63 days to be exact. The past 5 weeks have been a blur. I think the kids had Half-Term and there was the Natural History Museum, there was the Leeds course, then there was a weekend at the arcade, I had a weekend on-call somewhere in between. And there’s been a lot of Stranger Things. And now, there’s a heatwave. Quick recalibration of where am I now to get some grounding.
Mummy duties
During Half-Term, David and I were both off and for the first time, it was staycation for us. We are very conscious of upcoming costs – Disney and then Australia. So there was tennis camp for the kids in the morning (revision for me, gym for David) and hanging out in the afternoon. Then we took them to the Natural History Museum to see the blue whale and the dinosaurs and the Wildlife Photography of the Year for David and myself (one of our yearly dates back in med school).
Fast forward now. As a family, we have been watching Stranger Things (just about to start the last season). We had a minor pause as Maya said, ‘can we stop watching it as I’m getting nightmares?’ Then 2 days later, she said ‘Okay Mummy, I’m ready to watch it again.’ We are also quite surprised that they really get the plot and could explain it well.
Another thing is that there is currently a heatwave in the UK this week, temperatures pushing towards 40C. The UK cannot cope with this level of heat. The schools cannot cope with this level of heat and therefore… our school has closed for the afternoons! Different schools have different precautions, but imagine over 1000 schools close in a day’s notice?
As for us, we’ve so far had ice creams, tree climbing, and early evening trips to the beach to cool off. Side note: this is the first summer that the kids have really demanded to go swim in the sea. They have become more confident in their swimming and more daring facing waves. Very exciting!
Clin Onc Trainee duties
FRCR 2A revision is in full swing. After the halfterm break, it was straight into the Leeds Revision Course. 8 hours a day for 5 days of virtual revision of almost all of Oncology. This sounds like an ultramarathon of exam prep.
For this, I planned that I had to have read up on the 6 major tumour sites before the revision course. Head and Neck is the one tumour site that I haven’t had worked in just yet. It also happened to be the topic during Day 1. Lymphoma was also covered on Day 1 (also another job I’ve not done, but a minor topic). So imagine how crap I felt not knowing as much?! This just prompted me to go into a solo Head and Neck bootcamp. I’ve been including it in weekly revision – learning anatomy and focusing on anatomical spaces, nodal levels, subsites, staging for the subsites, and subsequent treatment. As the cherry on top, to consolidate what I have learned, keen little old me attended the Head and Neck multidisciplinary meeting followed by clinic (at the QAH), ON MY DAY OFF!
This week, it has been breast cancer and oesophageal cancer.
Runner duties
Sad confession. Not a single run for almost 10 weeks now! My knee injury has really knocked my confidence down. I promised myself 6 weeks to give it proper rest. Just when it was about to be 6 weeks it was feeling good, I went down the stairs one evening and I heard and felt a pop around the same area. I had to sit down midway because of the pain – and the pain was back! Fast forward now… it is no longer painful, knee flexion on both sides are the same, but I can really feel the difference in terms of strength. Of course, the mind and whole body also feel the difference of weeks with no running. Also not good for the lead up to summer – beach body definitely not ready. Yikes. Anyway, I think I am almost mentally ready to take the knee for a test run. It will be a very slow one. And maybe not in 38 degree weather.
Reach for the Seven Stars 