Italy was awesome! Great sights, great food and excellent weather!
Initially, I was slightly disappointed by anarchic Napoli, but Pompeii, Sorrento, Capri and Rome were absolutely fantastic!
Whew~~!
It's been great fun - but pretty tiring as well!
Now to get the household chores done and my laundry washed!
More updates on Italy to come soon!
Friday, August 17, 2007
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Last Day At Chesterfield...For Now!
I was asked to take blood from a registrar today!
Apparently, he wanted to get a LFT done on his blood (no idea why, so don't ask me) when he chanced upon us students lazing in the on-call room.
One thing led to another and before I knew it, I was "volunteered" to take his blood! Hahaha!
It was really nerve-wracking because:
1. He was a registrar.
2. I had to use the syringe and needle which I had never used before instead of the vacutainers I was pretty familiar with.
3. I had an audience.
4. No friendly house officers were going to step in should I fail or in the event that anything goes wrong.
5. Did I mention that he was a registrar?
Bloody hell - I've never been that nervous taking blood! I bet I was more relaxed when I had to take blood for the first time compared to today!
Thankfully, everything went alright and I managed to draw blood from him in one attempt.
Phew!
I guess all that practice paid off!
On different note, today was our last day in Chesterfield before we go off for our 4 week summer break.
I can almost detect a palpable sense of relief from the patients. No more questioning, prodding and poking by the pesky medical students.
LOL!
Anyways, it's been a great 4 weeks - I can honestly say that I've enjoyed every day I've spent there!
Yeah, it's quite tiring and all that, but when you have friendly and helpful PRHOs, SHOs, SPRs and consultants who go out of their way to teach you stuff, it doesn't seem so much like a chore anymore!
So many thanks to everyone at the CRH for teaching us, showing us stuff and generally tolerating our presence all this while!
And to the PRHOs and SHOs who are leaving in August for their next rotation, I wish all of you the best of luck in your new jobs as well!
To the rest (nurses, SPRs, consultants, etc) - we'll be back to get in your way again in the last week of August!
Until then, take care!
Apparently, he wanted to get a LFT done on his blood (no idea why, so don't ask me) when he chanced upon us students lazing in the on-call room.
One thing led to another and before I knew it, I was "volunteered" to take his blood! Hahaha!
It was really nerve-wracking because:
1. He was a registrar.
2. I had to use the syringe and needle which I had never used before instead of the vacutainers I was pretty familiar with.
3. I had an audience.
4. No friendly house officers were going to step in should I fail or in the event that anything goes wrong.
5. Did I mention that he was a registrar?
Bloody hell - I've never been that nervous taking blood! I bet I was more relaxed when I had to take blood for the first time compared to today!
Thankfully, everything went alright and I managed to draw blood from him in one attempt.
Phew!
I guess all that practice paid off!
On different note, today was our last day in Chesterfield before we go off for our 4 week summer break.
I can almost detect a palpable sense of relief from the patients. No more questioning, prodding and poking by the pesky medical students.
LOL!
Anyways, it's been a great 4 weeks - I can honestly say that I've enjoyed every day I've spent there!
Yeah, it's quite tiring and all that, but when you have friendly and helpful PRHOs, SHOs, SPRs and consultants who go out of their way to teach you stuff, it doesn't seem so much like a chore anymore!
So many thanks to everyone at the CRH for teaching us, showing us stuff and generally tolerating our presence all this while!
And to the PRHOs and SHOs who are leaving in August for their next rotation, I wish all of you the best of luck in your new jobs as well!
To the rest (nurses, SPRs, consultants, etc) - we'll be back to get in your way again in the last week of August!
Until then, take care!
Monday, July 23, 2007
Some Books I've Recently Read...
The Divine Comedy (Dante Alighieri)
Savage Garden (Mark Mills)
JPod (Douglas Coupland)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (J. K. Rowling)
Savage Garden (Mark Mills)
JPod (Douglas Coupland)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (J. K. Rowling)
Monday, July 16, 2007
Flying Solo!
I was asked to do consultations with patients by a consultant in his clinic today - alone!
Took histories. Did examinations. The works, basically.
After each patient, I had to present the case history and the examinations' findings to the consultant, who would "follow up" on what I did.
It was pretty nerve-wracking at first.
Mainly because it wasn't like they were the consultant's "regulars" or anything - all of them were new referrals by GPs.
I mean, what if I miss something really important in the history?
What if I fail to pick up some really obvious sign?
What if I offend any of them?
Thankfully, 4 patients and a cup of tea later, the consultant didn't have to retake any histories or redo any examinations from scratch.
Phew. What a relief.
Took histories. Did examinations. The works, basically.
After each patient, I had to present the case history and the examinations' findings to the consultant, who would "follow up" on what I did.
