Author: medbeeblog

Wednesday

I never thought this day would come. I’ve been trying to keep myself busy with work and working out but I was desperate for Wednesday to roll around. We headed up to the ward and were joined by two new fourth years (even though I keep calling them third years because they are the year above but we are still second years). It was nice to meet people I haven’t actually seen in second year yet and we were all strictly told to prepare the notes. Cue the next four hours of panic trying to make sure the notes were prepped ready for the next patient whilst simultaneously trying to figure out how to write in these notes.

It was tough but I really enjoyed it, I felt a solid part of the team and I know this is what we will be doing as final years and F1’s. It was also good to get to know the layout of patient notes and the clinical system which I prefer a mile over the system over in UHCW. I also was having frantic calls to IT as my login still hadn’t been approved.

It was also good as we were seeing the patients we had written the notes up for ourselves so we could follow the plan through and it also lead to us being able to grab jobs as they came. I ended up getting two bloods done and one other attempt but they were really hard to bleed and were not very well so we decided to leave it because we didn’t want to cause them any more distress. I’ve sent this ticket off to be signed off as a Mini-Cex ( I want to get my sign off’s done ASAP) so I am hoping the reg will be nice. I am stressing a bit in this area as we don’t have anyone on our ward who is ST3+ which are required for our sign off’s so I am hoping that by grabbing any opportunity we can, our tickets will be completed.

In the afternoon we were booked into our lecturers Chronic Fatigue Syndrome clinic. It was a syndrome I was interested in as I had completed that part of the presentation list the evening before. We had also heard our lecturers clinics were good for learning and getting our skills scrutinised so we signed up and were not disappointed. We were given coffee (bonus) and had to ask two questions with every patient and tell our lecturer a fact from this textbook after every patient. The more I learnt about CFS the more intrigued I became. There’s no direct link, no direct cause and no population is specifically presents in apart from it is generally after a viral infection.

One thing I am eager to find out is how Covid-19 will affect the refferals to these clinics as many survivors of Covid-19 have reported unusual tiredness months after the initial infection.

It was a good afternoon and we left clinic debating about this syndrome.

Thursday

Im going to admit it now, this was a slow and quiet day. The consultant only appeared for the board round so the team were having to do the ward round themselves. We found it harder to know what to do and so took ourselves off for our own studies. I took a history (as the last history I took was in March) and we both had a go at listening for tricuspid regurgitation on a lovely patient but I could not hear anything. Looks like I am going to have to go over cardiac examination again.

We also attempted a blood but this again, didn’t go so well. We knew the MDT meeting was coming up so we took ourselves away as we didn’t want to get in the way of an already stressed team. The MDT was good again and I noticed a slight improvement in my scan reading skills to the last week. However, we didn’t manage to get into any clinics so we managed to go and see a dexta scan. This is an x-ray to test for osteoporosis but after the first one, you’ve seen them all.

We ended finishing up early at 3pm. You have good days and quiet days here, I like that though. I got a history done and that’s more than I could do in a week on speciality block.

A Note.

These blog will be different to what I was doing before, but that’s because our degree is different to what it was before. We will probably be different to the cohorts that have come before us and these Covid-19 changes will follow us throughout our careers. It’s OK though, it’s about learning to see the benefits of these changes and tackling the challenges head on. So, I don’t know what will happen in the future of this blog, but luckily for you guys it will be shorter posts and less moaning of how tired I am !

I remember moaning at the end of CCE 1 that I needed a week off. I guess the universe listened and I ended up with 8 (as far). This weird world is different enough for anyone and for Medicine and indeed other healthcare courses, we have been particularly affected. You can’t study medicine, nursing, paramedic science or dentistry totally online.

This has mean’t that a lot of students, who are normally exhausted and working to complete maximum levels, are now left with little to do apart from coursework or self directed learning or if you are like me, catching up on Netflix too!!

However, it all hasn’t been chilling out and working at an easier pace. I live alone in a flat on campus. Campus is now deserted apart from students who can’t get home so it does feel like we are on a weird island in the sea of the UK. I have a couple of friends on campus but for the larger part of the day, I’m on my own. It has hit me hard as my mental health has had huge wobbles and since home isn’t exactly going to be any better, I am stuck here. My friends I do have here live in a different part of campus so I only get to see them if we are outside which is controlled by the weather. There is also no motivation to get out of bed in the morning so my brain decides that 12pm is a great time to wake up. So, I spend the day feeling guilty and constantly shocked by how late it is.

We have been given roles in our local trusts but these can be long shifts. 12 hours with 5 cannulas to do and a bit of cleaning drags. Especially, when they are night shifts and there isn’t really anywhere to work. I love the fact we are there, and I am incredibly grateful but I feel guilty for being paid to do nothing and it’s screwing up my schedule considering I am only on nights. It’s my own fault as I chose to have days off in between the nights but I am exhausted. However, I have been able to increase my clinical skills to the point where I am comfortable inserting cannulas now and just have to work on increasing the gage size I am being asked to insert. The staff are lovely too, I just don’t think we are needed most of the time, but the hospital will decide when we are not needed any more and I guess with the releasing of the public, we could see a rise in cases and a rise in A&E visits. (I should say I don’t want to see people ill before people accuse me!)

I see videos of my friends at home with family and pets and feel so jealous. I do have my incredible UCLan friends who have laughed and been sympathetic with me when I have had my meltdowns and they are basically the only reason I’ve got through the past 8 weeks. Running round my flat to find a toilet roll whilst’t my chest is on fire from the virus makes you forget everything going on surprisingly well ! Having a switch has been good because I’ve been able to play with my friends on Mario cart (who are annoyingly good at it) and waste hours on Animal Crossing. I have a good old science/ medicine room coming along !

My friend in NI decided to draw pictures of healthcare workers and transformed my picture into an incredible drawing !

