Month: Oct 2019

Monday

Whoop whoop. LIE IN ! First time in weeks that I haven’t had to be up before 6am. It felt AMAZING and I woke up ready for the day instead of practically falling out of my nice cosy bed. I had airway teaching at 10:45 so spent my time slowly getting ready and actually catching up with what is happening in the outside world. It’s easy to forget the world still carries on outside of Medicine.

I arrived at my airway teaching and it was actually fun. We were taught the basic principles of airway management so we were taught head tilt, jaw thrust as the non-equipment techniques. Then we were introduced to the maze of tubes and suctioning things in front of us. We first used some tongs known as Magill forceps which are angled allowing for removal of objects. We successfully removed Halloween sweets using these (and got to eat them for our efforts).

We then went on to use the more technical items that you see in medical dramas learning how to measure and insert them. The only thing we didn’t get to use was the tracheal tube which we get trained to use in phase three. I am actually really excited for that session now . I really enjoyed this session, clinical skills have the potential to be dragged out sessions but the higher level learning and new skills is making these sessions the highlight of my week.

I also decided to get my flu jab done that day. This meant walking to the other end of the hospital but at least I now have it done !

After Airway management we had resus training. This was basic so it was what to do if we found someone without a pulse around the hospital. We got to practise using a fake AED on a dummy which had a monitor attached which tells you how good your CPR is. CPR is most effective when you are at the right depth, rate and allow the chest to fully recoil after each compression. The machine speaks to you if your compressions are not good enough and has a metronome to check you are going at the right rate. There’s something odd about being praised by a machine ….

When we went to do it , I forgot to check if the patient was actually breathing , turns out this is important – who knew ? (DISCLAIMER – I KNOW THIS IS IMPORTANT).

Finally, the moment I had been waiting for. SCRUB TRAINING. I was so excited, well, what do you expect from me. We did the process from start to finish learning how to wash our hands with the sponges and iodine and then moving onto scrubbing. The gloves were a bit fiddly to get on as you can’t use your hands outside the sleeves so we were all fiddling around trying to get them on, safe to say I need more practise.

In the evening we had revue rehearsal, I am now off script which is handy and then just collapsed on my bed. Monday Completed.

My friend Tash had also surprised me with some little wooden bumblebees from her paediatric play session which vastly improved my day:

Tuesday

Second group for CBL today ! Mind you, ended up going in early because I needed to do some SSC1 work for our mini bazaar later. CBL was good as we were finishing up from the week before meaning I only had to be chair for 2 more hours, however, this also meant we had 15 minutes for lunch before the next lecture. This meant I was happily munching away on my pasta during a lecture on airway management with some gruesome images. Guess I’m fully immune to grossness now.

We finally got to SSC1 session and I got to speak about curious incident. I looked at how the book changes the perception of “normality” by telling the tale from Christopher’s eyes. I also looked at the last scene of the play and how they portray that even though people with disabilities can technically do anything, we are still in the position that this is not possible. We still see disability as an inconvenience and with the lack of adaptations, people really can’t do anything:

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In the evening we had a huge revue rehearsal doing the big whole cast scenes. It was fun to get back to acting etc but it was a long evening. I was pretty grateful to get back home and just collapse in my bed.

Wednesday

Decided that I was too tired for the 9am but thankfully it had been cancelled anyway (whoop). I made it in for 10am when we had some safeguarding workshops. Both me and Matt had failed to actually do the online courses before they were due so we quickly completed them before the session. We had Cornelia who was one of our Anatomy tutors last year so it was strange to not see her in an anatomy setting. We just have to remember that people have lives outside the STC .

I really enjoyed talking about this. It’s a shame that we have to talk about it, no-one should ever have to be put through it but we do live in a world where safeguarding is a valued framework so it’s important to learn.

