Almost Advent

I LOVE the run up to Christmas.

I love the songs, the joy, the socialising, the sparkle.. In fact I love it all so much that I dread Christmas Day because it means it will all be over.

After a thoroughly horrible day at work (a full ward and 3 DKAs...) I was thrilled to get home and realise that tomorrow is the start of advent. I popped on some Christmas tunes (Loving the Buble's new album) and had to really hold back from opening my advent calendar early.

I've never been a fan of chocolate advent calendars, I've always loved the ones with pictures... but this year I have better. A friend got me a Lego pirates advent calendar. Lego, Pirates and Christmas all together!! In my excitement I shall be tweeting (@LilDrSunshine) and taking pics of what I get in my calendar every day. You never know I may even blog about it.

I realise that recently I've not mentioned much about work. I have less than a week as the paediatric FY1 left... this is really sad. I'm planning to tweet a typical day/week as a paeds fy1 when I get a chance to sit back and take stock of it all.

Dr Sunshine xXx

Home Sweet Home

I'm almost 1/3 of the way through my first year as a doctor. I think I've been incredibly lucky in that the team I work with (on the whole) are a lovely bunch and I've really enjoyed things so far. That's not to say that it hasn't been a steep learning curve. In fact at times I've just felt like hiding under my duvet or locking myself in a cupboard and screaming. Luckily those times have been relatively few and far between.

I wasn't sure if moving home for my FY1 year was a good idea or not. At first I decided it was an awful idea and by week 2 had decided I couldn't possibly stay at home. By week 3 I had settled in a bit, and was actually really glad to be home.

It's nice to spend time with my Dad and catch up with all my home-friends. In fact it's a welcome break from medicine, and the fact that if I was living at work I'd pretty much only hang out with work people. I'm also enjoying making some new traditions with my Dad.

Pub quiz on a Wednesday is my new favourite, especially since last week the quiz included a neonatology round. You'll all be relieved to know that we won, although I did have to think twice about where blood cells are made in a foetus.

My other fav thing to do at the moment is a weekend pub-lunch with my Dad in our new fav pub. The one with the open fire and classic FM. It's also the one with a mouthwatering open steak sandwich and scrummy meat pie. It's so nice to just sit, chill out, and discuss what we'll do with our millions when we win the lottery on the next weekend.

It's going to be strange to move away in 8 months, and I've just realised how soon that will be.

Dr Sunshine xXx

The Lurgy

I has it.

In fact I am so pathetically ill looking that I was sent home from work. I guess losing my voice would have made me pretty useless. Even though I am genuinely ill I feel so guilty for not being in work today. I also really don't want to miss my last full week on planet paeds.

Normal blogging service will resume when I feel less dead.

Dr Sunshine xXx

Continuing Professional Development

There are many things I could do to get me closer to my goal of being a paediatrician.

I could do a bit more on eportfolio. I could actually get stuck into my audit. I could revise some more for post graduate exams...

Do you know what I chose to do instead?

Watch Disney films.

I am justifying myself because by watching cartoons I can improve my rapport with children. This has got to be a good thing right? Anyway I've discovered a new second favourite Disney film. Tangled. It is AMAZING. It is everything you need in a good princess movie and more. I only put the DVD into my laptop so I watched it in small, but I'm hoping to convince a friend with a HUGE TV and surround sound to let me watch it there. I think the scene with all the paper lanterns will be breathtaking on a big TV.

I am so rock n roll!

Dr Sunshine xXx

Accident Prone

People always laugh and joke that I'm a walking, clumsy, disaster zone. Granted I frequently walk into door frames and drop my iPhone on my face in bed, but next time someone says that to me I'm going to suggest that they spend a week on a paediatric ward.

Honestly, children seem to get themselves into all kinds of pickles.

Turn your back for 2 minutes and they will pour cups of hot tea over themselves, fall off balconies onto solid floors, trip down stairs, run into each other, fall off walls and impale themselves on bits of tree and that's without even starting on the accidental overdoses. Unfortunately for the medical profession calpol tastes amazing. Whats even more unfortunate is that "child proof" medicine bottles seem to be adult proof, but easy-pip for children to open. Disaster. I have seen kids who've drank or eaten paracetamol, antibiotics, hair dye (mmmm), immunosuppresants, morphine and all kinds of vitamins.

