So I was lying in bed at 11pm, this being exam week and having slept for 5 hours last night cramming for physio exam this morning, but somehow I just cannot fall asleep?

And so I was thinking back on the phys paper done this morning, and while mentally killing myself for a few silly mistakes I made, I recalled that a couple of questions bothered me during the exam itself.

Eg:
What increases blood flow in the circulatory system?
A) An increase in pH
B) An increase in mean arterial pressure
C) A decrease in mean arterial pressure
D) The presence of aldosterone
E) All of the above

Well, option E surely cannot be right, because of the presence of options B and C. I mean, how can mean arterial pressure both increase and decrease at the same time? Furthermore, placing 2 options which directly opposes each other as a choice highly suggests that the correct answer is either one of the 2. This question is clearly testing the relationship between blood flow and arterial pressure, and the rest of the options are just 'filler-options'.

Eg:
Which of the hormones/enzymes below would you expect to find in elevated levels when blood pressure is low?
A) Cortisol and acetylcholine
B) Renin and adrenaline
C) Renin and angiotensin-converting-enzyme
D) Renin and glucagon
E) Renin and insulin

Erm... it seems that renin must be included in the right answer, since 80% of the options contain renin as an enzyme. If renin is not an enzyme in elevated levels, then the question would be far too easy to solve by elimination. By this reasoning, then option A is clearly wrong, even if the student has no clue whether renin levels increase or not.

These questions are not badly set; they still serve their purposes by having a right and wrong answer. However, I think that good multiple choice questions should have all the options having an equal possibility of being the right answer. Also, the choice of which option is correct should also be made based on subjective knowledge and not logical deductions. Lol, I really should not be complaining if the questions end up being easier to answer, I think this is sleepy-and-brain-has-been-overdriven me talking right now...

Ohoh! And I also remembered being highly amused by the example used in the short-structured question. To illustrate a situation of a massive haemorrage, the scenario started off with

'A man has his leg bitten off by a bear...'

HAHAHA!

I guess I should be more empathic, but really??? Is this the best example you can come up with? (Hmm, I remember finding this a lot funnier during the exam itself, but not so much now...)



(just in case you have gruesome images of bear maulings in your head!)

If you see me in the library, in front of a computer, surrounded by books and papers, typing and pausing, frowning and sighing. Do not come and talk to me.





I might just be reaching an epiphany.








No, not this kind

'1, 2, GEAR UP!'

'Now add a smile to your gear.' - Shane Boal.
(Sometimes I suspect Shane is quite a sadist!)

Pain is temporary, quitting is forever.- Neil Armstrong.
If bluedogs sold this same poster as is hanging in the RPM room, I WANT IT!

35 likes on this wall post. I guess my friends are kind of the nerdy type...

It seems as though I do not think with my head anymore. In these couple of weeks, I have been basing a lot of my decision making on feelings, intuition and dreams. It might sound strange but it seems to be working very well for me.

Warning POTC spoilers ahead!



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Sometimes, I just 'know' things.

I knew that the white napkin which Jack Sparrow tossed onto the floor beside the dining table was going to help him escape, and that he would eventually get the muffin which got stuck on the chandelier. I knew that the sinking chalices were going to be retrieved. When Serena dived into the water upon being untied, I knew she was going to bring back the chalices and save the day. I knew that Captain Jack Sparrow was not going to kiss Angelica.

Well, being able to forecast movies might not be the best example of how my 6th sense is extra sensitive at the moment, since the director might have left some cinematography trails which I simply caught on to.

But, I knew it was the right time to approach my landlords regarding my leaky tap of one month when I just bumped into Andrew one day while emptying my garbage, as I dreamed about it the night before.

I think just as well as I am responding to signs-in-the-air as I like to call it, the signs are responding to me too? (Paulo Coelho would call it omens in The Alchemist) Just today, I was feeling unusually gloomy. I was frustrated with everything; the amount of work piling up, the pitiful number of hours I had slept the night before, friends who just need to man-up, the crazy weather, I was even unsatisfied with what I had chose to wear for the day, because I just threw on some clothes before dashing out of the house. Seriously, I was quite upset. I was actually psyching myself to list everything that was making me unhappy, to clarify the negative emotions in my head, just in case anything small triggered me that day (like no more subway cookies?), causing the emotions in me to boil over and turn me into a sobbing mess.

And then wonders of wonders, during my power walk pass the carpark to Sturt campus, this middle aged couple, whom I just walked past seconds ago, waved and shouted to me:

"You're beautiful!"


Wow!

My day was instantly made! Firstly because compliments are never ill-received and secondly and perhaps more significantly on hindsight, the signs are reading me too.

Oh well, everything might just be a happy coincidence, but I certainly feel more alive now!




'The boy and his heart had become friends, and neither was capable now of betraying each other.'- The Alchemist

haha if only that comment was a one-way ticket to sleeping in all day. Bliss!)

