Wednesday, Thursday and Friday

My sincere apologies. I did mean to post my daily dairy at the end of each day this week, but the last few days have been so full that I’ve only got round to writing them up now. I may have forgotten a few details but I’ll still document the main points. This does serve as a useful demonstration of just how busy this term is though; at any given moment there are at least 5 things vying for my time and I never feel up to date with my uni work.

WEDNESDAY

7am – I wake up and get ready (smart clothes again as I’m in hospital for the morning)

8.30 – I get the bus to hospital and arrive at around 9.15

9.30 – My SSM in Diagnostic Imaging starts. I’m not sure about what to expect from this module, but the 2 people running it are really lovely, and a bit eccentric which makes it enjoyable. We start by having an overview of the basics of imaging techniques and then an introduction to the chest x-ray. I was worried that this module would be heavily physics focussed, but they only teach us the basics (which I can just about cope with) to give us an understanding of how the different imaging techniques work, and most of the information is clinically focussed. I learn a lot even in just these 2 intro sessions, and now feel as though I have a VERY basic grasp of what’s going on in a chest x-ray. The session also serves as anatomy revision, which is good for me as anatomy is definitely my weakest area.

11.00 – We split up into pairs. My surname is luckily next to my friend’s, so we’re paired together. Each pair gets allocated a different imaging speciality and is placed with a specialist clinician to be shown the equipment, and get an overview of what the speciality involves. My partner and I get put with a specialist in nuclear medicine who talks us through what nuclear medicine involves (mostly the diagnostics side) and then takes us around the department and shows us some of the fancy machines. I learn that some of the scanning techniques and images that you can get are far more advanced and impressive than I ever realised! It was a shame that we had our practical experience in nuclear medicine before we had the lecture on it, as I think I would have got even more out of it, but I still really enjoyed myself. I know that I don’t want to become a radiologist, but I still think it’s pretty fascinating, and the things that I’m learning will definitely benefit me in my future working life.

12.30 – We’re finished and I get the bus home. I’m meant to be in uni this afternoon, but towards the end of the morning I felt myself starting with a migraine, and I knew that I just needed to go home and sleep. When I get in I go straight to bed and sleep for a few hours and then feel much better. The afternoon lecture was for the module “Human Lifespan”, which isn’t really hardcore science, so it won’t be difficult for me to catch up. When I wake up I do some uni work for a bit (going over my respiratory anatomy notes) before my boyfriend comes home.

7.00 – We eat dinner of beef burritos and salad. I then want to go do some more work but my boyfriend pesters me until I agree to make a cake with him for a baking competition in his workplace. We make the cake (a butterscotch cake) and then watch some TV.

10.15 – I apply some strong cleaning product to our oven which still has burnt on grease all over it (from before we moved in) which I haven’t been able to remove from scrubbing. The cleaner needs to be left on overnight

10.30 – bedtime!

THURSDAY

8am – wake up. I’m not in uni this morning so I could have had a lie in (it was very tempting) but I needed to get up and do things.

9am – after breakfast and getting ready, I start by washing all the cleaning solution off the oven. The kit only supplied you with one pair of gloves to apply the solution (which I then threw away afterwards), so I now realise that I don’t have any gloves to wear to clean off the solution so I have to use my bare hands. This later results in all the skin peeling off my hands. The oven is very sparkly though and almost looks like new!

9.30 – I sit down and do a few hours of work – mostly going over lecture material and making notes and prepping for this afternoon’s session.

12.00 – I have an early “lunch” of cake as I realise that I don’t actually have any real lunch food in the house.

1.00 – Get the bus to uni

1.45 – Afternoon respiratory lectures. The lectures have a lot of physics and equations and histology, so they’re not the most fun. We then have groupwork going over some respiratory questions and case studies.

5.00 – Get the bus home. When I get in I sit down for half an hour and then put together some pasta with vegetables in a cream cheese sauce. I make enough so that there’s left-overs for myself and the boyfriend’s lunches tomorrow.

7.00 – After dinner I do some more work going over the respiratory we covered this afternoon whilst it’s still fresh in my head.

10.00 – I finish working for the evening and sit with the boyfriend and watch some tv for a bit before bed.

11.00 - bedtime

FRIDAY

6.45 – Wake up, eat breakfast and get ready

8.00 – I get the bus to uni

8.30 – I arrive at uni and do some reading in advance of our first lecture

9.00 – Our morning’s lectures/groupwork are on the urinary system. I don’t mind this module, but the material we cover this morning is pretty complicated and I’m feeling sleepy so in a break I grad a hazelnut latte to keep me going

12.30 – I eat lunch (leftover pasta) with some friends. I really should do some work in this time, but Friday’s are quite full on so instead I enjoy just relaxing and spending some time with friends.

1.45 – Our afternoon lectures/groupwork are on neurobiology. The brain is hard! There’s lots of anatomy in the first lecture which is complicated, but the second lecture is given by a clinician who pretty much just sums up some things and talks us through some case studies (with lots of pictures!) which is pretty interesting. The group work is very long and pretty hard, but it’s made better by the fact that 2 people from my group have brought in cake to keep us motivated!

5.00 – I finish uni for the day and walk quickly to the bus stop. I’m travelling (over an hour on public transport) to my boyfriend’s workplace to meet him there when he finishes work at 7pm. This involves getting a bus and 2 trains, and with Friday evening delays the journey takes a while and I only arrive just before 7. It’s also been raining heavily all evening and I’m wearing canvas shoes, so I’m soon soaked.

7.00 – I meet my boyfriend after work and walk to his car. We’re going home for the weekend as I’ve got a locum pharmacy shift back home and my boyfriend’s going to catch up with his family. I drive us home (a 2 and a half hour journey) as it’s good practice for me to drive long journeys as I only passed my driving test about 2 months ago. The journey involved lots of motorways, in the dark, in heavy rain, with lots of spray and busy traffic, so it was good practice of driving in adverse conditions!

9.50 – we arrive home at my house and catch up with my family over eating a late dinner (steak sandwiches).

10.45 – my boyfriend stays downstairs hanging out with my dad (I like that they get along well together) while I get my things ready for my shift tomorrow and then go to bed.