The Future

Due to a series of unfortunate events I decided to close my blog temporarily today. I have decided to give public blogging one last chance but have decided to disable anonymous comments and enable comment moderation. I apologise for this and I hope it doesn't hamper the contributions of some of my readers. There are a couple of people I hope will register in order to be able to keep commenting including 'UK bioscience dude' who has given me lots of useful advice in the past.

Whilst my blog was closed for a couple of hours today, I had a few worried readers email me. Thank you to them. I don't want to have to make this a private, invite only blog but that may be necessary if I want to keep on going (which I do). If I do this I'll be asking readers who wish to continue reading to email me at imamedicalstudentgetmeoutofhere[at]hotmail.co.uk to request an invite (a couple of you have already done so.)

In the mean time, there will potentially be a new blog. 'The Real Me' where invited readers only can get a more personal insight into my little world. Watch this space...
(email me to get an invite)

Finally a Response!

Just had an email about my appeal against a mark received in a recent exam, it was a very polite reply from the chair of the assessments committee.

He stated that the matter had been investigated and that no discrepancies in marking had been found. He suggested that as I had reached the required standard for progression to year 5, I should reflect and move on which is fair enough. Apart from the outcome, I'm pleased with the response. I couldn't have expected much more, it is a case of my story against the examiners and obviously his carries more weight in that he is the senior and I'm the student being assessed so am potentially biased towards myself.

I continue to feel an injustice has been done but there is little more I can do. I did suggest that the mark in question should be excluded from my grade which wouldn't change it overall but would be a moral victory for myself. We'll have to see what happens with that. I'm still offended about what the examiner wrote as feedback on my form. I remain oblivious as to how I could have improved for that station, and for that reason I've asked permission to speak to the examiner in question about my performance in that station (opinions on whether or not that is a good idea are welcome in comments?) and how the station should be performed. This was originally suggested to me by a member of staff.

I wonder if I'd be allowed a chaperone for my finals. :D

Anyway, poo to that!

Room 101

I assume most of you are au fait with the principles of room 101, its probably been done a few times in the blogsphere but I've not seen it for a while. If you're so inclined please go away and do your own (but leave me a comment so I know where to come and read!)

I'm going to limit myself to 7 things which is really quite hard (it was going to be 5 but that was impossible. Feel free to have as many as you want.

1) Paris Hilton - What a useless waste of Oxygen she is. Does she serve any purpose in life? She is perhaps the most annoying person in the world, famous because her family owns a chain of hotels, oh, and a certain famous home video or two. Stupid ignorant bint!

2) Cigarettes - Oh to have a smoke free Earth, what a delight. I could have just put smokers in but that would ruin the fun of watching them all have to give up, besides, smokers aren't bad, its just the things the little sticks they insist on wasting money on.

3) Annoying people - This is a bit of a cheat because it basically encompasses everyone who annoys me, which includes, but is not limited to:

• Band-waggon-jumper-oners
• Incompetent people
• People who use the word 'aks' instead of 'ask' (almost deserves its own unique place in room 101)
• Talk-talk salesmen
• People who go in yellow boxes when driving!
• People who insist on being in so-called 'popular' groups just because they think it makes them better than other people. Bunch of fools
• People who are late
• People at cash machines who insist on checking the balance of 5 different accounts before deciding they don't want any cash after all. How long does it take to type in your pin and ask for some cash!?!
• People who stop in the middle of the supermarket and spend 5 minutes chatting, they always stand in the stupidest of places so nobody can get past!
• Police cars which drive at 69mph on motorways.

(ok that's enough of that)

4) The phrase 'Carbon Footprint' - What a stupid phrase that is, I don't care about my carbon footprint. I don't want to 'offset my emissions' or be 'carbon neutral'. It's not that I don't care about the environment, I do. I just don't believe in all this global warming rubbish, I enjoy driving, I want a gas guzzling supercar which does just 4mpg, I want my 1p ryanair flights, I want to leave my laptop on 24/7 and I don't want to wait 5 minutes for energy efficient lightbulbs to reach sufficient brightness! David Milliband recently declared that his 'carbon footprint' was a respectable 3 tonnes, of course he didn't mention the fact that he had excluded all his travelling from that figure, numpty.

5) Pigeons - All they do is shit on your car (or in some cases you), nest in your heating flue, walk around nodding their head being in the way all the time , rats with wings, that is what they are.