What are some of the ‘nuts’ and ‘bolts’ of....?

Mind/body dualism

'Debates about the true nature of the body have a long history, dating back beyond a time when scholars such as Descartes and Rousseau began to talk about the mind as distinct from the body (i.e. a mind/body dualism). This idea has tended to privilege the mind as that which defines human 'being', while the body has been treated, at least in intellectual life, as a sort of excess baggage of human agency... the body's importance has been perceived in the main, in terms of the necessity of its careful management in order to enhance, or to avoid distracting from, either mental or spiritual effort...'


'The human body can 'dis-appear' in two senses. The first is non-appearance as background dis-appearance (e.g. some part of our body can be 'put out of play' because it is completely irrelevant to what we are focused on" we can 'lose' our legs if we are typing at a keyboard)... There is also the 'dysappearance' of the body when the body appears as 'Other' to the self, as an 'alien presence'(such as in a time of pain), arguing that this common experience has served to support the mind/body dualism of an essential non-material mind and an all too material oppositional body'

Interesting reading from Week 8 Epidemiology and the Social Determinants of health.
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'To study 'best practice' is always to study what is contingent, complex, fragile and often unruly. This does not license idiosyncrasy or serendipity in the provision of health care. The point is to account more fully for the lived experienced of participants engaged in health care as an embodied and culturally constituted performance.'

I wish I could write like that, to be able to express human-moments (like the alien body experience) in words with such clarity and succinctness. 'Best practice' is contingent, complex even unruly. But this does not license idiosyncrasy or serendipity. Ahhh, words of wisdom written with such flair.....

I think I am constantly digging a deeper hole for myself to fall into, getting bigger shoes than I can fill.

I have been breezing through this first half of the semester, not because I am constantly on top of my ball game, unlike last year. But because I am consciously blocking out what is to come. I think I have let myself become complacent. And I am treating Dr Paul Worly's words like a mantra now; not as a motivation for the future, but as an excuse for the present.

Have I already proven who I am in these 2 years? Shown my capability, my potential, this is me, kthxbye. Or is it something that I need to be consistent in, or else I might just lose the essence of who I really am. And then again, who am I? And who am I proving myself to?

I still have time, not much, but still sufficient, so don't worry. It's just a nagging feeling in my head that I am not living up to my own expectations that prompted this blog post. I've taken a long long hiatus from margaretinoz, and this post has a 180 turn of emotions compared to the last whee-exams-are-over-lets-get-drunk-at-noon post. (In the past, I would have first written a helloworld! I've-decided-to-return-to-the-blogging-sphere post, but now I have decided to just plunge back into the once familiar pool and see what goes. Is that a sign of me getting complacent/lazy or am I over reading it hmm...)

Anyways, the main point is: I need to get started on my assignment!!! Ahhhh!!!

Im freeeeeee

Last paper ended at noon and went to town with the med gang. The 6 of us sat outside Austral by the sidewalk and celebrated with jugs of beer. Managed 2 1/2 pints before feeling slightly tipsy. One more life experience accomplished, getting drunk in the afternoon: tick [x].

Exams are OVER. Hell YEAH!

Hi all!

1st paper on Physiology was on Tuesday and i think it went well, guessed a few but hoping for the best. The whole paper comprised of 78 mcqs and we were given 2 hours + 15 minutes of reading time to complete it. (Haha, i love mcqs, all my 3 papers this term are all mcqs qns only ^^) Honestly, i could have finished the paper in 45 minutes, and many of my classmates felt the same too, some even leaving the exam hall half an hour after it started. Perhaps this is reflective of the aussie way of life, where everything is plentiful; plentiful space, plentiful time to go about life leisurely, even plentiful time to complete an exam. Not sure if i prefer having lots of time in an exam, because it is really unsettling to have people leaving the hall all around me and getting the feeling that i am not doing justice to the time given, despite having completed the exam and checked + having lots of time for self-doubt.

Just completed my Hlth Sci assignment (actually not really, i still have to write out all my references properly and to cut down 138 more words) which is due tmr 4pm. It was quite an interesting assignment as I had to interview a doctor, find out what are some of the issues in the profession and compare it to what the literature says, I interviewed Rhea's dad a haematologist. Though having it due in-between 2 of my exams made me go a bit crazy.

Chem paper on Friday, 3 hours 69 mcqs and 69%, every question will be 1% of my grade, yikes! Bio is my final paper and is next Wednesday, freedom beckons thereafter!

Omg so sleepy! 2.55am now, gonna go to sleep! Bye!

OH! Before i forget, had the most awesome experience last monday, during the aus vs germany match. Went to Rundle Mall with Rhea and Lucy at 3am to catch it on the big screen there, it was 3 degrees and absolutely freezing but oh so fun! Aus was dissapointing, losing 4-0, and the aussies just started walking away from the game when we were 3 points down. Loved the cheering though,

Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi!

Pictures up soon, bfn! :)