I’ve had a lot of time to think about my future career and how I want to progress with it. I know I want to work abroad at some point and I found New Zealand are very accommodating for F3’s. I had originally planned Australia but they fit you in on a “needs basis” and I would love to spend my time in paediatrics over there. I have come to the realization that my career doesn’t have to be completed by the time I’m 40. I want to do everything. Work on cruise ships as a doctor, work abroad, go to the USA for a bit (purely to live in the bizarre culture they have out there), be a medical consultant on films and TV shows and hopefully achieve a goal I have had hidden away which is to work on the children’s programme Operation Ouch teaching medical concepts to the nations kids. I met the doctors last year and they said they are getting their first generation of medical students who wanted to become doctors thanks to their programme. I don’t think I would ever want to become a doctor like Dr Hilary… but something like Operation Ouch or Trust Me I am a Doctor would be just the cherry on top of the cake.

For now, I am keeping my ties with GOSH who have unfortunately cancelled their summer school this year due to Covid-19 but they have involved me in the planning for the summer school and I am forever grateful for the connections I have to GOSH. I want to do some of my elective period there in the intensive care wards or theatres or something completely different. I have no idea where my career is going to go, only that it is going to end up at GOSH one day.

I am also trying to make sure I do something productive and something good for me each day. This something good is normally going to feed the geese down at the lake who’s babies have emerged and they are just little balls of fluff !

Something productive is normally taking the bins out, tidying up or trying to fix Endnote (which my magical departmental librarian did today!). I have also spent a lot of time thinking about my old degree. I miss Neuroscience a lot. I miss learning about the intricate details of the mechanism of neurons, I even miss my lab work….somewhat. I knew I wouldn’t ever get on in the field of research. I am in no way intelligent enough for research and I don’t like some culture of research stealing or being limited by the status of your institution. I had a lecturer who I believe was bitter about working where they worked. Indeed they cornered me in a corridor and told me none of their students have ever made it to a medical degree straight out of undergraduate. Guess, who was wrong! I actually have a small motivational card on my window which reads:

If you can get through Dr XX Neurobiology Module, you can get through this!

Apparently, they did actually like me but the greatest satisfaction to me came when they made a sarcastic comment about me not showing up to their lecture because ” some of us have got onto a Medical Degree so don’t feel the need to show up”. My best friend told me of this and I got to write the greatest email saying:

I am sorry I was not present at your lecture the other day. I was at an interview at Kings College London for their Graduate Entry Programme which I have subsequentially been given an offer for

Don’t Bitch About Your Students 😉

Anyway, off the point. It is a really weird time, I’m struggling to get work done but we’ve now been given a re-start date so there is now some deadline to work to so I am getting a bit more done. I have decided to head home for a bit in July before coming back for a re-start.

We had a whole course meeting yesterday where some uncomfortable truths hit home. If we end up in lockdown longer than anticipated or the second wave sends us back into a nationwide lockdown with healthcare students removed from placements. There is going to have to be a national discussion about how to train our doctors. Being on a graduate entry course is crammed as it is and even missing a week can put you seriously behind so, missing over 5 months of placement will mean training of doctors will have to change as we can’t have a year with no new junior doctors (F1’s) entering the system. This is terrifying as we could be put out with fewer hours of training than our counterparts, and later on in the system. We will be compared for job placements against our fellow peers who have maybe had exams modified to be suited to the different teaching that we have had and adapted to the circumstances meaning elements of exams change. (*cough* warwick first years who no longer have to pass or do OSCE’s to get to first year *cough* – it’s hard not to be bitter about that 😀 ) and have had the hours to train. It impacts on the future cohorts as our first years will possibly also have their third year placements shortened like we are having to do (5 down from 6 weeks).

Someone also mentioned about still having our SJT next year. It had never occurred to me that the exam that is 50% of my final mark is next year. Cheers for that guys.

So Covid looks as if it’s to stay around. I won’t go off on a rant about the government as I don’t want to become political but it’s worrying to see the PM avoiding questions and contradicting statements h said only a few weeks ago. Screw ups like importing gowns for PPE before checking they can be used, hiding the fact we currently have the second worst death toll behind America (whose president stormed off a press conference the other day and who’s citizens cut open facemasks so they can “breathe easier”. I don’t know what will happen, but for now, it’s just a case of staying inside and taking care of ourselves…… and being alert 24/7 just in case the virus sneaks up on us in our sleep, or catch us from behind the bog rolls at Tesco. *eye roll*

Monday

I did it ! I reached the end of the first block of teaching. We were due to have another week of peri-op but we decided that we had got as much out of it as we were going to get so decided to use it as an academic week. This meant I had time to catch up on my missed paediatric week from the great ear infection of 2020.

I turned up to paeds at 9:00am to watch handover and then I was assigned to a ward in the department. I got to see two paeds patients before going off to my ABG T-DOC. This is essentially where you take blood from the artery instead of the vein like most normal blood tests. I did that test (and passed whoop) and headed back after lunch to see if there was anything else to do. I got to chat to a few parents about their childs health and I got to learn about a whole new condition whilst there. I have to be careful with what I am writing again because of confidentially.

I finished relatively early that day as they were pretty busy so there wasn’t much I could do.

Tuesday

Went in for 9am again as we were due to be in neonatal intensive care. We waited 40 minutes for the doctor to not show up and ended up just tagging along with the ward round. It was such an honour to be with the tiny humans. I got to hold their hands and when their entire hand only wraps around half of your pinkie, you suddenly realize just how small and vulnerable these humans are. I got to listen to a couple of the babies chests and feel the fontanelles of their tiny heads.

I loved being there. It got quiet after that but I just sat with one of the babies holding their hand and stroking their tiny head. I began to feel like this is where I was meant to be. I just kept staring at this babies hand wrapped around mine. Happy I could offer some comfort, in their tiny plastic box world.

At 11am I had to pull myself away from ICU and go to get my block signed off. We have to get signed off after every 10 weeks to make sure we have hit our targets. I ended up not getting mine (OSCE’s are hard to get done on speciality block) and my in-hopsital mini-cex hadn’t gone through so I ended up having to do a quick history on a pre-surgical patient to pass the block.

Then I was freeeeeeee. Well, I had to quickly do the formative which helpfully was on all the things I hadn’t covered yet so I didn’t do enormously well but I really don’t mind. I emptied out my locker, and headed home. I had finished specialties!

