The Leodisian Life...

[yeliab_cram]

well, it is all over, finally. I can now testify to the fact that level three final exams are absolutely terrible - Medics, be glad; im not saying our exams are easy, they are not, but at least we have enough background knowledge to blag it when needed. In the BMS stylee exams however, zilch background knowledge means that you either know it or you dont. 9 times out of 10, things will work out, but there is always one sodding exam where you are one question short.

I am ever so slightly concerned about my Forebrain exam, unfortunately out of my decent topics, although 2 questions came up, one of them was from a strange angle, and was thus, not really what i was good on. When i re-read the essay at the end of the exam, i have to be honest - it was pure unadulterated shit. Lets just hope its not as bad as i think it may actually be!

Anyway, i am very very very glad to be finished with revision, after spending the bestr part of 8 weeks at a desk either doing coursework or revision, i think it is fair to say that a break is well deserved. I do not know what i am going to do with myself until my next lecture/meeting whenever that may be, but i certainly wont be doing any work of any shape or form! For starters i think im going to go and watch Scrubs.

However i am slightly worried that i may be conditioned (via Pavlovian conditioning of course; see i have learnt something) to associate Scrubs with revision and exams, and may now dislike it. I certainly hope not, because it is wonderfully apt for life as a doc!

In other news, some twat keeps PMing me with random insults - which is absolutely lovely; they accused me of not actually being a medical student, which i thought was a tad odd. Why would anybody in their right (or wrong) mind want to pretend to be one of those? It doesnt exactly get you that much respect and/or street cred. Anyway, they suggested that because i was "an arse," i should sod being a doctor and "go into science because i've got a BSc, innit" Yes, well, whilst it is sound and apt career advice, i dont tend to listen to demands from patronising little shits who think they know best, when actually they have no idea what they are chatting about. I wish him/her well with their career as a doctor... but hope to hell they never work with me (and suggest they hope similarly) good day!

[yeliab_cram]

ah yes, speaking of PMs, thank you so much to all those who have sent me nice little messages, im glad u are enjoying my random ranting, they really are very much appreciated. Its nice to know people are reading im sure there will be plenty more soon... watch this space

[yeliab_cram]

Have just been out for a Chinese with my housemates, well two of them anyway; we were just chatting about student life, and hoping things will return to normal very soon indeed. Anyway we just had one of those wonderful, and rather surreal experiences which only seem to occur deep within studentville.

For reasons unbeknown to me, Brudenell Mount (the actual physical road) has been removed, with a large machine which makes a noise very similar to a taxiing jumbo jet, which i assure you is not so comforting at 8am, and thus, my car had to be parked up the road. On our short journey to our house, we happened to pass the rear window of the house opposite. There was a girl leaning out, and somehow we got chatting - you know neighbourly banter and all.

It turns out they can see me and lucy in our rooms at our laptops all day working, you must understand that in our rooms our desks are almost mirror images of each other. To the viewers from across the street it looks, very much like we are sat dead opposite, seperated solely by a thin wall. They have been making all sorts of romantic stories up about us - wishing us to be together, that sort of thing. How random, but its always nice to know your neighbours are spying on you unfortunately we had to shatter their fantasy by informing them that whilst our desks are opposite, they are also at opposite ends of our room - this is obviously completely impossible to see from their persepctive, alas, there is no romantic subplot here.

[yeliab_cram]

Have you ever considered how quickly your day can swing, from good, to bad, to good all in the space of a few hours?

My day began well, Idan and I had our post exam day all planned. It involved breakfast and coffee at Coconut (its a cute student coffee bar), films all morning, lunch at Slips Deli, some Sienfeld, some Scrubs and then Jarhead at the cinema in the evening. The ultimate day of doing NOTHING!

Things were progressing well, one bag of doritos, a pack of digestive shortcakes, a bottle of coke and 2 hours of 'Goodbye Lenin' later we went to see some friends, cought up on general chit chat, and basically got our dehydrated lives back in hydrophillic action. I was calm, de-stressed, and very very chilled out.

