Sunday 25 April 2010
Boats, floats and er....kidneys
salut mes amis.
It's been a busy week and a busy weekend. I returned back to the renal ward this week to try and be useful to the externes in the week before their exams, i really don't like that ward, it just constantly feels like a waste of my time. But on thursday I got to go and see a pre-transplant consultation and then friday see the nephrectomy and transplant. The nephrectomy was the craziest operation I've ever seen, they like made an incision, put in this weird port thing and then the surgeon put his arm in and was wriggling it around inside this womens abdomen, i half thought he was going to pull the kidney out there and then and go "ta daa". He did not. But he did still do the whole operation with his hand inside this womens abdomen, it was kinda cool. Then he did his victory route taking the removed and cleaned up kidney round to the other operating room where they were ready waiting for the kidney to go in.
Am spending next week mostly on dialysis i think, and I might try to go to a few more outpatients clinics. Am quite looking forwards to renal being over and starting obs and gynae though really.
Friday was the official one month countdown to our last day of placement here in Nantes, it's gone really quickly and 1 month seems like a nice manageable amount of time left. We celebrated on friday night with burgers (real fake cheese and everything) and a bottle of fizz mmmmmm.
Saturday me, marie, brittany and karen (who are american) and canadian chris who we went to the beach with last week did one of the things i've been wanting to do ever since we got here - we hired a boat and went boating up the Erdre, I call it 5 english speakers go boating up a french river.
That said, there was no bags of lettuce, we didn't happen across any smugglers or really have any adventures at all. There was ginger beer though and an amazing picnic including lovely fresh bread and sun-melted camembert and strawberries. It was a gorgeous day and really lovely getting out of town on the river and chateau-spotting as we got out into the countryside. Then we came back and in the evening went down to the night carnaval. we got a look at the line up of floats as we were walking down and .... they were EXACTLY the same as last week, with the exception of the odd dancing group added, and they'd taken the bikini top off the float with the health minister (tee hee). It was still raelly good fun though and we got into a massive confetti fight with this group of little boys - there is SO much confetti on my floor this morning. We finished the night with some churos or chi chi - these like fried dough sticks, greasy but good - i've never had them before.
So, one more week of renal for me, and neuro for me and then next weekend marie's parents are coming which I'm really looking forwards to. I'll add some photos shortly and I promise I'll try and find myself another trashy romance novel tihs week, i've been having a bit of a break reading proper books.
bisous
alex
It's been a busy week and a busy weekend. I returned back to the renal ward this week to try and be useful to the externes in the week before their exams, i really don't like that ward, it just constantly feels like a waste of my time. But on thursday I got to go and see a pre-transplant consultation and then friday see the nephrectomy and transplant. The nephrectomy was the craziest operation I've ever seen, they like made an incision, put in this weird port thing and then the surgeon put his arm in and was wriggling it around inside this womens abdomen, i half thought he was going to pull the kidney out there and then and go "ta daa". He did not. But he did still do the whole operation with his hand inside this womens abdomen, it was kinda cool. Then he did his victory route taking the removed and cleaned up kidney round to the other operating room where they were ready waiting for the kidney to go in.
Am spending next week mostly on dialysis i think, and I might try to go to a few more outpatients clinics. Am quite looking forwards to renal being over and starting obs and gynae though really.
Friday was the official one month countdown to our last day of placement here in Nantes, it's gone really quickly and 1 month seems like a nice manageable amount of time left. We celebrated on friday night with burgers (real fake cheese and everything) and a bottle of fizz mmmmmm.
Saturday me, marie, brittany and karen (who are american) and canadian chris who we went to the beach with last week did one of the things i've been wanting to do ever since we got here - we hired a boat and went boating up the Erdre, I call it 5 english speakers go boating up a french river.
That said, there was no bags of lettuce, we didn't happen across any smugglers or really have any adventures at all. There was ginger beer though and an amazing picnic including lovely fresh bread and sun-melted camembert and strawberries. It was a gorgeous day and really lovely getting out of town on the river and chateau-spotting as we got out into the countryside. Then we came back and in the evening went down to the night carnaval. we got a look at the line up of floats as we were walking down and .... they were EXACTLY the same as last week, with the exception of the odd dancing group added, and they'd taken the bikini top off the float with the health minister (tee hee). It was still raelly good fun though and we got into a massive confetti fight with this group of little boys - there is SO much confetti on my floor this morning. We finished the night with some churos or chi chi - these like fried dough sticks, greasy but good - i've never had them before.
