Bringing the Islands to Life

Now we've settled into our new flat and got the Internet up and running we've been able to upload some of our Solomon Island videos to youtube. Hope you enjoy them:

Taking off after stopping to re-fuel

Driving through a local village on the island

An English lesson Solomon Island style

Solomon Island children playing down by the sea

Playing volleyball in the evening with a load of local children.

(yes ladies and gentlemen, that's me - do excuse the odd clothing arrangement)

Custom dancing the night before we left, AMAZING!

Evening in paradise

There you have it, a few videos which I hope bring to life some of our amazing experiences. It makes both of us really happy to look at the videos and pictures but at the same time, its quite sad because we both miss it tremendously!

so much to do, so little time

I knew things were going to be busy when we returned from our trip but busy is probably an understatement!

I have finally finished my elective report, it is pretty good now even if I do say so myself. My blog actually proved useful as rereading some of my posts whilst away helped with the content of my report. It was supposed to be 3500 words but that simply isn't enough so it ended up at 3700 which is still a ridiculously small amount considering everything that happened. I don't think I've done it justice but I've done the best I possibly could have. Much credit must go to missbliss for her help. Now I just have to hand the dam thing in which is going to be a pain in the arse as it has to be handed into the medical school not my hospital. I'll look forward to me 100 mile, each way, commute on Monday.

I thought about putting a copy of my report up on the net but since the university seem to have stepped up their assault on plagiarism it'll have to wait for a while. I wouldn't want to be accused of stealing someone else's report and making up 2 months of my life now would I? If you're desperate to read it then drop me an email.

That's one thing I can cross off on my ever expanding list of things to do. I can also cross off finding a flat as we've found one! Although finding somewhere to live adds about 60 different things to my to-do list. Particularly as its unfurnished so we're going to be sleeping on the floor. IKEA here we come!

My first week back in hospital was both eventful and uneventful, you can read about it here at the real little medic (email me for an invite if you want).

Next week promises to be busier than ever! We're moving into our flat next Saturday, I'm going on a surgical skills course in Edinburgh next Friday and there is the small matter of the foundation application form which I've yet to really study in detail! Expect to here more about that next week (if I get time to blog that is!)

I'm also planning a post about some of the crazy things people have googled only to end up at my blog. At the moment its mostly about the foundation programme application form as I've written about the questions but there have been some gems just recently and I'm sure it would be worth sharing them.

Finally, this is my 100th post, so I'd just like to say a quick thanks to all the readers and commenters out there who make blogging a bit more interesting!

Elective Report

I'm currently writing my elective report which is supposed to be 3500 words. Now I'd have no problem just rattling off 3500 words describing my elective but I want to try and do it some form of justice but its just so difficult.

I thought my elective report would be easy. It is supposed to be in an informative but fairly clinical style but my elective was about so much more than that. Not only do I have to cut out so much but its hard to make things sound real and interesting.

I know my report will probably be ok, but I wanted it to be more than that.

I seem to have lost all my creative writing juices (not that I had that many to start with) - bloody worrying considering the foundation application form goes online next week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Arghhh its driving me insane!

So where have we been for the past 3 months?

Blogs we wrote on the island

• Our first taste of the Solomon Islands (Honiara)
• Our first, but not last, earthquake (6.7)
• We finally make it to Lata, Santa Cruz Island
• We almost drown on a boat trip
• We begin to settle in
• Our second earthquake (7.2) and some doctoring
• Time flies in the Solomon Islands (unlike Solomon Airlines)
• We almost die ... again
• All good things must come to an end
• Bringing the islands to life
  

2007 Elective round up

Well, The Little Medic and I did a little world travelling (Thailand, Australia, Fiji, Los Angeles) but the main part of our trip was a 2 month stint in the town of Lata, on Nendo island, in the Temotu Province of the Solomon Islands.

The Solomon islands are situated between Australia and Papua New Guinea. It takes around 4 hours to travel to the Solomon Islands by air from Brisbane/Fiji. The flight takes you to Honiara, the capital. From the capital it takes 3 hours by two-propellor plane to reach the island we are on, or 3 days by boat. The province we were in is so isolated that the Solomon Island government often leaves it off official maps of the country. It is one of the most remote places on earth.

The main island of Temotu province is called Nendo in the local language and Santa Cruz by most other people. The main island has a hospital and a school. It can take up to 12 hours by boat to reach Nendo from the islands that lie even further out. One of the outer lying islands in the Temotu province is Anuta - you may have seen it on Bruce Parry's recent episode of 'TRIBE' (we only found this out on our return). While we were on Nendo, I taught in the school while The Little Medic completed his elective at the hospital. It is safe to say there are few facilities in the hospital and almost none in the school. There is one doctor for the entire province of 20,000 people who are spread over a huge area of ocean. TLM saw a lot of medicine, a lot of surgery and he really learnt a great deal from the experience. Stuff the namby-pamby useless British medical schools, this was almost like an old-fashioned apprenticeship with all 1-on-1 attention from the doctor who has to specialise in everything. I taught with only a piece of chalk and my imagination and story-telling. I realised how ungrateful we are in England for our medical and education services. The experience made me re-consider teaching in England, but more of that another time.

We can't really explain what it was like to live there, in a place with no running water or electricity, no television or radio and scant contact with the outside world. It was amazing and here are some of the things we did:

• climbed a 100m (approx) waterfall with no equipment
  
• trekked through jungle/rainforest


• swam in shark-infested water
  
• waded through crocodile-infested rivers


• saw genuine (not put on for tourists!) custom traditions/dances


• survived high seas in the Pacific Ocean in a 5 metre boat - the waves were at least 4 or 5 metres high and were slapping onto and into the boat (which had no life jackets)


• slept in leaf houses
  
• saw group mourning and wailing women (very moving and sad)
  
• lived without electricity


• saw a lunar eclipse


• acclimatised to a humidity of 94%


• ate taro, breadfruit, cassava, giant clam and all other sorts of weird and protected foods (when not eating rice and taiyo [tuna])


• lived in close proximity to an active volcano


• fished in the South Pacific (caught Barracuda!)


• washed in half a bucket of rainwater every day for two months (surprisingly refreshing)


• beheaded, gutted and fileted whole fish bought for the equivalent of 50p


• swam in lagoons and jungle pools


• leant how to communicate 1) in pidgin 2) with eyebrows


• taught classes of 50+ in a tiny leaf hut


• practised medicine and surgery with almost no facilities


• had two earthquakes - one 6.7 and another 7.2 (close to epicentre both times: 20 miles and 70 miles)


• lived in constant danger of cyclones and tsunamis


• SURVIVED and had a fantastic time!
  