We then had a lecture about glucose regulation but I could barely hear the lecturer so I made my own notes off of websites in the back. At least I was productive ! Wednesday afternoon brought a diabeties workshop, with a twist. We were locked out of the room that we were meant to be using so we ended up having a al fresco lecture sitting on the floor in a werid circle, filling out the worksheet. Locked rooms shant ever stop us.

We also had new CBL case. It was diabetes this week and one of our first paediatric cases. It was also one of the first cases where we could not have guessed the diagnosis from the opening page so it was nice to debate and delve into the case.

I took a 40-minute nap before rehearsals as I was in a lot of pain (seems to be the common thing at the moment). Then came the moment of truth. We had a three hour dance rehearsal and I’ve not danced since I was 14 when I gave it all up for school. Despite me having two left feet I managed to get through it and I really enjoyed the evening ! I can’t wait for it all to be tied together – but towards the last ten minutes my abdomen was in agony so I decided to just walk through the last ten minutes.

It was 9 by the time we finished so I was pretty relieved to dive back into bed safe in the knowledge that our 9am had been cancelled the next morning.

Thursday

We started with a lecture on concordance and then onto what to do when a minor refuses consent. I really did enjoy this as ethics seems to be becoming a love of mine here so learning about the ethics behind paediatrics was a brilliant session. We also had a debate about real paediatric cases (obviously changed for patient confidentiality) and it was interesting to see how the minds of my year works. I love interactive sessions like this as you can almost imagine yourself in these situations when you qualify. GOSH have actually got a ethics event coming up which I wished I could go to but I can’t get the time off or afford the train as I am going down the next week for their conference.

We also had some group work to do in the afternoon but shortly before I had managed to scald my hand on the boiling water tap filling up a water bottle to try and ease the abdominal pain. So this session turned into a mini first aid session. I wanted to go climbing but I ended up just coming home and doing some light work. This pain has just completely wiped me out these past couple of weeks.

Friday

Day off ! Spent the day getting ready for Family Meal ! It’s a tradition here but I have been panicking about cooking as I am really not known for my cooking skills. I ended up just going with a simple rice and curry dish (which I managed to not muck up). It was a lovely evening and it was really nice to catch up with my medic kids. It’s nice to see how chilled out their year are compared to us. They actually seem to be enjoying their degree and having a decent work life balance. The kidneys seem to be causing problems again and I do feel sorry for them not having Dr Roebuck teach them. We were gutted when Jamie left, he is the top lecturer here and it does feel weird knowing he isn’t here. All the lecturers are brilliant , but Jamie just had that extra something. Me and Kat decided that we should run an extra session about kidneys as we actually quite enjoy them, so watch out for that! We ended up finishing early though as we were all pretty shattered and they had anatomy day the next day.

Saturday

Weekend post ! I actually did something on Saturday ! My friend Matt from UCLan was around in Coventry so we decided to meet up. Rosie my bestie was also around so we had a mini reunion. Rosie, Matt and I lived together in second and final year. I miss it so so much and it was nice to see that Matt had not changed at all with his card tricks. It was so nice to catch up and see everyone. It can be hard here, seeing everyone lead amazing lives and with half of my group still together it can be very isolating.

I ended up in a bit of a slump this evening. All I wanted to do was go home, there’s a lot of worrying me at the moment and for someone who loves this degree, the fact that I keep wanting to drop out is scaring me. So in the middle of this slump I receive a random message from one of my other friends (sally) and within a good 10 minutes I was crying with laughter on the floor. It wasn’t even about anything funny in particular but I just appreciated that bit of a break from the cloud that was hanging over my head.

Med school can be incredibly isolating and hard. It can make you feel on top of the world one second, and the bottom of the heap the next. I do try to keep these things positive, but there are weeks when I just want to write, yup this week happened, and leave it at that. However, part of the anxiety I am feeling is due to the unknown, and the point of this blog was to tackle the unknown for others. I am struggling with my mental health, I am trying to fight back against it but not even wanting to do work is completely against what I normally am like. I know it’s ok to feel this way though. That’s important to recognize. Instagram is filled with accounts showing off pretty notes, insane working schedules and super star medics. It’s so important to keep in mind though that these accounts are only showing part of their life. I try and show everything, the ups and (most of) the downs. I hope that is good – and I hope that somewhere, this taking away of the unknown, is helping someone get through the uncertainty of this insane medical world I love so much.

