Can I tell you a secret?

This blog has been pretty much dead because I've been having a secret affair with another blog for quite some time now. Nothing too drastic, just somewhere more convenient - but that's besides the point.

I would like to wish everyone a very happy new year from  the UK! I flew off on Saturday with Elena and was in London for a two days before following Fara back to Sidcup where she works at the Queen Mary Hospital. I took advantage of my "extended holiday cum interview" and decided to do more work experience because quite honestly, I barely did anything during my stint in Universiti Hospital. I'm quite lucky to say the least because once people (ie. staff) know that you're someone's relative they're much nicer and more willing to show you around, and let you watch stuff.

Or maybe that's just how the UK works.

I'm also doing a  9 - 5 day because I follow her in and come back with her - it's like "Bring Your Daughter To Work Day" according to Fara. :p I'm currently staying in her hospital accommodation which reminds me of my chalet back in KYUEM except it's a flat, there's only 1 shower but we've got a kitchen! Our winter nights aren't too bad because I'm sharing the single bed with her under the warm and toasty duvet. Elena's still in London staying with a friend, but she might come down to see us tomorrow to watch Avatar 3D but it's starting to snow, so there might be a change of plans.

My so-called job attachment at the hospital is pretty cool. Fara's posted at one of the wards where most of the patients are over the age of 75 and have dementia.There's one sweet lady who talks to herself aloud the whole day and occasionally goes, "Hello? Hello? Can I have my patent black shoes?" And then there's another old man, very nice, who always asks, "Who am I? What am I doing here?" It's slightly amusing talking to him and answering all his questions but you end up feeling sympathetic for the old man, really, because he hasn't got the slightest clue about his surroundings and you can see that it really bothers him.

I've only been here for two full days but already I've done a lot as compared to what I did in UH. I assisted Fara yesterday during their ward rounds by getting the charts, and reading out the Observation Stats (basic stuff like temperature, blood pressure) to be copied. It's nice to have a bit of responsibility, you know? Her consultant's really nice as well, and has taken me down to A&E so the doctors there know my face and I was told to just pop by when something interesting comes up. So far, I have

1. Seen how the MRI works where the radiographer actually sat down with me during one scan to explain how everything works
2. Sat in on a clinic reviewing Parkinsons patients
3. Assisted in MMSE (Mini Mental State Examination) where you ask patients questions off a list (like Who are you, Where are you) to give them a score out of 30. This is to rank their severity of dementia.
4. Sat in on a meeting where a bunch of doctors just gathered and showed slides of lung x-rays to discuss - like a supplementary educational lecture.. which I found boring simply because I didn't understand half the things they were talking about.
5. Spoken to patients and seen how doctors (a.k.a. Fara) handle difficult patients. There's one particular lady who's really nasty because she's got frontal lobe dementia, which basically means she says anything that comes to her mind.. and she honestly says the rudest things but you can't really blame her can you? She has slapped nurses before and apparently tried to smack Fara today and I think I'm helping a medical student with her MMSE tomorrow so we'll see how that goes.. :P
6. Oh and Fara's awesome as a doctor. Her words, exactly. :p 

It gets dark at about 5, so by 6 it feels really gloomy and it dupes you into thinking it's bed time but it's actually only 7 so we're gonna be making dinner soon. But anyway, I'm glad I decided to spend the week here because it's been nice getting to know Fara's colleagues - I was lucky in a sense that Fara's junior (1st year house officer) is actually a UCL graduate so I'll be talking to him about it. A medical student is also attached to our ward and she's a final year medic from Kings College so I've been following her around as well.

Till the next update! :)