GP Land in The Office

I am now at the end of week 6 of my first rotation. 2 more weeks to go. This blog which was conceived to be an ongoing chronicle of my highs and lows in medicine has now turned into something of a reflection piece. Blame the long hours? Blame the intense curriculum? Let me introduce you to the real culprit - The Office!

A friend gave me a plethora of electronic medical textbooks during the summer break. The intention was good but in the midst of all the electronic knowledge was a folder titled "TV shows". Trouble. Here, I discovered my new nemesis. Albeit, a rip off of the classic UK series, the Americans fared very well in my opinion. Every evening I found myself awww-ing at Jim and Pam, marveling Dwight Schrute's eccentric tactics, or falling in love with Ryan the temp in Season 1 and then utterly despising him towards the end. I have spent plenty of daydreams on being a Dunder-Mifflin employee and fantasizing about my role in the jungle. Somehow, the days started to blend as I spent hours at end watching this show and every season finished was another mission accomplished.

Now before you begin to question my devotion to this blog and medicine all together, let me remind you that engaging in non-medical activities is essential for a healthy balance. It gave me comfort each day knowing that I was in medicine and not selling paper for a buffoon like Michael Scott. Right.

On the medicine side of things, the clinic has given me its fair share of interesting times. The staff, mostly indigenous has some of the warmest people I have ever worked with. My preceptor is a multitasking super machine who comes fully equipped with plenty of compassion for her patients - inspiring. I had been reluctant to see myself as a General Practitioner till this rotation. But now, I feel as if I CAN DO THIS - this exact same thing, same patients, same diseases, same stories. This is GP with an edge and I like it. General Practice, like most things, is what you make of it. One can be a lousy GP who shies away from exploring beyond the cough and cold. Or a GP extraordinaire who can decrypt hypothyroid or unearth depression. The later being especially important at an Indigenous clinic and mostly overlooked or even downright ignored. It is for this reason that I have an interest in psychiatry. I truly believe that most organic illnesses stem from the mind. A healthy mind is vital to a healthy physical being. However, I am not so much in agreement with the current treatment approaches which rely so heavily on pharmaceuticals. Instead, I hope to see one day more CBT in place to condition the mind rather than drugs blocking and potentiating pathways of the body. A dreamer as usual.

All in all, the rotation has been a positive experience. And I must admit, it is relieving to realize that I do enjoy GP and that it is a strong candidate for a future profession. Perhaps one day I will have my own little practice.... an office....with a Pam as the receptionist.... and a Ryan as the sexy intern. OK, this is getting creepy, in a Micheal Scott sort of way...

Week one

The week of inductions and orientations. Isn't Week one just wonderful? You are technically at work or school but you are neither working nor learning. Instead, you are discovering where the coffee machine is or where the closest bathrooms are, you are saying hellos and making small talk to new faces, you are gathering a folder full of course outlines and what not paper, but most romantic of all, you are aspiring to perform marvelously on the work that lies ahead of you. Week one is made of handouts and dreams. It's tough work but it has to be done.

My week one consisted a lot of, "So, why did you pick Indigenous health?" It was tiresome and redundant to give the same spiel of, "Well, I find the culture and the people and the history so fascinating and sooo blahblahblah"

I couldn't truly tell you why I chose Indigenous health even if I tried. The natural attraction I have to the field has not one concrete reason, but it has formed from a mixture of my perceptions on life, people, humanity, world, peace, love etc etc. Perhaps, its the colour of my own skin and how it has implicated my life that draws me to such a field.

I know very little about the Indigenous people of Australia - apart from textbook or newspaper jargon. I, Komatosed in Week one of third year aspire to get a first hand experience in the community + learn some medicine over the next 8 weeks!!!

Deflowering the blog

Here goes the first ever entry. I suppose I ought to make it special - you know what they say about first impressions. First times are special - like your first kiss, remember? Well mine was special indeed- as if I had kissed a dog, all complete with slobber and a drag of drool to finish it off.

We put too much pressure on the first time when really it's the journey from there on that counts. I prefer to keep the bar low, the only way to go is up from here on right?

Wait, there is more to this piece of ramble than just a sarcastic induction. Actually, I have been wanting to do this blogging thing for quite sometime. I am a person of few words - and there is a good reason for that. Somehow, I have managed to continuously surround myself with people who think and reason quite differently than I do and hence I am looking for solace somewhere in this world wide web. This is especially important at this juncture in my life as I transition from being a "medical student" to a "student doctor". Cheesy wordplay I think, but my preceptor insists that I think of myself as a "student doctor" now that I am entering the clinical years of med training. These exciting times of finally getting your hands on diseased patients come with moments of fatigue, self doubt, and sometimes down-right profound trepidation. Hence, the conception of this blog - a new coping strategy.

Saw a vaginal delivery? - blog it!

Got your first cannula in on the first time? - blog it!

Third year student and still can't take a history? - blog it!

Performed your first Digital Rectal exam/pap smear? - blog it!

Consultant makes you feel worthless? - blog it!

Boyfriend driving you mad? - blog it!

Dog ate your stethoscope? - blog it!

So with that being said, from here on in, I shall blog it!