no short days in surgery.....

The first week is almost over and it is amazing how quickly it went by, of course I had to deal with a lot of organisational stuff as well and I believe once I got settled in things will be a bit different.... I had to find out that working from 9-5 does not apply to surgeons.... Well, what a suprise, after all it's sugery! But still starting to round at 7 or 7.30 is very different than 4.30 or 5.... Even though this week that would not have been a problem for me, since I have had a hard time sleeping at night, but last night I managed to add another 20minutes.... I believe that is the hardest part of it all, not being able to sleep well and then being tired during the day. And being tired definetely makes it even harder to understand the australien akzent, because last night, when we were in the OR (or the theater) from 8am till Midnight the only person that I could still understand without any problems by the end of the day was the American fellow....It feels a little bit like being in Switzerland again, they speak English, but I have to concentrate really hard to catch everything... And once again I need to learn new abbreviations. American Medical English is full of abbreviations, but almost none of them will be usefull here....But fortunately I am not the only student. The other medical student is really sweet and I really enjoy working with her. It's so nice to have someone around who's got the same level of expertise. The whole team is really nice as well. I have not quite figured everything out, but appearently there is a team for the private patients and one for the public hospital. They all explain a whole lot and exspecially the American fellow was wounderful in the OR yesterday. I have seen a lot of MRIs in the past and I have already had a lot of people explain them to me, but no one has ever taken so much time and done it in so much detail.... I have never seen the cranial nerves on an MRI before. On Tuesday we spent the whole day in the private clinic with one of Australias most famous and appearently controverse neurosurgeons. It was really a great day with a lot of sad, but interesting cases. And I did not feel really tired at all! Neurosurgery seems to have that effect on me.... Yesterday we then went to the private operating rooms, which are all called theaters here. I think that is sort of weird, and I do prefer OR.... The scrubs are different as well, they got slots on the side and if your top is too short you can see the underwear... And there is really nothing you can do about that other than picking a new top!!!!! Really, I have tried! The ORs are freezing and I am glad that I did not send all my long sleeve shirts to Germany.... I am still not convinced it has to be like that..... The day in the OR was really long at by the end of I was definetely tired... When I described one of the MRIs to Michelle (the other student) I did use a German word, which really made her laugh.... That's how tired my brain was!
Today was finally a shorter day and we left at 3pm!!!! We had spent the day with the public team. It was the first day I had had a chance to really meet them. They once again are all really nice and willing to explain a lot. This morning I was a little confused during rounds, because I don't know the routines yet and what they expect of students, but I got Michelle to explain things to me and I believe tomorrow will be a lot better.... We did get a chance to go to the public OR today and that was a nightmare... There is a person at the registration desk that really needs to get a life!!! I can understand that there are rules that need to be obeyed and I get the concept of students signing in for to make sure they know many people are the OR area, but we were not allowed to change into scrubs until our surgeon showed up at the front desk and confirmed that we were allowed to go in, which is really a waste of time, because in all the other ORs that I have been so far, the students were the ones who got there before the surgeon and helped the nurses and Anesthesia to get the patient ready.... Then we have to wear a sticker saying student (because the security pass with our name, picture and the word "student" is appearently not enough....) and now the best part (as if all of that is not close to being really ridiculous...) if you don't return the sticker when you sign out and you forgett to return it three times in a row than you will not be allowed in the OR anymore.... and it got even better.... when I asked them about scrubbing in they told me I had to go to a training session first. That is fine with me, it is always nice to have someone supervise you the first time to make sure that I do thing accordingly to their standards here... But then I was told that I can't go to the session this afternoon and not to the one tomorrow afternoon, because she can only have five students at a time and I may try to get an appointment next week through our elective organizer.... I only wanted her to watch me once, tell me what I may have done incorrect.... Now I may not be allowed to scrub in until sometime next week.... Which really sucks, since this is surgery and it's about scrubbing in and being close to the surgical field!!!!!! I have spend a lot of time observing! I want to be active and if it is just holding a surgical hock!!!!!! I want to scrub in on cases just to be close to the field and be able to see things.... But I have already talked to the elective organizer and she will work something out, because the session I am supposed to attend is for students who have never ever before scrubbed in.... After those experiences I did not want to go back to the OR and therefore Michelle and I decided against the second surgery of the day and had another MRI/CT lerning session until we went home....
I did go to the beach this afternoon and enjoyed some australian sun (in the shade of course). The wind is really strong and after an hour I got cold and left, but it was really great to overlook the pacific while reading... And the water is definetely not warm!!!! I did walk along the beach for a while and it was definetely cold.... But really cool. Now I am going back to the house and join some girls who wanted to watch Greys Anatomy tonight! Yes I will have some social life!!!!