I'm Baaack!

Shocker - I'm back! Most of you probably thought I fell off the planet or medical school had simply killed me. Actually what had happened is that after my placements in May I had left for my medical elective for 2 months. I went back to Canada to do my medical elective in..........you guessed it: Orthopaedics. It was tough - and that's putting it lightly. I have not worked as hard as I had during my medical elective than any of my last 4 years at medical school. So once I got back I was seriously burnt out while my friends were burnt from their lovely sun filled elective in the beautiful/tropic parts of the world such as: Thailand, Vietnam, Fiji...I am feeling my blood pressure go up again. To put it in even more simple terms - I was miserable during my elective and very jealous of my friends who had a tropical and fun-filled elective to discover themselves.

Why was my elective so tough?

Well North American medical school will always have its stereotype to uphold. My mornings started at 6:30 am and my day didn't end until 6pm and that's me sneaking off early. Despite being a visiting elective student I was expected to still do 24 hour on-calls. Yes there were a few days especially in the first 2 weeks where I wanted to go and hide in a corner and cry. I've never been told off so much in medical school as much as I had during my first 4 week rotation. Apologies I have to leave out details as it will make me very easily identifiable if I start specifying EXACTLY what sub-specialty I was doing. I remember telling my parents several times I would quit. I nearly walked out of clinic many times. I walked out of the operating room once after being unfairly treated. This elective definitely pushed my limits to the max. When I reached my 2nd rotation of 4 weeks - I was back in my comfort zone. Let's say the first 4 weeks was a very steep learning curve and one I hope to never go through again. Looking back at it, I'm glad I got my ass-whipped as not only did I never work so hard before, but I have never learnt so much before in such a short amount of time. I had to gain A LOT of self-confidence and was pushed to the deep end of the pool during my elective and I'm glad the consultant pushed me that hard. I would have never learned...but with that, I sacrificed the enjoyment of the elective. I guess it's a fine balance.

When I returned to the UK I was just so burnt out. I didn't get much of a summer holiday. I was back to placements and well let's just say placement seemed extremely SLOW compared to Canada. I had a hard time adjusting back and consultants thought I was overly too proactive. It's a very different system here in the UK. In Canada I felt like I had to fight for my learning opportunities and I learned by falling flat on my face a million times. In the UK, we are spoon-fed our learning opportunities. There isn't a huge competition atmosphere in the UK. I was with other medical students in Canada and I found myself fighting to get to scrub in and fighting to see patients. As a student in the UK I feel like sometimes we take it for granted the amount of learning opportunities we get. Anyways there isn't much to talk about my elective. If I had to sum it up in one sentence it would go like this: Worked my ass off, but came out more mature and wiser and perhaps a hell lot more worn out. To be honest I still don't know what to think of my elective. Don't get me wrong, I was lucky to have got an elective in Canada in a major city in a very popular specialty, so I don't regret it at all.

Hopefully I'll start updating a bit more, however, final exams are coming up so I am a lot busier than usual now. Currently doing my General Practice rotation so who knows maybe I'll find time. Sorry again for the lack of updates...just had a rough few months.

O&G Labour Week Part 1.

I'm only 2 days in to my labour week and I'm already struggling. I'm supposed to be in for midwives handover at 7am every day. Day 1 - alarm clock for 5:45am...next thing I knew I woke up again and it was 6:30am. Didn't get to the hospital til 7:10am...by the time I got changed into scrubs for labour ward...it was like 7:20am. Day 2 - alarm clock for 5:45am...actually got up this time. Arrived at the hospital at 6:55am and traffic wasn't bad. I actually tried really hard to make it to handover...ran to get changed. By the time I got out...I had apparently missed handover already and the midwives said I should aim to arrive for 6:50am tomorrow. In my head I was like "6:50am?! Yeaaahhh right." Dreading it already. Also I have been sooo tired. I would sometimes catch myself dozing off in the ward because I start so early in the morning...but still get off at 5ish pm. Brutal. And when I get home...I hardly have the energy to eat and all I want to do is sleep. So unproductive.

Pretty exciting first day though. Saw 2 normal vaginal deliveries. Also assisted as a first assistant on 2 caesarean sections (aka I got to scrub in and actually do proper surgical stuff...not just hang around and watch - just the consultant surgeon, me, and a scrub nurse - what a dream). Also witnessed an emergency caesarean section as the baby was stuck. When the emergency button was pressed it was like a TV show. It was crazy. Loads of people ran in within 5 seconds of the buzzer going off and everyone knew what they were doing. Anaesthetist was already making his way to theatre and some of the theatre staff darted to theatre to prep. About 8 of us were racing the bed down to theatre. It was really surreal. Obviously there was a sense or urgency. The mother had to be put under general anaesthetic (most caesareans is under spinal so the mother stays awake and just can't feel anything down below). Staff was frantically prepping the theatre with the equipment...it was just organized chaos. I was so scared to get in the way so I just crammed myself into a tiny corner of the room. I obviously couldn't scrub in as it was an emergency and the registrar had turned up.  Eventually we managed to get the baby out and I finally got to see the link between the paediatricians and obstetricians. The paeds team was already waiting for us ready for the baby and for any resuscitation as it was a complicated birth. Baby came out floppy and wasn't crying/breathing. It was a very tense moment as we handed the baby over to the paeds team. Unfortunately I'm with the obstetrics team so I couldn't go watch the paeds team work their magic. Finally after a few tense minutes we heard the baby cry and you could see the relief on some of the staffs' faces. I'm sure it was pretty scary for the mother herself as one minute she was just about to give birth but the baby got stuck..the next minute she's asleep. Also the father is left waiting outside of theatre after seeing a bunch of people wheel off his wife. Pretty scary situation for the family in general I would think.  I couldn't say I had as much fun  in the afternoon though. Immensely boring after a frantic morning. But the morning certainly made my day though.

Day 2 - quiet morning. Waited til 9am for elective caesarean sections. Again was really lucky and got asked to scrub in and help out...but not to the certain extent of a first assistant. Still makes a huge difference when you're scrubbed in. I even got to transfer the newborn to the crib after we pulled him out. It was really cool. After the sections...again went quiet again. Saw 1 normal delivery and that was it. Next thing to knock off my list: Instrumental Delivery (eg. using Forceps or Ventouse Suction). Really need to get that signed off tomorrow.

Labour week to be continued.......(if I'm still alive by the end of it)