Blind Mans Bluff

09/03/08 - A little out of hand:



I’m loving the new PBL, especially the way it’s tailored to make it relevant to us.



“Bartek is a 23 year old Polish labourer working on the Olympic site at Stratford. He is involved in an accident with a band saw which results in his right hand being completely severed 4cm proximal to the wrist.”...



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13/03/08 - A day to remember:



We met in a church hall, after the briefest of introductions I sat in the spare chair next to her. She seemed delighted, as the other lady’s gently teased “Oh look after that one, you’ve got a looker there, Emily!” She would then reply, “None of your business!” laughing and flirting harmlessly as older ladies do and I would sit smiling bashfully, as young men do.

Emily has Alzheimer’s, quite how advanced I am still unsure...



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20/03/08 - Cranial Nerves:



Easter has taken a rather rostral turn from the spine to the twelve cranial nerves. It would seem this is a part of medicine where a mnemonic will come in useful. So far I’ve heard two good ones.



(Olfactory, Optic, Oculomotor, Trochlear, Trigeminal, Abducens, Facial, Vestibulocochlear, Glossopharyngeal, Vagus, Accessory, Hypoglossal)



Only One Object Transcends Time And Foams Vivaciously: Glorious Vagina! All Hail!



Ohh, Ohh, Oh, To Touch And Feel Virgin Girls' Vaginas And Hymens...



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30/03/08 - Apologies for the late running of this service:



Once again I find myself neglecting this little patch of cyberspace in favour of less pressing matters and general idleness. March has been a fairly dry month, with little of interest to report. Saying that, I have spent the past two weeks arsing about as it was the Easter holidays...



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03/04/08 - Blind mans bluff:



‘Blind people don’t see blackness’

A provocative afternoon at the hospital as we’re given an awareness workshop by the Royal National Institute for the Blind. Later on we’re to discover that a person born totally

blind sees with their other senses...



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09/04/08 - Clinical (s)Kills:



There’s nothing like a long clinical skills session to demonstrate how much you’ve forgotten when it comes to cardiovascular, respiratory and abdominal exams. Fundamental, keystones of good clinical practice these theatrical displays of competence are right now, at best shabby. I can’t for the life of me remember the order, and signs we’re instructed to look out for. Come the summer OSCEs we will be given perfectly healthy patients with none of these pathological features...



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14/04/08 - Stroke Folk:



I spent some time last week at the hospital, on the stroke rehabilitation ward. Upon arrival we were greeted by various members of the team, later we would be introduced to a man who’d recently suffered a cerebellar stroke. This is where the medicine learnt in a lecture theatre translates into something completely different. No longer is it as clear cut as ‘a cerebrovascular occlusion of the posterior inferior cerebellar artery resulting in localised ischemia.’ It is instead, a man who has difficulties walking, standing, co-ordinating his hand. I watch for a moment as he tries to place a red counter into a connect-four grid...



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18/04/08 - Nuclear warheads:



There are some weird and wonderful disorders in neurology. From the man who could only say ‘tan’, to patients who cannot differentiate between background and objects, and, famously to Phineus Gauge, the first accidental frontal lobotomy. All of which suffer from unusual, bizarre consequences...



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