24/7

This has been my week:

Monday 19th February
Up at 6.30am
GP day cancelled, so was going to go see some elctroconvulsive therapy in Bolton, but after getting and getting ready I decided that I really had too much to do so decided to make the day a "work at home" day. Lots of LGBT Awareness Week planning (which is bascially a zillion emails, mucking about with my design skills on Word and Paint, and Facebooking to the max), lots of planning for the Peer-Assisted Learning workshop and lots of eating rubbish.
Then met Bev to go though some poster designs and the times of events in the JR Library.
Topped the day off with an LGBT Society meeting around the ridiculous Union foyer sofa, and then a 3 hour workshop planning session, where we laughed at our Yahoo! Avatars, came up with great visualisations such as the triangle pyramid for our PowerPoint! We also had some tasty Domino's Pizza with the help of buy one get one free vouchers!
Got home to have a chat with Steve then time re-check Googlemail for more LGBT things, then bed at 2.30am

Tuesday 20th February
Up at 7am
Drove to Charles House in Salford, a medium-secure psychiatric unit for a day's worth of sessions. Was really interesting seeing the patients and I obvioulsy loved the sessions on ethics and law within psychiatry.
Drove home looking forward to a night off before realising it was UMSU Union Council at 6pm.
Rang Bev and realised we needed paint for tomorrow so went on a wild goose chase to Stockport to come back largely empty-handed.
Council was always going to be a biggie what with the deadline for Constitutional changes due, so we were there until 8.30 when the last few selfish stragglers left and we dropped below the quorate regulations. There are a fair few changes which maybe should have been looked at but now never will be.
Then Bev and I raided B&Q Kingsway for paint. Thanks to Mike there - he was ace!
Got home shattered from the day, but then had to log on to upload AW posters for printing at U-Print. And then needed to do some work!
Bed at 2am

Wednesday 21st February
Up at 6am
Went to Bolton for a morning with the CRISIS team. Went with John to see a woman in the community and then was allowed to a proper assessment of an A&E referral for a woman with an alcoholic past and possible suicidal thoughts. It was pretty nerve racking but John made me feel really confident so that was ace. Then had a tasty RBH lunch (parmesan chicken, chips and carrots) before going to a ward round where there were some cases of injury-induced, drug-indued and idiopathic schizophrenia, anxiety-psychosis and hypermania.
Left Bolton for Student's Union to paint the Awareness Week banner. Ian had come up with a great design and Rachel had bought loads of snacks. I had a lot of fun with Ian, Bev, Rachel, Jon, James, Natalie, Devon, Jess, Felix, Tom and Stuart painting the amazing banner and the even better T-shirts and hoodies! It was a bit disappointing that people who'd said they'd come didn't, but the core people who've been really involved with Awareness Week were, as well as some new ones and it was a real bodning session (especially for girls at the end who were literally groped all over)
Got home to start work on the PAL workshop.
Bed at 3am.

Thursday 22nd February
Up at 6.30am
Drove to Bolton and it was a bit scary as my eyes started to go on the M61 - it was hard to keep them open.
Went out with the Dr Karl on visits: a man with reactive depression (and also a bizarre latent bipolar disorder probably as a result of a pituitary tumour in his brain). Got quizzed me on medial knowledge and it was odd how I kept getting the more obscure things before I got the more important (and obvious) ones.
Then went to see an interesting woman who had had an operation and was now convinced that pretty much any exertion would cause her damage. She was incredibly anxious and suspicious, but I really felt for her - her mood had totally changed in just a few months and I just willed her to be better so much. The Occupational Therapist taught her a relaxation exercise which I personally found useful! Karl was really good and the whole visit made me really quite sure that psychiatry is a likely career path for me.
Left Bolton after lunch (pesto chicken, chips and green beans - yum!) to run through PAL workshop with Milli, Kat and Foz. I was actually pretty exhausted by the time I arrived at Hope - there was an accident on M61 that delayed my journey and I was already pretty shattered from the previous two weeks of activity!
We did the workshop for Nasha and it went pretty well, although we realised that we actually had 90 minutes to fill instead of 45! This actually suits us better and allows for more interactivity so it's all good!
Got home at 8 and just did nothing. Had a bath and went to bed at 11pm - it was glorious!

