Melbourne weekend...

Hey all, back in Melbourne now, if only fleetingly. Quite enjoying the relaxation and having home cooked meals again, catching up with family, and catching up with some (much needed) piano practice! Haven’t touched an instrument for so many weeks, so it was quite awkward and tense playing the first few scales and finding my coordination isn’t anything like what it used to be! I needed three goes just to get my hands together playing an E-flat major scale! Shuddering at the thought of how horrible my technique will be when the ten weeks in Mildura ends, and I have access to a piano once again. Thankfully, the hands still remember a few little pieces, including most of the first movement of Beethoven’s violin/piano sonata No. 1, which I’ll hopefully have in a somewhat more practised state when Sal gets back in a few months.

My parents and brother haven’t changed a whole heap. My room at home is still the controlled mess I left it in a few weeks ago – papers and envelopes scattered across the desk waiting for my delayed attention, a credit card statement with a daunting due payment, calendars and books, a bedside table emptied of all the photos, books and objects that I cling tightly to whenever I travel. My parents were eager as ever to share in the spoils of my first couple of paycheques, and we enjoyed a yum cha lunch at Shark Fin, our usual hideout. They’re also hanging out for the dinner at Stefano’s when they come visiting Mildura. As for my brother, he’s finally learnt to come to grips with driving the Magna (our sixteen year-old car – ah, so many memories!), and he continues to throw confusion into his diurnal rhythm, out at night til late visiting friends or partying, then coming home and waking up with the birdcalls in the morning.

Have been asked by so many people about how I’m finding intern life. Apart from being still under a hill (no longer a mountain) of annoying paperwork, I feel things are slowly being sorted out. I’m getting used to the whole working routine, although the mood is still one of groaning and reluctance each morning. Facing the day, waking up alone, knowing Sal is half a world away, is often depressing. But I know that I need to overcome this spectre of gloom and be thankful for the countless blessings I share in. I have a poster and a cross on the wall of my room in Mildura that remind me of my identity in Christ – they’re a great source of encouragement when I feel down, and help me get out of bed in the morning.

Once out of bed though, there’s no time really to stop and think about things – just make sure that I’m fed well enough, making myself presentable, and then fronting up at the Emergency Department, ready for another day. I think the biggest challenge is just remaining calm and trusting in the training we’ve received over the years, when confronted with such variety – anything from the chronic hypochondriac, to cardiac arrests, to traumas, to suicidal patients. The other day, I had to do my first seclusion order, which is when a doctor is required to assess a patient in seclusion room from medical perspective. In summary, check their pulse, breathing, hydration, alertness and orientation, and whatever other medical problems they might have. It sounds scary when one wonders about why on earth the patient was put in seclusion in the first place! Usually, they’re aggressive or unstable, and the doctor comes with a mini army of other personnel to help bring any trouble under control, should it arise. But the patient I was called to assess was quite docile and cooperative when I arrived, sick of being cooped up in a blank room. The poor girl, about my age, was already on such a long list of medications – it’s not surprising that her personality’s so unstable when she’s on so many psychotropic drugs.

The bulk of an intern’s work, though, is clerical. Requesting X-rays, chasing pathology results, documenting cases, reading old histories, researching management options, writing letters to GPs, and organising consultations with specialists, all takes up far more time than actually seeing the patients. It can be frustrating (for patients as well), especially in the cases where more time is spent waiting for results to come back than actually doing things. That said, I’m very fortunate to be working in the emergency department, since it offers such a great opportunity to see an incredible variety of patients (complete with interesting personalities and stories to tell), to do procedures of all sorts (plasters, sutures, needle and surgical drainage of abscesses, IV cannulation, fracture reduction), and to learn from it all.

Back to Mildura tomorrow, armed with a stack of new CD’s for the long drive up, and hopefully refreshed for another week in the sunny orange land. Till next time, God bless!