Monday

Hospital again, and thankfully my last ridiculously pre-6am wake up call. Today I had to be in the hospital for 7:30am which does not sound too bad but the bus from campus was at 10 past 6 so it was an early morning for me! I arrived at the paediatric ward and it is now my favourite place in UHCW as it was covered in decoration and had a completely relaxed feel to it despite it being quite as it was so early.

I was taken to the day surgical unit on the paediatric bay where I met my supervisor for the morning. She was a cheerful human so I knew it was going to be a good morning. I had a quick tour around the place and she explained how the paeds bay works on that ward. We only had 4 patients there today so it was a quiet day and 3/4 of them were in for tonsil removal. It was a slow start to the day as they began to arrive for their surgeries and in my exhausted state I was struggling to keep my eyes open. However, we ended up doing a coffee run for the staff on the paeds bay so I managed to get my hands on an amazingly strong coffee – bliss. The surgeons then started to take the kids off for surgery. I got to see the role of the play specialist here who was providing comfort to the kids before their operations. They had a small kit which contained everything the kids would be experiencing in their operation. The cannula , the stickers to hold the cannula in place, the air mask. It was all in there and I really like the concept of this. I think if I ever do end up in Neurosurgery (of which I am yet again doubting myself if I am actually good enough to do) I want to bring this into my practise if it isn’t there already.

This happened throughout the morning and I was kept well supplied with biscuits which again was great ! At one point I entertained myself for a good 20 minutes blowing bubbles for a little one whilst they were waiting for surgery, not sure who was having more fun though, me or the patient.

I was also lucky enough to go into the anaesthetic room to watch them being put to sleep and my surgical heart just wanted to follow them into the operating room but alas, I’ve had my surgical fix already. I also got to try some numbing cream which was the weirdest feeling but it did mean my hand didn’t belong to me for a good 6 hours afterwards 😀

In the afternoon I had my final bedside teaching with our clinical education fellow. It was an amazing session as we got to see several patients on dialysis and several kidney transplants. The brilliant thing with transplants is that you actually get to feel the kidney. As part of abdominal exams you have to feel for the kidneys except you will NEVER feel the kidneys. Consultants will tell you they have probably felt one or two in their entire career, so getting to feel the transplanted kidney was useful as it shows us what we need to be feeling for.

I ended up going home pretty sharpish after, I’ve been feeling pretty rough all day so I just wanted to get back despite having some database work to do. Sometimes, you just need to do what’s good for you.

Tuesday

Worst of both worlds for CBL this week. 9am on the Tuesday followed by the last group session on the Wednesday. It’s slightly annoying as I could have used the late CBL starts from the beginning rather than now as I had all my stupidly early mornings in the first week. Im so tired not even surgery got me hyper last Monday. We finished off our HIV Case from last week looking into the impact of HIV on family and friends and debated where the doctors duty lies in informing partners if the HIV positive patient refuses to do so.

In the afternoon we had a a lecture from McDoogle who we have seen once at the beginning of the course and not since 😅. It was interesting as we were talking about allergy and how it is diagnosed in clinic. I did not realise that allergy could be non-immune system regulated , so I suppose you learn something new every day!

I had SSC1 in the afternoon and we were picking our favourite quotes from middlemarch and digging deep into them. I am loving this as I used to dive deep into my books. Literally, I believed the curtains were blue to reflect the characters mood rather than because the author picked a random colour.

Then , the thing we had all been waiting for. REVUE read through. I can’t say too much. If I did then my fine would be a shot and I am dancing in revue so I prefer to be able to actually stand up. However, I can say I was giggling all the way through and even the cast songs went down a storm ! We headed to varsity after and we got chatting to the first years about how they were doing. Im still jealous they get a week off between blocks but we found out they took a week off easter and I treasured all my 4 weeks at easter so I am happy with our years arrangement!

