Feel like coming back?

I don't know why but tonight I thought about this little ole blog and thought I'd give it another go. As we can see its been over a year and I have no idea what put it in my head to come back. Possibly not wanting to study, nothing too enticing to watch, etc. but it could also be this feeling that things this year are going to go by too quickly and I'm going to somehow miss them. It's my last year and I don't want to miss anything. I'm terrified, I feel like I barely know anything and really I'm just tricking everyone into thinking otherwise, and I might just miss this rainy place just a little bit. Ok, I'm ecstatic to be going home for my elective in just 4 days but who's really counting. ;)

little taste of paradise

Peniche, Portugal

yesterday

not sure

At diving tonight Ricardo (my crazy Mexican ex-olympic coach) asked me to do something he called "overtaking". Now, he made this sound like a perfectly fine and normal thing to do to your fellow divers waiting patiently for their turn to do their next dive, but this is what we would call 'cutting'. Yes, thats right I was asked to cut in line. After every one of my dives, I was supposed to go after the next two people in line after me no matter how many more people there were to go. Hmm, I had two feelings going on while I was overtaking. The first one was, oh geez, are all these divers going to end up hating me!? and the second was: feeling like a little kid in a candy shop without adults around, just being given unlimited access to something I know I shouldn't be allowed to get away with. My devil horns definitely came out and my diving seemed to show it. Everything was higher, faster and better. Oh, and Ricardo never explained why he had me do this, and really, I'd rather not know exactly what is going on in that head of his.

little things

Plenty of things made me smile today: fresh blueberries on my special K, knowing that a cellular deposits on the basement membrane in the glomerulus of the kidney were immune complexes not amyloid (although of course you never get asked the questions that you know the answers to), biking into town and returning with a backpack full of goodies making me work up a sweat to get them home, rolling my own sushi for dinner, getting an awesome text from Chris....

But the thing that probably made me smile the most was right at the end when my friend Bobby's not even 2 year old cutest little girl Maddie asked for me by name and Bobby skyped me and we got to say goodnight and give kisses to each other. Best ending to a pretty good day. Oh, and I forgot to mention I can't wait to meet her in person!!!

bits

ireland beat france in rugby today (its the six nations tourney)...i went out dancing with friends of a friend whom i'm really starting to love to hang out with...tomorrow im having a home cooked meal at a home of a friend who's mom teaches home ec and its supposed to be amazing.

good night!

change of mood?

I feel like re-entering my blog as I'm getting back into the swing of lectures and studying again. The past three months have been filled first with finals, then with holidays, then with hospital time. Now that things feel back to normal (class, tutorials, etc) I feel like I can start writing again. Not much to say at the moment just thought I'd fill in the dead space a bit. Yesterday we had a practical skills session on rectal exams and I was able to practice the best way for my stubby little fingers to feel what they can up someone's bum. Not the nicest thing to talk about (or do!) but definitely practical I'd say. What it made me think about? If you have long skinny fingers you might be a better doctor. Or, maybe practice can make up for it. hmmm

On a more exciting note, we had snow this week that stuck around for a couple days and it really feels like winter. Snowball fights and snowpeople everywhere you look! I spent a few evenings laying bed watching the snowfall and it was gorgeous. I like it but for some reason I'm feeling like I miss home a little bit more than usual. Not sure what thats all about.

2nd in the nation

of Ireland! hehe. Yes, in the nation I am ranked second on 1 and 3 meter. However, they are particular about medals and stuff so I was left out of the medal ceremony. (The girl who got first is a Ukrainian National diver living here in Ireland for the past 6 years.) Diving hasn't been around very long and so they made a decision to reward the Irish divers instead of the best divers in the country. I think eventually they will learn. I'm happy enough though, no medals needed.

UK Diving Nationals this weekend!

Its been a rough, tough week for me for many many reasons but now I'm getting ready to do my best in Nationals this weekend. I'll be diving as a guest competitor and its going to be tougher competition then the master's wc but as the Irish philosophy goes its really all about having fun! haha, yeah...right Kelly...right. Well, think good thoughts for me!

