#29 - Friday 11th

running

Hospital, quick round, chat to the Gynae consultant... possibly feeling a little worse for wear after last nights drinks! Nipped home, packed in 22minutes and met up with the Gynae consultant for some feedback on our placement with them, lunch in the canteen and then home to clear up and have a last wander into town. Rosie and I treated ourselves to 'North Ronaldsay Doctor' - a very entertaining book - if anyone would like to borrow it, please do! Sad leaving my soulmates for the number 4 bus to the airport.... flew out, so, so sad to be saying goodbye to Orkney. And then PANIC - where was my passport. Obviously I had it to get onto the plane, as I was putting it away 'safe' I lost it.... After 30minutes of panic and rustling around my seat a woman realised she'd accidentally taken it as hers! PHEW. I'd had my mum's voice in my head.... where/how have you lost a passport? what about going to France...? Nearly cried at one point! Landed twenty mins early - I might make all my connections..... bought a bus ticket, grabbed my suitcase (5th suitcase off the roller), ran and just made the bus.... sprinted and just made an earlier train!!! Yes, back to newcastle for 19:40 - cuppa & tea at Grans, lots of chatter - so much chatter compared to Orkney!! Home for tea, crackers and cheese and opening of my painting I'd bought on Westray. Un-packed and re-packed for France and time for sleep.

 

#28 - Thursday 10th

scrubbing

Great start to the day, Rebecca making us Tattie Scones and baked beans for breakfast - or as she knows them 'Potato Cakes'. They taste a bit like smooth, flat hash browns - very tasty... and just what I needed before a day in surgery/anesthetics. Hospital...didn't know the theatre code.. already scared of the anesthetist, I didn't need to be late! Made it in, and had to sit through the nurses "5minute" (and some) meeting, after being glared at, who are you? Paul took me through to the anesthetics room telling me, "anesthetics is easy, until its not." Easy, I'm sure. I made sure I clarified my lack of prior knowledge with Paul and we were off seeing patients. Attempted a venflon, not quick enough for Paul, but instead of telling me off like I expected he just said, "if it didn't look easy after 20+ years of doing it...." Started to relax. Didn't really have a clue what was going on when putting people to sleep, just kept having to hold peoples faces, and feel their warm breath on my hands. Kind of eventually realized I was 'maintaining their airway' - terrifying eh... especially after a few minutes of not maintaining sed airway very well..... "Have you used a guddel airway before?" "Have you seen one?" "Here you go (wraps my hands around it) put it in." arghhhhhhh. Same with the larger LMA tube.... All was okay, this then made the plastic bag inflate and deflate in time with their breathing - as I would ask later, the bag is a reflection of their breathing not vice versa... so when it wasn't moving earlier... when I was holding their face... that was because I wasn't adequately opening their airway... Interesting watching the anesthetists job throughout the procedures - some of the physiology we learned in phase one was relevant to something... asked some silly questions and had no grilling, he must have set his expectations lower than for the girls! Chatted a lot about Orkney and sheep and Newcastle.... Jesmond (where we both lived in Newcastle) has twice the population of the whole of the Orkney islands. Mind blowing. Paul told me, "there's no hierarchy in theatre." After a flying visit to the ward (strutting about in scrubs, probably not allowed...) I asked to scrub in. Great shout, the nurses had plenty of time to explain it all properly to me, after three rounds of handwashing and a nail scrubber, I was slowly talked through drying my hands, gloves and gown on. Quite literally kicked into position (just ankles kicked) hip to hip with the more junior surgeon... right under the surgical lamps. So they really are hot (I'd never been anywhere near close enough to know!) "please don't faint please don't faint please don't faint....." Next thing I knew my hands were placed on a patient, given a swab and other instruments throughout... my hand manipulated, or attempted to be around their handles... "Have you ever felt bowel?! "No..." Obviously the next thing to happen was that my hands were placed on the bowel... This whole drama carried on for a while, pushing things out the way, holding bits, the surgeon elbowed me in the face, "I don't have a sterile elbow" (Thank goodness I stopped myself replying "I don't have a sterile face...!") Very interesting. One last patient with the anesthetist, sedated, not under GA - very interesting & Then time for home. Decided to sort out getting my towel, I'd left it to dry in the flat's spare room on the radiator... obviously two days later the door was locked... I was certainly laughed at, at reception trying to explain my silly story.... got the spare key.... no towel! Souvenir of the Tees Barage 10k now in lost properly somewhere... Evening of indian,ale & wine with the girls. Made the most of our last night, staying up as long as we could keep our eyes open.