Wednesday

Did not managed to make my 9am. My eyes were so heavy when my alarm went off and I just did not have the strength to get out of bed. I think I have some infection as my abdomen was in agony all evening so I decided just to go to the 10am. I guess it’s just that point of the term where the tiredness just hits. It also didn’t help that we have near on 4 hours until CBL so I was practically falling asleep in the computer room instead of doing work.

When CBL eventually arrived we had a new facilitator who was lovely. We ended up going around the group telling everyone our past lives before Medicine. Turns out Jess in my group would have made 17 year old me green with envy having been IN SHERLOCK and casually watched TV with Benedict Cumberbatch. I stood for 14 hours to watch 30 seconds be filmed 😅. I ended up being chair for this case and for once I enjoyed it. Maybe the leader inside me is emerging.

Thursday

Again, missed the 9am lecture ( I swear I am normally a good student). We then had a renal dialysis seminar which was interesting but because I’ve mainly seen these patients on the wards through bedside teaching, it felt a bit of a repeat. In the afternoon we had our phone communication skills session. We were essentially phoning SIMs in the room below us but it did feel rather real. I had a bit of a curve ball as we were told to take a history but my patient was having a heart attack so I wasn’t sure what to do. I ended up stumbling through a quick history and then ending the conversation by shouting please call 999. Not my finest moment 😅. However, we learn through stumbling so I felt I took a lot away from this situation. We also practised handovers and because me and Matt seem incapable of taking anything seriously during clinical skills, I ended up taking a handover from a Texan GP.

This was also the day Adam Kay’s new book was released so I made the trip down to main campus and back to retrieve the book and sat in the MTC giggling to myself for the next hour. I devoured the book in one evening, it was as amazing as his previous one was.

Friday

My first Coventry driving lesson today. I definitely am a lot more confident driving and I even managed to drive inside UHCW ! I went in to try to chat with one of the Neurosurgeons about getting involved with research but he was pulled into theatre. I don’t mind, I’ve been feeling off all week so I was happy to get home. I finished off the week by going to watch the Joker in the cinema. It wasn’t something I was keen to see but at the end I was hanging off my seat. It was amazing !! Now, a nice weekend at home treat to myself 🙂

Monday

5am and my alarm kicks off. However, it’s ok , I HAVE MY SURGICAL INDUCTION TODAY !! I had to get a slightly chaotic transport route to get there as I was stationed in Rugby and I don’t drive. One Uber from campus to the train station as I was up before the busses started running, a train from Coventry to Rugby and another taxi to get from the station to the hospital because … the busses were not running. So, £15 down and I finally arrived. Cue another 20 minutes wandering around the hospital because I had no idea where I was going (I did a lap of this place) and I finally find the theatres. I got changed into scrubs and a lovely white hat as this is policy for students and soon I was chucked into theatre. Rugby is mainly an orthopaedic theatre so this was the complete opposite of the spectrum I was planning on going into but I felt I may know a bit more about what I was seeing so I was excited.

I got to see the operation from start to finish with the patient being put under general anaesthetic (they were asking him to tell a story and he fell asleep half-way through) and then the operation began. They were doing a hip replacement so I was chatting with the scrub nurse before about the instruments used. There were some cheese grater like devices that were used to drill into the acetabulum (hip socket) which when they were eventually used, put me off grated cheese for a while. Orthopaedic surgery is a whole other world from the Neuro surgery that I was used to. Bringing out a hammer in the middle of the operation was a bit of a new experience and seeing the power behind the technique took me back a bit ! However, it was incredible to watch and the mess was just everywhere. After the surgeons were done rubber gloves were flying everywhere as they were pinging them into the bins and then left. I was so bemused but it was brilliant and I enjoyed watching the hip slowly being put together !

