Monday
Admin and work day today. I wanted to try and get as much of the presentation list done so I didn’t have as much pressure the rest of the week. Turns out, I didn’t get as much done as I would have liked to but the effort was there!
I also got a bit frustrated in the afternoon as I had tried to book a doctors appointment but with my timetable and the doctors. I literally didn’t have any spare time. I got annoyed. We are constantly told to take care of ourselves, but then also not to miss any teaching time. It feels like I am caught between a rock and a hard place.
Tuesday
Labour shift number 2! Rolled out of bed at 5am, somehow made it to the bus stop and before I knew it, I was back in crocs and blue PJ’s. We were assigned midwives to follow around for the day. My midwife was assigned to a lady who was waiting to go home with her newborn so I wasn’t in line to seeing a baby born. It was OK, this one was cute.
I also got caught by the matrons this day. I wear my hair in two plaits as with it being so thick, ponytails kill by the end of the day. Turns out this isn’t good enough and I had to do some inventive pinning techniques to pin the plaits off my neck. In the afternoon, I noticed one of the rooms was progressing in her labour so I asked the midwife if I could join her. I was with the mum and dad who were both so chilled out and she was even doing her make up whilst the contractions were happening! The wonders of epidurals are incredible.
It was 6pm by the time it came to push. The midwife included me in preparing for the birth and even got me my own surgical gloves out. I felt so included and important to the team. Soon the baby was making an appearance. I was helping and the midwife grabbed my hands and before I knew it I was supporting the babies head and helped the final few movements before passing baby to mum. I couldn’t believe it, I had just helped deliver a baby !
She was so cute and I even had to hold back a tear or two. I was so amazing to be that included and trusted enough. I also was doing odd jobs for the nurses that day such as doing obs because they were caught with another patients, doing bloods because they were snowed under and generally fetching things from around the ward. I had tried to get the bloods done as my mini-cex but despite normally being OK at taking bloods, I just could not find the vein and the doctor ended up having to step into help. Dam it. I’m going to have to get used to doing things under supervision.
Even though I came out of UH at 9pm (having started at 7pm) and ended up having to us hop home because I missed the last direct bus. I was beaming from each side of my face. I needed this day to remind me why I was putting myself through long days. Im going to finish this course even if it kills me 😀
Wednesday
GP day again. Had to drag myself out of bed with aching legs. I have hyper-extendable knees and I was feeling the stress I had put them through yesterday today. We had the morning off to work on our mini health needs assessment. We had made zero progress by the end of two hours ! We aren’t quite sure what we are meant to be doing and were struggling to pick a topic. In the end we decided to go with alcohol and leave it till next week to sort our project out. aaah procastination, I have missed you dearly.
In the GP session we decided to smash through our assessments. Each block we have to do a mini-cex (history taking, examination, taking bloods etc), Case Based Discussion (talking about a patient and their case) and a Warwick special OSLER (chatting about history, examination, working diagnosis and management plans) in GP and in Hospital leading to six sign off’s overall. We got through our mini-cex and CBD with two patients each. It felt slightly weird as we sat in the comfy seats in the office and I felt as if I was on a TV shown interviewing everyone. However, I got some good feedback, particularly with my patient relationships. Apparently I put people at ease, shame it doesn’t work on myself!
I also managed to handle an entire case by myself as a gent had come in with a chest infection and I did history, exam and treatment (even remembering correct meds as he was allergic to penicillin!). I felt so proud. Maybe, I am making progress!
In the evening I slumped back on my sofa at 6 and when I opened my eyes again it was 8pm, I don’t know how but I had managed 2 hours of sleep on the worlds most uncomfortable sofa. Luckily , I had a quiet day the next day so I could catch up on sleep then.
Thursday
Mostly a day off but I had a T-DOC (a type of mini assessment of our clinical skills). It was oxygen therapy, nebulizers and inhalers. Unfortunately, I had not managed to revise it at all as we couldn’t find the TDOC’s on our web pages. Turns out they were located under medicine block so I spent 15 minutes trying to cram as much info into my head as possible.
My oxygen therapy knowledge is awful but I am happy about the nebulizers and inhalers. Considering the session was two weeks ago and I had only been able to revise 15 minutes before. I was happy with how it went!
Friday
I think the tiredness from Tuesday is still hanging around and woke up dizzy and feeling sick. IT was annoying as I had a community midwife shift but despite waking up at 6am to get there for 8:30, I couldn’t stand up without feeling dizzy. I spent the day just trying to fix myself and catching up on work. I had my family coming up the next day so I was looking forward to them coming with my dog. I needed some bailey therapy.
Saturday
Here he is! My scruff mutt ! And my family of course.
We ended up wandering to Warwick and my mum and grandad were happy to see 1/8th of Warwick castle. At least they are easy to please! We went for food at my grandad’s favourite pub here and bailey took his seat at the top of the table. Where he belongs:
I feel sorry for my dog, he only ever seems to live in Pubs ! They ended up going home after and I was left to my own devices. I decided to give myself the rest of the day off and caught up on Ru Pauls drag race as the new series starts next week!
Sunday
I don’t normally write about Sunday but I got so much done! I hauled myself to the PG hub and finished the presentation list tasks for that week, emailed one of the new incoming newbies back and more importantly COMPLETED MY PLAN FOR SSC2.
I am so excited and it’s in an area I feel I am an expert in, social media. I emailed by supervisor as I have to submit the proposal next week so hopefully she gets back to me. I love it when I have days like this. I feel great when I get to the end of the week and it’s all completed !
MedBeeMedic 