Blood needed!

Today while I was listening to the radio I heard an ad looking for blood donors. Besides the drama of the ad, the idea behind it is really good. Blood is a necessity, without it you can't exist! Simple as that!

I can't donate it because of my travelling history and the fact that I'm anaemic but there are so many potential life savers out there and they really should give a hand.

The problem though seems to be that our country is not good at enticing people into donating their precious red lymph... The "save a life" mantra doesn't work that well here so focus should be given on HOW to reward people for their gift.

Granted, I may be a bit biased in my opinion, but I have been living in this country for slightly over 5 years now and, looking for inspiration on a sort of suggestion to help the cause, I came across this: A USA city is encouraging the public to donate blood in exchange for beer.

Well, I think that's genius! What more could attract a Scotsman than the idea of trading their blood for a pint?! That's officially a brilliant idea! I am pretty sure I even read somewhere that they give you a pint of Guiness after your blood donation in Ireland!

Some people think that blood is yucky and well, they can't stand much the sight of it, but did you know that if you replaced your blood with something much more exciting (like Fanta!) you would probably die within 5 years? Shocking but true! HAHA!!!

Come on people, we have more than enough blood in our bodies for it to be ok to part with some!!! There are people in hospitals who need it... and maybe one day that person could be you!
So here is my cunning new plan for the Blood Donor Bank employees: go and recruit people to donate their blood when they are the happiest — at the neighbourhood pub!

Since we're in Scotland, it may just be your best option!!!

Fact: Dogs Can Detect Certain Illnesses

Oh well, as I expected I have been accused of favouring cats over dogs (surprise!!!) so I decided that to put things right I had to find something special about dogs as well...

Besides the funny, loving, crazy personalities they display, that is!!!

My dad owns a golden Lab (or maybe I should say that the golden Lab owns my dad!) and they are inseparable. Leo is the sweetest, most clever, adorable pooch I've had the chance to have around. Yes, my opinion is very much biased but, same as for cat owners, your pet is always the best!

So well, looking up interesting facts about dogs I found that:
- Two dogs survived the sinking of Titanic
- When a dog bays at the moon, it is following its basic instinct to call the pack together
- The phrase "raining cats and dogs" originated in 17th Century England when many dogs and cats drowned during heavy downpours of rain and when rivers burst their banks. Their bodies would be seen floating in the rain torrents that raced through the streets giving the appearance that it had literally rained "cats and dogs"
- Dogs have sweat glands in between their paws
- Dogs are about as smart as a two- or three-year-old child. This means they can understand about 150-200 words, including signals and hand movements with the same meaning as words

The fact that attracted me the most though (and actually that put together a bit of medicine too!) is that dogs are able to recognise some human illnesses and give warning to their owners.
This makes our pets not only great companions but also quite helpful!

It sounds like a Lassie TV episode, but it's truth and not fiction.
Dogs for example can sniff out a dangerous drop in blood sugar in a diabetic owner and alert the person to take action by pawing, licking, whining, or barking.
A few dogs have even been trained and placed as diabetic service dogs as, according to their trainers, their nose for hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) is correct 90% of the time.

Dogs are being trained to be alarm bells for an oncoming epileptic seizure too.
As in the case of hypoglycemia they have a talent in smelling the chemical changes in their owner and alert them that something is happening.

So now that I have done my job and put things right with a little post about both cats and dogs I'll leave up to you the choice of your best friend. After all it's just about what you prefer, they're both able to love you, fill your life with fun and keep you entertained for a long, long time!

...and please people, I have no intention of writing a post about canaries, rats or gold fishes so no more complains!!!

Fact: Cats Kiss With Their Eyes

Today the weather hasn't been exceptional and I have spent a little bit longer at home than I've been used to in the past days...
While wondering what to do that didn't involve watching silly TV programs, I decided to think about ideas for my blog.

I thought about something medical but I do really need a little break from medicine now that I have just finished my exams so I decided to go for one of my other passions which is cats.
I have loads of funny stories to tell about my furry angels (turning to monsters sometimes!) but I wanted something a bit more factual that would make this amazing animal a bit more known to people.