I had to leave early as I had to get the bus back to UH of which I was completely gutted about as there was a knee operation in next 😦

I had bedside teaching in the afternoon and since I was a bit bleary-eyed this morning I forgot my Stethoscope, Well Done Abbie. Thankfully we had mainly Neuro patients that I loved as we got to do cranial nerve examinations. Lastly, we went onto the cardio ward in which I had to awkwardly stand there nodding as I couldn’t actually listen to the organ in question. We also managed to pick up a third member to our group as Matt was hanging around the ward.

In the evening I got introduced to an MS database I said I would help out on and eventually got back home at 7pm. Longest day ever but it was worth the 5am start for surgery.

Tuesday

9am CBL. I am enjoying CBL a lot more from last year but having it two days in a row can make you dread it. However, this session we found out we were swapping over facilitators and then it hit me. I’ve done 5 weeks of year 2 – the equivalent of one block in year one. Normally, I would be shattered after 5 weeks but I actually feel amazing. I guess my new methods are working ! We also had Revue auditions in the evening. This week my two favourite parts of the year begin on the same week with Revue auditions and Doctors and Nurses in the same week !

I was so happy to finally be back in the Revue spirit and I even put myself up for the dance side this year, I was a stiff as a board but hey ho – perhaps my 14 years of dance lessons may come back to me eventually.

Wednesday

Normally, I switch off during infectious disease lectures as it’s not really something that I am interested in but today’s topic about virology seemed to peak my interest and I was engaged all morning.

We then had our final CBL with our facilitator Ellie who made us the most amazing cheesecake as a goodbye gift. It honestly was the best thing ever, however, we kind of forgot another group were also sharing the cake and we ended up eating more than half of it , as the smaller group out of the two… oh well!

I hung around the med school that evening as I had my interview for surgical society. I know I want to go into surgery so I thought being on the committee helping to organize events and speakers would be good experience. I had applied for their outreach officer so I was asked about my experience at one point and of course, I run this blog which I think counts. However, instead of being a tick in my box, it ended up being the most awkward moment of the year:

“Interviewer : So what experience do you have”

Me: Well , lets address the elephant in the room, I run a blog..

Interviewer: I’m sorry, what blog?

Awkward. Should have not mentioned it, should have just pretended it didn’t exist, then I wouldn’t have ended up with egg on my face 😅

I headed back home feeling slightly optimistic about my chances but later got a rejection in the evening- I don’t mind too much. Obviously I was slightly gutted but I guess I am going to be ridiculously busy this year and I have a lot going on with my NANSIG role. So actually , I am slightly relieved. I have my own plans to go along with (doesn’t mean I won’t reapply next year though!

Thursday

It’s here ! The day is finally here. DOCTORS AND NURSES HAS ARRIVED !! It is my favourite night out of the year. I get to wear comfy scrubs, go out in comfy shoes, and draw on a fake beard. Last year I was completely wrecked before we even got there so the evening appeared to go by in seconds and I had planned to repeat that experience again except this time, I wouldn’t have to be in for a 8am lecture the next day 😀

Most of us convened round one house for pre-drinks and as determined as I was, it seemed I was destined to remain semi sober 😀

We met my medic parents there (my dad wearing the same dress as last year – ever reliable though apparently I have been disowned because I abandoned their pre-drinks) and I also bumped into my medic kids. I am especially proud of my son who went the full mile and shaved his legs for the evening – following mothers footsteps in the effort making. Im proud to say they both made it to their 8am the next day ,:D.

I ended up making it till close and of course finished the night with the cheesiest of chips. The perfect end to an evening out. Bring on next year !

Friday

DAY OFF ! Woke up early which was annoying but practically didn’t move. I ended up having a bit of an admin day, sending some emails for NANSIG, uploading photos and writing this blog. I like being able to get everything done in one day. Makes me feel a bit more on top of things.

