RIP Boris

It is with deep regret that I am announcing the death of Boris.

Boris and I had gained a deep and meaninful relationship over the space of the last 18 months. The bonding was painful in many occasions, but I feel we acquired a mutual respect of each other.

I spent time and money on Boris, and the occasional tarty gadget to make him look cooler.

Sadly, Boris' time is up. The weird clicking noise he'd been making recently proved too costly to his health.

On the plus side, I bought a new* bike.

Does anyone know how the hell I broke a bottom bracket, chain and gear cog thingy in the space of 18 months? Apparently the chain (which is less than 12 months old) looks as though it's done in the region of 10,000 miles.

Ah well, at least I have a new toy to break bones with now?



*second hand

Did the Earth move for you?

It says a lot that my housemate thought last night's earthquake was me shaking his bed.

Despite all of us having the day off today, we were all in the kitchen at 0830 discussing the events of early this morning.

I genuinely thought I was having some weird hallucination. I'm prone to sleepwalking and a tad night hallucinations, but when everything started shaking in my room I thought I'd gone bonkers.

Thankfully it wasn't just me.

Unusual activities

At times of stress I am the most amazing procrastinator known to man.

Take last night for example. I had an hour turn around time between finishing uni and heading off to an extracurricular activity. During that time I managed to cook a meal, have a shower and….. spin some sheep fleece into yarn.

Yes I know, what the hell??!!

I have some unusual hobbies, and have always been very arts and craft orientated.

Consequently I’ve re-found an old habit that I haven’t touched for a long time. Therefore, my carpet in my room is all fluffy.

Medical Truths

Quote from my lecturer yesterday:


"The hardest thing to do in any OSCE is make sure you have the right amount of alcohol gel on your hands. Too much and you're forever wiping it off."

Strange but true

Well said Faith

While merrily reading my RSS subscriptions, I came across Faith's piece entitled Daily Hate Mail.

Damn straight Faith is all I can say. Yes, I do say to patients 'back in a minute' but that's usually because I'm holding a bedpan full of undesirables when they want me to rearrange their fruit on the table. No, really, I'm going to wash my hands first.

And I'm bitching here as an auxiliary nurse by the way, but this makes me really angry. I worked an MAU shift yesterday and didn't get a break in the entire shift. I spent the whole time running from patient to patient answering their needs.

While I was making sure that patients weren't sitting in their own excrement, my nurse colleague was simultaneously feeding 2 patients. THERE AREN'T ENOUGH STAFF. FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS HOLY!

Weightloss

As you can probably see from the ticker above, my weight loss is going incredibly well.

I lost 3lbs this last week, although I suspect that that may in part be related to spending another day asleep in bed today, rather than attending a placement day.

I honestly have spent most of the last two days asleep, and feeling generally quite rough, although I suspect it may be psychological rather than physical illness.

I will admit now to having a binge tonight on McCoys crisps, wine and Jack Daniels.

I got some bad academic news today relating to a piece of coursework I did in January.

I really worked my arse off for it, putting in more effort than I have for any other piece of work so far at uni, yet I failed it. So as well as the stress of having a resubmission, my university will charge me an extortionate amount of money for the privilege of doing so. Marvellous, just marvellous. More money that I don't have.

Mind over Matter

Today I was meant to be on placement. I woke up and knew it wasn't going to happen.
My head hurts, my shoulders, neck and back all hurt and I feel as though I could sleep for a thousand days.

I don't want to get out of bed tomorrow, and having spoken to the medical school have decided to do just that.

I'm just getting a tad confused. I think I'm overdoing it, but with a still extensive financial burden hanging over my head I need to work at the moment more than I need to do a placement day.

I do generally love placement days, but these ones have been both rough and useless.

A full day of lectures in a hospital hardly a clinical placement makes.

It might also be time to go and have a discussion with my GP again about dosages of fluoxetine...

Belief

The last time I worked a shift in A&E was a Saturday night. Obviously I've heard the rumours, talked to the staff and guessed what I was in for.

Thankfully my shift was a 'twilight' - meaning that I would only work until 2AM.

Now, I've worked with diabetic patients having hypos before, but the lady I was looking after on this occasion was a whole other kettle of fish.

You see, this particular lady had been found by her nursing home having a fit on the floor of her room. It had been observed as lasting 6-8 minutes long, and upon the arrival of the ambulance crew her blood sugars were only 1.8.

OK fine, easy to treat.... unless (as the patient was convinced):

• They really weren't the ambulance men. They were kidnapping her in a white van
• This wasn't really the Greatwhatever Hospital, because she actually used to work there. Even though she admitted she'd never been in A&E
• We really weren't nursing staff, despite us showing her our uniforms, badges and ID.

All very well and good, except that getting her to eat any food was impossible because, of course, we were all trying to poison her.

Poor lady, convinced that we were all an elaborate hoax to kidnap her.

Slightly frustrating to work with though, as she wouldn't believe a word you said!

Bon Blogiversaire

While happily chatting away on MSN to a good blogging friend, I just realised that today marks my third blogiversary.

We we discussing how much my blog has helped me over the last few years, particularly in the last 12 months.

Quite simply, without this blog I would no longer be a medical student.

It's also helped me to pass an exam last year, as I was required to write a reflective piece based on personal feelings since starting medical school. I found that easier because I keep a diary of events.

I also love the support I get from people here. It's kind of like therapy, in a perverse way. While I wouldn't necessarily go out and seek the kind of support I receive here, it's nice in the way it's offered here in the comments.

I've made friends and met people that I would otherwise have had no chance to interact with.

In all, blogging is an amazing experience that I would honestly say I'm a better person for.
I'm nothing special, just a normal 24 year old who chooses to air her thoughts in a slightly more public environment than a locked book in a drawer.

So, as well as celebrating another weight loss this week, I may well be celebrating something more personal tonight.

Here's to blogging, and see you all in another 12 months I hope!

Snigger

I love my housemates. Currently, the bloke housemate is in the shower listening to and singing along to the Radio 1 Live Lounge Album and in particular, Dirrtylicious by Keane.

I'm not sniggering at all, honest.

Things that make you go ARGH!!

A large amount of things are pissing me off at the moment. Because I feel like venting, here goes:

1. Pedestrians in cycle paths. When the road has a cycle path down it, or even a single cycle path separate from the road, then don't you dare bloody grumble when I ring my bell or say 'excuse me'. Don't even think about not getting out of the way, cos I may find my steering ability fails for a moment. It's a cycle path, that means it's for bicycles- try a footpath, you're less likely to get hit or sworn at.
2. Cars that don't look when pulling out of side roads. OK, another bike related one, but I'm getting scared to cycle now because I've had some very near misses. It's not even like I wasn't wearing bright colours/had lights on the bike either!
3. Not being able to get the limescaley watermarks off the glass shower screen. I know it's really anal, but when I clean the shower, it would be nice if I could get all the marks off.
4. Having to do such long days at the moment. I'm tired, I'm grumpy and I don't want to play anymore.
5. Stupid drunks. OK, I know this is a given, but still. If you come up to the bar, I won't serve you. I'm not being petty, you're too intoxicated. Please don't try to quote the law at me, I work here and I know the law surrounding this job. If you don't want to listen to me, then fair enough, but please don't call me a c**t to my face if you don't want to be thrown out and subsequently barred. Also, it's not a wise move to then tell everyone you're gonna boycott the bar until I get the sack. You gobbed off at my manager too, I don't think you'll be coming in for a while...