I found a lot of interesting facts about them which are both interesting and enlightening such as:
- The nose pad of a cat is ridged in a pattern that is unique, just like the fingerprint of a human
- A cat will almost never "meow" at another cat. This sound is reserved for humans
- A falling cat will always right itself in a precise order. First the head will rotate, then the spine will twist and the rear legs will align, then the cat will arch its back to lessen the impact of the landing
- Never feed your cat dog food. Cats need five times more protein than dogs do
- Cats are "righty" or "lefty" just like people

But the thing that really got my attention is that apparently cats kiss with their eyes!

I have noticed it in Sushi, Storm and even little India but I thought it was just my imagination, every pet owner thinks their pet has a loving look in their eyes... But, as it turns out, feline experts all agree on the fact that cats communicate with a slow blink.

With their own kind, it's a peace sign, meant to put other felines at ease.

When aimed at humans, their seductive blink shows affection and even love.

I wondered about it a few times especially with Storm. We got him as a scared little kitty never keen to be held or cuddled and then slowly handled and loved so much to turn him into one of the most loving cats I've ever owned... the twist in this change of behaviour? It only happens with me. He stares at me for hours, without failing, and even after he has been fed he still comes close and just sits close and looks at me with this loving stare in his eyes, slowly blinking.

People can definitely return the love with a long gaze and slow blink as to "blow a kiss" back to their cats using their own language. Well, now I know how to respond!

Smiles

Today the news said that this hot spell won't last much longer so I felt compelled to go out and enjoy it. I put on my summery pretty clothes, chose what music to load on my mp3 player and headed towards town for breakfast at Starbucks.
There are several dotted around the city centre but my favorite one in right on the opposite side from where I come in, I like that one because it allows me for the longest walk.

Under the news that our beloved rainy Scottish weather will be back soon (hurrah from the population of S.A.D. suffering individuals - for those not familiar with the acronym that stands for seasonal affective disorder... indeed SAD!!!) there was a little blob about the power of smiles. Not much, just a couple of lines saying that a smile is contagious...
I have always suspected it but today I was determined to put the theory to the test... and with a sun like this who wouldn't want to smile!

Have you ever noticed how the word "smile" itself actually assumes the position of a smile on your face after it has been pronounced?!

So I started my little uphill walk and I was indeed wearing my smile... And it became clear from the very first 5 minutes that the theory is right, smiles are contagious!
But they are so much more than just contagious...

I had people smiling back at me, I saw people who weren't smiling until when they saw me doing it and then kept on smiling after I had passed by, like if I had reminded them that even just the fact of smiling brings some glimpse of happiness into your day.
I had people nodding at me like in sign of approval, people whom I had never met before (and no, not creeps!).
I got even stopped by the local TV to be interviewed about my opinion on public transport here in Edinburgh and got told that, after looking around for a while, the crew thought I'd be a great person to talk to since I was obviously happy!

And I was!

Sun was shining, I was wearing something pretty, I had my favourite coffee in my hand and I was bringing smiles to my city...

Smiling makes other people happy and you make yourself happy too, I have tried it and I can vouch for it! Smiling is always your best option... now the only thing you have to do is to go out and try it yourself!

Hello Blackberry!

Blackberry is a fruit... why did they name a phone after a piece of fruit is really obscure to me...

I was trying to find a reasonable explanation for my brother about the name: "Erm... I suppose a blackberry fruit is black with little blobs... so the phone is black with a keyboard!"
Yeah well, sorry, that's the most intelligent thing I could come up with!!!


I have wanted a Blackberry since I can remember but it was not in the range my phone provider held so I always opted for other sort of phones. The one I have now is a touch screen one and it's mildly annoying since in winter my fingertips get so cold that the screen doesn't recognise the touch and I end up looking like a maniac trying to punch a message into the poor defenceless phone which doesn't really care!!!