So I guess that is it. The end of yet another hectic week. I am really looking forward to the first read through of the revue script, finally being able to meet with a neurosurgeon at UH and getting more involved in NANSIG. Here’s to a slightly less hetic week ! (pah, as if I am ever capable of one of them !)

Monday

How is it week 4 already? Only, feels like I have been back for about 4 seconds. Though I have the exhaustion levels for 4 months ! Anyway, Monday started with a nice early wake up call as we had the fire drill here in my accommodation block. Let me tell you, 200 odd freshers being woken up at 7:15am on a Monday morning is not what they imagined their first day of lectures would go. I also got to have a slightly delayed start to the day as I didn’t have to be at the Hospital until 11:30am for my TDoc (assessment) in blood taking so I would be able to carry out the procedure on the wards. I left my flat after a lazy morning at 10 to catch the bus to get to the hospital for 11. This plan did not go well. I got on the number 60 which is the bus I need to take, however, we have to get the anticlockwise one (why they just didn’t give the two different routes two different numbers I have no idea) and I ended up on the clockwise one. The driver didn’t alert me and happily printed off my UH ticket and it was not until we were the opposite side of Coventry that I realised what had gone one. I began to panic but because I had left an hour and a half early, I thought it would still be ok.

However, we pulled up at another stop and because I was knee-deep in a book, I didn’t realize we hadn’t moved in a while. It wasn’t until another driver had come upstairs to enquire why I was sitting on a parked bus did I realize what had gone on. The driver of my bus not only failed to give a heads up he was the wrong bus, but had failed to tell me he wasn’t actually going to go the full route to UH and had parked up and gone off. I was fuming, by this point it was 11:15am and I was 30 minutes from the hospital where my TDoc started at 11:30am. I was fuming. I finally arrived at UH at 11:45am but thankfully the clinical skills guys at UH were lovely and let me still do my TDoc. My hands were shaking the entire way through and my head was just not in the game. I ended up getting a borderline pass but the lecturer assessing me and myself suggested I should come back later to re-do it and show I know what I am doing.

I also managed to walk off with a Tourneqy which make amazing fiddle toys so I was just working off my frustration before bedside teaching. Bedside teaching more than made up for the disaster of a morning. We saw 4 patients all with hugely different histories and some interesting presentations. One chap will forever remain with me as he was so open about his past and did have a symptom called gynaecomastia. We have to speak our findings so we were saying that he had minor gynaecomastia to which he shouted ” I know the medical talk for man boobs!”. I completely died with laughter inside as he was just so good-natured and completely clued into our ways. I also got to examine a patient who had a replacement heart valve. It was completely incredible as I could feel the valve from outside the chest and it was fascinating to hear the metallic sounds inside her chest. She also had Lupus and I only knew this because we had it in our mock that the second years had created for us last year (we hadn’t learnt the presentation of lupus) and so picked up her presentation there !

After bedside, I headed back to the clinical skills lab and repeated my T-Doc which was significantly better and I had a bit of a spring in my step. I got in that evening and was immediately on the phone to a local driving school to arrange lessons so I could pass my practical and never have to get on a bus again. I believe I have used all my tolerance up on public transport.

Tuesday

I called it. A rare sick day. I had been coughing all through the night and woke up wit painful sinuses and just feeling generally ill. There was no way I could get through the day so I decided to do what’s best for me and just take the day off. I didn’t even do any work until about 6pm.

I still feel a bit rough but I feel so much better for taking time off to get over the worst of it. I hate taking sick days, but you know what? This was needed and I feel guilty but happy for doing it. Sick days may not seem like a big thing but medicine can feel like an all consuming study/ profession so most of us feel guilty for taking a break and just power through it. However, as my old lecturer used to day, you can’t pour tea from an empty teapot.

So , after I had finished typing for Tuesday, I found out I had been made the Warwick representative for NANSIG ! I was pretty shocked as I thought I had screwed up my application big time but I got it. It is a huge opportunity and is going to be amazing for my CV. I also just believed that I got it by default, but I later found out that others from Warwick had applied. Im expecting a rejection email any day now as I can’t fathom why they picked me and not the other guys who clearly have more expertise than I do but hey ho, I guess all I have to do it just give it my best shot !

