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Showing posts from October, 2017

I am going down

I don't know why this is happening to me (I do, I get up at 4am and don't stop till 6pm), why is my body betraying me (because you've been in a calorie deficit for 7 months) why is this happening to me now (because you've not had a day of relaxation for 9 weeks)... I'm going down. I feel ill. I felt ill last week and then on Sunday, I felt momentarily better - Hoorah, I thought. Thank god, I have so much to do, practically sprinting out of bed at the faintest whiff of recovery. I was immediately knocked back down again, like a smug punch in the face for even thinking I could just get up and go at the same speed I was at before. I am finding it very frustrating. OSCE's are a month away. I really, really, don't have time to be lying on the sofa for a week. I started Ophthalmology yesterday. I went to my induction, which was actually really well done (note to any speciality welcoming medical students - breakfast donuts go a hella of a long way, +10 if you h

Could I be a neurologist?

For some really, really daft reason, we only spend 2 weeks doing Neurology in our fourth year. Despite the fact that there are very very few neurologists in the country per head meaning that most other doctors spend a significant amount of time doing lots of (less complicated) neuro stuff too, we get a grand total of a fortnight. It was the best organised placement I think I've ever had. We had the best of the best teaching us. It was fun, I learnt a huge amount and now seriously consider doing it as a career. It's competitive, can be incredibly tricky and complex and there is still so far to go in this area of medicine, but it is fun.  I said to one of the consultants I was clinic with this week, "I'd love to do it...but it's too competitive...I don't know whether I would be able to make enough sacrifices to do it. Did you have to sacrifice a lot?" I asked, wondering about how things were different when this middle-aged irish consultant trained in Neuro