Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Out of the Comfort Zone (Squeezy Stomachs for Sale)
Wednesday night here, and we've passed the 'two month' milestone here. Some odd news from Russia tonight about 2 planes out of Moscow crashing at the same time - could be a Chechen '9-11 attempt'. The BBC says they've just found the wreckage of the second plane, which sent out a message that it had been hijacked before it went off the radar screens. Apparently it crashed close to where Putin is on holiday - maybe they wanted to crash it into his dacha... If the Chechnya link is true, it'll only make the situation there worse, after all the bombs in Moscow and the theatre siege, and all the atrocities in Grosny. The rebels have nothing left to lose, and Vladimir Putin seems willing to do anything to win... Check out this UU site for more details on the background.
Anyway, it's been a miserable week here so far, gloomy cold weather, dense fog in the morning and little sunshine all day. The temps have been sitting at 10-11oC all day, not where they should be for mid-August (up in the mid-20s). Apparently this is the wettest summer for years - we must have brought the rain with us! We had the barbecue going strong tonight, though, despite a fine drizzle.
This is my last week in Pathology, and I've been posted to one of Calgary's 2 other hospitals, the Peter Lougheed Centre (PLC). It's a good bit smaller than the Foothills, but is quite nice. Although I'll only be there for 3 days or so, they've given me my own room with a much nicer microscope than at the Foothills and insisted on taking me for lunch. Very nice people! It's a longer drive to get there (apparently PLC also stands for Pretty Long Car-ride!) but it's a welcome break from the Foothills for a few days, and I appreciate the small-hospital atmosphere. I'm only there Tue-Wed-Thur this week, as I was seconded to go to the OR (operating room) on Monday for a 'Big Case', and I'm doing some cytopathology (cell work) at the University on Friday. It was nice to get into an OR again for a change, but I wasn't on top form as I'd been on call all day Sunday and was up to 0430 on Monday morning with a sick patient in the ER. I lasted from 0800-1430 on Monday and stayed in for all the interesting bits of the Big Case before I went home to snooze.
Today (Tuesday) was spent at the PLC studying slides and reading up a case I'm hoping to write up with the pathologists there. Then back to the FMC (Foothills Medical Centre) for a 'core curriculum' teaching session on melanomas and a quick chat with my preceptor, WT. We've gone over the research proposals that I'm going to get involved with in my time here, and the things I can write up. We've also defined my financial position a lot better - it's clear that I'm going to have to keep going with the on-call 3 nights a month for at least the next 6 months, until the position is resolved on whether we can bill (i.e. charge) for surgical assists (i.e. helping with operations). I'm working 3 nights a month, which makes 60 hours or so, at 80$ an hour, making 4800 a month or almost 60K $ a year. It's much less than I'd get at home, but I knew this when I applied and it's also much cheaper to live here than in the UK (check out the International Salary Calculator for more details. Anyway, although my financial position hasn't changed, at least it's now an explicit arrangement and I could be much worse off - one of my colleagues works every 3rd night for 3,000 a month - that's only 300 dollars a night! And if I had a fixed salary they could pay me much less (30-40K) and demand I do more nights for no extra pay. As they say over here, 'A Fellow gets what a Fellow gets'. I think the local guys put up with a very low salary for a couple of years because after that their salary goes through the roof (400K+) once they get a staff position. If I can bill for operating and if I can bring some of my own salary from home, I might eventually end up dropping the nights on call, but for now I'll just keep going - I suppose it keeps me off the streets!
Whenever we told people at home we were coming here, a lot of them said 'You must be very brave' or 'Aren't you afraid?' At the time we thought they were daft, but this week we've both started to realise that in our jobs at home we were both very much in our 'comfort zones', deeply lodged in 'the system' at home after many years doing the same thing. We knew where everything was and exactly how it worked and precisely what was expected of us. We we accustomed to using a network of contacts built up over years to find the quickest way to get things done. After a few years you can get things done easier just because of who you are, and because you know who to talk to. Of course, by coming to Canada, we've managed to lose all of those advantages and go back to Square One again. We don't really know anyone at work, and crucially we don't know how to use 'normal channels' to get things done. These are things which will come with time, of course, but at the moment it's easy to feel off-balance as we have to ask the most basic questions until we have 'The System' sussed out. At least it's only 6 more days until I'm back to a surgical rotation, but that will bring its own challenges, as most of the instruments have different names ("hand me that long thing with the sticky-out bit on it... no the longer one, with the prongs and the twirly bit!")
Which one is the right one? Duh....
