Well I haven’t done very well at keeping this blog updated have I?
So what have I been up to over the past week or so since I updated you? Well, my 2 week essay SSC is over – but I haven’t actually written the essay yet, but don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be submitted until 13th April!
I started my current module 2 days ago – I’m doing neurology for 2 weeks. Its really interesting but quite complex. I’m struggling to get my head around all the different aspects, signs, symptoms, differentials etc etc. But hopefully I’ll start to pick it up before these 2 weeks are up!
On Monday we had an intro session and were split into our firms we also had teaching on parkinsonism and epilepsy/blackouts – in which the consultant did a very good impression of a tonic-clonic seizure! We saw a patient on the ward with parkinsons and watched the consultant do a very brief assessment. In the afternoon we attempted to take a history from a lady on our ward, however, after we had got a far as presenting complaint the consultant came round on the ward-round and talked to the patient about her diagnosis and what it was going to mean to her future. After he had spoke to her she got quite upset so we left her to have a cry with one of the nurses and decided that it wasn’t fair for us to make her talk about it all again so we called it a day.
Yesterday we had a pretty pointless teaching session in the morning by one of the consultants, he made us sit on the floor of the treatment room for 2 hours as all the other rooms were in use, and he managed to insult us all a few times – the most memorable being when he was slagging off new style medical courses including PBL and came to the conclusion that we were all glorified nurses. Me and another student attempted to find the on-call SHO so we could shadow them and see some acute neurology but we had no luck with that – no-one on the ward could tell us which team was on-call and the number switchboard had was actually the bleep for the on-call infectious diseases SpR! We did manage to find the on-call SpR at around 3 and we got to take a history and examine a patient with benign intercranial hypertension, then we observed her lumbar puncture, so after all the hassle it was actually quite a good experience. Unfortunately that can’t be signed off as our on-call period so I’m going to have to sort that out another time.
This morning I went to the MS clinic, it was very interesting and I got to see lots of patients including 2 new patients. I also got the chance to do lots of neuro examination which was useful as the consultant gave us feedback as to technique etc. I enjoyed the clinic even if it did run over and I hadn’t had time for breakfast so my stomach was audibly rumbling! This afternoon was made up of neuro exam teaching which was ok, and then we should have had imaging teaching but the consultant didn’t show so we called it a day.
Best news is that I have tomorrow morning off! Lay in plus time to write up some patient histories and try and get my head around some of the neurology I have seen over the past 3 days. Fun times ahead!
Laters
SD