Instead of me trying to explain the experience, I'll let the pictures do the talking (but I'll help with a few subtitles!):

We ended up over the rainbow... awwwwwww (twee!)

The plane - a scary ride but a surprisingly smooth landing

Solomon style living had its advantages

A very Little Medic far out on the reef

The beguiling sea, pretending to be serene and harmless

A village with its leaf houses

Tinakula volcano - formed from a burning baby according to custom story (as I found out from my class)

Local wildlife

Local food

Custom dancers

Paradise

Crafting a canoe (can take 6 months)

Outside my classroom

Inside my classroom

Goodbyeeee! Lookim Uifela comeback soon!

Goodbye Lata, we miss you!

Tales From a Tiny Island

I promised more tales from the Solomon Islands and more tales you shall have in this and future posts. In a couple of days when I've sorted out all the pictures I'll hopefully be able to upload a few of those.

So, I last left you with the tale of our jungle trek, if you read the post you'll know what a nightmare it was! After that, I did eventually just about forgive the doctor and life carried on as normal. When I say normal I mean in Solomon Island terms... so bucket showers, nothing happening on time etc etc.

We'd been there a while now and had settled into a routine, there wasn't much at all to do. We amused ourselves by playing vollyball with the local children, reading books, playing cards or strolling down by the beach and swimming in the lovely warm South Pacific (keeping a close eye out for the apparently dangerous sea snakes). My work at the hospital was as laid back as ever, with ward rounds in the morning every other day or so and surgery the other mornings. By now I was assisting in whatever procedures were the order of the day (the vast majority of which were tubal ligations but we did have the occasional hernia repair).

There was another emergency cesarean section during my last week in which I took the role of comforting the patient, holding her hand as she trembled with fear, in between, monitoring the patients pulse, blood pressure, hanging up drips and giving drugs. Talk about multi-tasking! Once again things turned out very well, there are remarkably few complications during birth out there which is good considering they'd be rather serious!

Surgery was made rather difficult due to the fact that the pulse oximiter cable broke. So whilst we were still anaesthetising everyone with ketamine, we now had no other way of monitoring their breathing and O2 sats other than watching them to make sure they were breathing. (The cable has a whole story of its own about how it will be almost impossible to replace, just like everything else - i'll tell you about that in a future post). Not only that but the hospital was now ridiculously low on supplies, drugs were running low, we'd run out of diazapam which meant when anaesthetising with ketamine, every other patient either screamed or shook like crazy. Its not easy to do a procedure when the patient is screaming his head off with bad dreams and shaking like a plate of jelly in an earthquake! There was hardly any gauze left which made dressings and surgery quite difficult, various other medications had run out or were running out rapidly. Why was it so bad? Well, all the medication has to come by ship, a ship had come, unfortunately the person who was supposed to be responsible for putting the medication on the ship had got drunk and forgot (A very regular occurrence in all walks of Solomon Life).

The ship that came brought only a few barrels of plane fuel which left us rather worried. There were constant promises of more fuel coming but a Solomon Island promise is about as much use as a life jacket made of lead. As each day passed we got more and more worried and eventually it was decided that we should try and get an earlier flight. I sorted this out with the Solomon Airlines man who 3 days later decided to tell me that it wasn't actually possible. With some phone calls and a lot of wrangling they squeezed us onto a supposedly full flight and were were to leave slightly early.

The day before we were due to leave, I finally got chance to deliver my presentation on diabetes to the hospital staff. I enjoyed it, although I'm not sure how much they understood. I tried to make it nice and simple but I'm still not sure whether they were nodding in agreement or just out of politeness. Following my presentation I thanked them all for having me, I felt quite sad to be leaving. The wonderful Solomon people continued their friendliness by providing a goodbye lunch for missbliss and me which was a nice touch. That night, there happened to be a custom dance going on in a local village. We were very lucky that it was happening on our last night (they only do a couple each year), and that we were able to go. It was an incredible experience, to see such a custom in its completely traditional style (i.e. not just for tourists). More about that with the pictures...

And with that, it was time for us to leave (although I didn't for one minute expect the plane to come), I was extraordinarily surprised when it did turn up and after a couple of months on a paradise island which had become much like home we finally said our goodbyes and waved as we took off in the little plane to return to Honiara.

It was a sad day, but it didn't really hit us until the next day when we were sat having dinner in our hotel just how much we valued our time in Lata and how much we'd miss the island and its lifestyle. (more on that later too)

Bye Santa Cruz, we miss you.

it comes to an end....

Sorry for the lack of updates the last few weeks, things have been very busy and Internet access difficult. There are many stories still to tell but I think these will have to wait but don't worry, for those interested, there will be more tales and even some pictures!

So anyway, where are we at... well, we've left Lata, in fact, we left a short while ago. Unfortunately we had to leave a couple of days early. This was mainly due to the fuel situation, a ship did come but only brought about 9 barrels worth (a bit useless when it takes 3-4 per flight) So anyway, there wasn't enough fuel for us to get on our original flight so we had to get on a slightly earlier one, it took some persuasion for them to let us on the supposedly full flight, but eventually they did. The day we left was rather sad, we'd both grown to live quite well with the simple lifestyle. It wouldn't be until the day after we'd left, whilst sat in our hotel enjoying a much needed steak that it would finally sink in that we'd left. The journey itself, back on the small plane, was rather hairy as it rained all the time. The first thing we did on arriving at our hotel was order a cheeseburger!

By some extraordinary luck, we managed to then re-arrange all our flights so we left Honiara the next day, bypassing Fiji but for a brief wait in the airport (where we were nearly offloaded), flying onto Los Angeles. From the back and beyond to one of the richest, most crazy places on Earth! We set up in a Hotel in LA and set about hiring a car, this turned out to be one of the scariest things of the whole trip (normally that probably wouldn't mean a lot but considering what we've been up to on this trip its saying something!). I've never driven an automatic, left hand drive car on the wrong side of the road before. I had a small tantrum where I strongly considered taking it back, with missbliss's encouragement, I fought on and with the addition of a sat-nav unit made excellent progress and now it feels just like normal!

So that's where we're at, our Solomon adventures are over and we're heading for home very shortly. Hopefully I'll keep my blog very busy over the next few months, there will be Solomon stories to tell not to mention the other million things to do when we get back which includes: being back at med school, applying for Foundation posts!!! (shitters), finding a house, catching up on things from the last couple of months and all sorts of other wonderful and interesting things.

Anyway, in the words of Warner Brothers, 'that's all folks'.

I'm A Medical Student GET ME OUT OF HERE!!

Is this a crocodile I see before me?