Wednesday

On Wednesday we had our final GP session which ended up to be a bit of a anti-climax. I stopped by Tesco to pick up a couple of presents for our GP as she had been so lovely to us. I ended up wandering around the store to see the empty shelves for myself. This was at the beginning of the panic buying phase so I was stood giggling at the shelves at the madness of this all. Little did I know this was the beginning of a long time of unsual living for the UK.

I arrived at the surgery and did our clinics. We had half of our patients cancel on us which was disappointing so we only saw 2 each, and then that was it. We walked out slightly confused. I thought it was going to be a bit more of an exciting ending. I did have a lovely patient though who I ended up having a good old chat with whilst my GP and clinical partner were giggling next door. Apparently, it was hilarious because it sounded like we had known each other forever. I told her how much that meant to me because being on the spectrum, I always worry about how I’m coming across to patients. My GP ended up having a semi-argument with me saying I wasn’t on the spectrum which just ended in a fit of giggles. At least something positive would come out that week.

That evening, I found out that I was seen as annoying by the rest of my year group. I almost sat an cried. I had found out it was because I was keen and over enthusiastic. I kinda stopped just there. If I was annoying for being enthusiastic about a degree I’ve wanted to get onto my whole life …. then so be it 🙂

Thursday

Spent the whole day working in the MTC as I wanted to get some work done. I got zero work done :’D. In the evening I filmed a video with Dr Gill, one of our lecturers here at uni. He does the clinical skills videos for Warwick which are known less for the videos and more for the comments underneath. Turns out the ASMR community love the videos and watch them more than us med students too XD.

Friday

On the Friday we had an academic day. I didn’t really want to go in knowing that the entire year found me annoying. I couldn’t trust anyone so I just decided to go and do what I needed to do and then go home. In the afternoon, we had a talk from Colin (head of MBChB programme) about the corona virus and how placements were carrying on as normal for the time being. I was slightly worried, 200 of us would be switching hospitals, wandering around wards. But Med School knows best……… little did they know Monday would bring about a turning of the tides……….

Monday

I decided to stick this here because theres only 4 hours of learning to write about.

We turned up to George Elliott (I will eventually learn how to spell this) for the start of our new block. We received our new passes ( I don’t look jaundice anymore!) and basically set out to explore our new environment. I felt like Bilbo in The Hobbit :

We went to buy parking permits but in the shack we were all talking about other nearby Medical schools who had closed and how the disease was progressing. I looked at my bank balance and decided to wait until the end of the day to buy my pass, I had a feeling something would arise.

Klaudio and I decided to try and figure out the hospital looking lost for most of the time before eventually finding my ward. We waited around for our consultant whilst nervously watching people coming in and out of rooms with full PPE. I’t didn’t help that we were on the respiratory ward. Our doctor eventually turned up and she was lovely but told us to go off the ward as it was getting busy and they just didn’t have the capacity to have us there. Fair enough!

We came out and just wandered around at a bit of a loss what to do. The F1 on the ward bumped into us and asked if we wanted to go to the mourge with her. We said yes but I was a bit nervous about what I was going to see. I’ve never seen a deceased person before, and that was about to change. We stood in the room watching her and the mourge worker check for pacemakers. Apparently, my face was telling everyone different things as to what I was feeling because she kept asking if I was OK. I was fine with everything, but I am glad we had time out to mull it over and think about it all. It was something hard to process.

We then reconvened in the hospital canteen where others who have been removed from wards had gone. We had to wait around for a meeting with Dr Nair who was kinda the lead at Gelliot so we had to wait until 12:30pm for this. This meant we got to try more of gelliot’s well renound Ice cream bar which lived up to expectations.

At about 11:30am we heard from the first years that all their teaching had been cancelled at that point, we knew what was coming for us. Sure enough, we received an email saying we would all be pulled out of placement for at least two weeks. There was a mixed sense of happiness as we were all tired from the last 10 weeks, but also sadness. We would be theory for at least the next two weeks which was awful as we loved meeting patients and we were becoming used to learning in this new way.

We had a hello and goodbye meeting from Dr Nair and were set on our way. It felt weird. The email said two weeks but none of us believed that. We would not be back in two weeks and two weeks later we were put into lockdown in the UK.

It still feels weird. I’m going to lose out on half a year of my degree theoretically. Warwick I must say have been brilliant about keeping us informed but sacrifices and changes have had to be made. I’ve had to change my SSC2 which I was overly excited about and am now stuck doing a systematic review which I was adamant that I didn’t want to do. I can’t think of anything more boring than staring at pages and pages of text summarizing it. That’s not the research I wanted to do. Obviously, it’s very minor on the small scale of things but I was devastated.

Warwick have arranged for us to work in the trusts. Something not many medical schools have offered so, they have been brilliant. We are going in as HCA type roles but allowed to practise up to our clinical competencies which is brilliant. I’ve just found out that I will be working at George Elliot so I am going back to Nuneaton !

Covid-19 has taken away so much from everyone. Patients dying on their own, the NHS stretched, new hospitals built. It all feels like a weird dream. However, if we keep up moral, stay in doors, maybe we will all get through this. The UK will be different after this, but for now, it’s time to load up Netflix and enjoy some time off from early starts.

Bee

Monday

Second to last week of the block ! And a bit of a mix to kick the day off. We have community week this week, so instead of dragging myself to UHCW, I dragged myself to a GP nearby. It was also an odd morning as it was the first time driving to placement. It was slightly terrifying but I can’t even begin to tell you how amazing it felt. I arrived at 9:15am (aaah lie in!) and we got briefed about what was going to happen. In second year our community week looks at palliative care patients and how end of life care is delivered.

We played a quick game of school nurses, practise nurse, district nurse or health visitor and our team came second missing out on a bag of haribos. We went to a hospice in the afternoon. I already knew what to expect with my nan having passed away in a lovely hospice where I live but I was intrigued about if it was the same everywhere. It was weird walking in. It felt the same but part of me twinged a bit. I don’t think I’ve got over my nan going. I was in the middle of dissertation hand in, finals revision and it all happened quickly. I had a call on the Friday asking if I wanted to come home because it was soon. I remember being stood in the middle of the street feeling like I’d ran into a brick wall. My nan was a second mum to me. I decided to stay at uni. We wasn’t sure when she was going to go, and with everything going on. We agreed it was better for me to stay at uni.

