Monday, 28 February 2011

It’s the end of another month. So I felt it was time to write another update :P

I finished my rotation in Pain management about 2 weeks ago. I really enjoyed it. But I was quite tired at the end of it as most days I was in from 8h30 until just before 6pm, and if I sat in with a few different consultants in one day (whose clinics overlapped) I often didn’t even have a chance to have a proper lunch break.

One of the most exciting parts of the rotation was getting to see something called spinal cord stimulators. These are used for patients who have chronic neuropathic pain, meaning they have pain because of nerve damage, and they have tried all the drugs but nothing has helped. These patients may battle to walk if the pain (a sharp, burning pain) is down their legs, so are often unable to work and struggle to care for themselves. All in all quite a debilitating condition.

The spinal cord stimulators are little electrodes on a fine wire that neurosurgeons implant into the epidural space around the spinal cord. It gets implanted at different levels in each patient depending on which area they want to treat. Then the wire gets attached to a battery (this gets implanted just under the skin, usually in the lower part of the abdomen). You then use an external device (looks like the handheld credit card machines you see in restaurants) to program the electrodes to pulse at different wavelengths etc. until you find the correct settings that cover the painful area. Then instead of the patient experiencing that sharp, burning pain it gets replaced by a tingling sensation. It completely overrides the brain’s interpretation of pain and allows the person to actually function without pain. It was absolutely amazing! I spent an afternoon listening to the talk given to patients before they get the stimulator implanted and the next day spent the whole day in a clinic where the “problem” implants were seen. The rep from the company who makes the devices was there too (it was quite a crowded room) and she actually reprogrammed the patient’s devices so they could get the best results. In every case the rep managed to get it right and the difference even in the way the patients walked was absolutely astounding!!! I’ve attached an XRay (from the internet) which shows you the spinal cord stimulator. The white blobs are the different electrodes.

Now I’m currently doing a Clinical Hypnosis rotation (seems that pain management is a bit of a theme for me this year!) There are only 3 of us on this rotation. In the first week we had a lecturer come up from London to train us – a very intense week of theory and practicals that saw us learn most of what there is to know about clinical hypnosis and how to do it. Sadly the next 4 week practical in the hospital has fallen through (some papers weren’t filed or some such) so we are now not able to practice on patients in the hospital. This is very disappointing. Instead we are conning 10 of our friends into being our guinea pigs and writing them up as case studies. We also have two assignments to finish in this time.

So I have quite a bit of free time overall at the moment. I have already worked 2 shifts at the ENT outpatients department as a Healthcare Assistant last week (to earn a bit), which was a lot of fun (especially since I can do day shifts now and don’t need to survive any night shifts!) In my last shift I was actually in charge of ensuring the Registrar’s clinic ran smoothly, and it was a very enjoyable shift. They have asked me to work tomorrow’s Registrar clinic too, so I must have done an acceptable job.

But the last month has naturally not been all work and no play! Fiona and I spent an evening beginning of the month at the Hyena Comedy club where a group of medics put on a talent show to raise money for charity... they really are amazingly talented! (in this pic Paul and Ali are dressed up for their part in the medics rendition of Rocky Horror hit “Time warp”... it was absolutely hysterical!)

Renee and I also had a movie evening at Nicola’s one night – we watched a George Clooney black and white film called “The Good German” – it was rather bizarre, very long winded and I didn’t really enjoy it, despite it also starring Cate Blanchett and Toby Maguire in it too. But Nicola made a fantastic chilli which I thoroughly enjoyed!

And last weekend the weather turned absolutely miserable so Renee came over from Carlisle (on the North West coast where she is doing her rotation) and we spent a lovely weekend doing rainy day things. On Friday night we went to see Simon Pegg’s new movie “Paul” which we thoroughly enjoyed (if you like silly comedies and enjoyed his other stuff you will enjoy this one too!) On Saturday we went into Newcastle and toured the Hancock museum, complete with dinosaur skeleton, then visited the University’s art gallery, the Hatton Gallery, though this wasn’t to our taste as we really didn’t understand all the modern art!, ending off with hot chocolate and cake at a local cafe. So all in all a perfect way to spend a rainy weekend!

And this past weekend Nicola and I went to Sheffield, which is about 2 ½ hours South of Newcastle in Yorkshire. We had a lovely time Saturday visiting the Cathedral (they had a photography exhibition on at the time as well), the local Museum (which chronicled the history of the cutlery industry in Sheffield) and an Art Gallery (this one filled with understandable paintings, not one modern art blob was to be found!).

The Cathedral Church of St Peter and St Paul

A clever use for all those pesky swords you have lying around – just turn them into a “fence” for the interior of the cathedral!

The museum in Sheffield is quite a building (glass and wood) and even boasts a winter garden

Saturday evening we went to the Ben Folds concert (he’s an American singer-songwriter). Getting here was rather eventful, as initially we assumed the concert was to be at the large arena. Luckily we double checked the tickets and found that it was at the O2 academy in the city centre, a completely different venue. Getting there was fine. But the guy checking tickets let us into the wrong entrance and we ended up in a venue surrounded by people in ripped jeans and black T-shirts depicting death metal bands, all with either long black hair or Mohawks, and the guys in the crowd seemed to be wearing more eyeliner than Nicola and I together! Needless to say we were concerned by this, this didn’t seem to be the normal Ben Folds fan club we expected, and we felt very out of place in our un-ripped jeans and normal shirts, and when we saw they were selling T-shirts for “Black Spider” we asked the security guy if we were in the right place. He laughed and said that this was for a death metal concert and guided us to the correct entrance and venue! Shoo!

The concert itself was amazing, as Ben Folds is really talented (he makes me wish I could play the piano too!) and he even made up two songs on the spot... one about Sheffield and the abundance of disco balls he has found here, the other to lyrics one of his fans had written and tossed on stage.

On Sunday Nicola and I had a late breakfast and then drove to one of the nearby National Trust sites – Nostell Priory and Parkland. It was raining a bit when we got there, so we explored the historic house first and once it stopped raining we took a walk around the grounds. This turned out to be a mistake as it must have been raining quite a bit and our hour long walk saw us squelching through muddy fields... I had mud splattered up to my knees at the end of it and the wind was bitterly cold! But we defrosted in the tea room (I had a lovely cream tea – the fresh scones were amazing!) before heading back home again. Again a wonderful weekend!

The house at Nostell Priory

Can you tell it was cold??? The start of our walk around the Parkland around Nostell Priory, with the lake in the background.

Today I have the day off and have a list of errands to run. Got a few work shifts planned later on in the week though.

Hope you are all keeping well.