Thursday, May 14, 2009

Horrible thing to say! Arrgh!

Alright, to my fellow colleagues out there, read investigation results to yourself and analyse them before blurting it out to a patient! Arrgh!

Well, it was last Monday. I was in surgery, and few minutes late as I got my rota time wrong! I was still in the common room chatting to my mates until I said to them I'm in surgery. They were like... aren't you supposed to be up there and ready by 1.15? Sh*te! So took off, went in to theatre and got change quickly. We were the lucky ones to be in surgery that day as it was probably not to be seen again ever in our Podiatric career! It was a 57 year old man presented with nail protruding from the 1st toe sideways. If you imagine someone with extra toe or finger, that kind of thing but instead of finger or toe, it's nail. Plus, it was not there in the first place. It started with an infected abscess, and we thought it probably gave access to the nail matrix for nail to grow.

Oh before that, whilst I was rushing through preparing myself for theatre, I was greeted by someone I had never seen before. A tall wide bodied gentleman. I was sheepish-ly smiling and made my way to the sink to do my social hand-washing. Whilst I was scrubbing, Matt was next to me.. as I asked him.. "Matt, is he the senior surgeon or something?" Matt replied "no no... he's the technician, he's replacing Lesley whilst she's in France". I said to Matt "Matt, you ruined it! I thought he's a surgeon and I was scared of him... and now you simply ruined that show!" hhahahah. And that reminds me of how I thought my Anatomy lectruer was the janitor on the first day! ahahha

Surgery went fine. But what fascinated all of use was, the HUGE chunk of nail that was in there!!!!! We called it the triplets delivery! We were just shocked! If only I could put up the pictures to show, but that would breach my duty of confidentiality!

In theatre, the phone kept on ringing. There were shortage of people in clinic to see patients. There were a few patients that had been waiting for at least 20 mins. After surgery, finished my notes and wrapped up, rushed down into clinic straight in my scrubs! Didn't bother to get changed. Plus I was in jeans if I hadn't worn the scrubs.

Got the 1st patient's notes, without even looking and pre-read, I called the patient. Patient sat down and had a quick chat why she was there to see me. Established the history, she enquired for her previous X-ray results.

Found it, and read the report. Within the first few lines, it stated that there was no signs of fracture.. bla bla... in response to the requested examination. However, as I read further, things just didn't go right. Worrying words to be heard by a 30 ish year old lady was really unpleasantly unexpected. First arthritis, which I justified, it said NO arthritis. Until the word "TUMOUR" came up!! I immediately went "WTH! and with a big bang in my head!". I had to reassure the patient that things were still under investigation and that the tumour was benign. Plus, I had to re-emphasise over and over again that medically we refer bumps and lumps as tumour. Had to call a senior lectruer to take over! Blimey!!! Never again that silly mistake!

Work work work - life is so much occupied!

It's almost the end of my undergrad year now!! Barely a month before it ends. Every session at uni or hospital, it's all about exams and research project. We have this massive final year exams, and worse has to be the clinical exam! That's the time when they decide whether or not it's safe to let us out there in public to "DO NO HARM".

At the moment, with my books everywhere as I type this entry, busy finishing my research project write up. This is the unique bit of my university. We do not write dissertation as such, but we write a research project to be published in the journal of our choice. As this is the case and due to copyright reasons, I won't be exposing much of my research project. Anyhow, it's about how reliable and accurate can a clinician interpret a particular assessment such as interpreting the Doppler sounds. Like in general medicine, doctors are very much particular when they auscultate the chest for heart beats with their stethoscope. Similarly, we use the Doppler to determine blood flow to the lower extremities to determine whether or not a patient has got a peripheral vascular disease. An such, our assessment warrants right diagnosis and decision making. Failure to make that call will jeopardise the patient's life. They could lose their limb with few hours or even die! I feel like being clever again, looking at my data collection and working out the statistical analysis!! ahah

Image Hosted by ImageShack.us Image Hosted by ImageShack.us

Apart of that, I'm happy that I managed to get my surgical quota fulfilled although I need to work a bit for the local anaesthetics administration. Insya Allah, should be fine. Hence, during the last two weeks, my room was in such a bad state that it had never been. Surely my room has seen better days I reckon. But I've cleared them immediately after I took the pix anyway. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to do work. That's just me. Clutter dysfunctions my brains!

Look at that!
Image Hosted by ImageShack.us

Anyway, I shall look forward to the ball soon! woot woot!! Oh went to Milla's birthday at the Loft, gosh I really love and miss that place a lot! Just chilling out and sipping my Bora Bora through the night... harhar

Image Hosted by ImageShack.us

May Bank Holiday II - Brighton

Since the weather was nice on that Saturday, thought it would be fab to spend time in Brighton. Plus I never had the chance to spend time with Shumba in Brighton before, although the last time we went was just for lunch get together.

Unfortunately, the weather went horrible and cold! Then, the bus wasn't helpful either as we took the via Beachy Head route which took ages to arrive Brighton! Traffic was madness too! When we arrived Brighton, shops were almost ready to close. Shumba also had to shop for her Ball dress. Went shopping instead and spent the rest of the day at Wendy's.

Great day nevertheless! ehhe

Image Hosted by ImageShack.us Image Hosted by ImageShack.us

May Bank Holiday - French Eastbourne Market

Apologies for the long lag of entries. I have been very much occupied with tons of work on my shoulder at the moment. Will talk about that later, shall we?

Alright, it was May Bank holiday. So basically a long weekend for me, from Friday till Monday. Spent time in library on the Friday and Saturday, so didn't get the chance to use it towards leisure. On Sunday, asked Shumba if she wanted to come down to Eastbourne and spend the day at the Eastbourne French Market. Apparently, it's a yearly thing which I had missed for the past few years. Shumba agreed, and we went to spend some time there before having lunch.

Image Hosted by ImageShack.us Image Hosted by ImageShack.us

The weather was excellent too. Had fish and chips at Harry Ramsdens bumped onto Megan, Jon and Tristan. We joined them later and finally they managed to drag me to join them on this horrible bouncy ride! I just had a full lunch, and yet being bounced up and down this spinning machine. Luckily I held my tummy quite well!

Image Hosted by ImageShack.us Image Hosted by ImageShack.us

Some of the interesting stuffs for sale and antique car show too.
Image Hosted by ImageShack.us Image Hosted by ImageShack.us
Image Hosted by ImageShack.us Image Hosted by ImageShack.us
Image Hosted by ImageShack.us Image Hosted by ImageShack.us
Image Hosted by ImageShack.us Image Hosted by ImageShack.us

Couldn't resist the temptation no matter how expensive they were, bought tons of these and few yummy macaroons!
Image Hosted by ImageShack.us Image Hosted by ImageShack.us