I'm also going to be operating out of my 'comfort zone' doing a bit of breast, sarcoma and soft tissue work along with the abdominal work that I'm mainly here for. It's all a learning experience, and it's experience that I would never get at home (and it will get better with time) but at the moment it's just a little uncomfortable. No pain, no gain, I suppose...
Better get to bed for now, I suppose, but before I go here's a couple of websites (hope you liked the I AM CANADIAN) one...
After failing to get our home DVD player to work, we've been unable to watch any of the Region 2 DVDs we brought from home, as they are PAL format and US TVs are NTSC format (it's to do with different screen refresh rates, apparently). We have now found (and ordered) a dual-voltage US/UK NTSC/PAL multi-region DVD player which is guaranteed to play any disc from anywhere on any TV! It should work OK here and we should be able to bring it back to the UK with us too!
Trendy machine
We also found a site called Green Scrubs which does some very trendy gear for the operating room. I've ordered some super-looking hats - will send pictures when they arrive!
Would you let these people operate on you?
Or this man?
Pretty cool design, eh?
Slightly weird pattern but fun
Gotta have this one
Support your local Calgary Flames in the OR!
They also sell fluffy toys - this one is a Cow Doctor!
And this one is a Nurse Bear!
They also do 'Squeezy Organs' - I'm taking orders for these now!
Squeezy Eye
Squeezy Stomach - yuk!
And in other news: here are the latest scores in the Fantasy Football League. As you can see, the 4 Robson/White/Bennet teams are languishing in the relegation zone at the moment, but I can take some pride in the fact that my team is Top of the Losers, tied in 24th place with FC Jordanstown, 1 point up on Peter Robson's Robbo's Robbers, 3 points up on Roy Bennett's Plums and a full 12 points up on Dad's Calgary Visitors! Come on Dad, pull your socks up! It's still early in the season, but at the moment we should all be feeling as sick as a parrot!
24 FC Jordanstown 37
25 Rocky Mountain Rovers 37
26 Robbo's Robbers 36
27 Polish Plums 34
28 The Calgary Visitors 25
Upcoming events this week - dinner with Gerry the Swiss Surgeon and his wife Kristine who is visiting this week prior to moving here in October (Thursday). Juan the Mexican Surgeon may also be in attendance, wife permitting.
Off to Kananaskis Country this weekend for a bit of a hike, weather permitting...
Driving tests will be scheduled for the end of this week or the beginning of next... we're looking forward to it (not)
Lastly, here are a couple of great photos from a hot air balloon show I saw on the BBC website recently - aren't they amazing?
See you
J
Churchill Insurance Dog Balloon
Alien Spaceship Balloon
Anyway, it's been a miserable week here so far, gloomy cold weather, dense fog in the morning and little sunshine all day. The temps have been sitting at 10-11oC all day, not where they should be for mid-August (up in the mid-20s). Apparently this is the wettest summer for years - we must have brought the rain with us! We had the barbecue going strong tonight, though, despite a fine drizzle.
This is my last week in Pathology, and I've been posted to one of Calgary's 2 other hospitals, the Peter Lougheed Centre (PLC). It's a good bit smaller than the Foothills, but is quite nice. Although I'll only be there for 3 days or so, they've given me my own room with a much nicer microscope than at the Foothills and insisted on taking me for lunch. Very nice people! It's a longer drive to get there (apparently PLC also stands for Pretty Long Car-ride!) but it's a welcome break from the Foothills for a few days, and I appreciate the small-hospital atmosphere. I'm only there Tue-Wed-Thur this week, as I was seconded to go to the OR (operating room) on Monday for a 'Big Case', and I'm doing some cytopathology (cell work) at the University on Friday. It was nice to get into an OR again for a change, but I wasn't on top form as I'd been on call all day Sunday and was up to 0430 on Monday morning with a sick patient in the ER. I lasted from 0800-1430 on Monday and stayed in for all the interesting bits of the Big Case before I went home to snooze.
