Development

I've now been working as a doctor in a busy hospital for over a month. I'm still loving it but it's very exhausting. Thankfully I'm on annual leave at the moment which is a nice break after some long working weeks.
On the plus side when I go back to work my rota changes again to allow me to work more manageable working hours with no nights and only a few weekends on call.
Interestingly I may now be undecided on my career path as I'm really enjoying doing a surgical job. I wonder if every rotation I do will be like this or if I've just found a niche that I love.
Anyway, back to work next week!

Adaptation

My first two weeks as a doctor have been a massive change. I'm finishing a run of on call nights that have really forced me to think on my feet.

I've done more rectal examinations in 2 nights than in 5 years as a student.

But I still haven't introduced myself as Dr Jones. It still sounds wrong. I inwardly cringe a little when my boss introduces us as Miss Smith and Dr Jones. I keep expecting it to be pulled away from me at any second.

Most of all, despite the poo, smells and endless nights I have some amazing colleagues and fantastic nurses as company.

I love being a doctor. It was well worth the effort

Everything changes

Everything changes tomorrow. No more induction week, tomorrow I am the F1 doctor.
Don't be ill folks.

And then everything changed

A few weeks ago I was a bit ill.
It wasn't fun and I ended up calling an ambulance out for myself. Now anyone who knows me will recognise that I hate people who waste the ambulance service's time. In fact I even called a friend who was working as an ambulance technician that night and asked his advice. So I ended up getting some help, and some decent analgesia (I'm actually reasonably scared of needles, so to let a paramedic cannulate my hand goes some way to show how much pain I was in) - I loved entonox so much that night, and after some IV morphine the pain was a lot more bearable.
Anyhow, a few days later and after some IV antibiotics I was discharged, and then readmitted when the pain got worse. More IV antibiotics, lots of analgesia and some fluids later I went home. Things are better now but still not perfect.
Anyhow, a big thanks to the ambulance service for their help that night and for not treating me like a muppet when I went a bit mad on entonox.

Since then it's all been a bit of a whirlwind.

I've:

• graduated
• introduced my parents to my inlaws
• got my GMC registration
• moved to my new hospital
• done half of induction week
• gone to a mess party
• met some of my consultants
• and started answering bleeps when shadowing

I don't yet have a rota but that will be sorted this week. 

It's all very scary, and the worst was seeing my ID card saying Dr Merys Jones.

But I guess it's all finally true and it happened. Hard work pays off in the end.

arghhhh!

Time check

See the time of this post? Yeah, 05:18. I'm up, dressed and in the middle of straightening my hair. I set off in 40 minutes for the first day at work.
It's a good job that I'm staying over at the hospital this week, because this is an ungodly hour to be getting up...

Life change

Today is my last day as a student.
Tomorrow I start my induction week at my new hospital as a newly qualified doctor working somewhere completely new.
I'm scared.
Don't get sick in August.

PS I'll write about my recent 'holiday in hospital' at the weekend.

The cost of being in hospital

If anyone is feeling generous... It has cost me £60 so far to watch television while I'm in hospital. Had I realised I was going to be in this long I probably wouldn't have bothered with it in the first place, but equally I'm now bored rotten.
If anyone feels like sticking a few quid in the paypal account at the top to help me afford to alleviate my boredom I would love you all forever.
A very bored, hurting and skint Merys

Patience

...is not one of my greatest virtues. Add to that the fact that I'm still in hospital and you'll probably understand why I'm a little irritable at the moment.

I'm still in pain, still not sleeping too well and still have no idea what's going on.

But on the plus side I did have a frank discussion with my parents about depression and why I'd never told them. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I maintain that I was right not to tell them initially. Mood is currently a lot better on venlafaxine.

Fingers crossed home soon before starting work.

Invasion

I'm getting really sick of being in hospital. I have tubes stuck in completely inappropriate places and it's very invasive. My stomach and thighs are bruised from injections, and today alone I'm on my 3rd cannula (1 tissued and I accidentally pulled another out due to rolling over with the IV line around me). I've just had a new one BANDAGED in place.

So for now I just have to survive the night with old ladies snoring their heads off around me. I may go insane.

The other side

If you've been following me on twitter recently then you've probably realised that I'm in hospital. Aside from 36 hours at home, I've been here for 10 days and things haven't changed.

The pain is worse and is compounded by other factors (that I may or may not blog about in the future).

The food is terrible and I've not been happy at all. But we still aren't sure what's going on.

Maybe the new week will bring some answers.

Merys