April Fool's

I woke up early this morning (well, early to be a holiday!) with the intention of preparing some more for my Microbiology exam. The exam is not until the 15th of April but ‘better safe than sorry’ has always been kind of my motto...

I also think I am developing ADD (for those Italian and non-medical people ADD stands for Attention Deficit Disorder) as I can’t sit still for more than half hour at the time and I get bored after 5 flashcards and start browsing on internet or doing some major procrastinating effort just to leave the studying behind.

I just realised that I have never posted a proper reflection of my time in surgery at PRI so I guess I’ll do that now... April Fool's Day is conductive of thoughts I'd say!

I loved the experience! Because of the type of place where we were, it was sort of difficult to reflect; not like there was much talking between the patient and the surgeon going on (I would have seriously questioned the anaesthetist abilities otherwise!) or any other interaction or decision made that I could have thought to do different...
I can say that it was good to see the surgeries though I realised that the operating theatre is not as fascinating as people think it is.
First of all it’s a quite small room, second, it’s like a factory chain where the moment a patient goes out a new sleepy one comes in and it starts all over again.
All in all I suppose I wouldn’t be a good surgeon; the practice is quite repetitive and dare I say a bit boring?

I have considered a bit more what type of doctor I’d like to be and I would really like to take care of people. Which, put this way would really make me a nurse more than a doctor, but what I mean is that I want to be a doctor people remember, not just a face they randomly see doing ward rounds when they’re at the hospital.

I still haven't settled on a specialty, I have 6 more years of nose in the books before I can even dare to act as a glorified secretary (definition of an FY1 doctor, not mine) that is a Foundation doctor. Too much time has to pass before I can even consider deciding seriously what to do after I graduate but I think something like Palliative Care would definitely suit me.
Some of my friends argued that it’s a quite sad place to be since a Palliative Care doc will basically never see the patients get better... what a satisfaction!
But to me satisfaction doesn’t only come from seeing people walking out of the hospital rather from making sure that the person I’m taking care of is comfortable and can LIVE its last days appropriately with the loved ones.
I know it made a massive difference to my family when my mom passed away 2 years ago and I would really like to be the one able to make this happen in someone else’s life.

Who knows though? Life is funny and wonderful and 6 years from now I may have a completely different idea than what I have now...

So I’ll look back on this blog pages and see if my predictions are coming true or it was the crazy waffling of an Italian (almost) med student who decided to wake up early during Easter holiday to study Microbiology but that instead wrote a very long blog entry, got hungry and decided to leave the studying to a bit later after she had consumed lots of chocolate cereal!

Gotta love April Fool’s Day Reflection!!!