Soft Tissue

Ortho week finished as it started - with no lunch and very little in the way of time off. I did learn quite a bit though, especially on the approach to an orthopaedic case. Very useful stuff.

This week is soft tissue surgery. It started off fairly badly, but now things have got going it's all fine. We are getting quizzed on many things. Today the main topics were wound healing and antibiotic choice. Turns out we don't know very much about it!

And a power cut when you are in surgery is baaaaaaad. Especially when you dog is on a ventilator. She survived though!

Brains!

Apparently there is something wrong with mine. Or at least the doctor yesterday seemed to think so.

I'm having weird signs and symptoms. A few headaches, sometimes forgetting words. Not too sure if this is just my brain telling me it's full of uni and can't cope with the input, but it's embarrassing when I forget a dog is called a dog. My mind is just a blank for the word. Not too great.

Anyway, another MRI at some point, although it'd probably be quicker to do it myself at uni.

Hopefully I'm just getting old and crazy rather than broken and crazy.

Day 3

Wow! There just isn't enough time to learn everything on 1 week of rotations. Not even a little bit. I feel sorry for the poor clinicians left with us students. They just have to get on with things and also consider us.

Yesterday we spent over 8 hours in surgery with 5 mins (literally) for lunch. When I eventually got home at 7.30 I flopped and did no work.

Today I took a half day as it is Wednesday. Had to make sure someone was treating my cases first. I love the nurses. Tried to have a nap at home, but ended up just sleeping for ages. Ooops.

Now I'm just tired. Again. On the plus side I've written up my grand round presentation and have figured out my treatment plan for my cases tomorrow. Nearly survived a week! On a few more to go...

Day 1

Day 1 is over.

I'm exhausted. Not really sure why, we haven't actually done much all day. I now have 2 cases that are mine to watch over. I'm in at 8am to make sure they get their medications and physio. I'll then present the cases to the head of service.

Tomorrow we have a total hip replacement op on. The plan is this will take 4 hours if we are lucky. I've spent most of the evening reading up on the surgical approach but now I'm just too tired.

It's only going to get worse over the next few weeks.

Bed time.

Beginning Of The End

Well everyone survived Wales (mostly) and now it's time for final year to being. Some very kind people have helped out telling me what's expected and what not to panic about.

Next week: small animal orthopaedics.

For now: just enjoy life and prepare the best I can.

Wish me luck. I'm going in!