didn't even hit twenty-four

i was supposed to go here:



i'm here at the moment... for the term doing orthopedics:



it's been only two days, only 20 hours.. and i'm already counting down the hours til the weekend hits. really, it could have been worse. i'm lucky to have a good bunch of interns starting out with me, a decent registrar (who's mostly in the operating theaters anyway) and a good senior who's been out for 3 years. it helps that he wants to be an orthopod.

so yeah, my first 20 hours of work consisted of two medical emergencies, got chastised by the infectious diseases registrar, got the first complaint filed against me by the patient transport department for trying to organize an out-of-hospital CT scan at the request the specialist and got lectured by the radiographer to "not do this again. that is really unfair. you know that. to come in and want us to drop everything to scan your patient. that is not right." those last two things brought me pretty damn close to tears today, out of sheer frustration at the unfairness of it all.

as A pointed out, "you do you mean to tell me that some woman at the patient transport office is telling a doctor what test is best for a patient, or that she won't send the patient, despite a doctor's order, to another hospital for a better CT scan because she doesn't want to spend the hospital's money (the government's money)??"

*pissygrumble*

quick update

another quick update before i disappear into another puddle of oblivion. i can sense these things, you know. =)

came back from my 2-week vacation in one piece. survived the family and relatives. it was even enjoyable this time. no, this didn't include the car crash i was in. yes, everyone was alright though i can't say the same for the hunks of metal we were travelling in.

pictures to come, watch out for them on flickr.

joined life changing experiences as a Big Sister in their SISTER2sister program. supposed to be a mentor for girls aged 13 - 18. boot camp started on saturday. don't know whether to take it as a compliment or not - been mistaken many a times by both big sisters and little sisters for being a little sister at camp. hmm. it's supposed to last for four days, but unfortunately for me, it overlaps with my orientation at the hospital. hence, been running on near empty - boot camp itself is physically and emotionally exhausting. organizers have suggested taking days off from work if possible to recover from the camp. no can do =(

sooo... what i've been doing is driving back and forth between the campsite at Narabeen (never been to narabeen? nevah been!), home and the hospital. takes aroud an hour with no traffic, boo! daytime's spent in "doctor" mode.. or as well as i can get myself in that particular headspace from 8am to 5pm. then it's a mad dash home, shower, change into big sister mode so i can gather all the stuff i need for camp before driving down there, spend a couple of hours doing the night activities planned and then driving back here like cinderella hoping the clock doesn't chime midnight too soon.

good thing this is gonna last for one more day/night and then i can just concentrate on orientation instead of falling asleep. i mean, on a good day, my attention span only lasts for 20 minutes so you can imagine what it would've been like today.

random thought jump: the other interns were reaally really friendly. it's only been one day, so it's not like i made fast friends with anyone but everyone was nice enough to strike up a conversation or two throughout the day. they seemed piqued upon hearing that i was from newcastle. the accent presented itself as another conversation starter. all's good but won't count my chickens before they hatch. we'll see what tomorrow brings =) at the very least, i hope that more sleep is in the picture somewhere.