Anyway, here’s how my last week has been…
Last Monday was a good day at the hospital, but it dragged a little since it was our first day back from holidays. In the morning we went to the orthopedic ward and got to see two patients who had been in motorcycle accidents and one patient who had recently broken his hip and had it replaced.
The first motorcycle accident was a 23 yr old male who had crushed his leg while racing on a motocross track. The other motorcycle accident was a 35 year old male (married with 2 kids), riding a Harley, who got thrown over his handlebars when a car turned in front of him. He broke both thumbs, both wrists, and both arms on impact (and has to get surgery to put it all back in place). He had a mild concussion (even with his helmet on) and he was covered in cuts and bruises. ALSO, he broke his neck in a motorcycle accident only 5 years ago! When we asked if he was going to get another Harley, he said: “I sure am!! The day I get out of here, in fact!”. We couldn’t believe him.
The hip replacement was pretty straight forward, but interesting because we got to see all the xrays (before and after) and talk to the patient for a while. The patient was 82 years old and had broken his hip just over a week ago. I was so surprised to see him walking around (with some assistance- but still!). Dad is getting his hip replaced soon (but a slightly different procedure), so I’m trying to learn as much as I can before he does. Next week we start our musculoskeletal (orthopedic) block- so I think I should get some good info then!In the afternoon we went into surgery and learned scrubbing, gowning and gloving so that we can scrub into surgeries now. The process is long and seems over the top, but I guess they are doing it for a reason! I can’t help but think that it probably has a lot to do with not wanting to get sued…- cause they didn’t do ANY of this in India!! Here are a few pictures of the OR in India. Everyone was barefoot!
Back to the OR in Australia...
We had to get sized for gloves (you have to wear 2 pairs at all times in the OR), fit for safety glasses and taught how to put the gowns on. We had to wear scrubs (underneath our gowns), shoe covers, masks and hair covers. We washed our hands with iodine soap for over 5 minutes- cleaning everything from under our nails to above our elbows. You have to keep your hands above your elbows at all times (and if they go below, you have to start over). There is even a specific procedure for drying (making sure not to dry any part of your hand and arm with an already moist part of the sterile towel).On Thursday night a bunch of the Canadians went to a North American Medical Students Association meeting that was being held on campus. Most of us decided to join the group (so that we could go to more meetings and events held by them in the future). The meeting was really interesting and useful. I realize that I’m going to have to make a decision pretty soon about where I want to practice and what I want to do. Right now I don’t think that I’m going to bother writing my USMLE (to practice in the States) cause they said that it is a HUGE waste of time and money if you don’t need to do it!- so it is kind of a relief!
I also really like the North American students that I’ve met so far here. They are all doing medicine for the right reasons (I guess you have to be if you’re doing to move across the world for it!) and they are all really nice people.
On Friday night, I went to the ‘end of block’ party held by the Medical Student Union. We are finishing up our ‘Foundation Block’ next week and apparently they have party at the end of each of the 9 blocks to celebrate. This one was downtown in an area called Paddington and the theme of the party was anything HOLLYWOOD. Here's a picture of Maverick, a ghostbuster, Patch Adams, and an Emmy award. Australians don't really celebrate Halloween ('because it is too American'), but I think they make up for it with a costume party every other week!
Janice, Brooke and I decided to go as ‘Jem and the Holograms’ (one of Jamie’s suggestions, actually), but Brooke got the flu a few hours before so ended up not being able to come. Janice and I still decided to go as Jem (Janice) and the Hologram (me)- but hardly anyone knew who we were anyway. Maybe they didn’t have that cartoon in Australia? :( Jem and the Hologram meet the Ghostbusters...
Here's a picture of me and Borat.
Today is Monday and I have the day off because Anzac Day is Wednesday (so all clinicals were cancelled this week). I’m spending the day trying to catch up on some school work- and it is raining outside, so wouldn’t be a good day for much else anyway.
Brent is in Mexico right now with his family for his cousin’s wedding… and just sent me a big pot of flowers!! I’m getting very spoiled- even from 15000 kms away!
Hope everyone is doing well at home! Thanks for all the emails, messages and letters :). Can’t wait to see you in June! xoxo 
The accommodation was ‘cottage-like’ and was pretty good- but we were both glad that this was the first resort we stayed at… cause in retrospect, it wasn’t our favourite. The food was bad, there were lots of bugs, mosquitoes and stray cats around and the staff were kind of spacey. When the tide was in the place looked AMAZING, but when it was out there were giant mud-flats all around the resort. Despite all that, we had a great afternoon walking around the mud-flats, swimming in the pool and drinking wine.
At sunset (and high tide ;), Brent took me out to the water and asked me to marry him!! He had a HUGE diamond ring for me that Richard made for him. I was not expecting it and started to cry when he got down on one knee. We had a great dinner afterwards (even though the food was pretty bland). We were SO happy it didn’t matter! 
We took a tall ship to Mystery Island and spent the day on the beach snorkeling, swimming and relaxing. They served us a good lunch and morning and afternoon tea. 
