Trying to open from within…

This entry will mark the 1st month that I have been a medical student (and it’s long…so, I would set aside about 10 minutes to read this). Amazing how fast time goes. Friday is a day that every student looks forward to. It’s the gateway to the weekend, it’s the sigh of relief from all the work that was done (or should have been done) over the past week. For me, Friday is a day where I don’t have many classes (suggesting that I should be in the library, at home, or any place that I can finish my weekly learning objectives), however, this past Friday was an absolute GONG SHOW. There was only one lecture scheduled, which was from 9 to 11am. It was a lecture on Student Directed Learning. All week, some people (like my friend Dave) had been mocking the lecture. All this negative build up of thought probably led me to believe that this lecture was going to be good. How wrong could I have been! The lecture was given by a very nice Polish woman, with a very dense Polish accent. Looking around the room, I would say that probably 1/5th of the class decided to come to the lecture. I got the room and realised that it was going to be a waste of time, I pulled out my mobile and sent as many texts as I could (my phone lets me do 5 at a time) telling my friends, “do not come”. Now, don’t get me wrong. I completely understand and appreciate the importance of student directed learning but this seemed to be the most illogical time to do it. Our biweekly PBL sessions would have been the perfect forum for such discussions, or even the first week of uni would have been good.

Regardless, after this awful lecture was over, and those that were remaining in the theatre after an hour, I went to the library to work on the previous week’s learning objective. Yes, I know that I am a week behind. I am hoping that I will be all caught up by Sunday night – yes, that is extremely ambitious but I reckon that I can do it. I waited until about 12:30pm when I met up with Dave to go to Princess Alexandria Hospital to visit our fellow classmate who is in the hospital. Our classmate was taken into emergency last week for severe pain in his abdomen. It turned out he had a massive obstruction of the transverse large intestines. He had to get it surgically removed, leaving him with a very long scar. We stayed with him for about 1.5 hours, getting him all caught up on the weekly gossip and finding out more about his operation and things like that. We were all laughing and at those points during the conversation, I felt as if I finally understood a point that Patch Adams was trying to make – that health is an intimate combination of wellness and the environment, and that laughter can bring so much hope to people. While we were there, we tried this drink called Enlive Plus (don’t ever try it, even if you are in the hospital). We were so blessed to have it as being “Peach Flavour”. The first few ingredients were water, maltose dextrin and whey protein isolate – thinking of that combination almost activates my gag reflex! Regardless, Dave and I managed to drink one box (which left this awful film in our mouths not to mention an aftertaste that just kicks you in the mouth!).

After leaving our friend to have his rest, Dave and I were on another mission. The mission was, since we chose to accept it, was to ‘acquire’ scrubs. Every year, the UQMS hosts an event called Sports Day. It begins when MBBS IV assembles outside the School of Medicine at Herston. The torch is lit and the Hippocratic Oath is recited by the Patron of the Society. The torch then travels on foot through Fortitude Valley where it is warmly received by MBBS III at Tom Dooley's Public Watering Hole. After cordial greetings are exchanged, the upperclassmen set off to recruit MBBS I & II at an array of other time-honoured pit-stops. Finally, after assembly at The Regatta Hotel, the flame is held aloft for a final push the rest of the way to the University of Queensland St Lucia Campus. The arrival of the mob with the Sports Day Torch paves the way for battles of strength, endurance, and gastrointestinal mucosal integrity. There are different events such as the Tug O’War, Iron-Man & Iron-Maiden competitions, and the infamous Boat Races (which I will be participating in as my time and I will be upholding our title from our orientation week barbeque).

(That was a major digression…sorry). The purpose of acquiring scrubs for that day is that everyone participating in Sports Day should be wearing scrubs (or patient gowns for those that want to leave their asses hanging out from the back). Now, scrubs are not easy to come by, especially for MBBS I students like myself. So, with our recently minted hospital ID cards, Dave and I set off to find ourselves a few sets of scrubs. We kindly asked different ward nurses who told us that they don’t have any scrubs on this floor and that we should check another one. Thinking that that might be the response we’d get, Dave did his homework. He talked to a third year student who gave him the 411 on how to get scrubs. It involved getting yourself past security doors (we don’t have access to those doors on our hospital ID cards), finding the change rooms (making sure that no one is in there), and taking what scrubs you can find. So, Dave and I waited patiently outside the Anaesthesiology department because we didn’t have access to get in. These two ladies swiped their cards and we pounced on the opportunity. We told them that we were medical students and we needed access in. They checked our cards and were let in. Okay, the first hurdle was a successful jump. I felt my heart racing a little faster. Moreover, I felt as if I were a young child thinking that he is stealing candy from a convenient store or something. We managed to found the common area that had loads of booties and caps (which at the time we didn’t take any). The entrance to the change room was via the common room. We ducked into the room to find scrubs were everywhere! There was a huge linen basket but we didn’t want to get caught rifling through there. After the first initial awkward looks and glances, we both grabbed a pile of scrubs that were on a bench, stuffed them in our bags and walked fast until we got out of the hospital. Upon our exit, Dave and I were laughing so hard! What a rush! When we examined our goods, we were pleasantly surprised that we both managed to get two complete sets of scrubs (shirt and trousers). SCORE!