This morning we went for a pleasant morning stroll. The weather was warm but not too hot, the rain was nowhere to be seen and the scenery was very pretty. Wonderful you might say...well...not quite.

We failed to realise just how much of a psycho the Austrian doctor here is. I suppose we should have guessed by now: him being in the middle of nowhere at the other side of the world; the nightmare boat trips he just laughs off and a heart rate of 34. His manic fitness regime would probably kill a lesser man. Unfortunately he seems to have lost all concept of normal human physiology. He is a lovely guy and very friendly, just a bit of a lunatic when it comes to excursions.

So....back to our pleasant stroll. We left at about 10am and after a brief car journey were ready for what we thought would be a relatively brief and easy walk to a waterfall! Little did we know! After the first 5 minutes of walking through a rice field we were up to our knees in mud (literally) shoes became useless as with each step they were sucked into the mud with a wonderful slurrrrrp and farted out again apart from occasionally when you'd find yourself shoeless. By now we were in the jungle, what was supposed to be a track looked to me just like the rest of the jungle. The Solomon Islands are humid at the best of times but the Jungle was even worse, sweat was pouring off us for most of the trip. Anyway we trekked on, between huge trees and vines, over stumps and buttress roots, cascading down mud. After a brief descent which was more like a mud slide than a path we came to the river, the same river in which a giant saltwater crocodile was shot (with a bow and arrow) a couple of weeks ago. We crossed over, gone were the clear waters of the other rivers here, the murky depths could have held all sorts of beasts. It was decided that we should go back into the jungle rather than follow the meandering river. We made it across and I was thankful we hadn't been eaten, if only I'd known what was to come!

Another half an hour or so of up and down in the jungle with cries of "I think this might be the way" and "duck under these leaves or hundreds of biting ants will drop on you" from the crazy doctor, who was by now motoring ahead at his own pace leaving us almost lost, we were brought to another muddy, almost vertical slope which we had to clamber down (mostly sliding on our arses) after sliding 6 metres down missbliss joyfully informed us that she had mud in her knickers. At the bottom of this delightful deathslide was the crocodile river we'd crossed earlier. Now we were to trudge up the river (GREAT!), it was waist high on me and up to missbliss's chest. It was exceptionally uneven and huge holes in places almost swallowed us whole. Fortunately the holes where the only thing that almost swallowed us, I kept my eyes peeled for 'moving logs' or other crocodile shaped items. The doctor made light of the fact there were potentially crocs by constantly mentioning them, apart from when he was telling us to avoid the razor sharp snails (which were everywhere!)

After about 25 minutes of wading up the river that was becoming increasing shallow (thankfully) we reached our first destination, a quite magnificent waterfall. At this point it was suggested that we stay here whilst the doctor and another couple of guys went further up the river to a little pool for a swim. I didn't need much persuasion as I was more than happy to sit and relax for an hour or so! Me and missbliss spent an hour relaxing in the waterfall, it was nice to be able to wash some of the mud off. I was most disappointed to find that my stash of biscuits had been destroyed as my bag had spent most of its time underwater whist we waded through the river (I managed to just about rescue the camera and held it high) When the rest of the party returned it was a question of whether to go back the way we came (NO THANK YOU!) or scale the vertical waterfall (Bloody wonderful!) We took another leap of faith, not knowing how tall this waterfall was, and elected to go rock climbing in the middle of the jungle with ABSOLUTELY no safety equipment what so ever or way of contacting the outside world should anything happen (not that it'd have made much difference as there is nobody here to rescue us here anyway!)

Off we went, foot holes here, vines there, slippery and crumbling rocks in-between and water EVERYWHERE! The first bit wasn't too bad, there were good rocks (Still covered in razor sharp snails) and it was relatively easy. By now we had some idea of how tall this waterfall was - FUCKING HUGE! By now we could only go up as it would be impossible to go down. I can't overemphasise how sheer and vertical this waterfall was (when we have the ability we'll upload a picture.) It wasn't till we were about half way up that it suddenly hit me that if we slipped (on the slippery, snail ridden, crumbly rocks) we'd have gone down like dominos to a rocky, watery death! SHITTERS! By this time we'd been climbing for a good 25 minutes and were perhaps just past half way although the foot holes were getting fewer and those that were there were less secure. We must have been running purely on adrenaline and the will to survive! Missbliss (who was for some reason quite enjoying the climbing aspect) only has little legs so struggled at some of the mammoth leaps (her dad taught her well on Dartmoor but her mum is probably having a heart attack reading this). The Doctor did manage to help her up some of the tougher parts but I was left to clamber around on my own, occasionally pushing missbliss from behind to help her up.

The relief when we got to the top was indescribable, we'd spent no less than 45 minutes climbing the waterfall. We'll never know how high it is as it isn't on any maps but it was at least 75m but was probably more like 100m even though it felt like 1000m! We stopped (albeit VERY briefly) for a drink and pictures (fuck knows how I managed to keep the camera from falling, in fact, as a party we only lost a couple of pairs of sunglasses, a bottle of water and a handkerchief)

Now we just had the hour walk back to worry about to complete the circuit (easy peasy!) Sadly it wasn't quite so easy as a) even the Doctor had no idea where the fuck we were b) it was as muddy as ever and c) we were bloody knackered d) out of adrenaline and e) we were hungry. I didn't even have my biscuits if we were to be lost in the Jungle! The doctor was marching ahead, most of the time we couldn't even see him and had to take an educated guess at which way he'd gone. A casualty in the form of the doctor's shoe, which was sucked into the muddy depths, didn't even slow him down. "Shit, Shit, I just a snake!" was the next exclamation from the Doctor, by now I just about wanted to shoot him (although I wouldn't have been able to catch up with him to do so). Shortly afterwards came a "OUCH! I've just been bitten by a spider" from the man behind us. I think we'd all been bitten and attacked by ants, mosquitoes, thorns, snails and mud! It seemed like the jungle would never end and now we had snakes to look out for too. I've never sworn so much in my life, particularly as I fell down into deep mud going back across the river. The Doctor made another quip about crocodiles which was just about all we could take and caused an uproar from myself and missbliss (perhaps it wasn't the best idea to call my elective supervisor a twat.) There was another indescribable feeling of relief when eventually we got through and saw our truck. I took some quiet, alone time to calm down whilst missbliss squatted under a water tank to clean herself up.

By now it was 3:00pm but there was one last bit of walking to do, fortunately the destination was a beautiful fresh water pool/lagoon. I couldn't get in there soon enough, it was cold but wonderfully refreshing. After about 15 minutes swimming around and relaxing we both felt a million times better and I no longer wanted to throttle the doctor. A coconut replenished our now very depleted water stores whilst we took a truck back to the township.