So, one more week of renal for me, and neuro for me and then next weekend marie's parents are coming which I'm really looking forwards to. I'll add some photos shortly and I promise I'll try and find myself another trashy romance novel tihs week, i've been having a bit of a break reading proper books.
bisous
alex
Tuesday 20 April 2010
Franglais anecdote
A classic Franglais conversation was had on the ward today. I was sitting with the two externes reading through the notes of one of the new patients and we read that she had "phenomene de 'Lime Scheckinn'". None of us knew what in the world this could be, my best guess was that it must be some rare syndrome named after the people who discovered it. We looked it up & it wasn't in the Oxford Handbook or their French textbooks. So, when the interne arrived, we decided to ask him and it went something like this:
EXTERNE: What is phenomene de Lime Scheckinn?
INTERNE: Ahhh yes that. It's actually an English neurological term, Marie, you must know it?
ME: What???! No way, that is definitely not English. German maybe? (Marie stares at piece of paper in confusion)
INTERNE Let me see...oh wait, I think it's spelt wrong (interne takes piece of paper and corrects the sentence so it now reads 'Lim Schekin')
ME: (continuing to look blank) I really don't know...it's not a term I've ever come across before, maybe it's named after an English person or something? I guess it must be something quite rare?
INTERNE: No, it's actually quite common! You know, it's when the patient goes like this (interne flails his arms around madly), Leeeeeem Shekkin!
MARIE: Oh my god. LIMB SHAKING!
Cue much laughter all round and several minutes of everyone trying to copy my accent and pronounce it correctly. Hilarious!
Marie
xxx
EXTERNE: What is phenomene de Lime Scheckinn?
INTERNE: Ahhh yes that. It's actually an English neurological term, Marie, you must know it?
ME: What???! No way, that is definitely not English. German maybe? (Marie stares at piece of paper in confusion)
INTERNE Let me see...oh wait, I think it's spelt wrong (interne takes piece of paper and corrects the sentence so it now reads 'Lim Schekin')
ME: (continuing to look blank) I really don't know...it's not a term I've ever come across before, maybe it's named after an English person or something? I guess it must be something quite rare?
INTERNE: No, it's actually quite common! You know, it's when the patient goes like this (interne flails his arms around madly), Leeeeeem Shekkin!
MARIE: Oh my god. LIMB SHAKING!
Cue much laughter all round and several minutes of everyone trying to copy my accent and pronounce it correctly. Hilarious!
Marie
xxx
Friday 16 April 2010
Acts of God
So this week we have been visited by The McNeils! Here is a little photo of Emma & Alex enjoying Nantes on their first day here, although by the end of the trip they were looking a little less smiley...
It was a shame that Alex & I had to be in hospital for a lot of their trip what with it being mid-week, but we caught up when we could for drinks and a bit of shopping, and a trip to the planetarium which is one of the tourist attractions I hadn't even heard of before this week. It was a good one though and the man giving the presentation gave a bit of a shout out to all the Anglais in the audience, and made a point of talking about 'Le Big Dippeurrr' a lot (in French it's called Le Casserole! It does like quite like a saucepan).
Anyway, there was drama last night when we realised that their flight home for this morning was cancelled because of the volcanic cloud! We spent a lot of time in our favourite Novotel trying to research other ways to get back to England but it was kind of crazy, there were clearly loads of other people trying to do the same thing. Eurostar had elevated their prices to unbelievable levels:
Luckily we managed to get them on a ferry from St Malo tomorrow morning, so this afternoon we said our goodbyes and saw them off on the train. Disaster averted.
Tomorrow we're FINALLY going to the beach! And this weekend is the big Carnival de Nantes, so expect some more exciting photos soon.
Marie
xxx
It was a shame that Alex & I had to be in hospital for a lot of their trip what with it being mid-week, but we caught up when we could for drinks and a bit of shopping, and a trip to the planetarium which is one of the tourist attractions I hadn't even heard of before this week. It was a good one though and the man giving the presentation gave a bit of a shout out to all the Anglais in the audience, and made a point of talking about 'Le Big Dippeurrr' a lot (in French it's called Le Casserole! It does like quite like a saucepan).
Anyway, there was drama last night when we realised that their flight home for this morning was cancelled because of the volcanic cloud! We spent a lot of time in our favourite Novotel trying to research other ways to get back to England but it was kind of crazy, there were clearly loads of other people trying to do the same thing. Eurostar had elevated their prices to unbelievable levels:
Luckily we managed to get them on a ferry from St Malo tomorrow morning, so this afternoon we said our goodbyes and saw them off on the train. Disaster averted.
