Gen Med again

This is where we're going at the end of the year.

So what have I been doing?

Not blogging evidently. You know, it would be easy to just blow this off and say "been too busy", but to be honest, I haven't felt like writing much in here. I guess I have been too tired.

I had my observed interview today. This is the piece of assessment where you have to go with a consultant and see a patient; take a history and examine them, and then present your findings. Whereupon he's supposed to rip you to shreds and you find out how much you don't actually know.

Happily, today's experience was not too bad.

I've been nervous as hell about this thing for the last week - I've been studying, reading up, trying to see a few cases and brush up my examination skills. That kind of preparation is meant to make you feel better and give you more confidence, you know.

But this morning I felt as nervous as anything, waiting in the coffeeshop, waiting for the clock to get to 9.00 am when the aforementioned caning would begin. I was literally paralysed with fear. Maybe I have some kind of anxiety problem, I don't know.

Anyway, after walking to his office, I see Dr Millar and he greets me. Nice guy. Scottish accent. Generally quite friendly.

He tells me we should go see Mr Scott. So we walk there and we meet the guy.

I've been studying all sorts of things, COPD, heart failure, AF, MI, asthma, palpitations, etc. Not much neuro, but I figured it wasn't much use cos I would suck at it no matter how much I studied.

And guess what? The guy had...


Not a neuro problem!

He had diabetes and associated renal disease. More things I didn't read up on much. But he didn't really ask me too many difficult questions - this was almost like a tute, but with a mark at the end of it. He would tell me all about spironolactone, ACE inhibitors and renal failure - and at the end of it he asked me about two questions. But he still gave me 7/10!

I ended up doing not too badly, although it could have been better. At least that's one thing off my chest.

My favourite link for today:
You Ain't No Picasso
I've also started a page at deviantart. I'm not sure whether I'll add much to it - I guess it will depend on how much I can be bothered and how much time I have.