After exams!!!

Oh wow- it feels great to be free... I have finished exams now (actually I finished them last Thursday, but it has taken me a while to sober up) and it feels great!!! I dont want to talk about the exams- they were horrible, all 28 of them and I am just hoping that I passed them all. It is now the time of year when everybody just completely lets go, relaxes and drinks ten times their own body weight in anything remotely alcoholic they can get their hands on. I have not got too long to relax though as next week I am going on a course for something (it is s secret so I can't tell you) and then I start my new job as a climbing instructor.
I really can't wait to start going to the gym and swimming again- it is true that revision really is bad for your health and almost everyone ends up putting on loads of weight- so I have decided to stop eating (well maybe not stop entirely... and maybe not for a couple of weeks yet either).
Results will be out soon enough anyway.
Trying to think of some exciting things to tell you- but as I have spent the last term pretty much doing nothing but revise and sit exams there is very little of interest. I did have botox injected into my eye again yesterday- sure it hurt... but I just ignored it... not for wrinkles or anything (how old do you think I am?!?!) It was for a 'Post-operative Diplopia Test'... basically seeing if an operation on my eye would give me double vision before the operation, simulating hte effects with the toxin. Oh and I am soon to have an MRI on my hip, somthing to look forward to- actually it is really funny being a patient and a medical student at the same time- especailly when I go to the doctors and I see one of my fourth year friends sitting in or something (don't worry this doesnt always happen and ALL pateints can say no to having medstudents present- I just say yes for fun).
OK well I ought to go now... tonnes of things to do!
Bye for now!
D

EXAMS!!!!

Sorry for the immense delay in this post... revision has taken priority over most of my life somewhat. I had also planned to go to South East Asia with some mates overthe summer and had evn bought tickets... a bad idea as resits may be on the cards this year, but the flights got cancelled anyway- which is a shame as we were all so looking forward to going.
Just as the Easter holiday started I went into Cardiac Theatre, and observed an operation that involved deep hypothermic circulatory arrest. This was absolutely fascinating, and lasted about 9 hours- I was tres tired at the end of it! The chap had all sorts of stuff wrong with him and ended up having his aortic arch being replaced with something that resembled a peice of plastic tubing with drinking straws coming off it- which was premade propper 'Blue Peter' style, although being a bit more sophisticated of course. Then I started work on my dissertation which I had to hand in on Monday- *stressful* I really should have left myself loads more time, especailly as I am trying to revise for the exams that start next week... this is not going so well, hence I am procrastinating on the internet!
I got really poorly over Easter- which made working hard, but it was nice being at home having everyone take care of me... going home seems really strange now after 2 years. I took a gap year and lived in France for a big chunk of that so being away from home is really not an issue- in fact it is completely great... but going back is odd because my brothers and sister are all growing up and look so different every time I return and the dogs look older too... my parents look the same though.
Having an actual mountain of papers, folders, files and text books in fromt of me- piled on my desk and bed and struned all over my floor- it is really scary and daunting because I will actually never manage to get through all of it in the time I have got (I would be lucky to manage a fraction at this rate)... scary thing is we are not expected to go through it- in some respects we are supposed to have absorbed it and understood it first time round... which is a shame because that is definately not what happened- but talking about it is not going to help so I shall say goodbye now and get on with some work!
Good luck to everyone with exams!!!
:-)D

Only 1 week, 4 days, 11 hours and 43 minutes left....

No it is not quite that bad- as eager as I am to get away from this huge pile of work that keeps on amounting on my desk!!!
Actually I have even signed up for staying an extra four days after we break up to observe elective hypothermic coronary artery bypass surgery in order to write a paper on it... I don't really know wheer to start or where it is going but it sounds good anyway, and I will get to see some blood and stuff so that is cool :)
Oh- I pulled out of the MedSoc elections... I really really could not be arsed with all of that extra work... besides my girlfriends did not want me taking on anything else as I already do 'too much'... well that is probably true but I do like taking part in lots of things- but the elections were getting serious and far to hard for thier own good so I decided against it.
We had a really cool meeting the other week calle the Staff - Student Consultative Committee... where all the representatives of the student reps had to meet with the staff and discuss all sorts of issues- it was great... we got free sandwiches and sausage rolls!!! All of this has resulted in quite a bit of paper work and many more meetings which I have to attend, but they make me feel important so it can only be good... and besides as I mentioned abouve- there is only a little while left to our second year (in terms of teaching anyway- there are tonnes of exams waiting for me on the other side of the Easter break!).
Goodness... I have not been swimming in ages, or played hockey for that matter either... I seem to have spent the last few weeks (although it seems like moths) writing essays and comig up with sociological models that I am sure would really excite some people... but bore the pants off me!!! I compensate by drinking a copious amount of beer... which makes me feel much much better...
What else.... well just to report that I no longer have an overdraft... not that I am lucky enough to have payed it off- oh no, I have 'maxed' it out... and am now living off the student credit card that I said i would never use.... oh dear! Fortunately (or unfortunately- depending on how you see it) I don't need to go grocery shopping as at christmas the freezer at home broke so my mum gave me loads of 'tuppawear' boxes filled with soups made of left overs and stuff- so I can live off those for a while... if I live though that then there is always rice with rice... or with beans???
Life seems dire at the end of term- despite being frugle I still have no money... maybe I drank it all- who knows?!?!?!?!
Ok well I am off to write another few thousand words of another essay.. I also have a presentation to rehearse for Friday- I am one of three people presenting to three hundred and eighty six people... fun!!! Never mind ay- but do wish me luck.
It is not as bad as it sounds- towards the end of term... or year lots of deadlines for essays, presentations and projects are due in and this does not useually cause a problem if you are organised and get all of the work done in advance... IF!!!
Bye for now
:) D

