Wednesday 31 March 2010

Easter Break - No revision yet

23 Days left until the B+B/Loco ICAs
47 Days until end of year exams!

Feeling: Ummm lazy.
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With the afternoon lectures cancelled and the library closed at 1pm (so i didn't even have to feel guilty for not going in to do any work) ... Easter got off to a very good start!

In fact since last Friday i've refused to wear anything but pyjamas, and have eaten an unhealthy amount of cereal whilst dossing around the house. This..... is NOT good!!!

... particularly since for the last 2 years of my biochemistry degree Easter always resulted in a revision frenzy; however this year i'm just not feeling it. I've done some notes, but nothing in terms of revision and although i know the end of year exams are only 47 days away, i've just lost the motivation.

Tuesday 23 March 2010

Nerve Block: Best Practical Ever!

Today's practical was rather painful, but SUPER FUN, and definately falls into the category of "Unforgettable"! (i'm even tempted to say i want to do it again, despite the pain i was in!!) .

I volunteered to be the subject of the experiment today, which involved sticking my arm into a sphyg cuff, and have it there for 35 minutes at 180mmhg! (i thought "meh, it can't be that painful" .. i was wrong!). My friends would then come and poke and prod it with an array of different bits and bobs to test my sensory response at 5 minutes intervals.

Initialy the pain was from my friends jabbing the lance into my arm with force, but my arm started going numb rather quickly, and by 20 minutes i had lost the ability to feel a few things; i couldn't even fully extend my fingers, and my arm just flopped about. As friends do, they took advantage of this and just laughed as i struggled to control my dead arm to pick up a pen. (fun aside, it was rather scary!)

By 25minutes all i wanted to do was to get the damn thing off, as my arm had now turned a very odd shade, and er.. it was uncomfortable to say the least! However when the 30 minutes were over, removing the cuff didn't give instant relief, instead my arm shot red with intense pins and needles.

Ok, it just sounds like a giant moan, but i genuinly really enjoyed the practical today!!
(However i suspect this may be the only bit of B&B i enjoy)

Sunday 21 March 2010

End of Loco

Friday's lecture theatre happened to be really empty.... it was the Dental Beer Race!!

A lot of people stayed home designing and putting the last touches to their costumes... and i was impressed! With a first year's naivety, I genuinly thought my team's costumes were pretty good, this was until we got back to whitechapel and saw teams of lego men, doughnuts and highlighters! I think next year i'll go easy on the beer, and spend more time on the costumes.

Also on friday, B&B started without my acknowledgement of it untill i sat down in 2 hours worth of lectures on the brain. Sadly locomotor has finished, and whats i've seen of B&B so far isn't too bad, but i've been told by many upper years to expect it to get a lot worse!

Locomotor -
Likes: was enjoyable-ish, most of it was just upper and lower limb anatomy, so its just about remembering what fits where.
Dislikes: i'm really going to suffer with learning those dermatomes!!!

One more week until Easter holidays (wooohooo 2 weeks off! ^^), but then.... 8 weeks until summer exams!!

Saturday 6 March 2010

Ragged out

Rag week finally drew to a close yesterday, and I'm feeling confident we've managed to hold the record as London's top ragging medical school once again!

-It was an excuse to walk around in scrubs and harass persuade the general public to give generously for the entire week. I managed to get myself into weird situations including being told off by traffic police, called a beggar too many times, and got invited to sit next to orthopaedic consultants during their morning meeting, before showing them my bucket!! (i watched the junior doctors present the different scans and x-rays, then to be grilled exessively by the orthopaedic top guns - it's scary to think in 5 years time i may have to face a similar grilling)

but now that Rag is over... it's back to dressing normally, and sadly time to get back to work !! (don't think i'll miss seeing the black stuff when i blow my nose... who knew the tube was THAT dirty?!)

Locomotor has technically just been heap loads of upper and lower limb anatomy - So it's not really all that bad, seeing i quite like sitting down with Gray's; in fact i far prefer using a text book and rarely enjoy learning landscape. However it was really good last week, particularly the station with all the X-rays!

I think locomotor will easily be my favourite module, and although i've not experienced it yet, i have a feeling brain and behaviour to follow will be my least.

to end this post on a positive note, the results for the hd/cr/met exams are back, and i'm happy ^^