‘Sup With Pete

This is what I look like on a typical day when I go to the hospital. I have to wear my ID badge and bring my stethoscope.

This is St. Mary Redcliffe Church. It was described as ‘the fairest, the goodliest & most famous Parish church in England’ by Queen Elizabeth I in 1574. There is a cathedral in Bristol, but it is not as prominent on the skyline as this church.

This is a pic instide the Bristol Museum. I went there last weekend to see the exhibit of Wildlife Photographer of the Year. The museum, is mixed in with the university buildings.

This is me with 2 friends from my medical class (i’m in my hockey polo shirt). The second is a pic of me on New Years Even in Ottawa - so I guess there was a bit of snow, but also freezing rain on new years.

Saturday, February 3, 2007

Hello!

It’s been a while again, but I have been busy, so I keep putting this site off.

My Christmas break was short in Canada. I was home for about 3 weeks. There wasn’t much snow but it was fairly cold at home. I had a great time seeing my friends and family, but also was burdened with studying for exams – so didn’t get to do all I wanted to and visit all the people I wanted to see. Had a great Christmas and went to an great new years party with my high school friends.

I came back to Bristol, finished the rest of my studying and wrote my 2 exams. Both felt like a pass. We’ll see how well I did on Valentine’s Day, when our marks come out. We did all celebrate the end of exams by going out to Zero Degrees for some good food and socializing, then off to Wedgies (a club) for some dancing and partying. I also had spent that afternoon in an intense backgammon battle with my housemate Rich, who is also a medic, over a few beers.

After that we had 2 weeks of classes/labs on the Renal System. It was taught very well but was crammed into a small period of time, so there was a lot of material covered. Half of it was mainly the physiology of how the kidneys help regulate many aspects of the body, and the other half was about things like kidney transplants, their embryology, pharmacology, and renal diseases.

In my second weekend, my personal tutor took me out for some drinks and a meal. At Bristol we are all allocated a personal tutor who is there to address concerns about our course and if we need help with administrative issues, questions about medicine, etc etc. I am placed with a doctor in Fetal Medicine and Obstetrics along with another girl in my year. The 2 of us along with 2 other doctors and their tutees (who were also in my year), 9 of us in total, all went out to a pub to get to know each other, then followed with a meal. I had an awesome night out, also gaining a bit of advice from some English doctors.

Outside of class I’ve continued with my field hockey, running and squash. We were having a streak of straight wins, but then we managed to play a game last weekend where we were crushed 4-1. That was quickly followed that by a win of 6-0. After 3 weekends of games, we’re taking a break, so I’ve got my Sunday free. We also went out for a social last Friday night. About half of my team went for a curry at a restaurant near my place and then they headed to the medic’s pub and then the club. I went with some teammates in my year to a friends 21st birthday party. It was a good time out. My squash has gotten a bit better lately, but I am also putting a bit more effort into it, which must help.

This week I headed back to hospital placement. It was a week of firsts for me, that I know I’ll probably find quite boring and trivial as I progress through medicine, but at the moment it was extremely exciting! It was our Gastro-intestinal(GI)/Renal placement, which was a bit difficult at my hospital because there isn’t a GI ward, only Renal. So we either saw renal patients, or people with GI conditions that came in for other reasons. But in my week of firsts, I met a person with a kidney transplant and examined them, I saw a fistula for dialysis (and listened to it with my new stethoscope), I examined my first female patient on my own and got to take blood for the first time from another student who didn’t seem to mind me hacking up their arm trying to get the needle into a vein. But I was successful!

We’re now returning to lectures for 6 weeks covering Neurology (which is supposed to be ridiculously hard and intricate). I’m also still working on the Pre-Clinical Revue Play – we did casting over the last 2 weeks and will be doing our first read through on Wednesday! Yikes!

Other than that I’ve got a special trip planned this week, but you’ll read about it soon!

Hope all is well,
Peter

This is a really neat Bristol Attraction. It was done last year in the centre of bristol by a famous Graffiti aritst who I think is named Banksy. People are always stoppped taking pics of it, it’s pretty funny when you look at it closely.

Another pic of me in my hospital getup.