Today (Tuesday) was spent at the PLC studying slides and reading up a case I'm hoping to write up with the pathologists there. Then back to the FMC (Foothills Medical Centre) for a 'core curriculum' teaching session on melanomas and a quick chat with my preceptor, WT. We've gone over the research proposals that I'm going to get involved with in my time here, and the things I can write up. We've also defined my financial position a lot better - it's clear that I'm going to have to keep going with the on-call 3 nights a month for at least the next 6 months, until the position is resolved on whether we can bill (i.e. charge) for surgical assists (i.e. helping with operations). I'm working 3 nights a month, which makes 60 hours or so, at 80$ an hour, making 4800 a month or almost 60K $ a year. It's much less than I'd get at home, but I knew this when I applied and it's also much cheaper to live here than in the UK (check out the International Salary Calculator for more details. Anyway, although my financial position hasn't changed, at least it's now an explicit arrangement and I could be much worse off - one of my colleagues works every 3rd night for 3,000 a month - that's only 300 dollars a night! And if I had a fixed salary they could pay me much less (30-40K) and demand I do more nights for no extra pay. As they say over here, 'A Fellow gets what a Fellow gets'. I think the local guys put up with a very low salary for a couple of years because after that their salary goes through the roof (400K+) once they get a staff position. If I can bill for operating and if I can bring some of my own salary from home, I might eventually end up dropping the nights on call, but for now I'll just keep going - I suppose it keeps me off the streets!
Whenever we told people at home we were coming here, a lot of them said 'You must be very brave' or 'Aren't you afraid?' At the time we thought they were daft, but this week we've both started to realise that in our jobs at home we were both very much in our 'comfort zones', deeply lodged in 'the system' at home after many years doing the same thing. We knew where everything was and exactly how it worked and precisely what was expected of us. We we accustomed to using a network of contacts built up over years to find the quickest way to get things done. After a few years you can get things done easier just because of who you are, and because you know who to talk to. Of course, by coming to Canada, we've managed to lose all of those advantages and go back to Square One again. We don't really know anyone at work, and crucially we don't know how to use 'normal channels' to get things done. These are things which will come with time, of course, but at the moment it's easy to feel off-balance as we have to ask the most basic questions until we have 'The System' sussed out. At least it's only 6 more days until I'm back to a surgical rotation, but that will bring its own challenges, as most of the instruments have different names ("hand me that long thing with the sticky-out bit on it... no the longer one, with the prongs and the twirly bit!")
Which one is the right one? Duh....
I'm also going to be operating out of my 'comfort zone' doing a bit of breast, sarcoma and soft tissue work along with the abdominal work that I'm mainly here for. It's all a learning experience, and it's experience that I would never get at home (and it will get better with time) but at the moment it's just a little uncomfortable. No pain, no gain, I suppose...
Better get to bed for now, I suppose, but before I go here's a couple of websites (hope you liked the I AM CANADIAN) one...
After failing to get our home DVD player to work, we've been unable to watch any of the Region 2 DVDs we brought from home, as they are PAL format and US TVs are NTSC format (it's to do with different screen refresh rates, apparently). We have now found (and ordered) a dual-voltage US/UK NTSC/PAL multi-region DVD player which is guaranteed to play any disc from anywhere on any TV! It should work OK here and we should be able to bring it back to the UK with us too!
Trendy machine
We also found a site called Green Scrubs which does some very trendy gear for the operating room. I've ordered some super-looking hats - will send pictures when they arrive!
Would you let these people operate on you?
Or this man?
Pretty cool design, eh?
Slightly weird pattern but fun
Gotta have this one
Support your local Calgary Flames in the OR!
They also sell fluffy toys - this one is a Cow Doctor!
And this one is a Nurse Bear!
They also do 'Squeezy Organs' - I'm taking orders for these now!
Squeezy Eye
Squeezy Stomach - yuk!
And in other news: here are the latest scores in the Fantasy Football League. As you can see, the 4 Robson/White/Bennet teams are languishing in the relegation zone at the moment, but I can take some pride in the fact that my team is Top of the Losers, tied in 24th place with FC Jordanstown, 1 point up on Peter Robson's Robbo's Robbers, 3 points up on Roy Bennett's Plums and a full 12 points up on Dad's Calgary Visitors! Come on Dad, pull your socks up! It's still early in the season, but at the moment we should all be feeling as sick as a parrot!
24 FC Jordanstown 37
25 Rocky Mountain Rovers 37
26 Robbo's Robbers 36
27 Polish Plums 34
28 The Calgary Visitors 25
Upcoming events this week - dinner with Gerry the Swiss Surgeon and his wife Kristine who is visiting this week prior to moving here in October (Thursday). Juan the Mexican Surgeon may also be in attendance, wife permitting.
Off to Kananaskis Country this weekend for a bit of a hike, weather permitting...
Driving tests will be scheduled for the end of this week or the beginning of next... we're looking forward to it (not)
Lastly, here are a couple of great photos from a hot air balloon show I saw on the BBC website recently - aren't they amazing?
See you
J
Churchill Insurance Dog Balloon
Alien Spaceship Balloon
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