Xmas Holidays

Xmas break this year was only 3 weeks, when last year we had 5 weeks, so it seemed pretty short. It was cut short due to the introduction of our immersive week placements, they made our year 4 weeks longer and so 2 weeks were cut from the xmas break and 2 weeks cut from the easter break. Fortunately, it means that summer break was at least left alone.
The first day I got back my sister talked me into going on a night out with her and her partner as one of our local nightclubs does a specific xmas night and this was it. I was tired from having my exam the day before but figured it would be a good night, and it was good fun.

The following day I went to visit Dad to take him a home made wreath which my Mum had put together and a xmas card. It was freezing out and all of his little leaves have dropped off. I'm just hoping he recovers well in the spring and hopefully has a good growth spurt too!

The next day I headed into the city with my Mum to make a start on my xmas shopping. Yep, it was the 16th December and I hadn't started yet. I hadn't had time during revision season and was starting to feel slightly stressed about it at this point. I didn't actually get much done that day but eventually I got it all finished!

I honestly spent most of the holiday being my Mum's little shadow. I went everywhere with her, to see family, to go shopping, to run errands, the lot, and it was really nice. I'd been used to being so busy for holidays that it was nice just to have some time to spend doing normal things with my Mum and my family.

I did squeeze in a couple of short days at work, not actually working, but shadowing with the urgent care team and GPs, and I was even given a chance to practice taking a couple of ECGs and manual blood pressures. Naturally I had to get that shameless stethoscope selfie with my work lanyard on.

A few days before xmas it was my brother's birthday, the big 21! He recently received a place to study at a language school in Tokyo and is due to move out there in April so we had to think carefully about what to buy him. It needed to be small and light enough to be packed to go with him, and it needed to be special enough or practical enough to make it onto his packing list. I chose a matcha tea bowl which was almost identical to one he used in Japan when we travelled there in 2018, and some matcha tea powder and a matcha tea whisk. When I was wrapping them up I pulled out a couple of tourist magazines we had picked up in Japan and cut out some pictures and stuck them all over the presents!

His other presents also included some guidebooks for Japan and Tokyo and a matching set of suitcases.

My Mum also made him the coolest Japan themed cake! It had Mount Fuji, cherry blossom, a Torii gate and a bamboo forest.


As soon as my Brother's birthday is over it is always a slightly mad rush to get xmas finalised. But we still had time to pop out and visit Dad again on xmas eve.









I think I mentioned it last xmas on this blog but every xmas since 2014 we have chosen a theme. This means that the house is decorated to the theme, the presents are wrapped to the theme and sometimes even what we wear on xmas day is influenced by the theme. Previous themes have included:
- The Nightmare Before Christmas
- Narnia
- Harry Potter
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
- Star Wars

This year the theme was The Hobbit, which was a relatively easy theme to do as it was just a cosy and homey vibe. The colour scheme for the tree was a classic red and green, the presents were wrapped in brown paper or paper with trees on, and we wore xmas jumpers on the day.

My sister decided to make xmas eve bags this year for me, my brother and my little sister and we got the cutest sloth pyjamas, slipper socks and blanket... not my brother, I can't remember what he got instead! But it meant that on xmas morning all the girls had matching pjs on and it was adorable.

I feel like this photo of our living room should come with a warning. The presents in here were for ten people (including the dog) so it looks more excessive than it is... but also, we like xmas I guess!

We had our grandparents, and the dog, round on xmas day, which is something we've been doing for a good few years now, and it's so lovely to have everyone together.

After opening the presents we got dressed and put on our cozy xmas jumpers.

We sat down for dinner while the dog enjoyed one of his presents!

After dinner we usually have a xmas game which wasn't part of The Hobbit theme. This year the game was Disney Brainbox.

Then we usually start a xmas jigsaw puzzle so we started that and after some time to digest dinner my Mum brought out the Hobbit themed xmas cake she had made.













We also received a game for xmas from my Uncle. It was an escape room board game, and it was actually really immersive and good fun. It came with 3 scenarios to solve but there are more available to buy. We played the first two scenarios within a couple of days and played the final one recently on a day when my Uncle came round.





















This year I decided not to go out for New Year's Eve, I stayed home and spent time with my little sister and watched the fireworks on the TV. On New Year's Day my Grandparents came over for dinner again and after dinner we played Newmarket which is a New Year's Day tradition in my family.

