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.

Back to lectures

Exams were okay, but only okay. I found the DIPSE the best which is contrary to what everybody else thought which isn't usually a good sign. Additionally i failed to identify a nipple on the cadaver (it was a man!) in the anatomy exam so I'm not feeling too clever.

However, they're only the first ones, don't count for very much but proved the shear volume of material which you need to know in medicine and hence how much revision you need to do in the term and not just the five weeks before exams.

This morning got off to a slow start. We were in 9-11am to identify our learning outcomes for the kidney lectures but got done just before 10am. so i went back to my flat, had a brew and read a couple of pages of the physiology textbook. returned to lecture theatre at 11am but lecturer didn't show up so after sitting around for 20 minutes we left. I'm in again 12-1pm for history taking and then 2-5pm for communication skills.

Revising

First exam tomorrow and I'm pretty nervous. I think my anxiety is being compounded by the other medical students I live with talking in great detail about alveolar compliance and other topics I haven't revised. i just haven't been able to get through everything. Medics are known for being competitive and countless people have said don't believe the people who appear to know everything. When my boyfriend was at uni he said his mates were at the opposite end of the spectrum- bragging about how little work they had done for the exams.

It's different living with people doing the same course and pretty intense. When I did my last degree and lived at home I hardly saw anybody else during the run up to exams so it was only during the half an hour of hanging around outside the exam venue that I could get freaked out.

I'm just re-revising the stuff I've done at the moment- no point trying to learn anything new now. My exam is at 2.30pm tomorrow afternoon.

On a happier note i made my first Spanish Omelet for tea this evening and it was delicious so I'm quite pleased with myself. Shame it's not a cookery exam tomorrow...

Happy New Year

Hello again!

I've been really bad and I haven't posted for ages but I will try harder this year. I'm currently revising for exams which commence on 18th January.

I've got three exams-

1. a DIPSE (not the telly-tubby- it stands for something like data interpretation and short answer questions although I know that doesn't spell DIPSE. It's a bit like a GCSE science paper where you write odd words or short paragraphs actually on the exam paper. You also have to write your candidate number on every page because they break the paper up and the different subjects are marked by different people)
2. a MCQ/EMI (multiple choice and extended matching items whihc is multiple choice but with about 10 or 12 options)
3. anatomy spotter (the specimens have various pins stuck in them and you have to precicely identify which stucture the pin is pointing to)

It's going okay, certainly more enjoyable than revising for any of the stuff I did in my previous degree. I've also gotta keep a blog as part of my course called a Learning Portfolio where I learn be reflecting on expereinces that I have had both inside and out of the classroom.

I watched Julie and Julia again the other night which is probably the reason I'm blogging again. It was definately my favourite film of 2009- I loved it. The 1940's Parisian glamour, the food, the clothes, New York...

I've been dreaming about food and drink ever since. Last night it was Pina Coladas with my friend Mim. It's was great night out and no headache this morning!

Exams

So I had my exams yesterday which weren't as bad as I was expecting. In the morning we had a multiple choice paper and a DIPSE paper which stands for something about data interpretation and short answer questions- not quite sure how they came up with the acronym DIPSE though. In the afternoon we had an anatomy spotter which was okay although I wrote 'arch of aorta' for several answers. We were reminded several times about remembering to identify if something was a left or a right- to the point I nearly wrote 'right heart' when obviously we only have one- and it's on the left of the body. Get results in about three weeks which is as long as I had to wait for the results of my finals!

Last night there was a big MedSoc night out,which I declined. Instead I watched "Sex and the City" and drank hot chocolate. It was great! Consequently I woke up this morning much more bight eyed and bushy tailed than some of my colleagues for another day of 9-5 lectures.

Study, study, study...

I'm studying hard for my formative exam tomorrow. Formative exams don't count for your final mark for the year (as opposed to summative) so it's a good opportunity to start revising for my summative exams in January. I've got a 4 hour multiple choice and short answer question exam in the morning- although I really hope it's not going to take four hours! In the afternoon I've got a Timed Practical Circuit (also known as an anatomy spotter) where there will be various specimens with a pin stuck in each one and we have to identify what the pin is pointing to. I'll let you know how I get on!

Weekly update

I took to my bed on Thursday as I felt awful but now I have made a full recovery!

Having a really busy week so far. On Monday morning we were introduced to our next 'case'- a man who had been stabbed in the neck. We then had group discussions of the things we would need to know to treat him such as the anatomy of blood vessels in the neck, how to stop the bleeding, how to treat somebody who has lost lots of blood and how to interpret various test results. In the afternoon we had a lecture on the embryology (the study of how the foetus develops) of the heart.

