Monday 29 March 2010

This Time Tomorrow...

I will have finished my exam and should be enjoying a refreshing vodka and slimline tonic (...ice, no lemon if you were wondering).

It will also be the end of what has been a very stressful week and a half.

It turns out the worst way to be woken up in the morning is not by alarm, but with the words "this just isn't working for me anymore" completely out of the blue. No arguements, no fallings out, no other people involved...

Needless to say I was devestated. Madsadgirl kindly made a post about it because I just didn't know how I was going to bring it up. I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep, I couldn't stop shaking...

Needless to say revision has been very difficult.

Since then we've spent some time together and decided to try and make it work, as there was no reason he can put his finger on that he felt like that. We're taking it slowly, and to be honest I'm feeling really insecure and scared.

Fingers crossed I'll pass this exam tomorrow or thats even more poopness piled on my life.

Lily xX

Friday 19 March 2010

Rude Awakening

Isn't the worst way to get up being woken up by an alarm?

For over a month now I've somehow psychically beat my alarm by anything from 30 mins to 2 mins every morning... meaning that getting up has been a relatively pleasant experience.

I don't know what's changed but yesterday I set my alarm to be on the safe side and it cruelly woke me up. To make it worse I was having a lie-in so I was almost 100% I'd get up before it. Needless to say I walked around in a grumpy haze all morning.

This morning I had the opposite. I didn't set my bedside alarm and ended up not waking up until 10.15!!! Eek... So much for making a pretty front cover for my essay this morning. To make it worse my phone died during the night (user error... I hadn't turned the charger on at the plug), which was where I'd set my "just in case I'm not up by 9... alarm".

Lily xXx

Tuesday 16 March 2010

This Elephant Always Forgets

Clearly my memory is not what it was...

Sunday was the second birthday of my blog and I completely forgot all about it! I'm a little disappointed at the missed opportunity for cake, and may have to pop along to the hospital shop to get a muffin to make up for it.

Also just realised that tomorrow is St Patricks day, but there isn't a pub within walking distance. As a proud Irish person I want to celebrate! Maybe I should have a whole weekend of celebration to make up for it?

Lily xXX

Technology

Turns out I can do this from my phone... it just takes absolutely ages!

Essay update... it's all done apart from tidying up the layout and having a proof read! hurrah!

Lily xXx

Saturday 13 March 2010

A Week in DGH

Not having the internet has really hampered my blogging. Every time I think of something I want to write I’m off at the DGH, in the middle of nowhere with no internet access bar that in the hospital, while always has blogger blocked.

Because of this I’ve decided to pre-type some posts while at DGH and publish them on the weekends when I’m home.

Recently I’ve been nattering on and on about myself, and not much about the course so this week I’m going to write a little run down of what I’m doing during the week. You never know… it may actually motivate me to do a little more!

MONDAY

I had every intention of having a productive day. I got up nice and early, had a lovely warm shower and got ready. The warm shower was important as I had to defrost myself. My room at DGH is soooooo cold. To top it off we have a sheet and a blanket which I can only describe as being crocheted out of string. I don’t know if crocheted is a word?

Anyway I got ready and set off for the hospital. Although the hospital isn’t that big I find it really confusing so I set off a little early, getting to the clinic for 8.50… 10 minutes early.

Firstly I asked the receptionist what rooms the clinic was happening. She said she wasn’t 100% sure as the other receptionist wasn’t in, but to wait in the corridor. So I stood in the corridor like a lemon until a nurse walked past. I stopped the nurse and asked about the clinic to which she replied, “Well you’re 5 minutes early… I’m sure everyone will be here soon”

I thought this was a little bizarre as there were no patients here at this point and clinic was due to start in 5 minutes, but I trusted this nurse and waited…

… I kept waiting, and at 9.30 I found the nurse again. She looked at me blankly like she’d never seen me before and said “Well… noone’s turned up so I guess it’s cancelled?” Fabulous. No-one knows what’s happening and I’ve wasted my time. Time wasting seems to be what medical students do best.

All the other clinics already had students so I sulked, went back to my room and spent the whole day working on my HUGE essay about my elective. It’s now well over half way so at least that was something.

TUESDAY

Surprise surprise… teaching was cancelled at lunchtime. Did discover that the hospital cafĂ© has coffee that’s less than half the price and a million times nicer than the expensive place near the main reception.

Managed to get some “educational” internet access too so I have a bit more information for my elective essay. Hoping to have it finished by the end of next week and ready to print off and hand in a little bit early. I’m also starting revision which is difficult as I have no idea what the questions will be like!

