Another Special Medical Student

Here's another go at describing a medical student I work with. Thus far I'm describing people I like and get along with but I'm sure as I get into these character studies I'll be looking at people I'm less fond of.

Anyway for a change a male medical student. A rare breed these days as an increasing proportion of medical students are women. He's expressly asked me to write about him, either an attack of narcissism, craving for fame or genuine curiosity about what I think of him.

Luckly for this young man I actually think he's pretty sound. Scarily he is uber clever but doesn't show it off at all. He has something stupid like 5 As at Alevel and an extra A at ASlevel. He also managed to get a publication from an essay he wrote in first year. That's pretty impressive in my books.

Bizarrely he also has an obsession with Sex and the City, and shopping in Selfridges. He is what we like to call a metrosexual. He makes up for his girly obsessions with a healthy interest in football and food, the two F's of manhood.

The most amusing thing about him is the unfortunate way that the tutors seem to have labled him as a scruff. His first week on this placement he was busy recovering from what I can only imagine must have been the party of the century, causing him to sleep nearly every moment he wasn't timetabled to be in clinics. Now that he's recovered and discovered what a razor is various tutors at uni keep stopping him and asking why he's looking so smart. I'd like to think it's the stylish influence of my clinical partner and I, but I'm sure it's just a few good nights sleep and a generous selection of clothes from Selfridges.

Lily xXx

Mooncup

For those who get a bit squeamish talking about periods and girly bits, I'd recommend you stop reading right now. I've found something so amazing that I'm going to postpone my next post about another medical student in favour of telling you all.

Before I start I'd like to point out that I am not a hippy. I'd also like to point out that the initial reaction of "ewww... that's gross" is pretty normal, but if you think about it this is a really good idea.

Yesterday I bought a mooncup. This is a little latex menstrual cup. The idea is that you pop it in instead of a tampon and it collects the blood, which you can then wash away and reuse the mooncup. Apparently menstrual cups have been around since the 1930's but never really took off. I can only imagine that this is because unlike a tampon, they don't have an applicator so you have to be pretty cool with poking around in your ladybits.

What tempted me with the mooncup was the fact that a woman uses around 10,000 tampons or towels in her life. That is not good for the environment. This also works out cheaper. About £20 for the mooncup which lasts around 10 years Vs expensive tampons every month.

When looking into it also mentioned the lack of a risk of TSS, compared to tampons and the fact it doesn't cause vaginal dryness. Now without getting too intimate many women will agree with me when I say that sex post-period can be uncomfortable if you've been using tampons. This is because they soak up any moisture indescriminately.

Anyway... I bought one, I've been wearing it for 24 hours so far and I thought I'd give you an honest review of the ups and downs.

My first experience was an embarassing one. One of the lads in my block of flats strolled into the flat to find me sterilising the mooncup in a pan of boiling water. It's a bit cringeworthy to explain, but he didn't seem too horrified (unlike my girly flatmates).

Down to the gorey details. Even the small size looks huge. Thankfully it's folded as it goes in but it's still a bit of a squeeze, I've found that after a bit of practice I have the right angle so everything's a bit easier. Once it's in it's completely comfortable. It has a little stalk that you can trim if it sticks out so there's no chaffage, and then it's just as unnoticeable as a tampon.

Getting the damn thing out was a little difficult. The easiest way is by assuming a rather unladylike squat and bearing down a little, this pushes the base of the cup to within reach. It's then important to squeeze it to break the seal and then gently pull it out. I thought my little cup of gunk would go everywhere, but it's surprisingly easy to keep under control, although I do find it a tad uncomfortable to put in and out. I'm hoping this is just due to lack of practice.

The grossest bit by far is emptying the cup, but as I'm not at all squeamish a little cup of blood does not really bother me. I can however see how this could bother some people.

After being taken out all it needs is a rinse and then it can be popped back in.