MedSoc Elections

Hi all!
Sorry for the fact that I have not posted in almost a month!!! Things are so hectic. the MedSco elections are about to take off- and take over my life too, as I am running for President- keep your fingers crossed and wish me good luck!!!
In the mean time I have been really struggling with my Family Attachment essay... I hate writing essays at the best of times but this has to be really wordy and based on behavioural science which is really not my forte... but never mind it has to be done- and I shall soldier on. With only 4 weeks left of the term I am really panicing as that means that all sorts of deadlines are approaching and I really don't think I am as prepared as I ought to be, but there is only one person to blame for that!
I think that there was a SurgSoc meeting that I should have attended sometime last week- but I didn't... I did honestly forget, but I was doing something else anyway- I went on the 2nd year Medic's Bar Crawl- which was SO much fun!!! Then on Thursday I went to The Jam House with a bunch of mates for someone's birthday. I love that club... it is supposed to be owned by Jules Holland or something and is really trendy. No Jazz though- it was Salsa night, and with my two left size twelves there were many a bruised toe the next day! But again lots of fun... especially as cocktailes were buy one get one free- SWEET!
What else?.... Well I am really getting into Rock Climbing- I even have my own rope now, I managed to get a really cheap one (I know you may think that something as key to safety as a rope should not be skimped on... but when they are usually in excess of £100 for just 40 meters of rope you can excuse me for going for the one that only cost £50- which is still a lot of money in my eyes!) Now I have my own rope I can do something called 'leading' which is when you climb up a wall for a bit without any safety rope, and clip it into a carabiner every few meters or so- scary!
Ok, well- what with this and Facebook I am really procrasrtinating so I must get back to my essay :(...
Oh- my car is very poorly, I was driving to Firm 1 down in Kidderminster and something fell out of the bottom- I ignored it until something else came out too- then someone in the back of my car, who I was giving a lift to, noticed rather large bits of metal and stuff rolling down the rouad behind me, so I stopped the car and went after them and picked them up... oh dear!!!- I took it to a garage in Brum and was given a list as long as my arm of what was wrong with it- and quoted about £1300 to fix it- which is well over double what I payed for the car in teh first place! So I am at home this weekend as I bought it to a mechanic who has been sorting our cars out for years and always done a good honest job of it- and he quoted me a much more agreeable price!!! On another happy note as I am home for the weekend my Mum decided to treat us all so we are having a gorgoues roas lamb for Sunday Roast, with lots of red wine- none of which I have to pay for ;)
Ok- I shall have to go now!
Bye for now!
:) D

Snow!!!!

Hello All!
Oh I have been completely swept away by Family Attachment- it is really requiring a lot of hard work... mostly because I still don't have a clue what I am going to do!
Apart from that I haven't been up to too ,uch recently, I haven't managed to go climbing in about two weeks (all work and no climbing does not make me happy!). But I did play in a hockey match today- it was really good actually and we played really well, not quite winning, but it is the taking part that counts anyway!
On Wednesday I had a SurgSoc careers fair- this went really well, not too many people turned up (which is good as we hadn't got enough refreshments for them all!) but lots of cool surgeons cam and had a chat etc...
Oh while I remember- I am sure you will all be aware of the recent snow status- was actually really funny, we got soaked and chilled having loads of snow ball fights in between lectures- yes unlike schools and colleges the MedSchool still went on... shame but was still good- we are coming to the end ouf our Neuroscience module- which means that we will have presentations to give soon- which is a scary thought!
Anyway, back to the snow!- some of us made an 8 ft snow man on the lawn in front of the MedSchool- it actaully took 11 people to push the snow ball- so funny! And then walking home there were cars doing all sorts of dangerous things all over the place (not on purpose of course) slipping and sliding...
Ok- well, I have done the mamoth anatomy session for tomorrow- a grueling 20 pages, and there is also something else I was supposed to remember to do- but I can't remember... oh well. I ought to go now and get on with some more work!
Bye for now!
D
p.s- good luck to everyone whoe is waiting to hear from Universities at the moment and also good luck to everyone taking exams... is it A levels or something coming up soon?- Oh I can't remember, it was so long ago for me now!