It was pretty nerve-wracking at first.
Mainly because it wasn't like they were the consultant's "regulars" or anything - all of them were new referrals by GPs.
I mean, what if I miss something really important in the history?
What if I fail to pick up some really obvious sign?
What if I offend any of them?
Thankfully, 4 patients and a cup of tea later, the consultant didn't have to retake any histories or redo any examinations from scratch.
Phew. What a relief.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Soft Drink Thoughts
Tried some Dr Pepper - didn't like it.
Tried some "spicy" Jamaican Ginger Beer - didn't like it.
Tried some Bitter Shandy - didn't like it.
Really, I should just stick to Coke/Pepsi.
Tried some "spicy" Jamaican Ginger Beer - didn't like it.
Tried some Bitter Shandy - didn't like it.
Really, I should just stick to Coke/Pepsi.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
No Title
Barely 15 minutes after I see my first patient in Chesterfield, he passes away.
The first patient that I tried to take blood from earlier last week died during the weekend.
The patient who praised me for doing a great job taking blood from her yesterday died last night.
Fuck.
The first patient that I tried to take blood from earlier last week died during the weekend.
The patient who praised me for doing a great job taking blood from her yesterday died last night.
Fuck.
Monday, July 9, 2007
LOL
I was happily wandering in Slumberland during a meeting today - until my pager bleeped.
It was such a shock, I almost swore aloud in surprise as my body went from "Standby" to "Panic" mode in milliseconds.
One of my partners who was observing me while I was asleep said that it was pretty hilarious to watch.
Apparently, I literally jumped up and scrambled for my pager in a panic when I received the bleep.
Luckily I didn't fall out of my chair or something.
And thank goodness that it was a large meeting - it would have obvious to everyone if there were only a handful of people present.
Anyways, the bleep turned out to be from my super-nice PRHO Julianna, who told me that she had a couple of patients for me to bleed.
I feel so bad because she went out of her way to let me know that there's interesting stuff for me to do - but I was fast asleep when she paged me.
Thankfully, I made it to where she was in record time. I would have kicked myself if I had made her wait.
Argh.
Gotta stay awake. Need more coffee.
It was such a shock, I almost swore aloud in surprise as my body went from "Standby" to "Panic" mode in milliseconds.
One of my partners who was observing me while I was asleep said that it was pretty hilarious to watch.
Apparently, I literally jumped up and scrambled for my pager in a panic when I received the bleep.
Luckily I didn't fall out of my chair or something.
And thank goodness that it was a large meeting - it would have obvious to everyone if there were only a handful of people present.
Anyways, the bleep turned out to be from my super-nice PRHO Julianna, who told me that she had a couple of patients for me to bleed.
I feel so bad because she went out of her way to let me know that there's interesting stuff for me to do - but I was fast asleep when she paged me.
Thankfully, I made it to where she was in record time. I would have kicked myself if I had made her wait.
Argh.
Gotta stay awake. Need more coffee.
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Fun Fun Fun!
Bwargh!!!
Tried taking blood from a patient but failed to get any blood!
Thankfully, I didn't give him a humongous haematoma.
It's so much easier on the training dummy's arm - I guess I have to just keep practising on real patients!
My apologies in advance, dear patients!
However, on the plus side, my history-taking and basic examinations are a lot more fluid and natural.
Well, I guess that's what comes of taking a couple of histories and doing some examinations each and every day.
Also managed to watch a refashioning of an amputation stump!
It was a bit gory since it involved cutting out a section of remaining bone - but the moment where a small artery was cut and blood was spurting out of it onto the floor was quite funny!
The surgeons cauterized it really quickly, though. Aww.
Yes, I know that I'm sick.
But it's weird, because I've never really liked the sight of gore or blood before.
I guess anyone can get used to anything, sooner or later.
Tried taking blood from a patient but failed to get any blood!
Thankfully, I didn't give him a humongous haematoma.
It's so much easier on the training dummy's arm - I guess I have to just keep practising on real patients!
My apologies in advance, dear patients!
However, on the plus side, my history-taking and basic examinations are a lot more fluid and natural.
Well, I guess that's what comes of taking a couple of histories and doing some examinations each and every day.
Also managed to watch a refashioning of an amputation stump!
It was a bit gory since it involved cutting out a section of remaining bone - but the moment where a small artery was cut and blood was spurting out of it onto the floor was quite funny!
The surgeons cauterized it really quickly, though. Aww.
Yes, I know that I'm sick.
But it's weird, because I've never really liked the sight of gore or blood before.
I guess anyone can get used to anything, sooner or later.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Coffee With Consultants...
This is how not to start a day :-
15 minutes after you arrive at the wards for the daily morning ward rounds, a patient takes the mighty leap to reach the Pearly Gates.
