Surgical Rotation

Can you believe it 9 weeks have just gone by and i have finished my Surgical rotation! Looking back i think i should slack more during my first rotation at Colorectal unit cause apparently the consultants did not notice my friend when she was there (but i do remember the consultant notice me and my other friend and kept asking us questions). Then come the one which i say is the most busy unit in the hospital, Upper GI which take in any surgical cases cause they have a consultant who is a general surgeon hence general surgery is under this unit. Upper GI problem is also under this unit as it is an UPPER GI unit and any cases which deals with the liver and gallbladder (hepatobiliary) is also under this unit. So its busy busy busy for this unit.

But 1st lets talk about the hospital where i am attached to for my whole of sem 1 and 6 weeks of sem 2. The hospital i am attached to is called The Queen Elizabeth Hospital or short for TQEH and even shorter way of calling it, QE.

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital

New Wing-QE

Old Wing-QE

Old Wing and the bridge that connects the old to the new

Old wing car park-QE

Visitor waiting area in the new wing

The Bridge that connects old and new

Colorectal room where i hang out when i have nothing to do in the ward

Interior of the room of colorectal where the intern, RMO, Registrar, nurse and med students hang out when thet are free

QE early in the morning mainly 6.30am (sorry for the poor quality)

QE is a very special hospital as this hospital is a Mini IMU hospital. Yes your eye is not playing tricks on you i just typed out that this hospital is a MINI IMU HOSPITAL. IMU-PMS grads from all over mainly Australia and New Zealand can be found here. In Upper GI team there is 3 IMU grads mainly my RMO and one of the intern who graduated from Uni of Auckland and the other intern who is from Uni of Queensland. In medical unit, one of the unit team is comprise of all IMU grad except for the consultants (which means intern, RMO and registrar are all IMU-ians). My friend met an IMU grad who graduated from Uni of Manchester working here and the other friend of mine met another IMU grad who graduated from Uni of Auckland and chose to work here cause he said most IMU grad is working here. I personally met another IMU grad who graduated from Uni of Adelaide and now is a junior Registrar in anaesthetic and she asked for our number and said call her if we need help (so nicey). Now i wonder when will the first IMU grad from Seremban coming??????

Surgical posting here is fun i guess. I work hard for it cause this is our 1st 9 weeks here so working hard doesn't hurt right? At least now i know how their system goes. The teaching here is mainly at OPD or during ward rounds where you try to pick up what the docs are saying. Sometimes they will ask you some questions and ask you to find out the topic and come back to them. Tutorial is definately a must and guess what we also have some training in suturing.

The suturing equipments

Me gloving and preparing to do suturing (for the 1st time)

The patient (Victim) who is going to be sutured by me!!

My suturing skills

And the cut i purposely made on the patient so i can do more suturing

So i guess this is it for my blog update. Maybe next time i do some blogging about how the surgical ward round are conducted here. Before i sign out, one last picture for you guys of dawn in Adelaide.

Look at the sky. I took this picture when i was on my way to the bus stop taking the bus to the hospital (and was late on that day too)

Cheers guys!!!!

Tired but Enjoyable

Urrrgh i can't believe i am actually writing this post at 2.16am when i should be reading up on breast cancer and the management and treatment for it or sleep so i could wake up early to do...... more reading.

Life so far in Adelaide.... one word TIRED. I can't believe i have been waking up at 5am in the morning to go for my ward rounds with the whole team (hey i am part of the team too, so i have to go). I can't believe i am still doing follow up for my patients, what they have gone through and all the investigations done and i still can't believe i am struggling to read the drain chart of the patient. You know how after every surgery they put a drain at the site where they did the cut, just to drain off any serous fluid or leaks. Apparently it is important to read it. They don't expect 4th years to do it but well sooner or later we have to do it, so why not learn it now right. So guess what i finally sort of master it BUT the short forms used by the doctors are annoying cause i don't know which drain bag is for which.

But no one would believe that Surgical Attachment here is so busy. I mean we go ward rounds, do patients update, go to the theatre, study, do online questions and do presentation. How much do we have to do really? Haih well 2 more weeks of surgical and off i am to med and speaking of which, history taking in Surg are usually short and concise and after 9 weeks in it, i think i have forgotten how to do a thorough full History taking for med. SHIT!!! Now i have to re-learn everything again.

Overall Surgery is fun. I helped one of the Surgeon in 2 surgeries and for the first time in my life, i hold a laparascope in hand, helping the surgeon in Appendicectomy and Cholecystectomy. Now that i think about it, maybe i do want to do it again cause when i did it last time, guess what i was so bored i almost feel asleep (SHHHHH don't tell the surgeons ok). So far my Surgical rotation is well tiring, hectic and enjoyable cause i think i do learn a lot hahahahaha.

Ok back to study and hopefully by Monday i can read the Drain Charts and figure out how much the fluid has been drained from the patients wound hahahaha. This will be my update for now. Cheers guys (Mate - So Aussie hor, i still think Manglish is better lol)