Of course, in moments like this, something almost always seems to happen to spoil your fun. In this case it was a phonecall from Mike, who is home in Glasgow for a few days. Joe Walker from our current letting agent - Headlingly Lets (aka HERE) called to tell us our house had been let for next year, not by himself but by Leeds student homes.com. This was an interesting development, considering as a) our house is not let through leeds student homes and b) we called headingly lets the other day to confirm our 'first refusal' status on the house.

Basically, we have lived here for 3 years now, and they offer us first refusal each year: if someone else wants the house, they are obliged to ring us and confirm we are not going to resign first. They told us that this still stood 100%. As im sure u can imagine, i was rather peturbed to learn that it had been let from under our nose. Now dont get me wrong, we have not fully sorted our housing situation for next year, but keeping our house was an option we were considering, and we were planning on sorting the details out tomorrow.

In reterospect, we did receive a letter from this random leeds student homes.com company a few weeks ago. They stated that they were taking over the management of the property next year and wanted to come and look at it, in order to update their database. We thought nothing of it, they said nothing of any change to our status on the property. They did however send us a letter saying they may be showing people around, however, we, as yet have seen nobody.

I got on the phone to leeds student homes, they really are a bunch of wankers. After explaining the situation, they told me that as i had not signed a contract with them, they had absolutely no obligation not to screw me over. I explained to the nice bitch, that it states clearly in my contract that i have first refusal, as such, I thought i had a ****ing right to it! she claimed that she personally went to our current letting agent to confirm the letting of the house. She told me they were fine with it, and said they had been hassling us for months to sign (this is bollox).

We called Joe Walker at Headingly Lets, he swore to us that nobody had asked anything; they were lying to secure the cash. This my friends, means war. This is what you deal with - student letting companies, its not fair, its not right and they are ALL scumbag devil spawn who think they can push the poor innocent students around. I shall be serving the boss of this unprofessional entity (leedsstudenthomes.com) a slice of my mind, which he will consume with a side order of humble pie. I know my house is gone, but im not going without causing a scene. I like scenes

Someone is lying, and i would like an admission, and an apology.

[yeliab_cram]

Life has a funny habit of jumping up and giving you a sharp nip on the bum. What am i on about? well, today marked the first positive action of semester 2. The introductory meeting to my dissertation, which i am sure you will be hearing me moan about in due course. My project is on the retrojugular approach to the carotid artery for carotid endarterectomy. Its something that Prof Scott and Mr Berridge suggested whilst i was doing an SSC with them last year, and i am actually really looking forward to it.

Anyway, that is not what i would like to talk about. I was just going up to talk to my supervisor to sort out a meeting, another lecturer was sat next to him, and said "you want to watch this one; he thinks its ok to voice your opinions on lecturers loud and clear!" i thought - what the ****?! but quickly remembered a thread on this site about making comments on lecturers in a public forum. Linked HERE

I'm afriad its time to eat some humble pie; whilst i stick by my opinion that there is no reason to not voice an opinion in these forums on any aspect of a course (as long as you do not present you opinion as gospel) i must admit, i didnt think any of my lecturers would be reading it let alone recognising it was me and skillfully accosting me at uni.

However it was all in good humour, and the lecturer in question is actually absolutely hilarious. He made wednesday mornings worth getting up for, and made cancer a rather lighthearted and upbeat subject. Which in my opinion is quite a feat!

Anyway, on a completely different note, i went to see 'A Cock and Bull Story' last night. I wasnt quite sure what to expect, but after seeing Jonathan Ross interview Coogan and Bridon a month or so ago, i thought it would be worth a look. It is a rather odd film based on the novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. In which, Tristram attempts to tell his life story but never gets past telling the tale of his own birth due to the numerous lengthy tangents he embarks on (such is life eh!). It is famously unfilmable, as basically, nothing actually happens. As a result Michael Winterbottom has taken a very unusual and effective approach: the ethos of the thing is still in place, but rather than listening to the wafflings of some 18th century gentry, the film focuses on Coogan and Brydon filming a film of the novel. The tangents are provided by off-screen events, an insight into the life of Coogan, the low budget film industry and basically a change to let Brydon and Coogan play off against each other.