Before I headed back to uni I made time to visit my Dad's work. They had installed some pieces in their new memorial garden and they wanted us to see them. So I went with my Mum and siblings to take a look. The pieces they had chosen were just perfect and we loved them.

I headed back to uni at the weekend and prepared to head out on my second immersive week. In the next blog I'll finally be caught up to this term so I can start talking about how it's going.

Thanks for reading!
Katherine x

Neuroscience and Behaviour

This is going to be another long one, I'm afraid, while I'm still getting caught up.

My housemates and I arrived at our new uni house around 10 days before Year 2 officially started. We wanted to be in time for the champagne reception to greet the new first years 8 days before our new term started.

We have a medic family system where second years volunteer to be "parents" to the new first years and help them navigate life at med school, studying, writing assignments and preparing for exams (although in reality they don't ask us very much), and so the champagne reception is where we attempt to meet our "children" for the first time. Between the two sets of "parents" in my uni house we have seven "children" and we managed to meet a grand total of three of them on this first night! They all seemed so lovely, and well matched to us.

After the champagne reception we headed over to the sports bar on campus for a few drinks and more socialising, before eventually heading home.

A few days later we hosted our kids at our house for a medic family meal, which we themed as grannies and babies. Everyone was such a good sport with the dress up. Fortunately for our kids we didn't make them go out clubbing dressed like it... mostly because we were too lazy to go out clubbing!

Term started for us on Monday 30th September and the theme for this term was Neuroscience and Behaviour. The first day had us learning blood flow for the brain using strawberry laces from our lecturer, which we got to eat afterwards. It was a great start to the term. I can't say it continued that way!

Neurology and psychiatry are both complex topics and this term was well and truly dense. We didn't really have any more teaching hours but the amount we learned in those hours seemed like so much more, and included more complex concepts.

Now we're in Year 2 they also expect us to start learning how to read around the topics and learn more independently. For me, personally, this is something I was used to doing in my previous degree and so I don't mind it.  

Our clinical module has also ramped up compared to last year. We have a lot more different types of sessions to rotate through, and they also introduced immersion weeks where we pause study and spend a whole week on placement.

Clinical module is just on one day per week (this year it's Thursdays). In the morning we usually have a lecture followed by a seminar, and in the afternoon we rotate through different activities. This module runs throughout the whole year (rather than 1 term like the scientific theory type modules).

We still have workshops like we did last year where we learn about how to perform different types of examinations, such as a cranial nerve examination.

Virtually everything else in the afternoon is new to us. We have community hospital teaching, instead of the GP placements we had last year, which is where we go to meet patients and practice the history taking and examination skills we have learned.

Clinical technical skills is where we learn how to do things like observations and completing the chart, ECG taking and reading and wound care and closure.

Inequalities and Inclusion in Healthcare sessions are usually a lecture followed by small group teaching where we discuss things further. We learn about how healthcare is not equal amongst all people and about groups which can become excluded from healthcare in one way or another, like homeless people for example.

Time for Dementia afternoons are timetabled to allow us time to visit our allocated family for our chronic disease study and essay. This study is to help us to learn about how chronic diseases affect patients and their families.

The Initial Assessment programme is undertaken at the local hospital and these afternoons are to help us learn to assess unwell patients in different situations. This is the only group of sessions which I haven't had any of yet so perhaps I can explain it more once I've done it!

Outside of studying I decided to start a new Harry Potter jigsaw puzzle of the Marauder's map, which is honestly all one colour apart from the writing. I am still doing this puzzle now! Although I'm pleased to say I have made some significant progress!

I had a girls evening out with my housemates where we went to Lush to treat ourselves to some products, and then we headed to Sprinkles. Sprinkles is a dessert restaurant in Brighton which does ice cream/gelato/sorbet and cookie dough, waffles, etc. I feel like it has a bit of a retro vibe to it but I really like it. I've been back since!



















Halloween celebrations began early this year as I was home visiting my family a couple of weeks before Halloween. Naturally, my family were celebrating in themed style and we chose "The Lord of the Rings" for our party theme. Mum and I spent ages organising the food and labelling it all. I tried to think of a relevant quote from the films to go with each food.

Of course we had to include "What's taters, precious? What's taters?"

My family all gathered round at my Mum's house for food and a good catch up.

The same weekend, both of my sisters were performing in a dance show in our hometown and so I joined my family at the theatre to watch them. This was the first performance in my life which I have just watched, instead of dancing, singing, or helping backstage, and only the second performance I have ever watched there. It was a slightly strange experience. I find it quite emotional watching the girls (and boys) perform and I wonder if it's because I am so used to being up on that stage with them! I do miss performing sometimes, but I sure don't miss the nerves!