Yesterday morning I was in the dissecting room, looking at the interior of the heart and the upstairs drawing the outline of the heart on each other with eyeliner and listening to the various valves in different places. In the afternoon we had our first hospital visit to A&E where we met various staff members and observed a consultation. It was a Tuesday afternoon and not much was happening.

This morning we had lectures on how the nervous system controls the heart. This afternoon we met our pregnant lady for our family study project. We went to her house and chatted to her for about 1hour and 15mins. She was lovely and talked lots about her pregnancy and her previous pregnancy and birth. Lot's of information for my 3,000 word report. We're going for our second visit next week.

I'm ill! *sniff sniff*

I've got a cold. And they say doctors make the worst patients. I guess that makes medical students pretty bad too. I've got a runny nose and a sore thought and a cough and generally feel a bit rubbish. I haven't missed any lectures though! I had a practical this morning, doing ECGs. At the start the lecturer said "One of the groups gets to be the patient and needs to like down quietly for the duration of the class". I thought that this was fantastic and could have a little snooze and would still be marked as attending. Then she went on to say that this patient for the ECG had to be in perfect health and not be on any medications. As I'd started my day with a crumpet, a mug of hot ribeana and a cold and flu remedy containing paracetamol, phenylephrine and caffeine, this ruled me out. And I actively took part in the practical. I still feel pretty rotten though. I've had this afternoon off because it's Wednesday but it hasn't been too productive with my snotty nose!

I've been for tea now and had plenty of broccoli and carrots!

Bonfire night

This morning we had quite a complex lecture on embryology which is how a foetus develops and how the cells differentiate into tissues. Then we had a lecture on genetic abnormalities related to chromosome number. I made a big pan of chilli-con-carne at lunchtime and we're going to have that for tea when we come back form the fireworks display tonight. This afternoon we had a really boring lecture about public health. Public heath isn't necessarily a boring subject but the lecturer just gave us lists and lists of databases where we could find statistics about public health. And then read the lists to us. My friend actually fell asleep. I think I heard her snore a little bit too. It would be much better to have approached the topic with a question such as "where can I find out how many people smoke in Glasgow?" or "how many people died from heart disease in the UK in 2003?" and then explored the databases from there. But that's just my opinion.

Other tales of Monday

Also on Monday we had dissection and anatomy again. In anatomy we had to paint on the ribs and lungs and it was my turn to be the canvas. I was sat on the examination couch in my bra with my (thankfully) female anatomy partner and teacher prodding at my chest trying to identify my sixth left anterior intercostal space, (just under the underwire of M&S underwear if you want to find your own). All of the other pairs had at least one boy in them so although they didn't have the female anatomy to worry about, I think some of the boys may have got lots of paint matted into their chest hair. And they'll certainly be at a disadvantage after we do ECGs when we come to remove the sticky pads.

I also got a letter from one of the medico-legal societys you have to subscribe to. They are able to provide legal advice and defence if you make a medical error or somebody ties to sue you. Some words in medicine are very similar (such as the cardiac glycoside drugs digoxin and digitoxin) and therefore you would expect medics to be very careful of how they spelt things. However, in my first letter from this society they had inserted a letter 'e' randomly into my first name. I don't really think that gives off the correct impression, does it?!

Routes of Administration

I've left it ages again to write, I know, I know- I'll try to do better. I know some people are actually reading this now too! Thanks for your emails.

So on Monday we had our first pharmacology lecture. It was pretty similar to my first pharmacology lecture during my previous degree on routes of administration- basically all of the ways you can give a drug.

• orally as a tablet
• injections into veins, arteries, muscles or under the skin
• inhalers
• nasal sprays
• eye drops
• the sub-lingual (under-the-tongue) angina spray
• skin patches for nicotine
• various lotions and potions you can apply topically to the skin

(wouldn't have thought of all of those yourself, would you?!)

There is also however, rectal suppositories. Now, when I was at my previous university and Professor A mentioned the above there was a rather silly giggle which ripples at the room and he shouted "That is not funny. It is sometimes necessary to administer medication this way!". but because we were 18 and British, we find any mention of bums a bit silly. (Later in my degree I also remember Professor A, telling us that rectal administration of drugs is much more common in France). Anyway, in our medical school lecture, Dr. H had a picture of the various routes such as a man taking an aspirin with a glass of water or a child taking her inhaler for asthma. However, it wouldn't really be appropriate to see a patient enduring the last route of administration so he used a picture of an alley and exclaimed "up the back passage!". The variation in approach to the subject between Prof. A and Dr. H was very noteworthy.

I got the job!

I got an email at 11.45am this morning and I got the job. I've also been offered the position of student ambassador to help out on open days, tours and summer schools for prospective students. That's paid too. I'm very pleased. I've got to attend two days of paid training the weekend after next. I'm currently celebrating with a cup of coffee and a large milkybar.

