Paediatrics Rotation- Lismore, NSW (Nov. 2009)

My last rotation of the year was paediatrics. It was an intense term, but incredibly interesting and rewarding. My entire stream was placed at Children’s Hospital Westmead for the majority of the time. This hospital is Sydney’s equivalent to Sick Kid’s hospital in Toronto, and so the teaching was amazing and the staff came from all over the world to work there.

We saw all kinds of rare syndromes and cases and were surrounded with more resources than we could possibly use. Every student’s rotation was slightly different: mine consisted of 2 weeks of mandatory lectures, 1 week of evaluations, 1 week in emergency, 1 week in the outpatient clinics, 1 week in general surgery and 2 weeks up in Lismore for general paediatrics.

Lismore is about a 9 hour drive north of Sydney, so Brent and I spent the first weekend of the rotation making our way up the coast. We camped at a place called Grassy Heads on our way up there (just south of Coff’s Harbour). The campsite was really cute and right beside a massive, empty beach! We did a lot of surfing, cooked on our mini stove, walked around the area and watched a movie on our computer in the tent. We had a powered site, so we weren’t exactly roughing it. :)

The rest of the drive was OK except for the fact that it was 35+ degrees and our little car doesn’t have any air conditioning. Brent had to stop at a gas station to get me a bag of ice which sat on my lap until the entire thing melted.

Lismore is a small town in northern New South Wales about 75km inland from Byron Bay. It was an optional rotation, but a good chance to see rural Australia and get some experience in a small town. The school paid for my travel and for my accommodation- and they even arranged for Brent to be able to come and stay with me. We had our own little unit right beside the hospital with 2 bedrooms, and our own bathroom, laundry, kitchen and living room. It was pretty run-down and FULL of bugs and cockroaches, but it was hard to complain since it was all free. We also had free internet in our unit so Brent was able to do his research work from Lismore!
The rotation itself was interesting, but very general compared to the unusual cases that we got in the city hospital. It was also very relaxed, which meant lots of time to explore the area with Brent. We went hiking in Night Cap National Park and made it to Protesters Falls- an amazing place with NO ONE around.

We also went to Nimbin for a day- the home of the 1979 Aquarius Festival. This place was so weird- full of hippies and drugs, run down cars and tacky paint jobs. We toured a museum there, had breakfast at a café, and found a really neat candle shop in town. It was interesting to visit once, but can’t say I was sad to leave at the end of the day.
We decided to spend our only full weekend up there at Byron Bay. We stayed in a trailer for the weekend which was a short walk to the main beach.

We also stopped in a really cute town on our way to Byron Bay called Bangalow- and had a great breakfast at a café called Utopia there.

We walked around the town, went surfing a few times (on a new long board that Brent traded his short board for), and found a great place for dinner called Fish Mongers.
Lismore is a lot like Penrith, so there isn’t too much going on during the week. The school and the hospital always had events going on to keep us busy, though. Some nights we had trivia, some nights pizza and beer socials and some nights drug company dinners. My friend Amanda (who was up there for her GP rotation) and I also managed to drag Brent out to see the movie Twilight while we were there. I think we were probably the only people in the theatre over 18 years old, but Amanda and I had a good time anyway. : )

Lismore was another great experience, but we were glad to be home in our own apartment when the two weeks were over.