Winding Down

We got up bright (actually still dark) and early this morning to get Dean to the airport for 530am.  It was sad considering he was such a great late addition to the team (literally decided to come a few weeks before departure).  It's about a 20 minute drive (halfway across the island) and we came back home and slept for a few more hours.  After our second rising we went to the Pancake House for a yummy breakfast (since australia's bacon is not so good I'm still catching up on north american bacon and had to order an extra side).  We then went to the beach where I bought a few souvenirs for family and friends.  Since things have been pretty busy but are now winding down, I was feeling kind restless all day and didn't really enjoy the relaxing beach time.  Tomorrow should be a little more adventurous as we're planning on finding some cayman alligators while hiking through the rainforest (YES MOTHER I'LL BE CAREFUL, ha).  Oh yeah, also watched to new Bond movie, it was alright, kinda ended too quickly though, considering how good the last one was though I was kinda disappointed.  

On a more serious note, we found out today that five fellow med classmates were in the Cafe Leopold in Mumbai during the shootings.  They thankfully escaped injury but quite a scary story nonetheless.  I have to say I was a little shaken up after reading the articles.

Oh yeah, and one more thing, I don't know if anyone's interested or even still reading this blog, but my rash is clearing up :)  It ended up being a reaction to the coral, didn't realize at first that it was exactly where I had all my nicks from wiping out during surfing.  uuumm, on that note I'm off to bed, until later.

Goodbye Scarborough Regional

Our stay at the hospital is officially done.  Yesterday was our last day, it was a quick as we did rounds and then took some blood in the wards.   A bunch of interesting cases: attempted suicide, breaking bad news to a patient with metastic spinal cancer, a down's man being shipped to the hospital for the holiday season.  Like I said last entry, it was quite sad leaving the hospital, we all had such a great time and met some incredible people.  Being coming, I had a few objectives I wanted a get out of the elective:

1.  Help deliver a deliver (check)

2.  Assist in surgeries (check)

3.  Become more comfortable with a needle ie.  taking blood and giving injections (check)

4.  Practise suturing (partial check)

All in all a great elective, and I will certainly recommend it to next year's first year students (some second year students are asked to give first year students presentations, contact info etc.).

To celebrate our completion, we went to a local talent show.  Some pretty amazing acts from cultural monologues to steel bands to singing.  We had a few drinks, met some more interesting locals as well as some canadian tourists and had a great night.   This morning we returned to the hospital for a final farewell and gave out some thank you cards and australian gifts to the docs.   We then went and frolicked in the huge waves at a beach in the area and because of our lack of sleep from the previous night, had an amazing nap on the beach.  Doesn't get much better... until later

Second to Last Day

Today is our second last day at the hospital, actually quite sad :(  I had such a great time and I think the docs/nurses really enjoyed our company as well, they seem disappointed whenever we mention our departure.  Great crew of people we got to know.  No more conclusions/wrap-ups for today though, gotta save that for a later, final blog.

I got to scrub in for a laparoscopic cholecystectomy (remove gall bladder) today.   It is actually really difficult to watch the screen and manoevre the instruments, really requires some practice, something I definitely don't have yet.  All in time marc, all in time.  

To bring us all back to the real world of medicine, our final first year marks were released today and we all did very well, highest distinction. 

Um, we went to the beach today for a quick swim, was relaxing, just cooking some supper now (obviously I'm not) and planning on mixing up some pina coladas for tonight.  Should be fun.  I think that's it for me today, until later.

Hiatus II

Okay, where do I begin to get caught up on this blog?  Friday was another interesting day at the hospital, saw more great procedures (hand tendon repair) and took more blood (100% success rate).  Weather not cooperating, we delayed our scuba trip by one day.  Instead, we relaxed and watched Pineapple Express, pretty funny.  Saturday, accompanied by sunny skies, we drove up to Charlotteville for our long awaited scuba trip.  We did some fishing for a few hours in the afternoon, but considering it was midday (fishy sleeping time), we didn't catch anything.  I think our guide knew that but was quite content taking our money, oh well, it wasn't too expensive and the boat ride itself was well worth it.   At night we relaxed by the Banana Boat bar, watched a local soccer game, had a few drinks and played our cards.  We were preparing ourselves for the extraordinary day to come.

We got up at 540am for a morning fish.  Success! We caught a tuna and a kingfish(25-30lbs), exciting stuff.  We returned for 8am, ate bacon and eggs for breakfast, and started the introduction for the diving.  To make two amazing but long diving stories short (40 minutes dive time each), we saw a reef shark (at least 5 feet long, we were less than 1 metre away, it wasn't even that scary as the view through the goggles made it seem like watching a nature doc), an octopus, a barracuda, a turtle, two big fish (at least 6 feet, don't remember their name) and thousands of smaller, beautifully coloured fish.  I'm hooked and hope to do my PADI certification when I go back to Australia (we were planning on doing it here but just ran out of time).  We drove back to our house, about an 1.5 hour drive, and despite being utterly exhausted we went to Sunday School.  No not church, it's a weekend festival in Tobago with yummy grilled food, cold beer and a steel band (played some Bob Marley and other classics).  It was the largest conglomeration of tourists we had seen to date on the island, quite refreshing.  Well, then we went to bed  (about midnight), only to have the alarms wake us 6 hours later... WAY TOO EARLY.  I was exhausted today, but still took more blood successfully and observed a lumpectomy, laproscopic cholecystectomy and a hemorrhoidectomy.   

