Wednesday 25 February 2009

Swapsies

Managed to cut down on my warwick interview costs by arranging a swap for a "good" amount of instant noodles and random snacks, in return for a space on my friend's bedroom floor the night before the interview! (i decided i don't want to risk relying on the national rail to get me there "on time" for 8.15am on the day!!)

Im sure she would have been happy to let me take up the spot - even without the edible bribe (!!), but she also plans to show me the campus and take me on a tour of the local shops - and if theres time.. even a mini outing to birmingham! - so i think random edible bits from london to help her pass the easter exam revision period, and buying her lunch is a must!

Nothing interesting lately, i finally forked out the 44.99 and purchased a lomography fisheye 2 camera, have been playing around with it, and am close to finishing the roll of film (36), can't wait to see how the photos end up!

Thursday 12 February 2009

So i'm alive then?

There was a bit of a sticky situation on the ward the other day, a patient had mass doses of morphine and was still in severe pain and was starting to moan really loudly; and all the doctors on call were really busy elswhere and were unable to answer their bleeps straight away. The bp, heart and resp rate were on the up, and in the middle of the situation i got told to quickly do an ECG on the patient...and i didn't know how to.

I obviously made the team aware of this, as although i've had nurses and other hcas teaching me how to do it before, but when i saw the patient in so much pain i just didn't feel confident. i fetched the machine over, plugged it into the mains and then felt useless as i watched others members on the ward attatching the sticky tabs and the relevent leads. The doctors finally arrived, and i watched their diagnostic process, taking bloods from the patients, feeling around the area, asking the patient to describe the pain, and discussing among the team the possible cause of the patient's sudden pain. Alas with no obvious signs from the bloods, a bladder scanner revealed urine retention - and after a swift insertion of a urinary catheter by the nurse, the patient slowly but surely began to feel better, and a few hours on was happily sitting up talking to the visiting family

- i was really happy to see the patient recover from the bout of pain so quickly; but was not so happy when the FY2 doctor thought i had thrown his tourniquet away, and made me dig through the bin to see if it was in there... it was later revealed, that the FY2 had left it on the patient's bed ~.~

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"so i'm alive then?" - The first time an elderly male patient asked this after i had taken his temperature, i found it quite sweet, but now i just find it cringey - as every patient seems to be saying it these days... where did it all start?!!
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A few people at work know i have an offer now (only because they sussed out the reason as to why i was there and had asked me about it, or they are among the gap year applicants), but generally most people still think im doing this because i can't find a lab job - and i prefer it this way, as i get to avoid having some of the weird looks some of the other gap year hcas get.

Friday 6 February 2009

BL post-offer open day

The day passed between long queues during the tea + biscuit breaks, and a mixture of talks held in the Perrin lecture theatre; these varied from the typical welcome speeches - to the really fun speakers (i am really looking forward to rag week!), and then to the dull (funding). I also thought there were going to be a lot more attendees today, but when we all filed into the lecture theatre i think we hardly even filled a quater of it (possibly it was just a big theatre? - or just not many people turned up).

Most of the information given today i could have found online, but visiting the medical school, and listening to the speakers talk about Bart's with so much passion has definately made everything seem so much more exciting!! The only downside..is the long travel time for me >_< (1 hour plus!!) , but there are plenty of positives to make up for it! - i really like the look of the systems based course, the opportunity to spend some of the clinicals years in the soon to be refurbished hospitals, the atmosphere, and being able to study near the olympic games are definately just a few of the pros.

All in all i think its been quite a good day, although a bit on the tiring side, and the London weather wasn't exactly at is best, but i think it has definately relighted the excitement of going to medical school for me ^^

Tuesday 3 February 2009

Snow

For once it snows (properly/heavily) in London, and my mind is not occupied on the stupid things i can get on with, but on how i should go about getting to work! I knew it was going to be cold, windy and snowing, but i didn't expect the buses to stop running..(!!!), nor was it fun waiting pointlessly at the bus stop in the cold for 15 minutes to find out (if the random man in a van didn't stop to pull his window down and shout over that the buses are all out of service.. i could have quite possibly still have been standing there 30 minutes on). This ultimately meant i had a 30 minute hike up a slippery hill, for a bus journey which usually takes around 10, followed by a severly delayed tube journey (i suppose i should just be glad my line wasn't entirely suspended >.<).


With all the delays and mishaps in the morning, i managed to get into work only 15 minutes late, and i think the staff were all just glad i managed to make it in. It was a pretty hectic day, and at one point in the morning, one nurse had to struggle with 15 patients to herself, just plainly due to the short staff. Just to emphasise how difficult it was to get staff into the hospital, the ward manager then went on to organise hotel accomodation for all staff returning the next day, i was very close to accepting, but chose to go home - i regretted this, as the journey this morning wasn't exactly much better than yesterdays ~.~

Today i also had a very intersting conversation with a patient's relative who decided to talk to me about his body building routine (i don't know why!), it was intersting, but i don't think i'm going to take his advice on sticking notes around the ward to get myself to eat 5 meals a day as opposed to 3.