Wednesday

Back to lectures today, the cough died down overnight so I was happy just to trod along. In the afternoon we had CBL which included cake of which I had made for missing the CBL session on Tuesday. I also found out my facilitator comes from the same town I grew up in and we were marvelling at the delights of one of my local hospitals which had a bad reputation and was one of the worst hospitals in the country. We were also marvelling at the delights of the said town. I like that we have added another person to a growing group of people in my year that we had established were all born in the same hospital 😀

Thursday

Thursday brought about the arrival of our first communication skills sessions in year 2. We had small groups and SIM patients whom we had to take a history from. We were given no information about the patient coming in so it was hard to keep on top of things but it was really enjoyable. I was slightly dreading having to listen to the same history over and over again but the SIM patients were rotated around after each history which was brilliant. My SIM patient was a woman with headaches which threw me slightly as I had never really learnt any of my focused history in year 1 (whooops). However, I managed to stumble through and was given good feedback! Honestly, the communication feedback I am getting is surprising to me, Im being told I am empathetic , warm, bubbly and caring and have had no bad comments about bad eye contact. Maybe , I’ll be a human doctor after all instead of a robot!

In the evening I had a Neuro committee meeting before heading off campus (whoop) to see my student seminar team from last year. These people became family to me last year both in a warm cuddly way and also in a medic family way. We just had an evening laughing about pretty much everything, drunk quite a bit of prossecco to celebrate the 100% pass rate in our student seminar, and chatting about how the first years get a week off between blocks now and how the exams have changed for them with the written papers now averaged across. This has brought about much jealously in the upper years as it caused us A LOT of stress with us having to make sure we passed all the written papers. Im glad though that the first years won’t have that terror facing them when they hit exams.

I also was messaging my best friend from UCLan who I was joined to at the hip back in undergraduate (literally when you saw one, the other wouldn’t be that far behind). I love the fact we are still as close as ever and more importantly, it’s nice to know that someone outside the Warwick bubble understands the chaos of Med School. I have found it has been hard to keep up with my friends at home and I can see the distance growing between me and my friends from home, but I know with Rosie she understands and though we go weeks without messaging, we both understand our lives are crazy . I think those are the best type of friendships. Especially, for busy medics who love our friends a lot but can find it hard to keep up with everything all the time.

Friday

I can’t tell you how much I was looking forward to my lie in today. I am shattered with whatever the first years have infected me with so I needed a bit of a nap. However, me being me, I couldn’t just have a day off so I ended up going to UH to go to Neuro teaching as well as hoping to bump into one of the Neurosurgeons at UH to get involved with the research and hopefully shadow operations. Teaching didn’t happen but I did meet one of the surgeons who is known amongst us students for being helpful and open to us so I booked a meeting for next week.

I decided that I also wanted to get a bit more out of the day so I went down to Ward 1 where my bedside teaching was last year to take some blood. The nurses were so lovely and I eventually had my first patient. I was terrified inside but tried to not let it show (though apparently she guessed it was my first time) and I successfully found the vein the first time ! However, it stopped bleeding before I filled the bottles I needed so we went for the back of the hand approach (with a beautiful vein) and I successfully filled the bottles I needed and got them labelled and sent off to the lab. I suddenly felt like a doctor in training and had a massive grin on my face for the rest of the day. I also managed to take some blood from a pregnant lady with my technique being a bit less shaky this time and managing to fill all three bottles. We got chatting about names and due dates and I loved every second. I also managed to squeeze in a quick ECG before I had to run for my bus which was also , incredible.

I had my first meeting with my DSA mentor that evening and then headed off to my medic dads house finally for pizza and to see their four new Guinea pigs so I could finally have a cuddle. I’m glad this week is finally over – I am shattered ! (First years, your levels of tiredness do improve I promise !)