Oh yeah, on an interesting note, I woke up Sunday morning with a weird rash on my knees and ankles, hope it's nothing serious, got some steroid cream today which should clear it up.

I'm off, until later.

Hiatus

I apologize for the hiatus during the last few days but one night I just didn't feel like writing and then yesterday the power was out and therefore the internet was down.  I don't quite know why or who I'm apologizing to, just thought it was a nice introduction.

Okay, I really have to think back now... what happened on Tuesday?  or Wednesday?  What about today?  I might just assimilate the last three days into one giant event.  I saw a observed a bunch of procedures in the OR (thyroidectomy, c-sections), assisted in an lymph node ectomy (helped suture, woohoo, and only stuck the scrub nurse once, woohoo, ha) and took blood from patients (4/4, my percentages are going up).   

Last night T&T played Cuba in a World Cup qualifier, we went to a bar to catch the action with local atmosphere, it was pretty sweet and everyone was pretty really it.

Today after getting off nice and early following surgical clinic (interesting cases from mastectomies, obstructive liver failure and jaundice, breast lumps, ganglion and sebaceous cysts, attempted suicide),  we went for another surf.  It was my turn on the small board and it went surprisingly well, got up quite often and had a blast.  We didn't stay too long though as the tide was quite low and the jagged coral was even more daunting as usual.  

When we came back in, we heard that one of the guys we surfed with had his money stolen out of his pouch, he was devastated.  Luckily our stuff was untouched but we didn't bring much out of the vehicle anyway.  He was Venezuelan, didn't speak much english, and had all his money in the pouch because he just came back from the bank to pay for his rent, unfortunate stuff.  I spoke a very broken spanish with him (despite the bad situation it was quite fun), and we gave him some money to last him until Sunday when he's scheduled to fly home.  Despite resisting for awhile, he was so grateful and told us "mi casa, su casa", pending any future trips to Caracas. Either way, one in the Karma bank for us. 

Well KD is waiting and I'm hungry.  Oh yeah, don't know if I'll write tomorrow night cause we're heading up to the north of the island to go scuab diving on Saturday.  Until later.

Rain, rain

Nothing much has changed since Saturday, more rain but also more fun.  Like I said last message, no coraled foot is going to keep me out of the water and we went surfing again Sunday.   I must say we are all improving, Lucas (only his second time ever) is already standing and close hanging ten (well the last part might be a little exaggerated).  Some of these lines may seem a bit corny but I'm just excited.  In the afternoon we came back home, and since there's not much to do in the pouring rain I finally put a little dent in my book (The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat).  It's not too bad but I'm not finding myself unable to put it down, seems more of an educational read than anything.

At night, as we're all getting ready for bed,  we got a call and invitation from one of the junior house officers at the hospital to head down to a little pub for a few drinks.  We agreed, invited our Norwegian friends, played some pool and had a pretty good night.  

This morning was my first day in surgery and it was quite interesting.   I enjoyed the rounds because we saw so many differing pathologies (unlike OBGYN where it's pretty much only pregnancy and complications thereof).   As for procedures, I saw them put in a chest tube for a hemothorax (blood in space of lungs), a lumpectomy for suspected breast cancer and inguinal hernia repairs.  

Tonight will be an early night, just as soon as we watch our weekly episode of entourage (GREAT tv show).  Until later.

Rainy Weekend

I think the rainy season has finally caught up to Tobago.  After two weeks of glorious weather, the last few days have been pretty much non-stop showers.  We didn't let it us affect us, first of all because we've been in the hospital most days but also secondly because it's still so warm despite the rain.  Our last day of the OBGYN rotation was spent doing Grand Rounds with the doc from Ottawa.  He gave a little presentation about laparascopic techniques/complications for a group of about 20 people.  I enjoyed it, especially his jokes, they were so canadian in a way.  I don't know if that makes any sense, but being outside of Canada for sooo long, I appreciate anything genuinely canadian.  I think Lucas and I were the only ones laughing, don't think many of the Tobagans understood his humour.  At night, we went out for Stef's bday and had a nice dinner and drinks at a resort in the area.  Pretty expensive but very delicious (couldn't resist getting a nice steak).

We then slept in this morning until about 10ish and had to rush to make it to the Coco Beach Resort for 11:15.  Our gift to her was a one hour swedish massage at the spa.  Afterwards, we had initially planned to drive up to the North of the island, stay one night, and do some scuba diving in the morn.  After considering the weather, we postponed the trip until next weekend.    As a consolation we went surfing instead.   With the rain pouring and the winds gusting, Dean and Marc braved the paradoxically perfect conditions and had an incredible surf.  Some (Dean) would say the best of all time.   I must add that there was no sand where we surfed but rather sharp reef, and every time we got dumped, there are a few uncertain, scary seconds.  My luck eventually caught up with me and I ended up getting a nice little cut in my foot which cut the surf a little shorter than I had hoped.  You better believe I'll be back out there tomorrow though.  

Anyway, no big plans for tonight so just writing on my blog, sipping some delicious T&T rum and coke and watching Hockey Night in Canada (yeah I know, crazy huh, Tobago somehow has CBC).  That's it for me tonight, until later.