Results

I meant to post this yesterday, but I’ve become quite interested in WordPress that it slipped my mind a bit. Plus, I had to leave not long after the results came out (which they didn’t until about 5:30pm!).

In the big picture, I’m now in 3rd year :D! While this is kind of all that really matters at the end of the day, I was a little bit disappointed with the results. I felt it had went better than it obviously did, which I don’t like. That said, a number of people have failed that I really would’ve expected so in a way I’m being a bit unfair moaning at my pass.

Either way, it’s now ever and I can plan things like electives. Oh, and I can work non-stop apparently. Rejoice.

“It’s tomorrow?”, “Oh shit…”

Yes, it finially is tomorrow and am I ready? No idea. I think and certainly hope so but I can never really be sure. I could probably not have done much more in the way of working for it, although I did retreat home today for a BBQ. That might not have been the smartest move and I’m sure if I do fail some of the blame will go there but I honestly needed to relax and forget about medicine.

I’ve planned to head to the swimming pool (or certainly the sauna) straight after before heading into the SL to revise for the one on Tuesday. This will hopefully calm me down from what I expect won’t be my most enjoyable 2.5hrs.

Whilst I’m trying to work out what is coming up in my exam, the rest of the world’s geek community seems to be trying to work out what’s coming up in the new iPhone, suggested to be revealed in Steve Jobs’ keynote at the Moscone Center tomorrow. So far I’ve heard rumours that it’ll be faster (3G, almost certainly), thinner, cheaper (interesting one for me!) and colourful. I may end up buying a iPod Touch over the summer but if any and ideally all these rumours are true I may just head for the iPhone. The fact my current phone is less than a year old makes me realise just how much of a geek I really would be.

Still though….the iPhone….

Simple things

With 4 and a bit days to go till my exams start today I finished my final PBL scenario of the year (alcoholic liver disease). Personally I considered it a horrid final scenario but wonder if the idea was to put us off drinking too much following the exam. Good luck.

Whilst finishing the questions I came across a sentence about liver function tests that I felt just had to be explained like so:

if ($g_gt > G_GT_NORM) AND ($alk_phos == ALK_P_NORM)
{
$patient = “boozer”;
}
else
{
$patient = “complicated”;
}
die($patient);

I felt like I needed to come on here and reflect upon the sadness (and difficulties, I made many mistakes!) of writing code in my notes. In conclusion I’ve decided the stress has finally got to me.
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Tick tock

Two weeks this very day I will have finished the first paper of year two. I have jumped my revision into what I’d describe as 4th gear. Yesterday I managed to kill my personal record for revising in the SL - a whole 14 hours. Unfortunately this is probably a bit of an overestimate as I do need to eat, excrete and not forgetting procrastinate. I remain worryingly confident that all will be well. Even today, as I glanced over my least favourite of the blocks (gastro), I feel that come two weeks I will still be smiling - perhaps a little nervously.

At the moment I’ve been spending far too long looking at electives for the coming years - this assuming I will pass. Ideally, I’d love to spend my third year (junior) elective with the HEMS team in London and my senior one somewhere abroad. Unfortunately the competitiveness might be too much for me and I’m not generally too lucky. Still, it’s worth an email, I just want to wait till my exam results are in. I can’t really work out plans for my senior one until I know whether I will be intercalating or not. This is a big decision, probably bigger than it should be, and I’m still on the fence. I don’t even know whether I’d be allowed or not.

Three weeks today an I will have finished my first training session as a phlebotomist. Yes, I finally got some news. Apparently there was much of a mess up with recruitment and a few people have been having problems. The date is provisional, which is a bit of a problem come trying to work out a start date for the Safari Park. Hopefully the two should help avoid a financial hell-hole next year, combined with a much reduced rent.

Needed update

So I’ve been neglecting this of late and I’ve kept meaning to post an update

The competition which I was trying to submit to has been sent away but I’ve yet to hear a result or even an acknowledgement. I emailed the contact I had before sending it and got no reply and she didn’t pick up her phone either. I don’t really know whether the time I spent on it was worth it or not which is really annoying. I’m hopeful I’ll still hear something back although I’m not convinced. Also hope that I’ll get my SSM result back sometime in the near future but I know that version of the essay was much weaker than the greatly extended one.