It is a very very whitty film, but there is most definately no Hollywood style cheap gags here. It is a very contemporary take on an aged novel and translates to an interesting and contemporary take on life: its not where were are going, but the journey that is important, its those little things that get in the way of our trip from birth to death than make life, well, life! here's to tangents!

[yeliab_cram]

so things have taken a very different routine. I have gone from having so much to do each day that i dont know where to start, to simply not knowing where to start with what to do with myself. My life is now taken up by my dissertation, the precise dynamics of which still need to be bashed out, but which is basically an anatomical look at the potential advantages to the retrojugular approach to the internal carotid for carotid endarterectomy.

It has taken a weeks worth of reading, but i now have a general idea what i am going to do with my 6,000 words and 5 dead bodies, ready for a meeting with my supervisor tomorrow. Life has been a rather lukewarm time since the exams, initial relaxation lead straight into everyone starting to panic ever so slightly about there respective dissertations, and thus sitting at home drinking large ammounts of tea.

Last friday i got a call from my ex-housemate to tell me that his ex-girlfriend's, [who is an old friend of mine (following)] mum had died suddenly. She is just 21 and her mum was only 45. I went to the funeral. We are not yet old enough for this sort of thing i didnt think. It seemed particularly odd as not one, but two of my other friends got engaged last week. Which we also dont seem old enough for. It given me a rather odd outlook on things this week. I guess life is just so fleeting that you just have to make the most of what you have. As such i took the entire weekend off and went for a wander round York. It was cold, moist and generally miserable, bugger.

[yeliab_cram]

well well, it has been a while hasnt it.

What can i say, my life now revolves around the dissection room. I seem to have formaldehyde engrained into my skin, which is very perturbing. No matter how many times i wash my hands, my lunch still tastes, ever so slightly of dead people!

Anyway, this entire dissertation/dissection project is turning into a nightmare. It appears that the planning has been somewhat rushed through as we now find ourselves trying to make sense of the situation, when we get conflicting reports from all our tutors.

The reason i have chosen this moment to bash out a quick blog entry however, is not to berate the course (again), but to register my surprise and, well general satisfaction with my recently received module results. I managed to get 78, 71, 72, 84. Which is quite amazing, not really sure how that happened. But i guess the lesson is - work hard and sometimes it actually does pay off.

I hope everyone else got the results they needed, all the best!

[yeliab_cram]

I was rudely awakened the other day... at 3:45am. A load crashing outside my window was the cause. It sounded like someone was playing tennis with a wheely bin, however more intensive investigation the following morning revealed that it was actually a bath, and not so much tennis but bobsleigh contests. I suppose if you are going to be woken suddenly, it may as well be with a bath crashing into your house!

So hows the BSc going? i hear you cry! well, whilst the first semester was simple hell on earth, this semester has turned out to be equally bad, for rather different reasons. It has been a complete shambles, but im not going to bore you with the details. Just safe to say that i have spent the last week video editing.

I do medicine, what the **** am i doing spending 9 hours a day sat in a lab editing video footage on premier pro??? The answer of course, is i havent got a ****ing clue, try the course head, but they probably dont really know either, its all a bit crazy! Anyway we are approaching the end, well not so much the end, as (to plagarise mr churchill) the beginning of the end. What can i say bring back medicine!!

I would very much like my life back, please return it! And i pray of u all, think hard before intercalating, whilst i do think it will be worth the hassle in the end, its a rather large pain in the ****ing arse!

[yeliab_cram]

Well, hasnt it been a while!

So much has happened, so much to tell, but u dont care and im too lazy to tell u about it, so safe to say, i have finished my BSc, and am back in the grind of medical life.

Currently i am in Bradford. Well technically im not, im in Leeds, but that is only because i decided i didnt need accomodation in Bradford because it is only 8 miles from my house in Leeds. So i commute. and things were going swimmingly until those bastard children went back to school. I had no idea just how much children affect traffic. It now takes an hour and ten mins to get to the BRI. Which is not great, and especially not so great when there is an orthopaedic trauma meeting at 8am which u need to be at to find where the surgeon you are in theatre with at 8:30 is going to be operating. (the free coffee is also ammunition for the day).

