As usual, I must apologize for the belatedness of this post. I’ve been meaning to blog for the last few weeks, but unfortunately the pace of Honours has picked up and I just haven’t had the time. My days have become whirlwinds of activity, consisting of lectures, tutorials, tutoring the second years, hunting down my supervisor, avoiding my supervisor, writing my research proposal and working at the vet.
This past week provided a bit of a break, since it was the mid-semester vacation for the undergrads and a “research break” for postgrad students. I was looking forward to getting a lot of work done – and to finalizing things with my supervisor – but it just hasn’t happened. Monday was spent shopping and collecting my passport (hurray!), Tuesday was spent at the hairdresser and organizing graduation stuff and Wednesday proved to be rather traumatic, thanks to a visit to the dermatologist (details to follow…). I don’t quite know where all the time has gone, and I’ve only got 3 days left of real “holiday”.
I really need to complete my research proposal, which has turned into a bit of a disaster area. I spent most of my time last week working on it (including 15 hours on Thursday), and still haven’t finished it. I don’t know why it’s taking me so long. I desperately need feedback from my supervisor, but she has decided to take advantage of this week’s “holiday” and looked at me as if I were crazy when I asked if I could meet with her this week! Somehow, Luke and his supervisor, Neville, have been more help with the project than she has! Due to all the chaos this week though, I haven’t really touched the proposal, but need to complete it in the next 2 days. As such, I switched on my laptop for the first time in a week today, and had a mini flashback of how horrible last week was, complete with the sensation of panic and a sinking feeling in my stomach. As such, I decided to make myself a cup of tea before continuing – and have since decided to write this post, in the hope that my heart will stop racing.
The other great trauma of the week was my visit to the dermatologist. She was recommended to me by a family friend, and I’ve been trying to get an appointment with her for 5 months. I eventually saw her on Wednesday, and she really is excellent, although a tad scary (i.e. insane). It was my first appointment with a dermatologist, and I was quite glad that I had chosen a lady dermatologist when she asked me to take off my shirt and pants. She then proceeded to examine all my moles, and photograph them, and decided that 4 of them would have to be removed, right then and there! I was a little surprised – especially since I like to mentally prepare myself for surgery – but she insisted (probably because she has a 3 month waiting list for appointments). So, while shouting at the nurse, she proceeded to inject me with local anaesthetic and to remove moles from my arm, shoulder, leg and calf, and then stitched me up. The worst part was the injection – I didn’t feel anything else – and her shouting at the nurse while she did the excisions! I don’t really like angry people brandishing scalpels near me… I now have bright blue stitches all over me, and I’m still really creeped out that all this was done while I was awake and that I didn’t feel a thing!
So, my ankle is a lot better (although still swollen), but I now have all this creepy stitches. I’m not feeling much love towards the medical fraternity at the moment! While I’m on the topic of the ankle though, I need to announce that I’ve added on 6 extra weeks to the “20 Firsts” list’s deadline, because I haven’t been able to do very much because of my ankle. This gives me the June/July break to hopefully complete the list, provided that I don’t fall down any more hills!
Okay… Enough procrastinating and avoiding! I’m off to finish the proposal – or going to at least start finishing it!
This past week provided a bit of a break, since it was the mid-semester vacation for the undergrads and a “research break” for postgrad students. I was looking forward to getting a lot of work done – and to finalizing things with my supervisor – but it just hasn’t happened. Monday was spent shopping and collecting my passport (hurray!), Tuesday was spent at the hairdresser and organizing graduation stuff and Wednesday proved to be rather traumatic, thanks to a visit to the dermatologist (details to follow…). I don’t quite know where all the time has gone, and I’ve only got 3 days left of real “holiday”.
I really need to complete my research proposal, which has turned into a bit of a disaster area. I spent most of my time last week working on it (including 15 hours on Thursday), and still haven’t finished it. I don’t know why it’s taking me so long. I desperately need feedback from my supervisor, but she has decided to take advantage of this week’s “holiday” and looked at me as if I were crazy when I asked if I could meet with her this week! Somehow, Luke and his supervisor, Neville, have been more help with the project than she has! Due to all the chaos this week though, I haven’t really touched the proposal, but need to complete it in the next 2 days. As such, I switched on my laptop for the first time in a week today, and had a mini flashback of how horrible last week was, complete with the sensation of panic and a sinking feeling in my stomach. As such, I decided to make myself a cup of tea before continuing – and have since decided to write this post, in the hope that my heart will stop racing.
The other great trauma of the week was my visit to the dermatologist. She was recommended to me by a family friend, and I’ve been trying to get an appointment with her for 5 months. I eventually saw her on Wednesday, and she really is excellent, although a tad scary (i.e. insane). It was my first appointment with a dermatologist, and I was quite glad that I had chosen a lady dermatologist when she asked me to take off my shirt and pants. She then proceeded to examine all my moles, and photograph them, and decided that 4 of them would have to be removed, right then and there! I was a little surprised – especially since I like to mentally prepare myself for surgery – but she insisted (probably because she has a 3 month waiting list for appointments). So, while shouting at the nurse, she proceeded to inject me with local anaesthetic and to remove moles from my arm, shoulder, leg and calf, and then stitched me up. The worst part was the injection – I didn’t feel anything else – and her shouting at the nurse while she did the excisions! I don’t really like angry people brandishing scalpels near me… I now have bright blue stitches all over me, and I’m still really creeped out that all this was done while I was awake and that I didn’t feel a thing!
So, my ankle is a lot better (although still swollen), but I now have all this creepy stitches. I’m not feeling much love towards the medical fraternity at the moment! While I’m on the topic of the ankle though, I need to announce that I’ve added on 6 extra weeks to the “20 Firsts” list’s deadline, because I haven’t been able to do very much because of my ankle. This gives me the June/July break to hopefully complete the list, provided that I don’t fall down any more hills!
Okay… Enough procrastinating and avoiding! I’m off to finish the proposal – or going to at least start finishing it!
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