After her funeral I had to head back to Preston to do my viva for my dissertation, work for the summer and then move out. Almost the week after, I started a summer job where I was working 8-6pm some days for the entire of August and half of July and then before I knew it, I was starting Med School. It’s weird, I can’t explain it.

Anyway, back to the actual point. We were given a tour of the hospice by one of the most energetic doctors I have ever seen but it was nice to sit down and learn about palliative care and how there is no curing in hospices. Only pain management, and keeping the patients comfortable.

We then had to go and interview a patient, which I was slightly dreading. I was scared that I was going to say something stupid or put my foot in it. However, the family were lovely and I was so grateful for them taking the time to chat to us and tell us about their hospice experience. We came out feeling humbled and amazed that places like this can exist. However, most of them rely on charitable donations to run, so it’s possible that these places could one day go leaving thousands to die in depersonalized hospital beds.

Tuesday

Tuesday morning was a bit of an admin morning which I nearly didn’t get to see. I arrived and asked security to let me through but I was grilled about why I was there, who I was to see and who I was (despite the orange cone lanyard hanging down off of me). Thankfully, the receptionist came in and saved the day.

We presented our mini health needs assessment finally getting that box ticked off for this year and then discussed the patients we saw yesterday. After lunch, we went to a baby clinic seeing the opposite end of life to what we had already seen. It was completely different to what I was expecting but we got to see baby checks and at the end I was happy as I got to play with a small toddler for 10 minutes. I swear to god I am a child.

We drove home and to my horror ended up on the infamous Coventry ring road. I don’t know who designed it but an exit and joining slip road as one?!? I was screaming inside but somehow made it back to campus alive.

Wednesday

Wednesday is normally GP day but our GP was on annual leave so we had it as a day off. Day off was in commas as I had a tonne of admin to do including getting my black box fitted, booking rooms in the med school for the JASME conference in November, picking up prescriptions and having to sort out my home comforts scheme including washing up after people who’ve used mugs and sorting out the blankets chucked everywhere. I could go off on a rant but I wont.

I also managed to get a gold dust GP appointment. My hip has been painful these past months and now it’s affecting me during the day so I need it check out. We think it’s just tendonopathy but I am having an X-ray to check it’s not anything more than physio can sort out.

I also got semi-dragged to the med school by one of my friends to attend a wilderness talk. I’m not interested in wilderness medicine but it was their dad giving the talk so I decided to hobble up there. IT was actually a really good talk and I became engrossed with all the travelling doctor stories to Papua New Guinea, Mount Kilimanjaro and Syria. The tribe in Pappua New Guinea still used basic archery to hunt and use in tribe wars but the detailing on the arrows was incredible. We even got introduced to the blood stick which had been removed from someone’s abdomen and still had the blood on. Nice.

Thursday

Another half day off as we had Psych workshops in the afternoon. I wasn’t sure what to expect from these as we had already had our psych week and it was less than ideal. However, they were actually really useful. It was 5 scenarios with SIM actors covering different psych conditions such as self-harm, low mood and MMSE exam. However, just my luck I get alcohol abuse and the most intense SIM I have ever met. He actually apologised to me after because he had to be so mean !

Thoroughly exhausted, I trudged the 20 minutes back to my car but then did a diversion to ASDA to pick up a blanket covered in bumblebees I had been craving for weeks. I was a very happy bee that evening.

Friday

Back to community for a final day. We were sent out with the District nurses and it has to be the most eye-opening experience of my life. We were mainly doing wound dressing but that wasn’t the part that gave me the biggest reality check and learning experience. It was seeing the conditions some of our patients live in. It’s so easy to forget that patients have lives outside of the hospital and what world we are sending them back to once we discharge them.

I got back to the clinic and was still struggling to take in what I had seen that morning. I was chatting with the nurses about what I had seen and they were telling me stories of some of the patients they had seen. I was also surprised by how many patients smoke in their own homes despite all the advice they probably had been given. However, we are not there to judge, I just couldn’t help but wonder how much of their environment was having an effect on their health.

It was a quick afternoon. Just more tick boxing and showing that we had done the e-learning we were supposed to do. Everyone kept going on about 5 certificates. I was so confused, I had one overall one but it looked correct. Turns out, the 15 modules I had worked my way through on one evening, could have been only 5 and that I had spent four hours doing these modules when I could have spent one ……..

I slammed my head down on the table in misery. Serves me right for not reading the module handbook really. Before we left for the week we had a chat about cornona (we are all confused as it if we need to worry or not) and were treated to some amazing cakes by our placement lead. Worry not , I have the recipe !

I headed back and after picking some McBurger sauces up from McDonalds (judge me, go on), I headed back to a Friday evening supposedly catching up on work …… that did not happen.

Sunday

Woke up today with the news Corona has spread to Coventry with one patient being treated in UHCW for it. Here we go ……

Monday

Peri-op week begins! That means early rises and long days of standing on my feet. I rolled out of bed at 5:30am and got in for 8:15am ready to begin. We had been assigned theatre 2 and so saw a lot of hernia repairs.

We had a short morning as we had teaching on otoscopy in the afternoon. Ears have been a fascination of mine since I seem to have so many problems with them. The doc was lovely and she was trying to prep talk me into not going off Neuro. To be honest, I stood in a theatre the other day and a little part of me lit up but I think the ship has firmly set sail on that one. It was nice to see a female clinician building up med students though. Come to think of it, this entire block, I’ve seen 5 female doctors in 10 weeks. Yes, I’m slightly biased because I’ve been on specialities meaning I’ve done a lot of work with midwives but I don’t know. Maybe, this will change next blocks when I am actually on a ward for more than 5 days.

Tuesday

The first full day in Peri-op! We spent the first 20 minutes working out that Warwick had actually scheduled us into a theatre instead of leaving us to wander like lost lambs which is a nice change. Today was a lot of urology meaning I saw a LOT of bladders. We went to take a history off one of our first patients and half-way through I became very aware that they were alarmingly on it with their meds and were telling us the exact things we wanted to hear. I asked what their jobs were and they are actually a health professional! Suppose that answers my questions about their amazingly in-depth knowledge!

