Valentines Day

The two lovebirds having a very special day, different to what you would expect on the 14/02 but very amazing

First year for Anna dreading that day but I took good care of making it a nice day as a SINGLE- huh. Being three single girls in our house, there was really no time to be upsett. We just made it a "ah gross these lovebirds, cant u get a room"- day haha. So after I worked a morning shift at the hotel, I had one of the most satisfying snoozes in a while. The first two weeks of standardized patients at uni were really very draining, I felt that I did reached the end of my energy levels, maybe not that much physically altho I was soooooooo tired but more being mentally exhausted.

Brisbane at night from the Southbank side, I love love love Brisbane's skyline, it's really nice atmosphere because altho u have a big city right in front of you, it is very calm and quiet on the other side of the river (not my photo)

Lagoon at Southbank, so you have this artificial beach with the river and skyline behind
So our plan was a delicious picknick at Southbank and thats how we did: delicious couscous salad, different cheeses, strawberries, grapes, kiwis, rasperries, nuts, dried fruit, wine, grape juice, crackers, dips, tropical fruitsalad...yummo.¨

this philadelphie cheese is so good, u tip it over and this chilli mango sauce flows over it mhmmm. With VERY full bellies we made our way to the movies and snuggled in to watch...hmmmm.... 'valentines day' - obviously. Great night, thanks girlfriend =)

bye bye blondie

So, ein letztes Foto von meiner blonden Maehne....so bissl Bedenken hatte ich ja schon aber, wie so oft, habe ich nach meinem geliebten "just do it" Prinzip gehandelt.

Es war Zeit fuer eine Veraenderung. Hatte ja schon laenger mit dem Gedanken gespielt aber jetzt habe ich ihn endlich in die Tat umgewandelt.

Anstatt 150 Dollar fuer nen Friseur zu bezahlen hab ich mich schlau gemacht und mir zwei Farben gekauft. Und zwar muss man dem gebleichen Haar die Rottoene wieder zurueckgeben denn sonst kann man eine sehr fahle oder sogar gruen blaeuliche Haare bekommen. Gesagt getan, Kirsten, unsere neue flatmate, bzw wir ihre neue, hat dann im Wohnzimmer aufm Sofa die Haare gefaerbt, schliesslich mussten wir ja grays anatomy schauen, easy going aussies huh. Das war die erste Farbe mit Rottoenen...schaut eigtl schon ganz gut aus aber war doch noch nicht so ganz toll, etwas fleckig und so, kein Wunder bei meinen 3 Million verschiedenen Farben die ich auf meinem Kopf hatte bzw paar Teile gebleicht, ein paar nicht.

Naja und heute hab ich dann selbst, gaaanz alleine, jaja, noch die letzzte Farbe druf, und so schauts aus. Anders und dunkler als ich wollte, aber mir gefaellts schon auch und vorallem wird mein Haar jetzt mal bissl gesuender aussehen und ich muss nicht staendig in der Sonne bleichen sondern kann mal ne Kappy aufsetzen beim Beachen um doch mal noch mehr auf meine Haut aufzupassen.

Australia Day 26. Januar

nicht soviel dazu zu sagen, es ist ein feiertag, alle zeigen ihren stolz fuer australien und haben bbq, pool parties und trinken all day long. an dem tag war es so dermassen heiss dass man es ohne pool nicht ausgehalten hat, wir hatten n planschbecken, naja zumindest....

wir waren beim bowls club, den sport den die alten eigentlich spielen aber da machen an oz day die jungen auch irgendwie party? mit seiner kugel moeglichst nahe an die kleine weisse zielkugel rankommen....gab gutes price money.

aussie farben sind natuerlich ein muss...keine ahnung was sich sammy gedacht hat. nachteil: er muss geschwitzt haben wie ein baer, vorteil: er hat gut aufmerksamkeit aufsichgezogen und mit der frottestoff hat sich so toll mit wasser vollgesogen, dass er den schoenen kuehlen effekt noch lange nachm plantschen hatte. kinda clever.

die zwei blondies, sara und ich

ich, sam und sara

two weeks down

Wow, I am EXHAUSTED. My brain feels fried. Once I even went for a nap in the library...haha...Finished the muskulo-skeletal stream today, lectures tomorrow, how easy. I had sooo much to tell but now I am sitting here and cant think. Most important thing: i coped. I did have one shit patient session cos he was a groin patient and i wasnt too confident with the whole undressing and palpating part and he noticed that and as soon as u hesitant, they smash you. I still did my thing, right techniques but the atmosphere was just not there....but every other patient after that i smashed. Especially today I got amazing feedback, so stoked. The workbook we had to fill out was quite intense tho, I havent done anything else but uni work and normal work this week, early to late. It were 100 pages for 4 days, at least 2 cases a day, but I just finished it, so that should be good and I dont care too much ie other ppl write in with pencil, take notes and then do it again whereas I just do it straight away in there and leave it, fullstop! No going back, my first thoughts should be right and dont ever make the mistake and start comparing with other people cos that stresses you out. Well I ended up giving some boys my workbook today, LOL...ok i cant concentrate on ANYTHING anymore now.

