Random recent pictures

Does this count towards the 5 a day?

The almost finished conversion of the old GPO in George Square.

Again, ground-breaking science being published. This is real science, this is what people need to know - in a bottling will a full or empty beer bottle break easiest?

Chaos

This block has started strangely. There are a 2 cohorts doing Paeds at the same time. This translates as 45 of us in one hospital (of 12 wards) and thus cases are under extreme pressure at the moment, with about 5 med students on each ward looking for suitable cases. Hopefully this will calm down over the next few days else it will be near impossible. The teaching programme however seems more robust and has a fair ammount of tutorials, teaching ssessions and clinics, as well as soem free time. This makes it much ncier than most hospitals.

Recycling, it just goes round and round

I noticed as we got home yesterday lots of people had brown wheelie bins out, so when playing the car shuffle this morning so Mum & Dad could go out, I pointed to Mum that theirs wasn't out. Mum said it was the Garden Rubbish for recycling. It seems the council collect people's garden rubbish and convert it into compost for the council to use on flower beds and parks etc.

One of the houses with such a bin had a car outside out of which people were unloading compost from B&Q.

The irony and additional cost of this struck me - if people had their own compost heap, then they would save money, the council would save money, and they would be taking a pro-active approach to recycling...this may not work in flats etc, but in deepest suburbia with decent sized gardens then it should be obligated!

End of block

Another block over, 9 down, 3 to go, revision now cranks up another gear, hence I am sat in my old room at Mum & dad's writing revision cards about dementia at 9.20am on a Saturday, and wondering why I don't remember some of this stuff from the actually teaching blocks.

Today's revision topics are all psych related which fits well with some of the GP stuff I saw - depression, distress, anxiety, psychosis, dementia and addictions. In fact that probably made up about 1/3 of consultations, especially anxiety disorders.

It is strange being back in my old room - It hasn't been painted since I was last here for any length of time, in 2004, and thus looks pretty much the same, including my high school desk, but the bed has been changed - sister getting married required a double bed in the guest room - and the bookcase us now covered in Mum & Dad's books not mine. On the other hand, being at the coast means it is much much windier than Glasgow ever is - mind that could be an east coast thing, as Edinburgh was always very windy........ Either way, it is now very windy today and rain is crashing off the windows - and 2 couples I know are getting married near here today - hope it dies down a bit.

On the way down last night, it was raining rather heavily - after Mum house sitting all week to wait for the dishwasher people - see another post for more info on that - Mum and I met Dad at Longtown for a meal in a rather surprisingly nice cafe/restaurant then drove back along ' the military road' from Greenhead to heddon - the road is as the name suggests right next to hadrian's Wall, and follows the roman route on the south of the wall for most of the way. It is pretty straight and thus quite hilly, which adds to the fun of driving a small Ka with 3 adults and luggage on board.

Island life

My time on the island at Gp is finished and I am back to stable internet connections, and coffee shops! the island community was relatively small, so blogging was always going to be tricky as by their nature some thinsg i saw would be very identifiable, and recent media coverage has been banging home the message about confidentiality and anonymity for patiients in blog / facebook etc posts.

The intersting things included:

• surgical emphysema and pneumothorax in someone who fell at night
• managing to palpate a breast lump
• student led surgeries
• phlebotomy
• friday night in A&E
• the various skills fo the GPs - extracurricular
• the ward rounds and community hospital next door
  
• childhood injections

The next block is child health, and is the start of a run of 3 blocks back here in the city. This is very strange as I had 1 block in the city in the whole of 4th year. Without a 30 minute commute, how does one prepare for the day?