Cardiff University

Due to the NHS trust blocking my access to the blog (obviously they feel that their employees have something to complain about) it has not been written on since Hannah and I left Cardiff for pastures new-ish full of sheep. Contrary to popular belief, people in North Wales don't actually bring their sheep into the hospitals, they have special pens outside.

Since the hostile takeover (merger) between the medical school and Cardiff Uni, thi gs have been looking worse and worse for the medics. Not only have all our social clubs been removed, our sports teams forced to practise on carparks and our views not been represented by the students' union, we have now been told that our exams will be a week earlier- Monday afternoon, Tuesday lunchtime and Wednesday morning.

The medical school has so little power that this won't change, we aren't represented (it is quite difficult to vote in elections on campus when you're on placement the other side of Wales) by the union, at any one thime most of us are away/in the hospital so we won't be able to strike, and, now we know they're a week early, most of us will be too busy cramming (and trying to learn stuff for the placement we're still on) to make as much fuss as someone on a different course.

End of rant.

Fran
xx

Preparations

Over the past week the house has been full of housemates with the lovely sunny weather bringing hope to all. As the medics move on to our last placement before exams, becoming real doctors is drawing ever closer. As I sit here and type Hannah is desperately trying to pack all her belongings into as small a space as possible before going to Banbury for the weekend, albeit not on a white horse with rings and bells. I should be packing too, as I'm on my way to Wrexham, however, following a visit to A & E this morning about my foot, I feel it is ok not to bother just yet.

The others have been slightly overwhelmed with the frenetic activities of Hannah and myself this week, on Tuesday I spoke to/ spent time with most members of Woodville Baptist Church, and saw the other ones on Wednesday(before my foot went wrong.) The ladies entertained some of the male members of Highfields last night, none appear to have died of food poisoning.

Typo of the week, seen at a medical centre near here (the army bit) - minuets of the last meeting-yes it was handwritten, yes I pointed it out, no, the soldier still hasn't realised what might be wrong with it.

Anyone with an idea about what to do re Iran, answers on a postcard please addressed to the MoD. Any suggestions welcomed.

Fran
xx

Life plods on as normal

Hey frannie!

Well life here in Cardiff goes on as normal - you've missed out on the spectacular return of Hilda (probably best!). So bad even Hilda had to escape to Banbury to the little cottage in the country to return back to normal Hannah state!

Elisa and I had fun this weekend - we went on a walk through the fields and forest behind her house in the beautiful sunshine. Only problem was, it had been raining rather heavily all week so the land was actually mostly flooded and very very muddy!! So we spent most of the walk shimmying along the fences to avoid the water-logged paths! Part of the walk was alongside the M40, so you can imagine the looks we had from the cars as they zoomed past seeing two crazy girls clinging to the fences! After climbing over the metal gate, we had to build a bridge across the swollen river with branches etc to walk across, only to discover the field was also flooded (and alas no fence to walk on) so we ended up wading through the field in water up to our knees!! All fun! who said accountants and medics were grown-ups?

I believe that back at the Heathfield house, the ladies were visited by a friend of lou's and also Mr Mcall came to town...i'll leave someone else to write about their weekend together.

Love you lots frannie, have you been put off having babies yet?
Mwa
the Hannah Lady xxx

Where is everyone?

As the last post on here was mine from last week I presume that a small tornado has ripped through Cardiff, destroying everything in it's path......This could be true as I haven't seen any news all week, and have only just woken up after 13 hours sleep (went to bed at 4 this morning after delivering a baby and have just woken up after 5 this eve)

I have nothing to report as I have only seen my consultant once all week, apparantly he normally phones to check if the students have been on the labour ward but he hasn't in my case so either he trusts me to turn up or he doesn't care at all.

This week I have been the Jonah of the labour ward, many of the ladies I have been with have ended up with a ventouse delivery or emergency c-section, although towards the end of the week I had several who went to the toilet at 6-7 cm and came back out ready to push. The most farcical one was a turkish lady who spoke no english and whose husband had to come in by bus to help consent his wife for her c-section (placental abruption) the consent took longer than the procedure.

Happy days

Fran
xx

North Wales, again.

This placement got off to a rather less than auspicious start when, upon arriving at Glan Clwyd hospital I discovered that they weren't expecting me, and didn't know who I was. I did eventually get a room in a flat with the other obs & gynae girls, and did feel a bit better when I received a text message from an anonymous housemate standing on Newport station...