Amazingly, due to its fairly large capacity, even thought I have a heavy flow there was no leakage... not even overnight. This may be beginners luck, but reading forums about it, it seems like most people who try the mooncup get on really well with it. Because it's silicone you can also pop it in before your actual period starts. If you're like me this is great because I know that I always start my peroid on a monday, but the time of the day is never the same. Thus it takes away the risk of being caught short.

If it keeps on working this well I'm definitely sticking with my mooncup for life!

Lily xXx

P.S I apologise for the huge amount of overshare

A Special Medical Student

Being stuck for what to write today a couple of my friends who know about this blog suggested I wrote about them. Thinking about it this is a great idea. Rather than always writing about myself, giving people an idea of some other medical students is probably a good idea. Especially for people who are thinking about applying to medical school, clearly it will be a relief to know not all medics are like me. However for others it might not be a relief that people like us will be doctors in the not to distant future.

I'll start by writing about my clinical partner.

Like me she's done medicine straight from school, and she intercalated last year... but in something indefinitely cooler than the subject I intercalated in. In fact it's so random most people would never even guess that a medical school would offer it.

I met this girl on my first day of uni. We were living in the same flat in halls and since then we've been pretty good friends.

Unlike me she has a vague idea what she wants to do when she's a "grown up". She wants to be an anaesthetist. This is probably because she can spell better than I can. It's a really hard word to spell. In fact I may have spelt it wrong myself, but I tried.

Like me she is a "power woman". This is how one of the lads in our firm described us. Clearly we're starting to intimidate, they just don't realise it's all banter.

Our problem is that we're quite apathetic. We like to just sit around a lot and go into town when we could be aimlessly wandering around A and E hoping that someone will let us take some bloods. She also has a strange obsession with Sex and the City. I much prefer Gossip Girl, but shhhhh, don't tell anyone.

Lily xXx

Knuckling Down

I've decided with 4 weeks of this placement left that this week I am really going to knuckle down. This started with me getting two sign ups today. I reckon if I can do that today then it is more than possible for me to get at least another 2 this week, thus taking some of the pressure off for the last weeks.

I guess I also need to take my mind off of other things. I had a bit of a row with the boy this weekend over some text messages on his phone. Yes I shouldn't have been looking, I know that, but then in the same sense he shouldn't have been sending them. I still love him loads so at this moment in time, as they weren't that bad I'd rather just forget it all happened, but it's still on my mind. It just hurts that it seems like recently he's been taking me more and more for granted. Hopefully the explosion I had over the weekend will have rectified this problem.

Anyway I need to go and get some work done now so I can go to bed feeling like I've really achieved something today.

Lily xXx

Cranky Pants

I'm in a foul mood today due to the fact I had about 3 hours sleep. I'm quite a light sleeper so anyone talking in the corridoor wakes me up and once I've woken up, that's it. I usually can't get back to sleep.

To add to my bad mood I've found out that the awful student on my firm that I mentioned a few posts ago is bitching about me. More exactly about my examination technique. In our ward sessions we have to each do an abdo examination. I always end up volunteering to go first which means that invariably I'll forget something. Usually something that's not actually in the textbook I have for examinations (checking for divarifcation of recti) or examining the neck. To be fair I realise that before I get examined I need to make sure I don't forget to examine the neck when I do an abdo exam but I'm not too worried about it at the moment. As the people in the group go on they get steadily better. This is no doubt because once you've watched it twice you've had a chance to revise.

He however will go last, is very rough with the patient, takes ages and is really unsystematic. Even after he's watched it being carried out 3 or 4 times. At least once I've watched it I remember what to do, and I actually notice how the patient is reacting. And even when I miss things I'm still systematic, I don't just jump backwards and forwards throughout the whole examination.

I think it's a prime example of those in glass houses should not throw stones. I'm well aware that my examination technique is far from perfect, but that's why I'm a student. Because I'm learning. If we were all perfect at examinations from day 1 then we wouldn't be taught it. But we're not, so we are taught it.