On reflection, I think we're both glad we put ourselves through it and we thanked the doctor for not quite killing us. It has confirmed that the doctor is a total psycho, but a nice one at that. A reconciliatory game of UNO is in order this evening. If, like a cat, humans had nine lives, I think we'd be down to our last few by now on this trip! Apparently in the Solomon Islands you're either a bushfella or a salwaterfella, which means you're either a jungle or coastal person. I can safely say that me and missbliss are neither.

FUEL UPDATE: "onefella ship brought thisfella fuel this time" Unfortunately they only brought 5 barrels, 3 of which were used in a flight today. We are assured another boat is bringing more and should be here on Monday but we've been hearing that for the past 5 weeks!

WATERFALL PICTURES ADDED January 2008, courtesy of the doctor:

A natural shower

Can you climb it? Yes, apparently you can - it should be noted that this was the aformentioned easy bit and that the waterfall carried on for another 40 minutes of climbing after this

A perilous snap of one of the guys scaling the waterfall - do you see the razor backed snails??

Solomon Time Flies...

Another week down, time is starting to fly (at least the weekdays are, weekends tend to go a bit slowly as there isn't a great deal to do.) It just seems to be weekend after weekend now, and we've got less than 3 weeks to go. There still isn't any fuel at the airport but apparently there are 20 barrels on a ship which has just arrived (3 or 4 weeks late) so hopefully we'll be able to get home!

Despite there being a huge lack of things to do we've not been too bored really. I think I've read more books in the last few weeks than I've read in years! I'm averaging one every 2 days at the moment. I've even managed some oxford handbook of clinical medicine revision! Although weekends tend to drag, the weekend just gone was really good. Saturday we watched Lata United lose at football to some other local team, the locals seem quite obsessed with football and pigs are frequently slaughtered for a feast if a result goes the right way. After that we went down to a bit of beach we've not visited before. It was beautiful, such white sand and clear Pacific water. We wandered around for a while and hunted for shells. Missbliss had made clear her desire for a huge shell although they're rather rare. Just as I was getting towards the end of the bay I noticed a shell to fit the bill ( >30cm in length) in the water, I picked it up and noticed something in it so threw it towards the beach – the shell's occupant turned out to be dead and with a bit of shaking out flopped a gooey, smelly mess. By now we'd amassed quite a crowd of locals, many of whom offered advice on how to clean it and stop it smelling. Walking back along the shore we bumped into a man who was most unimpressed that we'd stumbled across the shell – he had an identical one in his canoe but explained that he'd been diving off the reef all day to find it (and it wasn't as big or pretty either). He also offered us advice on the shell: specifically how to turn it into a horn to call people to important gatherings if we so desired. Missbliss was very pleased with the find (it's a "cone shell" or "Boo shell"). Hopefully it might make it back to England with us. If not, we have photos of us in various triumphant poses with it. Saturday was exceptionally hot, humid and sunny and we both got a bit burnt walking to and fro. On our way back we stopped at the house of another "whitefella" who is here doing things with solar panels. We had a lovely tropical fruit salad lunch (starfruit, bush lime, banana, pawpaw) before heading home for an afternoon nap.

Sunday was just as relaxed, most of the day was spent doing very little except reading and playing cards. We went for a beer (sadly we had to make do with a warm can of SB (SolBrew)) down by the sea to watch the arrival of the ship which seems to be something to celebrate as it happens so rarely and irregularly. How everyone knows when its going to turn up I have no idea, but most of the town had turned up for its arrival. We walked back up to the house only to find ourselves locked out. Having a ball with us, missbliss and I decided to play volleyball. After starting our very unsuccessful 1 on 1 game a crowd of local children soon assembled, as they always seem to when whitefellas are about. With a bit of encouragement most of them joined in and so we ended up with about 10 vs 10, most of them not much older than 10 years old and some even younger. We played for over an hour with no rules whatsoever, it was great fun. It was slowly getting dark so we said "5 more minutes", about 20 minutes later it was almost pitch black and I couldn't even see the ball, only then did we decide to call it a day.

The doctor has been away on a tour again for the last couple of days so I've been left to my own devices. When he is here I've been doing plenty of assisting in theatre. So much so that I could probably do my own open tubal ligation by now. Other activities include ward rounds, abscess bursting, seeing acute patients and attempting to use the x-ray machine whilst dodging the resident wasp. When I'm on my own I float about doing whatever I want, this mainly includes ward rounds and seeing acute patients although I've also prepared a wonderful (and basic) presentation on diabetes to give next Friday morning to the other staff.

I'm not really home-sick but I'm really starting to miss the modern life. Last Sunday I was dying for a Sunday Times. I've not heard any news all the time we've been here, anything could have happened. I started to compile a short list of things I really want:

1. Sunday Times

2. Access to BBC news website. (The internet is barely up to sending emails)

3. Banoffee pie

4. Beef – of any description (except tinned)

5. A warm shower (I don't mind cold showers but 4 weeks of cold bucket washes starts to get annoying)

6. Real pillows (rather than little triangular bits of foam stuffed into a pillowcase)

Once we get back to modern life its going to take for-ever to catch up with everything. Goodness knows how many emails there will be to sift through, news/sport to catch up on, comments to read (if there are any). Better avoid current affairs quizzes for a while. It doesn't help that I'll be coming back right into MTAS (for all I know it might not even be called MTAS this year). Anyway, few more weeks to kill before we have to worry about all that.

Another Natural Disaster and Some Doctoring

Last Sunday we had yet another Earthquake, another big one. (About 7 or so on the Richter scale) This time there was the added problem that we were living right by the sea. Shitters! We made for the hills (but then we decided to sit and watch the sea for any signs of impending death instead), apparently on the other side of the Island the tide went really far out and everyone legged it because they expected a Tsunami, thankfully nothing happened. Needless to say we were scared. Conveniently we were invited to move up to the Doctor's house whilst he was away. It is safe from the sea, much much closer to the hospital and school and has electricity! Hell yeah! So that's where we are now, and hopefully will be staying there. It isn't quite as pretty as being down by the sea with our own private beach but at least we won't die.

