It’s been some time since I have written on the blog; Melissa is much better than I am when it comes to writing understandable paragraphs. But I have had some time in new places, I have seen new things and I have had a bit of an epiphany. Before getting into the happenings I wanted to take a second and say hello to our new friends in Alaska and Malaysia, Melissa and I greatly appreciate your support and we hope to hear from you again soon. Thanks to everyone that has written messages and given advice, it’s always great to hear other ideas and opinions. Finally, I would like to thank those of you that have donated to our blog page. Every dollar helps and we appreciate every cent.
And on to my somewhat scrambled thoughts and experiences:
Life in another country has been a massive learning experience, both from a career standpoint and a personal standpoint. Organizing this final year has been, and continues to be a learning process. Simple things like heading into the grocery store for a few things is something we took for granted in the states. I have to work so much harder on the logistics of everyday life (I appreciate the convenience of a car so much more now). In order to have enough hours in the day Melissa and I have to spend a lot more time planning and researching how and when to do things. Checking bus schedules and time tables is a must; my randomness has come back to bite us once or twice (or thrice). I remember a speech a Chief Master Sergeant once gave during my NCO training courses. The main idea was that a good military leader needs to have “Rigid Flexibility.” It sounds a bit strange but it makes sense (if you don’t think about it) and it’s a theme that reoccurs in my life over and over. Rigid Flexibility means that you make sure you have all the information you need to achieve the objective including the ability to change plans or scrap them all together. It’s giving yourself the leeway to change direction and go with the flow instead of letting the change throw you off track. The same concept can be applied to radiography, I think. Its very easy to become over whelmed (especially as a student in a foreign hospital, where you don’t have much experience) when the patients are flowing in and the request forms are backing up and have begun to look like some abstract piece of art work. Panic, at this point, leads to mistakes, poor image quality and more work in the long run. It’s far better to remember that “you can’t image them all at once.” Have Rigid Flexibility and evaluate the situation and then continue to do your job, helping one patient at a time to the best of your abilities. In the end, that’s all you can do.
I spent this past week in Angiography, were I was given an eye opening look into vascular health (I am a bit more motivated now to try and keep my vessels as healthy as possible). My time in the department was great. I really enjoy being part of a small team that is directly impacting the patient. Radiography is fantastic but you often lose sight of the bigger picture. In the angio suite, you are actually acting on the patient’s quality of life.
During our time at the Oregon Institute of technology, we had the chance to take a course on Cardiovascular Interventional technologies. I have to say the course was difficult and very overwhelming, but very interesting. It was a spark for me. Here in South Australia, the Cardiovascular Interventional Suite (or Cath Lab) is a much more specific area. They deal with the heart issues specifically and allow the angiography suite to take the rest of the vascular cases.
Being in the angio room as a physician inserts a thin catheter into a vessel that only measure a couple of millimeters wide is truly amazing. Looking at the screen and seeing a moving anatomical picture of the process, in real time, is fantastic. Couple that with the amount of knowledge you need to have about the anatomy, the equipment and the supplies needed and you have a very challenging work place. I am looking forward to spending more time in the angiography suite and learning to be a bit more useful. For the most part I just sort of stood in the room, moved a few things, and asked a lot of questions. But I really enjoyed my week.
Outside of work, I have found that I might actually have an allergy. That’s so frustrating to say! I can remember teasing my mum about how bad her allergies got when we had to buck hay for the horses. And now karma has come back around and found me. I am not entirely sure at this point but I have a sneaking suspicion that I might have some Australian hay-fever. I have been sick, again, for the past few weeks; suffering from some sinus congestion, coughing, sneezing and headaches. I just got over a cold or flu or something last month and then bam, sick again!
The weather had taken a turn for the better and Melissa and I went out for dinner and a movie after work. After walking around the downtown city center for a few minutes, my nose started running like a broken faucet. Shortly after that my eyes began to itch and then the headache set in. I couldn’t believe it. Sick again. Luckily I have been able to take a heap of different medications and I have found one that has helped a bit. I am praying that I will feel well enough to make it back into the gym again. I miss being able to jump in the car and head to the gym whenever I want. Workouts in the states had just started getting good, too. Looking at the bright side of things, this is a good time to start over and refocus on more specific compound movements.
Life moves on and speeds up every day. Thanks again for stopping by. Be sure to check back soon, Melissa is working on another one of her intriguing and inspiring posts.
Chad
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