That doesn’t mean I don’t have plenty to do in the mean time. With only about 6 weeks to go till the exam the stress is really starting to hit. In fact I really shouldn’t be on here typing this but I need an excuse to stop revising now and again. I’m not quite as worried as some of my colleagues yet but I’m sure it’ll get that way soon. The breadth of topics we’ve covered this year is actually quite impressive, although I really feel I’ve forgot a lot of it. Trying to work out the best way to revise is also taking time. I’ve concluded that reading through my notes PBL by PBL just doesn’t work and becomes ridiculously boring. Mind-maps, questions and peer groups seem to do the trick a lot more.

The problem though is trying to fit it all in around the 5 or so weeks of teaching we have to go. How I envy those with study leave!

We’re also getting another final piece of coursework in the next week or so, just in case we didn’t have enough to be getting on with. My aim is to finish that hopefully the same day, although I anticipate yet more “original hand drawings” - grr!

Away from Uni I’ve been doing the odd first aid duty now and again. Went to my first old firm match last week which certainly opened by eyes a bit. Ended up meeting someone from my VS group as well which, in a crowd of about 60000, was pretty impressive. Managed to take a few phone quality pics of the night, the best of which being these 2:

I’ve still not heard anything about my phlebotomy job. My Disclosure is back and I’m expecting to need an appointment with occupational health. Hopefully I’ll hear something soon as I could do with some money….badly!

A few good days

Quite rare, but they do happen.

Just yesterday, when I talked to my mum and decided not to work at all over Easter and instead face financial mayhem, do I hear about an interview for a phlebotomy job. Considering I’ve applied for that about 3 times in the past, it’s progress. It’s next Wednesday and I just so happen to be free that day. Call it fate. We’ll see.

Even more impressive was my mum taking me to see cars and end up buying one. Sadly it’s not for me but I was still amazed at the abruptness of her decision.

Pain management is rolling along nicely. We have only one more clinical day outstanding and it’s paediatrics, which should be excellent. I have so far this SSM seen - people in pain, gynae day surgery, more people in pain, impressive surgery involving blood with colourful stuff in it, difficult intubations and difficult sedated patients, 2 caesarian sections (both girls, all well), fractured femurs and difficult hips, knee replacements and acupuncture. Quite a lot for 2 weeks! It’s been an excellent module and now I have to start thinking more about the report. I’ll probably stick with PCA as it’s quite a wide topic. Not sure if I’ll get it buffed up to the size required for the essay competition - it’s possible.

We have a tutorial tomorrow to discuss it with our supervisor so I’ll see what’s mentioned then. Following that I have what can only be described as a weekend of first aid - kids hockey, adults boxing (both Friday), Saturday football and helping out at a first aid class on Sunday. I didn’t quite plan it to happen like that, but if phlebotomy goes forward I may not have many free weekends left!

In times of stress

A 2000 word essay, a 3000 word essay, a presentation and revision(!!). All to be done in the next couple of weeks. Add on the clinical visists, a couple of first aid duties, the prospect of a job interview (heh) and not forgetting the girlfriend all means I’m feeling exhausted.

Worst of all though is I’m now in severe money problems. Hopefully I’ll hear this week about an interview for phlebotomy which would be ideal. If not, I’m faced with a dilemma - either work during easter (and possible fail due to lack of revision) or suck it up in my overdraft. I’m going to discuss it with my mum this week, I really don’t know any more.

If I do work and fail my exam, it means I won’t be keen on working as much in the summer. However, if I pass the exam I could work almost full time in the summer. According to my counter, I have 3 and a half months to go…I might be able to make it. Obviously, if I get a phlebotomy post then this doesn’t matter. I know what I’m hoping for.

Is it painful?

So I’ve finished the first week of my first SSM.

It wasn’t quite as exciting as it could’ve been. We started off, as promised, with a PowerPoint on how to properly make a PowerPoint. This really should’ve been delivered to 12 year olds instead of us - it was highly irrelevant and quite patronising! The best news was that it lasted only 1 hour instead of the 2 timetabled. I also have to give him credit for mentioning (in a positive way) Apple Macs and Keynote.