We got to see each patient being put to sleep with the use of I-Gels today rather than tubing which we saw yesterday. They look oddly weird and like they shouldn’t work but are actually easier to work with:

We saw some botox injections for bladder problems particularly in those with MS to prevent the bladder contracting as much as it does enabling the patient to re-gain continence.

After lunch we went into another theatre as we were told that we would be watching the same operation 5 times in our theatre which isn’t exactly beneficial. This time I got to insert a cannula AND GOT IT IN (on the second attempt). We’ve been told techniques with the cannulas this week and encouraged to begin to develop doing them one handedly. I was worried about this procedure, as it is really fiddly and you could do with an extra set of hands really to do it. However, now I have done one, I know I’ll be able to help a bit more on the wards next block.

I was chatting to the anaesthetist running the op and asked if she could sign my cannula off for me. Here at Warwick we need a skill, a case based discussion and (a Warwick special) OSLER signed off every block. So far I have one CBD, and nothing else. The sign off’s also have to be done by a ST3 and above which is (to put it politely) annoying as hell. I figured she was a consultant and when I asked she said she would ask the consultant as she was not a doctor. I sat there confused. How were you running the anaesthetics if you were not a doctor? Turns out she was an anaesthetists associate. I have never heard of it before but it is like the physicians associate, just for anaesthetics! I was really interested and we were chatting about the training and why she chose to do it. The consultant eventually came in and he asked me to send him a ticket….. he still hasn’t done it. #medstudentproblems

Wednesday

Second to last GP day 😦 We decided to spend the morning sifting through our mini-needs health assessment which was becoming a pain. We weren’t entirely sure what we were doing (and to be honest to this day I am still not sure what had to be done) however, we managed to get a presentation together that somewhat resembled examples we had been given. At least I am an expert on Alcohol in Coventry now.

We had our student run clinic in the afternoon in which we got to do our GP OSCES (yes as well as the sign offs in hospital, we have to get them done in GP too!). I actually managed to manage an entire consultation by myself and the pride inside me was huge. IT was a simple case of overuse of a muscle which you normally grab the old ibuprofen but due to co-morbidities (a bunch of rapidly growing cells with its own protective bubble and blood supply), we couldn’t use this. I suggested heat and told them to put their feet up this evening and have their partner make all the teas. They seemed to like that treatment plan. I got amazing feedback from my GP. Apparently, I have a way of putting patients at ease, which surprises me as I am shaking with nerves inside. I love the consultations and developing the med student- patient relationship even in the short time we get. I had never thought GP would be my style, but I am becoming to love my Wednesday afternoons. Despite being on the spectrum, I am a weirdly chatty human. I don’t know. Knowing me, next week I love everything to do with oncology but we shall see.

Thursday

I was meant to go into today but I woke up ill and dizzy. I think it may have to do with a certain examination coming up but, after having the day off. I felt amazing and re-energized rather than an exhausted wreck. Early mornings, late nights, long journeys AND my medication make every day seem like a 48-hour stretch. My clinical partner comments on how much I yawn but I honestly can’t help it. I am so looking forward to my week off in ……… 12 weeks.

Friday

Early morning again as we had the deans breakfast. It’s essentially free food for a chat with the dean of the medical school, the pro-dean of education and our lovely Deputy Head of the programme and Lead for Learning & Teaching (I had to google that). It’s great because we actually get to raise the issues affecting us directly and even bring things up that the med school are completely put in the dark about (like a certain nearby medical school’s students popping up in one of our hospitals despite the hospital telling WMS we were the only WMS students there). I also raised an issue about our formative. Weirdly, it got released 2 weeks before the end of the block and I was no where near done with my learning which I thought was a bit unfair. I asked if it could be moved and later that day it got extended to the end of the block – result!

I then went to CBL with a mountain of croissants from the breakfast and tried to pay as much attention as possible. It was slightly different today as instead of mountains of text (hell yas) we have four short videos. I actually enjoyed it (apart from me and one of my friends cracking up at the first one because it was meant to be a really patient but the actor kept bringing his script into the frame). It was good because it got a good discussion going and distracted me from the horror of what was coming.

At 12:08pm, I stepped into the car for my third driving test. I wasn’t expecting much. I had failed twice already AND there was a storm today. Rain and unfamiliar roads. A winning mix. At 12:50 I pulled back to the test centre and held my breath whilst the examiner put the GPS away in what seems like the LONGEST wait ever. He then looked at me and I HAD PASSED !!!!!!

I HAVE FINALLY PASSED MY DRIVING TEST !!! I WAS FREE !!! My driving instructor was laughing as he said it was the loudest celebration he had ever heard (did you expect anything less from me?). I was so happy, no more 5am starts, no more waiting 20 minutes for a bus not to turn up, no more rude bus drivers or stinky passengers, and the most important thing. No more being trapped on campus.

I headed back and joined in a VLE session looking at equality and equity. However, I quickly picked up that VLE debates don’t work well on Friday afternoons. There was some discussion but most of us were tired and keen to end the week. Even after my happy lunchtime, I kept zoning in and out of the debate. Not a good look 🙂

Finally, we were freed and I collapsed home to spend the next fours hours sorting out grown up car insurance. I got an ok deal, I wasn’t expecting much being a new driver but I am ok with the deal I got. Finally, something good has happened to me in 2020.

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 !

Monday

Morning off today. Not that I did a huge amount with it. We had ABG training in the afternoon which I was looking forward to as we know the ins and outs of ABG’s including how to translate the results (in theory, in practise I’m still second guessing everything) so I was keen to get to grips with the practical side.

A helpful tip for the year below – DON’T WEAR WHITE OR LIGHT CLOTHING . The blood went everywhere. Jacob had the pleasure of fake blood down his light pink chinos whilst my kind clinical partner managed to get blood on his housemate who was stood the opposite side of the table from him. I’ve now seen a dark side to klaudio.