Luckily for all the children I've seen, they've been OK in the end, but I know that's not always the case.

I'm starting to think that if I marketed padded baby-cages and baby-helmets I'd not only have a thriving buisness but save the NHS a fortune.

Dr Sunshine xXx

Overdose

Sometimes the stupidity of things I hear on a day to day basis makes me want to slam my head into the desk repeatedly, but sometimes, like in this case, it just really tickles me pink.

We had a phonecall from one of the a&e registrars...

Would we like to accept a young child who had taken an accidental overdose of his mothers sleeping tablets? On face value this seems reasonable enough. It's policy however that a&e properly clerk and examine a child before referring, so I asked for a little more information...

Obviously I wanted to know what the child had taken and how much.

I'm glad I asked before accepting the patient.

I was told they had eaten 10 "herbasnooze" (not the real name) tablets. Not really knowing what the reg was talking about I asked for a bit more info. He read the label out to me "100% natural homeopathic sleeping tablets".

I giggled.

Then I worried for a moment, although it says homeopathic who knows what was in the tablets. I asked the reg if he'd talked to toxbase. He had. They said every ingredient was completely harmless.

I was puzzled.

If toxbase have said that all the ingredients are harmless why was I being asked to accept this patient for observation? I asked the reg as much because we have a really busy ward.

His reply?

"Well I know they are homeopathic and toxbase weren't worried, but Mum said they made her really sleepy last night."

I almost wanted to say "...and some people feel homeopathic medicines cure cancer, but you don't see us giving them to our leukaemia children."

In fact he was so adament that the child should be observed, lest they get drowsy and lose their airway that I ended up having to get him to talk to my reg who honestly thought for the first 10 minutes that they were trying to wind her up.

I think its lovely that he cared so much about the patients, but honestly, homeopathic overdoses?

Part of me still just thinks a&e were bored and having a giggle.

Dr Sunshine xXx

Time Flies

I realised today that this time next month I'm going to be a surgical F1... ARGH!! Scary stuff. The scariest thing is that it means I have done 3 months of f1, which is a 1/4 of the year.

Do I think I know more than 3 months ago? Definitely. Do I think I have a lot left to learn? Infinitely more.

I'm quite scared that I'll die of exhaustion as a surgical f1, especially since I'm moving from an unbanded to a banded job. This does mean that I'm getting a pre-Christmas pay rise though. Woo!!

I think now that I've settled into working life I need to get myself a hobby, but I don't really know what. Apparently napping is not a hobby. I've really started to get back into cooking in the last 2 weeks, now that I have my appetite back. If only I could enjoy cleaning, ironing and exercise as much.

I also need to make the most of my annual leave. Someone I work with has just got back from a week in the Carribean. Lovely! I think that as I'm working so hard, I too should probably make the most of my holidays and not just sit in bed and vegitate. Hoping to perhaps go to Morroco in January. Can't wait!

Dr Sunshine xXx

Gratitude

I've been working for 3 months now, and I'm sure you're all aware that 90% of the time I LOVE everything about my job. This week I've had an even bigger smile on my face. Loads of people have been saying thank you to me...

This morning was the last day for 2 of our medical students. They brought me a box of malteasers to say thank you for all the extra teaching I had done with them. It was the sweetest gesture ever. Even without the choccies they were such a pleasure to teach that it had been great having them around. I hope it's also given the other students a hint that chocolate makes me smile!

As if that wasn't enough I went for my usual mid afternoon gossip with the nurses at the nurses station & they pulled out a letter from a parent which mentioned me by name and said that by taking the time to explain things to them & their child, as well as being generally happy and lovely, I'd made their time in hospital much better then they could have expected.

I'm going to remember that every time I feel rushed and flustered when talking to patients and remember to take the time to help them understand what's happening. It's also a good reason to remember to always smile and be nice to people. All of this has certainly improved my mood since yesterday.

Dr Sunshine xXX