After our hospital adventures, we headed off to the City because I had to go and pick up one of my hearing aids that I had sent in to get repaired. The apparent reason why is wasn’t working is due to moisture damage. I asked the lady what could I do to prevent it and she didn’t give me anything except, “if you think it’s getting moist, then just take it out and put it aside for it to dry”. Hmmm…yeah, sure, thanks. I need to get my hands on silica gel (you know those little sachets you get when you buy a new pair of leather shoes). Those little beads help absorb moisture that maybe trapped within the air surrounding the product in order to prevent water damage. The lady will get back to me on that. Afterwards, we go eat a very light snack at Govinda’s Vegetarian Restaurant. It was a Hare Krishna place. I will leave that discussion for another day outside of this blog. :)

After a fun day at the hospital and in the city, Dave and I head back to our respective homes to get ready for a party at my mates’ Kate and Matt’s place. On the way home, I was so excited because I would be able to wear my other hearing aid (remember, a deaf Veevek is not a happy Veevek). I put on the mould and insert a new battery. I turn it on…nothing. Yes, nothing. It was like reading an intense book and when you come upon the climax, it turns out to be some sick joke by the author. It’s not a big deal, I have gone almost 4 weeks without it and I am doing fine.
So, I met up with some friends at 19h15 so that we can all go to Kate and Matt’s place (it wasn’t along any major bus or train line and none of my friends had been, while I had been there numerous times over the past week as I was studying with them in the evenings). We get ourselves to their place, and Dave and Marlene (aka Lenny) were there. It was nice to party at someone’s place as opposed to a bar or club where it’s difficult to talk to people and you have no control over what people you interact with. Kate and Matt were a little worried about how many people would come because they didn’t tell many people. Little did they realise that I put my social butterfly suit on and got to work. During the week, I was telling all those around me about the party. So, instead of 10 people showing up, there were (at one point) 32 people. For a medium sized flat, that’s a decent size. So, as with any party, people start boozing it up and having a great time (I am always amazed how potent alcohol is as a social lubricant…incredible!). At one point during the evening, Graeme and Michael propositioned Lenny, in that if all the men in the room took off their shirts, then she would too. Good god…I don’t remember playing games like that when I was 20. All the men in the room, for the exception of me, took off their shirts. See, this is what happens when too much testosterone builds up in a room. (Side story – there is a guy in my class named Shaggy Shawn, as his hair is quite shaggy. Before last night, there were rumours that he had 4 nipples. Yes, 4. And last night, he took off his shirt and exposed the 4 nipples for the entire flat to see. I tell you, there is nothing worse that seeing a guy use 4 fingers to get his nipples hard…nothing.) I didn’t take my shirt off because a part of me knew (or at least I was thinking that at the time) that Lenny didn’t want to take her shirt off (she was wearing a bra underneath). She did a little show which caused a huge uproar and people went back to praying to Dionysus and other gods of wine and drunkenness. So, Kate and Matt’s party was intended to be a pre-drinks party, whereby we would be going to the Royal Exchange Hotel afterwards to meet up with the others. So, after a healthy buzz, people were getting geared up to leave. Now, if you are still reading this (good for you), then you will also remember that the title of this post is “Trying to open from within…” People tried to open the front door and couldn’t. At first I thought that some people might have just had a little too much to drink and their ability to open a door has been impaired. I walked over there and tried. Nothing. I used my credit card (as people do in the movies) and that didn’t work. That was the beginning of the end of the night, folks! Tool boxes were brought out, people were trying to unscrew the door’s latching mechanisms out of the door, they were trying to unscrew the hinges from the sides and the top. At one point, Dave and Matt jumped off the balcony (good thing that the flat was on the first floor – NOTE: they have ground floor, then first floor, etc). They went to go and open the door from the front, which didn’t work. Dave, who lives down the street from them, went home to bring a tool box kit (not quite sure about this part but I reckon that it is true). The joke that I came up with is “how many medical students does it take change a door?” Any answers on that one because I am still trying to figure it out. It seemed that almost everyone had an opinion on how the door should be opened. Kate ended up calling a locksmith, who was able to get the door open. His reason why the door closed on itself and locked from the outside was from general wear and tear. General wear and tear my ass! That was a very dangerous situation as if there was a fire or something else that required everyone to evacuate the flat, it would have been impossible because the door was jammed. People were starting to jump off the balcony (which was an incredibly stupid idea as some of these people were a bit tipsy and the probability of breaking or damaging something is quite high). I stayed inside nursing someone (I would normally write the person’s name but I am sure that this person would be harassed for quite some time if everyone knew) as they had WAAAAAY to much to drink. It’s a nice role to be in, helping a friend in a time of need such that you ensure that they are drinking water (which is a hard task to get some people to do), not going to vomit all over themselves or getting hurt by attempting to use the toilet, etc.

Afterwards, a bunch of us headed off the RE to meet up with some friends. After 4 weeks, I am still amazed at my friends. You learn things about them when different situations come up. It’s like opening a present that has so many layers of wrapping paper.

Wow…this has been the longest posting. I should get going and learn this past week’s learning objectives.