Banished

It's happening again.

Uni is sending me out of the capital and into the "countryside". Although I'm pretty sure where I'm going doesn't count as officially countryside, just less city-like than London.

I've got 3 weeks of being at a DGH, no internet and loads of work to do. Great.

The worst thing is having no idea what it will be like. The rooms at my last DGH placement were OK... what if these are AWFUL? What if we get about half an hour of warm water a day?

I also feel a bit naughty. I have to have the second day of my peripheral placement off. It's not strictly skiving, I'm having a coil fitted (TMI... I know!) and it was the soonest appointment I could get. The next appointment was during exams... which just isn't fun.

On the plus side the two other girls from my firm are lovely, so it will be a pleasure to be stuck in the middle of nowhere with them. There are some people from other groups too who won't be doing obs and gynae, but overall it makes quite a sizeable group of us.

Next time I'm blogging I'm sure I'll have loads to say from this peripheral, as I know I've been pretty much just wittering on about nothing for the last couple of weeks.

Lily xXx

So Much Food

So much for a wedding diet.

Today I have eaten soooo much (and so naughtily!)

I had a cooked breakfast, some chocolate, a roast dinner (with delicious crispy roast potatoes....mmmmm) and then about half a family sized apple pie with ice cream. I'm so full I can hardly move. I'm thinking that I'm going to have to be very good during the week to make up for it!

I'm finding that now I'm having some exceptionally long days at uni I'm really appriciating my weekends.

I have to leave the flat at about 6.45am tomorrow :(

It's going to be a busy day with learning how to catheterise women in day surgery and then hopefully getting to do lots of speculum examinations in colposcopy. Excitingly I have Tuesday off but I have a huge 5000 word project to write to do with my elective. I'm hoping to get some of the more easy bits of that done, and perhaps start planning the more difficult bits. No doubt with such a long day on Monday I'll end up sleeping in far too long on Tuesday! Oops in advance.

Lily xXx

Feeling Sad

I didn't really know what to call this post.

Since husband-to-be has started working longer, he's started to stay at his mum's house a couple of nights during the week. It makes sense as driving a 120 mile round trip to work and literally only getting in at bedtime is a bit silly when we could be saving all the petrol and driving costs, as his mum lives a 5 minute walk from his work.

This wasn't a problem at first, even with me being on extended placements away from home too. We had it all planned out, when I go away for my 3 week peripherals the ferrets would live in mother-in-law-to-be's shed. Well minds have been changed. Now mother-in-law-to-be and nana-in-law-to-be have both decided they really don't want the ferrets in their back garden or shed. This is fair enough as it's their home.

This unfortunately means the ferrets will be going to a new home. I realise they're only little furry animals and I shouldn't get too upset, but in all honesty I'm devestated.

Thankfully they're only moving 20 minutes down the road. The people they are moving in with have 4 very well cared for fuzzies, and have said I can visit whenever I want, but I'd still rather be keeping them with me.

:-(

Lily xXx

Medical Student Immunodeficincey Syndrome

It seems that medicals students have some kind of freaky immune problem.

We're always ill with something.

Even when you factor out all the made up illnesses we think we have after lectures, everyone is always sick with something.

Over the weekend I had a sore throat and stuffy nose, the week before I kept getting headaches and last night I had the worst abdo pain I've ever experienced. So bad I wanted to call an ambulance but couldn't actually get up to get to the phone. I'm all achey still, but thank goodness the main pain is all gone.

My friends always seems to have colds/flu/tummy bugs.

Is this what the rest of the population is like or are we a bunch of hypochonriacs? Is this not hypochondria at all or all we actually picking up more bugs being around the hospital? Will we develop this uber-efficient immune system by graduation?

Lily xXx

No Excuses

I don't really have an excuse for not posting for a while, but I'm going to try to justify myself anyway...

I've been so busy at uni and haven't been too well. I seem to keep catching little bugs at the moment, or maybe I just don't let myself get properly better before I plough into things.