Second day down...

... and I am still alive. Wohoooo. So yesterday, we were in a group of 5, all sooo nervous but our clinical educator was really nice, he is a funny guy so it went all well. Today we were in a a group of 3, first patient in the morning had a surgery on colon the day before and we had to mobilize her and check her lung function etc. Man, she was sick and not feeling well, grumpy and in pain and then u come in and have to get her out of bed and cough, all the things that make her feel worse and sick and give her pain. A

anyway, I interviewed her and she cld hardly follow me but I talked about her kids for a bit so then her mood was pretty good and she answered all my questions. When we mobilized her, we got a bit tangled up cos she had so many attachments and we had to take the big oxygen thing, once one of the catheters was pulling, oops, and she reacted also when we disconnected the ...well i use lame terms...poo-bag and blood-bag above the level of her insertion so she must have felt the pressure....so many things to watch. then she felt sick and wanted to vomit, couldnt hold herself up in standing....a lot of responsibility.

funny thing, how u feel like a doctor with the stetoscope around your neck and stuff, LOL, not quite there but can do a few things as well :) so amazing how they trust you so much. it's cool!

Second case today, just now this arvo, massive bed chart and medical history. We take like half an hour to go thru the charts and values and tests, medications, history etc pp....and i wish doctors would have learnt to write properly. so hard to read. not even mentioning the millions of acronyms- no who needs words....totally overrated.

anyway, that's really hard to understand the condition and the meds and how it all affects our treatment, contra indications, safety issues. Wow, i have learned so much in these two days tho which i kinda like. I like learning, the more I know, the better physio I will be. Exciting stuff.

But treating an unwell patient who just came from surgery is hard, sometimes they hallucinate or as i said, faint on you or vomit....we'll see how that all goes. I had to do the assessment of the cardiac patient this arvo and he told me I was the best of the whole day, WOP WOP, my talking was very nice, efficient, not too much, understandable, not too many medical terms and, what is most important, he felt very comfortable me being his physio and how I treated him and i established good rapport. YESSS! that made my day. Going home now and relaxing. Long day and my brain is exhausted. We have this after-exam-feeling a few times a day, puh. Ok no tears today but big confidence boost!!

1st day as a 4th year- ME 4th year?? no way...cant grasp it yet

Guys, I wish I could post some party pics or something exciting...instead I will tell you about my first day back at uni. I feel so not ready for this. I dont think my head is working yet, I have had such a busy mind for quite a while, wake up a million times during the night, get distracted so easily and simply cannot really concentrate. Perfect conditions for this....NOT.

Anyway, so we had this introductory lecture this morning and most people were quite pale and not very talkative after we left. These 3 weeks of standardized patients (SPs) at uni will be the most intense time of the entire course. Roweena, our lecturer-mum, is like "guys, this will be tough time, probably the biggest challenge you have to face. Graduates even think that the 3 weeks of SPs were the hardest thing ever. It will be stressfull, you will be exhausted, there will be breakdowns, brain freezes, tears, frustration, dead ends and people not wanting to come back anymore....BUT....PLEASE...always sleep over it, the next day will always get better, make sure you have someone who looks after you, look after yourself and make sure to deal with the stress and pressure and dont let it bottle up...." Then, obviously, we cannot fail ANYTHING, the beauty about this course, every piece of assessment needs to be passed in order to progress. At some stage I was thinking "please, just stop talking, NOW!"

Should I let that scare me? NOPE! They tried to scare us a few times but I try to not that push me down. I know I could be prepared heaps better but I feel that i was able to bullshit my way thru a lot of stuff so why not now....we probably do know a fair bit, its just being nervous, that will go away. Ohoh I hope my strategy of "just" staying calm, breath properly when u think u dont know anything (as usual, no time for thinking, cos everything is ON THE SPOT) and it will just come to you. Im confident....uhm....trying to be :)

Right now, i have an hour break until we start with the first division, for me cardio-respiratory. We will get our first case. So this type of teaching with the SPs implies paid actors that simulate a patient. Today we start with 5 ppl in a group and one patient, tomorrow 3 and by wednesday its one on one. We will get thru 7 cases this week, thats huge. So we do that all day, 8-5 pm, then have to fill out the workbook for that case ie lots of clinical reasoning questions etc, then have to prepare for the next case(s) and ideally also keep revising cos we will never know enough. Thanks! Well, I skip the stress of the first night and go to work. And now I will cram as much information in my head as possible.