#27 - Wednesday 9th

skiving

Filled day again! Joined the surgical team today - I definitely had it easier than the medics, spoke to a fantastic older woman, and did some odd jobs - not too much. Enjoyed two chapters of 'North Ronaldsay Doctor', its an engaging and very entertaining book. A consultant anesthetist (who is also my supervisor) walked in as I started reading, twenty minutes later he was still on the phone and it was obviously very evident I'd spent twenty minutes doing nothing but read the book.... I snook off to try and give the impression I was doing something... ended up back in the doctors room, persuaded him to sign my papers - he seemed shocked as I didn't finish until Friday (despite offering to sign them on the first Monday!). He definitely scares me, particularly when he has grilled Rosie and Rebecca so far... but I do think he's a nice guy and a good doctor. Explained to him that I have thus far never really done theatre, surgery or anesthetics... he's arranged for me to do both theatre and anesthetics with him tomorrow. Mixture of excitement, its something new! Relief, I avoided yet another grilling... and pure terror... there will be absolutely no where to hide and I have no knowledge in this area whatsoever to stand on. Lets hope my venepuncture and venflon skills help me a little! Did some bloods, failed at venflons, poor patient, had a chat to him - the consultant had upset him today, difficult position for the man. Left at lunchtime and managed to take Rebecca and Rosie with me - time to finally visit Skara Brae! (A neolithic like settlement). We didn't properly check the buses and they're not very frequent to Skara Brae... anyway we hopped onto the X1, off to the Standing Stones and Ring of Brodgar (ice cream parlour first) ... obviously we needed to make a mistake, calamitous us.... we got off a mile before the ice cream parlour and had to walk! Gerri's was delicious - Orkney ice cream, lots of specials - I had the bounty special, (didn't quite go for the seven scoup sea monster!) I know I should be the one saying this but don't I look like Mum when she was my age in the photo below?! Standing stones were pretty cool, very large and I think a sunset would make them even more incredible. Gerri had told us to see the smaller Skara Brae style settlement behind the stones, which could have been easily missed - pretty cool, it made me glad I'd spent £5 on ice cream rather than 7 on Skara Brae. Wandered onto the ring of Brodgar, beautiful, beautiful wild flowers. We really do not want to leave Orkney. Thought about hitching to Skara Brae but the time had flown away with us and it was time for home, managed to hail the bus, back to Tesco and home for a lush veg quiche made by Rosie. Watching the game, sampling the local ales - can't complain. Other than about only having two days left here! Going to go to sleep with my clinical book tonight, hope the knowledge I'm lacking will absorb into my brain... argh!!!

#26 - Tuesday 8th

sleeping

flotta oil terminal

Surreal day today. We visited a new island, "Flotta". About a third of the island is taken up with the Oil Terminal (Talisman Oil) so we headed out for the bus  (which broke down) made it to the ferry terminal and spotted "Flotta Lass"... unfortunately it was to be delayed an hour to wait for workers coming from a delayed flight. A few minutes later they decided to just take us, we were walking along the beach so to let us know they tooted the fog horn. So we hopped on a huge 3.5 million pound catermoran (sorry for the terrible spelling) boat, just ourselves and a policewoman. So, so cool, the boat was so smooth and so, so fast - we flew to flotta. Beautiful day and views over hilly Hoy. Arriving at the oil terminal we needed security checks and things... and onto the tour! It was interesting seeing the new medical centre and asking some questions... like it's not a legal requirement to have a medical to work on the terminal....unfortunately I didn't like our tour guide, stereotypical oil terminal manager tour guide, large, sunburned Scottish man - very opinionated and lots of our discussions involved the unfair politics and government/council rules regarding the oil... "two sets of liars" blahblah... little car tour of the site - huge, huge tanks, it really is a mammoth operation, very interesting... but the nice rhythmic feeling of the car driving along, sun on my face and I was battling with my eyelids. Feeling guilty I looked over and noticed Rosie was asleep....gently woke her up! Lunchtime - big canteen, lots of choice, hot, cold, hot pudding, plenty of cold pudding choices with an ice cream machine too. Let me just say, no wonder you put on two stone over each two years you're away on an oil rig. I decided the trip was interesting - Flotta have lots of wild rabbits, brought home with soldiers of WW1 - something like that... they were adorable... but yes anyway oil terminal interesting.... got frustrated about the conspiracy discussions and cynicism. Standard ferry home (first ever ferry ride inside and without windows) - saw a baby calf put into a car boot.... Back onto land and lets just say we rode home in style! Spending the afternoon in a sleepy haze, we finally went into the cathedral - very beautiful. It had huge paintings hanging along the aisle, quite scary but stunning. Visited the museum for a whirlwind look and bought some more wool. Went into a general shop on the way home, amazing - the shop had absolutely everything you could wish for. And I was particularly impressed with a re-fill station for the Ecover cleaning brand - very eco-friendly. Finally home, finished my crochet hat!! - I'll upload a picture soon Gran and made some pasta for tea. Realized I had managed to lock my towel in what was a spare room in the flat... so silly... will try and sort that tomorrow.  Rebecca and I thought we'd catch the action of the World Cup Semi-Final by making it down for the second half... how wrong!