Otherwise today hasn't been to great. Our 9am lecture was cancelled when we got there and after 10 minutes the problem with the computer still wasn't fixed. At 10.30am we had to collect our personal KEEpads (the who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire handsets I think I mentioned yesterday. This afternoon we had a lecture on qualitative and quantitative data followed by a session with my tutor group which was a bit flat. Not everyone contributes to the discussions (in fact mostly there was only about 3 of us out of 10 who said much at allg) which defeats the object of the sessions.

Going to read some of the GMC guidelines on "Duties of a Doctor" this evening as our first assignment is based on this.

Blood pressure and things

I actually heard a blood pressure today! We have to learn to measure blood pressures manually with a stethoscope and not just with a digital machine which I've used previously. Firstly, manual BPs are more accurate (especially if they are very low or very high) and also if we go to the back of beyond for our elective in fourth year then we probably won't get a digital machine to use- although I'm still considering the possibility of nipping down to Boots and getting a digital home one to keep, just in case. I've measured BP previously during my first degree, except there were about 100 of us in the lab and the background noise meant we heard nothing. I had a couple of attempts and was struggling and then I tried on another student (who used to be a nurse and was pointing me in the right direction) and I heard it! Very pleased but certainly need more practice.

This morning we had a quiz with our KEEpads (like the who wants to be a millionaire 'ask the audience buttons') for two hours on chest x-rays. Lots of the questions were "what is X pointing to?" or "which condition does this patient have?" with multiple choice answers. Graphs appear on the screen (like in who wants to be a millionaire) to show which percentage of students voted for which answer. I think it was a really effective way to find out what you didn't know and be reassured that you did know quite a bit of stuff. One x-ray showed a baby with Dextrocardia Situs Inversus, which is when the heart is one the right side of the body (as opposed to the left) and other organs (such as liver, stomach, spleen, appendix) are on the opposite side too. This usually causes the individuals no problems ad often isn't detected until later in life. However, having just dextrocardia (a heart on the right) can cause major problems. Isn't that interesting?! It's pretty rare though.

I also had an interview today to be an Aim higher associate. These are undergraduate students who are involved with mentoring and encouraging applications from local school students who may not previously thought of going to university (due to finances, living in local authority care, being a carer for a parent, unrealistic perceptions of university or not having family members who have gone to university). It was a group interview with five other girls where we had to prepare a presentation on "what is university?". I think it went okay. I find out tomorrow and it pays very well.

It's been so long

Apologies folks for not writing for a week! Not good enough for a blogger- me thinks. I had an IT drama on Thursday and I've been in a virtual strop ever since. On Thursday we had the placement provider fayre where various heath and social care charities from across our local area had stalls with information encouraging us to do our community placement with them. The community placement runs from January to December 2010 and during that time we need to complete 60 hours of voluntary service and then submit a 3000 word report on our experiences, specifically reflecting on what we had learned. Most of my previous voluntary experiences have been with children or elderly people. Therefore I'm keen to work with young people who have problems I haven't personally encountered such as addictions, homelessness and living in local authority care. We had to fill in a form online stating which areas we'd like to work in and what we want to gain form the experience and our personal details. I spent ages on this (like about two hours) and when I pressed submit I got an error message and lost everything I'd entered into this form. I was sooooooooooooooo annoyed and hence have been in a huff with all computers since.

Anyway, the week ended better and we had out first patient contact. Two patients with Cystic Fibrosis came in so we could ask them about what it was like to live with the disease. One patient was also with his parents and we asked them about his diagnosis and what that time was like for them, as he was too young to remember it. It was really interesting and definitely puts what we are learning into context.

On Monday we were back in the dissection room for some basic thorax anatomy which was ace. It didn't even feel like a lesson- just like being told about something really interesting by somebody who really knew their stuff. Then we had a lesson on the osteology of the thorax and learned about the bones which make up the ribcage and spine. Finally we had our first go at body painting and had to paint on the clavicles (collarbones), sternal angle, sternal notch and xiphoid process on our partners. This is a bit weird- prodding at the chest somebody you barely know (especially as it was a girl and they have breasts which makes anything to do with the chest more complicated!). I'm sure I'll get used to it though. I must remember to cut my nails before next week so I don't scratch anybody.

Yesterday we had lectures on histology (the tissues) of the respiratory tract and then a quick refresher of how to use a light microscope. The highlight of yesterday at uni was the free lunch in the canteen provided by our tutor. Most of us had roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and it was lush! In the afternoon we had an introduction to communication skills.

This morning I've had a lecture which was revision for me on cell membrane transporters. These are proteins which sit in the membrane of a cell and control the entry and exit of ions and molecules such as glucose.