6) Hexagonal Smartie Tubes - Whhhy? Round ones are infinitely better and you don't get the plastic lids with letters anymore! Whilst i'm at it, Smarties with 'no artificial colours' I want my lurid coloured smarties, give me back my e-numbers!

and of course:

7) My medical school - nuff said really. (as long as they give me my degree first)

8) 'Dr' Gillian McKeith - Words can't even describe her.

I realise that I've sort of cheated, but I could have gone on for ever. What can I say, I'm intolerant.

Car Park Dodgems, a New Toy and Another Moan

Parking at hospitals is notoriously stupid! The one I'm at is no exception, it is awful! Cars everywhere, car parks full to the brim. Crazy drivers spending ages looking for a space, the older generation struggling to fit into a space which you couldn't fit a cat in never mind swing it. Having been in Hospitals for about 2 years now, my car looks like its been through a safari park of raging elephants followed by a parade of chavs with baseball bats and keys.There are dents and scratches everywhere! And I'm really fucked off. I didn't do any of them (well maybe one) yet nobody has ever stopped and left their details. Seriously my car must have been hit or scratched about 7 times in the past 2 years. It'd cost me thousands to have it all repaired. Stupid useless drivers! Seriously people should learn how to park, it's not that hard is it?No wonder the consultants all have their own spaces which are about twice the size of everyone elses!

A new toy? It is phone upgrade time, I've been with the network 02 for almost 4years but I've decided to swap to T-Mobile. Mainly for their great data tariffs.Anyway, I've been getting more and more excited recently about the prospect of a new phone (Yes I know I'm lame but I just like new gadgets and toys), I went to the T-Mobile shop yesterday and I knew exactly what I wanted. I toyed with the idea of getting a PDA phone to integrate my phone and PDA but eventually decided to go with the Nokia N95. I've always been a Sony Erricson man before,and this Nokia is going to take some getting used to! I spent last night playing with it (I LOVE getting new things and reading the instructions and setting them up and...and...well everything really) So I now have a sexy new phone with built in GPS which rocks! I've downloaded free maps for the places we're going in summer (Australia, Thailand and California. Sadly there are no maps for the Solomon Islands, I think because there are no roads!) It has great built-in Internet browser so I can surf the net anywhere and a really good camera so I don't need to carry yet another piece of stuff. I expect you're all bored now of me talking about my new gadget so I'll shut up and runaway and play with it some more ...*childlike excited giggle*...

And the moan? Well that is a secret :)

Shop until you drop!

So, this morning, we printed out list of 'stuff' for our RTW elective of joy. We headed off to a mahousive shopping centre in search of goodies.

We started off in Boot's stocking up on basic first aid items (enough to treat a small army I might add) unfortunately our malaria prophylaxis all but bankrupted the pharmacy so we had to leave our prescription so they can order in a few trucks worth of doxycycline.

After replenishing our energy stores with yummyness we went in search of the sandals which will henceforth be known exclusively as 'Action Sandals' (what an amazing sentence that is!) Anyway, after trying on a few pairs of monsterishly hideous 'things' we both settled on relatively acceptable pairs of action sandals.

All was going swimmingly, that was until official looking people started running about, seconds before alarms started ringing out all over the place and incomprehensible tannoy messages were blasted out. We only had one shop left to visit but as we entered we were swiftly evacuated. Not to be defeated we took a trip back to the car to deposit our bags, before wondering back into John Lewis. Unfortunately, part of the centre (the part with the shop we wanted to go to) remained off limits whilst some firemen checked out a smoke alarm so we took up residence on the garden furniture in John Lewis for an hour and proceeded to dream about actually having a garden.

After the all clear was given, we finally made it to our final stop to look at rucksacks and other associated travel goodies. We then spent half an hour removing every single rucksack from the wall and trying them on (Much to the annoyance of the staff.) I finally decided upon a huge red monstrosity which should fit our purposes quite well. With that, our shopping trip was complete, our list of things 'to get' extensively reduced, and with a whole new list of things not to forget. Here is where you lot come in... (I like to make my posts interactive)

We're pretty organised and good at keeping lists but everyone always forgets something so what are your suggestions for things we need to take which we might have forgotten (forget the obvious things, we've got those covered.)

Because I'm Bored...

Following HospitalPhoenix's lead I've decided to do this without being tagged (I'm a rebel! OH YEAH!)

