Merry Christmas

Hi everyone, hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas holiday season so far. I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. This will be my last post before leaving for Hong Kong tonight. From speaking to my mom it will be a mad rush to see and do everything. It'll be good but tiring. I hope you all have a wonderful and safe Holiday and eat lots. I'll speak to you all in the new year.

Meet Jarrah

My housemates KP and Scott decided to get a puppy three weeks ago. They’ve always wanted to get a puppy here but I didn’t they actual would, at least not know. There are enough financial obligations as it is but I guess whatever makes you happy. I don’t know if it’s part boredom or something to cheer her up but I came home from prac and there he was. His name is Jarrah, which is such a predictable name considering how obsessed they are about Jarrah wood. Jarrah’s a type of tree only found in WA and people make some really beautiful things with it. Wonderful colour to it.

I haven’t really paid much attention to Jarrah since he’s been here because I’ve been on prac and by the time I get home, it’s just too tiring to play with him. I couldn’t be bothered to talk to people, let alone a puppy. My housemates, his parents, left two days ago to go to New Zealand for two weeks and left Becks to take care of Jarrah. He is such a puppy. I feel like a broken record and following him everywhere to make sure he doesn’t wreck everything in the house. He’s teething right now so he has a tendency to chew EVERYTHING, including my arms.

He can be very cute sometimes but other times just plain annoying. I like talking him on his walks. I’m trying to teach him to catch and fetch the ball. He kind of got the idea of chasing it but does not retrieve it back to you. He’ll get it soon, probably in the next two weeks. Yesterday I decided to go jogging with him. He did pretty well in the morning. I would sprint and he would keep up then he got tired and stopped for a few seconds. Then in a dash he would catch right up again. In the late evening, I took him out again and he kept up for a bit but there were too many distractions. Once he saw another dog, there was no chance of even hearing me.

Some dogs love to play and other dogs hate it. Jarrah’s only 12 weeks old so any dog is a playmate to him. He’ll try to play with any dog and don’t seem to understand when another dog just does not want to play. He’ll keep at it until the other dog gets so annoyed that it starts attacking Jarrah. Then Jarrah thinks they want to play now but it’s not. I have to jump in and try to catch him and put him back on his leash. He doesn’t listen when there are other dogs around. Oh well, he’ll learn. At least he’s already toilet trained.

Here are some pics that I took of him:

Christmas Break

I can't believe there's only a few days left before Christmas. This mid to high 30s temperature is really deceiving. I don't think I will ever get use to this. I NEED the cold to let my body now that it's Christmas. In any case, this will be a great break.

We get 2 weeks off before starting prac again and I'm actually flying on Christmas day to Hong Kong. It'll be quite exciting. I'm meeting my mom there, who will also be arriving in Hong Kong that day too. It'll be 2 years since I've seen my mom so it'll be quite exciting and weird at the same time. To be honest, it doesn't matter what we do there. I couldn't care less. It'll just be nice to see some family and experience a different culture and food, oh and of course the shopping.

We're also flying to Taiwan to see my big bro and his wife. That'll be awesome, to see what their new life will be like for the next few years. It'll be good to catch up with them.

Change of plans

When I first started this Physiotherapy program I imagined myself working in a private clinic, rehabbing athletes. It still may be a possibility but the more exposure I get with the hospital system, the more I like it. When I was in grade 11, I had a co-op placement at Toronto Western Hospital doing Physios and it was completely boring. The physios there did the same old boring thing day in and day out. So going into this I had that image in my head and if you're in the right rotation it's not like that.

The more I work with the older population, the more I enjoy it. I love working with that population, probably more so than an athletic population I think. They just have so much more life experience and their main objective is just to live a little longer. I'm in awe of how much will they have to keep battling. These past few weeks I have seen so many patients with co-morbidities. One patient would have a chronic breathing disease, breast canacer survivor, heart problems, and the list goes on. I love watching the love they have for their spouses and family.

I was doing a mobility review on this one patient today and when we were taking a break, I began to ask her about her family. She began to tell me how her husband will be glad to have her back home again. They've been married for more than 60 years and they don't talk a lot anymore because he is almost completely deaf. His has a hearing aid but words get misinterpreted all the time. Most of the time they just sit beside each other in silence and that's all they need. She told me that he comes in sometimes and he'll just sit there and hold her hand. That is the sweetest image. There's something to say about being comfortable with silence.

There's this other patient that I see everyday for exercises and chest physio. I've seen her for almost two weeks now and everyday I've seen her, her husband has been there. Her husband is 90 years old and stays by her side everyday. As I was leaving today he told me, very proudly, that he has not missed a day coming to the hospital to visit his wife. He's such a sweet man. A cute elderly man who cares dearly for his wife. They are one of those couples who would be literally lost if one of them unfortunately left the other.

