What an amazing week. Tiring and filled with eventful moments. I truly enjoy my time in Bendigo, although I doubt I’ll stay there for the rest of my life. Nevertheless, it’s not as doggy as I thought it would be, it’s not as ulufied as other rural areas like Kuala Kubu Bahru. The town is quite big, and it was filled with skillfully built historical buildings. It sort of took off the whole “country” mentality in me. The place I stayed, Lister House is near to this magnificent and huge cathedral. Its beauty is magnified at night when the building glow with glory as the yellow light falls on its walls.
As for my rotation, it is awesome. My first block is Gastroenterology and General Surgery. Bendigo Hospital is great. The doctors and nurses are very nice, and helpful. The real action kicks in on Tuesday when Mohana & I tried to go to the theatre to check out an inguinal hernia surgery, which turned out to be cancelled. So we ended up seeing a vascular bypass surgery, which truly amazed me when the surgeon showed me the venous & arterial thrombus. Well, I learnt a lot about it in IMU but I never actually seen nor felt one. That experience was amazing. Had my outpatient in the afternoon under this surgeon. Met the registrar under him and he has been very helpful. Taught us a couple of stuff about abdominal exams. I saw a patient with gallstones and she was scheduled for an operation the next day. He asked us to come for morning rounds the next day before scrubbing in for her surgery. I was totally like “YES” and thanking God for meeting such a nice registrar. So, I went back and study a bit on cholecystectomy.
On Wednesday morning, Mohana & I woke up at 6 a.m. and head straight to the surgical unit & found out that the team has already started the morning rounds. I met this 5th year Monash student, Hang is her name. Noticed that she’s very good and knows her stuff and her whereabouts in the ward and writing reports for investigations & stuff… hope that by the end of my 5th year, I’ll be as equip as her if not better! After the rounds, I scrubbed in for a abdominal cancer surgery. It was pretty cool though as I felt the tumour mass which was almost the size of a knuckle.
Thursday started off with morning rounds, followed by appendicectomy. The surgeon asked me a couple of basic questions regarding appendicitis, but I found myself out of words. Realized that I’ve forgotten so much of my pre-clinical stuff. As for Friday, I saw how to perform an IV cannula on a patient’s vein. I’ll try it next week.
Nevertheless, it’s good to be back in Melbourne for the weekend and have proper food. Haven’t been eating healthily the entire week. Lunches are always sandwiches packed from home, and dinners are all microwavable food such as pasta or lasagna. Too tired to run out to buy food or cook anything. Been waking up at 6a.m. and finishes about 6.30p.m. Slept around 2a.m. almost every night.
As for my rotation, it is awesome. My first block is Gastroenterology and General Surgery. Bendigo Hospital is great. The doctors and nurses are very nice, and helpful. The real action kicks in on Tuesday when Mohana & I tried to go to the theatre to check out an inguinal hernia surgery, which turned out to be cancelled. So we ended up seeing a vascular bypass surgery, which truly amazed me when the surgeon showed me the venous & arterial thrombus. Well, I learnt a lot about it in IMU but I never actually seen nor felt one. That experience was amazing. Had my outpatient in the afternoon under this surgeon. Met the registrar under him and he has been very helpful. Taught us a couple of stuff about abdominal exams. I saw a patient with gallstones and she was scheduled for an operation the next day. He asked us to come for morning rounds the next day before scrubbing in for her surgery. I was totally like “YES” and thanking God for meeting such a nice registrar. So, I went back and study a bit on cholecystectomy.
On Wednesday morning, Mohana & I woke up at 6 a.m. and head straight to the surgical unit & found out that the team has already started the morning rounds. I met this 5th year Monash student, Hang is her name. Noticed that she’s very good and knows her stuff and her whereabouts in the ward and writing reports for investigations & stuff… hope that by the end of my 5th year, I’ll be as equip as her if not better! After the rounds, I scrubbed in for a abdominal cancer surgery. It was pretty cool though as I felt the tumour mass which was almost the size of a knuckle.
Thursday started off with morning rounds, followed by appendicectomy. The surgeon asked me a couple of basic questions regarding appendicitis, but I found myself out of words. Realized that I’ve forgotten so much of my pre-clinical stuff. As for Friday, I saw how to perform an IV cannula on a patient’s vein. I’ll try it next week.
Nevertheless, it’s good to be back in Melbourne for the weekend and have proper food. Haven’t been eating healthily the entire week. Lunches are always sandwiches packed from home, and dinners are all microwavable food such as pasta or lasagna. Too tired to run out to buy food or cook anything. Been waking up at 6a.m. and finishes about 6.30p.m. Slept around 2a.m. almost every night.
Anyway, looking forward to next week. Hopefully there’s interesting cases to see or nice surgeries to scrub into. Gotta make a lot of effort to learn.