Anyway, the Doctor was away last week and so I was left on my own. I was effectively the most medically qualified person (apart from the nurses who are all very good) within about 200 miles. Shitters again! I had a relaxed week with different activities each morning. Child Health clinic, family planning clinic (one woman didn't quite understand that concept in that she turned up 3 months pregnant), ante-natal clinic (which I ended up running!) and the outpatients department. The OPD is basically the equivalent of A and E in England although it's basically just a room with a table, 2 nurses and some drugs. Everyone with a fever is checked and treated for malaria. On Friday, there was supposed to be a ward round but the senior nurse had gone on annual leave and neglected to tell anyone, after much waiting around it was decided that we'd do one anyway, which as all well and good until people started looking at me to make decisions about patients! Fortunately the nurses knew what they were doing most of the time anyways and all I had to do was agree and write things occasionally. It was all quite exciting really; I quite like being called Doctor. Let's hope I pass my exams so it can continue)

Finally, I promised a bit more about our trip around the island (you know, the one with the AWFUL boat journey). So, the idea was to visit some of the nurse-led clinics. These are just small, very basically equipped huts in the middle of nowhere. They do have radios however most of them seem to not be working. The faulty radios meant that we were not expected and so most of the places we visited didn't have any patients for us to see which meant the whole trip was a slight disaster in terms of medicalness. It was still very interesting though and we were able to drop off some supplies to the outposts.. It is virtually impossible for these nurse-led clinics to do very much at all other than basic first aid, family planning and vaccinations. Sadly, the day before we went on tour a young woman died of an acute severe asthma attack. Obviously nothing could have been done but it really makes you think about how these people live so remotely. The day after the woman's death, it was a strange and moving experience to see a group of wailing women in mourning and a room of about 100 people surrounding the body, as they had done all night in the local tradition. Death seems somewhat more prominent here. This was also the village where we had to inspect some remains that had washed up to see if they were human or fish.

This week, the doctor has returned so things are back to normal and it's been a morning in surgery. He's going away again next week on another tour, I think I'll be staying here and well away from that sodding boat. Anyway, now I'm more confident about what I'm doing and the problems here, it'll be good to get stuck in.

Lata Hospital

So we've been here the best part of a week and a half and we've settled in quite well now. The food situation is good although we've yet to come up with any good ideas for breakfast other than rice pudding. The best thing is the fish, you can get a freshly caught fish (tuna, red snapper, and barracuda) for about 60p (and I mean a BIG fish).

My time at the hospital is fairly easy going. I usually start at around 8am, (after a 20 minute walk from our house) depending on the day the first thing is usually a ward round where we go around each ward (which is basically just a small room, each with 8 beds.) There are 4 wards, male, female, children and maternity. At the moment the hospital is about half full. The doctor is really good and talks me through and asks me questions about most cases. The common things include scrub typhus, abscesses and new baby checks. The ward round usually takes about an hour to an hour and half (everything is pretty slow as it goes Solomon time.) After the ward round is the 10am coffee break, which the Doctor adheres to very strictly, I usually just drink some water and scoff some biscuits.

After coffee a few different things can happen. Mondays and Tuesdays we just float around and see any acute patients who need more than nurse care. Wednesday there is an ante-natal clinic which I went to yesterday, it is pretty busy and they are making full use of the fetal heart doppler I brought with me. Yesterday I spent the morning helping out there. Most of Thursday morning is taken up with surgery which is usually excision of abscesses or sterilisation procedures. For me this is the most interesting part, mainly because I like surgery, it is so different to the UK in that everything is very basic. I've been taking the role of the anesthetist and giving ketamine to put people to sleep. This morning I assisted in a TL (sterlisation) on a lady, it was really interesting as I got to get quite stuck in and was able to do more than I'd ever be able to do in the UK. The doctor is away next week but when he gets back hopefully i'll get to do a lot more of that. In one of this morning's procedures there was a power cut and the operation had to continue by torch light until the power was restored!

The most interesting thing so far has been an emergency cesarean section last Saturday evening. It was pretty intense as they are done very rarely here, most of the regular staff were not here so we all had to scrub in and help out. Things didn't go exactly to plan but everything worked out well and mother and baby are fine.

Fridays involve either checking the acute patients coming in or catching up on the surgical list. There is also supposed to be a seminar every morning where all the staff come together and someone gives a talk on something (I'm supposed to be doing one sometime) although the last 2 Fridays this has been cancelled due to "stakka other things" ( ß pigeon ).

The afternoons are very flexible, It is up to me basically, I can go to one of the clinics (ante/post-natal or whatever else is on), I can stay and see the new patients coming in or I can louge around and see what else is going on. If all else fails I can walk home via the wharf, get a fish and sit by the sea at our guesthouse. So the timetable here is very relaxed and easy going but because of the 1-1 teaching I've already learnt so much. (more than I've learnt in the last 2 years in hospitals probably) It is really interesting; especially the surgery and hopefully I'll get to do a few more things in the next few weeks. The doctor is away for a week now so again it is up to me to find what I want to do, there is plenty going on, hopefully I'll get to do/see some deliveries as there are 1 or 2 babies born each day. That is my main project for next week.

I Passionately Hate Boats!

Ever since I was about 8 years old I've always been really scared of boats and so have avoided them like the plague when possible. This fear began when I went on a lifeboat in Whitby, I remember the sea being rather choppy. I cried so much they turned the boat around just to take me back to land. Anyway, that left me emotionally scarred. I knew that if I came here there would be some boat action involved, but I hadn't worried too much. That was until I actually saw the boat! I suppose its about the same size as a car. We were to go on a trip around the island to visit some small clinics with a 1 night stay on the other side of the Island. Obviosuly since i'm writing this we returned alive but it was the most terrifying experience of my life.

The outward journey began ok, I was even enjoying riding the waves surfer style. As we got furthur round the island and a bit further away from land the sea began to get rougher and we began to bounce around a bit, I began to cling on. It continued to get rougher until all around us were huge waves. I was holding on for dear life. (I was sweating like never before and my hands went numb from clasping the rails.) The other 4 seasoned boat riders were ok, even joking around and fishing at the back. Joking cries of "mefella no lookim" in response to massive waves striking the front of the boat made me feel even worse. The waves got so big that at times they came right over the top of the hood of the boat. I was sure we were going to capsize. (I didn't know it at the time but there weren't even any lifejackets aboard.) By now darkness was setting in and we were as far away from land as we'd been. Somehow we made it through to a shaltered lagoon and from immintent disaster and death, the sea was as smooth as icing (mmmm, icing. mmmmm, cake!) The last 10 minutes of our outward journey were fun, zipping around the lagoon through tunnels of trees and we finally made it to our destination. \

Upon arriving we were summoned to inspect some remains to decipher if they were human or "bigfish". Only after deciding that they probably weren't human (but he was by no means sure) did the doctor tell missbliss and I further details about the waters we'd just travelled. Apparently they are "full of sharks" and have "plenty of crocodiles" FUCK ME! Not only that, 2 weeks previously, 1 particlar boat had capsized and of the 6 fishermen aboard, 3 had managed to swim to shore (although the coral reefs make that virtually impossible) the other 3? Who knows, shark dinner? crocodile snack? either way, the uncertainty around these remains became rather more important.