Monday morning dawned...they still weren't expecting me, expecially my consultant who now believes he's been dumped with the medical school's prize idiot student, with some justification. He keeps telling me to do things eg, take a history whilst the patient is in with the midwife, hang around with the registrar on call who is in a small cosy world of her own and disappears into thin air all the time. These things should be simple for me, I normally manage them very well, however, for this placement, I appear to have turned into an idiot.

Take today:

The midwife was so busy chatting to the patients that I couldn't ask any questions, the ladies felt so sorry for me when the consultant was quizzing me that one said in in my position she would have cried. I nearly cried.

Having been in at 0830 to consent patients for that afternoon's theatre by lunchtime (15 minutes) I was quite tired and the day was about to get worse... I had to do internal examinations on all three ladies, then scrub in. The theatre nurses have started speaking slowly and nicely to me as they realise I'm a fool, ditto the SHO, ditto the A&E reg who was practising intubation (before my speculum mong-ness in case you were wondering.) We started the last procedure at 1645, I had scrubbed in but forgotten to put on my mask, I wouldn't recommend it, holding the uterus out of the way at arm's length and trying not to breathe isn't that much fun, in fact, by 1645 being in the hospital isn't that much fun; after leaving theatre (1820) I got lost trying to find the locker room where I had left my clothes, and nearly got lost leaving the hospital.

The day has been better since, at least my consultant gave me a lift back from our clinic in Holywell (it was hit and miss for a while, he threatened not to unless I remembered something, anything...) Eleri appeared at 2100 having last been seen leaving the hospital at 0930 in the presence of her consultant and his SHO on a day to Deeside clinic. At 1630 the consultant announced that he wouldn't be finished for a while (finished at 1730) and then would be staying on after that. The SHO was picked up by his girlfriend- they live near Deeside- Eleri was left to fend for herself. She eventually got a lift off her very jet-lagged aunt. Suddenly 1830 doesn't seem so bad after all...

Pancakes were fun...until the smoke from the butter frying set the fire alarm off and we had to evacuate the building. Someone else set it off this evening, maybe we can make it a nightly ritual...

This tale of woe has been brought to you by Fran - I'd rather stab myself in the eye with a fork than become a gynaecologist-Cain
xx
Fran
xx

Blogging as therapy

I had an interesting lecture today (yes, even psychology students have lectures occasionally) which I thought was quite relevant to our discussion of whether to continue blogging...

The lecture was all about social emotions and the communication of emotion. We learnt about how and why when we experience emotional events we feel the need to share our experiences with others ( females tend to tell anyone who will listen, males will ususally own share their emotions with a very close friend) and the benefits there can be from doing this. Studies conducted - for example by Pennebaker et al (1990) - have shown that getting people to write about their negative emotional experiences has several benefits, including:

• boosting immune system activity
• benefiting physical health
• improving academic performance

There is controversy about why writing has such dramatic effects, perhaps turning a chaotic emotional experience into a narrative form increases insight and self-understanding, or perhaps it increases one's sense of personal control over a situation.

The obvious conclusion is keep blogging! It would be both physically and psychologically costly for us to stop doing so. (However a purely offloading of our negative emotional experiences may be quite depressing for our readers, so perhaps sharing a few positive experiences every now and then may be a good thing too.)

Mim xx

Snow

"Snow causes widespread disruption

Snow has fallen across large parts of Wales making travel conditions treacherous in many places and closing more than 700 schools.

The Met Office issued a severe weather warning, saying some areas eventually could have up to 15cm (6in) of snow.

There was disruption to bus and train services and the temporary closure of Cardiff airport's runway, delaying Wales rugby fans' flights to Edinburgh.

Many roads have been closed amid warnings not to drive unless essential."

This is the latest news showing on the BBC wales news bit. Below is the information from the medical school:

Dear All Students,

Tonight and tomorrow have been forecast as heavy snow, please can you make arrangements to ensure you get to the OSCE exam on time, if you arrive later than the time you have been told to arrive then you may not be allowed to sit the exam

Basically, if it snows so badly that you can't move your car at all (it almost was on all the side streets in Cardiff at 0800 this morning) it's your fault that you have to resit the entire year having failed the OSCE for non-attendance. I like the way they think.

The snow has covered South Wales. The streets are no longer safe- watch out for drive-by snowballing by 4th year medics who have now finished their exams. Earlier I made a snowlady. I'm sure there will be a picture of her soon, I can't work the camera.

Fran
xx