Week 55 - Whinging & Sitting

Thursday #56 – woke up to the sound of DTM’s alarm this Thursday as he got up and headed off  to some job search seminar.  I assured him I was going to get up as soon as he left, shower, breakfast and hit the studying hard.  I woke up again just after 9.30 to the sound of my phone ringing and DTM asking what I was up to.  I confessed that I may have dozed off again for another hour or so but assured him I really was getting up this time.  As he talked up his plans to head the gym and be home in a couple of hours, I felt bad for still being in bed and finally got up.

After a shower and some eggs on toast I set about reading a text book.  Yes, it really is as exciting as it sounds.  It helped a lot and I now feel confident that in my final exam on Wednesday, if they ask me for possible differentials for a patient coming in with a tearing eye, I can list “emotional states” as a possible cause.  And let’s not forget the other gem, pigmented conjunctiva could be the result of racial pigmentation…and here was I about to diagnose anyone slightly tanned with some terrible disease.

When DTM got home from the gym he made himself some lunch and kicked me out of the room I was studying in so that he could have a nap.  It’s a tough life.  I went into another room to continue my reading and was interrupted by an email listing the exam times.  We knew our exams would fall on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday next week and that we would each be allocated our own 20 minute time.  A suggestion on facebook had led me to believe there was a possibility the order of exams would be determined by student number and I had been worried ever since, knowing that my student number was the first in our year of 42.  Sure enough, I opened the email and there it was, 9am Wednesday, the very first exam, moi.

I decided that was reason enough to wake DTM from his nap a little early and have a whinge.  Suddenly shit was getting real when I realised how little time I had to study.  The fact I am writing about this now just emphasises how little time there is when you factor in my inevitable procrastination.  He got out of bed and set about making my lunch while I rang The Marge for another whinge.  Neither of them had sided with me and agreed that it was an absolute outrage and completely unfair and instead thought I should use it as motivation to study and wasn’t it good I would be the very first person finished.  Jury is still out on that one, stay tuned for next Thursday when we’ll know more.

Shortly after lunch I decided my productivity was limited by the distraction of DTM bludging in the next room so I headed back south to my hood.  I caught up on some TV and sat myself down at my desk for the first time since moving in in February.  I tend to just study on my bed usually which works well for comfort but not so well for impromptu naps as I find myself too tempted to doze off and end up cuddling up to textbooks and highlighters.

A dancing injury sustained 3 years ago during a particular energetic performance of Cotton Eyed Joe meant sitting on my bed was often rather painful as I am apparently not meant to sit with my legs outstretched in front of me.  Truth be told I very rarely sit how I am supposed to.  If I manage to find a chair that allows for my knees to be lower than my pelvis then we’re off to a good start.  Once I’ve found said chair I then have to remind myself not to curl one leg under me and sit on my foot – terrible pins and needles ensue and I struggle to walk properly for a good 3 minutes afterwards.  If I find myself sitting on the right chair with my feet on the ground, I then need to remember to roll forwards until I almost feel like I’m gonna fall off the edge of the chair to ensure I am sitting on my “sit bones” and not on the base of my spine.  When all these things come together I can sit down and stand up repeatedly like a champion…when they don’t I end up in agony when I try to stand up and consequently look like someone 3x my age.

Turns out my desk chair is actually more painful than my bed which makes study difficult.  Well that’s not entirely right.  It makes standing up difficult so in theory it could make me really productive as it’s super painful to try and get up so once I sit down to study I’m kinda stuck there.  I found myself a template The Head Of School had given us in March (just think, that’s 7 whole months I could’ve been preparing instead of just 5 days) and set about filling it in.  I got myself on a massive roll but called it quits at midnight deciding a good night’s sleep would be more beneficial than finishing the table.  It’s been about 38 hours since then and I’ve not really revisted said table…oops.

Not at all a fun Thursday but it did feel good for those last 4½ hours when my productivity finally kicked in.  Here’s hoping there’s plenty more of that to come before next Thursday.

Week 54 - Eating & Labbing

Thursday #55 – this Thursday started off in a fairly unmemorable fashion…in that I legitimately don’t even remember it 5 days later.  I can only assume I ate some weetbix and possibly downed an OJ before setting about…doing something.  Possibly uni work, probably watching TV shows.

The excitement and memory kick back in at lunch time when an administrative error at Subway saw me score 3 free cookies instead of just 1.  So much macadamia and white chocolate goodness I’m fairly confident I more than undid any benefit of the chicken teriyaki sub.  I gulped it down watching The Doctors and learnt that I should be spending 20 minutes eating my meals.  Oops.  After lunch I headed into uni to meet The Italian and get our stories straight before heading up to the lab to do some more fun research project analysis.

