Wow , two weeks left of this block. Scary
Monday
Bank holiday
Tuesday
We decided to not attempt the ward round before teaching at 11:30am today. It was the day after a bank holiday, and you just know it was going to be chaos. That did mean however we were roaming the hospital car park for 40 minutes trying to find a space. We were in one car park when I witnessed a doctor scale a grass bank in their 4X4 and park neatly ontop of the bank.
My KA and I were not even going to attempt that.
We eventually got a space and were only 2 minutes late which in medical student speak, is bang on time. We had an hour on palliative care and then had a free afternoon which Klaudio and I were determined to fill.
We ended up in Respiratory clinic as we had not had that much exposure to lung related things thanks to COVID-19 (closest I have been to a Resp ward was on the day we got taken out of placement and were sent away within two minutes). I really enjoyed the clinic and it was good to see other areas of medicine and look at x-rays in clinical context.
The consultant also wrote with a fountain pen which I have not seen being used in forever. I’ve tried to get back to using a fountain pen but alas, has not happened due to having weird handwriting and a lack of patience with them!
I felt good. We ended up leaving at 6pm but you know what, it was a productive afternoon, I learnt a lot, and thats all I can ask for.
Wednesday
Our first day without anything pre-scheduled for a while. We headed up to our other ward Beauxbatons (can you get the theme I am going with here) which we normally steer clear from. However, today was changeover day and we were hoping to get some new F1’s to adopt us.
And we landed a JACKPOT. i walked into the doctor’s office and 70% recognized the FY1 sitting there. She started talking and yep , it was B who I did Revue with !! (It’s hard to confirm identities under masks).
The rest of the doctors began filing in and we knew this ward was now going to be one we could rely on. Klaudio and I joined in on the ward rounds which were super quick as there were various welcome meetings to get to. We had a patient who was scared and worried about dying. The ward round moved on but I couldn’t leave them like that. I grasped their hand and said that it was going to be ok and that they were not going home to die. They smiled and seemed to relax a bit. I believe they had dementia so just that little hand hold meant a lot to them.
After the ward round ended we tried to get some bloods but if veins were opposing magnets to needles, this patient certainly had them. They were more than willing to be a human pin cushion but that isn’t what we want for patients. So the standard two tries later and we left it to the doctors. It was so frustrating as these veins were incredible…
In the afternoon we tried to get into another clinic. This time ENT. I seem to have an affinity to this speciality, but that is purely because of my medical history. I was excited and we hung around for half an hour because we were early, then time for the clinic arrived but no consultant. We checked the notes to make sure there were face to face of which there were but still no consultant.
We waited half an hour before deciding to call it a day. It was frustrating but what can you do. The HCA’s were lovely at updating us but I felt sorry for the patients who were hanging around with the possibility of their appointment being cancelled.
We treated ourselves to ice cream for our patience:
Thursday
Wow, it was so hard waking up today. Despite having Monday off, we are both shattered and feel like we have done a whole week already. it was time for our ILS course which is Intermediate Life Saving.
Basically, we had covered a lot of this already, but it was a step-up from just carrying out an A-E approach to MANAGING a crash call.
I really enjoyed this day. I LOVE simulations and it gives me a chance to practise what I have learnt and feel just that little bit of a professional. Thankfully, only one five minute lecture for the whole morning and we were off learning how to manage airways and ventilate an unconscious patient.
We then got to learn how to use the defib, how CPR felt in real life (my arms are still not right typing this out on a sunday) and how difficult a one handed jaw thrust and mask holding is. We also got some free snacks which I am always more than up for.
Klaudio and I had our OSLERS in the afternoon which step up this year. We get assessed based on final level. I wanted to get off on a good foot, but I did keep in the back of my head that I am literally 3 weeks into the so called “learn management” year so not to hate myself if it goes badly.
I got a patient with a good history, but I was hit with the classic chatty patient. My history was 15 minutes long which was frustrating. It’s just a skill I really need to hone down. As much as I am interested in the patient, I just need the information I need out of them before I find out what their great uncles on their dads side employment was….
It was an unusual presentation. Though arrhythmias are meant to be our bread and butter by now, this particular one I had not seen before in a clinical context. It was hard coming up with the management and I defiantly stumbled my way through this.
I think I did ok. Results are still to come in, and they don’t matter with regard to the degree but the Type A personality of mine want’s to do well, naturally.
Friday
End of the week at last. I think Klaudio and I only managed to drag ourselves out of bed due to it being the end of the week and we are going back to Hogwarts ward.
We got told a consultant who loves to grill us would be there today so we were a tad nervous but it ended up being our favourite consultant AND a doctor we had already worked with on another ward. So shaping up to be a good morning !
We have also discovered that although we cant get onto the PC’s (because even though we have logins, we get get onto the system) we have access to the printer. We took FULL advantage of this and photocopied the ward notes (IE – handover sheets) so we could follow along on the ward round but of course made sure to dispose of them before we left.
The ward round was brilliant. The male bay ended up being the weirdest round as all the patients were up in their chairs having a good old chat between them with some even moving around to chat perched on the end of beds. There were some BRILLIANT murmurs including the classic one you expect to hear on wards and some sweet patients.
I was helping a lovely patient put her socks on after the consultant took them off and she asked if I was a doctor or a nurse. I was shocked. No one had ever asked that before. They just assume I am a nurse and call me so. I giggled and said I was TRAINING to be a doctor. She said ” oh that’s nice, I never know what to call you lot”. I said orange badges mean students and how nurses have uniforms etc but said I was really grateful for her asking.
I don’t mind being called a nurse. They do such amazing work and I admire the way they can handle all bodily fluids. I am a whimp and even the sight of flem sends me retching. I suppose it’s just annoying but not too much of a fuss with patients. They are ill afterall.
I made sure her toes were cosy and carried on with the ward round. The team were so lovely and we felt so included and were sharing the giggles and teaching.
We then ended up in the last bed which was in a side room. The TV was on in the background and we checked on the patient and had a discussion about his care.
However, something was distracting me. On the TV behind the consultant was BBC news. Prince Phillip had pictures being shown in a weird montage that was slow and fady. I remember thinking he was either dead or it was his birthday. I couldn’t see the writing though and the news reporter was only wearing a black jacket and not all in black.
However, it soon went to breaking news, and I was able to read he had died. We all knew it was coming but it’s so sad with him being weeks off 100. This day was getting more packed by the minute.
In the afternoon our amazing consultant spent a good half an hour (probably more) teaching us about Aortic Stenosis and my brain was on fire. This was incredible. However, he did assume we were second years so wasn’t teaching us management. It was a good 15 minutes in before I got an opportunity to correct him. I wish we had different badges or lanyards to denote year groups like other medical schools instead of resulting to my technique:
That afternoon I went to get my second jab at the place where it all started, UHCW !! I was excited to go and turns out the BBC are filming at UH for the new series of Hospital (my favourite programme):
And that was the end of a looonnngg week. Im thankful I left my jab till last thing on the Friday as the side effects came out of NOWHERE. I was knocked out for the majority of Saturday sleeping all day bar a couple of hours. My joints ached, I had the headache of a lifetime and was shattered. However, one sleep later and I was good to go.
What a week.
MedBeeMedic 