A list of my maladies this week includes an awful migrane, sore tum-tum and the return of my cold. As well as that yesterday a fat person (like HUGE) knocked into me on the bus and squished my finger against a metal bar so hard that it started bleeding everywhere. What's worse is that they saw all the blood and didn't even apologise. I know it was an accident, but they could have said sorry!!! It's one of my "examining" fingers, and since I'm doing gynae it's made things pretty uncomfortable for me.

This week I've done so much in uni that I'm not really sure what to talk about. The two things which have really stood out are GTA and sexual health clinics.

On Tuesday I spent the afternoon at a very busy London sexual health clinic, in an area which has the highest teenage pregnancy/chlamydia/gonnorhoea/HIV rates in the country. It was so interesting. I got to see herpes, gonnorhoea dischage, do swabs and then look at slides. On one of the slides I even got to see amazingly cool but also gross trichomonas, with their little flagellae propelling them around the slide.

All the GUM doctors I talked to loved the speciality for both it's content and the quality of life. I had some good advice off of them in that I need to think what I want from life before I pick a speciality. It's all very well loving obs and gynae, but if I don't want a job with much on call I'll need to think which would make me happier... the speciality or having less on call?

Yesterday I went to a GTA session. I'm not sure how many medical schools do this, but I know a lot of them don't. GTA stands for gynae teaching associates. These are women who teach us how to perform intimate examinations on themselves. I think this is brilliant. OK... It's a little weird at first talking to someone with your hand up their mooey but it's such a good experience.

Firstly you get to practice explaining what you're going to do, with a chance to work out the best way of saying things. It's nice because it means you learn much nicer alternatives to "go behind the curtain and strip..." or "spread your legs..." and other things which make women feel uncomfortable.

Then when it gets to the actual examination, these ladies really prove how helpful they are. Not only do you get to practice the actual speculum and bimanual exams, but they give great tips. Everything from the best way to position the speculum or your fingers, to how hard to press the abdomen. You can also take longer over the examination and have a couple of practices, which isn't possible on patients as most don't like being intimately examined in the first place.

So although I've felt like poo this week, it's been so productive and great fun.

On another note I've lost 3lbs so far on my wedding diet! Woo!

Lily xXx

On Call

Today I shadowed my first on call I actually enjoyed.

It was gynae.

It surprised me how many people come into A&E with gynae complaints. There's also a real variety in what's causing the complaints.

I just wish my rotation had the opportunity to get more obs and gynae clinical experience, as our opportunities are quite limited.

In a few weeks time (I can't remember the exact date), I'm being shipped off to a district general hospital for 3 weeks to get the chance to really immerse myself in obs and gynae. Although I'll miss the ferrets, and probably get pretty tired from the hard work, I'm really looking forward to it.

This could be a possible career choice for the future.

On the subject of the future I watched relocation down under. Wow. I really like the look of Australia (and not just because I'm addicted to neighbours). Does anyone know what the situation is like for doctors wanting to immigrate over there? How different is the training/hours?

Lily xXx

Apologies

I haven't blogged for a week!

I don't really have an excuse except to say that not much has happened that I've felt I could write about. It's been a slow week at uni due to my firm head being taken ill and otherwise I have pretty much been taking it easy.

The highlight of my week has been getting a Wii Fit. On Friday I tried on wedding dresses and was horrified at what a fat blob I've become in the last year or so. Rather than just mope I'm going to do something about it.

The wii fit is my first step to that, along with lots of healthy eating and reducing my calories. Apparently it turns out that cake is not one of the food groups.... who'd have thought?! Shockingly the wii told me that my BMI was 24.88!!!! That's literally a bag of crisps away from over weight. It's suggested I aim for a BMI of 22... That means losing 1st 2lbs over about 3 months. If I manage that I'll be very pleased with myself.

Amusingly husband-to-be hopped onto the balance board and our BMI's are almost identical. How come it looks so much better to be a man with my BMI than a woman?! Anyway because I can't eat cake he's on a forced cakeless diet. I don't think he's impressed.

Lily xXx