flying along on Flotta Lass

#25 - Monday 7th

frantic

New week, new consultant, new plan for every patient. How on earth the SHOs are supposed to manage single-handedly is beyond me. The hospital is ridiculously and dangerously short staffed.I honestly think Rebecca and I held it together yesterday - just making sure lists were added to and grabbing forms, nothing very medical. The consultant's adgenda was absolutely to be finished the round by eleven. He was too quick and mistook some obvious problems - very embarassing - including telling a woman she'd previously had bowel cancer when she hadn't, obviously he was too scary for her to ask him about it then and floods of tears from herself, her daughter and her husband all afternoon with many of us trying to reassure her. The nurses are great, we all managed to laugh the whirlwind ward round off before starting on the huge jobs list, had a good laugh bleeding a woman, she was as she said very difficult to bleed, but managed on my second attempt to find out that usually the anaethatist bleeds her - had to hold the needle steady for about ten minutes as we filled a few bottles drop by drop... the patient, Rebecca a nurse and I all fixated on the tiny drops! We both stayed until 6 and had a chill with some crochet... and then a shopping trip yet again to tesco - but also to Lidl - bargains! Arriving home, (with a bottle of wine) Rosie arrived back - 'three muskateers' together again! We're visiting the island Flotta tomorrow,  it's not got alot there other than the huge oil terminal... we're going to see about the medicine side to that - not sure what to expect!

'home' "Graham House"

#24 - Sunday 6th

enjoying

Today was the day I did my first triathlon. What an incredible experience. Waking up - post last nights cocktails I drank plenty of water and ate a good breckie, the race organizer picked myself and Rebecca up & we set off over to Stromness - so beautiful with the sun out. (& quite a few trees!). Still no bike... Little wander through the adorable town - very loveable. Arrived back to the pool, a lot of action taking place, transition now full of bikes and lycra clad people. Found Alex with my bike! Very exciting, and what a fabulous bike - lilac and perfect size - it rode like just amazing, I've never ridden a proper racing bike before, I surprisingly loved the cycling. Time to register, I had my body permanently marker-penned with the number 18, my left arm and right calf and I was given a snot green swim cap! I had suddenly realized last night, logistically triathlon presented some issues... like I'll be swimming, getting wet, getting from the pool to a bike... for instance what do you wear, do you get changed...wear socks?! Everyone else had neat piles beside their bikes & they were talc-ing their shoes and hats - eek. Race briefing cleared up a few points - like getting hit on the head with a float when you have two lengths left.... Just to clarify, I didn't really train for this, two practice swims before the tri - just to check I could still do front crawl and work out swimming with goggles! The cycling on Westray and the odd run with my GP.... I really expected to feel more terrified and ready to run away.... instead I was sat stuffing my face in the sun & only felt like running away when I was stood in the pool with 30seconds to go.... its crazy how relaxed Orkney makes you feel! All lined up in the pool, set off at 10second intervals, really really enjoyed it, you just kind of get into it, lengths 20-25 were hard and I'd miss-counted and wasn't hit on the head when I expected! I managed to overtake one swimmer though. In a daze made it into transition, closely followed by the guy in speedos... helmet on, shoes (without socks, Pete was right, there was no time!) and double knots tied... I was all set for my most feared stage. Cycled up out of Stromness, i can't describe the beauty of the setting, huge bright blue lochs, set in fresh, lush green - very distracting. Flying along averaging 20mph up to 30 at one point, loving life.... (somehow avoided a catastrophe with my water bottle falling out of the bottle holder) very slowly and pathetically turned at the furthest point and turned into an 'Orkney Breeze', aka full force wind. Averaging 9.5/10mph home felt a bit longer! Into transition two, nearly fell of the bike (right in front of the guy I'm borrowing the bike from)... Rebecca cheering and filming, helmet off and taking off with just my feet back into the town. Such a lovely route... felt okay really, a few passing waves of nausea but just so enjoying it - finally back to the finish line & a sit down! I was accused of not even sweating - it felt like I was trying even if it didn't appear so! So many cakes, the baklava was like phenomenal and to end the event, prize-giving (t-shirts and medals) Unfortunately I'm not able to claim third woman in the most northern UK triathlon like I'd hoped (due simply to few entrants) but I can absolutely say I completed the most northern UK triathlon and loved every minute. 1:28 was my time but that really didn't seem to matter. Oh yes and I managed to ask the winner, (no not me, Mum) if he'd done triathlons before... yes he said, a few.... Rebecca later told me he was Commonwealth standard... but wanted to train for an ironman instead... well how was I to know?! I was still racing when he'd finished!

