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Today the surgical society ran an anaesthetics session. We had a lecture on the history of anaesthesia, "an introduction to field anaesthesia in africa", and (the fun part) a practical airway management session.

We got to play with endotracheal tubes, oropharyngeal airways, nasopharyngeal airways, and the fabulous ambu bag. LOVE IT!!!!!









Unfortunately, I only managed to intubate the stomach in the adult dummy....
But I rocked out on paeds.....

And the anaesthetists were super nice and said we could come and hang out with them in theatre any time!

So, a good day.

What the.....?

Having a quick look at good ol GP Notebook for "referred pain", my delightful PBL topic this week.

Was not expecting to see "ectopic pregnancy" as a differential diagnosis for shoulder pain.

Don't you love how weird the body is?

deadline day

Well, today's the day I hand in my essay!

I spent yesterday tweaking it, and, well......... its quite shite. But, I hope its the kind of shite they like at this Med School.

All the same, don't think I'll be getting a distinction....


oo, and (obviously) I'm back! Had PBL again this morning, it was a little flat I'm afraid to say.


At least its sunny.

I can't believe I just wrote that....

" I will continue to work towards becoming a more patient and thoughtful communicator"


VOMIT!!!!!

God I hate happy doctor bullshit.

And the panic sets in...

Still haven't finished the f***ing essay. And I realised last night that I had made the worst mistake of all.......not reading the question properly. And suddenly my examples didn't see so relevant. So I'm tweaking away. And now I have another problem; I've only done 2/3, (minus intro, conclusion and references) and I'm already over my word count. I need to prune, heavily. But how do you do that without losing quality?

And I hate that I have to write this the shite way the med school wants us to, and not the way I feel I can do it best. My previous blog post is how I would like to write this. This is how the med school wants it done:

• Describe the setting (e.g. clinical, PBL group) while keeping anonymity
• Describe briefly and factually what actually happened
• Reflect on why you think it happened (factors influencing people’s behaviour, other people’s perspectives…)
• Summarise your conclusions as to what you would want to be different if this happened again, and why you think this matters
• Summarise the links between the examples and any other relevant experiences
• Show what this taught you about the realities of being a good doctor
• Relate this to yourself – your own strengths or weaknesses, how you are developing yourself as a doctor
• Conclude by showing how you propose to build on this in year(s) ahead

And I'm meant to do that 3 times over.

I HATE IT I HATE IT I HATE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, its not THAT bad, and I can do it if I put my mind to it. But it also makes it very long. I can't say all the things I want to say.......



Ugh, I hate frustration.

And I hate STUPID essays!!!!!

The hopeless case

It was our first chance to interview patients in hospital, and we were understandably excited. Medicine is still shiny and new for us, and the hospital holds a greater allure with its array of sophisticated equipment and diseases. Our group had been assigned to the haematology day treatment clinic. The registrar had arranged for us to talk to a man who was waiting while he received a blood transfusion. The clinic seems pretty nice. Most of the patients are able to sit in comfortable chairs while they read, or chat to a friend, and the atmosphere was very relaxed, the nurses calm and cheerful.

Nothing prepares you for seeing a human being look the way he did; especially in such an innocuous environment. It all looks so pleasant; you don’t expect to see this degree of illness. You are shocked by the wasted limbs, the distended, ungainly belly, the hairless scalp and the yellowed skin stretched across the frame that contains a human being. The apparent fragility is terrifying; what the illness has done to the person seems such a violence. We shuffle about, trying to recruit chairs and not knock the drip poles or the patients. I feel this is such a hideous intrusion, but he says he doesn’t mind. With five of us now perched around him, the interview is supposed to begin. I feel like we are vultures, waiting to gorge ourselves on the history.



Bit by bit we gather his story, and then the true horror of disease emerges. The person inside the frame; the person he was has slowly been disassembled piece by piece. We have forms to fill and questions about his “concerns” and “expectations” to ask. How do you do that? Tentatively I ask if he knows what treatment is planned next, even though I know he’s surviving with twice-weekly transfusions, and waiting for the end. But that is the giant elephant in the room. “I’m not sure”, he says.

We thank him and leave.



This is one of my examples for my essay. Whaddya think? Too melodramatic? Too anything? Just not good enough? Feedback mucho appreciated.

Struggling

I'm floundering with this essay. Its not that I don't have things to say, its finding the right words to do it with. I can't make what I want to express fit with the formula we have been given. And its soo frustrating!!!! I hate what I've written so far; it seems so disjointed and poorly constructed. And I know I can do better. I got a frickin A in my Leaving Cert English, this is ridiculous!


Raaaaaaaargh!!!!!!!