Aussie-Chinese Girl Reflects on Her Med Practitioner Journey

 As the Melb Weather Goddess has finally decided to grace us w/ more summer-like temp and weather cond (here and there 😅😭), everyone I know who is not otherwise (forcibly) tied indoors (i.e. effing exam season pour moi 💀) is rushing to beaches, parks, and outdoor dining seats. But as everyone knows, Australian nature is out to get us, from the hole in our ozone layer to our deadly animals, so now is as good a time as any to raise some sun protection awareness.  A newly published study by Canadian researchers discovered a phenomenon they're dubbing the "sunscreen paradox", which is basically when people feel invincible after applying sunscreen so they are more inclined to engage in dangerous sun-exposure activities such as  going to the beaches when the UV index is dees as being extreme   not taking other sun-protective measures e.g. wearing a hat, UV outer layers only applying sunscreen once and never reapplying inadequate amount and/or covereage of sunscree...

 Weirdest experience today. My reporting time for OSCE (type of clinical exam) was 12:00pm, so part of the arvo group. I thought that meant I would be in and out by like 1:30-2pm latest, so I didn’t bring anything to read for fun or study (they confiscate all electronics so morning group can leak the topics to us) but nooooooo my exams didn’t start until effing 3ish 💀 By the time I was called in, I was so tired from waiting around that I had no stress left, not palp or hyperventilation, just I wanna get this done w and honestly the 50mins went by so fast. Never been this relaxed before an exam but also no idea if I passed or not 😅🤞

 Was rudely woken up by my alarm this morning at 8:15am (it’s not even that early cf to when I had to drag my body out of the sweet cocoon of my duvet at 5:50am for surg but still dufkwovjg it’s a Sat) and squirmed in bed for another 22mins before finally rolling gracelessly onto the floor (Cookie was not happy bout that 😅). Honestly think I woke up during REM sleep I was so effing groggy and feeling like jelly but alas I had a gym sesh scheduled w my PT at 9am (yes I have a PT, he eats up 90% of my income 💀). I was so close to just making up an excuse to not go in but I thought I would regret it so I still drove in (IN MY OWN CAR FINALLY!!!!!! Wicheofjvlfjg it was being fixed after someone rear-ended me for like 2 months I swear).  Annoying revelation of the day? Even if my studies are going to shit (last fortnight has not been fun - borderlined my LC exam, hopefully I pass the rest of my exams and just need to resit this one mid Dec / early Jan - series of bad luck and unp...

To celebrate Halloween as a med student, thought it would be fun to delve into my (current) Top 5 most disturbing medical conditions/px. I will, however, spare y'all the gruesome images, but you're welcome to search them yourself out of morbid curiosity, but disclaimer, what you will find is defs NOT for the faint-hearted. So w/o further ado...BOOOOOO #5 - Fournier gangrene 🤢 What is it? Acute necrotic (cell death) infection of the scrotum, penis, vagina, vulva, or perineum (groin area).  B/g info Incidence: 1.6 in 100,000 males (M:F 10:1) (altho I've already come across this > 1 🤮) Can be: idiopathic (of unknown cause/origin), colorectal, urogenital, or cutaneous origin/spread Implicated in: anorectal abscesses, UTI, post-op Comorbidities/Risk Factors - Immunocompromised/immunosuppressed state - DM (px 60% of cases) - Morbid obesity (BMI > 40 if asx, BMI > 35 if sx)  - Alcoholism - Liver cirrhosis  - Crohn's - SLE  - HIV - Malignancies  - Insufficien...