I though the radio was talking to me...

Exam was pretty awful yesterday. There were too many gaps in my knowledge and if it hadn't been for the questions on ethics and behaviours I'm not sure I could have answered much. Anatomy bits were better than last time though.

When I got back to my flat I put the radio on and the Smith's "Heaven knows I'm miserable now" was playing, which was how I was feeling. Then, not long after that a version of the White Stripes "I just don't know what to do with myself" and I didn't get a whole lot done yesterday. Did start some anatomy which I need to plod on with today. Went to Pilates again which was still fab, although I've got a bit of a stiff neck this morning. I think that means I was probably doing the exercise wrong as I'm not meant to be working out the muscles of my neck!

Actually going to blog again

Hey, maybe I'm just avoiding doing anymore revision at this time of night but I thought I'd write something on here. I really don't want to be an infectious disease doctor or a haematologist. It's just so complicated and has lots of very tiny details and not enough clinical content. I want to be an obstetrician and/or gynaecologist. That is what has got me through pelvic anatomy and hopefully turned me from an anatomy dunce to (hopefully!) middle of the class somewhere.

Exams start on Monday. I'm not too worried which probably isn't a good thing. I think I may be in denial that they're happening at all. Done a fair bit of work but still got some sizable gaps in my knowledge. I want to spend tomorrow reviewing everything I've done so far and not getting to caught up about what I haven't done- well that's the plan anyway.

It's quite therapeutic to get write on here. I know that next term is going to be quite stressful so anything I can do to stay calm is a bonus. i guess my whole career is going to be a pretty stressful one so i should start early with the calming techniques! I went to Pilates last Monday and i absolutely loved it, definitely going again on Monday after the DIPSE. I also went to choir practice before Christmas and hoping to fit that in again. Singing is good for stress and mental health in general- I've had Annie Lennox on this evening and "feels like walking broken on glass" is a surprisingly accurate description of how it feels to cram rather dull virology into my head.

Back by popular request

Well I'm blogging again. Had a family gathering last week and everybody was asking what had happened to it so I'm making a come back. On my second day as a Healthcare Assistant, I worked a 13 hour shift at a care home so did lots of bathing, toileting and generally helping lots of elderly residents. I was exhausted when I left and subsequently took a wrong turn when walking back to the station and I got quite lost and found myself outside of a dark, leafy psychiatric hospital but thankfully called a taxi and made it home safely.

Blogging again

I'm back at uni after 3 and a bit weeks off. I figured that I'd work better here, less distractions than at home. I'm currently plodding through the Life Cycle module and today has gone okay.


I spent two days at my community placement last week, the girls there were trying out new arts-based activities and I got to try floristry, felt making, drumming, singing and jewellery making which was all fun and counted for quite a few of the total hours which i need to make up.

I also helped out at the Medicine open day where I was paid to talk about how much I love medical school for five hours, which was a bit good.

The Glastonbury line-up was announced last week and I'm muchly excited! Especially about Florence, Marina, Frankie & the Heartstrings, Imogen Heap and Editors.

Better week

Got some free time this week. had yesterday afternoon off, this afternoon off (but I'm going to my community placement) and all day tomorrow so I'm going to get caught up. I'm also staying down here on Friday and studying all day Saturday. So I'll definitely end the week more up to date (if not fully up to date). feeling better about it. Off for (free) lunch with my tutor in a moment.

Tuesday musings

I'm still working 'smart' (that's more efficient than just the traditional method of working hard, apparently) although I didn't do as much as I hoped at the weekend as I was snuggled under my duvet with another cold. Feel totally fine now, possibly down to the herbal remedy (hippy sh*t) Echinacea which I took twice on Saturday. Although having had a lecture on the placebo effect this afternoon- I'm not entirely convinced but I feel better anyway.

I've been using my big A4 diary to review stuff and my motivation is still very high.

I was in hospital on Friday to practice taking a history form the cardio or respiratory patients. I had a very nice but very poorly old lady who had a chest infection. I think the history taking went quite well but when she coughed up some phlegm and spat it into her collecting pot I did gag. This is possibly the most gross experience during my time as a medical student so far. However, she was quite deaf and didn't hear me gag and I was later able to look at the pot and determine it's contents were green without being sick. It ain't as glamours as they make out sometimes!

While ill at the weekend and waiting for my Indian take-away to be delivered (a delicious chicken tikka pathia and onion pilau rice) I watched a pretty good episode of Casualty. I diagnosed the young diver as having a pneumothorax (that's air in the space around the lung, i.e. a punctured lung) when he did in fact have haemothorax (blood in the space around the lung) and felt quite pleased for being close-ish. i should have inspected the x-ray more clearly! The highlight of my evening (aside from my curry being delivered after waiting for an hour and a half!) was when the paramedics brought a patient in and I figured out what all of the acronyms meant;

Dixie- GCS of ten

Me- Ooooh, that's Glasgow Coma Scale!

Sad I know but it made me smile- when I wasn't well myself!

I'm exhausted!

I've had a really busy day again today. i didn't go to sleep until after midnight on the last two nights which is probably catching up with me for a start. On Tuesday night I sat up studying and reading a book I got out of the library called "Mnemonics for medical students" and last night I was ploughing through a book called Talk of the Town by Jacob Polley which is the book of the month at the book club I'm joining on Saturday. I've got about another 100 pages to read tonight and tomorrow! I'm joining the book club to read more (1 book a month for a year is 12 books!) and also because my boyfriend always jokes that I never finish books so I'm going to give this ago. It's not something I'd usually pick up and it's written phonetically in Cumbrian dialect but I'm enjoying it.

This morning we had a lecture from a community paediatrician on milestones in child development which was interesting. I then made lunch and went to my community placement for my induction with two other girls from my course. After that I bought a couple of birthday cards in town (and a cake!) and went to tutor my new GCSE science tutee. I've got a girl for A-level biology next week too.

Now I'm back in my flat and about to to write up today's notes. my dad gave em a big A4 diary and I'm trying to write up the key things I've been taught each day and then look back at them 1 day, 1 week and 1 month later as this is apparently the most effective way to get things into your long term memory. I certainly need a more effective study method than I had last term due to the shear volume of material that we cover. Our lectures are longer (time wise) than my last degree and we also have more lectures per week than during my previous degree so I shouldn't be surprised there is so much to learn.

I'm in hospital tomorrow. I'm going to see either a cardiovascular patient or a respiratory patient and take a medical history from them. Today we've also been told that we can sign-up to shadow an anaethnatist during surgery sometime in the future. It's at the big university hospital and it should be really interesting as I've never been in an operating theatre before.