Stress...

It's that time of year for the vast majority of students I suppose. Martine posted a very useful post on how to keep yourself motivated when bored studying. But with exams (very scarily) fast approaching, stress will be more likely to feature than boredom whilst trying to cram into your (poor) brain all you can till doomsday.

So, here is something that you may find useful. Feel free to use and distribute the stress reduction kit below to all who may require it. This can be used on a prn basis (i.e. used as required), though its abuse is highly unrecommended, for reasons that will render themselves obvious later on.

Warning/Disclaimer: Please note that all treatments have their fair share of side effects, with the above stress reduction kit potentially causing headaches, bumps on the head and severe bruising, especially if not careful. Unconsciousness is possible on overdosing, though when that happens, stress reduction activity will cease automatically.

Wishing you the very best of luck!

2008 Summary

"If the events of 2008 could be summarised in 20 words these would be the ones: euro, Morena, elections, fireworks, hunting, Lourdes, Mamo, kidnapped, Muscat, buses, Simshar, Karl, Nicholas, migrants, MITTS, privatisation, St John’s, tariffs, Piano and shootout."

TimesofMalta.com

The above inspired me to compile my own 20 words. Well... at least I tried to compile 20 but only managed to get to 15... which is kind of saying something about how eventful my life is at the moment.

Euro: I had to change from Maltese Liri to Euro with the rest of the Maltese population.

Election: 2008 was not just any election year... I got to vote in this one for the first time!

Newsletters: Well, Youth Ink is practically dead. But, I'm now taking care of Sphygmo, which is being made available online for the first time (saves a few trees together with the costs of printing). The Christmas/New Year issue is bound to come out soon (I hope).

Book: Ending the Search Beginning the Quest was published and printed, with lots of copies having been distributed for free already.

Exodus: The exodus of young doctors, including fresh newly graduates, has led to much commotion in the press and a concerned government. Yes... I think the issue did genuinely concern the authorities. In fact, they're trying to deal with the problem constructively such as trying to implement the Foundation Programme here and trying to provide specialist training. Well... ANYTHING is better than being tied down for two years (or else!), as suggested by quite a few members of the public in order to get back their tax money used to educate us "for free".

Exams: There were quite a handful of these, as to be expected. But... In 2008, the Departments of Medicine and Surgery held their first third year practical exams as part of the Medicine and Surgery progress tests last June. Very well received initiative and things ran quite smoothly on the day considering it was a first.

Behavioural: Behavioural Science is finally over along with third year!!!!

Travel: Went on a student exchange in Vienna with two good friends in July. Then went to London on holiday in September. It was great. But, I had to miss this year's outreach at Assisi. Apparently, it was a great success where people really saw God's hand at work!

McDonald's: This is where I spent the rest of my summer when I was not away.

Ratatouille: A Mater Dei Hospital worker had his salad garnished with the head of a rodent. Quite the scandal of the year! Nevertheless, Papillion still lives on to see the dawning of 2009... and still supplies medical students their daily coffees.

Strike: Although the strike that caused much havoc was the 4 day strike undergone by the public transport operators, this refers to another strike which mostly upset the students. Yes, I'm talking about 'Lecturers behaving badly' and 'students being used as bargaining tools' in the dispute between government and UMASA. There was a strike last summer and now, it seems that there is another one going on, with University examinations possibly being postponed if the current deadlock in negotiations for a new collective agreement for lecturers persists. Nonetheless, I'm still having my exams starting on the 19th January. So, I spent less time reading the newspapers and more time studying my neurology! (It kind of explains my blog deadlock lately.)

Chircop: This was not one of the 20 words in the Times of Malta article so I thought of mentioning it here. The medical community said goodbye to one of the most dedicated of people it could ever see. He was a dedicated doctor, a dedicated family man and also a dedicated politician... Karl Chircop. May he rest in peace.

HealthFest: MMSA held its first ever Healthfest at City Gate Valletta (yes, the same City Gate which the government is planning on rebuilding together with the Opera House site).

MSF: Médecins Sans Frontières came to Malta to provide medical aid to illegal immigrants.

Babies: No not my own! But some very old friends became very new parents with two new first borns coming into the world... both of them boys! Baby Matthis and baby Thomas, may God bless them both and their families.

Wishing all of you who read this blog a happy new year! May it be a prosperous one for everybody.

Merry Christmas

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." (Jn. 3:16)

God - The greatest lover

So loved - The greatest degree

The world - The greatest number

That He gave - The greatest act

His only begotten Son - The greatest gift

That whosoever - The greatest invitation

Believeth - The greatest simplicity

In Him - The greatest person

Should not perish - The greatest deliverance

But - The greatest difference

Have - The greatest certainty

Everlasting life - The greatest possession

Author unknown

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas, with the true love, joy and peace that only Jesus can give.

On Yesterday...

The first three hurdles of the 4th year steeplechase were over yesterday! Hopefully, I didn't drop any of the hurdles along the way. It's not so much the forensics and public health that are worrying me. But, over the past few months, my predecessors have been giving me the impression that passing orthopaedics is pretty much like defeating the impossible...

And yesterday I discovered why! It was a Bitch exam if I may say! As tradition I suppose (with tradition being 1/3 of a class doomed to fail). I just hope I won't be part of that statistic. Come to think of it, I don't really want ANYONE to be part of that statistic.

