The final throes

And so the last week of my elective is upon me. It's incredibly hard to believe that I've done a whole 7 weeks so far and only have 4 days left to go.

I might not have travelled the world, but I've had one of the most immense times of my life.

I loved staying in London, and am eternally grateful to the BMJ for putting up with me for 4 weeks, but I feel more attuned to Liverpool. So much so that I would quite happily consider packing up and moving up here after my foundation years. Maybe it's just the Northerner in me, or maybe I would be happy working in London doing emergency medicine - who knows yet?

I've learnt so much! From the BMJ viewpoint, and although I haven't really shown it here since, I feel that my writing style has matured a great deal. I've become much more interested in health education and health media and am more interesting in keeping abreast of public affairs with regards to medicine.

And practical skills wise - I CAN SUTURE! HURRAH! I've gotten much better at cannulation, even though the equipment is different to what I've been taught on, and I've actually done some catheters as well.

The staff in the hospital have been truly superb and I'm very thankful to them all.

Plodding through the puke

The Liverpool phase of my elective is so far going swimmingly. A&E seems to appeal to my incredibly short attention span and love of things always being different. I've only gotten bored when there've been no patients - and that's quite a rare occurrence.

I worked nights last week and this week I have twilights. The variability is suiting me as I can happily sleep through the daytime, and the mood of the department and its clientele changes with the setting sun.

And while I've been to Liverpool before, I have only visited, never lived. The city has changed a lot since then, but it's very vibrant and multicultural. It also seems to appeal to my love of having everything easily accessible. It even has an underground, although I haven't used it so far.

All is good, in case you haven't guessed.

Being in Yorkshire

On Saturday morning I went home on the train.Turns out that hopping across the pennines isn't too challenging.A couple of days with my parents should keep family harmony, plus I might have got to an age where I appreciate them now.
The garden and orchard are in full bloom, and every tree seems to be trying to take over. I do miss having a good source of fresh fruit and vegetables, even if I do have to pick them myself. Supermarket or market stall just isn't quite the same...
This is a moth that my father has collected in the orchard. The photo came out amazingly well given that it was taken on my BlackBerry. He's very keen on his wildlife stuff (which hasn't particularly rubbed off on me) and after he's looked at them he puts them in a hedgerow.
I do miss things like that. City life can't beat that one.

Changing schedules

This week the rota for A&E changes. I'm moving onto evenings and nights.
Since I don't go back in for a few days I've popped home to see my parents. Apparently Liverpool to Yorkshire isn't that far.
Photos to follow.

Goodbye London, Hello Liverpool

So it was with a heavy heart that I packed up my belongings (minus one red belt, left with Laura accidentally) and left London. I headed home for a day and then made the epic trip to Liverpool.
I've been here for three days now and was well and truly thrown into the deep end of A&E. I've had equal measures of clinical skills success and failure. Cannulae are not going well but I've managed to put in my first male catheter.
So far it's an amazing city and the department is very friendly and excellent for educational opportunities. It's fair to say that I love both the place and the workload.
The nurses are amazing, the consultants are great and I've not met a bad person yet! It's going to be an enjoyable month (fingers crossed!)

Packing: part two

So with any luck I won't forget anything, but at the moment I'm trying to 'streamline' my cases to head off for the second part of my elective. I'm actually clinical this time so I'm taking books with me so I don't get caught out on any gaping areas of knowledge.

I think these should cover it...
You may also notice that some of the layout of the blog is changing. I'm trying to streamline that too. If you're reading by RSS then hop over and take a look, for old time's sake.
There is a handy 'contact me' page now on  the top right bar, and a '100 things' which is stuck at 15 until I can update it.
Adverts are down for the moment until someone gets back to me with a new offer, else they're staying off. 
There may be some big changes ahead, who knows.
Until then, wish me luck.

A musical few days

Since the last time I blogged my very good news, I've been to see a couple of shows. Well, as they say, when in Rome. On Saturday I managed to get in to see Avenue Q, and then for a complete contrast I saw Wicked last night. I've wanted to see both for quite a while, but Wicked probably more so, and especially since staying with Laura (she's a little bit addicted!)

On Monday night I met Raphael Malikian and went to a live acoustic event at Leicester Square. Different to my usual style of music, but acoustic is always cool, and so is meeting new people.

Speaking of meeting new people, I've had the chance to meet a lot of people who I've previously only tweeted or blog-commented with until now. This elective period has seen me meet Jamrock, Almostbritish, MrAlmostBritish, Littlehalfpint and the aforementioned Raphaelmalikian. I also managed to do an observation shift with Tom Reynolds out in East London.

So far the elective has been an amazing experience, and I can't believe I'm halfway through already. Hopefully, when I'm in Liverpool this time next week I'll be loving it just as much.

In other news, I'm trying to persuade Laura to start blogging again and I think she's reconsidering it. I would be, in proper Yorkshire terms, dead chuffed if you could pop on by her blog and leave her a comment on here and tell her to get her arse into gear. If you get my drift.

Blimey, I haven't posted so many links in a damned long time...

There is some good news after all

There is some good news after all
Originally uploaded by merysjones

Not sure this needs a whole lot more comment....

Medical education

This could be the post that highlights my kryptonite. I've blogged over at doc2doc and I'd like you to go over and visit it. You can comment in either location, although I'd prefer you to comment over there (to show the BMJ guys that I am doing some work!)
It's free and easy to register and YOU DON'T NEED TO BE A DOCTOR!!!

My post is here and I will have some more shiny, sparkly, good news for you all later!

Also, if I can remember where I hid it I will resurrect the flickr link to my page on the site.

There's a first time for everything

I should have said earlier. This year I passed everything first time. No resits, no second attempts, no 'repeated first sits'.
In September I will be a fifth year. And nothing scares me more.