British Summer Time over for another year

Well, the clocks have gone back, and my body didn’t want an extra hour in bed, so I woke up at 06:30, and now I don’t know what to do with myself. I wonder if I’ll actually get up at 06:30 tomorrow when I need to…?

Winter brings with it good and not so good things. I love being able to wear lots of warm jumpers, wrap up in scarfs and gloves when going out, and having the fire on in the house, it’s lovely and cosy. There is undoubtedly less daylight to enjoy. I am susceptible to seasonal affective disorder, and it’s going to be tough going to work when it’s still dark, and leaving work when it’s dark too….Must make the most the weekends I’m not working from now on, and get my vitamin D activation.

Do you really need a sick note?

I have been faced with an issue that all GPs are likely to experience on a frequent basis, and it makes me uncomfortable. Doctors in general practice are responsible for issuing sick notes to say that patients are not able to work. By doing so, we have a huge responsibility, ultimately to the country’s economy. Most of the time patients genuinely need a doctors note – they really are ill. However, recently, there have been several occasions where I have had a request for a sick note, and I really didn’t feel one was appropriate. One patient I’ve seen regularly comes up with physical problems as ‘excuses’ that he is not able to work. I say this not because I am harsh, but because a lot of health professionals have seen this person, and no one can find any reason why this patient cannot work. I have recently seen a heroin addict who wanted a month off to ‘get clean’ without any help from professionals, and got quite nasty when I said no. Doctors are put into a difficult position at times with where to draw the line, and I’m really not happy with having my integrity compromised

One Day in History

The National Trust organised a one day blog for the 17th October for history. I have just posted my diary. Here’s a copy for me to remember what I’ve said. So bizarre to think that someone may be reading my diary is 100 years time…

An Ordinary Day, made extraordinary by love of friends and having my dream job

Well, my day started in the usual fashion, waking up as late as possible without actually being late for work. So I eventually got out of bed at 7.15am, leaving me half an hour to get dressed, put my make up on, make a flask of tea and some toast for the journey to work. The eating on the way to work has become a bit of an art, toast cut into small pieces to eat at various stages of the trip. Anyway, with breakfast in hand, I make my daily 40-minute trip from Southampton to my place of work.

I currently work as a foundation year two doctor, the new term for a first year senior house officer (SHO) at a GP surgery in New Milton, in the heart of the New Forest, which is a wonderful place to work. I have slightly longer to see patients due to my junior status, so instead of trying to take a history, examine a patient, make a diagnosis, come up with a management plan, print a prescription if necessary, all in 10 minutes, I get 20 minutes, which gives me time to do all this, and to ask my supervisor if I get stuck as to what’s wrong with the patient. It may be surprising to some people, but doctors don’t actually know everything the patients ask, so it’s very reassuring to be able to ask someone else for advice. Surgery this morning involved a large variety of presenting complaints. It is a misconception that GP’s just see coughs and colds. In fact, general practice is far more interesting than that! We certainly do see coughs and colds, but there weren’t any today on my list!

Today I had a head injury, a sprained ankle, a patient with depression and anxiety, someone else who just wanted cream for his dermatitis (and also got a BP check, flu jab and medication review at the same time), a lady with cystitis, and needed treatment for a urinary tract infection, someone with chronic diverticulitis and a patient who decided to cancel 15 minutes after her appointment, so don’t know what was wrong with her.

Usually morning surgery would be followed by lunch, and catch up with paper work before afternoon surgery, but today was a bit different. I made a trip back to Southampton General Hospital for my foundation year teaching so I can be a more knowledgeable doctor. Lunch was eaten during the teaching – a regular occurrence for doctors to eat and multi-task.

Today’s session was on child protection and non-accidental injury. It was very informative, with teaching from consultants of emergency medicine and paediatrics. I learnt about basic child airway management, and about how to recognise non-accidental injury, in layman’s terms, child abuse. It was a challenging afternoon, and caused me much anger and distress to see the kind of things that parents can bring children into hospital with. Don’t get me wrong, the vast majority of children who come in have genuinely hurt themselves in some way, but an awareness of the potential harm that could be inflicted by parents, family members and others should never be far from our minds as health professionals.

Although today was picked for the fact it was just an ‘ordinary day of no particular significance,’ Tuesday’s are always special for me. I get to be part of a weekly gathering of some of my closest friends in West End, Southampton. We eat together, and just spend time in each other’s company. Sometimes a lot of chatting is involved, other times it’s a bit quieter with everyone doing his or her own thing. Dinner involved a ‘choose your own topping’ pizza making session, and then the famous Lucy chocolate brownies (our group are always very happy when Lucy makes brownies ) ). Most of my friends left about 10.30, however I ended up staying and chatting with the host’s until 1am. It’s interesting that if I didn’t need to go to work the next morning and we weren’t all tired, we would have carried on talking for hours…

Moo

Little Moo delivered today. 100 cards arrived in the post – the package was a surprise, looking at the parcel, I had a brief memory lapse as to what I had ordered, however, it was lovely to open the box, to find lots of my edited flickr photos )

I’m really looking forward to having an alternative ‘business’ card to give to friends/family/colleagues with my contact details on

The Devil Wears Prada

I was a bit shocked a few days ago when my friend Noni suggested we go to the cinema, and not only that, but to see The Devil Wears Prada, a proper chick flick. I wasn’t particularly taken by the blurb on the Odeon website, but thought it would be nice to watch something that wasn’t too taxing. I was pleasantly surprised by the film, which I saw last night. It was very funny in places, and it was quite enlightening seeing what counted as ‘fashion’ and watching the amazing talents of Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway. I would certainly recommend it for a girls night out, but boys may want to keep away.

Sleeping heaven

After a friend’s hen night at the weekend, I had the huge privilege of trying out the famous futon of some other friends. It was the most comfortable mattress I’d ever slept on, along with the loveliness of a jersey bedset, it was ultimate heaven. It will certainly take some beating on the comfort scale. Thank you for Mr and Miss Beans!

HTML – wowee!

I have wanted to learn about HTML for a while, but was always worried it was too difficult to learn. I searched for ‘HTML made easy on google, and found a good website to give me the basics involved in adding links and other cool things. Have gone up on the geek-scale ;o)

Ok, the start of something new….

Well, it’s taken me ages to finally get myself organised and start a blog. Not sure how it’s going to go, but at least I’ve started. Hopefully I’ll be able to write and share my musings about the world