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08-11-07 - Christmas time, dismissal, woe and whine:

Its been a strange week, nothing seems to have happened yet the reality is quite to the contrary. Like I said strange, huh?

There are a few things I have not been able to get my head around. Firstly and my main complaint has to be the aggressive generic letters...

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08-11-07 - The Eternal Optimist:

Breaking from the gain, and realising that I have been serially bitching about everything that pisses me off on a daily basis I felt it was time for a brief hiatus on the pessimism. Enjoy.

1...

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09-11-07 - Making an impression:

We arrive at the GP surgery for our very first placement, the doctor is a pleasant, self-proclaimed introvert who made us all feel very welcome. We go through the ground rules of the placement which are all fairly obvious. The session then starts...

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11-11-07 - Buds night:

A productive day, for once. It is becoming a rarity now, as the material we are given is currently of little substance. These are the early days and so I am enjoying my head start, though aware of the risks of complacency. I have been writing up those long and diffuse PBL learning objectives. Turns out the scenario was based around Osteogenesis imperfecta...

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15-11-07 - Gall, blimey.

Being the bright eyed and over-eager medic I am, and determined to get my moneys worth out of the Anatomy Society today I tagged along to a whirlwind lecture on abdominal anatomy. It started with a few interesting anecdotes, but from then on I was immersed in a world of unfamiliarity...

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16/11/07 - Freudian Quip:

Yesterday’s cultural diversity workshop wasn’t as bad as I’d anticipated. Those things on the whole tend to be a nonsensical, open-ended, waste of time. I hate the whole overly politically correct verbatim that accompanies those workshops. Now, I’m not saying I would advocate the use of offensive terms by any means but when...

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20/11/07 - In Vain:

I finally reached the most dreaded day of term yesterday, not the day I saw my first dead body, nor the day of my FunMed exam. It was the day I had to put on a brave face and get a vial of blood taken from me by occupational health.

In my truly stoic style I had bitched about it the entire weekend to...

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22/11/07 - A heart to heart:

General practice day, and was it ever a good one. Although there wasn’t supposed to be a particular theme, I could only describe it as a sweeping introduction to heart surgery management in primary care. To start off we spent an hour with a patient, observing...

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25/11/07 - *Insert witty title here*

A little snowed under, and unfortunately not the seasonal kind. I have let PBL get the better of me and consequently have spent most of the day writing up one after the other. As a result I missed the now traditional (i.e. Facebook-ratified) Sunday night curry on Brick lane. Arg. Well the pasta bake I made wasn’t half bad…

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29/11/07 - Living the dream:

A quick show of gratitude to all of you whom have left such kind comments recently. It’s not like my life has gone down the shitter, I just like to vent. Med school is awesome, life is sweet, no doubt. For those of you who may be interested...

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02/12/07 - Street Sense:

Recently, every Saturday night has been spent visiting friends in various locations throughout the capital where we all congregate to drink, eat, reminisce and watch X-Factor. Most of them are now working full-time in the city, as we all graduated last year. Unfortunately, it seems this week took a slightly unfashionable turn...

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03/12/07 - Examinus Pyrexia:

Exam time is upon us for the first time, and with that comes the different personalities instilled deep within the crop of med students. Having never...

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05/12/07 - Yawn:

“I heard there was a secret chord, that David played and it pleased the lord”
- Jeff Buckley


I bet it was a b-minor...

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06/12/07 - Zimmerflame:

GP day again today, though not a great deal to report on. It may have something to do with the lapse in concentration from the early start coupled with sleepless night or perhaps just the subject wasn’t enthralling...

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09/12/07 - Afflictions:

I can’t remember the last time I was in such high spirits, as Saturday morning. I’d had a long lay-in, wasn’t falling behind with work, enjoyed a hearty breakfast and made my way to the station. Hell, I think the sun may even have been shining. A half hour trip later and I’m at my girlfriend’s town waiting for her to show up. She rings me, asking what side of the platform I was on – same side as always...

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10/12/07 - A voice, humbled:

I just want to express my sincere gratitude to all those who commented and e-mailed me about my last post, I was really touched by the humanity and empathy from my readers.

In the past...

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11/12/07 - FunMed: the end of an earache:

Et voila, FunMed is over! Well, not quite. There is still the end of course exam that students are going crazy over. I’ve mulled it over a fair bit, and come to the conclusion that I’m not going to fail...

