Things that happen and I find interesting.
Well I was supposed to be writing here everyday. I didn't get very far with that.
Since I was last here, I've finished on General Paediatrics at Barnet and have started Neonates - looking after brand new babies.
It's been quite a scary and daunting experience. It's one of the few areas of medicine where you are immediately responsible for a new life. It's very rewarding when giving relatively little interventions saves a baby's life.
I'm also working on a new website - ileft.work
On the ward this week - which makes a nice change. The pace is usually a bit more manageable and can see some interesting cases. We were understaffed today and it was just me and the reg on the ward most of the day. We managed okay but there were a few surprises. Feeling a bit down now though - I think mostly because I got a bit panicked by the surprise and I missed a neonatal line. Trying to reflect and learn a bit though. Laundrapp came to take our heavy laundry away and I've got some moroccan lamb in the oven ready for when Ophie gets home.
Sunday - the weekend goes so fast :( We spent the whole day KonMari-ing our flat. We've sorted through all of our papers and also all of our clothes. I'm really proud of Ophie and I wasn't sure we'd get it all done in time for bed - I was half expecting to sleep on the sofa bed! But it's done! Lots of bags of rubbish and 5 bags for the Charity shop. Still a few more bits to do but it's going well and I think the flat is looking great.
Finally the weekend. We had pancakes and a nice relaxing morning. I started sorting through and digitising our paperwork cupboard - took quite a long time but I think it will be worth it. We met up with Thomas and Violet for Shoryu which was really good and nice to see them excited about their wedding.
Stayed late to look after an unwell baby - Ophie was worried about me - was interesting to see. Ophie picked me up and we burgers from Band of Burgers.
Ugh - back in ED LD again. There were some interesting cases, including acutely impaired visual acuity and a relapsed nephrotic. Lots of viral URTIs. Understaffed as well. Ophie woke me up from my sleep paralysis nightmare - I was calling out!
We ran out of food completely! We went to Gails in the morning and had a yummy breakfast and then went to Ikea to buy lots of storage things - ready to Kon Mari out flat.
SPA DAY! We went to Champney's in Tring for a day of relaxation and recovery after all our long hours recently. Was fun. I spent a lot of time in the various different pools and in the relaxation room. Lunch in dressing gowns was a bit funny - it was like being at a hotel but no one had bothered to get dressed. Ophie bought a new knitting set from the shop there. IT SNOWED ON THE WAY HOME and everything looked very pretty.
Finished nights on General Paediatrics at Barnet. I wonder if I'll ever go back to General Pads again... We went to see four flats. None were that special. Now we think we should be looking for a two bed flat. Maybe we'll stay in Camden for a bit longer. So glad to be reunited with Ophie.
Last night even busier and quite a lot of sick children. Going to see some houses after work tomorrow.
Last night was much busier than last week's set. We saw some interesting cases, including a possible encephalitis and a seriously bulging anterior fontanelle. Missing Ophie.
Ophie and I are on opposite shifts this weekend LD / Nights so we only get to see each other before and after work for a few minutes. Cherish every minute.
Pre-nights day off. I went to Winchester to see mum and dad and talked about houses and furniture. Made some bookings to see some houses next week. Drive home was slow and wet.
Finally starting to get better at getting lines in. Met up with friends after work for Japanese but I was a bit tired and snapped at Ophie :(
Long day in ED / PAU already. I was the only SHO so felt a bit busy and stressed. There were three resus calls and I managed 2/3 cannulas in each. Ophie stayed late even though she wasn't LD and we went home together. ❤️
Back at work already - ED / PAU. Mostly under control. Diagnosed new nephrotic syndrome and saw a child with bad burns. Steak and chips for dinner but tasted a bit funny.
I'm not recovering well from nights, tired all the time. Mum is upset about us going to Toronto - feels a bit left out.
I spent the day looking for flats and we found a really nice one in Kentish Town (Oseney Crescent). We drove Lauren and Josh to Cambridge for dinner with Luxi and Tom. Dinner was nice and we had fun playing games afterwards. Drove through Oseney Crescent on the way home but looks like the flat is already sold.
Finished nights!! They were all okay. There was a resus call last thing this morning. I was waiting for Ophie to pick me up but she overslept! Called and woke her up. She's hosting the Friday lunch today.
Nearly finished nights. So far so good.
Ophie did her exam today - it was really hard but I know she'll be great.
First night was alright. Managed to get through 45 outstanding discharge summaries. Hope the rest of the night are okay.
Off to work now. Last set of nights on General Paeds before the changeover. Managed to get a good amount of rest - slept until about 2 pm and it was nice to be with Ophie. Feeling a bit anxious about the nights, not sure why - probably because it’s been a while since I’ve been at work. 26 MT was reduced today - would like to see what it looks like, it could be ideal for us.
Waited for Ophie to come home from nights then I went home home to the Forest. Put the world to rights as usual. Back in LDN now, ready for nights tomorrow - not really. Requesting leave for the next block before I go to bed.
A bit of a slow day. I spent a lot of time following a tutorial on adding authentication but didn't get very far - it didn't explain the code we were using and there were also several errors and omissions. I found this tutorial by Evan Gow which was really well written and explained.
I also kept on reading around Health Tech and found a piece in The New Yorker from last year by Atul Gawande of Being Mortal fame. Reminded me a lot about the challenges of moving from a paperless system both at Addenbrooke's and at Barnet.
I'm also going to start reading Eloquent JavaScript and maybe You Don't Know JS; they're both free online and I think it would be good for me to have a more solid JavaScript foundation rather than my current haphazard knowledge.
Ophelia is still on nights and I'm feeling lonely. Off to get her some oranges which she wants for a snack.
(+) More ideas:
Had some sad news today, spent a lot of time thinking about it. Tried to distract myself by looking up health tech online - Boston Children's has a health tech accelerator and they've also made a task manager. I reset my twitter account and looked for people to follow. Started a simple task manager again - GitHub suggested something like Waffle for a name, which I've gone with for now. Ophie was sleeping pre-nights and I'm really not looking forward to mine next week.
Less productive today but managed to take the Christmas decorations down and the tree away - although now there are needles everywhere. Had a nice time with O who was doing her RCPCH mock exams ready for next week, I'm sure she'll be great. Finished RDR2 finally.
Day off! Feeling good. Wrote this whole site. The code is messy but it does the job. Had some trouble with DNS (Heroku can't give static IP so you can't map A records and if there are no A records there's no resolution for other CNAMEs). Turns out Cloudflare have a 'virtual A record' which allows CNAMEs at the top-level, so switched to them. Also had a frustrating hour when the form wasn't posting any data but realised I had forgotten to name any of the inputs...
Ophie has been at work, she's off tomorrow though - pre-nights, so we'll get some time together and we need to take the tree down.
(+) Things I still need to add:
(+) Hi this is Ophie! Sneak attack hehehehehe.
T & V stayed over for NYE. Spoke to T about doing more web stuff and health tech ideas. M & K came down for Q's Birthday, ate at Del'ish. O is organising our calendar but says our shifts don't match up well.
(+) New Year's Resolution - do more web stuff and write everyday.