Wednesday, October 27, 2004

Holidays!

The last exam was on Monday, and today is Wednesday, so as you can see, blogging has not been up there on my list of priorities. The exam paper was not all that difficult, and as advertised, contained questions that tested the knowledge we as medical students had gained on the ward. It was the one assessment that effectively tested attendance.

The questions were also a little different to normal. The exam was broken up into two; withh the first section being 'modified essay questions' (aka short answer) and the second aprt being 'extended matching questions' (aka multiple choice, but with 8 choices!). So the exam was MEQ and EMQ. Confusing?

The first bit was timed per question. This meant that we only got a certain amount of time to work on the question and then had to turn over when the exam supervisor gave the signal. In the end, it was pretty boring because most of us answered the question with a lot of time to spare, so there was a fair bit of sitting around and doing nothing. The supervisor did this funny thing where he would deliberately hit the mic about 10 seconds before he said to stop writing - a kind of warning. Heh.

Anyway, the questions were in the form of cases, in which more and more info was given. So as you worked through the question, it was more and more obvious what the diagnosis was, and you could see when you had made an error in the previous part (with no opportunity to go back and make the change).

The second part of the exam was nowhere as nice - 8 choices per question! I left early anyway, with about an hour to go. I wasn't going to sit around waiting with the holidays beckoning!

Anyway, I'm on holiday now and its a bit of a strange, familiar feeling. Something I haven't had for a very long time. I'm actually going to sleep and not worrying what I need to do the next day!

I also got my car yesterday! I don't have any pics because the camera is busted. But you can see what it's supposed to look like by seeing the previous entries.

Anyway, back to enjoying my doing nothing!

Sunday, October 24, 2004

So close!

Just one more exam now, and then freedom for 3 months.

SPM 400. It's supposed to be extremely easy, and not worth studying for. Which makes it even more difficult! I can't waste my time studying, and I can't go on holiday!

It's an exam based on all the stuff we've learned thru clinical experience such as during the Medicine term, the Surgery term, the Psychiatry term, the Geriatric term, the Ophthalmology term, and the Infectious Diseases term.

I'm so bored!

And I need employment.

And a guitar.

Wednesday, October 20, 2004

OSCE

OSCE was today. And I have to say, it's difficult to know how I went. It's really hard to say - and everyone else felt the same way too, so hopefully I won't fail!

Woke up, kind of groggily at about 9am (exam was at 3pm). Tried to go down and do some work; switched on the computer, and promptly went back up to sleep. Sleep is a nice way of escaping from your problems. Anyway, I went through the ophthal cases from the flying fish and then tried to read up more stuff. It's really hard to read anything when you're completely tensed up and nervous! Ended up playing FIFA 2004 for about an hour instead. That way I didn't feel so nervous.

12.30, and I decide that I should eat. I did, but it was a bit of a waste. Far too nervous to eat. Had a shower, came down a again, ate some more and then left for Fremantle. Eventually got there at 2.05 and tried in vain to study, eventually gave up, and tried to sleep instead. Again, failed.

2.45, decide to give it a go and walk to the exam. I found the other students, and we sat there for 45 minutes until they finished with the earlier session and then we sat there in the Freo Common room some more, drank cordial and waited for our fate. Like being on death row, really. It's not nice waiting a long time for something you don't want to happen!

First Station. (1 of 8): Geriatric Assessment. "This is Mrs Johnson. Can you assess her level of disability and then assess her gait?" WTF?

Ok. "Mrs Johnson, how would you say you cope with your day to day living?"

"What dear? I'm a little deaf."

Great start.

Eventually I kind of did it. It wasn't pretty though.

Next Station (2 of 8) Ophthal: "This is Mr Whatever. He is a diebetic. Examine his eyes."

Look look. No evidence of diabetic retinopathy. No enlarged cup:disc ratio.

"Maybe some hard exudates? I dunno."

Ok look at the pictures. Periorbital cellulitis. Conjunctivitis. Central retinal artery occlusion!!

Next station. (3 of 8) ID. Foot with cellulitis. What kind of bugs? Staph, Strep.

What kind of things predispose you to getting an infection?

What do you use to treat? Fluclox. What if penicillin allergy? Cephalothin. What if penicillin anaphylaxis? Erythro? No. Vanc.

"All right. Good luck."

Next station (4 of 8): Psych. "I'm a patient recently diagnosed with depression," says the examiner. "Can you tell me how this drug works and what kind of side effects I might have?"

Oookkkaaaay.

"Um, interacts with Tramadol. Serotonin Syndrome."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Confusion in the elderly."

"..."

"Would it affect my sexual function in any way?" he asks.

"YES!"

"..."

"Erectile dysfunction?"

The real answer is failure to ejaculate. I should have known that.

The next few are a bit of a blur. I know I had to do a Resp exam. The patient apparently had bronchiectasis, which I missed. There was the Charcot Marie Tooth lady, who had a peripheral neuropathy and myopathy. There was a largeish lady with a nice scar in the midline, incisional hernia. There was a peripheral vascular exam from someone who gets claudication on walking.

Forgot to look at sputum. Forgot to ask for resp sats. Forgot to look at Medic Alert Bracelet.

BUT IT'S OVER!

Saturday, October 16, 2004

Exams Har Mar

So I had my Path exam today. After a week of stressing and rote learning various diseases that weren't examined (for a few minutes, I was an expert on Sjogren's Syndrome, scleroderma, bullous pemphigoid, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis, osteomalacia, CJD... all of which didn't come up!), it's time to learn Micro and Pharm.

Those exams are on Monday, and the dreaded OSCE is on Wednesday.

Plan:
Study Micro and Pharm.
Practice for OSCE.
Don't waste time keyboard bashing and mouse clicking!

The exam wasn't actually that bad. I nailed the question on glomerulonephritis, the lung carcinoma one, the asthma one (-ish), the diabetes one.... bit of a hit and miss with the uveitis question and the extra/subdural haematomas one.

New discovery: Har Mar Superstar. The guy is a genius.

Saturday, October 02, 2004

Stalling

I'm stalling on my study. I've done embarrassingly little today. I think it's due to me being on the computer or something - study and internet don't go all that well together despite the way I try and fool myself.

Going out to a friend's 21st tonight, a person whom I've said little to in the whole 9 years I've known him and even less in the four years since we left school.

Should be good.

Arsenal v Charlton. Time to bouce back from the Rosenborg disappointment?

Friday, October 01, 2004

Weekend

Hooray for the weekend! Three whole days of studying!