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13/12/07 - When the weather outside is frightful:

You’ve gotta love my halls – organising the Christmas party the night before the freshers FunMed exam. There’s something so charming about walking into a cheaply decorated hall to the sound of Slade, very…youth-hostel. Still I went for a bit, reluctantly...

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16/12/07 - An actual exam question:

What type of image is this?

A. CT
B. X-ray
C. MRI
D. Contrast media X-ray
E. Ultrasound

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16/12/07 - An actual exam question - part II:

What action is this?

A. Supination
B. Internal rotation
C. External rotation
D. Pronation
E. Circumduction

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18/12/07 - Autonomic Intermission:

For those of you who may be stumped, the correct answers for the previous post are B– X-ray and D– Pronation. Fortunately the other exam questions were up to scratch and proved more challenging. Still, couldn’t help but snigger uncontrollably in the exam when those questions came up, though 45 questions in 30 minutes left little time...

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21/12/07 - Nominated:

Best New Medical Weblog (2007)

I am utterly speechless, and looking at the list of other nominees I dare say I can’t help but feel flattered that I’ve been ranked amongst the best...

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23/12/07 - Chasing cars:

The following is a completely true story I retold to the delight of hall mates earlier this term, I’ve meant to write it for a while but didn’t get round to it for whatever reason. I think it’s important to say, it has not been embellished, nor exaggerated in any way.

It was about three years ago, when I was still...

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29/12/07 - All I want for Christmas, is flu:

Well I got it, which was fairly unpleasant and most of Christmas day was spent asleep. Fortunately, it didn’t make much difference to my usual festivities and overall I’m really enjoying being home for a bit. I had a browse during the sales, but quickly got fed up – especially when a small child insisted on ramming past me with a pushchair filled...

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04/01/08 - New Years Absolution:

Another substantial interval with relatively few blog posts, apologies for the neglect and I know, a blog is for life not just for Christmas. Truth be told, there is either very little to...

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08/01/08 - New Year, New Unit:

The term kicked off with a 2-hour anatomy lecture extravaganza, which did not disappoint. All new material in vast and intricate detail, promises an interesting term. Perhaps slightly rushed was this sweeping introduction to the anatomy of the mediastinum and heart. I spent a substantial part of the lecture trying to recall the different planes of the body in order to visualise the 2-dimensional artwork in the lecture notes. On the most part, I think I understood what was being explained but got a little confused with the coronary arteries and papillary muscles of the...

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09/01/08 - Lock, Stock and a Bundle of His:

seem to have developed a taste, for human flesh. After a morning in the anatomy lab manipulating cadaver specimens and filling out my work book, I casually placed the pen I was using into the pocket of my jeans. Unbeknown to me, it was the same pen I sat there chewing in the subsequent lectures until the smell of formalin kicked me into recognition...

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11/01/08 - More PBL:

A new term heeds a new PBL group. Is it any better? Sort of, it is a little more interactive. For one, there is a lot more input from the tutor and as a result we don’t end up with a...

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14/01/08 - Touched for the very first time:

A double dose of medicine today, once again piercing that undergraduate hymen as we are introduced for the first time to ECGs and a chest exam. To add to the fervour of the event we are informed that the worlds first ECG was in fact the innovation of a physician at our school. If only he could see us now...

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15/01/08 - Hits the fan:

If you throw enough shit at a wall, some of it is bound to stick.

Guess how my day went…

Let’s start with the usual PBL fume...

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16/01/08 - Because I'm so mature:

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17/01/08 - Blue Bloaters:

General practice, only for the rule breakers apparently. You see, bespoke treatment can only be provided by the most defiant of doctors. Not like those hospital specialists, those conformists whom must fall in line and follow protocol. These are the words of our practice doctor whom I have great admiration for, though I do not necessarily agree with that statement. Smoking was the topic for the day, which turned out to be a real revelation...

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21/01/08 - Yr1 SSMs:

SSM Allocations:

1a – Dissection (Limbs)
1b – Neuronal and pharmacological control of body function

Dissection starts...

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23/01/08 - Human Canvas:

Something you don’t think about when starting medical school is just how much you need to play patient to aid each others learning. Of course, we do get on occasion to meet real patients. Sometimes we even get to listen to their breathing, or take their blood pressure. In the past eight days, I have had to play the topless patient four times...

