My Summer

Well as it has been so long since my last blogg several things have happened. The first of which was my friend Ashmai's hen party followed by her wedding. For her hen do the theme was 'the wild west' which of course meant that we all had to dress up as cowgirls complete with hats and cowboy boots. However there was one big surprise and that was Jez, who as the token male at the party, decided to go all out and dress up as an Indian including the long black wig and giant feather head dress. We must have looked ridiculous as we caught the tube to the comedy club for the evenings entertainment. Though it was all good fun.

Ashmais wedding was on the 8th August and was held at the conservatory in the Barbican center in London. Ashmai looked lovely in her dress and Ted looked great in his suit complete with blue swede shoes. Lucy and I along with some others were her bridesmaids and it was our job to make sure the isle was sprinkled with rose petals as she walked down the isle. The conservatory made a pretty backdrop for the wedding photos and when I finally manage to get mine off my camera I will put some up for you to see.

I suppose the biggest thing that has happened in the past month is that I have started work. I have moved up to London once again and am living in the grotty doctors accommodation at Epsom hospital. I have been lucky though, my surgical firm is fairly quiet compared to the medical firms that I will be doing later in the year so it has been fairly gently getting used to having to work. It is strange though finally being able to sign the prescriptions that I write rather than getting someone else to sign them for me. As a speciality urology is not bad. Very few patients seem to have post op complications and are quite often very cheerful which is nice.

Working full time (well on average just over 50 hours a week) means that I have tried to make the most of my weekends. A couple of times I have been out on the water trying to learn to sail. Its really hard, when the wind gets up I get very nervous. There are lots of expensive boats on the water I don't really want to crash into to. Lets just say that I'm not a natural, I am determined to get there though and hopefully will be able to do a sailing course during some of my holiday next year. On one of the windier days I let James show me how it is done. I'm not sure I want photographic evidence of how poor I am at sailing just yet.

The next exciting thing is I have a short week this week as I have taken a few days off work so James and I can go to Amsterdam for a short break. Hopefully it will be good fun. It is our last minute alternative to camping in Devon and going surfing. Didn't fancy our chances with the great British weather.

Graduation

Well I have finally done it. I graduated on the 11th of July in the grounds of Charterhouse square which is the original setting for the St Bartholomew's medical school. In a ceremony held in a giant marquee a few hundred of us collected a certificate after a nervous walk across a wobbly stage in heels that were threatening to go over any second. Possibly the most impressive part of the day was the correct pronunciation of every ones name by the lecturer calling us to the stage.

To see other photos click here

The final part of my university career came today when I received my degree certificate through the post. So that's it then, I am officially a doctor who is registered by the general medical council and who is on call for her first ever day at work. Just my luck, I have been landed with a extra long shift where I will be on my own in the evening covering the surgical wards. Well at least I will find out fairly quickly if I can put all that training into practise.

Holiday in France

I have just returned from a nice relaxing holiday in the South of France. James and I were lucky enough to spend a week in a huge house based in the Dordogne region. In the very peaceful setting of a beautiful golf course, Maison des Pruniers was large enough to sleep 6 people and had its own swimming pool, though we had it all to ourselves. Our first day there was a Sunday and we discovered very quickly that nothing was open so we were forced to sit by the pool and catch up on some fiction reading ... such a hardship... a lovely change from all those medical text books.

Maison des Pruniers

During that week we made several trips, driving into the surrounding area. We spent an afternoon in St Emillion, a hill top town that is at the center of Bordeaux's wine making industry. There we climbed a tower to get a great view of the town and some of the surrounding vinyards, followed by a tour of one of the local vineyards. We had an introduction into the process of wine making, the history of St Emillion as well as a chance to taste some of the local wine.

Looking over St Emillion

We also made a trip to the prehistoric caves at Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil where we had a tour of the cave Font de Gaume. The cave was discovered in 1901 and is believed to have been first inhabited by stone age people approximately 25,000 BC. The tunnel like cave is now the only cave still open to the public that contains multicoloured paintings. The paintings included pictures of mammoths and bison. Some included carvings into the rock, others followed the natural shape of the rock to highlight features of the painting but all were more like artist impressions of the animals rather than the stick animals I was expecting. On the way back to the house from the caves we made a quick stop into Bergerac to have a short wander around the city.

Another afternoon we hired a canoe and went for a paddle along the Dordogne river. It was less hard work than we were expecting due to the fast current, thankfully we weren't going in the opposite direction. The river is wide and enclosed by all the trees on the banks so you feel enclosed from the roads running along side it.

On our final day in the South of France we made a trip to Bordeaux, where we parked the car and then caught a tram into the city center. We had a wander around the city, saw a strange fountain which sprays water onto the pavement to reflect the surrounding buildings. We also went on a climb up over 200 steps to get a view over the city from a bell tower and ate lunch in one of the cafes which spills out of the restaurant onto the street.

The fountain in Bordeaux

After packing up and leaving the house we decided to make two stops on the way back to the ferry port at Caen. First was the port of La Rochelle, a small town with lots of posh looking yachts in the harbour. There were a huge range of fish restaurants and creperies to choose from so we sampled one of each and followed them by watching the Wimbledon final in an Irish pub. Yep those pubs are everywhere!

