Wow. So much has happened in the last few weeks within the O household and I have been constantly 'fire-fighting' - as they like to say in busy mental health teams nowadays. Normal service will be resumed soon. I hope.
Firstly, have moved jobs. Now not doing the commuting (which is great) but back in the situation again of being the 'new doctor'. Always a bit strange as I find mental health teams are often quite wary of you and you have to spend a fair bit of time convincing them that you're not a complete idiot and not going to act like you own the place because you have a medical degree. On that theme, once or twice in the past I have had a really great job where everyone thought I was wonderful, unfortunately not entirely on my own merits. In reality it was because the junior doctor before me had been so rude to the team that as long as I turned up on time, was friendly to them and did my job I was fantastic!
Unfortunately this time, the previous SpR was pretty nice so no easy ride on that front....
Also means that I have new consultant - he seems pretty nice although don't think I will end up having the random chats about running, cars, rugby etc that I used to have with my old consultant or get to moan to him about my awful mother-in-law. Maybe that's just as well.
The hardest bit in a new post is knowing what you are supposed to be doing. Life used to be simple in medical wards - 8.45am ward round, 10am blood taking/venflons/drug card rewriting, 11 patient reviews, etc...now I am working in an assertive outreach team. These teams deal with patients in the community who are severely mentally ill often with psychotic illnesses and have been poorly compliant with prescribed treatment and/or have engaged poorly with services. Many of the patients are socially isolated and have other health issues/drug and alcohol issues. The aim of the team is to maintain frequent contact in order to provide effective treatment and rehabiliation for this group of patients. The team is multidisciplinary - nurses, social workers, occupational therapists, psychologists and doctors. Everyone apart from the doctors and psychologist work in split shifts.
Being a doctor in the team is an odd position because you are part of the team, yet separate in many ways due to your additional commitments - outpatient clinic, inpatient ward rounds, on call etc. The rest of the staff are with the team for the entirety of their shift. I always find it hard settling in. Already I am being asked to spend large parts of my day doing visits and whilst I have no problem doing this at all,( in fact I really like it) it is hard to say "yes, that's fine but I need to be back by 2 for the ward round". I certainly don't want to appear that I'm being a bit precious!
Secondly, the father is still very very ill. Has now had kidney removed but still very poorly. A couple of weeks ago the doctors made worrying noises and hinted that they thought that he had developed a severe infection and weren't sure how he would cope with it. So we watch and wait. It may seem like I'm being cold by spending so much time talking about work and not about this. It's just much harder to talk about this and when I think about it I get upset.
I have been getting some cracking migraines this last couple of weeks and am sure that it is my way of coping/or not with Dad's illness. Twice I have ended up with severe headaches, vomiting, unable to speak or think clearly with flashing lights.....lovely. I have had these before but usually only once every few years and with clear triggers - high blood pressure in pregnancy set off the last one. Have had 3 in 10 days - lasting a LOT longer and making me feel pretty rotten for half a day after. It's the not being able to talk/understand things that scares the living daylights out of me - expressive/receptive dysphasia for those in the know.... even though I know it's a migraine, it is so scary when I can't think clearly. For how do you think if not in words?
Ah well. At least when I have a headache and DT is getting too much I can do what it says on the side of the paracetamol bottle, "take two and keep away from children"!
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3 comments:
Glad you are back blogging again. It must be great not having to commute. Sorry to hear that things are still not good for your Dad. I completely understand why you don't want to blog about it.
Look forward to more posts in the future.
Ah, someone I can ask my burning question to! What is a Specialist Registrar and how are they different to normal Registrars? I'm fairly sure we only have bog standard Regs in the hospital I work in, but the CAMHS clinic I go to has SpRs... is it just a psych thing? I have been wondering!
Dear in-the-margins. I think you have encountered the confusion that the current government has just created in the past 2 yrs! Not just a psych thing. It used to be that baby docs were house officers, then you became a senior house officer (SHO) until you passed your exams in your specialist subject then you were a Specialist Registrar (SpR) then finally a consultant. Now, instead of SHO AND SpR there are ST/CT doctors - means specialty or career trainee - sometimes called registrar, JUST to confuse everyone!!!!! The old SHO grade is ST/CT 1-3 and SpR = ST4-6. Luckily I just stayed in the SpR grade but trust me we're ALL very confused. Bet you are too now!!! If ever want to know just ask them if they're an SHO or an SpR!
Don't even ask me what an LAT/FY/FTST doc is....
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