Fremantle Service with my flatmate Emma (who was hunting for a man in uniform!). It was a nice sized service and so nice to see lots of families on the Espanade getting involved. It was quite funny hearing the music, everyone was hunting for the band until these 2 ladies rounded the corner with a rickety speaker on wheels... don't worry Freo your reputation is still safe with me! :P

 


I also made some weetbix-banana and date muffins from a recipe i found on Taste.com! I didn't have beaters but improvised a little which made them a little too dense but still tasty! I will make them better next time though :)

Ingredients

• 3 ripe bananas
• 4 Weet-Bix
• 185ml (3/4 cup) milk
• 2 eggs
• 80g (4 tbs) margarine
• 225g (1 1/2 cups) self-raising flour, sifted
• 2 tbs brown sugar
• 1 cup chopped dates

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Grease a 12-hole muffin pan. Mash bananas in a bowl, then crumble in Weet-Bix and stir in the milk.
3. Set aside for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, beat together the eggs and margarine, then add to the banana mixture. Combine flour and sugar in a large bowl and add wet ingredients and choc chips.
4. Stir until just combined, then spoon into muffin pan and bake for 25 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Yum! :) 

Psychiatry - it really is a crazy world.

Wow. Most of us have heard about 'crazy people' and have a typical stereotype sketched into our minds of what these sort of people look like. But the really crazy thing is that it can be anyone of us if we were in the right (or more correctly unwanted) situation and environment. Starting my psychiatric rotation i find myself bewildered in Graylands Hospital in an atmosphere where it is normal for people to believe that if you walk around with no shoes you will stop the aliens from landing and taking over Earth or that the voice of god is controlling you and telling you to wander around the streets naked at night, almost every patient has an increased suicide risk and some even try to swallow knives or even toothbrushes and are at high risk to themselves and others. Even those who are experiencing manic or 'high' episodes who have this intense energy, don't sleep, don't stop talking, are constantly active and have such a flight of ideas that you can have no idea what they are talking about apart from the fact you can't take your eyes off their wonderfully bright and flamboyant clothing. Interviews need strong and muscular nurses to restrain patients should they become agitated and aggressive particularly when you question those voices or visions they have as though they are crazy - they truly believe what they see, hear, feel and even taste is real! Walking through the locked wards is intimidating especially being a small, young female with no duress alarm as yet. The hospital itself strangely enough reminds me of my old high school with double story red brick walls on open grounds with trees and greenery, however even those you were socially regarded as 'odd' in high school would be regarded as the most normal people alive at Graylands.

I can't imagine what it would be like to be that mentally ill. Most people have intense backgrounds of physical, verbal or sexual abuse, suicide exposure, illegal drug/substance abuse or financial and relationship situations which have literally driven them to their current conditions. The sad part is most of them once diagnosed in Graylands are diagnosed for life.

It has certainly been taking some getting use to especially since i have only been there for a week so far. I find it all so interesting, most people have the idea that these disorders are literally all in the head but in reality they have known biological causes and chemical/neurotransmitter abnormalities which the drugs help to balance out. But of course psychological education and cognitive and behavioral therapy is so important as well to help remodel thought patterns and electrical activity in the brain. Even after the first day when we were trapped in an interview room with a newly admitted lady screaming outside our door in the locked room or when the man hearing spirits got aggressive and ended our interview soon before punching a nurse on his way out, i felt calm enough to not be intimidated and feel relatively safe where i was. But these past few days i think being around these patients have been having a small effect on me! I have been feeling depressed these past few days, homesick and generally very tired. Maybe it is having a psychological effect on me where i need to learn to distance myself from the emotions of the patients and focus on the clinical diagnosis and management of them. But that is not being a true doctor as you can't truly understand the patients without understanding their true feelings and emotions, but that doesn't mean you have to take those emotions on. It is like what our consultant said, these patients have thorns buried inside of them, most people do but not as much as these patients. When they talk to us they release the thorns and give them to us to ease their load, we take them on, analyse them and then go about destroying them. How? By having a strong enough mind to disintegrate the thorns with positivity, happiness, enjoyment with family, friends, loved ones and realising we weren't made to carry these thorns or to get hurt and can even throw them out completely. If we can't we need to unload the thorns we have taken on to other people and soon they will be shared enough for each of us to rid of them together. That is why it is co important to communicate no matter what it is or who we are.

Maybe i have taken on too many thorns in this past week and have felt terrible because of it. Even a coffee with my friend i love to catch up with didn't help, but thankfully even just a few kind words from my boyfriend helped immensely. I don't want to take on more thorns than i can handle.

A surprise to remember!

This is up there with one of the biggest things i have organised, i managed to pull off an actual surprise 21st party for Kyle which he had no idea about!! I was amazed at how well everyone around him kept it a secret, even i had to bite my tongue and choose my words VERY carefully whiles talking to him, it is harder than you think!!

It turned out well, the first venue i found just down the road at the Albion hotel had their Queen Victoria Ballroom free for Friday the13th (i was worried that would be a bad omen!), so i went down, had a look and booked it!

The Albion is such a nice hotel i would love to go there for a meal of coffee sometime. It was the lead up week which was a little more hectic balancing uni with making 2 power ranger costumes (thank you mum!!), ordering balloons, making and decorating cupcakes (thank you my good friend Lexi and mum again!) and trying to hide it all from Kyle while making sure he didn't have any plans for that night, at least most of his friends already had that night booked and couldn't make new plans with him:P

I had a great time Friday afternoon decorating the cupcakes with mum though who happened to come up for a night out at a bank dinner at Burswood with dad which they both really enjoyed.