The Persian Uniform Police and The Not Much Older Than Me Supervisor stopped us on our way into clinic and insisted we sample some of their baked goods.  We spent what felt like an eternity deciding and eventually walked away with a vanilla slice and rocky road.  After my cookie binge earlier I decided to donate mine to The Choir Girl and left it on her desk as we headed into the lab.

We spent a couple of hours bashing plates against the desk, washing them out, bashing them again, adding chemicals, incubating samples and repeating.  We held our breath as The Choir Girl added the substrate and hoped that it would be a case of 3^rd time lucky for our research project and that the samples would turn blue.  The good news is they did turn blue; the bad news is we’re such super nerds we were genuinely excited by it.

After a reasonably successful afternoon in the lab, I headed off to the shops to buy a first birthday present for The Cutest Kid I Know.  I tried to stay focussed but couldn’t help noticing that baby clothes were way cuter for girls than boys.  I managed to get a little outfit for him and drove home to get my statistics on.  After bragging for the best part of 18 months about my HD in stats (and the only mark on my uni transcript to start with a 9), it seemed only fair I would be stuck with the stats part of our research project.  I was back in my element with pages of formulae in front of me and for once in this 5 year degree felt like I knew what I was doing.

Not a particularly exciting Thursday but with free cookies and lab results I can’t complain too much.  Here’s hoping next Thursday is at least more memorable.

Week 53 - Parking & Trying On

Thursday #54 – woke up this morning a little later than planned and enjoyed the rare opportunity to be able to sleep in on a weekday.  Had to head to uni to scan some patient documents for a case report, and foolishly thought it would be quicker to drive rather than get the bus there.  The drive itself was reasonably quick, but as is often the case at my stupid university, looking for a park took longer than the drive there.

The parking situation at uni is usually terrible based on the ridiculous amount of 1 hour spots and the fact it is virtually impossible to attend any class and get back to your car in an hour.  If you happen to only have a 1 hour class then you might manage to score yourself a 2 hour spot.  If, like most things in optometry, your class runs for 2 or more hours, you find yourself parking so far away you almost need to get a bus from the car to the uni.  Since I was just popping in for some quick scanning, I was excited about the prospect of actually making use of one of the conveniently located 1 hour spots.  Somehow, these were all taken and I had to make do with a 2 hour spot which was about a 5 minute walk from clinic.  Not too bad.

I scanned my files and was about to head home when The Greek Jesus and M-Dizzle were heading to the food court to grab some food.  Knowing my fridge was empty (as it most often is) I thought I might as well join them.  It took us a little while to work out where so many people at uni were dressed like Germans (or in some cases just randomly wearing animal ears) and it was a sad moment when we realised we were missing our last Oktoberfest.  A sweet chilli chicken wrap later I was on my way back home to get stuck into some uni work.  In theory.

I managed to write up a few drugs in preparation for my upcoming end of year therapeutics oral exam and then headed off to The Weather Girl’s for din dins.  The Marge was coming over to cook up a feast while The Weather Girl went through her clothes to establish if we wanted any or if they should go to clothes heaven/Vinnies.  After losing a chunk of weight in training for Tough Mudder, The Weather Girl no longer fit into most of her clothes and was planning to sell them at the markets.  Anything which didn’t sell was up for grabs and The Marge and I were there to make our lists of what we wanted should no one be willing to pay for it.

After an exciting night of trying on clothes which may or may not make their way to my wardrobe, I left with a brand new Alannah Hill Capelet which The Weather Girl had impulsively bought due to the massive sale and failed to wear since.  Apparently I can just “pull these things off”.  I’m always happy to accept free designer goods so wasn’t one to argue.

Not a particularly productive Thursday but it’s always fun to try any potentially free clothes.  If someone buys that Ted Baker skirt I have my eye on I’ll be ropable! 

Week 52 - Scrubbing In & Journal Reading

Thursday #53 – kicked off this Thursday with what felt like a sleep in as my placement this week was in Chatswood – a convenient 15 minute bus trip from DTM’s.  He insisted I leave early (adamant that there would be traffic) and I consequently got there a good 15 minutes before The Italian.  I headed off to Boost Juice and got myself an All Berry Bang for brekkie.

