Revision

13 days before my first ICA of the year, and my panic mode has sort of semi-kicked in.. and since we've recently been learning about the actions of cortisol, i predict my cortisol levels to be reaching new highs.

I tried starting the first evening of revision crams last night, with the whole mmmmmm i need coffee and sugar thing, and then ended up wasting my excess energy on youtube and repeats of friends on E4.... this was all whilst i was chomping through late night chinese take-away... so if exams dont go too well, at least i will now have more adipose tissue to keep me warm at Christmas.

But seriously, i keep telling myself, revision really does have to start! So the cram begins today! and then it will have to take a quick diversion tomorrow as we've been annoyingly set a PBL write up due in next week, a week before our ICAs!

Are ICAs not stressful enough without having to do a pbl write up too? - now that i have to do my write up..Please please please for the ICA let there be a SAQ on spontaneous pneumothorax...! :/

Nov - Catch up

Ok so from when i last posted, MedSoc has only gotten worse!

This week i've moved on from measuring waistlines to spend my tuesday afternoon from 1.30pm to 5pm observing a technician take photos of the macula and the optic disc of patients... it was like watching a robot work on a factory line!!

A patient would walk in, she would ask the patient to sit, snap of the right eye, snap of the left, tells the patient they'll hear in 2 weeks, and repeat. I don't understand why i had to stay there for so long (>.<). I even tried to take a learning moment and ask her to explain what was shown on screen, for me to then discover that her answer to everything was "the patient has too much sugar" and she had originally applied for the job as receptionist, but they needed a technician. So yep... I HATE YOU MEDSOC!

That aside...... many more exciting and fun things have happened since then!

- Kumar lecture take 2!
Everyone, and i mean everyone loves her! (some a little too much, some people even went to get her to sign their K&C's after the lecture, though if i lived closed enough to uni i might have done the same - that book is too heavy for me to just throw in my bag!), though to be honest i preferred her lecture last year. The layout was pretty much the same, she would give an awesome intro, and then her students would follow with clinical demonstrations, and she ended with her "rules of kumar". Love her!

Since my last post, the CR module has also finished, and we're half way through metabolism now.. I actually REALLY enjoy Metabolism this year, it was amongst my fave modules last year and it's not failing to keep me happy this year either - what can i say.. i have a huge soft spot for bits of biochemistry that spring up in this module.

And.. last but not least.. just 3 more weeks till the first set of ICAs for Year 2! >.< i'm not feeling ready to sit exams again just yet! i miss my holidays, and seriously can't wait till X'mas!

But before i get to put my feet up and sip tea all day, i have SSC2b in my way.. and this year, i won't be complaining, as i've managed to get my first choice:

1009 - Human Structure by Dissection: Thorax and abdomen
YAAAAAAYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!

Now... back to finishing my PBL for tomorrow (>.<)

MedSoc: too many waistlines

Supplementing all the science from the lectures, we now have EPC which has nicely substituted what used to be called Medsoc from last year; and what is supposed to be medsoc this year has now turned into a bit of a whiney topic for me.

I've been allocated an Okay-ish placement which itself is of interest to me, the location (a hospital in london) isn't too difficult to get to either, but today.... i literally just spent the morning waiting for the dietician to turn up late, 3 of the 5 expected patients to not turn up at all, and then learnt about how many hobnobs the remaining patients have had for breakfast (literally).

This was then followed by a logistical challenge in the rain to dash to another hospital site, which is where it did get slightly better... the fact that as soon as i got back i got taken into a room with free sandwiches for lunch! Woooooop, there was some sort of talk at the clinic earlier, and all the uneaten bits of food were free for all.. and having nothing but 3 jacob crackers i managed to grab this morning.. i picked up a plate and said thank you.

The afternoon just consisted of standing at a stall at the front of the hospital measuring the waistlines of randomers...and out of boredom i got my blood sugar and blood pressure taken too when i ran out of waistlines to measure.

Okay.... so it could be worse.. but this time the grass actually is really greener on the other side.. especially when i learnt of my friend's placement in renal which finished at 12pm, and he gets to go see kidney transplants in the upcoming weeks, whilst i have more weeks of measuring waistlines coming up (> .<)

Extended Patient Contact

So since starting 2nd year, i've been introduced to a new component of the course, Extended Patient Contact (EPC).