Since my contract ended today I was due a phone upgrade. I went into the Orange shop and found out that the Blackberry is now available to get.
No-brainer decision there than... I'm getting one!!! Except... there are about 15 different types of blackberries to "pick"! Bold? Curve? Storm?
Since the name unequivocally leads me to think about the fruit, you can imagine I was relying on all my inside strength not to burst out laughing at the poor guy who was trying to explain the difference between the different "berries" as, in my head, I see them all hanging from a bush!!!

I asked for a few minutes alone with the handsets (you know... to think!), looked at them all, picked them up and tried to find differences that could be decisive in my choice but nope... not a clue!!!
Until when the sales guy must have realised that I was indeed unique (to say the least!!!) and had this eureka moment... Left my side, went into the back store and came back with him, the winner, the berry that stole my heart, that caught my little fashionable, terribly stylish Italian soul... The white Blackberry Bold!


And all of a sudden I saw how "Bold" and "berry" can go together, I saw he was different, a "berry" with a twist, and he was going to be mine!




So welcome into my life you beautiful, pearl white Blackberry, though you're albino and not black, I think you and me are special and we'll get along very well as long as you, of course, promise to always recognise the touch of your mistress!!!

A summer stroll...

Summer has to be my favourite season...
And no, it is not just because of the heat or the light though they most certainly are welcomed and very much enjoyed, I love summer because of what it brings out in people...

Today I went out for a little stroll with my brother... I love walking in Edinburgh, no matter how many times I go there I always manage to see something that captures my attention!
Today was not different.

While gently strolling through Princess gardens Dani and I stopped to admire how beautiful the outline of the main fountain was against the amazingly blue sky, absolutely breathtaking!


So we had to take a picture together right in front of it, and don't we look smashing?!



It's definitely quite a different experience from the crazy freezing walk we took on Christmas night when everything was icy and the streets were deserted...
Today was hot, not a cloud in the sky and there were so many people around, children playing in the gardens, splashing water from the fountain... People holding ice-creams, wearing smiles and like if they were at some kind of seaside resort, several walked around proudly without their t-shirts... aahhh... have to love Scotland for this, a ray of sun and people lose all sense of shame! They all wear sunglasses, all turn to the sun like sunflowers and all breathe in deep this rare moment of fullness...
And I feel right at home because that's exactly what I love about summer (though I refrained from walking around topless!)

And look who made its appearance!!! The tram was on Princes Street... Mind you, it wasn't going anywhere... but it was there nonetheless, as a gentle reminder to people that this madness is going ahead and we should all cheer for joy. There it was, Mr Tram in flesh and bones (or better in metal and glass) looking quite sleek and I have to say I'm not that impressed but I'm happy to know that at least something is happening on that front and I look forward to be proven wrong!

With all that heat and being about lunchtime Dani and I went into Browns on George Street for a full Scottish breakfast. I couldn't even eat half of what I ordered but Dani thoroughly enjoyed his while I was looking for something inspiring to photograph... and my eyes focused on my cranberry juice.
Have you ever noticed what an amazing colour it has?!... it looks quite like liquid rubies, the colour of a sunset on the Pacific Ocean ... so I had to take this picture and believe me, it was as tasty and refreshing as this picture looks!


After another little while we decided that the crowds were a bit too much and it was time to go back home for a little siesta (yes, we are Italian!) but not before taking one last cheeky picture of me and my new little acquaintance, resting in the sun, guarding the entrance to the gardens, providing entertainment for the kids and finally kindly accepting to become my friend...

What a lovely day Edinburgh has gifted me again with, never fails to surprise me!

Now what?

After a very stressful, very demanding time in my life I found myself resting for a few days with really nothing much ahead to have to think of...
And everything is organised, everything has a slow pace, everything is just not a source of worry... and I find myself wondering where all the big problems I couldn't get my head around just a few days ago went...

When all is suddenly still, after the world was spinning so fast you felt mildly sick just trying to keep your head above the water, you can't help but ask "What now?"

