Wednesday
Nothing really happened on Monday and Tuesday as I had two days off placement so let’s begin with Wednesday. We had our first GP day and we had a brand new surgery to WMS as a couple of surgeries didn’t want students in so we went to a surgery that we had coincidently, been to already. We had been to the surgery in our Specialities week for a baby clinic so actually, it was a nice surprise to find out it was somewhere familiar.
As nice as the staff are though and as welcoming as they are, GP is just not the same without patients. Phone lines are dodgy meaning you can’t always hear the patient clearly, and let’s face it. Listening to a phone call is nowhere near as good as meeting patients in real life.
We left for lunch feeling a bit downcast. Our expectations were already high due to a brilliant GP surgery last year but with no patients, we were both a bit underwhelmed. We went to a local “restaurant” to take advantage of the Eat out to Help out scheme and popped into Lidl to stock up on their pizzas….. Lidl bakery pizzas are the best thing ever.
We went back for the afternoon to wait for our one patient of the day to come in. We spent two and a half hours working on our audits and I had a call from an ENT consultant about my infections. Literally, the first words out of their mouth were ” I can see you are a Medical Student but to me, you are a patient so talk to me as a patient”. I have never loved a voice on the end of a phone that much.
We eventually got to see our patient and then trundled off at 5:30pm.
Thursday
I still felt really down about GP yesterday so I was hoping the wards would be a bit better and cheer me up. I forgot they had scheduled the F1 and CT1 for nights and our PA had just moved wards. We were just left with the reg as the doctor on the wards who suggested we do the bloods. Pathology turned up a tad later and were happy that we were getting on with the bloods.
Of course, Sods law meant we could only do 2 out of the seven. We asked the reg what to do and we had to trundle to the pathology department with our tails between our legs. I already wasn’t feeling great with heavy limbs and we got told off because we had “accepted” the bloods and should have done them ourselves.
I pretty much wanted to go home after that. I spent the rest of Thursday huddled up on my sofa drifting in and out of sleep. Friday wasn’t much better either and I ended up just drifting round the flat. I was desperate to go swimming so I thought I would book and go on the Saturday. Maybe that is what I needed, a good swim session to blow off steam.
Saturday
I got up ready to go. Put my swimming costume on and a pair of jeans as its easier just to sit around in it all day and motivates me to go. I ate some breakfast and BAM. Knocked down. I had a hot water bottle, a blanket, thick socks, a hoodie and a duvet on top of me and I still wasn’t warm.
I was aching in every joint and it was the sickest I had been in a while. It took me two hours to drag myself to take a cold and flu drink praying the paracetamol would help. I spent the day drifting in and out of sleep with my joints aching and breathless due to my chest. With the amount of breaths I was taking, I thought I was going to land up in hospital at some point. I also had to have my curtains shut as any bright light was just ridiculously painful. I took my temperature in the evening as this didn’t occur to me till about 5pm :
Safe to say, I was scared by this point. I booked a COVID-19 swab for the next day and tried to get some sleep. It was a restless night and I woke up drenched at one point and every adjusting of position brought on a new wave of nausea and joint paint. On top of all this my hip decided it wanted to join in so was killing me for half the night. However, huzza, we had broken the fever:
I felt so much better but due to how sick I was the day before. I had forgotten to take my anti-depressants so I was awkwardly stumbling around the flat waiting for the chemicals to kick in. I also had forgotten to charge my phone so here I was hoping that everything would sort itself out for the drive over to Richo where the swabbing site was.
Thankfully, I regained my land legs and my battery was enough to get me there and back. The site was very efficient and no less than 10 minutes after I arrived, I was having a plastic stick shoved up my nose and sent on my merry way. I had forgotten how much it hurt from last time and was sneezing/eye watering my way out of the site. It’s hard not to gag when you are already feeling sick and someone is triggering your gag reflex. It was nice though as I had my friend in Cardiff to take the mic out of me/ support me from all the way in Wales 😀
It’s Monday now and I am feeling fine! My chest is still a little rusty and I’m feeling a tad dizzy but otherwise I am fine. I’m just waiting for a Boris text to tell me I am FREEEEE.
MedBeeMedic 