The trip itself was really interesting, it was an amzing experience to see traditional island living which makes where we are staying look modern. These places are in the middle of nowhere, have very little water, basic shelters, few (if any) medical provisions and have to be almost entirely self-sufficient. I don't know how they can live like that.

Perhaps more on the trip itself in the future because there is still the return journey to consider. It took all of my courage to get back on the boat (especially knowing of the crocodiles and sharks), but it was the only way to get home. The journey home began in a similar fashion to the previous journey in that it was ok, but it soon became rougher until we were bouncing all over the place. The waves were not as bad as the day before but it was still terrifying. I held the rail as hard as I could for about 2 hours (the time it took for us to get home) Every second I was wishing we were on land. I've never wanted something as much as then, time seemed to crawl at a snails pace, every minute I checked my watch. Fortunately the sea was too rough for us to make a final stop and we were able to go all the way home in one go! It was SUCH a relief to finally touch my feet back on land. Never before have I been as scared as those boat journeys and I can say with 100% certainty that I won't be going near that boat again in the next 5 weeks! My thoughts about boats have been confirmed, they are not for me, I like my feet on land thank you very much!

To make things even worse it was my birthday, what a way to turn 22. Although we did make it to the "resort" (hut/bar thing) in the evening for beer and chicken, omg yes chicken!!! so tasty!

Other than that the trip is going well, no computer for the next week or so so expect an update after that. In the meantime a trip to the wharf to get some fish is in order. Hopefully we can match the wonderful, freshly caught (literally just out of the water) whole red snapper we had the other day for a grand total of 60p. Loviningly beheaded and filleted by missbliss.

We've made it! (Lata Hospital, Santa Cruz Island)

So we made it to Lata Hospital, we were a few days late due to them cancelling our plane a couple of times. (Solomon Time), but eventually the plane (if you can even call it a plane it is so small) took off and a couple of hours later we arrived. The size of the plane made it a scary journey but the landings were good despite being on a field/dirt road.

We've been here for a good few days now and we're starting to get used to it. (Slowly) The climate is very hot and humid, it rains once most days (and it really really rains) which is refreshing and we're staying by the sea so there is a nice cool breeze. On arrival we were greeted with flower garlands which was really nice. A welcome lunch and hospital tour were next. The hospital is very basic with 4 small wards (8 beds) paeds, female, male and maternity. It isn't too busy at the moment. Other hospital facilities include x-ray machine (WOW!), malaria lab, small pharmacy, nurses station, office huts, hospital cat + kitten (which sadly hisses at you when you try and go near it) to keep away rats and a small operating room which has the occasional piece of equipment. All in all it is pretty good for what it is, ships only visit here every couple of weeks and there are only 2 small planes a week (at best).

The place we're staying is equally basic, unfortunately it is about 25 minutes walk away from the hospital which is a bit far, especially in the heat but it'll be good for us. Our house is right by the sea with its own private beach, bench and hammock. It is really beautiful. We have a gas stove, basic cooking equipment, a gas fridge that doesn't work (it might be working today I'm told), no electricity, a few solar lights, water from the roof stored in a tank and a bucket to wash with. We looked at another guesthouse place but the toilet there wasn't working which was enough to put us off, at least we have a nice working toilet. Not exactly what we're used to but we're getting used to it. (The fridge would make a big difference as we'd be able to store our fish rather than buy one most days). Things are really cheap here such as fish about 1 pound for a whole Tuna fish freshly caught from the wharf.

Missbliss is getting stuck into teaching at the school (which is a bit further from the house annoyingly) and I'm getting stuck in at the hospital. I've learnt loads already (much more than I've ever learnt in the UK). I'm the only student here so I get 1 on 1 with the only doctor here who does everything. Surgery has been the most interesting thing so far, it is totally different from the UK. There was an emergency c-section on Saturday (probably the only c-sec whilst I'm here), it was pretty scary at points but fortunately both mum and baby are ok. I get to assist in theatre which is always a plus and also will get the chance to do some minor procedures hopefully (I seem to have become the resident anesthetist, sorting out the I.V lines, putting up drips, giving the Ketamine (eek) etc etc.) It is a fairly relaxed timetable, with lots of flexibility and no real expectations.

When we first arrived I was a bit like what the hell am I doing here but we're settling in now and getting used to living third world style. There is no internet but email is just about ok so I'll keep my blog updated every so often.

"I Feel The Earth Move Under My Feet"

Hotel Shop

I was not expecting to update quite so soon but there is something important that I thought you might like to know.

Yesterday evening we were happily playing UNO in our room (living the high life, eh?) Suddenly the bed started to move. We both looked at each other, thinking the other one was annoyingly joggling but when we looked at each other we didn’t have to say anything at all. We were both scared and knew it wasn’t us. As we sat on the bed, the room started to shunt around, jolting the bed and rumbling ferociously. EARTHQUAKE!!!!

Missbliss said something like, “Do you think we’re having an earthquake?” The answer was rather obvious. We jumped up off the bed and, in the absence of a table, we decided to stand under the doorway of the room (all those years of watching American TV pay off at last). After what felt like 5 minutes (but was more like 15 seconds) the ground became steady again. We were both still shaking for about another 15 minutes, I’m sure there were some aftershocks in there too.

It turned out there were small aftershocks throughout the evening and night but they just felt like being on a wibbly water bed. We ventured out of the room and onto the balcony. The hotel is made up of lots of little wooden huts joined together with balconies and most of the guests had come out of their rooms in various states of undress. Several Aussies said it was a “decent” earthquake. Those also scared made us feel better, and the more seasoned earthquake survivors (as we are now) told us to expect more grumblings.

When we finally stopped shaking, we went down to the bar for a beer to calm ourselves down, and some chocolate cake too for being so brave. Everything just carried on as normal and the entertaining techno dancers had only stopped for a few minutes.

Turns out it was 6.7 on the Richter scale and the epicenter was only 35 miles from us. Jeepers.

We were amazed at how incredibly calm we were in the moment.

Rest assured everything is fine and nothing is damaged. We’re in the best place we can be in an earthquake – high on a hill and in a little wooden hut with minimal debris to fall (but it didn’t of course). Looking back now, it was all rather exciting.

In other news, walking down the street in Honiara is certainly an interesting experience. On our way to the internet café, we saw, among other things, a woman carrying an owl in a cage. Maybe she wants to be Harry Potter?!

Anyway, onto the hospital tomorrow hopefully (if the flight actually exists).