In the mood I'm in right now I want to tell him exactly what I think of him. Unfortunately this would mean dropping a friend in it as that's who he was bitching to. However in the mood I'm in today I'm not sure I can hold back. I'm usually really passive but I think now is one of those moments where he needs someone to knock him off his high horse and put him back in his place with the rest of us.

Lily xXx

Looking in From the Other Side

Yesterday I had an eye opening afternoon. A look at the NHS from a patients perspective. More scarily from a parent's perspective.

My boyfriend's niece who's 28 weeks old hasn't been too well recently. She has had vomitting and diahorrea for 4 days, has hardly had any bottles over those 4 days and practically stopped eating solids 3 weeks ago. On top of this she's had a snotty nose and has been wheezy since Novemeber and no matter what the doctor gives her it won't go away.

Anyway she's not been feeding, and as over 7 weeks she only put on one ounce in weight the GP told her Mum to take her to the hospital. As I had the afternoon off I volunteered to come and keep her company. What a nightmare.

The doctor (who kept us waiting for ages after telling us he'd be over in 5 minutes), turned up, hardly examined the baby and then decided he needed to find a more senior doctor... who would also be only 5 minutes. So well over an hour later a reg came along and then after that a consultant. Turns out it was most probably only viral and she was starting to pick up so realistically she wasn't that ill, so it's not the waiting that was the bother, its the fact that rather than telling us we'd be waiting some time everyone kept saying 5 minutes.

The other bother was that until the consultant came along noone could properly explain anything to the baby's mum or myself. In fact the SHO and the reg pretty much made the baby's Mum seem like she was just being neurotic and told her they'd keep the baby in overnight if she was that worried, but then started having a go at her for asking to be discharaged when she said "Well if you're only doing it to reassure me then I'll just take her home..." Very confusing.

The Consultant however was a brilliant example of how communications skills work. She was smiley and friendly. She explained everything from how WBCs show there is infection to how two different types neutrophils and lymphocytes can sugggest whether or not its bacteria which needs antibiotics or a viral infection that also needs time. She then also took the time to properly reassure mum. She sat there and told her that she'd done a brilliant job, that being slightly over cautious with a baby is the right way to be and that she shouldn't feel as if she was wasting time. She then also asked if mum had any questions. Up to this point not one other doctor had asked this. It meant she had a chance to ask about how long it would take for feeding to get back to normal and what signs she should watch out for just in case the baby got dehydrated. Overall it meant that the baby's mum left the hospital happy that her baby was on the mend without wasting NHS resources having her in overnight when she was clearly well past the worst of what was a stomach bug.

It really showed me how important communicating with patients is. Fingers crossed I'll end up more like the consultant who took the time to explain things and less like the SHO and reg who just barked orders at the patient.

Lily xXx

Sign Up Action Plan

Almost 2/3 of the way through this rotation. Hurrah!

I've started to work out a plan to make sure I get all my sign ups before I finish this rotation. That means at least 2 sign ups a week. Today I got 1 so that's one left for the rest of this week. It's surprisingly hard to get people to be willing to take the time to show us how to do certain things. My next mission is to get someone to show me hwo to do a subcut injection. Annoyingly everyone gets given their clexane about 6pm. 6pm is dinner time... or at least it's cooking so I can have dinner before I die of starvationg time. I guess I'll have to have some tummy rumbles one day in the near future to get it done.

Bizarrely the hospital seemed empty today. The emergency centre actually had no patients what so ever in it at 9.30 this morning and all the wards were half empty. The sunshine yesterday must have made everyone feel better.

I can't believe how lazy I've become over the last year. I've pretty much done no work this academic year. I really need to work out how and what I need to learn before written exams. I also need to learn some neuro stuff for my next rotation. The brain has never been my forte.

On a completely different note I really fancy some noodles right now. Particularly a really nice pad thai or perhaps some amai udon from Wagamama. Mmmmm. I just seem to be hungry all of the time at the moment. I must have a worm.

Lily xXx