 
Back at uni it was time to get the Halloween decorations into full swing, and we definitely bought way too many pumpkins and squashes of various sorts. We only carved one though so the others lasted for ages as general Autumn decorations.

Our uni house is in a really residential area, packed with families and so on Halloween we stocked up with sweets and moved the decorations outside. We thought we would be able to watch a scary movie and get ready to go out but honestly we had so many children come to Trick or Treat that we had to run out for extra sweets twice! It was so heartwarming though, seeing all the little children and toddlers in their costumes! Eventually, as it got later, the knocking slowed up and we were able to get ready for a rare night out!

After Halloween it was time for the first of the new immersion weeks. There are four immersion week placement types - GP placement, GP teaching, Community placement, and Secondary Care placement and we spend a whole week in each of these placement types.

My first placement was Secondary Care at The Royal Sussex County Hospital. These placements are not just to learn about what doctors do, but to learn about what other people do, whether they are health care professionals or not. It is to help us to understand how the hospital runs and who does what.

My mornings were spent with physiotherapy, speech and language therapy on the neurology ward, main operating theatres, and advanced care practitioners on the cardiac ward. These placements were really interesting, although it turned out I have a bit of a problem with theatres. I managed to have a panic attack in the first few minutes, before the surgeon even arrived, and so I ended up spending the morning learning about clinical simulation instead. Following this experience with theatre I was offered the opportunity for a sort of exposure therapy. I'm going to cover this whole thing in more detail in a separate post.

The afternoons were spent working as a team, doing a scavenger hunt, working on a discharge plan, and presenting our work.


During immersion week it was bonfire night and so we headed out to Lewes to watch the parade. Rumoured to be the best bonfire celebrations in the world, I would highly recommend seeing it at least once. However, beware of the restrictions on driving, parking and public transport on the day. It takes a little bit of forethought to plan the evening. The website has more information (https://www.lewesbonfirecelebrations.com/) and public transport should be checked on the relevant websites too.

The end of immersion week signalled the yearly Medic Mayhem event, and this year I actually managed to go! It's a rare event where students from all five years attend and the idea is to dress up as a medical pun, for example we were cardiac arrest.

I squeezed in a couple of days at home for my Dad's birthday. We visited his tree and took a memorial plaque to him.

The next big event was Winter Ball. Last year this was after our end of term exam, but this year the addition of immersion weeks to the second year timetable means that it now doesn't line up with the first year timetable and their final exam was a whole week before ours. We couldn't have the ball after their exam with only days to go until ours, and we couldn't have the ball after our exam or all of the first years would have already gone home for xmas. So we settled on having the ball around a month before the exams instead. It was a shame to not have it at the end of term as a treat but it was still a nice evening out.

Before I got too deep into exam revision I had a day out to Drusillas Zoo while they had their winter husky petting cave open. I got to visit my Dad's sloth and pet huskies, it was a great day out! Then it was time to crack on with decorating for xmas and getting some revision done!

As soon as our final exam was over it was time to celebrate xmas with my housemates. We had wrapped presents for each other, stuffed stockings, and cooked up a full xmas dinner.

We had a lovely xmas day before heading home for our xmas break with our families. I'll cover xmas break in the next post.

Thanks for reading.
Katherine x

It's a new year - time to get this blog back on track!

Warning: this post briefly talks about burial. 

Okay, it's time to get this blog organised! At the end of my last blog post I said I was going to talk about what I got up to over summer so I'll cover that today and then crack on with getting up to date. 
I've got some new ideas, topics and styles for this blog this year but I don't want to leave a big gap in it so we'll get caught up first. It was a busy summer so this post will probably be fairly long but I'll try to keep each section short so it's a bit easier to read!

NASS Festival (https://www.nassfestival.com/)
The first event of my summer was volunteering with Oxfam at NASS Festival. I've been volunteering with Oxfam at various festivals since 2013 and I've worked at this festival twice before. It's based at the Bath and West Showground in Somerset and has a capacity of around 15,000 people. The festival has action sports (skateboard and BMX mostly) during the daytime and mostly "electronic" music, of all different genres, at nighttime.