Thanks for all the comments, sorry I can’t reply but time is money, and the connection is so so so slow.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/earthquake-hits-solomon-islands/2007/08/16/1186857684952.html

Honiara, Solomon Islands

So we've arrived in the Solomon Islands in once piece - just one more flight on to Lata and we'll have completed the mammoth journey.

The best internet offerings here in the capital comprise of a grubby little room with a grubby little keyboard and a connection like those we endured 10 years ago.

The flight to Honiara had been changed without anyone (STA Travel for example) notifying us, but luckily it was later and we'd had the brains to double check time flights. We have also been advised to check the flight to Lata because 1) they might have no fuel so no flight 2) not enough people might want to be going so it could be cancelled!

The flight involved stopping off at Vanuatu along the way but it was a great flight and we got to spread out lots. It took forever to get through immigration - everyone was recording things in ledgers and files (no computers, no swiping passport barcodes etc). Finally it was our turn and we realised just how different their "English" is to ours - practically incomprehensible! The man only gave us a 30 day visa and when we told him we'd be hundreds of miles away on a remote island he wafted his arm over his shoulder and told us to see immigration the next day (it was 4pm, they would be closed of course?!!). Slightly worried, but holding it together we got a taxi from the airport into Honiara. [It should be noted at this point that the airport is only open when there's a flight about to go].

There's something great about taxi drivers - they just tell you everything candidly. During this journey we had pointed out to us the hotel that was burnt down in last year's riot and a boat on the grass verge (a whopping great liner) that had got dumped there by a cyclone sometime - no one has moved it. During the ride we had people staring at us, waving, smiling, calling over at us. This was in a taxi in the capital - what will it be like walking around on a far out island?? We told the taxi driver where we were going (Temotu Province) and even he said "oh far far far far away". Quite a feat to have someone in the Solomons think you're going far away.

The hotel is lovely and cool and has a fernicular railway taking you to your rooms. We had dinner and watched what can only be described as a techno take on island dancing. It was fun though and very very energetic. We on the other hand are lethargic most of the time and having midday naps because they heat and humidity is high. I've never felt humidity like it, it's incredible.

This morning we went to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1 min walk from the hotel luckily!) and went through security (bloke with no shoes sat by a gate) and into the office. I have never before seen an office without computers. It was quite incredible. Luck was on our side - they only dealt with visa extensions on Mondays and Wednesdays. In fact, they only talk to people at the counter on Mondays and Wednesdays. Every day has a different function: signing passports, making passports, other passport-related activities. It seems things are given an alloted day once (or twice a week if you're lucky) and if you miss it, tough. A woman padding about in the office with no shoes on shiftily asked us about our trip and inspected our return tickets before gladly stamping our passports with a visa lasting us the duration of our stay. PHEW!!

Lata here we come.....hopefully.

Fiji

Fiji is a strange little place. We arrived very late in the evening, having been a bit delayed. There was a driver waiting for us who took us to our resort. (he'd been waiting for about 4 hours - poor him) The drive was rather scary as the roads are not great, it was pitch black and we were going rather fast. (To be honest, i'm not really comfortable being driven by anyone else anymore. I'm too used to being in control.) The flight here was pretty bad for a number of reasons, in-fact, it was so bad, it required an emergency diary entry. It was a 747 but god knows how old it was, my seat disintegrated and the food was atrocious, not to mention the delay!

The first thing we noticed about Fiji was how amazing the stars were. There are SO MANY! There isn't a lot of light so it looks amazing. (I bet the Solomon Islands will be even better) For the first 3 days we stayed at a luxury resort by the sea. I wouldn't call it luxury but it is pretty nice, the weather is great, our 'bure' is ok with a sea view but it could do with a facelift. The whole resort is right on a coral cove, which is nice but the beach is rather sharp. I enjoyed walking in the lovely warm south pacific looking at fishes, starfishes and sea cucumbers among other things.

The resort is a bit too family orientated for our liking with a kids club etc, but there are plenty of activities. The pool is really nice, I've spent hours swimming and playing water volley-ball. I'm now burnt as a result sadly. (oops) I was led to believe it would be slightly more luxurious and not as full of children, the place is really nice but it is perhaps a bit expensive for what it is. We're not really doing much, just relaxing as we had a hectic time in Bangkok and Sydney, the relaxation is nice. One good thing about this place is the food, the breakfast is good and last night we had an amazing meal.

In a couple of days we finally head to the Solomon Islands, albeit, yet another nice hotel for a few days before flying on to our island. Scary stuff....

Sydney, Australia

We've now been in Sydney for a good few days, and its our last day tomorrow. Time seems to be flying so quickly. Perhaps it'll slow down once we get to the Solomon Islands and have a lot less to do.

I formed my opinion on Sydney rather quickly. I love it, its AMAZING! My favourite city in the world so far, although Paris is nice too (We've still got a few places to go so you never know that might change.) On our last day in Thailand we went for a traditional Thai massage which was very, very relaxing (if a bit hard), this set us up for our flight to Aus which was again long, and this time we got very little sleep and arrived at 6:00am, we couldn't get into our hotel room so we went for some breakfast to a local cafe. Soon after we sat down, a group of people sat down next to us and began moaning about MTAS and the UK. A couple of them were doctors who've come over to Aus. I CAN'T ESCAPE!

Anyway, we caught up on some well deserved sleep and were ready for a wander by the early evening. We've packed a lot of wandering into our days in Sydney which has been really nice. It is rather cold at the moment obviously as its Aussie winter, although its still about as warm as some summer days in the UK. I like it.

I love how the birds here are so different, walking around the botanical gardens the noise is incredible. Mainly from the cockatoos who are just walking around being birds. That sounds silly but its just normal but for us its new and interesting. Then there are the parrots which are just floating around in the trees, as are the flying foxes which are HUGE and just hang from trees in the park. A walk in the park is like being in the zoo. We've also been to various places to sample other bits of the local wildlife such as kangaroos, koalas and crocs.

And then there is the Opera House, I suppose it is the typical aus tourist attraction but I love it. I can't really explain why. I know I'm just another tourist and one of millions to have taken photos of it (when I say photos I mean loads! But I've whittled them down). I think the city looks amazing at night (especially the Opera House!). The city is rather quiet but quite busy at the same time and it is so clean. It is like my favourite city in the UK but bigger and a lot lot cleaner. I definitely want to come back sometime in the future (even though its miles away!)

So yeah, we're having a great time so far. I enjoyed the atmosphere of Bangkok but Sydney is completely different and I love it.

Tomorrow we move on to Fiji, a final bit of relaxation before we head towards the Solomon Islands. I'm starting to get a touch nervous about all that but I'll be enjoying the rest of my holiday first of all.

