Starting Rheumatology and Orthopaedics

I was ill with norovirus for the last week of my Geriatrics placement and so couldn’t go in.  Apparently I didn’t miss much but was gutted all the same (no pun intended).  Norovirus is one of those things that closes wards down, so even if I could drag myself from the bathroom for long enough to go in, I actually wouldn’t have been allowed.  Believe me, it was absolutely horrible.  A young man like me found it hard to deal with – it made me wonder how a ward of elderly and frail people managed to survive it at all.  Some don’t, is the answer to that I suppose.

Anyway I managed to get signed off by the consultant all the same.  I found him sitting in his office, looking unwell, in the dark looking at me bemused as to who I was.  If he were a colleague I might be concerned but I just got his scribble and scampered out, desperate for a quiet life after the week I’d had.  I hope that doesn’t make me a bad person.  When I start work as a doctor I know for a fact that I’m going to really struggle with the change and stress of the job.  I can’t say I’m looking forward to it, which is a shame.  But I hope there will be people around me for support, and feeling the way I know I will, I hope that I can provide that same support for others who may need it.  But right now I’m just a student who consultants forget as soon as they meet, and I have a limited ability, socially and medically, to deal with anything.

This week we start Rheumatology and Ortho.  Yesterday was a non-event – we met our consultants and were given timetables.  It seems fairly laid back but there is a lot of stuff that we have the option to attend.  I’ll update as we go.