There was a little panic at the hotel setting up as my laptop wasn't working for photo's, suddenly it was getting late and i hadn't started getting ready, i still had to take mum to Burswood, peak hour traffic was starting and Kyle was looking for me at the unit!! But mum and i managed to get her to Burswood by picking up Kyle for a ride and playing it cool pretending we had been shopping. It worked out well from there, Kyle and i went out to sushi in Claremont and had a nice time and just enough time to eat and not be in a rush. At 7.30 i mentioned i wanted to take him somewhere and he was thinking the movies, i was worried he was tired and wouldn't want too but thankfully he agreed! When we got to the hotel i told him we were doing karaoke which he didn't want to do but i had to say it :P as i took him up the stairs giving the signal to his friends to prepare the surprise i think he started getting a little suspicious! We opened the double doors and yay the surprise was a success!!! I was so happy with everyone who made an effort to come and dress up - the theme was 90's cartoon character :) After greeting everyone we got changed and had a wonderful night. Of course there were a few speeches and a video his mum gave me of when Kyle was younger, cupcakes, dancing and i managed to sneak in some bubbles!

I am relieved and happy Kyle had a great night, it was wonderful to see all his friends, most of those he knew from Denmark came and made the night even more fun. They are a funny and awesome group of people!

We also went out to Jus Burgers and San Churro's in Subiaco with a group of friends from medicine which was really nice for Kyle's actual birthday, I think he had a great extended celebration which he deserves! Happy 21st Kyle :)

A lovely Easter break :)

The weeks have crept up on me again and it is past half way through April already! The last week of Gen med was probably our 'cruiser' yet as we made our way through last tutorials and meetings, had our last ward case presentations with our consultant and said goodbye with a card. It was hectic but i will miss gen med and the group we had. That Thursday we had a last ECG tutorial (which would have been brilliant at the start of the rotation!) then i snuck away to surprise Kyle and do the 4.5 hour drive to Denmark :) It was a nice drive actually and i managed to leave before lunch and the big Easter traffic although the roads were already busy! It was so nice just to leave the city and get the country air and surrounds again! I loved coming into Denmark with all its greenery, it is a beautiful town :)

His mum could see me pull up as she knew i was coming but i waited out the front and rang Kyle 'The roads were busy so i took a little detour to Denmark' :P he came outside but i went through the back way to see his mum and hid in the kitchen, poor Kyle was a little confused but when he found me (or heard the laughter i couldn't contain!) he was still surprised, i loved his expression :)

It was lovely in Denmark, we chatted and drank lots of tea and just relaxed! Good Friday we had a yum brunch at his sister Jess's house with pancakes, berries, bacon, walnuts, maple syrup, banana - the works! They have a lovely house and view overlooking some hills. We met Suddy Jess's husband and his mum and Kyle and i looked at a little what i called 'witches hat' house that someone use to live in, around the corner was also a little cottage like house with vines on its walls, it was all like a fairy tale setting but real and i absolutely loved it :)

We had a game of trivial persuit that afternoon and i helped Kyle's mum Robyn make him a 21st cake. That night we had a lovely dinner at the tavern with his mum, dad, sister and Suddy, it was busy but a great atmosphere, we had dinner in the bar area (i had salmon - yum!) then played a game of pool! We went back to the house and sang Kyle happy birthday complete with a delicious chocolate cake (thanks Robyn!).

I left Saturday morning to have some time with our short break in Bunbury at home, the Denmark easter markets were on though, i would have loved to look at them they were massive and attracted so many people!! Maybe next year :) I had a nice trip home every town was so busy for the Easter weekend, i stopped in Manjimup and had a really nice chai latte there before continuing on. It was really nice to be home, mum and i went out for some shopping and had a look in spotlight, i was also getting some things for Kyle's surprise 21st party i was organising. It was nice to have a walk with mum and dad, home cooked meals and my home bed :)

Easter Sunday i went for a run to my good friend the marlston stairs before cooking pancakes! yay! Nic and Dan came around for a good brunch under the patio, dad cooked bacon and eggs and we had fruit too! Afterwards was of course out traditional easter egg hunt in the garden... i was on a mission this year and for the first time i found my eggs first and didn't have the last egg which no one could find, i was very proud :P but it is always a lot of fun, mum says it is our last one but i know it wont be :) I would still have an easter egg hunt when i am 50!

Mum and i had an interesting day making a costume for Kyle's 21st - power rangers! It did take a while but we got there, thank you mum for all your help you are amazing :)

That night we went over the Smiths house for Teagan's birthday which some other families and had a BBQ dinner, it was nice to sit and chat with everyone and meet a few new people. I was quite tired and left a little early but still had a good night.

Then Monday it was back to Perth, but not before a trip with the puppies to the back beach! I love how suddenly energetic they are running through the sand and water, it makes me so happy to play with them with mum and dad and see them enjoy it so much! I tool a few photos :)

But with lots of fun comes the consequences as demonstrated by Nicole's dog Sonic...

Mum and i had a little cooking spree that afternoon - we made muffins and cranberry biscuits (i am addicted to these!). I was a little sad to leave i felt like i only just got there and hadn't fully had a chance to relax with my family (and recover form Gen med!) but uni calls. Even spanning nearly 1000km in 4 days it was the best Easter break so far. Happy Belated Easter :)