SPRING 2009

In August we headed inland to the Jenolan Caves for a weekend. These caves are probably the most famous in New South Wales and are about 2 hours west of Penrith. We brought Amy and Janice along with us and we all had a great time. It was much more adventurous and dangerous than we were expecting, but I think it was a good thing with so many boring (and expensive) touristy things to do these days.

Our new (old) car, 'BETTY'.
The trip to the caves was our last little trip before I had to start spending my weekends studying for my barrier exams. But, Brent managed to keep busy! He played ‘ICE’ hockey a few times a week and joined the Maroubra Surf Lifesaving Club and the Penrith Canoe and Kayak Club.

He also managed to find a job pretty quickly after arriving in Australia. The first job he found was as a swimming instructor (for toddlers) at a pool in Emu Plains (the suburb next to us). I don’t think he minded it much, but the pay wasn’t great and the hours were quite limited. Luckily, shortly after starting at that job he was hired by one of the professors in his faculty to do research for sports safety!

Here’s the blurb that will be published about him in their paper:

“Brent McLeod is a research assistant for the Sports Safety Policy Project being led by Dr Roslyn Poulos and Dr Alex Donaldson. He is currently studying towards his Master of Public Health and Master of Health Management at the University of New South Wales.

He has recently returned to school after working as a primary care paramedic in Canada for over seven years. He has experience in marine paramedics, flight paramedics, field training and was also involved in pre-hospital and transport medicine research.

Prior to his years in paramedics, Brent studied in Canada where he obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Laurentian University, as well as a Paramedic Diploma from Humber College. He also sat on the board at the Lifesaving Society of Canada as a Sports Committee Chair where he helped develop performance rankings for surf lifesaving across the country.

Brent also enjoys a variety of sports and is an avid surf lifesaver, swimmer, triathlete and ice hockey player. Most notably, he was a silver medallist at the World Lifesaving Championships held in Victoria in 2006.”

As far as school goes- when I got back in May I did a rotation in cardiology and hematology. I found both to be a little depressing (in different ways). I never really thought that I’d be a cardiologist, but thought that hematology might be a specialty I’d be interested in. Unfortunately, although it was really interesting, I found it very repetitive and very sad. I think hematology is out now too.

My next rotation was an 8-week psychiatry rotation. I actually found the rotation surprisingly interesting! I was placed at a private hospital in the middle of nowhere for the first 3 weeks- which ended up being a really neat experience. The hospital felt more like a resort (private healthcare!) and was full of people with post traumatic stress disorder (mostly policemen or Vietnam veterans), alcoholics, drug addicts, and all kinds of people with other mental illnesses. We got to sit in on a few Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, observe electroconvulsive therapy, visit with several patients and sit in on various group meetings.

After that I was placed with a community mental health team in Penrith where we saw patients mostly with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and eating disorders. I also spent every Friday at the acute psych ward at our hospital. This unit, called Pialla, is FULL of manic, suicidal or acutely psychotic patients. It was kind of a creepy place to be and we had to carry alarms around with us at all times. I only had to be escorted out once when a patient wouldn’t let me leave the room until I agreed to go on a date with him. Eeeeek.

The next few months were relatively quiet. Brent competed in some surf lifesaving competitions to help prepare him for the World Masters that was held in Sydney in the spring. I studied, went to school and swam and paddled when I had free time.

The weekend before my big exams we headed into town for a night to celebrate Peter and Kara’s wedding at the Little Snail in Darling Harbour. Brent lived with Peter on the Sunshine coast when he was here in 2005 and they’ve kept in close touch since then. It was a nice night and a beautiful restaurant.

We also spent a few weekends at the beach doing volunteer surf patrols. Brent has to complete a certain number of patrols in order for him to compete in some competitions. I didn’t mind though- it was a good excuse for us to get to the beach, do a bit of surfing and get some sun.

Randomly, my friend Jad (who I worked at Leuty beach with for several years and moved to Sydney with his girlfriend a few years ago), ended up signing up for surf patrols at the same beach as us! And, on top of that, he is doing his PhD on neurofibromatosis and is based out of Children’s hospital Westmead. So, when I started my Paediatric rotation in October, I kept running into Jad in the hallways! It’s such a small world sometimes.

After my barrier exams were over we had time to relax, and prepare for Halloween! Brent, me and 4 of our friends decided to go as flamingos this year. It was another fun night!

The cake I made for Amy on her birthday (Halloween)...