Medicine "oop North"

[M Clayton]

This entry should finally get Friday out of the way, then there's only yesterday and today to bring us bang up to date.

We had some major excitement in halls over the space of about an hour on Friday night. Around about 9 pm I got a frantic banging on my window and a girl shouting that there was a "real fire" in one of the blocks.

Oh dear... :shock:

This clearly is not a good thing. Especially when you consider that the block in question has been plagued by false alarms this term and the student response to an activation is now distinctly sluggish to say the least.

I grabbed my slippers and keys and ran across to the block in question where around half the students were already in the car park looking sheepish. The rest were streaming down the stairs and I had to barge past to get to the fire panel and find out what the hell was going on. This proved more difficult than it should have been since I'd neglected to bring the fire panel keys - clearly not a good thing when attending an alarm call. As it happened, I didn't need them since Louise arrived with her set and identified that we had two triggers, a Break Glass unit on the ground floor and a smoke detector on the first floor.

Being an idiot and not thinking, I went up to the first floor and noted the smoke in the corridor. Intelligent people would have turned back at this stage but, despite knowing that the fire brigade were on the way, I decided that I'd investigate further. I know, you're thinking "FOOL!" and with the gift of hindsight, that's what I'm thinking too.

When I entered the kitchen there was masses of grey smoke and a small fire in the oven. Realising the overwhelming stupidity of my actions I grabbed the powder extinguisher, liberally discharged it in the direction of the flames and left the kitchen as quickly as my legs could carry me.

On my way back down to the panel I came across a pretty dazed student with blood flowing nice and briskly from a wound on his left temple. Ever interested in being nosey I took the fella to a nearby room (not in fire alarm block I hasten to add) and took a quick history from him.

It turns out that he'd fallen quite badly when trying to get out of the building and had smacked his head on something solid on the way down (he also had minor bruising to his knees and left shoulder but I wasn't concerned about that). I did a very quick examination of his head and wasn't happy by the soft bit over his left eye. Nor was I happy about the fact that he didn't know what day it was, how old he was or whether he'd lost consciousness or not... The final bit of bad news was the fact that one of his pupils was fixed at a diameter of 7mm and wasn't reactive to light.

All of these factors were enough to convince me that this fella needed to go to A&E as soon as possible - if only to make me happier.

Long story short, he was admitted to a neurology ward and spent most of this weekend under close observation with what looked like compression - go me for not letting him go back to bed!

Not only did I put out a fire, but I saved a life too. I know, I'm a hero... <snigger>

Currently I am:
Listening to: Secret Agent Man
Watching: Austin Powers
Reading: Nowt
Surfing: TV Theme World (see my post in Drs Mess)

[M Clayton]

It's that time of year where crises of faith occur pretty much once every day.

Why the hell am I still here?

[M Clayton]

I'm still alive!

It's been a very tough week and I've had neither the time nor the inclination to blog but I'll see if I can't get something written down this evening.

Laters!

[M Clayton]

I think I'm going to simply draw a line under last week and avoid passing comment since it really wouldn't be professional.

Let's leave things at the "it can only get better" stage for now.

I promise to try and make time to do something with this next week.

[M Clayton]

A new week, a new (more positive) start.

I've promised myself that I will not be unhappy this week, no matter what shit that they throw at us.

So, here goes.

We finished our lecture on meninges, blood supply, venous drainage and Cerebro Spinal Fluid today and, whilst it was fairly heavy stuff, I quite enjoyed it. This is clearly due, in no small part, to the clinician delivering the lecture. I don't think I've ever met such a jolly bloke and, this is the best bit, he's a real life brain surgeon!

Mint.

The hour lecture was followed by an hour and a half of anatomy where we got a little bored by the material that was presented (Dural reflections and venous sinuses - yawn) and ended up getting a head start on the brain (like the pun? ) by generally poking and prodding an isolated brain. I must say that I quite enjoyed it....

Back off this avo for a little bit of Life Cycle.

Currently I am
Eating: A heated, crusty bread roll with home made tomato soup
Drinking: Possibly the finest beverage known to man - Tea
Listening to: Remy Zero, Glorious #1
Doing: Work! I'm trying to work out why Mannitol is given to someone with a raised intracranial pressure .... Apparently it's an osmotic diuretic, so that makes sense.

Laters!

[M Clayton]

I wonder how I got to be so lazy...

It's been three days and I still can't be bothered to shave despite the fact that my face is itchy as hell and will soon take on a "Captain Birdseye"-like appearance.

Oh bugger it, I'll do it now!

(The original and best) Currently I am:
Listening to: Beck, Loser
Watching: The mesmerising glow of my plasma ball reflected in the back of a spoon...
Eating: Nothing, although if I'd posted half an hour ago, it would be rice and sweet and sour veg.
Drinking: Need you ask?
Comtemplating: Shaving this rubbish off my face

[M Clayton]

I now have a baby soft face once more - well, I did have in the moments immediately following my shave, now it's stubbly again!!!! Surely that's not possible.... :roll:

After all, I spent such a long time with my dad when I was but a lad being taught how to shave. Then we'd get in our boat and go fishing and drink my first beer...

WAIT!

That never actually happened. That might explain why I can't shave and why I appear to be missing a chunk of my left cheek...

Oh well.

[M Clayton]

Oh for some free time!

[M Clayton]

Nearly there with the Community Placement write up!

Hoorah.

[M Clayton]

You are only dust and ashes, but the world was created just for you