To make it worse, it was a patient that you had just gone in to see barely 5 minutes ago.
Not a good start at all for Day Two at Chesterfield.
However, it got better and better as the day wore on.
After the ward rounds, we followed the consultants, specialist registrars, senior house officers and the house officers to the nearby restaurant for a post-ward rounds meeting.
I sort of expected the affair to be 100% medicine-orientated, but our meeting turned out to be a really informal event.
So informal that the topics discussed in the "meeting" were good places to get curry, reputable and disreputable takeaways, good restaurants and experiences in examining medical students in the OSCE.
I guess I'm really lucky to be attached to Chesterfield.
Everyone over here is really friendly and they make you feel as though you're actually part of the team and not just another pesky medical student who gets in the way of everything.
For instance, the junior doctors, SHOs and the SpRs are really keen to teach us stuff and include us in discussions regarding patients' treatments.
An example - a SHO took us to see "interesting" cases in the morning, teaching us loads of history-taking skills in the process.
Another example - the junior doctor we were attached to taught us how to insert a cannula into patients and how to read chest and abdominal X-rays.
Another example - the consultants allowed us into the OTs to watch not one but two operations that they were carrying out, explaining stuff to us the entire time.
Add that to the fact that we get free lunches every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.
I think I love the Chesterfield Royal Hospital.
Seriously.
15 minutes after you arrive at the wards for the daily morning ward rounds, a patient takes the mighty leap to reach the Pearly Gates.
To make it worse, it was a patient that you had just gone in to see barely 5 minutes ago.
Not a good start at all for Day Two at Chesterfield.
However, it got better and better as the day wore on.
After the ward rounds, we followed the consultants, specialist registrars, senior house officers and the house officers to the nearby restaurant for a post-ward rounds meeting.
I sort of expected the affair to be 100% medicine-orientated, but our meeting turned out to be a really informal event.
So informal that the topics discussed in the "meeting" were good places to get curry, reputable and disreputable takeaways, good restaurants and experiences in examining medical students in the OSCE.
I guess I'm really lucky to be attached to Chesterfield.
Everyone over here is really friendly and they make you feel as though you're actually part of the team and not just another pesky medical student who gets in the way of everything.
For instance, the junior doctors, SHOs and the SpRs are really keen to teach us stuff and include us in discussions regarding patients' treatments.
An example - a SHO took us to see "interesting" cases in the morning, teaching us loads of history-taking skills in the process.
Another example - the junior doctor we were attached to taught us how to insert a cannula into patients and how to read chest and abdominal X-rays.
Another example - the consultants allowed us into the OTs to watch not one but two operations that they were carrying out, explaining stuff to us the entire time.
Add that to the fact that we get free lunches every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.
I think I love the Chesterfield Royal Hospital.
Seriously.
Monday, July 2, 2007
Chesterfield - Day One!
Yay!!
It's a historical moment - I've received my first hospital pager ever!
Historical moments aside, it's slightly a mystery to me as to why the Chesterfield Royal Hospital even bothers giving these pagers out to medical students.
I mean, if an emergency did occur and by some miraculous chance they decide to page us medical students, what would we do?
Run around like headless chickens?
Get in the way of everyone while they're trying to resuscitate the poor patient?
Get traumatised by jets of blood spurting out of someone's corporeal shell in this mortal world and promptly faint, giving them another casualty to be treated?
What I think is - if there's an emergency, they'll bleep us to let us know what's going on.
So we can hide somewhere and make ourselves scarce. And hopefully not get in anyone's way in the process.
LOL.
Seriously though, it's a really nice touch by the hospital.
It kinda makes us feel more involved, I guess. It makes all of us feel like we're part of the team and not just outsiders watching and doing nothing
Although we're not doing really much at the moment.
But I guess watching, learning and practising is pretty much what we're supposed to do at the moment anyways.
It's a historical moment - I've received my first hospital pager ever!
Historical moments aside, it's slightly a mystery to me as to why the Chesterfield Royal Hospital even bothers giving these pagers out to medical students.
I mean, if an emergency did occur and by some miraculous chance they decide to page us medical students, what would we do?
Run around like headless chickens?
Get in the way of everyone while they're trying to resuscitate the poor patient?
Get traumatised by jets of blood spurting out of someone's corporeal shell in this mortal world and promptly faint, giving them another casualty to be treated?
What I think is - if there's an emergency, they'll bleep us to let us know what's going on.
So we can hide somewhere and make ourselves scarce. And hopefully not get in anyone's way in the process.
LOL.
Seriously though, it's a really nice touch by the hospital.
It kinda makes us feel more involved, I guess. It makes all of us feel like we're part of the team and not just outsiders watching and doing nothing
Although we're not doing really much at the moment.
But I guess watching, learning and practising is pretty much what we're supposed to do at the moment anyways.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
