Late Again!

I left my flat really early today to make sure I would show up on time to meet my new consultant. Obviously turning up on time is going to be my new enemy for this placement. Despite leaving my flat much earlier, I still ended up being 5 minutes late and the new consultant started his ward round right at 9am. I can't wait until the roads are reopened so I don't have to deal with the nightmare traffic I had to endure for these 2 days. However, I was quite lucky as this new consultant is really nice. He assumed I was late because I had some teaching earlier and was running a bit late. He greeted me and introduced himself and made sure I felt part of the team. It was definitely a nice thing for him to do and I do admit I felt bad for being late.

Anyways saw a new patient today who was moved from another ward. Found myself sympathizing with this patient as he had a metastatic tumour in his brain. He had undergone chemotherapy and radiotherapy, but is now placed for palliative care as it is an advanced tumour. Met the family today and you see the family trying to be strong and keep their chin up, but in the end the wife broke down. Felt quite useless as a student as no matter what you say - it isn't going to change the situation.

What confuses me the most about this placement is that I am placed in Endocrinology but majority of the patients don't have an endocrine related illness. Most of the patients I've seen have chest infections/pneumonia. It's quite weird. I only saw 1 patient today who had an endocrine related illness (Cushing's). I guess endocrinology is quite flexible? Will definitely have to ask one of the SHOs or FY1/2 doctors about this.