No more exams to prepare, no surgery to think of , no hospitals shifts to attend, no lectures to follow...
And your mind is free to actually look objectively at all those little issues that came with the "big guns" and that added to the stress and that obviously had NO solution no matter from how many perspectives you tried to look at them.

And now they're vanished... or better they're still there but they are not menacing anymore...

Now it's so clear what is the right thing to do, now that the walls have been teared down you realise your strength, your place, your path...

And the only acceptable answer to the "What now?" question can only be "Now ME!"

From the patient's side...

Well, here I am, back and with the intention of being back for a while!
Stress is over, school's out and I have nothing but summer ahead...
And loads, and I mean LOADS, of time to look around and get inspired for new blog posts. Goodness knows how much I have missed writing...

So here goes, my first post in way too long!

I have just arrived home from a short stay at the hospital... Just a few hours, from 7.30am till 6pm. I had a little procedure done, nothing serious or worrying at all but best for my health, I suppose.
"Normal" people wouldn't worry about stuff like this, "normal" people would laugh about the procedure and "normal" people probably wouldn't even notice the needle...

But I'm not NORMAL and I am a needle phobic.

So I stressed about this for the past 6 months, stressed to a level that affected my studies, my life and my relationships.
Don't take me wrong, a few more things came with the needle phobia that were heavy stressors, but definitely that didn't help!

However, me being me, I always look for the bright side of the situation and this had to be that I got to see "the other side" of my profession, the patient side...

It's all good to power through procedures, paperwork, explanations, drugs, observations and clinical notes when you're a medic... So easily forgetting that what is pure routine, daily bread and butter for you is actually a possibly distressing, very rare event in somebody else's life.

Today was my turn... I did experience all aspects of the journey and every single one of them taught me something.

I do see now why support is the key to success.
I had my brother with me and that made a big difference in the way I was feeling. As brave as one tries to be, having a loving familiar face around truly gives the surroundings a brighter hue.

The waiting room was nice and inviting and the group of us all having to get the same thing done smiled at each other with some sort of understanding.

Once in the ward privacy was assured around each bed and the surgeon and anaesthetist came around to say hi and ask a few questions.

I had seen the surgeon a few times before getting to this point and seeing his smiling, reassuring face was definitely a high of the morning. Not like I really thought that morning had any highs at all, seen my fear, but at least I was sure he knew what he was about to do and that made me feel a heck of a lot better!

Then was the turn of the anesthetist to whom I told about my extreme fear of needles and he said he could actually put me on general gas anaesthesia and then put the needle in once I was "over the edge".
It took me a while to assimilate the concept of "over the edge", imagining all sort of things ranging from extremely scary to hysterically funny but what I can tell you is that, after finding out that I wouldn't even see a needle, my pressure dropped down to normal from a very worrying high!
Now it makes so much sense when I learn in class that stress can lead to some serious problems.
I have experienced it, I'll remember when I deal with my patients.

The staff in the ward was amazing, to the point that when I said I was freezing they got me under the covers and hooked up to a warming machine... I didn't even know such thing existed but it did me a world of good (even if I could only stay in this cocoon for 5 minutes as my turn arrived for surgery).

The trip to theatre was sweet, with a nurse holding me. There is no written rule about it besides understanding what the patient wants. I needed protection, she offered me hers... and I was grateful.

The anaesthesia room all of a sudden was huge! But it is only huge when seeing it from lying on a trolley cot. I have been in several ones as a staff member... oh how the perspective changes totally when you're the patient!
You notice the bleeps of the machines, the different drug vials laying in order the counter, you notice the typical smell, that of iodine, that always lingers in this area, the tubes of the machines, the cotton balls, the tape that you already know will end up on your eye lids, you notice that there are so many people around you... too many!!!
I'll remember this as well... too much of a crowd is unsettling and for a little bit I felt like that...