After that we had what I thought was an introduction to the SSM. Instead it was an introduction to pain and hit home a lot of the stuff we knew as well as adding in a fair bit we didn’t. It dragged on for a bit (3hrs) but was pretty good and certainly worthwhile.

Therefore, a day later than expected, we got our clinical timetables. Now I was pretty excited (sad, I know). The basic timetable is one day in then the following one off, for the next 2 weeks. We have a visit for most of the obvious pain settings - out-patients clinic, theatre (my first time, highly excited but slightly nervous), obstetrics (indifferent, heard good things - can’t wait to hear what my mother’s input will be) and pain rounds. There’s also 1 day to Yorkhill (paediatrics) which I’m (yet again) quite looking forward to.

I also need to come up with a pain related topic for a 10 minute presentation and 3000 word essay. My current thoughts are something around about analgesia administration route in acute pain, with an emphasis on patient controlled analgesia (PCA) particularly in children. This is quite a broad area (I think) that I can easily get the words and something that I’d be quite interested in.

We also have the option to extend the essay to around 6000 words and submit it for an annual anaesthesia prize. I’m quite intrigued about possibly doing this, depending on whether I can write enough and of reasonably decent quality. Even if I don’t win (which is likely) then I’d have a bit of experience in submitting for awards which is great in such a competitive world.

I am getting slightly annoyed by people who want to do as little work as possible. I know a lot of people that would love a clinical SSM and yet they couldn’t get it. I’ve heard from those in years above me that this is one of their favourite SSMs and the learning experience is unbeatable. I, for one, aim to make the most of it.

It’s almost time…

This week marks the end of block 9 and next week is the beginning of my SSM on pain management. This block has dealt with a lot of clinical topics encompassing cardiovascular, renal and respiratory medicine. Which, on the whole, is a lot to cover in 5 weeks. It was, to be honest, pretty boring though. I’m not sure whether this was related to my group being very ambitious and dealing with every topic down to the level of quarks and leptons. Slight hyperbole perhaps, but it’s how I feel during feedback.

Next week, however, is probably the most I’ve looked forward to something for a while. Well, next week itself is mainly a prep week for the 4 which follow. It does, however, start with a timetabled 2 hours(!!) of PowerPoint. I don’t know what the hell they plan on doing with us for two hours concerning PowerPoint but I can tell it’s going to bore the hell out of me.

A quick dash back across to the other side of the city for a proper introduction to the module follows that. Here, hopefully, we get out timetable for possible clinical sessions in the next 4 weeks. We have to attend a minimum of 9 with a session being either a morning of afternoon. I’m looking forward to pretty much all of it, with anything ITU even more interesting.

It may, however, put me off anaesthesia for life but I’d rather discover that now that 6 years down the line.

Finally managed to sort out another Family Project visit for Friday, so I’ll be all babied out.

Awww!

December!

December already, it’s been such a quick year. This means I now have to accept that Christmas is near and should probably make more of an effort on the present front. It also means I have to open my two advent calendars (neither of which I bought!). Guess I’m going to be taking my running stuff home with me…

Now that I’ve actually spent some proper time with St Andrews I get an understanding of the real disadvantage that must plague ambulance staff. Whilst we can do a lot for things like cuts and stuff, we never really know what happens to people afterwards. Take a suspected fracture. Did the guy go to A&E and get it seen to? Was it even a fracture? Will he be playing this weekend? I don’t know whether it’s medical curiosity or just general need-to-know that makes this bug me. Kind of makes me wonder whether I could deal with working in A&E or not.

At the end of the day though, I don’t have any choice but to move on. The more serious the casualty though, the more I want to know.

In other news, I only have 1 more day to go! This is followed however by 2, maybe 3, nights out. I’m having a real problem enjoying nights out this year. I don’t know whether I’m just bored of people there or if I don’t see the point in getting quite so drunk quite so often. Who knows, but I feel compelled to go anyway.

Block 8 coursework was handed in on Tuesday. I wasn’t ecstatic that it was my best work but I feel it was a pass at least. We get our Block 7 results this Friday, which will either put me in a good or bad mood for the rest of the holidays. Oh the fun.