I had a mad moment in the evening where I had to do a last minute dash into the hospital for chocolate and a trashy magazine. It’s actually pretty isolated here, no shop in walking distance (except that in the hospital), no internet access that allows you to get to anything fun and only channels 1-5 on the TV. Disappointing for an E4 addicted like myself. I thought it would make me work more, but I’m not the kind of person to cosy-up in bed with a textbook.

WEDNESDAY

Went to an audit meeting today that lasted all morning. Essentially it was about 60 people squeezed in a room for 20 people and talked about the different audits going on, and how the department can use problems it’s come across to learn from and improve their service for patients.

Even though it went on for hours it was really interesting and made me see the point of audits. It makes me wish that there were more opportunities to do an audit as a student. We always seem to be rushed in and out of placements so quickly that there isn’t the time, and when in the central London hospitals all the audits are pretty much snapped up by junior doctors. Perhaps more audits could be offered as special study modules, giving more students the chance to take part?


…. I think that’s probably enough to read for now. I’ll add some more about the rest of the week later, once I’ve recovered from the week!

Lily xXx

Oops

Ok... I've done something stupid.

Instead of pressing "publish", I pressed "reject" and erased all the comments I've got this week :(

It was entirely unintentional!!

Thanks for everyone's motivating comments, you'll be pleased to know I've done over half my giant essay... so next week I should finish it totally... hurrah!

To the prospective medical student who wanted to know about a particular London medical school, drop me an email at studentdoctordiaries@googlemail.com and I'll be able to fill you in on all the details!

Lily xXx

Sunday 7 March 2010

Lost... Reward Offered!

My motivation.

If found please email me, or just pop it through my letter box.

I'm offering a reward of cupcakes. Really nice cupcakes. Made by me.

I still need to finish tiling the bathroom, clean the whole flat, write a 6000 word essay and revise for my end of rotation exams. I also need the motivation to go into uni, which uptil now I have had, but the thought of another 2 weeks fills me with dread and longing for my bed.

I don't know where my motivation has gone as this little attachment in a DGH hospital is actually pretty good.

The consultant is funny, really nice but also good at teaching. The accomodation is also suprisingly nice. The beds are really uncomfy, but otherwise it's clean and pretty spacious. I also only have to share a bathroom with my clinical partner... so there's none of that usual shampoo theft that happens on peripheral placement.

Lily xXx

Tuesday 2 March 2010

Most Painful Day of My Life

***Warning, this may be TMI for some readers***

Ouch.

Today I had a Mirena coil fitted.

It was the most painful thing I have ever had done.

For those of you who are unaware of the mirena coil it is a small device that fits inside the womb and releases a small amount of hormones. It not only acts as a very effective and easily reversible contraceptive for 5 years, but it also reduces the heaviness and pain of periods. A large number of women with the Mirena actually stop having periods all together.

Anyway, enough of the factual stuff... I need a rant about the whole experience.

The nurse specialist who fitted it was a really nice guy. He explained everything and warned me that as I haven't had children it would probably be painful to fit and may not even be able to be fitted. This is because before having children the cervix (neck of the womb) is very tightly shut and not very easy to stretch to get the mirena coil in.

The chaparone used to be the practice nurse at the GP where I had my hep B injections before uni, which was really nice. She's also lovely and really put me at ease.

I had to have an internal exam first to check which way my womb is aligned and after that they pop a speculum in so that they can see the cervix. Then the painful bits start...

The first thing they have to do is measure the womb. They do this by shoving a measuring stick up through the hole in the cervix. This was mindblowingly painful but only lasted a couple of seconds. However it left me with a really severe period-like pain.

After that there was over 10 minutes of trying to ram this coil into my womb via my very uncooperative cervix. The nurse was going to give up but I gritted my teeth and asked him to try one more time (I wasn't going to go through all that pain for nothing). Next thing I had what felt like an eternity of excruciating pain (probably in reality less than a minute) and it was in. Hurrah!

After it was fitted I lay down for a bit to recover. My legs were shaking non-stop and I felt pretty woozy. I got dressed and decided the 15 minute walk home in the fresh air would be a good idea.

It wasn't.

Half way I was sick in a bin the pain was so bad and had to call my Dad to pick me up and take me home. Since having it fitted over 5 hours ago I have been having awful pains. I get a tight cramping pain which lasts 3-4 minutes and then I get a couple of minutes respite before the next one. It's seriously demoralising. Paracetamol hasn't touched the pain so I've got the strongest paracetamol and codeine combination that is made. It's dulled the pain enough for me to sit on my laptop but it's still enough to make me cry each time I get one of the pains.

I was hoping to go back to uni this afternoon, but now I think I'll have to take tomorrow off. I really hope the pain dies down soon.

:(

Lily xXx