More pics from the masters world championships

This is me winning the 1m w/ the British & Italian divers 2nd & 3rd

My favorite diving picture probably ever

and we're back!

finally we have wireless internet at the new apartment! i cannot tell you how isolated i've been feeling lately just because i haven't been able to connect at home. (i think there may be something very wrong with that last sentence, like i might need to be going to talk to someone kind of wrong, but anyways that's the truth and i said it.) i actually found it quite difficult to study without being connected which was the main draw back besides not being able to talk to everyone i was missing (the part making me the most sad and isolated feeling). any time i needed to look up something it took ages finding the right book, page, etc. and then how many times was it really not was i was needing. gah that was frustrating and this is especially the case now since we are dealing with pathology which means lots of different kinds of bacteria, viruses and fungi that have crazy names, diseases, symptoms and all that. hopefully this also means keeping up on this thing a lot more often...oh, and there's also my whole addiction to imdb which i'm not quite sure how i've been living without. but yeah. this is good news, very very good news.

its 1:15am

and I'm going to sleep for the first night in my new apartment! I am tired. It took all day to move today. Packing, getting everything downstairs and cleaning up the old place, making the move and then getting it all in my room. The place is super nice with a big balcony that overlooks the park and is walking distance to the hospital which is key. I'm in the middle room (between greg and andrew) and I have a huge window which I love. I am sharing a bathroom with greg which is much better than last year when we had just one bathroom for the four of us. Anyways, I promise I'll put up pictures soon which will be much better than trying to write about it. And, like I said, I'm tired.

Other than that, I just miss home a lot. Like a lot a lot. But I hope that once I feel more settled things will start getting better.

First day of school

You know how it goes. You get all ready the night before, you eat a good breakfast, you get there on time (even a little bit early which is awesome in Ireland cuz everyone gives you free tea!), you sit front and center and pay attention the whole lecture, then you come home and outline all the lectures before you go to bed. Well that was my oh so perfect first day of school. The only thing that sucks is...well...I'm back in school and not only that but I'm also super far away from my loves: sun, surf, and c.

I guess this just means I'll be back writing my blog which I was on a bit of a hiatus from during the past two months while I was at the beach getting amazing at surfing and working on an awesome tan. I miss home like never before and I am gonna start counting the days till Christmas break absurdly early I believe. This year will be exciting and fun as far as school goes though to tell you guys the truth. We are doing rotations all the time in the hospital, getting to go around and observe any procedures we want, watching post mortem, and basically finding out the stuff that can go wrong and learn real doctory-type stuff finally which is a definite yay!

ahhhhhh

I'm home and the sun sure feels good...

Might take me a little while longer before I feel like writing again. For the moment I'm just way too busy doing absolutely nothing! Well, thats not true exactly. I'm just busy doing all the stuff that I missed so very much. Surfing and the beach, going out to eat all my favorite foods with friends I haven't seen in forever, reading any book I want, laying in the sun, drinking wine and watching movies, and of course sleeping. Actually, as far as sleeping goes, I've now gotten into the routine of going to bed by 10 and waking up at 7 which means that I have all the sunlight I could ask for and as little darkness as possible, which, if I'm trying to fend off rickets from my sun-deprived little body, is a very good thing :)

last one!!!

My last official final (I know it seems like they never end!) is tomorrow morning at 10 AM. Its my first exam with an actual patient and I can't wait. By 10:30 I'll be done and out of the hospital, finishing up everything I need to at the house to finally come home! I am so happy. I can't wait to catch up with everyone and be free for the next 2 months, yippie! If all goes as it should with my flight I'll be home Saturday at 6PM San Diego time.

Think good thoughts for me :)

this is it

The last week!!!! I have so much to do before I come home but I can hardly believe that no matter what I will be on that plane Saturday morning and on my way home. I'm sure people are are getting rather annoyed at me for reminding them of exactly how long it is till I'm out here but as Eoghan said yesterday upon stepping outside, "this place is pissing me off"...and well, he's a dubliner so I don't feel to bad about me feeling this way. I think in all my wining about needing this break, and my free time spent showing pictures of home and looking up my favorite places on google earth (which can sometimes bring me to tears if you can believe it) I also may have convinced at least a few people to visit San Diego at some point. This is not too difficult as the point I'm trying to make here is that it has rained for most of the month of June and July doesn't look too promising either. There's something about having to bring a coat and umbrella out with you on a Saturday afternoon in July that is just wrong.