So orthopods eh! well they are not quite as bad as they are made out to be. That said, orthopedic surgery is nothing short of barbaric. The first hemiarthroplasty i saw scared the living crap out of me. I mean they strap you to a table which can only be described as some form of throwback to medieval torture devices. I mean the poor old dear (and im not being sexist, but its usually a woman - osteoporosis = little old lady + hip fracture, so no moaning please!) is sat with all her bits hanging out, with her legs strapped to metal poles with pulles and knobs allowing the orthopods to stretch and bend and twist her legs at the push of a switch.

So as you can see things are bad enough BEFORE the sawing starts. I understand that a bit of force is necessary to get through bone. What i cant quite comprehend is just how a surgeon could possibly need that much kit to saw a bit of bone off and shove in a prostesis. I mean its like they were doing a closing down sale at B&Q. The stuff they use is absolutely uncanny, i mean its like they are putting furniture together, but there just so happens to be a person attatched at the top end. Theres sawing and drilling and screwing and hitting. Hitting is possibly the best part, at any given opportunity they seem to give whatever bit of metal work they may be inserting a good smack with a nice metal mallet - lovely.

However i must say out of theatre, they are all quite amusing. Stereotypical, absolutely, but funny none the less. The all swan round in pinstripe suits and pointy shoes, and moan about being in the 40% tax bracket (its a hard life boohoo). But they dont half shift the patients. In my first trauma clinic one registrar saw 58 patients in under 3 hours, thats just over THREE minutes a patient! and when u factor in coffee and fag breaks (please dont ask, it was his "special nebuliser"?!??!) its going to be evel less. Ah well i guess you get what you pay for.

One thing i have noticed is that, whilst most surgeons will grill you till the cows come home, orthopods seem to prefer to give u a quick sautee then tell u about the time they single handedly removed a hip, or shagged the nurse in the drug cabinet, or ordered chinese food. Or perhaps more impressively, about how they have a restraining order against a ninja with a strange facination with turning certain surgeons into sushi. Riiiiight, on we go then...

[yeliab_cram]

Good evening boys and girls,

I am thoroughly bored, why? because i am starting my third week of dermatology/dermaholiday and have nothing much to do, and know even less about what im not doing much of, if you get me. It has been a very random few weeks, I have been intubating people in anaesthetics, chatting to people with weeks left to live in oncology, and looking at rather too many peni in GU medicine.

However, despite the randomness, I nearly have a great story: I was in ICU in the LGI on that fateful day. Yes thats right, the day Mr Richard Hammond (god bless him) decided to career off a runway in North Yorkshire doing 300mph in what can only be described as a jet engine with wheels and go faster stripes. I nearly got to see the Yorkshire Air Ambulance rush him in, I nearly got to be there as he was rushed into ICU and I nearly got to meet Jeremy Clarkson. However I - clever me - decided it was a good idea to sack it in and go home at 4:45 as there was nothing going on. Dammit, only another hour or so, and i would have had a great story to tell, but what can u do!! And to make matters worse they have suspended the next season of Top Gear - boohoohooooo!

All medical students seem to get excited about their anaesthetics placements, but i didnt really see what all the fuss was about. dont get me wrong i did enjoy putting in lots of stupidly large cannulas and the chance to intubate people and shove lary masks in. But essentially i found it to be 15mins of action followed by 2-4 hours of sitting around next to the anaesthetics machine, which was blatantly leaking some seveoflurnae making me very sleepy and subject to yawn repeatedly in front of the consultants, who obviously thought i was finding their ramblings terribly boring. I mean i was, but i didnt mean to keep yawning. Damn gasses. Anyway, it just didnt really do it for me, im better at the cutting end of things - more to see and do!

In other news, my wonderfully exciting dissertation on the retrojugular approach to carotid endarterectomy (hehe i said carrot) has been selected for presentation to the Yorkshire Vascular Forum on Friday. Im scared, but quite excited at the same time, shall let u know how it goes!

Until then, back to the wonders of rashes, warts, cheesy discharge and to asking that fatefil question in the GU clinic: so was that anoreceptive penetration???