What have I been up to?

Post summary:
- Food
- Orthopaedics
- Rowing
- NFP
- Congratulations!

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No posts for 3.5 days! That's an eternity in blog-world! So what have I been up to?
The simple answer....A HUGE AMOUNT!

On Tuesday evening, as I mentioned in my last post, Chris & I hopped on the train to meet his sisters and brother in a nearby city, out for a restaurant meal followed by the theatre (costing a small fortune for Chris & I, but the birthday girl, his 16 year old sister, appreciated it so much, that the pain of the $$$ was worth it!). (but now we are eating bread crumbs and dried cheese to try and save up!!).

Wednesday evening, following a loong day for me at the hospital and evening Mass, Chris & I rushed home by 6:30pm and cooked a 3 course meal for his parents who arrived at about 7:30pm. It was a total sucess; Chris even cooked soup for starter which seemed a bit brave given he had never cooked it before! But it turned out really well! The rest of the food was also PERFECT (if I do say so myself!) The carrots and cauliflower were done to PERFECTION...not too hard, not too soft, nice amount of butter on....Mmmmm......

So, all in all, that was a success, compared to my meal of toast the last time they came over.


I have also started studying a new course at Medical School. I've finished psychiatry, which some of you may remember I had been doing since middle of August, and now I am doing a mixture of Rheumatology, Orthopaedics and Neurology, with a bit of Elderly Medicine thrown in too.

It's really interesting; all about bones, joints, muscles and nerves, but oh my goodness, I think I have met the group doctors with the WORST people skills EVER!

I think there is a certain truth in the stereotypes of different medical professionals as a whole...certain types of people go into surgery, as opposed to general practice, and so on.

And the Orthopaedic surgeons are, without doubt, the group of doctors with the worst people-skills that I have seen so far! (Orthopeadics are the bone surgeons basically)

Maybe I am just unlucky with my team, but goodness, I have never felt worse for patients in consultations than this last week with the Orthopods (the nick-name given for the Orthopaedic surgeons).

They interrupt patients CONSTANTLY, they don't listen to what they say, they fire off lists of questions and don't want to hear anything other than what they've asked, they constantly talk ABOUT the patient to us students as if the patient isn't there, and then don't explain to the patient what they have been talking about, they use horrible jargon when speaking with the patient and with us students and don't clarify what they're saying, they don't explain anything.

Really, these consultations are painful to behold!

In the day surgery unit the poor patients shuffle in look scared and terrified and the consultant just stands there looking at them, not a word of comfort or a hello or reassuring smile.

UGH!

There was a poor middle aged women yesterday in Clinic who I thought was going to CRY because of how cold the Consultant was towards her. In his mind she was just "a knee with osteo-arthritis", and it showed in how he treated her.

Ugh. Horrible horrible orthopaedic surgeons. I have never felt that distressed in my life for a patient.

Well, except for a couple of times with the Vascular Surgeons (blood vessel surgeons) or the Gastro-intestinal Surgeons....actually, the majority of surgeons have poor people-skills (except for cancer surgeons, they're mostly quite sensitive).

So if you have an orthopaedic surgeon with people skills....count yourself lucky!


So apart from cooking for my in-laws and doing lots of work, what else have I been up to?

Well, yesterday I went to an awesome talk about subjective and objective truth, which was pretty good.

And so far today I have been out rowing for 2hours (nb: picture is not me!)
I like rowing; despite the freezing cold and the rain and getting wet, there's something almost spiritual about it I find, especially when everyone is rowing together and well. The harmony of the crew rowing together, the fresh air, that nice feeling that exercising gives in your muscles, the scenery. I only go out once a week though; I don't think I could cope with more than that!!


Also, I know I mentioned a few posts ago that I would post on NFP and on why the Church's teaching on contraception makes such beautiful sense, and I will! Just give me a few days!

hope you're all keeping well!

and Congratulations to Carmel for getting her visa to the USA so she can now go get married! woohoo!!

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