I headed back home after that night and tried to get an early night. I knew I had to be up at 5 the next day as I had my very first labour shift.

Tuesday

Here it was! My first day on labour ward. I was thankful it had arrived as it mean’t I was in scrubs all day which is like wearing PJ’s to work. I turned up at 7am, got changed and waited. Labour Ward means a lot fo waiting around. I was in Lucina that morning but the ward was eventually closed as there were no patients. The Lucina ward is a ward where low risk births happen. The rooms are beautiful with huge bathtubs, and ceilings with lights in them to simulate the nights sky. All I could keep thinking was how nice it would be to have a bubble bath in there.

I went onto Labour ward with the midwife I was shadowing in the Lucina ward. We ended up in a room with a mum in labour. There was also a student midwife in there. Labour ward is one of the wards where medical students aren’t really the priority in teaching terms. The student midwifes need to supervise births and catch babies for their degree requirements. We are the tourists of the labour ward. However, the lovely student in there took me through the CTG (the machine that produces the funny lines during labour) and how to interpret it. It took me a while but in the end I began to see the lines for the scribbles and slowly understood what was going on. The CTG shows the mothers contractions and the babys heart rate. You’re mainly looking at the heart rate of the baby when you’re monitoring the CTG looking at the rate, accelerations, decelerations and how they correlate with the contractions.

Eventually, mum gave birth to a beautiful baby boy and I was ecstatic, I had just seen my first birth. I stayed to see the newborn checks, see the measurements of the new baby and resist every inch of my fibres to pick him up and give him a cuddle.

I spent the rest of the afternoon doing odd jobs with the midwife. Taking blood, doings obs and even putting the CTG machine on ! I felt a complete part of the team which was great because it made the time fly by and I was enjoying my time of the ward. I left round about 5ish and headed home with a spring in my step. I was pretty exhausted as I had done 10 hours on my feet but felt pretty pleased with how the day had gone.

Wednesday

GP day! I love these days as we get to be as Independent as we can be at this stage and I found I just love talking to patients. I had a good mix of patients that day. Some pain presentations but we later found out they were a heavy drinker (time to deploy the intervention skills I had learnt via an e-module) and I wanted to check how they were doing so I advised them how to slowly decrease the alcohol levels and gave them a two week follow up. I also had a lovely human come with with suspected carpal tunnel. I did the two checks that are drilled into you in first year aaaannnddddd nothing. I asked them to describe the pain and it turned out it was more to do with the radial nerve rather than the median nerve which is normally affected in carpal tunnel. They had been referred to us as the consultants at the hospital as they thought they had carpal tunnel. Med Student 1, Consultants 0.

We also got to stay for the contraceptive clinic in the afternoon. It was interesting and I got to see a implant being put in and taken out. My eyes watered at how much the skin was stretched with the device but thankfully, the lady had been given local anaesthetic so apparently didn’t feel anything! I also got to see (a different one) being taken out as the woman was hoping to get pregnant. So, a nice happy end to the day!

Thursday

Sneaky day off today as the clinic we could go to only allowed one student in and the workshop in the afternoon was part 3/3 and I hadn’t been to the first two due to illness. I decided to catch up on work and go climbing as I hadn’t been since the week before and Im working to build my callouses up so I can climb for longer in less pain #priorities.

Friday

Academic day! I like these as I actually get to see everyone in my year and my friends who I actually begin to miss during the two weeks away. However, I spent more time running around campus than actually seeing others. In the hour we had for lunch I had to go and visit the doctors, return an Amazon package, meet my clinical personal tutor and have a meeting regarding my absences at the beginning of term. Safe to say lectures after were a working lunch. IT was paediatric week so we had lectures on child development with the person who happened to be the lead for paediatrics at UHCW. I managed to grab them at the end of the lecture to talk to them about catching up on the paediatric week I had missed due to the ear infection at the beginning of term. I’m planning on catching up in the last week as I have two weeks of peri-op and even Warwick agreed I can miss some of those to catch up on paediatrics. Turns out it won’t be a problem and I am going to email later on to arrange my visits.

End of the day I spent finally working on my home comforts project. I had ordered 45 new mugs to replace the ones that had gone missing from last term. I had to nail varnish these with WMS to try and stop people taking them away and then find some way to put all the blankets in the box. I lead a very exciting life.

Finally, I got to go home and basically collapse into bed. I had also realized this week that I have 14 more weeks till my glorious week off in May. I can not wait for the glorious dog walks I plan to take my scruff mutt on 🙂

Monday

Psychiatry week! Well, sorta. Warwick scheduled us with a doctor who was on annual leave so we ended up being passed around. We headed for the caludon centre which is the mental health hospital at UHCW for 9am to meet a consultant who had agreed to take us on for the day. We ended up walking back to UHCW to see some patients who were waiting for beds or needed a psychiatric consultation. It was extraordinary to listen to their histories and stories and I could feel my heart breaking for them as they explained why they were at UH. We saw three patients and were extremely grateful to be allowed into the consultation with them as talking about mental health still has a bit of a stigma attached to it and it can be hard to talk. I can’t say much more about the consultations but I came away with a new found appreciation as to how layered mental health can be and it’s not all easily explained away like physical health can often be.

The consultant told us to have the afternoon off and I went back to the medical school to chat with my deputy tutor about how my medication was making me ridiculously tired. I am coming home and struggling to work and practically falling asleep standing up in hospital so I just wanted to chat to her about it. However, there was a bit of agg beforehand so I ended up being a blubbering mess in her office for an hour and a half trying to work through it. Well Done Abbie, Well Done.

In the evening I met with my fellow blogger and med student abi for some hot chocolate and a chance to work through everything that was going on. It was great to have a chat with a good friend and I think the hot chocolate both let us work through everything that was going on that evening. She had just come out of a CBL meeting and I was still working off the back of what was going on earlier that day. I’ve also decided to set up a “hot chocolate therapy” group with another of the medics on campus. I’m looking forward to all the hot chocolate to come !

