Things have been pretty busy here lately. I’ve been working hard trying to get lots of studying done, but unfortunately had a very unproductive weekend because of my ‘Medic One’ course with UniMed. The course ran all day Saturday and all day Sunday, so I didn’t really have time for ANYTHING else. The course itself was kind of useless for me since I was teaching most of the same stuff to the beach lifeguards for the last 3 years… but I needed to have my qualifications transferred over to Australian standards, so there was no way around it. Although, there are a few things that the Australians do differently- which was good to know (for example- if someone is choking, they hit them on the back instead of doing the Heimlich maneuver… so weird! Apparently the Americans have started doing that as well... but that's no surprise, cause we already knew that they were weird! he he he). The course was also a good way to meet people. There were about 8 people from my med class there as well- and I got to know the ones I hadn’t met already… so that made it worthwhile. Oh and I also talked to one of the paramedics who was teaching us… and he told me that he would be very surprised if Brent didn’t get the job here! So that’s great news too! :)My day at the hospital on Monday was pretty good. I was tired from the weekend and it turned out to be another 12 hour day, but we learned a lot. I saw a patient in the morning by myself- which I hadn’t done before, so that was a pretty good experience. I like to talk to the old ladies because they are just so nice. They always call me “sweety”… and one really cute old lady kept telling me that I was such a pretty girl. It was just so funny, and it is better than talking to grumpy people.
In the afternoon we had a tutorial on airway management. It was mostly on nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal airways, but we also learned to intubate patients (unofficially). It was pretty neat and we got to practice lots on our anatomically correct manikins. Some of the boys in the group also offered to have nasopharyngeal airways put up their noses. I really didn’t like watching that- especially because they made themselves tear up and bleed! I wouldn’t use that airway on anyone unless they were being a real jerk. 
We also had a radiology session in the evening- which was useful… but I was so sleepy and sitting in a dark room looking at chest x-rays over and over again didn’t help. 
Oh, I also forgot to write about last Monday’s patients too. There wasn’t much exciting to report- except for a pneumonia patient that we saw in the ER. The only thing that was really exciting about the patient (and his wife) was that they were from Vancouver! They were over in Australia for a 3 week holiday and were planning to go home the next day (until the husband got too sick to travel). They ended up asking us (me and Canadian Nick) more questions than we asked them!Also Tom’s med student, Alice, has been really great to me lately. She’s even made me a CD with all her notes from the first 3 years which I’m sure will be really great for studying eventually! This picture is from med ball and Alice is on the far right.
It sounds like things have been busy at home too! Brent’s last shift was very eventful (and I’m sure some of you will have heard about it already). He had a stabbing at Pape and Dundas. The boy was only 15 years old and was stabbed right in the middle of the chest. He was conscious when Brent got there, but apparently had a cardiac tamponade (which is fluid – probably blood – that fills up the pericardial sac surrounding your heart). It does not have a good prognosis, but the boy got sent into surgery right away, so hopefully he will be ok. The media found out about it somehow and were all waiting at St. Mike’s emergency when Brent got there with the boy. I still haven’t heard if he lived or not. Brent’s last 4 shifts (before Australia) are all at the Marine Unit, so chances are he won’t have any more good work stories for me until October! :) 
There has been a lot going on at the beach lately as well! There was a suicide at the rocks off Woodbine 8 a few weeks ago and the man had shot himself in the head. He apparently still had a pulse when the paramedics arrived, but obviously didn’t live. I also heard that they had 9 pull-outs last Sunday alone! I guess they are earning their $$ this year. 
Well I think that’s all that’s new for now… My next two weeks are going to be really busy, so I’m not sure I’ll have a chance to write again for a while.Hope you are all doing well!! And I’m already looking forward to seeing you all at Christmas time. xoxo
ps. Here is a picture of our finished poster :)
2 comments:
This is a personal blog.
and a very good one i might add...
i love your poster baby! xoxox
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