My sister also volunteered with me. She started volunteering with Oxfam in 2015 and from the following year we both quickly climbed up the ranks to work in the shift leading team. We usually work on shift at the same time but tend to prefer slightly different roles with her based as Shift Leader while I tend to work in Event Control. This means that she coordinates more what Oxfam is doing on the ground while I have a wider view of what's going on across the festival and how Oxfam fits into the bigger picture. We have the added bonus of really knowing how each other thinks and works and so this really boosts our communication and teamwork.

During the time off from shifts we are free to enjoy the festival. We can usually be found in the Pro Park watching the action and BMX is our favourite to watch, mostly because the tricks are easier to tell apart and it looks more impressive. We make sure to grab a good space to sit and then take turns going to fetch food or drinks so we don't lose that space!

We don't usually watch that much live music at this festival, mostly because it's not really our thing but we have seen Pendulum and Knife Party here.


New House
Straight after NASS finished I headed to Brighton to pick up the keys to my new student house the following day. I'm sharing with three girls who I was placed in halls with last year. One of the other girls met me there with her car and we spent the rest of the day unloading our storage unit and moving everything into the house.

On this day we also received our emails from the medical school to let us know if we had passed Year 1, and we did!

After we had finished moving everything into the house we hit the road for a 3-4hr drive to my house as the following day we were going to volunteer together with Oxfam at Latitude Festival.

Latitude Festival (https://www.latitudefestival.com/)
Latitude is the closest festival to my home geographically but I've only actually worked there once before and I personally don't rate it very highly, but that's just because it's not really the vibe for me. It is, however, very laid back and very diverse. It doesn't just have music, but also comedy, poetry, dance, cabaret, science, etc. it goes on and on.

I worked in Event Control here which was a role I hadn't previously done at this particular festival, but as expected I enjoyed it. It was a bit quieter than some other festivals I'm used to but it was a nice change of pace. 

Dad's Burial
After I arrived home from Latitude the next "event" of my summer was the burial of my Dad's ashes with his family and close friends. He had, before he passed, already arranged permission to have his ashes buried at one of his favourite fishing lakes, and a golden willow tree to be planted to mark the location. The staff at the lake had chosen and cleared a space for him at the final swim he fished from. (A swim is like a marked out location on the lakeside for fishing).

His ashes were buried and the willow tree planted above them so he will nourish the growth of the tree and in so doing become one with it. We also all took turns sprinkling wild flower seeds around the tree. Spoiler: they never bloomed, which is probably for the best to be honest. I could always imagine him saying "I can't believe you planted flowers around me!" haha!

Family Holiday
My siblings and I chose to spend some of our inheritance money on taking our family on holiday. We  decided to head back to Hastings for a week so we could visit Dad's sloth.

 https://www.drusillas.co.uk/

 During this holiday we stayed at the same holiday park but we didn't want the holiday to be too sad so, apart from heading to Drusillas Park to see Dad's sloth, we decided to do some different things instead. 

We spent a day at the Observatory Science Centre at Herstmonceux. This is where the Royal Greenwich Observatory was based from 1958 until 1990. The site now houses a hands on science centre and the renovated telescopes, some of which can still be used. Find out more here: https://www.the-observatory.org/#

We also spent a day in Brighton as my family had never been before, and we decided to go on the British Airways i360 (https://britishairwaysi360.com/). Now let it be known that I am terrified of heights and so it took a considerable effort to stand near the edge and taking a photo of me smiling!

Boomtown Fair (https://www.boomtownfair.co.uk/)
The next festival on my list for summer was Boomtown Fair. I've worked at this festival once before and honestly I still have mixed feelings about it. If you ask any seasoned Oxfam steward who has worked there they will say it's the best festival on the circuit. I am as yet undecided, but it is a truly incredible set up. I took so many photos while I was there but photos never do it justice. I have included a few but honestly I would recommend checking it out for yourselves at least once. I imagine it's even better if you're not working there!

Boomtown is based in Winchester and has a capacity of 66,000. The festival is split into 14 uniquely themed districts all with different theatrics and music to explore. This festival also has tons of secret stuff going on so the more you get involved the more you will discover. If you see a closed door, give it a knock, who knows what will be behind it!

At this festival I worked as a Shift Leader. This role is not my favourite, simply because it's actually hard work! Especially at bigger festivals. The role basically entails co-ordinating all the stewards on the ground. This means being available in person, on the radio and on the mobile phone for people to report anything and everything, and then figuring out, mostly on the spot, how to solve the problem. The role is supported by a Deputy Shift Leader, someone in Event Control, and a Coordinator (a paid staff member from Oxfam). It sure kept me busy, although I have to note it actually wasn't as busy as I expected!