Tomorrow we're FINALLY going to the beach! And this weekend is the big Carnival de Nantes, so expect some more exciting photos soon.
Marie
xxx
Sunday 11 April 2010
Second half
I had expected that after going home for Easter I'd have a really miserable week back in Nantes and just want to go home again but fortunately this has not been the case - in fact it's been one of the best weeks I've had here!
The first thing I have been loving this week is the weather, it's been lovely and sunny all week and the city really seems to have come to life as a result. There are loads of people out boating on the river and all the cafés and bars are packed with people relaxing outside. On Tuesday evening it was warm enough for me to go for a candlelit riverside picnic with some friends from the Café Anglais which was really nice, although I was a bit worried the circling bats had their eye on our sandwiches (you all know my thoughts about flying creatures). After finishing in hospital on Friday we took the train over to Angers, where Alex's parents had been staying in a beautiful gite - we spent the evening with them over some delicious food and familiarised ourselves with a selection of the local wines before spending Saturday wandering around Angers itself in the sunshine. We had a look round the old town, a mooch around the shops (discovering the French equivalent of the pound shop! I knew they must exist!), and it was even hot enough to have a little sunbathe in the jardin at the Musée de Beaux-Arts. I felt like I was on holiday!
The second thing that's been making me feel all cheery this week is that I've started a new placement in neurology and so far it's turning out really well. Once more, the Chef has provided me with my own timetable so I have lots of interesting clinics coming up rather than just sitting around the ward watching the externes do paperwork. Saying that, the externes are really friendly and have made a real effort to include me and get me to help out. The interne is enthusiastic too and it looks like I might get some lumbar punctures done over the next few weeks which will be good experience although scary. The only drawback is that the placement is at Hopital Laennec (in Saint-Herblain, just under an hour commute away - where Alex did pneumologie) so it's a bit of a faff to get there and back. A tram and two buses each way. It's also quite out of the way from anywhere so there's really not much to do with that 2 hour lunch break, although it's been nice this week to sit out and read my book in the sunshine.
Yesterday there was an EXTREMELY exciting development in our Nantais lives: we finally managed to track down a pot of hummous! Now over the past 10 weeks we have searched this town high and low to get hold of the stuff. Even a small Greek/Turkish grocer's didn't have it. But yesterday when we went over to the fish counter to get ourselves some moules for dinner, lo and behold there was the hummous, nestled in between a display of sardines and a bottle of fish consommé. Why did we never think of looking there?!
We are more than halfway through now, 10 weeks down and 6 to go, and I'm feeling pretty positive about the next 6 weeks. I'm still looking forward to being home again but we have quite a lot of fun things planned and if the weather holds out we'll hopefully be able to experience the best of Nantes (and obviously work very hard and learn lots of medicine too)
Marie
xxx
Thursday 1 April 2010
I'm freeeeeeee!
Gastro c'est fini mes cheres. I have 6 whole days of lovely freedom with my parents to look forwards to, I'm so excited!
My last day of gastro already, it's gone pretty quickly. Having been prepared for the horrendous hours I've been quite resigned to them andmost days we have at least been quite busy so I've found myself surprised that it's 7pm and time to go home. The worst is when it's not busy and you have to wait around for the contre-visite which is just a waste of time because they don't make any effort to include you in it. It's definitely a good placement for practising abdominal exams and you will know acute and chronic pancreatitis like the back of your hand by the end of the placement. There were also some quite interesting complicated cases including an adult with Henoch-Schonlein purpura, some crazy non-sensical Crohns patients. The chef de service was always very nice and impressed by the fact that we're English students studying here and the interne was also very friendly. so all in all, though hard work gastro hasn't been a bad placement really.
Now, onto more important matters:
Literature reviews with Alex, part 4: Les doutes d'une amoureuse – the doubts of a lover lady
Oh dear, oh dear. Sometimes reader, I just don't think this company quality assures its publications.
Les doutes d'une amoureuse was certainly a mixed bag, set in Massachusetts ( I was going to say glamorous Massachussetts but I just can't bring myself type the words) our heroine, Isobel, is a social worker and our hero is Neil (again, Neil – not a name for a romantic hero) some kind of police/investigator type thing.
Starting on a positive note I'd have to say that, actually this book was probably more deserving of the title “intrigue at the hospital” then that book. Neil Kane is investigating anonymous allegations of insurance fraud at the hospital and Isobel becomes a suspect, although by that point Neil doesn't believe it because Isobel's just so lovely it couldn't possibly be her.
Now as a very wise woman by the name of Rosie Moylan once said: mild emotional trauma + fabulous accessories = rom-com magic, and I feel the same applies to trashy romance novels.
