I think exam fever is starting to set in. You know that feeling before you get a cold and you don’t feel right but you can’t pin point what exactly is wrong? That is me at the moment!
Monday
Another week, another lecture and another community day week meaning Monday started with a 9am. I often find myself drifting back to block one where 5 9am’s in a row were normal, and now I can’t even handle one ! It was pretty much a normal day, except the elections have started here for the MedSoc committee next year meaning there are posters everywhere, I mean, I can’t even get some water from the tap without being bombarded by 5 posters. In their credit though, this has been very political and honest and fair, unlike nearly all the student elections I had seen! Sam also taught me a easy way to remember the Brachial Plexus which has become my new favourite thing…
Tuesday
We had our final community day today for Phase One (gulp). We had a really interesting case of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and I made friends with a local cat (what can I say, I am an animal whisperer). The patient was lovely and gave us a detailed breakdown of their life and how their condition affects them, especially as a parent to a newborn. We also got to visit a gym to learn about how adaptions in the work place can help the disabled and how being compromised mobility wise shouldn’t stop you from visiting the gym. Finally, we got to go to a mobility centre where we were taught about the different mobility aids on offer and how the NHS does and does not fund each type of wheelchair. We even got to have a go on some of them, they were all comfortable but after 5 minutes my arms were quickly tired, and I could see how being in a wheelchair all day would significantly impact someone who would have to travel a lot for a job. I also tried imagining going around even the Warwick campus in one and I have to say I think it would be a struggle. The campus is hilly especially the path to and from the med school campus so despite it all being novel to try, it really did hit home how something as mundane as a hill can be a huge struggle.
We got back to campus early meaning I could run over to the post room to grab a parcel my old friends had sent me. I’ve been using them as a bit of an outlet recently, so they know how much a struggle this block has been, so I think it was a bit of a care package. They had sent me a cushion with bumblebees on it of which I instantly fell in love with and I would be lying if I said no tears entered my eyes.
I also had my student seminar in the evening which was a quick one as it was just me and the lovely larynx, pharynx etc from block 2. It had been a complete mush to me beforehand but now I think it seems like I can tackle it!
I cycled back to have pancake night with my flatmates of which it was the first pancake evening for my international flatmate…. To sum it up, there were a few disasters.
Wednesday
The usual day off today, I had planned to do a lot of work, but it just ended up just filling out my case report and doing a couple of slides on Anatomy. I was annoyed at myself, but I just have to accept some days will be slower than others.
After meeting with my mentor, I ran over to the CPD building to see the Surgical Societies talk from the President of the Royal College of Surgeons which was incredible for a Surgical geek like me! He spoke about the developing use of technology in surgery and what makes a good surgeon and thusly a good surgical candidate. I finally got to ask a question about AI which I had been sitting on for a while. I was wondering if the use of AI will mean that some of the core surgical intuition will be lost as we will just be reliant on looking at the screen waiting for the programme to move us onto the next step. He said that there will always be a place for the surgeon in practise and that although Robots will be better than us technically, they will never surpass the human mind when it comes to what is best for the patient.
I also had the chance to meet someone from the year below us (the new freshers) who said they had a Facebook group and a WhatsApp chat, glad to know our year are trend setters! He was a friendly, chatty guy so I am now excited to meet the year below me …. I just have to make sure I don’t end up in the year below me as I can’t really afford to resit the year….
I went to cycle back home after this and as I was unlocking my bike with my music basting away in my ears, I was jumped upon by Daryl, a guy from my year. Apart from giving me a heart attack, he recruited me into his campaign video and I spent the next three hours watching them all film him backflipping down corridors and playing the “welfare superhero”.
A number of videos have been released for the Med Soc campaigns and they have all been hilarious, and so well thought out. Which inspired me to ….
Thursday
Film Med Soc elections! My policy was that I would put any of the candidates on one of my channel videos if they wanted to so I managed to record a couple of people and I will be publishing the video on Sat. I’m hoping that it helps communicate to the wider years who the candidates are and to keep it fair it was a “volunteer , come and find me in my usual spot and I will film you gig”.
Thursday also kicked my confidence to the floor a bit because we had our first set of talks about the exam. This was to do with mitigating circumstances and how we need to submit them. I don’t think I will qualify for my condition because it’s an ongoing thing but its nice to have confirmation about who I can go to for advice.
However, this started the whole exam talk and at one point I was surrounded by people with revision timetables and block one material. Not the nicest thing when you are barley keeping up with the block we are on. I tried to remain calm and went to go and see my anatomy professor about a workbook question I had but even meeting with him set me off and I think he picked up on it but I retained my composure – Go Me! Thankfully, I had a neuro society committee meeting to distract me. I felt a bit weird being the only one eating at a meeting, but I needed food because I had only had carrots as I haven’t been able to go shopping. I also got to talk about an event I am hopefully putting on and for some reason I had given the impression I wanted to run for a big role. I blabbed something out but I was a bit thrown under the bus , so sorry guys for the babble !
Friday
Final. Day. Of. The. Week.
We had a lecture on breaking bad news in the morning which was a really heavy way to start a Friday but it’s an important skill we need to learn. I also had my usual anatomy session and came up with a good way for leaning hand anatomy. I also had a bit of a wobble during the session but judging by everyone’s reactions , I guess I am not alone.
Maariyah distracted me by going to get the data for our next patient report. Again, she did the talking so I was able to concentrate on what we had to do. Our patient was lovely and we had a good discussion with them about their condition and one of the Junior Doctors even gave us some quick teaching at the end, which is always appreciated!
We had to go through clinical skills sessions where we practised breaking bad news to the SIM patients (I had to tell someone they have rheumatoid arthritis). I really found this hard and stumbled a lot but I think this was because I didn’t know the science well, so I was struggling to find things to talk about. I got some good feedback and I know what to work on for next time.
Managed to get a lift back with Alex meaning I could get home early, eat and then head over to do some work as I never normally work on a Friday evening due to being shattered from hospital. I managed to grab a desk in the PG hub and spent the next 4 hours doing 15 slides out of one lecture (this anatomy is complicated and heavy). However, there was another fellow medic in there and we were chatting about hard we are finding it and how nice it is to know that there are others on the course who feel the same way. So I guess this week ended on a comforting tone!
My plan this weekend is to just sit down and blast through the lectures I haven’t written up yet and submit my 1st case report, I am on a motivational roll… Let’s just hope this keeps going !
