Monday
Straight of the bat at 9am with a bedside teaching session. These are sessions where we get a doctor (aka someone who knows what they are actually doing) to take us and teach us conditions at the patients bedside. We had a fascinating patient with both a lung and heart problem which baffled us no end. You mean patients can have more than one thing wrong with them?!?
I managed to get my history “just” under time, but it is difficult to get the histories down under time with real patients as everyone wants to chat. In our exams, SIM patients are given a script so know exactly what they need to say and when – hence OSCE’s being timed.
Anyway, this was an interesting patient as it was difficult to nail a diagnosis from the history. You learn pretty early on in medical school that you should have an idea of a diagnosis at the end of the history. Your examinations and investigations serve to rule out other differentials rather than back up your own. However, at the end of this case. I had no idea.
We had a discussion about our case afterwards and it was one of the best teaching sessions I have had, so now Klaudio and I officially have a favourite doctor.
After our session we ended up rushing back home as we had an online lecture for which we thought we had to be on teams for.
Turns out we could have just stayed at the hospital as it was a virtual/ live event. Oh well, more time to work and then an earlier time into bed for me! (Yes, I am an old granny who likes being in bed by 11pm).
In the evening I also released my TikTok parody to Dr Glaucomaflecken which got a lot of views on TikTok, all except from Dr Glaucomaflecken. I will make it my life’s mission to get him to see it (or maybe not because of you know – whole whole becoming a doctor thing).
Tuesday
Online Learning
Wednesday
Full day on the wards to ourselves ! We decided to head to radiology to see some pacemaker insertions as we didn’t get to see our lovely patient get their pacemaker the other day. I had forgotten how heavy lead gowns are and felt as if I had the weight of the world on my shoulders (which – is very representative of a medical degree).
It was a fascinating procedure and the doctor running the procedure again was lovely and talked us through what we were seeing on the x-ray. It did slightly clear things up, but I have to admit – I believe X-rays will be forever a black and white mystery to me.
I was in awe of the technique. A whole life-saving device inserted via a couple of wires. The procedure went on a little longer than expected but wow. Taking our gowns off at the end was a relief, I think I had forgotten just how heavy they were. The doctor came out at the end and sat down with us and took us through what was going on. I even began to understand why the x-ray machine was moved in certain positions and what the reason was for the minor delay.
I don’t know. I’m not sure if it’s because we are third years, but Medicine is starting to feel more serious now, like I am actually studying for the rest of my career, not just an exam.
We ended up grabbing a lunch after and attempted wards. We went to our Hogwarts ward as we knew the doctors better there and we were not disappointed. Our favourite doc was there plus a Warwick Grad FY2!! I swear 1:2 doctors we meet are Warwick grads. Must be something in the water keeping everyone round Coventry.
We ended up chatting to the patient who had their pacemaker fitted the other day and then chatting further about ECG’s and pacemaker affects on ECG’s. We may be getting a bit cocky, but I think Klaudio and I are finally getting used to ECG’s.
Thursday
April Fools Day!!! I had been thinking about how I could get a prank in before 12pm and I DID IT. Managed to convince Klaudio that the beloved Ice Cream bar at Gelliot was closing. Well, I managed to have him fooled for all of 10 minutes but I count that as a win.
We had a case based discussion session which was useful as we talked through taking a history of a patient presenting with a fall ( a lot more to consider than you might think) but it was a bit rushed. There was a miscommunication between Warwick/ Hospital and us so it ended up being more of a mini-cex session than CBD but it’s ok, still got something out of it!
I then went to meet my consultant who was reporting cardiac MRI scans and it blew my mind the sheer detail of the picture. We talked through his timetable and what wards he does and when so I hopefully will have a better idea of planning my week out!
We decided to cut the day short after that as we were both shattered for some reason so went home to do some work in the beautiful sun that we were getting treated to.
and you know what….. I actually did manage to get things done on a week that I had found it difficult to get into the swing of work. Gangrene on a Thursday evening. Mmmh mmh mmmmmmh
#Problemsofamedicalstudent
Friday
Good Friday
MedBeeMedic 