Everything Else is Temporal

Except us,

and God.

Meet Oscar...The Couch

After Weeks of Deliberation, He Now Has a NAME

We finally have a couch!

Thanks to Amanda who saw it first and Amanda, Aneta and some guy from the village lugging it all the way back from the law school.

No we didn't steal it, although it would be a sweet pre-emptive strike on those future lawyers...

Oscar was meant for the dump, sitting forlornly waiting for Wednesday to come, when the giant trash truck would take him to the rest of his miserable existence in a pit.

Then the girls of my flat adopted him, cushionless no doubt, gave him a good vacuum, tossed bedsheets on him, padded the upholstery-less part of him with more linen, lovingly decorated him with extra pillow cases, took the effort to brainstorm names to call him, and after a final ballot, here he is in all his "sofa-so good" glory, OSCAR.

Surgery Makes My Thumbs Hurt

They Still Do...

Had surgery lab yesterday. And it was my turn to be surgeon!

I was actually fighting sleepiness the whole day after NOT sleeping (as usual) before my surgery theory test at 8.30. Nodded off a couple of times in the equine wound lecture from 10.30 to 11.30. I was trying to absorb and understand ovariohysterectomy (spay) procedures from a textbook during lulls in the lecture, OR when I was awake. Whichever came first. I was so fatigued I felt that when I moved my brain was left a few feet behind... Still managed to remember the fantastic wound photographs though...

Didn't have time to get a coffee fix at lunch, I was already a few minutes late for surgery!

The sleepiness started to show when I just COULDN'T toss my surgical gloves onto the Mayo (surgery) table. They fell onto the floor and were considered non-sterile. I must have wasted a few gloves. At first I tore the glove cover wrongly, and when I did it again on a new set correctly from the corners they still didn't open properly, and THEN I couldn't aim straight at flicking them onto the Mayo tray. In my defence it WAS a very small table. Not much larger than an 2 A4 papers put together.

Every instruction from the surgery nurses semed to reach my brain 10 times slower than normal. They were almost going to get fed up with me when my animal came in. Phew! Thanks to Eileen and Jasmine for preparing the pig fast!

We had a girl, I chose her in the morning. She happened to be the runt of the lot, coming in at a whopping 8kg!

Once I made the first cut I totally forgot about being sleepy, it was really exciting trying to stop superficial vessels from bleeding out! We do that by clamping haemostats (a cool clamp-like tool) on the bleeding point. The body's clotting mechahanisms are then stimulated to kick in and then the haemostats can be taken off in a couple of minutes.

After opening the body cavity I located the ovaries and uterus, they were tiny! According to the textbook the final step was to cut off the whole lot just above the cervix, which I couldn't find, so I was a little stumped. It turns out that the pig was to young to have a mature cervix anyway. (It's supposed to be a thicker part of the vagina.) Then I tried to identify the broad ligament that links the ovaries to the kidney. After trying to break the ligament with my fingers (according to the book), I broke a blood vessel in the process, so me and Eileen scrambled to stop the bleeding. After that I pretty much followed the advice of our lecturer's who were there and threw the advice of the book (which was written for cats and dogs anyway) pretty much out the window. So much for doing things by the book.

It turns out surgery is more of an art than a science. There are many ways of doing the same procedure. Which is cool. Because I like cooking (art) more than baking (science) anyway. I know it's bizarre linking food and surgery but I WAS getting hungry towards the end of 6 hours in the lab.

I still had time to attempt a couple of enterotomies (cuts through the intestine). Enterotomies are pretty useful, especially if animals have eaten something they shouldn't have, like socks or baseballs. Ha ha.

Then we had to start closing up three count them THREE layers of skin. On the last layer with about 3 more inches to close my right thumb suddenly started to hurt BAD. I had to pull my thumb out of the glove thumb for some relief. I couldn't continue and my assistant Eileen had to help me close up. Maybe it was the way I was holding the surgical instruments, or maybe the gloves were too tight. But the next biggest size is too floppy for my hands.

My thumbs STILL hurt slightly today. I hope my thumbs can adapt to future surgeries. Because I REALLY like doing them! = )

Song in My Heart

The Things I Learn When Researching Song Origins To Blog

"Thank You For Saving Me" written by Martin Smith, DELIRIOUS? ! (I never knew.)

Thank you for saving me, what can I say?
You are my everything, I will sing your praise.
You shed your blood for me, what can I say?
You took my sin and shame,
A sinner called by name.

Great is the Lord,
Great is the Lord,
For we know your truth has set us free,
You've set your hope in me.

My Not-So-Big Butt

I was cold in class, more so than usual. I think the coffee caffiene is doing that by vasodilating my extremities, namely my hands and feet.

Mara, Jialin and Wengyan all happened to visit my seat in class during break and reacted, telling me I should get more pants.

Then I lamented how it was hard to find nice pants for my big butt.

Jialin interjected: "You don't have a big butt, your legs are just too skinny for your butt!"

A Paradox

I'm come to the conclusion that the less I study the more I actually know how to do an exam.

Take today, I studied a day before my Imaging exam and I knew how to do it.

In other units such as "Epidemiology, Public Health and Diagnosis" and "Life and the Universe" I studied one, at most two days tops for those and did amazingly well.

On the other hand, I could study for days and weeks on Pharmacology, Pathology, Parasitology and Anatomy and do marginally alright.

Maybe I should just study less.

Or maybe I'm just more Physics inclined and x-rays make a lot of sense to me.

Or maybe there was just less material to go through.

Or maybe because I actually got sufficient sleep the night before to manage to take the exam without the help of Red Bull or V.

Or could it be because I just spent more time playing DOTA in between studying?

Or could it be because I opened up many more colours of pretty pens to make my mid maps with? Mind maps can start to get a litle boring with the same old colours.

Or maybe it's just my mind maps. They have saved me so many times. It's much easier to remember one picture than a stack of notes. Thanks dad for teaching me how to make them!

Or maybe I should just study less and leave more time for gaming...

Well I Know I'm Chinese...

I'm a Mandarin!

You're an intellectual, and you've worked hard to get where you are now. You're a strong believer in education, and you think many of the world's problems could be solved if people were more informed and more rational. You have no tolerance for sloppy or lazy thinking. It frustrates you when people who are ignorant or dishonest rise to positions of power. You believe that people can make a difference in the world, and you're determined to try.

Talent: 49%
Lifer: 33%
Mandarin: 59%

Take the Talent, Lifer, or Mandarin quiz.

I'm Cute!

I'm a Mazda Miata!

You like to soak up the sun, but your tastes are down to earth. Everyone thinks you're cute. Life is a winding road, and you like to take the curves in stride. Let other people compete in the rat race - you're just here to enjoy the ride.

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

Tiredness

4th year is really taking a lot out of me, both physically and mentally.

Just the other day, I sleepily made chai tea and miso soup for breakfast before school, got the soy milk out of the fridge (I know, I know, I have a hippy streak in me) and proceeded to pour it into the MISO SOUP instead of my tea.

It didn't taste that bad actually.

Some People Have A Gaydar,

I've Got An ANIMADAR

My animal radar is pretty good I think.

It manages to spot animals from up to 20 metres away, even in blinding sunlight or darkest night.

These creatures mainly range from quokkas to quendas to rabbits to bobtail lizards and skinks, the native and not-so-native inhabitants of this land Down Under that always bring a smile to my face. = D