Pause for breath!

Right ok, I havent really expalined why I am insanely busy.... but as I seem to have a rare moment to myself (2 hours between lectures) I shall go into more detail!
Christmas hols- they were totally manic! I had booked return flights to Jakarta (in Indonesia) with some extremely good friends from Uni as a sort of summer travel reward trip thing- an insentive to work very hard and not fail any exams!!! As I had done this (and also something about drinking most of my overdraft too?!?!) I had a lot of debt to pay off, so I worked.... a lot! I had 2 jobs over the Christmas holidays and stupidly took on too much- but gave myself Christmas Day off. I also had a few days at the end of the holiday too. This time was intended for me to revise for the huge exams we had in January- and these were soooo difficult- I had worked very hard and revised very well for them, but I fear- having now takent them, that no amount of revision would have prepared me for them as there were incredibly difficult questions about subjects we hadn't really covered yet! But never mind.... enough said about that- it is all over and now I have to wait until March to get the results.
In the meantime I am working on a dissertation (a research project with a really long essay at the end of it) on a specific aspect of temperature regulation.... but I havent really made up my mind what to do the project on and the deadline is rapidly aproaching- but I do get to go into surgery to study a bit- as a lot of "open heart surgery" in Brum is done under elective hypothermia- making the patient really cold so they have a much smaller risk of all sorts of things like brain injury (very unteresting). I am also trying to do an audit for my Firm 1 (GP placement) an audit is something that.... welll I din't really know- that is one of the reasons that I am finding it so hard! (the other reason being that I was paired up with someone who is really not pulling their weight and I am having to do their share of the work too) - the deadline for this in in 3 weeks, and I havent really done all of it yet and I still need to leave tiem to write it up- which will probably take me a while. On top of this there is also Family Attachment, don't even get me started on that- just another way for the Uni to make sure we are awake and keep us on our toes... something else to worry about.
It all sint as bad as I make out- it gets a little overwhelming at times, but then again I am notorious for being exceptionally bad at managing my time!!!
On top of this I am on SurgSoc, CAWC and Undergrad Admissions committee- all of which I enjoy, but struggle to fit in.
This term I am on a health drive as I managed to drink myself out of pocket last term (and out of my trowsers too- beer belly!). So along with a little less drinking I am trying to exercise more- so I go swimming about 3 or 4 times a week with my housemate, I still do Hockey and now I go Rock Climbing as often as I can (which is not as often as I would like!).
So- there we have it... a little summary of what I have been getting up to recently, I always have liket to be kept busy, luckily I have been still been able to find time to eat and sleep- just about!;)
Ok, well I shall go now as I need to take a look at some notes for this next lecture- we are on our second cardiovascular module (much moer clinical) and am doing a bit on antiarrhythmic drugs and stuff like that- all very exciting really.
Oh I forgot to mention that in Firm 1 on Tuesday I had to perform some mental state exams- all very cool, quite odd seeing all the ranges of patient though! I need to practice these things now (clinical skills etc) as I will have an OSCE (Objective Struclured Clinical Exam) in March- an OSCE is the way that most (if not all) medical schools use to assess a students ability to perform the basic clinical skills required to be a Dr.
Ok Bye for now!
:) D

New Year

Hey guys,
Sorry I haven't posted in about a month. I had a pretty hectic Christmas- holding down two jobs in order to pay a little off my overdraft and then I reveised quite a lot too. The revision was in preperation for some pretty nasty exams... but the less said the better, they are over now and I dont find out hte results until March.
We are starting are Neuroscience and Cardiovascular:2 modules.... they are both interesint (neuro being very very hard!!!- especially the anatomy). I also got elected a osition on Birmingham's CAWC- Curriculem Advice and Welfare Comittee- through this I was invited to become a member on the Undergraduate Admissions Commitee... it is quite exciting, I also got invited to go to dinner woth the Royal college of Physicians by the Dean of our Medical School- how cool is that!
Ok... well there is not actaully that much to reprt- i have been a little antisocail this term (well not really- but I have tried) in the sense of going out less nad getting drunk less so I can work more...none of which is actually happening!
I shall post again soon, but I am going out now (how ironic).
Bye for now
D