Tuesday

Day off today. I used it to try to get a doctor’s appointment to sort out my ears. Turns out Im good and healthy, they just seem to like causing me agg. It was nice to have a day off, I used it to catch up on sleep as I was exhausted and get to work on the presentation list for that week. It wasn’t the most productive day, but sometimes that’s ok. I ended up just binge watching TV programmes that evening in an effort to try and switch off from everything going on.

Wednesday

Wednesday we were at GP and IT WAS THE BEST DAY EVER. In the morning I shadowed a GP just sitting in on their consultations and we had so many paeds cases! I was in my element. We had a 6 year old who had an ear infection in which the ear drum looked like it was about to burst. I could relate to them except they were running around and happy as larry. Apparently, kids cope really well with these types of things ! I also got a milestone that consultation, my first GP doodle:

I also got lots of cuddles from them and when they left I felt the happiest I have felt all week. Yup, I think paeds is for me! I also got to see a little 9-month old who had big brown eyes and a head full of hair so that morning was a highlight.

In the afternoon we had our own student lead clinic and I saw my foot patient again and I think just about managed to do a successful consultation. However, it was my second patient whom made the day for me. A mum came in with her three year old and her new baby. I was in paeds heaven. The mum was worried about a rash on her three year old so I got to take their temperature. Turns out mum was a doc herself so this three year old was an expert in this field! Kaludio entertained himself with the baby whilst I examined the toddler with the GP as my rash knowledge is well… non-existent. There wasn’t anything to worry about but I made the toddler a glove balloon anyway, I could not resist.

I came out of that day beaming. After everything that had happened, this day had been amazing and I knew that dropping surgery and going for paeds probably is the best thing for me, even though it was hard to admit it to myself that I was better suited away from the theatre. In the evening I had a pizza catch up with one of my friends who I hadn’t seen in a while. It was nice just to catch up and by the end of the day, I felt the most me I had been in ages.

Thursday

We were summoned to the Caludon centre for 10am and we had some teaching on AKI from an F2. It was really useful especially as although I love the physiology of the kidney, I don’t get on with the diseases associated with them. We also had a skip and hop through addiction, particularly that of alcohol which I could relate to a patient I had seen earlier on in the block so it solidified a lot of the information for me.

In the afternoon we got to sit in on a clinic which had a good turn out rate (something that does not normally happen in psych clinics) and I was able to sit in on patients consultations about their symptoms and medication management. Even though the majority of psych week had been quiet I really enjoyed getting to grips with treatment for certain disorders and was privileged enough to see the “word salad” symptom. It’s incredibly rare to see it and I was incredibly grateful to the patient for letting us sit in on their clinic.

Friday/ Satuday / Sunday

That pretty much summed up the week. We had nothing on friday so I spent the day prepping for teaching the next day. I was teaching the basal ganglia at anatomy day which is one of my favourite aspects of block three. I had nicely set up in a room with my swanky 3 slide powerpoint (as I draw most of my lesson on the whiteboard) and Ollie came and shifted me to a room where the computer nor the powerpoint decided to work. Cheers Mate.

As it was anatomy day, I focused on getting the first years to be able to draw it from memory with the help of some slightly odd mnemonics. I really enjoyed being able to go back to block three and realize that I still had the same passion for Neuroscience as I did before I gave up perusing Neurosurgery. I still find the brain amazing and oddly, I still find Neurosurgery incredible and I will never turn down an opportunity to go and observe. At the end of the morning in my final session I got a hug for my teaching which meant so much to me. I’d gone from thinking about taking a year out of Medicine on Monday, to feeling like I could conquer anything I wanted to after that hug on Saturday. I still am so grateful to be here, yes, some mornings I curse under my breath that my alarm has gone off at 5am because I need to be in for 7am (spoilers for next week) but, then when I get to hospital, I get to see babies being brought into the world, or comfort a patient who’s had to be isolated but has dementia. I keep thinking more and more about when I graduate and become an F1, then an F2 and hopefully one day, a consultant at GOSH (yes I’ve skipped a few steps).

On Sunday I went with my friend Will to IKEA in an effort to have one last plate of meatballs and exercise extreme self-control. The one in Coventry is closing down so we decided to have one last bit of fun. A qoute from Jacob in my year pretty much sums up IKEA after talking about the Corona Virus:

“Coventry can’t have Corona, We’ve already lost IKEA, do they want to hurt us even more?”

Jacob.2020

Monday

Came down with a killer cold over the weekend so I decided to avoid sniffing over pregnant mothers to be and go in later for the clinical skills session at 1pm. I found out that actually I had chosen wisely as the clinic were only letting one student in so 2/3 of the students there got turned away, so I would have gone in early to spend the morning sneezing and feeling sorry for myself.

We had our oxygen clinical skills session in the afternoon essentially looking at what we would give to a patient based on their oxygen needs. Each oxygen delivery system has different flow rates so need to be selected based on the patients needs. We also got to learn about inhaler therapy using different techniques and learnt about equipment to test if the patient is able to use inhalers. This included some weird party blower type things that check the patient has the strength to use some types of inhaler. It was hilarious and we created our own New Year’s Eve in the room. Safe to say we all reverted to about 4 years old at this point. We then moved onto the peak flow instruments and that also turned into a bit of a competition. I was pleasantly surprised by my results, apparently I have the lungs of a 6 foot man….

I guess my classical signing lessons for virtually 4 years of my life payed off. (Yes, I can belt out a phantom song if it takes my fancy).

It felt like a really long afternoon and I was happy to just get back and nurse my cold. However, I had to make a quick stop as I had to pick my new phone up ! A better phone, more data AND a cheaper contract?!?! I was ready to collapse in bed when I got back , and that is exactly what I did (after a helping of my mums chilli).

Tuesday

I had been looking forward to this day as it was my first community midwife shift, this meant babies and lots of them. Well, I thought that, turns out I saw two. Our first stop was a beautiful two-day year old of which it took every fibre not to pick them up and give them a cuddle. I got to help out and take mums temperature and blood pressure which came a little out of the blue so I mentally had to check I could remember how to take a blood pressure (it’s OK, we did remember). It was apparent they had appeared before mum and dad were ready but apparently that’s how all babies arrive. I also got to see a 5 day year old visit where the baby was weighed and the heels pricked. The heel prick test looks for sickle cell, Cystic Fibrosis, congenital hypothyroidism and some inherited metabolic diseases. Amazing considering it’s all done by 5 drops of blood on a bit of paper. This house also had a bird in the corner who kept whistling the Adams family theme tune whilst we were in there providing a comedy element to this check up.