The second stop on the way back to Caen was at the town of Vannes. In the center of Vannes there are some really old looking streets which are cobbled and have what can only be described as Tudor esk. They looked almost cartoon like as the architecture was so different from everything else we had seen around France.

It was a lovely and much needed holiday, though I have to admit although James and I made the effort to try with the French language we don't feel we have improved much. Quite often we spoke in French and got replies in English. Sometimes we managed a combination of French and English, accidentally using English words without realising. At least we tried.

Have a look at some photos from our holiday.

End of an Era

Well the time has arrived. After 20 years of full time education I have finally finished with school and am about to leave the East end of London and enter the grown up world. Things have changed a lot since I was learning how to make bubble pictures by blowing through a straw into a cup of paint and washing up liquid. Three schools, one college and two universities later and I have found myself with a degree in medicine.

Admitttedly I did use the long route to get here. It may seem that I have avoided growing up and going out to work, however I think that my first degree put me in a great position to cope with the medical course. Being that tiny bit older certainly seems to gain you that extra bit of patient trust.

The last few weeks have been a little sad though. First I had a BBQ at my student house as a leaving celebration with a few of my friends. Then my family came to London to help me move most of my possessions out of the house. I am now rattling around in my room without much in the way of furniture and only the bare minimum of essentials.

It will be a shame to have to leave however it is also exciting. I will be moving onto the next stage. I have a job at Epsom hospital so I will finally be able to put a use to all that knowledge I have spent the last 20 acquiring. So amid all the promises to friends that I will keep in touch (and I will) there are mixed feelings. It is sad, exciting and nerve racking all at once though I feel it is definitely time to move on.

It is the end of one great era but happily the start of another which I am sure will be just as challenging but hopefully just as enjoyable too.

Louises' wedding

Well lets just say I have been to two weddings this year and the weather couldn't have been better for either. First was Lucy's where everything was covered in a blanket of snow and then yesterday I went to louises' for which the sun came out and it was lovely and warm.

The wedding was held at Portsmouth registary office where there was a short service. Louise wore a lovely pink dress having chosen not to go for the tradidional white. However Louise always great in pink and it suited her perfectly. Following the service Kelly Charlotte and I threw some matching pink confetti over her and her new husband and then lined up for some photos.

We then all moved on to Portsmouth sailing club for some drinks, food and the speeches. The cake was made by a relative of Ed's and each tier was different to keep everyone happy. Having tried the fruit it quite upsetting that I didn't have room to try the chocolate or the madiera as it was delicious.

Congratulations Louise and Edward Goodenough.

Click here for photos

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Third world hospital

Having had the opportunity to spend a short while in a hospital in Nepal I can be sure when I say that if I had become ill whilst out there I would have flown home for treatment. On the day the others on the same placement started they were given a talk by the president of the hospital who mentioned that he hoped that at some point in the not too distant future they would be able to offer surgery for medical tourists. That is, people from other countries would pay to go and be treated there.

Well it only took about an hour for all of us to realise that his plan may have been a little far fetched. The standards were so far behind what is the norm and what we have come to expect in the west that it was a little shocking. All of the doctors in Nepal speak fluent English and have completed their MBBS which is the same medical degree I have from the UK. The Library even contained the same books, though several editions behind what we use here. However hygiene standards and doctor patient consultations allowed for vast improvement. The mixed male/female wards had no curtains between the metal beds and any screens were woefully inadequate, often not shielding the patient at all. Any adjustments to the bed positions were done using bricks and patients appeared to have brought a lot of their own bedding from home. I only very occasionally saw a doctor or nurse wash their hands and gloves were a rarity.

Medical discussions often took place in English and all the medical notes were written in English however I didn't once see a doctor on a ward round take the time to explain to a patient what was happening and include them in any decision making process. If the patient couldn't understand what was going on this would mean they would have no idea what was wrong or how they would be treated. Having said that I also never saw any patient complain. It was what they seemed to expect and they trusted the doctors rather than question them.

The outpatients department was another thing all together. There are no GP's in Nepal so patients go to the hospital for all sorts of ailments. However there also seems to be no queue system in Nepal either. The outpatients rooms often consisted of a doctor and an intern surrounded by patients jostling to be seen next. This of course means that everyone could hear the consultation taking place and see any examination being carried out. So much for privacy!

Perhaps the most shocking thing I saw was when I spent time on the gynaecology ward. A lady had become very sick with an infection. Yet again there was only a screen to shield her from other patients, and I'm sure you can imagine that it wouldn't stretch around the 16 doctors, nurses and students. That's right 16! I counted! So in full view of the gaggle of observers and the rest of the patients on the ward, and anyone who happened to be passing in the corridor the lady was given a gynae examination. However during the examination the consultants mobile phone rang, and she answered it. In this country the situation would probably lead to a court appearance, and quite rightly!

The whole experience made me realise how lucky I am to have trained and to live in the west.