Let me eat cake!

Sweden's Princess Estelle was christened today. A number of bakeshops are selling special cakes or pastries in honor of the occasion, just like they did on the day she was born. On my way home from school, I stopped by Xoko to buy an Estelle mini cake*. Their version is a specially-decorated prinsesstårta (princess cake). Two years ago, Frödinge sold frozen princess cakes for her parents' wedding.

Finally found a fitting occasion to inaugurate my V&A Museum afternoon tea set. Couldn't resist buying pizza while I was there. Was choosing between anchovy&olive and spinach&onion confit. Anchovy&olive won.

In other news, presented my research project yesterday and served as an opponent today.

[*Well, two actually, if we're being totally honest here. :p]

In Arvika for my research project

The hotel room has a theme.

Thanks Karolinska!

We sometimes receive incentives to answer course evaluations. Usually they do raffles and a few months ago, I got a gift card worth SEK300 for an online bookstore. For this survey, everyone received vouchers for 2 movie tickets (even comes with the school logo!). The Big Niece and I will be redeeming these tomorrow when we watch Lorax.

Whimsical

They recently renovated the lobby of the main lecture building and this is one of the new additions that caught my eye.

Is it supposed to do that?

The gas tanks on campus make me a bit nervous. I hear a whooshing sound when I go past them and wonder if they're leaking. That huge chunk of ice outside the nitrogen tank isn't exactly comforting.

Bedtime reading

After the OSCE storm

We took the test in batches of 6, but to safeguard against cheating, we all had to come in at 0800 and then remain in the classroom until we were done. They supplied us with sandwiches and beverages in the meantime.

My start time was 1030, but got pushed back to 1045. I slept last night and didn't get much studying in, but I managed to skim through the examinations, interpretations and procedures sections of the OSCE book while waiting. At some point, I looked out the window and spotted a helicopter hovering for quite a while (yes, that's the speck encircled in the photo).

At the start of the OSCE, I was really terrified, but I got calmer with each station. May have been too calm by the 6th and last station actually.

Thought "Oh, crap!" the two times I entered a room/station to find that the examiner would be one of our regular teachers. Most lecturers pop into our lives for one or two lectures. The regulars, on the other hand, know your name and the course objectives. I really didn't want to make a fool of myself, but I need not have worried as they were quite supportive.

Anyway, I thought you would be done for the moment you gave a wrong answer, but that wasn't the case and it turned out to be a valuable learning experience. Had also expected it to be procedure-heavy and had been stressing out about that, but all the stations involved diagnosis and treatment recommendations instead.

After we were done, we received a cinnamon roll and a hot beverage.

A few hours later, I received an e-mail from the course secretary informing me that I'd passed. I'm so relieved to have that behind me and so grateful for the people that believe in me especially when I struggle with believing in myself.

Dangerous by association

Tomorrow is OSCE day. I know now that OSCE stands for Objective Structured Clinical Examination. The thing is when I hear OSCE, it could just as well be "åske/åska". Åska is Swedish for thunder (or thunderstorm). That gets me thinking things should go fast, fast, fast --- lightning speed! And when you screw up, that's when the ominous thunderclap comes in. Do you get where I'm going with this?

I think I need to relax and breathe...and sleep, sleep would be good.

It is done

Sent in my project proposal on Monday. It's actually more of a formality since I already submitted it online about a month ago. The signatures took a while.

Used the internal mail so I wouldn't have to buy stamps. :p

Eventually

Today was the last day of my endocrine elective and of the semester as a whole. Had a three-part exam: written; foot status with one of our teachers as the foot model; and patient interview and diagnosis. Afterwards, the course admin fed us chicken salad and various desserts while we discussed the exam.

Happened to pass the venue for KI graduations on my way home. Six more semesters, eh?

Hospital sweet home

Am spending the final month of the semester at the hospital in Solna for my elective, but we're at my regular hospital today for a little field trip.

Just finished eating lunch in the lobby. Much quieter and more relaxing than the lunch rooms and restaurants.

Before lunch, we visited a lab here that's accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency. Apparently, it's one of 35 labs globally, several of which currently have their accreditation suspended. I miss spending time in a lab.

Also, visited level 9 for the first time today.

Another hospital photo

...this time from within one of the tunnels. The sign in the foreground points the way to the disaster supply room and --- if I'm not mistaken --- some of the pipes overhead are actually pneumatic tubes for transporting mail within the hospital.

[Taken at 1142 yesterday.]

From the inside looking out

Quickly snapped this photo from inside the breakroom of the radiology department at Karolinska Solna. The room is situated directly above the main entrance of the main building and is almost enough to make me consider specializing in radiology. Methinks this department must have some major clout. :p

[Taken at 0942 yesterday.]

No power outage today

...so I finally got to buy the things I was supposed to buy yesterday including a nurse's watch. Also visited the specialty coffee and tea shop --- appropriately named Bönor&Blad (Beans&Leaves) --- to see if they sold chai latte powder, which they do and macarons too! These are the real deal and I plan to return tomorrow to try the other flavors.

In other news...
* Today was kinda blah, lots of waiting around.
* I discovered that there's a bus route to the clinic that takes about as long as the tram ride, but is so much less crowded.
* My name plate finally arrived in the mail.

Power outage-induced snack

The power went out just as I entered the mall next to the clinic, so there was nothing left to do but go home. Since the trains and trams weren't running, I opted to walk aimlessly in the snow/rain in search of a bus stop in the middle of nowhere. The more logical alternative would have been to double back to the main square, but I felt too lazy to do so...nevermind that I actually ended up walking much farther. I'm stupidly stubborn --- a.k.a. dumstridigt --- like that.

Am almost home. Just stopped by a coffee shop for something warm and spotted these. They look better than they taste...but hey, curiosity satisfied.

P.S. Ate my first DrugCo-sponsored lunch courtesy of Cymbalta/Lilly today. :p

Celebrating Friday afternoon

It's been a long but relatively good week in Kidneyland.

Puzzled

The Little Niece has recently fallen in love with puzzles. Wonder what she'd think of this display at the hospital.

Fascinating read

Owing to the fact that Robert Edwards was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine/Physiology in 2010 for IVF, the theme of the most recent issue of SOMA (a free magazine from Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset) is infertility.

Apparently, 30% of men and 33% of women have fertility problems. I find that surprising because I can only come up with 4 couples that I know personally who don't have children of their own and 2 of those couples didn't meet until the women were in their late 40s or 50s.

New semester

Not off to an optimal start as I can barely keep my eyes open, so the smartpen the SIL and family gave me for Christmas will have to do the work for me. Muchos thankies!

The view from the ski lodge

...er, from the classroom.