#23 - Saturday 5th

cycling

Busy, but relaxing day! The liners had arrived! How exciting – Rebecca and I went through the town via the bakery, three buttered croissants and coffees, plus the free samples of malt fruitcake, coconut fudge and chocolate fudge…. Sitting down on the edge of the pier watching the tiny boats taking passengers to and from the beasty ships. Unbelievably huge. Finally the time had come to collect this beautiful racer bike for Sunday… oh wait…. In the excitement of the liners arriving he’s forgotten… yes I would really have liked to test it out... (& we’d planned a bike ride picnic this afternoon!) – I just hope he brings it on Sunday!! Not wanting to spoil our bike ride plans I hired a bike... quick pit stop to make the picnic and off we set! Climbing up a huge steep hill straight away was not great – Rebecca pushed her bike up (believe me that is a tough bike to ride – I tried) – past the whiskey distillery and a crazy view of the liners docked in the bay – they are just enormous. Few hills later and Rebecca almost has an asthma attack – we again remembered the lack of signal & just what we could do if she took bad! Quiet sit, after peering at my first highland cow and making plans to get a bus back to safety (if we made it to St Marys) we set off again. Absolutely stunning views over south and a much flatter route. I keep stopping to take photographs of scenic views, Rebecca keeps stopping for photos of machinery and tractors… often calling them by name – I haven’t got a clue about farming at all… Rebecca stopped during our cycling, exclaiming “what a good cow.” So here’s me thinking, well it’s not the prettiest, not my favourite… but I asked why it was a good cow… Straight back and no sag in her udder! Learn something new every day… Cycled down off the Mainland to a tiny island, home to the fantastic Italian chapel. We met a strange, elderly guy from the liners who told us “I love ladies” – hmm possibly a little rudely said bye as I wanted to take a photo of the chapel before the next liner tour blocked the view… not quite in time but we joined ‘Aqua 5’ and had a fabulous brief history of the chapel – really very awe-inspiring. Cycling on down to the next small island – across our second of the Churchill barriers, these were constructed in the war to secure Scapa Flow, ensuring our ships would be safe and not infiltrated by enemy ships. I need to read some more about Scapa Flow but I do know that after the war the ships were deliberately sunken… many still remain there today – big diving place…. Across our third Churchill Barrier and onto the island ‘Burray’, quick trip and back to the previous island for a beachy picnic. We cycled on four islands – how incredible. Ate lunch overlooking a few ship wrecked parts and watching a guy skimming stones – he was getting 25/30 skims! Has Tom met his match? Much nicer cycle home, went straight through the town to see the liners close up, returned my bike and again went to tesco! I still can’t deal with people, got really hot and flustered after tesco and walking home with all the people about – maybe I need to take up island living! Vegetable pies for tea and then we went to explore the nightlife… meeting Rebecca’s friend and her boyfriend for her birthday, good night – two margaritas, a not so nice raspberry something, got called a monkey-hanger, saw the docs working all weekend and some chips later hopped into the taxi, making it into the common room in time to watch the deciding penalties! Oh yes and all of the above will I’m sure help with tomorrow’s triathlon… I’ve tried to sort out my outfit… might be parading around Stromness in my cossie and shorts!