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27/01/08 - And breathe...

Cardiorespiratory is over, with only exams to look forwards to now. It was on the whole, far better than the first term crock of shit that was FunMed. Hell, there were times I actually felt like I was in medical school...

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28/01/08 - Tummy ache:

“Muscles of the anterolateral abdominal wall”

Qué?

Still a stranger in this town, the anatomy textbooks have once again come into play. I’ve spent most of this afternoon a tourist trying to locate the few basic muscles and fascias that comprise the abdominal wall. The rectus abdominis...

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30/01/08 - The Lax Approach:

I’ve had diarrhoea all afternoon, spread right across my bed sheets. Just to clear up any misconceptions, that be, I’ve been reading about diarrhoea...

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31/01/08 - Not quite Werther's Original:

GP day again, bit of a weird one. We spent most of the morning discussing eating habits with the practice nurse. She was a lovely lady, and I actually quite enjoyed the anecdotal nature of the morning’s discussion. After a cup of tea we all got to take a dipstick test on samples of our own urine. I did wonder just how awkward it would be if there happened to be say, a positive test for a urinary tract infection in one of us...

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03/02/08 - MBBS (Wiki):

Whether it’s a bachelors in Google or doctorate in Wikipedia, the use of such online resources is abundant in medical education. For me, science and efficacy of data has been drilled in during my biomed years. Yes, I used the internet, in particular PubMed which I have spent many hours refining search options and looking for papers of relevance. Much of the time, the university hadn’t subscribed to the journal articles I wanted to view. Yet, with persistence and effort we all managed to become scientists...

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05/02/08 - Please Note:

It is not anemia, it is ANAEMIA

They are not neurons, they are NEURONES

It is not edema, it is OEDEMA

It is not cecum it is CAECUM

It is not esophagus, it is OESOPHAGUS

...

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06/02/08 - No brainer:

I heard from a hall mate that during his PBL, two students turned up 20 minutes late and had to take the only spare seats left in the room – on either side of the tutor. Both then proceeded to take out their PBL notes, which happened to be the exact same printout of the relevant wikipedia page. Imagine the tutors delight!

Still it begs the question, what kind of anencephalic bint would do that right next to their tutor??
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07/02/08 - Hard to stomach:

When in the anatomy lab all notion of time fades away and hours can pass unnoticed. What does not fade away, is the smell of formalin. It seeps through the gloves and clings to your skin. No amount of washing is able to cleanse the scent, I am sitting in my room two hours after I’ve finished and can still smell it. This makes eating dinner a little unpleasant. Every forkful of food I put in my mouth brings with it a reminder of the days events.

Lasagne was a bad idea.

It is far too structured a meal, far too familiar...

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11/02/08 - Withdrawal:

One of the best things about medicine is getting away from it all. Particularly the fascination and regard your non-medical friends have towards you. Friday night I ventured off to Carnaby Street in the heart of central London for drinks with some old friends. Every time I see them I get asked that same endearing question “how was school today?”

And so would follow a short spiel of whatever amusing story I can think of that they’d appreciate...

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12/02/08 - Introducing: The Medical Student:

As it has once again reached that time of year when an exam is looming, I felt it appropriate to compile a list of exam personalities that I have witnessed over the past few years. Please note, they are not a reflection of the students at my school (although some will invariably fit the description).

The Gunner

A classic personality. These high calibre front row revision jockeys are at the forefront of every year. They are walking textbooks that seem to run off self-satisfaction. To the Gunner, a pass is a fail unless they are right at the top of the year. They are ridiculed by the pack but always come off best.

The Sponge
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17/02/08 - Feel lucky, punk?

Friday’s exams proved on the whole to be much more challenging than the FunMed cohort, as you can see:

FUNMED

What type of image is this?

A. CT
B. X-ray
C. MRI
D. Contrast media X-ray
E. Ultrasound

...

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19/02/08 - Dissection:

Just a quick request to start with, that is if you are planning on donating your body to medical science then it would help a great deal if you could end your days laying in the anatomical position, arms supine.

One of the hardest things about dissection is trying to move a body into the necessary accessible positions. A fair deal of force is required that, for a first year medical student with limited exposure to death can prove exceptionally tough to overcome...