Dear friends, keep your phones on to receive a call from a frustrated crying anna "I wanna go hooooooooooooome, i cant do this anymore" Well, no, I am confident I will be fine, gotta be, as it has been the last 3 years, failing is just not an option, easy as =) I do think I will cry at some stage tho, but thats acceptable as every lecturer keeps telling us. Its just a normal progress towards being a full time professional dealing with people problems. What I am real scared of, is, getting attached to patients, especially kids with terminal diseases....oh lord....but we will have a few lectures on how to cope with that soon. Ok enough of bla bla, I really have to study now, lol, half an hour before we start....thumbs up anna banana ;) I will keep u posted! Wish me good luck please, i sooo need it.

that just made me feel..well...not too confident...

just at uni reading objectives and expectations so i can tailor my study but the painful truth is...we gotta know freaking EVERYTHING. ok i better start now. Have my first standardized patient rotation on monday for cardio respiratory. so we are in groups of five, get a patient (actor) and we will be allocated to do a certain part of the whole assessment and treatment .... oh dear god....im startin to getting scared. thank god im playing beach volleyball all weekend and have a massive bday on saturday so i cant think about it LOL maybe i should be studying....hm....thats what im supposed to do right now...hm...im kinda in a dilemma. oh well, i just hope i remember stuff, ay. ok talk later ppl if im still alive :)

and the following is only for one tiny little part of everything, ie one subject out of MANY....*schluck*

1.4. Aims/Objectives of the hospital stream of PHTY4301

By the end of the hospital stream in PHTY7881, students will be able to:

• Gather and interpret appropriate information from patients, medical records and bed charts in a timely manner
• Interpret common investigations, such as chest X-rays, spirometry, arterial blood gases and electrocardiograms
• Communicate effectively in both oral and written form with members of the health care team, including patients/clients and their carers
• Demonstrate competent assessment and treatment skills in the area of cardiorespiratory physiotherapy, including mobilisation of a surgical patient
• Demonstrate the ability to apply a range of clinically appropriate outcome measures
• Demonstrate sound clinical reasoning skills and integrate information gained from the case history and physical examination to develop an appropriate treatment plan
• Demonstrate sound manual handling of unwell patients
• Demonstrate a process for making ethical decisions in a range of challenging circumstances
• Demonstrate an awareness of appropriate professional conduct
• Demonstrate understanding of the holistic assessment and treatment of a range of patients/clients
• Select appropriate manual handling techniques and apply them safely and proficiently

Heiss

Halli Hallo,
wollte nur mal schnell ein Lebenszeichen von mir geben. Mir gehts echt gut, bin sehr gluecklich wieder hier zu sein, was nicht heissen soll, dass ich euch nicht vermisse, denn das tue ich - selbstverfreilich- alles laeuft, einige Huerden sind zwar zu ueberwinden, naja ihr wisst schon, dass zerrt schon noch an mir aber HEADS HIGH, das wird auch wieder besser. Wetter ist spitze, ich geniesse die Sonne, die Sommerlaune, das Unbeschwerte der Australier, meine Freunde, die Arbeit und nicht zu vergessen, Beachvolleyball am Strand. Hab komplettes letztes We gespielt, war spitzenmegaklasse, bis auf...wiedermal....aber ich habs ueberlebt und ich sehe es so IF IT DOESNT KILL U, IT MAKES U STRONGER und das stimmt! So ich bin nur schnell in der Uni und will mich auch gar nicht laenger hier im Net aufhalten wollte nur Bescheid geben dass ANNAROO gut bei den ROOS angekommen ist. Wir haben momentan noch kein Internet daheim aber ich versuche so viel wie moeglich upzudaten sobald wir es haben wobei am Montag Uni losgeht, und zwar 3 Wochen revision und am 03.03.2010 ist dann das MEGA EXAM *schauder* und ich sollte eigentlich echt ununterbrochen lernen aber 1,5 Stunden practice haben mir schon gelangt heute. Ich vertraue einfach, dass es wieder zurueckkommt ganz schnell und da ich alles schonmal verstanden habe, sollte ich durch Nachdenken schon auf die concepts kommen, naja das ist so meine Theorie mit der ich mich momentan vom Lernen druecke und stattdessen trainier oder eben comps spiele und mit Freunden rumhaenge, haha. Naja wird scho. Drueck euch alle ganz doll. Und nicht boese sein wenn ich mich nicht melde aber hab wie gesagt kaum Internet und hab, wenn ich dann online bin, endviel zum organisieren mit Uni und placements und dem ganzen tralalala. Allerliebst, eure annaroo