Two names you go by: The Little Medic, tlm

Two things you are wearing right now: Purple Tie, trousers which are rather uncomfortable.

Two things you would want (or have) in a relationship: Love and cuddles.

Two of your favourite things to do: Shopping for gadgets - I'm obsessed with shopping in general but when combined with gadgets its orgasmic. Procrastinating - usually by smurfing the interweb.

Two things you want very badly at the moment: A tabby kitten, a new phone and a first class ticket out of the North West (that's 3, but I'm greedy)

Two pets you have had: Assorted Bernese Mountain dogs, and a tiger (cat)

Two people I would like to do this: Like HP said, anyone with the inclination.

Two things you did last night: Ate McDonalds (Student 6 Nugget meal with banana milkshake) and watched the final of the Apprentice (Simon ftw!)

Two things you ate today: A Double Decker and some salt and vinegar french fries (I'm like the healthiest person on the planet!)

Two people you last talked to: missbliss and a patient (on the phone)

Two things you are doing tomorrow: Phoning more patients

Two longest car rides: Uni to missbliss's and my home to missbliss's (anyone sense a recurring theme?)

Two favourite holidays: Last minute cottage break in Wissett, Suffolk with missbliss (3 weeks after meeting.) Ambleside, Lake District.

Two favourite beverages: Orange juice with bits and Passoa

You've Been Googled

LAST UPDATED: 13 JUN 07 22:52

One of the things which I like about blogging is looking at my visitor stats (how lame am I?!) They amuse me, I particularly like the fact it tells you what people searched for before coming to the blog.

There have been some funny ones since I started, but the most recent slightly confused me;
"medical students fuck" - that person must have been looking for a really niche fetish! Worryingly, my blog is returned as the top result!

Other examples include:
"little medic" - someone in Germany seems to be quite obsessed unless they were genuinely looking for really little medics!
"cope with osce exam nerves" - anyone who is looking for help with OSCE nerves should probably stay well away from my blog!
"queue theory anatomic pathology turn around time" - what the fuck?
"sscs in obs and gynae" - people actually come here for medical type stuff?! (who would have thought it)

The internet is a strange, strange place.

UPDATE:
One from this morning which made me giggle "Hospital excuses to get out of school test"

UPDATE 2:
The most recent, and perhaps most worrying google: "fetish gynae medical pictures" - Again, worryingly my site is the top result!!

Am I Dreaming?!?!?!

Today I almost kicked the oxygen habit, yes ladies and gentlemen, I almost died! "what happened?!" I hear you screaming at the screen...

Well... I was sat in the library casually procrastinating as you do, you know, perusing the web and checking emails when suddenly it happened. I noticed an email, our placement choices for year 5. I almost died of shock! (I know that is far less exciting that I built you all up for but I'm serious!) We were asked to pick a list of specialties for 5th year and we're told we'd be lucky to get 2 of our top choices, from past experience I expected the worst. As I glanced at the email, little explosions of happiness went off in my head.

I seem to have got all 4 of my top choices, even in the order that I wanted!!! How? How has something in the medical school gone my way? I'm not sure I believe it, its a joke, come on, surely?! Where is Jeremy Beadle?

So whats the explanation? Well, sadly it isn't cause for me to start singing the praises of my medical school. Fortunately the 5th year placements are arranged internally at my teaching hospital! (perhaps its not the worst place on Earth after all, actually of course it is, it's just the staff are all really friendly and considerate)

So my 5th year looks a little something like this:

Block 1 (8 weeks) - Elective, Lata Hospital, Solomon Islands.
Block 2 (8 weeks) - 4 weeks Orthopaedics (woo!), 4 weeks general medicine (gastro)
Block 3 (8 weeks) - Community placement, 8 weeks in GP land (we had to make choices for this too, I bet I'm going to get sent to the Arctic.
Block 4 (8 weeks) - 4 weeks A&E (yay!), 4 weeks lower GI surgery.

All with decent consultants in the same hospital!

p.s. Had typhoid and Hep A vaccination today - my arm hurts SO much!

p.p.s Happy Birthday to missbliss

In The Zone

There is nothing like being in the zone, whether its for work, tidying or whatever!

That feeling when you're so focused that you're flying, no matter what you're doing, you can't be stopped, won't be interrupted and won't stop until you're either finished or exhausted! Today I'm deep in the zone (although sadly its mainly for tidying and being organised rather than actually working...maybe that'll come later, I hope)

I just wish it happened more often workwise...