On a non-work note the weather really took a turn for the worse during this festival as a storm hit the west coast and rolled in. Emergency shelters were set up for people who lost their tents. I saw tents making shapes they were never designed to make! Somehow mine held up, but I did decide to head home a day early just to escape the weather! I live (at home) on the east coast and the weather was holding up much better over there!

My Birthday
I celebrated my 28th birthday at home with my family. It was my first birthday without Dad so it felt a little strange, and I did get pretty upset about it a few days beforehand, but I made it through and the day was actually okay.

My Mum made me a really pretty cake and I got some really thoughtful presents.

Reading Festival (https://www.readingfestival.com/)
Reading Festival is a longstanding favourite of mine and I've been every year since 2013 (mostly working but once as a customer when I took my Dad. A short summary of that trip can be found on this post: https://itsmymedicinejourney.blogspot.com/2018/09/2-weeks-to-go.html). Reading is the festival I choose for the music, and I've had the fortune to see almost all of my favourite bands at this festival so it really does hold a special place in my heart. My sister has been joining me at this festival every year since 2015 and it's one of her favourites too.

Reading Festival is based on Richfield Avenue, in Reading. With the capacity now reaching 105,000 it's also the biggest and busiest festival that I choose to work at.

This year saw me working in Event Control for the second time at this festival, and this time I was even allocated a fancy radio headset to use! This festival also surprised me by not being as busy as I expected, but that probably has to do with the fact that my shifts were 8am-4pm which is honestly before the action really gets going. I was super grateful for the evenings off to spend watching the music with my sister, and some friends of ours who were also at the festival as customers. I was not super grateful for having to be at work at 8am though! Especially as it took around an hour to get to work in the mornings, and it was often pretty cold at that time.

Other challenges of the festival included the weather exceeding 30 degrees (Celsius, 86F). This meant long queues for water points, and the water from them being warm due to pipes often being exposed to the heat, also living in my terrible bucket hat and slowly working my way through our supply of sun cream!

I think my music highlights were probably The 1975 and A Day To Remember. I also got to see Foo Fighters for the first time and honestly was disappointed.

Trip to York
In early September I headed out on one final trip. My brother and I took my Grandad to York for a few days. This trip was organised as a surprise for my Grandad and planned around my Grandad going out on a steam train day trip from York. My brother accompanied him out on this trip as he also likes steam trains. I spent the day in York wandering around on my own! My Nana was supposed to come with us but wasn't feeling very well on departure day and so she decided not to come. I didn't mind being on my own though, I've been to York a bunch of times and feel really comfortable there. For a while I had actually considered moving there!

I took myself to York's Chocolate Story (https://www.yorkschocolatestory.com/) where I learnt about the history of chocolate as we know it and got to make my own chocolate lolly, The York Dungeons (https://www.thedungeons.com/york/en/) where only two other people turned up at that time which made for an interesting experience, and a Ghost Walk which I hadn't been on before.

On the days with my Brother and Grandad we visited:
- The National Railway Museum (https://www.railwaymuseum.org.uk/)
- Jorvik Viking Centre (https://www.jorvikvikingcentre.co.uk/)
- The Shambles
- Richard III Experience at Monk Bar (https://richardiiiexperience.com/)
- Barley Hall (https://barleyhall.co.uk/)
- York Minster (https://yorkminster.org/)
- Yorkshire Museum (https://www.yorkshiremuseum.org.uk/)
- Dick Turpin's Grave
- York Castle Museum (https://www.yorkcastlemuseum.org.uk/)
As well as walking around some of the city walls.

Also pictured is Clifford's Tower which we walked past but didn't go inside. (https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/cliffords-tower-york/).



Other notes
In the times I was actually at home I kept up with my snowboarding sessions twice a week (usually) but progress was slow and I'm hoping a bit of a break from it will take some of the stress out of it. I have a couple of short, and busy, breaks from uni this year so I might not get back into it until next summer, but honestly I think it was starting to harm my mental health more than it was helping. But I'm looking forward to having a fresh go at it next summer.

I don't think I really have anything else to say about summer, or I certainly can't think of anything right now while it's 1.30am and I have just realised that this is the one Monday when I start class at 9am instead of 11am. Well, I'm going to need a coffee in the morning!

In the next blog post I'll try to cover the first term of year 2, then we won't be too far from caught up.

Thanks for reading.
Katherine x