To be fair, i've had my first EPC session this week, and i'm still pretty unsure what the purpose of EPC is (other than what's suggested by the module name)... i could easily read the module handbook, but that requires too much effort at the moment, and so i will just go with the flow for now.

I wasn't too keen on the location of my placement... its a tad further than my last placement.. in fact its on the tube map (the ends of it), but esssentially, it falls into ESSEX! ... so on a fortnightly basis, i will be trecking it into Essex for 9am starts >.< (travelling to MedSoc last year seems like a treat now).. but i might actually start to look forward to these EPC sessions.. particulary since the first one turned out to be really good (unexpectedly)!

EPC is pretty much MedSoc from last year, with more hands on experience and teaching. I'm not sure if its because of the GP i'm placed with this year, or its just the module itself, but it is defiantely a LOT better! The fact that we're a smaller group of just 4 students also means we get more opportunities to get a go at everything.

This week, we managed to sit in through 3 consultations, asked the patients a few questions, each do an ecg on another student, practised taking each other's blood pressures, watched 2 CR examinations, and got quizzed on drugs. All in all... a fun day!

Lecturer's Youtube link

Our Clinical skills lecturer sent this youtube link to our year group.......
"Doctor Dances to Hip-Hop Heart Rhythms-Arrhythmias "

Starting Year 2 - Cardiorespiratory

Finally i'm back, and safe to say i made it through 1st year, and am currently already a week into year 2!

Couldn't have asked for more this summer, had an absolutely amazing summer holiday - went to see so many different places, got some part time work done, and managed to do things i would have never had the chance to do if i hadn't come to Barts and made the friends i've made here, i LOVE BARTS!

.......and now onto CARDIORESPIRATORY, a big dose of it; in fact its a chunky 6 weeks worth of it! Not exactly how i wanted to start the year, but hey.. i'm glad it's not B&B!

So far the lectures have been "okay" bordering on the lines of "dull", it's all been a big chunk of anatomy revision with a few new diseases chucked in... *Fingers crossed for more interesting lectures soon, before i actually fall asleep in a lecture (again)* Ok, perhaps i'm being unfair, we did have one interesting lecture moment on ECG interpretation this week; however the intersting part came from our lecturer's slip up, answering a student's question about AF along the lines of - "atrial fibrillations don't exist" ... ¬.¬ (They are amongst the most common arrythmias - we even had a 2 hour pbl session discussing it!)

Hmmm ok, i guess i did enjoy the ecg practical this week - finally made sense of Einthoven's triangle, and i know this sounds so so silly, but i now know what they mean by a 12 lead ecg! A bit embaressing, but throughout the entirety of first year, i thought it meant literally 12 leads/electrodes attaching to the chest to acquire 12 seperate readings, when leads actually refers to the readings, and only 9 electrodes are required.... i always wondered where the other 3 missing leads attached!

And finally a bit of an annoying revelation and not so CR related, is that according to the welcome lecture we had at the start of the week, it is required to be in the top decile to get a distinction, whilst all along i was under the impression we just had to obtain a merit in 2 consecutive years... grrr i knew it was too good to be true!!

Summer Break

So i'm finally back from my summer trip, and am now just stuck between occasional shift work for my part time job, and heaps of lazing around...
....a tad random, and very non-medical school life related, but TOY STORY 3 was ....... AMAZING! It even had me shedding a few tears towards the end of it, damn you evil Lotso!

Anyhoots, i learnt that second year doesn't start again till the 27th of September, so thats literally just 2 months away! YAY to long summer holidays, but NAY to the occasional boredom that comes with it.

I know i should be glad to have any holiday at all though, its a a really odd feeling, but when i meet up with my old uni friends, or just call to catch up, its odd to hear how everyone is now getting on with their lives, some getting engaged, and most are working a monday-friday, 9-5 job, whilst i'm still living the student life. Its another one of those, "the grass is greener on the other side" moments for me, but what keeps me motivated, is the prospect of going into the final year of pre-clinicals, and being able to hit the clinical years after next summer!

Ok back to lazing around until september!