Amusing myself

I’ve had an enjoyable week partaking in a number of my favourite pastimes. I suppose I’m not too unusual in that I’m a 20-year-old boy/man (the distinction is a hard one to make, mentally at least) who likes to play sport and spend time with my friends. Having not been able to play any regular football in the past couple of months since uni, it was great to play three times in the last five days and a fourth in the offing tonight. Suffice to say my fitness is in need of some honing if I’m to be raring to go for next season’s exploits in the division above – a potential source of bloggery I’m sure. As well as a return to the pitch, I had a great night out in Camden on Saturday with a few of my buddies from school, though only just…

Upon leaving Camden Town tube station, we headed towards Electric Ballroom – none of us having been there before. Unfortunately as we approached, it became immediately apparent we weren’t getting in, what with the back of the queue well out of sight to even a keen-eyed falcon. Not to be deterred, a couple of us sauntered up about twenty yards from the entrance and started making small talk with some girls in a half-cut effort to cut in. The girls were fine with it, the bouncer less so. After this minor knock-back, the call of nature took hold and I found a suitable spot to void my bladder. With a renewed sense of vigour I journeyed back to the queue and was pleasantly surprised to see my four friends ensconced in the line. I made a beeline for them, while trying not to stand out in my slightly garish t-shirt. Success! Uh-oh… *shit* I think, as a luminous security bloke approaches:

Security: “Excuse me; can you please step out of the queue?” [Very polite I must say]

Me: “Oh sorry, I just had to make a quick call.”

Security: “Why didn’t you just do it in the line?”

Me: “No reception.”

My friends: “Yeah he was just gone a minute, too loud here as well.”

Security: “Hmm… OK, but stay in line in the future!”

Fantastic, my alcohol-addled brain was still a match for the powers that be. All in all, he was the most reasonable and understanding bouncer/security guy I think I’ve ever met. Usually their meathead mentality precludes them from any form of adult conversation at all – the ironic thing was that this time I really did deserve to be chucked out… That was a good omen for the remainder of the night. I spent very little money, despite the extortionate prices, we all had a good laugh and a dance, and I pulled and got the number of a rather cute girl. Moreover, I didn’t have a hangover the next morning and I’ve ascertained that the girl also happens to be pretty, funny and entertaining while entirely sober! *bonus*

Before I dash off, I also want to say that the blog, Bête de Jour, is fantastic!

What does the future hold?

Officially just one month until uni restarts! It’s strange to think that I’m not going back to the usual combination of lectures, PBL, dissection and physiology. Instead I’ll be seeing patients on the wards and experiencing life in a rather large teaching hospital, which will be my academic home for the next three years. Details appear to be a bit thin on the ground, but my first unit will be Heart, Lungs and Blood (HLB) or Nutrition, Metabolism and Excretion (NME). How this will translate into teaching I don’t know – however, from preclinical work I preferred the cases that focused on HLB over NME. There was just something I found intrinsically more absorbing with the workings of the cardiovascular system, whereas the GI tract and metabolism left me bored to tears (perhaps because it was in the last semester before 3^rd year and I had had my fill of bioscience and PBL).

As for PBL (Problem Based Learning), there are mixed opinions on using it as a method to teach. I don’t know how it will translate into the clinical part of the course, but my experiences of it from the past two years have been generally pretty good. Maybe I’ve been lucky, for example I haven’t really suffered from having groups with a dozen people who would all rather sit in dead silence until somebody has the guts to offer up some information. Often the majority of the group was involved in the discussions despite the inevitable quieter/lazier members. PBL is also great to talk about difficult concepts, especially in the ‘Mind and Movement’ module. It was useful as a way for the students struggling to have things explained to them, while also allowing the person explaining to test their own understanding. Obviously not all sessions were productive, particularly if you have to rock up at 9am having been out ‘til 4am after a couple of drunken hours of sleep – even worse if most of the others were out with you and feel equally shit! My major criticism was the variability in tutors – who have been branded facilitators. Quite what their job description is remains a mystery to me. Apparently it is to guide us if we go off track and ensure we reach broadly relevant learning objectives. My own theory is that they are glorified prison wardens, keeping us incarcerated for the allotted 90 minutes, while providing bugger all in the way of help! Most facilitators aren’t clinicians and for three out of the four that I had, it was their first time, meaning the blind were leading the blind. Nonetheless I managed to pass all my exams at the first sitting showing that engaging with the system, coupled with self-motivation, and aided with a smattering of associated lectures and practicals, is definitely a technique that suited me.

The modest insight I have as to what I’ll be doing over the next year has mainly been provided by older guys I know from the medics’ football team I play in. Earlier this year, on the way back from Dublin where the National Association of Medical Schools (NAMS) football tournament was being held, a 4^th year told us some of the things he’d got up to within a couple of months of beginning clinical years. Interesting stuff generally, that was until he slipped in that he performed a digital rectal exam. Where unfortunately ‘digital’ refers to fingers and not a type of watch display. Not only that, the patient got a little - how can I say - excited...

Med school nightmares

I’m not someone to have nightmares in my sleep… That was true until this past week, when two afflicted me in quick succession – both featuring me getting kicked out of medical school!!!

The most recent was for a rather boring reason, merely failing an exam (although I was particularly angry for not having any resit opportunity). It was the first instance which was slightly more confusing and all the more relieving when I finally woke up to realise how stupid I had been. So what was the cause of me being turfed out? Perhaps getting into a fight or misbehaving in hospital, maybe recreational drug use? Nothing of the sort, in fact I was expelled due to committing a foul in a game of 5-a-side football with my friends… It wasn’t even a slide-tackle!

Dreams are strange – nearly a week on and I can still remember the events and emotions I experienced in my head that night. For that matter I can recall many other dreams from throughout my life, the majority of which were a tad more pleasurable! If only we could record them on DVDs, now that would be something special.