After the Bunny Slope, It's the Double Black Diamond

I'll be in a small town called Dalby for the next three weeks. Dalby is about two hundred kilometers west of Brisbane. The town was practically dead when I arrived yesterday. All the shops were closed except for a couple of convenience stores and petrol stations. Then I remember in rural Australia they still have no-trading Sundays. The few places that do open on Sundays boldly advertise "Open 7 Days" in front. Yup, there's no mistake that I'm doing my rotation in a rural place now.

I'm spending these three weeks at Dalby General Hospital with James, another Year 3. In the morning, we dress in our normal clinical clothes of shirt and tie and walk into the hospital. We introduce ourselves to the consultant (that's what they call their attending physicians here). "Take off your ties, you're making me look bad," the consultant tells us. Sheepishly, we take off our ties to mock protestation from the nurses.

After morning rounds, it's clinic and A&E (Accidents and Emergency, it's what they call their Emergency Room here). The first patient that comes in has a cut on his hand that requires suturing. "Have you done suturing before?" The consultant asks us. "On a pig's foot." I answer. "Good, you can do the suturing on this patient." Cool! I start to prep but have no idea where anything is. It wouldn't take a second for the patient to see that we are new. But he just sits there stoically. "Brave guy," I think to myself while the nurse helpfully lays out the
tray. I put on the pair of sterile gloves. The consultant talks me through the steps to anesthetize the area and prep the wound using aseptic techniques. With that done, I start the suturing. I hesitate for a bit, trying to find a good spot to place the needle. With a flick of my wrist, the needle sinks into the skin. It feels pretty much the same as the pig's foot - same amount of resistance, same amount of blood oozing out. With that initial hesitation over, I now just imagine the hand as the pig's foot I sutured last week. With each knot tied, my motion grows more fluid. Before long, the five stitches are in. I clean the wound, then look up at the consultant. He gives a nod of approval. All right! That wasn't too bad.

So just like that, after last week's hand-holding on the bunny slope, we find ourselves staring down the double black diamond with the coach pushing us off. These three weeks are going to be crazy, but it's going to be an awesome learning experience.