As The Italian and I walked from the train station to Vision Eye Institute, she could barely contain her excitement at the sheer volume of shops we were passing.  A decision to email The Most-Evil-Corporate-Giant-In-The-Optometry-World and ask them for a job in Chatswood instead of The Shire was soon made, as she contemplated handing in a résumé to all the local optoms.  We whinged about the stupidly hot weather and our horrible clinic shirts not being designed to withstand temperatures over 30 degrees and were shocked to discover this would not be an issue. 

Once we made our way to the right floor, we were led to a change room and instructed to take our clothes off and change into scrubs.  We felt like proper doctors, from our weird little booties to our shower cap and face mask, we were rocking those glorified pyjamas like it was nobody’s business.  A quick photo shoot later we headed back out to The Slow Talker for a rundown of what cataract surgery involved and what goes on at The Vision Eye Institute.  We observed 3 surgeries and were on edge with multiple instructions to stand in a corner and not touch anything.  Getting up close and personal to the microscope meant standing with hands behind backs.  I enjoyed the ipod mix as a bunch of movie soundtracks were played throughout the surgeries and tried to control myself when I glanced over at a visibly shaking Italian, unable to contain her amusement as Timon and Pumbaa came on singing Can You Feel The Love Tonight?

We got a 2 hour early mark and headed home a couple of hours after we got there – another productive placement for The Dynamic Duo (as The Combover so aptly named us one day).  I headed back to DTM’s for some chicken and veg and my productive afternoon of case reports was slightly sabotaged.  I stayed there trying to write up my patient’s case history while DTM headed off to the hospital.

After a quick trip to Bunnings and a cheeky serve of Pad See Ew, I eventually got into the swing of things and sat alone at the table reading journal articles on keratoconus while DTM got stuck into his Smirnoff watching The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.  Not an overly thrilling Thursday and no sign of the ice cream and free movies that had been so commonplace a year ago but still an alright day considering.

Week 51 - Shiring & Cidering

Thursday #52 – woke up early this Thursday and set off on the bus to meet The Italian at Central.  With no time for weetbix due to the alarm going off stupidly early, I managed to sneak in a cheeky bacon and egg roll when I got to the station. 

We’d agreed to meet a little early to give ourselves plenty of time to find the practice we were attending that day.  The one time all year that I had entrusted The Italian with the task of looking up where we were going, we found ourselves in Miranda.  The part-time-hairdresser-part-time-barista flirted with The Italian as she ordered her coffee and we couldn’t help thinking she had perhaps overshared when telling him where she lived and that she would be working in the hood next year.  We set off down the street to find The Optometrist/Dermatologist/Skin Cancer Guru and were impressed to have made it there 10 minutes early.  We were less impressed to see the big “we have moved” banner and had to quickly haul arse back to Gymea.

This was all a little too much Shire and a few too many trains for my liking and it was decided that The Italian would no longer be looking up where we had to go.  When we got there we were only 5 or so minutes late and The Purple Receptionist seemed unbothered by our tardiness but confused in general by our presence…apparently The Optometrist/Dermatologist/Skin Cancer Guru had told her that students had finished coming for the year.  Surprise!  With a hectic morning, we sat in and watched probably close to 20 people having skin cancers cut out and some having them frozen off.  We tried out best not to faint and at one point, when caught looking a little pale, The Cheerleader’s Mum sent us off to have a cup of tea or coffee in the kitchen.  We interpreted this as our chance to raid the Tim Tam jar.  Special thanks to The Italian for looking woozy.

Most of the patients were unperturbed by our presence and happily stripped down to their underwear in front of us.  There was some confusion when we explained we were optometry students and not in fact training to be dermatologists, but this was fairly reasonable given that we ourselves were confused by what we were doing there.  Watching people get their face chopped up and seeing bits of skin floating in specimen jars hardly seems relevant to prescribing glasses.

After a massive Portuguese chicken burger lunch, we enjoyed a relatively quiet afternoon and managed to end the day with some free sunscreen samples.  Score!  We were given the option to stay on until 6 but after explaining where we lived, The Optometrist/Dermatologist/Skin Cancer Guru decided it would be wise for us to avoid the train at night.  We felt safer already.  I headed off to DTM’s and enjoyed a couple of ciders before we headed off to Chatswood to hit up the RSL for some dinner and drinks.

Dinner ended up coming in the form of KFC as DTM was keen to try the new crispy rods…much like all the other KFC chicken products but with a large stick through the centre – genius.  We got decidedly tipsy at the RSL before heading back home to have another drink and watch The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.  It was a Thursday a little out of my comfort zone (given it was largely spent with 80 year olds down to their undies) but nonetheless a good one since DTM had arrived home the previous day.