I then got to escape to Costa for 4 hours as the midwife was just doing paper work and I have to say, doing work in a coffee shop made me feel like the Instagram cliché I ultimately am. I hadn’t packed my laptop so I was working all off my phone which was annoying but the antenatal care learning objective is huge and I really needed to get started on it.

After wandering round the road system there (it was an industrial park which aren’t really catered for pedestrians) I found my way to the surgery and spent the next couple of hours seeing lots of baby bumps. I got to do the urine dipsticks (a task I can imagine the midwife was more than happy to give me) to check for protein in the urine which is an indicator of pre-eclampsia that can lead to deadly seizures in pregnant mums. Thankfully, all were good. I also got to feel some abdomens for baby and I think I need to keep practising this as I am a bit hesitant about pressing too hard on the mums tums and could only just about feel baby. I also got chatting to the midwife about the channel 4 documentary on mental health that was showing a mum who had gone through serious post-partum psychosis.

It was a pleasantly surprisingly good day and I could see myself working in obs and gyne which was extremely weird as I swore I would never go down this path and for someone who can’t see kids in their future yet, I became extremely broody……

Wednesday

First day of school again! It was our first day in GP which is something we start in phase two. I’m based at a surgery about 40 minutes away from campus which is brilliant as these practises can be flung far from Warwick. I arrived at the surgery at 10am (something which I also loved about them) and we were immediately made to feel so welcome and wanted. Something, I was worried about not happening. I was put in to observe a nurse in the morning and got to see a little one having their first jabs which got us on the topic of anti-vaxers. It’s becoming a sadly growing trend even here in the UK. Vaccines have been shown time and time again to be safe, effective AND LIFE SAVING. Autism does not develop from vaccines. I did not become who I am because my mum decided to save my life from measles, mumps, rubella, polio etc. In fact that paper was retracted exactly 10 years ago this week. Anyway, rant over.

In the afternoon we got to meet our mentor Dr O who would be supervising us through this 7 week block in GP. I expected the first session for us to just be observing her and watching but nope. Immediately we were chucked in front of patients. GULP. It was actually amazing and showed that we’ve reached that stage in medical training where observation isn’t enough for us and we want to get involved with everything that was going on. I really enjoyed it but I need to learn to direct my consultations. I did over-run partly because I was dealing with a condition where I wasn’t sure what I was doing and partly because my patient liked to talk. They were lovely, I just need to be a bit more assertive. In fact, they are coming back next week so I am gong to read up on their condition so I have a better idea of what to do next.

Me and Klaudio left that day feeling accomplished and like we were progressing on our medical careers. I dreaded this clinical learning but you get so much more out of talking to patients and getting involved than a thousand lectures could ever give you. Kaludio mentioned thinking of GP as a career but I am going to need a bit more convincing.

Thursday#

It’s currently 9am and I haven’t slept since Wednesday morning. I was up in A&E all night and basically just went straight to my 8am lecture at the hospital (luckily) but halfway through I had hit the wall and basically called it a day. I was annoyed as I needed the day to get sign offs but I guess luck isn’t on my side today. However, I did make progress in trying to meet my consultant so I guess I got one thing out of today.

Friday

Academic day! A slight lie in and I’m off to the med school for CBL. I have to admit, I get so tired during CBL that it is hard to stay focused. I am also a bit tetchy about CBL at the moment as the learning outcome list is huge and often the points seem leaps and bounds away from the case. However, that’s more my agg. It paediatric week and we got treated to a lecture by one of the lecturers who restored my faith in medicine during AC1. He was Irish and training to become a GP but makes his lecture just interactive and enjoyable.

However, I had to scoot early as I had a GP appointment to talk about my SNRI’s. I don’t think they are working as things had happened that week outside the medical world that had caused me to come crashing to the floor and question everything I thought I knew, I was also still shattered from the Thursday so I wasn’t coping. I had my meds upped in the evening just to see how I am with the side effects so I am going to see how I cope for the next two weeks.

I then high tailed it back to the MTC as my personal tutor had come to Warwick to check in on us. I said that I was just tired and a bit stressed but I was kinda coping, which was true. I still loved my course and I’ll just see how everything goes. It was a quick in and out meeting (plus a quick 5-minute vent to a friend) as I had a THIRD meeting that lunch about my absence at the beginning of term. It was not anything bad, I had done everything the Med School wants us to do but it was just to see how I was doing catching up and if anything else needed to be done. I took the opportunity to mention that sign offs here can only be done by ST3 or higher rule was annoying and seemed excessive for year 2. Other med students (yes, I network!) can be signed off my any grade doctor and band 6 and above nurse so I wondered why Warwick was different. The reason was to prepare us for F1 which I can see the logic, but I am only a second year medical student at this point.

At the end of the meeting it was time to run to lecture as I was slightly late and ended up having a working lunch due to having been in meetings all afternoon. Lectures on academic days are becoming a bit of a cause of chuckle with me. My year isn’t exactly the model year for showing up to lectures but now our lectures are sign in, the lecture theatre is constantly full.

The afternoon lectures looked at paediatric development and I got to chat to the doctor at the end about making up my paeds rotation which I really want to do as it’s not only a sign off but an area of medicine I love. I’ve got two weeks at the end of the block of peri-op that will be a good time to slip two days of paeds in so I am hoping to do it then.

That weekend I also was teaching for Block Three physiology day. I had chosen to do the basal ganglia as it was a part of medicine I loved. It’s the first time it’s been taught at a physiology day so I was keen to split apart the anatomy from how the system functioned as I was also teaching it on anatomy day. I really do love teaching, I know there is going to be Med Ed in my future career and I know in F1 I will be teaching those from KCL and the new Kent and Medway medical schools so I am keen to build up my teaching skills from day one. Here’s to more knowledge imparting on unwilling victims !!