Thailand

We've now been in Thailand for about 5 days, We spent 3
days in Bangkok and 2 days in a northern city called
Phitsonaluk. Bangkok is insane, the traffic is crazy and
there are stalls selling food lining the streets. I like
the atmosphere but the best bits are the secluded nice
bits such as a lovely leafy wooden shack where we sat on
the floor with our shoes off eating lovely food and
watching geckos.

We stayed in a hotel in Bangkok which was cheap but
amazing, it is very modern and swish. There is a swimming
pool on the 7th floor from which we watched a storm one
evening which was great. It is the wet season but it rains
only for a short time in the evening. It is very hot and
very humid but so far we are just about coping. We were
shown around Bangkok by some thai people which was
exceedingly useful. I can't get over how busy and chaotic
the city is.

We then went up north for a couple of days, very few
westerners come here and we tend to get stared at wherever
we go. I guess that is what it is like being famous. The
norhtern city is still very chaotic, and hot but with more
woden shacks than tower blocks of hotels. Unfortunately, there also more snakes and huge spiders, both of which we spotted today.

Everything is so cheap here, the food is good, and overall
I like Thailand. I'm glad we're not spending too much time
here but i've enjoyed it so far.

Next stop Sydney, Australia. Tomorrow evening we've
another 10 hour flight down to Sydney, i'm looking forward
to Syndey, the flight...not so much.

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Going Up In The World

4th Year is officially over and done with! I guess that makes me a 5th year! Shitters.

The year concluded this week with 2 mammoth days of everyone presenting their project option. This involved about 40 people talking, for about 5 minutes each (it was supposed to be strictly 5 minutes but there was a mistake in the timing thing which meant everyone had 6 minutes! Ha!) Anyways, my turn came and went without any problems, my presentation was ok and I think I managed to answer the questions. Even my busy supervisor managed to make it which was nice of him. All in all, it was all quite interesting although it began to drag a little towards the end. The worst thing about it was the free lunch, what a pathetic attempt it was. We're always given free lunch at the end of OSCEs but it usually consists of atrocious prawn croissants. This time I couldn't even tell what it was so I stuck with 2 baps and some ham. And the cake?! Don't even get me started, I think it was supposed to be black forrest although you couldn't tell! It was awful, the sponge had about as much chocolate in as my left big toe! (Bloody neurology meetings always get a big juicy chocolate cake WITH CREAM! I often acquire a bit on the sly pretending I'm a neuro doc) So that was a mammoth disaster.

Anyway, yesterday ended and slowly people drifted away. Some of these people I won't see, probably until finals, most of which I won't see until January and all of which I won't see until the end of October. (5th year is very scattered, we're all on electives at different times and at different places) Being the socialite that I am, I decided against going to the pub and decided playing pool would be a far better option and so that's what we did. Suddenly the realisation that we're now 5th years began to dawn on us (helped by a huge brown envelope labelled "tlm, Year 5 Medical Student" No longer can I fall back on the excuse that "I'm only a 3rd year", or "only a 4th year", I'm expected to know stuff. Next year should be fun, I've got a cool elective and some great placements.

And that was that, the end of another year at medical school. 4 down, 1 to go. For me, the next one sort of begins on Monday when I leave for pre-elective travelling. Everything has come together and seems to be sorted out. We just have to finish packing up our cosy little flat (which at the moment is crammed full of full, half-full and empty boxes), move all the stuff, and then we're ready for the off.

I even managed to sort out, at the very last minute, the donation of a fetal heart Doppler from Huntleigh Healthcare, very kind of them indeed. I'm sure it will be much appreciated, that is if UPS decide to deliver it today...

Life is gooooood.

1) missbliss is back from Devon so I'm not bored and lonely anymore
2) Research project finished and handed in
3) 5 minute presentation is prepared for Wednesday
4) Saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix yesterday and it was AMAZING!
5) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is out TOMORROW! And I'm SO excited about it!
6) We're leaving on our elective/holiday a week on Monday (I'm starting to think that I really should know some medicine first)
7) Everything is falling into place for said elective
8) I've addressed the problems I had with my recent OSCE results (see The Real Little Medic) (if you don't have an invite, drop me an email and I'll see if you're allowed)
9) I passed my recent exams well and have no more until finals!

So yeah, all is good at the moment. Bring on the end of term on Thursday and final preparations for our elective. Oh, and moving house in between. Busy, but exciting times.

To all those who read it, enjoy Harry Potter. I know I will

p.s. For those of you that were worried about missing me and missbliss (I know there will be at least 1 of you) for the 2 and a half months that we're away, I've worked out how to post here via email so we might be able to keep you updated, although goodness knows how regularly!

To-Do Lists

I often see junior doctors frantically running around with their pockets crammed full of paper and notes scribbled on all sorts of different things. These bits of paper can include blood results, investigation requests or patient details taken over the phone after being bleeped for the millionth time. It is often said that the most important scrap of paper carried by junior doctors, or indeed any doctor is their 'to-do list', anyone who has spent time with a junior doctor should know it well. A beautifully (if not neatly) presented list of, among other things; who needs bloods, who needs fluids, who needs other investigations and who needs a discharge summary done, each item followed meticulously by a little tick box to indicate when it has been completed. It can a disaster of apocalyptic proportions if this bit of paper goes missing and I've seen a few doctors searching frantically for this list which seems to define the working lives of junior doctors.

And so, in preparation for this, I've long been using my own 'to-do' lists, although admittedly without the wonderful tick-boxes, (I find scribbling out to be more satisfying.) At the moment my list is huge, it is longer than.....erm...well, its long! Full of necessary tasks which accompany leaving the country for the best part of 3 months, in fact, we may as well be going to Mars, it is so remote. Cancel this, cancel that, change address for the other, blah, blah, blah. Combined with; trying to organising moving out, finishing off my research project (which is starting to stress me out just a little, especially when 3 patients have to be deleted which messes up your statistics so they need to be done again, although at least I know what I'm doing stats wise now.) I don't seem to be doing much scribbling on my list, and for each thing that I do scribble out, 3 more things get added to the list! Then I start to get neurotic about having missed things off which mean I'm going to come back to a court summons for an unpaid gas bill or something just as stupid. At least I have someone to take care of my emails and stuff in-case of any unexpected foundation application deadlines which may come and go whilst I'm away.

Who thought going on holiday could be so stressful? Oh, and if anyone has any tips on where I can find a fetal heart ultrasound for free, in the next 3 weeks, to take to the hospital, let me know. (One company have offered me a huge discount but I was hoping for a little more) Oh, and if possible, they want some anti-fugal medication too for ringworm...help.