A cure for boredom...

"Bored Baby"

... exists?

I'm up late with nothing to do except sleep, although I don't feel like it just yet.

I have nothing to write about really, so I'm just talking shit here. Well anyway, came back from my clinical placements about 2 weeks ago, so a quick overview:

- A lot of people are fat in Bendigo. My theory: For a small city/large-ish town, it contains every single fast food chain. From memory I believe Bendigo had a Maccas, Hungry Jacks, KFC, Red Rooster, Pizza Hut, and Dominos.

- The hospital is inconveniently far away from the town centre where all the shops are if you are forced to go by foot. This was discovered when I was caught out in the rain without an umbrella with Wang on a trip to find a Coles. Groceries were needed.

- On another note, the hospital is at a further distance to keep away the crazies; the hospital student's building I lived in was next door to the psych ward. Getting woken up at 8am by loud tone-deaf singing/rapping is not cool.

- I was surprised twice with people coming in for a foot x-ray, only to discover they had a toe missing. In other words, both exams started off as "OK, I'm gonna start moving you're foot around now..." which would eventually lead to "((something doesn't look quite rig-THERE'S A TOE MISSING! THAT'S DEFINITELY NOT RIGHT D8 ))"

- Going through the shortcut to work is creepy. Going at night after hours past the psych ward make me crap my pants.

- Seeing the mouse that lived in my kitchen made me crap my pants.

- Wear thongs in the shower, and move as far away from the shower curtain as possible.

- Most-taken x-ray: Chests. Least taken: Clavicle.

- Enjoyed taking: I/C knees. Hated taking: Shoulders + anything Hip related.

- Most useful thing I learned: the machine in Room 3 is retarded; good thing I realised this before my assessment.

- Most amusing thing I learned: when I made the connection that the 2nd I/C knee positioning method could be summarised by the image of "OTL".

Overall, placement was pretty good - virtually all the radiographers were nice (with the occasional cranky pants), everyone was pretty relaxed, the workload wasn't horrible, and the work we did was good and interesting. I think having a proper taste of working life just made me wish that I didn't have to go back to uni anymore (or back to shitty work at Max Brenner).

Honestly though, I don't think I'd mind coming back again next year for 5-6 weeks. I probably would've enjoyed Bendigo more if the living conditions were better, and I had easier access to the town (ie. had a car with me), but I guess if I get dumped without a place to go again, Bendigo would be an good choice. Granted I still want try out different places and broaden my expericence, especially in bigger hospitals (or at least in a busier environment), I like that in Bendigo it was never overwhelmingly busy, and that the staff all got along and were relaxed about work; everything was a sort of a nice, breezy expericence.

Ohh, another thing I liked was that a overall the staff were younger than the last place I worked at. And there was a bigger age range of patients - babies and little kids, to adults and the elderly. This, in comparison to my last placement in Ferntree Gully hospital which was across the road from a nursing home. Seriously, virtually 2/3 of the patients that came in there were old, wrinkly people.

And I found out that once I start working, I get a really shit pay. Like, $35k per year. I can barely afford my car after working for a year. Have to be working for at least a couple of to start making decent money. Either that or I specialise in something like ultrasound/sonography, or MRI, or maybe CT..... hmm...

Anyway, sleepy time! [<3]

"Intercondylar Knee"