The back story to Isobel and Neil's tentative, and frankly massively dull romance is that Isobel is living with her grumpy aged father and Neil is messed up from the death of his younger brother. Isobel doesn't have emotional trauma, she just has principles (eugh!) and there's certainly no shiny accessories in sight. What were they thinking? Ageing cantankerous parents do not make for a steamy romance novel (take note mum and dad). Now for Neil it turns out that his little brother died when he was off fishing alone because young Neil had gone to hang out with some friends and some girls – while his brother was drowning Neil (if I read it right) was busy “becoming a man”. Waste of a quality storyline there. I swear if it was a female character that had happened to she'd literally never have had sex again, whereas Neil has even managed to get married. What that says about this genre of fiction you'll just have to decide for yourself.
But Oh Mon Dieu they were both just so dull, I swear it was like reading Little Women, you know where everyone's just so perfect and lovely and kind to animals that you're just itching for one of them to be discovered snorting crack or buggering the stable boy or whipping a kitten in the next chapter. But no instead, they just uncover the culprit behind the false letters (and even he's just doing it to help his demented mother – I mean really, can't anyone be selfish in this book? It's making me yearn for the petty self-centred whining of the last couple) and get married. Yawn. Fail.
So Marie is back in lovely Manchester and I'm off to Angers for a few days with my parents but I promise to try and find another trashy novel to read and review for you (the things i put myself through!)
xxxxx Alex
My last day of gastro already, it's gone pretty quickly. Having been prepared for the horrendous hours I've been quite resigned to them andmost days we have at least been quite busy so I've found myself surprised that it's 7pm and time to go home. The worst is when it's not busy and you have to wait around for the contre-visite which is just a waste of time because they don't make any effort to include you in it. It's definitely a good placement for practising abdominal exams and you will know acute and chronic pancreatitis like the back of your hand by the end of the placement. There were also some quite interesting complicated cases including an adult with Henoch-Schonlein purpura, some crazy non-sensical Crohns patients. The chef de service was always very nice and impressed by the fact that we're English students studying here and the interne was also very friendly. so all in all, though hard work gastro hasn't been a bad placement really.
Now, onto more important matters:
Literature reviews with Alex, part 4: Les doutes d'une amoureuse – the doubts of a lover lady
Oh dear, oh dear. Sometimes reader, I just don't think this company quality assures its publications.
Les doutes d'une amoureuse was certainly a mixed bag, set in Massachusetts ( I was going to say glamorous Massachussetts but I just can't bring myself type the words) our heroine, Isobel, is a social worker and our hero is Neil (again, Neil – not a name for a romantic hero) some kind of police/investigator type thing.
Starting on a positive note I'd have to say that, actually this book was probably more deserving of the title “intrigue at the hospital” then that book. Neil Kane is investigating anonymous allegations of insurance fraud at the hospital and Isobel becomes a suspect, although by that point Neil doesn't believe it because Isobel's just so lovely it couldn't possibly be her.
Now as a very wise woman by the name of Rosie Moylan once said: mild emotional trauma + fabulous accessories = rom-com magic, and I feel the same applies to trashy romance novels.
The back story to Isobel and Neil's tentative, and frankly massively dull romance is that Isobel is living with her grumpy aged father and Neil is messed up from the death of his younger brother. Isobel doesn't have emotional trauma, she just has principles (eugh!) and there's certainly no shiny accessories in sight. What were they thinking? Ageing cantankerous parents do not make for a steamy romance novel (take note mum and dad). Now for Neil it turns out that his little brother died when he was off fishing alone because young Neil had gone to hang out with some friends and some girls – while his brother was drowning Neil (if I read it right) was busy “becoming a man”. Waste of a quality storyline there. I swear if it was a female character that had happened to she'd literally never have had sex again, whereas Neil has even managed to get married. What that says about this genre of fiction you'll just have to decide for yourself.
But Oh Mon Dieu they were both just so dull, I swear it was like reading Little Women, you know where everyone's just so perfect and lovely and kind to animals that you're just itching for one of them to be discovered snorting crack or buggering the stable boy or whipping a kitten in the next chapter. But no instead, they just uncover the culprit behind the false letters (and even he's just doing it to help his demented mother – I mean really, can't anyone be selfish in this book? It's making me yearn for the petty self-centred whining of the last couple) and get married. Yawn. Fail.
So Marie is back in lovely Manchester and I'm off to Angers for a few days with my parents but I promise to try and find another trashy novel to read and review for you (the things i put myself through!)
xxxxx Alex
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