Six Month Break

Howdy,

Despite saying that I wanted to post frequently about my first few months at university, and my experiences while on placement, I have done completely the opposite.

Sorry.

So since the last big post, a great deal of things have changed. Time for an overdue update I guess.

My Gran passed away on the 23rd of August, yesterday would have been her 74th birthday. She suffered, and it was horrible to watch. I was by her side, along with Mam, my Aunty and my Grandfather. I hope I never have to watch anyone else go through the same thing. She made the only decision left that she was able to make in the end, she was unable to talk or communicate in any other way, and began refusing to eat any food. She starved to death, painfully and slowly. I was always a vague supporter of euthanasia, and I am even more so now.

I've moved from Reading to Cardiff, where I'm now enrolled as a full time student. It's been interesting going back, I'm staying in the largest student halls campus which I didn't do when I was at Cardiff for my Genetics degree. It's also quite nice that even though I'm a 'mature student' I'm by no means the eldest on the course. The oldest is in her 40s! By comparison, a 5 year age gap between myself and the youngest girls I live with is nothing :)

I got really lucky with the girls I live with, and we are 3 radiographers and 2 physiotherapists. The 6th was a physio also, but changed her mind before starting the course and is now studying environmental geoscience, which is a bit of a change! Two are 19, two are 20, and one has recently turned 22.

I'm still going back to Reading fairly frequently though, after I split with my ex I ended up getting close to a friend and we started meeting up over the summer. Neither of us really knew what was going to happen, because we both knew I was leaving in September and I'd just ended a relationship (of which the fact I was going to uni for 3 years was a major factor). We've stayed together though, and we see each other once a month or so, and we're still making each other happy so we must be doing something right!

I spent 12 weeks in Cardiff in lectures 9-4 every day, and I've spent the last 6 weeks on clinical placement. I've been assigned to a really lovely hospital, where all the staff are friendly, and it's going to be odd not going back there on Monday. We do go back for 8 weeks in June & July, but I know I'll miss the place. My feedback from my clinical lecturer was very positive, and I had some extra positive feedback comments on my patient care so I'm really pleased about that.

I've seen a lot of people who didn't really need xrays but came to A&E anyway, a lot of people who are in pain, suffering with long term or short term illnesses, and I've seen a few people who were deathly ill and reminded me of my Gran. After watching how the carers and other staff were with my gran, I've been treating all my patients as if they're family - especially when they are really ill. A few staff members have told me that I'm really good with patients, so I'm just glad I'm doing that part of the job right.

I'm now driving as well. But that's a story for another time :)

xx