We took lots of GREAT pictures 
and managed to miss a giant rainstorm on the mainland. 
This was most definitely the NICEST part of the trip (and Brent let me choose it since we were going to be spending my birthday there)! The Island was amazing and our room was really cute and had air conditioning! We had an amazing lunch and a great afternoon snorkeling and double-kayaking. 
The snorkeling around the island was absolutely unbelievable. I couldn’t believe it! We tried to swim towards the breaking waves, but we couldn’t get to them since the tide was out and the reef was too shallow. We went swimming in the amazing pool (that overlooks the ocean) and relaxed on the super-comfy deck chairs. 
After dinner (which was great), they held the 3rd annual International Hermit Crab Race. Ten countries were represented and each country’s crab was auctioned off for $20-$45. The person who owned the winning crab won the pot. Snow bird, the Canadian crab, didn’t do very well.
It was my birthday so we decided to sleep in a little. We went for breakfast at around 9:30 and I had eggs!!! I know it might not sound that exciting to you, but I hadn’t had eggs for breakfast in over two months so it was a big treat! After breakfast, Brent and I went back to the room and he gave me all my presents and cards from everyone. I couldn’t believe it all! So many surprises :) Around lunchtime we decided to sign up for a fishing trip on a glass-bottom boat around the Islands. It was hand-line fishing and we used sardines as bait. 
Luckily Brent wasn’t grossed out by the sardines like I was, so he put the sardines on my hook for me. Still, he ended up catching 4 fish and I caught none! The fish obviously didn’t know it was my birthday. I also ended up donating a lot my sardines to some hungry squid that was hanging around.
Our first dive was at a site called Supermarket and it was a SHARK dive! Great start to my scuba diving adventures (this was my first dive with Brent and my first dive after finishing my course)!
We saw so many sharks and I was hiding behind Brent and our divemaster a lot of the time. We also saw a moray eel which I think was about to bite Brent while he was trying to get a good picture! I pulled him away just in time… he he he. 
After our first dive Brent was not feeling very well :( . We decided to go for a snorkel at the new dive site (to get off the boat incase it was sea-sickness).
I was working on my cannonballs and Brent was trying to make himself feel better. Our boat driver was fishing and he caught a HUGE Bluefin fish while we were there. 
Unfortunately, Brent was still not feeling well while we were snorkeling (with the sharks!) and I looked over just in time to see him vomiting in his snorkel :(. Poor Brent… !! but I think he felt much better afterwards!
Our next dive was at a site called the Seven Sisters and was a pinnacle dive. We saw tons of fish and coral and a GIANT grey reef shark! Eeek.
We had a good lunch, swam in the pool a little more (I just LOVED the pool there!!) and then went out in single kayaks looking for some breaking waves! 
We caught lots of waves together, Brent broke his paddle, and I bailed in one particularly big wave. After kayaking we went back to the pool and then had our first (of many) game of chess on the giant chess board. 
Dinner that night was a buffet around the pool and Brent and I filled up on giant prawns! They were just AMAZING.
The snorkeling was incredible and we got lots of great pictures, but we were getting stung by something in the water so we didn’t last very long. 
We found lots of hermit crabs and tried to race them (like the race the other night). Brent’s crab won. :(
We also went for a walk through the Outrigger 5-star Resort that was right next door to us- which was obviously VERY nice, but WAY out of our league. On our way home we met a wood carver from near Suva who was really great and we ended up buying a few souvenirs from him over the next few days. We had a great dinner at the inn that night and then planned some excursions for the next few days before we headed to bed.
We stayed there for the morning, had a short tour and learned some history. They also made us a traditional lunch (cooked underground), had a kava ceremony for us (Brent and I both got out of drinking it this time), and danced and played music. 
The ladies of the village were selling souvenirs and we almost bought a cannibal fork (since we were in the highlands where cannibalism was practiced as recent as 100 years ago), but instead Brent bought me a really nice necklace. :) 
After the village visit, we got back into the boat and rode for about 30 minutes up the river. There was nothing else around, but for a few tiny villages and the scenery was amazing. It looked like a rainforest.
Eventually we got to a beautiful waterfall (after a short hike up into the forest). 
There was no one there and we got to swim around it for a while. Brent went cliff jumping and we took lots of pictures. I loved this place!!
After the waterfall, we headed back down the main river on the boat- but got to ride a bamboo raft for part of the way. After the tour, we had another long trip back to the hotel (with a strange bus driver). Had another nice dinner at the Bedarra Inn and then went to bed early.
The road leading to the beach was closed, but we found a very dodgy detour that eventually led us there. Natadola beach was amazing and practically empty. The beach was soft and sandy and the water was warm. We literally had the entire 2km stretch of beach to ourselves for the whole afternoon. 
We didn’t get out of the ocean until the sun was setting after 5pm. It was a great time! We had pizza and ice cream for dinner and again fell asleep fairly early after a long day in the sun! 
