Hectic.

Okay...I may have lied in my last post about updating my blog sooner. Oddly enough, I did not expect to be this busy. No I am not on summer holiday. I had a 4 week holiday...well 2 weeks after results. Started back on June 6. It has been non-stop 9am-5pm lectures. I have never really had 9-5 days. Usually I would be in lecture for the morning and get the afternoon off. There will be a day here and there where we would get the odd lecture from 3-5 after 2 hours in the morning from 9-11. But I have never had 9-5...non stop. We're talking about 1 hour lunch breaks. Most of you reading this will be like "...9-5 is nothing. What are you talking about?" I find it quite difficult to sit for so long, so by the time I get to the afternoon lectures I am mentally drained and can't really focus. On top of that all my friends feel the need to cram a million events into these next few weeks as we'll be splitting up for placements and all of us are in different hospitals so we will not be seeing each other very much. Can't handle so many dinners and outings!

Anyways my lectures have been mostly about clinical examination sessions, such as how to examine a patient with a vascular disease. Or how to examine a thyroid patient, or how to do a breast examination, etc. Also I finally got to use my stethoscope. Really started feeling like I am studying to become a doctor. It was really weird. The feeling will only get greater when I start placements in 2.5 weeks. Quite nervous and excited at the same time about placements.

We have also been learning clinical skills such as catheters, injections, etc. Crazy jump from sitting around in lecture theatres learning about medical science to suddenly learning how to do stuff that you do on the wards. Finally get the feeling of doing something practical and I feel that I can finally call myself a student doctor.

On a side note the weather has been something. Been roasting this weekend and today. Sitting in a lecture theatre with over 250 students with no air conditioning, and attempting to concentrate for 4 hours of microbiology is almost impossible. It was quite annoying that during the winter the air conditioning would be on and you would be freezing to death, but during a mini heatwave they decide to not turn on the air conditioning. Hopefully they'll turn it on tomorrow, but I don't think it will be as warm.

Anyways these last few weeks have been quite dull so I won't bore you with the details. Hopefully in a few weeks I will be updating you on my first time on the wards as a clinical year student...or as a "student doctor". Hopefully I'll be placed with a good consultant who is enthusiastic to have medical students around.