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 🙂
MedBeeMedic 