So I loved the anaesthetist humour teaching me how to get high (though in this case I should say low!) on gases. I felt like a kid... "Let's play a game Dona, breathe in, hold your breath... the longer you hold it, the sooner you'll fly!" Fly??? Where?? Off the trolley... He smiled at me and then I heard the noise fade and everything went fuzzy, the world was all of a sudden gentle and about two seconds later I felt the so distinctive pressure of the blood pressure machine's cuff tightening around my arm... Surely I shouldn't be awake enough to feel that...

...Oh but I should!!! Because almost 3 hours have passed from when I walked down to theatre, I've been out of there for 8 minutes and apparently, while still half asleep, I managed to ask for some chocolate cake to be brought in just for me... Not once, not twice but three awesome times!!!
If it wasn't that the word "shame" rarely features in my vocabulary, this would have been the perfect moment to experience it... too bad it just isn't me!!!
I was back up in the ward about 20 minutes later, much sooner that they expected me to be. I'm sure that's thanks to all the loving prayers my friends have said for me in the past weeks. I surprised everybody with an incredible speedy recovery from the anaesthetic, I drank, I ate and I walked in a way that is hardly seen after surgery so I'm thankful to everyone... God is exceptionally good to me!

The nurses were so caring, bordering motherly and eventually I did get my chocolate. Though it wasn't cake I had about 5 squares of deliciously filled blocks and just sat on the bed to enjoy the virtual cuddles coming in from my friends through phone messages. Technology can be such a blessing!

I peaked under the night gown to see if the surgeon was a liar such as the nurse promising me the heparin injection in my tummy would just be a little scratch and instead had me screaming from pain and then bent for the next 20 minutes from the burning...
The surgeon promised me he wouldn't leave a scar... I looked... He didn't lie! Hero!!!
I remember one of the first things I heard him telling me was "If a surgeon is not vain about his work than run!" Man was I happy to have him as my own personal guardian angel...
There is absolutely nothing that can be seen, not even a dressing, I only have a tiny steri-strip looking back at me disappointed as I'm not taking it too seriously!!! In retrospective, it was doing its job properly and still is...

One other thing that was engraved in my head today is that patients want to be told the truth. and whatever you say can indeed be "used against you" in any further conversation.
Tell the truth, don't sugar coat it... be empathetic AT ALL TIMES but don't tell only half the truth. The nurse said the injection wouldn't hurt, she said it knowing very well that heparin burns a lot, and it was agony (well, agony for me!)... Not fair towards the patient... A little scratch doesn't cut it, I'm not a kid! Anybody would appreciate "this will burn a bit" rather than a lie, at least you're mentally prepared... don't end up jumping on the chair, especially after I told her how afraid I was of needles!
Routine sayings should be abolished! Some injections are a little scratch, some are hell, man up and say it!!!

Though, in the name of fairness, I also have to admit that the ward was full, she was really busy, I was most probably a little pain in the rear side and she was superb in anything else from walking me to theatre, checking on me constantly and getting me chocolate!
Because of this she's forgiven... and to be honest, it would be lovely to have her by my side should anything else happen to me.

This could have been a very bad experience but it wasn't and it's all thanks to the amazing staff that took care of me, every single one of them.
And that's the sort of doctor I would like to become one day, one able to encompass all the caring qualities I've been shown by everyone today.

Anyway, on the way home my brother Dani and I stopped at Blockbuster because I have been saying since when the academic year stared that, during my long summer break I would have finally caught up with movies, TV series and -after all the hard work- just mindless activities for a while.
... and since I'm forced to be under "house arrests", legally well drugged up for a few days, I guess the 20 books I still have to read and the 6 DVDs I got are going to be my time fillers! :-))

Well, I've had a few interesting weeks running up to today so I know how it feels to be stressed and a bit powerless... I've had a very enlightening day in regards to what are the annoying and reassuring bits of a surgical procedure so I can safely say that, after having been "on the other side", I definitely know this was an experience worth living for the priceless learning aspect of it! I'm sure this will make me just that little bit more of a better doctor in the future...

And this, my dear communication skills lecturers, makes for an amazing piece of reflective writing!!!