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24/02/08 - Bad to the bone:

As the week drew on, the nature of dissection changed. In the beginning, after the initial shock was overcome the cutting process became fairly routine. By Thursday, things started to get a little messier. In order to fully dissect the joints, we ended up doing what can be described as effectively skinning the arms. Needless to say, the week ended on a fairly drained note, most of us glad for the weekend.

I think the best part for me was dissecting the palm...

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27/02/08 - Feet:

The lower limb is a little easier to dissect. For one, the face is out of view allowing for us to slip into a less personal sense of thought and just get on with the task in hand… or foot. Secondly, the muscles in the leg are much larger and easier to separate than those in the arm. Finally, there is no need for twisting the limbs into place, as they have been fixed in the anatomical position. Needless to say, the lower limb has proved a little easier to deal with...

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28/02/08 - Dissection Recollection:

The final day of cutting is over. We spent it looking at the hip, knee and ankle joints. I eagerly jumped in at the start, keen to find and remove the head of the femur from its socket. With what seemed to me like a rather careless approach I managed to do so in ‘record time’ according to the instructor, and apparently not a bad job either. Synovial fluid spat...

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02/03/08 - Goin' loco:

Tomorrow marks the start of two new modules, one of which is supposedly the hardest element of the first year. Welcome to ‘brain and behaviour’ and ‘locomotion’. I’ve heard dreadful, awful things about B+B, alas, I am actually looking forwards to it. In biomed, neuroscience...

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04/03/08 - What not to do...in your first year:

Telling everyone you’re a medical student

As a first year, you are bottom of the pile. You’re not special like those finalists and you know **** all medicine. If you try using it as a chat up line, you can bet the locals will have heard it before.

Telling everyone you’re going to be a surgeon

Or obstetrician, or cardiologist, or gastroenterologist, or whatever...

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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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20/04/08 - Suture Self?:

The other week a friend and I ventured into the basement of the Royal London for a guest lecture. It would seem that the silent corridors and rooms of the hospital basement are for three things; the MRI, the morgue, and the medical students. Sat in the dingy and dated lecture theatre, most likely surrounded by radioactive dyes in storage through one wall and cold dead bodies through another, we ponder as to what dramas are playing up on the floors above...

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28/04/08 - Diff'rent Strokes:

Lock-down mode once again at the halls for this Friday brings the dreaded, hastily anticipated, and supposedly most difficult of all first year exams – the brain and behaviour (and locomotor) exam.

Cranial nerves, spinal tracts, brain anatomy and infinite fact have been crammed into our cortexes...

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30/04/08 - Unprotected Text and the City:

I temporarily made a transition to city-boy status this morning, donning my smart clothes and making my way to an agency to register for summer work. I hadn’t however, anticipated the two hour slog of paper work and menial computerised tests. As I sat down in this open plan office at a computer terminal, to log on and grind down, I felt a sudden sense of chilling perspective.

Me

The candidate - Ferocious in the boardroom
and packing some serious toner cartridge...


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06/05/08 - Big Mouth Strikes Again:


The final module is upon us, as is the countdown to end of year exams and summer. For the next three weeks we shall be slogging our way through the ins and outs of the pelvis, the highs and lows of the sex hormones and finishing with the triumphant climax of birth – all to come in human development...

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07/05/08 - Yep, I'm Mature:

Following on from a long spiel on various tissue samples, the tutor declares:

"I know there's a lot to take in, but I hope by now you've managed to get a feel for the prostate"...

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18/05/08 - Calling All Haematologists:

Mr Ali, a 59yr old Bengali man, presented to his GP with a 1 week history of cough productive of green sputum. He had a pain in the right side of his chest whenever he coughed. He had been feeling unwell for some time, with aches and pains all over. The GP sent off the sputum for culture, and in the meantime prescribed amoxicillin 250mg three times a day for 5 days.

A week later he returned, feeling worse...

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20/05/08 - Retrosexual:

Human development wasn’t as interesting as I’d hoped. Perhaps that is just the typical male medical student attitude, maybe things are different on the wards. I for one will be glad to see the back of anything remotely menstrual. That’s not to say it was all that bad, I learnt a few things, things I perhaps would rather not know in hindsight (– YouTube ‘episiotomy’ at your own risk).

Quote of the week...

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