Yesterday we went to Kilmainham Jail which is the jail where the leaders of the 1916 revolution were executed. It was my first sightseeing activity that I've done in Dublin in quite a long time. 4 of us (me, Greg, Megan and Eoghan) took the bus out there and got the tour. It was cool to see since all of us recognized the place from movies (Michael Collins, In The Name Of The Father) and if you haven't seen those it definitely reminded me of The Green Mile. If you want to go when you come visit, I'd defintely be willing to go again :) I just hope that we get a different tour guide than the one we had. When we left Greg and I had a rather pointless discussion/arguement (which we often do) about which word she she used more: "jail" or "here". My vote was for "here" and anyways, since we were in a jail I feel she can say that word just about as many times as she wants. (right greg!) ;)

Anyways, just gonna get my pack on and sort out what I am bring home and what I am hiding around my house. I might even ask Andrew to take a box my really special, I would die if they got taken by my subletter, things to his parents house but we'll see. Can't wait to be home finally. Its been SO incredibly long!

Lisa came to visit!

I almost forgot to mention that last weekend Lisa was here to see me. It was a fast but fantastic visit but you can see that for yourself...love you lis and thanks for stopping by! :)

sharing a pint

my royal college in the back there

at a cricket match

fun and excitement at trinity college

Lots of firsts

I can barely believe how many firsts I had this week. So many in fact that to remember them I thought I'd make a list:

First time taking blood from a patient (time 3 and 4 were flawless!)...oh and yay for being useful!

First time giving a talk (presenting at surgical grand rounds) and first time using powerpoint

First time on-call, spending the night in the hospital and getting bleeped (paged)!

First time taking a real patient's history entirely on my own, presenting the history and getting all the differentials right. :)

Well, those were the big ones although there were lots of little ones in between. I really liked neurosurgery. I loved how everyday I was watching and being apart of someone literally saving another person's life. Sometimes that just means giving them more time to enjoy their time here with us all. But there's something that amazes me about how truly beautiful that is. And they do it every day, sacrificing themselves, making every effort to be perfect for complete strangers without wanting or needing even any thanks in return. Its exactly what I want to be apart of. I feel like I just fit in somewhere finally and even with all the hard work and practically no free time, I finally feel like its a place I'm entirely happy being entirely on my own. I fall asleep not needing anything or with the feeling that something is missing. Somehow, somewhere that feeling just disappeared. It gives me shivers. This is it.

On-call

So I decided to stay on-call tonight in neurosurgery at the hospital. I must be crazy, is the response I'm getting most. It sorta started as just a suggestion from one of the consultants and then with the idea in my head, my curiosity has gotten the best of me and against most people's recommendations I decided to try it out just to see what would happen.

Ok, so at first, nothing. The Reg (resident on call for everyone at home) is awesome. He is great at teaching and absolutely loves it. I love getting quizzed on anatomy, mostly because they seem so impressed probably but its fun too. And I love looking at CT scans of the brain now. Its like a little puzzle that you have to figure out...or more like a find whats wrong with the picture. Its the kind of games I would get sent by my grandmother and I've always loved them. And the best part is I'm getting better at it...much much better.

Then there was a car accident and a guy with a fractured skull is on his way to the hospital from another hospital in Ireland. (oh I forgot to mention that Beaumont where I am is the neurosurgical center for all of Ireland. So anything that happens in the entire country gets referred here since all of the neurosurgeons are only here in this one hospital in Dublin.) So, I was given a pager (called a "bleep" here) and the reg is gonna bleep me when they get here in an hour or so. That should give me time to take a quick nap on the couch before everything starts happening. I'll write more over the weekend probably...
cheers from beaumont hospital,
kelly