Working with the elderly population is so rewarding. They are so caring and they love to talk. But many are also so scared at what's happening to them. Sometimes I just hold their hand and you can see in their eyes that that calms them down and lets them know that we're there to protect them.

It just seems like a more rewarding field and more challenging because of all the co-morbidities. Time will only tell what I end up doing. Things will probably change again once my next prac starts.

Don't wake me up...PLEASE

Have you ever felt like you are living in a dream? The most absolutely amazing dream where everything you ever hoped for is happening? This is how I've felt for the majority of this year. 2006 will go down as one of the most grateful, almost undeserving, and awe struck year. Ever since I found out that I passed the first semester of this year, I've been waiting and hoping not to be woken up from this amazing time of my life.

It feels like everything is finally coming together and there are so many great things happening around me that I feel undeserving, especially when there are so many tears around me. I don't feel as though I've worked hard enough to deserve this but it's not like I don't do anything. Sometimes I find myself in disbelief that I've actually gotten through and am good at what I do.

I have been on prac for the past 3 weeks, with one more week to go before Christmas break. I'm on the Cardiopulmonary rotation right now, working in ICU, Acute Surgery ward, and Medical ward. I'll be the first to admit that Cardio was and probably still is my weakest field. My very first semester here, I absolutely hated it and couldn't not comprehend any of it. I didn't even think I could even pass the first semester. So going into this rotation I was a little worried that I wouldn't know enough theoretically. The first few days I was a little closed off and hesistant, more so because I was paired up with a degree conversion student.

Degree conversion students are students who are qualified physios in their respective country and now want to practice in Australia. They join our class in the last year and go on these pracs with us. She said that her specialty was cardio, working in this field for 7 months prior to coming here. This had the potential to make me look really bad and incompetent. I had to step up to the plate and I think she, unknowingly, challenged me to be great and be on top of things during these past few weeks. It's kinda like fitness training. If you train with someone who is fitter than you, they will push you harder than you can ever push yourself and get results faster. Once again I'm very fortunate to be pushed this way.

Yesterday I had my mid placement evaluation with my school supervisor. The feedback she gave me was more than amazing. She said that I had unbelieveable rapport with patients, my patient handling was great, and she has no worries of me. Then today when she was evaluating the degree conversion student, she told her that the two of us have been the best Master's students she's had in the past few years. Initially she was put off by the thought of having to supervise more Master's students because they are usually not as good as they think they are. We definitely surprised her and think we're the best that she's come across in recent years. How can you beat a feedback like that?

Here's hoping that I get to stay in this wonderland until the very end. Sometimes I lose sleep because I feel guilty for having success.

Chrismas Spirit

This week's weather forecast in Perth, Australia: Fine and sunny, ranging in the mid to high 30s. I'm sitting here in my room, sweating perfusely wishing that we had A/C in our house.

It may not feel or look like Christmas around here but signs of Christmas are evident, even if you have to use a magnify glass to find it. The hype and excitement is definitely not as big over here. I miss the Christmas lights outside most houses and Christmas decorations every where you turn. There's not a lot of it but they do pop up, it has much more of an impact. I took the bus to clinics the other day and when I got on the bus, the first thing I heard were Christmas songs playing over the sound system. The entire bus was decorated with fake snow, spray on snow on the windows, santas and reindeers on the dashboard, and even Christmas lights hanging on the ceiling. Doesn't that suck up all the battery of the bus??? Anyways, it was pretty cool but the songs kinda got annoying after almost an hour on the bus. Maybe if the driver had used more of the classic traditional songs and not high pitched children singing the same verse over and over again. In any case, I wish I had my camera that day.

Ergonomic Society

Last week I woke up around 5am thinking what the heck did I get myself into??? I should not be worrying about this while I'm on clinics. There's enough stuff to worry about during prac. Why did I agree to do this damn presentation. Most people just did a simple pamphlet and I HAD to go off and do a whole research/database Ergonomic thing. It's too late to back out now, the presentation was in less than 2 hours.

So I caught the bus and ended to the city to do a presentation for the Ergonomic Society's Annual General meeting. These were really experienced Ergonomist who would not hesistate to question me. I should've thought longer about the audience before I had agreed to do this. It must've been shock that took over when I accepted the invitation.

By the time I got to the city, I was feeling quite confident. The content of my presentation was good and it was a sincerely interesting and relevant topic. That was the problem. I was worried that I wouldn't live up to the hype. If you weren't a member of the Ergonomic society, you actually had to pay to hear me talk. WOW...That will probably never happen again. I know, I'm such a novice.

Well it went better than I could've ever expected. I was not even an ounce nervous, probably because I didn't know anyone and probably would never see them again. I was more nervous during my class presentation and in front of my placement supervisors than I was that day. It was incredible and kinda cool to be on the receiving end of being "the guest speaker". They even gave me a gift card and a bottle of wine.

In hindsight I'm glad I did it and will classify it as a top achievement for such a small component of my program.