Otherwise, the rest of the day was OK. Had a Media meeting to discuss Xmas issue of Sphygmo and Murmur magazine, chatted with friends, went out and did not get back home till 2am this morning. And there are more blog worthy events coming up NEXT weekend (nope, sorry not this weekend), with one of such events being MMSA Health Fest at Valletta. I'll divulge details regarding that later on.

Sphygmo is Out!

For all medical students of the past, present and (perhaps) future...

The first-ever online edition of Sphygmo is out!

I suggest visiting http://issuu.com/sphygmommsa/docs/sphygmo to read and download!

Now, back to my books!

This Little Paradise of Mine

Exam fever is keeping me away from blogging, as I've said time and time again for the past x amount of blog posts. However, here is a little essay written by my 17 year-old sister during her English lessons entitled This Little Paradise of Mine. Funnily enough, she ended up writing about my little paradise. So... here you go ladies and germs...

This Little Paradise of Mine

I have you know that my life is one big roller coaster full of ups and downs, twist and turns and each minute seems to go by at the speed of light! I am a fourth year medical student, of 21. Exams never seem to far away, my 'To Do List!" seems endless, and being a member of the MMSA I do not have much free time.

However, just like anyone else, I need to rest. Sometimes I feel that I have to just get away from it all....(without getting out of the house and using up half a day in which I can easily cover two "Head and Neck" chapters. I do not go out much, and I am not what one might call a 'party animal', so I am more creative than others when it comes to my social life and this is my little paradise.

Mind you, its not much. It is only a stuffy corner, full of dusty papers on the desk which are covering the keyboard. I shall not call it my paradise because it is my computer desk, but rather it is a shuttle that takes me there.

I find my sense of well-being and tranquility in my writing.

I write about absolutely anything that comes to mind, as soon as I close my eyes, and travel in the middle of nowhere amongst the ocean of figments of my imagination. While people are down the block having a laugh over a bottle of gin, I am on the foot if the Great Wall of China, or I am a keen traveller exploring the most tropical safari. I might even be a lizard trying to find my way out of a maze in some one's backyard.

Writing helps me to think about myself, it helps me reflect on my life, which is very important as at this stage of my life, I always need to ensure that being a doctor, in the casualty ward, is what I want to do. Not that I always doubted it, au contraire, amongst my sisters I was always the surer one. I wanted to practise this profession since I was eight and I was always so passionate about it.

However, I am obviously not the same eight year old, and since one tends to get used to ideas grained into their minds, it does not occur to them that there are other options out there! And one tends to do things passively and the fire inside will slowly fade away.

My writing keeps the flame burning, reminds me who I really am and oozes me with self- confidence and with a fresh point of view with which I see my life, and the life of others... as a precious gift which one should treat fairly.

(OK... you can clap now... or even better comment.)

Orthopaedics, Forensics and Public Health

Seeing the rate at which I'm blogging, posts seem to be dwindling down to one post a month. I doubt this scenario will change much for the time being. As I was privileged to observe from my predecessors, 4th year is the year where you constantly have to keep on your toes. It's not proving to be too bad so far. And for when it does, I do have a safety valve mechanism that will help preserve my sanity when exam pressure exceeds the preset limits. I'm helping out the Media Team within MMSA to having a smash hit newsletter Sphygmo. I'm the editor this year; which explains where some of my writing efforts are going.


The rest is all being seeped out into writing decent Epidemiology and Public Health notes so that I'll be able to write decent essays when the exam comes on the 26th of next month. Apart from that, there's also Orthopaedics and Forensic Medicine to study.


Orthopaedics is going OK, although that also still needs to be tested (hopefully only once on the 28th of November). It's quite interesting so far. I just wish it was just a little tiny bit easier...

Then there's also Forensic Medicine. It is nice though, mind you, not as exciting as CSI Miami, Criminal Minds or all those other shows aired on TV. Despite this, people who decide to do pathology and become experts in this field really do have a challenge ahead of them. Lectures always give me this impression that, just like in all branches of science, there are no absolutes to anything and that sometimes, it is not always possible to expect 100% certainty from your forensic findings.

To scientific minds, this may sound obvious. Unfortunately, in court, doctors are not questioned by people with such (brinlliantly logic and reasonable) minds. Instead, they're questioned by lawyers who never seem to get to grips with the fact that science is well known for it's grey areas and that no stupid questions need to be asked to prove that point during court trails in order to try decrease the court expert's credibility.

And for those people who are thinking that I should cut lawyers some slack, I'll just let the facts speak for themselves. Here are these questions, taken from actual transcripts, and see for yourselves whether lawyers can be very stupid:


Q: Were you present when your picture was taken?
Q: Was it you or your younger brother who was killed in the accident?
Q: Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning?
Q: Did he kill you?
Q: How far apart were the vehicles at the time of the collision?
Q: You were there until the time you left, is that true?


Not convinced? Take this exchange...

Q: Doctor, is it possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
A: No.
Q: Did you check for pulse or breathing?
A: No.
Q: Then how can you be so sure, Doctor?
A: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
Q: But could the patient have still been alive nonetheless?
A: It is possible that he could have been alive and practising law somewhere!


Or this one (a personal favourite if I may add)

Q: So the date of conception [of the baby] was August 8th?
A: Yes
Q: And what were you doing at that time?


Personally, I rest my case!