Since we last spoke...
I've had more minor illnesses this term than in the whole of last year. One of the perils of paediatrics: all those children with their eager young germs just dying to cross the generation gap. This week it's a chesty cold, so I'm living off paracetamol and decongestants (whoever invented Night Nurse deserves a Nobel prize) and sounding like I've been inhaling helium. How come other people go all throaty and mysterious when they lose their voices, and I end up talking like Minnie Mouse?
The good part about paediatrics is all the fun community stuff we get to do. I spent a day at a village school a couple of weeks ago, with a class of six-year-olds. School wasn't like that when I were a lad. We had to learn tables and spelling and stuff at that age; they just play. On the day I was there, we spent hours messing around with poster paints, which was absolute bliss. I love poster paints (even if I did end up with orange all over my shoes). And I had a fascinating chat about gladiatorial combat with a visiting Swabian mercenary who'd come to talk to the top class about Roman Britain.
Tomorrow we start a five-week hospital placement punctuated by deadline after deadline for essays and exams, so it's all hard graft between now and Christmas. Should be an interesting few weeks, though, if I can manage to stay on my feet for the rest of it. And I've already survived one visit to neonatal intensive care (the part I'd been dreading most about this rotation), so that's got to count for something.
The good part about paediatrics is all the fun community stuff we get to do. I spent a day at a village school a couple of weeks ago, with a class of six-year-olds. School wasn't like that when I were a lad. We had to learn tables and spelling and stuff at that age; they just play. On the day I was there, we spent hours messing around with poster paints, which was absolute bliss. I love poster paints (even if I did end up with orange all over my shoes). And I had a fascinating chat about gladiatorial combat with a visiting Swabian mercenary who'd come to talk to the top class about Roman Britain.
Tomorrow we start a five-week hospital placement punctuated by deadline after deadline for essays and exams, so it's all hard graft between now and Christmas. Should be an interesting few weeks, though, if I can manage to stay on my feet for the rest of it. And I've already survived one visit to neonatal intensive care (the part I'd been dreading most about this rotation), so that's got to count for something.