We have a full house!

Two third year medical students from Dalhousie have just moved into our house. They seem very friendly, and their addition has made our house even livelier.

Tonite, we (the house) went to a Surf and Turf dinner hosted by the education department at the hospital to welcome their new residents. I ate two lobsters and two steaks. It's an obscene amount of protein, isn't it? I'm told that there was roughly $600 worth of lobsters and $400 worth of steaks at this soiree.

Tomorrow, the Irish and I are taking part in some sort of scavenger hunt type activity with the new residents. It should be good fun.

In other news, I inserted my first naso-gastric tube today. 'Twas a snap!

Today was a good day.

I was on-call for Friday and Sunday, so I had today off. I feel quite deserving of this break, seeing as I came home no earlier than 4am on both my on-call days. I don't think I'll be an anaesthesiologist. There's a good deal of prodding people with needles, and I'm not sure I have the stomach for it.

I had my first fiddle lesson today! It was terrific. I asked my fiddle teacher to conduct my lessons in French. It turns out she has the STRONGEST Acadian accent I've ever heard, so her French is quite difficult to follow. Still, it makes the experience that much more authentic. I learned how to play twinkle twinkle little star, as well as a Gig. Really tremendous fun.

On my way home, i passed a store called 'Treasures and Trash'. never has a store been so aptly named. I bought the first "Ninja Turtles" movie. no doubt i will return to peruse their collection of musical instruments and medieval weapons.

Today I inserted (with some assistance) two laryngeal masks. They are airway maintenance devices. I also tried to insert an IV line, but after three attempts, I decided to give the poor patient a break and let the anaesthesiologist have a go.

It's also my first day on-call. It's currently 9pm, and we just finished and emergency appendectomy and an emergency cholecystectomy. The gallbladder was absolutely massive, and was filled with pus and little hard bits. It's neat how everyone seems very much more efficient when on-call.

I'll be on-call for the next 12 hours. I'm told my chances of being awoken tonite for some sort of birthing type thing are very high. Either way, I'm off to home now, where my Irish housemates are sitting with their beer and delightful conversation.

I bought a pair of running shoes the other day. It was quite an involved process. They watched me walk and run barefoot, and with all 8 pairs of shoes they had me try on. Now that I have runners, I will start running. In fact I've just finished running on the treadmills in our hospital gym. Walking on land after having been on a treadmill for awhile is the oddest thing. You feel like you're moving.

To get from the gym to the hospital, you can either take the stairs, or ride a very old school elevator. The outer door opened vertically. The inner door opened horizontally and was essential and iron grating. You had to open both doors via brute force. I'd seen these elevators in movies before but never in real life.

One of the Irish students, Genevieve, was following along with my preceptor and I today. When muscle relaxants are used in anaesthesia, a little machine is used to administer mini shocks to the patient's hand. This way, they can measure how much the hand spasms to get an idea of how well the relaxant is working. Naturally, we attached electrodes to ourselves to experience this 'spasming' for ourselves. It is the ODDEST sensation. The current causes your muscles to twitch, and it feels ... weird. We were in the OR while doing this, and I got to laughing so hard that I drooled all over my mask and had to leave the room to change it.

I hope you all caught the England-Portugal soccer match. I watched it with my Irish housemates and then went out into our backyard (There's a soccer field in our backyard. It belongs to a school.) to kick around a ball. I've learned quite a bit more Irish slang, and have since been promised both Irish songs (which they apparently sing in Irish pubs), and Irish dancing!

Today was my first day of Anaesthesia. The anaesthesiologist whom I'm following around is quite a character. He jokes around quite a bit. He also calls me 'little grasshopper', like they do in kung fu movies. There's more to anaesthesia than one expects.

Anyways, today I got to see 3 c-sections, a hysterectomy and an aortic aneurysm repair. It's really something how a little human can just be pulled out of a woman.

Hello and welcome to the second incarnation of Simonscapes!

The first year of medical school ended just this past Friday. My tutorial group had the foresight to finish tutorials ahead of time, so I was able to spend the last week with my family.

Since all members of my family are currently gainfully employed, it seemed inevitable that I would be by myself at home for the majority of my week. To avoid this, I spent my week at the Ottawa Heart Institute, where endeavored to soak up all things cardiac. Highlights: CABG, Valve repair, CABG, Electrophysiology, CABG, Nuclear medicine, CABG, congenital, CABG, Angiography, CABG. And that, my friends, is cardiology in the 21st century. All in all, an excellent experience. Many jokes where made at my expense wherever I went, because it appears that I am the son of quite an echocardiographer.

Anyways, I awoke this morning to fly to Moncton where I will be spending my next two months of elective time. It looks like it's going to be a brilliant time. I'm living in a house right next to the hospital. It's quite a lovely house. It has full cable AND a piano! Currently living with me are two Irish students. They are trying to teach me as much Irish slang as possible, and seem to be very fun kids. It's brilliant really.