I like candles

Does anyone know why candles are so mesmerizing??? I could seriously sit and watch a fire for hours....anywho nothing special today...except we took the brain out of our cadaver today...absolutely brilliant!!!!!!!!!!!! - and then I went to a neurology careers forum...must say though - it still doesn't appeal to me quite as much as surgury...but I also found out that under the new employment changes studying in britain really wont help me stand out if I do a specialist training...i.e. if I compete with someone from ???estonia or somewhere in the EU who went to a university that no ones heard off and barely speaks english - they still have to take that person over me...how ridiculous is that...:( Apparently the BMA (british medial association) is speaking to the government on behalf of the international students so hopefully by the time I'm in 5th year - that'll law will change...Anywho I guess I'll burn that bridge when I get there...for now heres my candle (it smells like cranberries!!!)

Nov. 29th

I can't believe its only Nov. 29th...I'm so ready for christmas break right now!!! You know when you feel like you've crammed absolutely everything you possibly can into your brain and theres really no more room...well thats how I feel right now...GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR SOMEBODY MAKE IT STOP!!!....can't even concentrate anymore - horrible...anywho thought I'd leave you with some pictures of the campus...








this is the view from my window...I like wollaton...it feels like you're in a proper neighbourhood rather than a student getto:)



and this is THE alley way...looks pretty now but its dead scary at night!!

hospital visit

went on a hospital visit yesterday...I quite like those - we get to talk to sweet old ladies who love to tell you everything that ever happened to them...ever... definately develops your listening skills... the thing with yesterdays visit however was that we had to present the histories back to the senior house officer...its aweful - only because I absolutly suck at presenting a history - mostly because my horrible GP makes me feel horrible when I present to him...now I get nervous presenting to anyone - even the nice ones that don't yet at you...grrr - its very annoying when you have all the information but you can't put it together....grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...it was very much like the episode of ER where Dr. Carter just started as an intern and he had to present to Dr. Benton...nerve racking....its a good thing our SHO was really nice - I literally would have cried otherwise... I started my spiel and when he interupted me - my mind went completely blank - I'm not even joking, it was horrible...its a good thing we did it in pairs - I turned to Christine and all I could manage to get out was "do you want to take it from here?" She read the notes and the SHO said it was perfect...Anywho, I'm going tomorrow to practise my history presenting skils..fun fun

On a positive note, I abolutely love the hospital I'm assigned to...its nottingham City hospital which is the cities oldest...its very much like taking a step back in time - almost like your working during WWII. all the buildings are made off old brick and inside the wards you have the classic white steal beds separated by curtains - actually part of it was dedicated to returning soldiers during the war...ie. if you've seen pearl harbour - it looks exactly like that...very very cool...and the people there are really really nice...very down to earth...a nice change to the 'formal' consultants who think you can't be a good doctor if you don't dress in a suit everyday...
heres a picture of the surgical ward:

I'm learning to have fun

hey all...just wanted to let you all know that I'm fine - after the whole blood donation drama - one good thing about that though is that I got a phone call from the local GP (doctor) wanting to know if I was feeling better etc. (they're very efficient here in england) - apparently he got the referal letter from that head nurse person and was just checking in - very sweet:)

I seemed to have developed a new problem though...nothing crazy but I can't seemed to be able to stay still and relax!!! Don't know if its because med students put in crazy study hours but I get very antsy when I have more than 45 mins with nothing to do...yesterday for example I got a whole hour for lunch and I went home, made myself soup from scratch, baked a cake (chocolate cream roll - it was very good:) and had a cup of tea before coming back for my last few lectures...I've decided today I'm going to practise relaxing...and not doing any work (well not school work) soooo I've just finished making lunch and doing laundry and now I'm going to read 'the great gatsby' (its a great book btw...) - after I get off the computer and tonight a few friends and I are going to watch 'the departed' (and NO it was not my picking... but it was either that or saw III!!!)

bye bye for now

my first blood donation

Hi all...well I thought I'd tell about my very interesting day...as you can probably tell by my title I gave blood for the first time today...one would think it would be quite easy - I thought it was a brilliant idea...since blood type O and A are the most common here in the UK, I thought my B+ would be nice to donate - being that apparently only 8% of the population have it...so off I went with helen a friend of mine...filled out the forms...waited...and finally got hooked up to the machine thing...completed my donation of a pint and just as they took out the needle I felt light headed and whoozy...and then completely passed out..apparently to the point of a seizure - they've actually banned me from giving blood for the next few years and the head nurse wrote a referal letter for the doctor to review...it was very embarassing...when I finally came through I saw 2-3 nurses who calling my name and telling me to wake up, and stay with them and they kept asking me if I could hear them...in my head I kept answering yes but I then realized my mouth wasn't actually saying what my brain was saying... and apparently to prevent scaring the other patients, the nurses baracaded me with screens and things...again very embarrassing. Oh well I tried!!!

pee test

HI all...you wont believe what I had to do today...well actually you may - knowing what a crazy course I'm in...anywho, today in our practical skills session we learned all about urin analysis and if you think that sounds gross - well it was... It wasn't so bad initally...we were told to do the test on one of the simulated urin samples (i.e. it wasn't actual urin but a simulated fluid)...THEN they told us that in order to be empathetic with patients and know what they're going through when they come to see you as the doctor, you need to go through some of the things the patient goes through...sooooo, they made us all analysis our own urin. Now I hate peeing in a cup when I'm actually sick - I definately didn't want to do it today but there we are...AND you all know (if you are a girl) how hard it is to pee into a cup...well try peeing into a test tube which is what we had to do...let me tell you - it was not pretty - we just don't have the equipment to pee cleanly (its a good thing we learned proper hand washing techniques last year:) The worst bit was that to get back to the skills center from the bathroom we had to walk past the med school cafeteria - do you know how hard it is to walk indiscretly with a test tube of urin in your hands!!!!!!