Friday 23rd February
Spent the day at Hope as a student chaperone for GCSE students thinking of careers in healthcare. I really enjoyed it - from opening the day with a random introduction a largely-irrelevant video, to forcing a smile as I ended up working with Rosie Illingworth again and having my communication skills picked on (which was useful but also hard work!). Best bit of the day was leading a resus style session for the students with John Barber - I've never done anything like that before and it felt pretty good to know what I was doing!
Came home and watched 2 hours of Crystal Maze, ate fish and chips and peas!

This week, I have been mostly listening to:
I am literally obsessed with Anna Vissi, Call Me:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=algXWhcv3Ls

This week, I have mostly been saying:
"Vomidor", as in, the corridor where everyone vomited at Pangea. (c/o Natalie)

This week I have mostly been eating:
Aldi Maple and Pecan Crunch Cereal

This week, I have mostly been thinking:
I freaking love psychiatry.

This week, I have been mostly doing:
a shitload of typing

And so there you have it!

It's been a long time...

... but the time is finally near!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUmO-ELaR_o

The next fortnight is shaping up to possibly be the busiest in my entire life. There is a slight risk that I will actually collapse down in exhaustion, as nearly happened this week, so if you see me writhing on a floor, please slip a Pro-Plus under my tongue or take me for a coffee (take-away). And on Saturday March 3rd - do not expect to be able to rouse me, as I will be hibernating!

Preparations for LGBT Awareness Week are really stepping up, and there's loads for me to oversee and get done. I find it hard to sleep there is so much going on in my head!
Things to done by the team or dedicated Awareness Weekers include making lifesize wooden people, painting banners, writing things for Student Direct, writing press releases, emailing a zillion people, trying to keep an eye on the budget, ringing Bev at ever-more increasingly inappropriate times to wail like a banshee, making posters, hiring equipment and so on.

In the same week, I will be co-hosting a training workshop for all the staff involved in Medical Education in Manchester with Kat, Milli and Foz, so there is preparation to be done for that too. We're meeting on Monday over expensive but satisfying pizza to sort things out!

In amongst all this, I am trying to learn about Psychiatry in Bolton with Dr Y Singh, who is amazing. I actually love this disclipine and I'm pretty sure that psychiatry is somewhere I could end up now. I loved being in A&E with the CRISIS (urgent psychiatry referrals) team with all the people telling their stories about aliens in Bolton. I also really enjoyed Old Age Psychiatry (more aliens).
I'm attempting to look keen so that when I disappear for a week I don't look so bad - but I think I'm going to have to do the unthinkable and LGBT it in the day and Psych it by the night.

And so, I will be carrying some emergency chocolate at all times this week to promote serotonin release in my brain (to keep me happy), and to keep me a bit stimulated (the caffeine in chocolate). Please feel free to buy me some more if I run out! :-)

Shock to the system

Here i am again, for a typical Sunday evening rant!

I have got a bit fed up of various "systems" around me in the past week or so. Namely:

• UMSU - which has quite possibly some of the most unhelpful staff of any organisation in the world. I do think that it should perhaps be a requirement that persons applying for a job in a students' union actually like students. I wouldn't mind if I was actually a rude person who demanded lots but I think I'm quite pleasant and I don't seem to get it reciprocated very much which is very frustrating.
• Manchester Medical School - well I have a Project Option now, and thank god it will be something good. Although despite being given the name of a potential supervisor to contact by the Project Option administrator, when I handed my form in there was surprise that I had a "new" tutor - which meant I had to get the project approved. Did no-one think that maybe they shouldn't give out names of supervisors if they haven't checked that they are ok?!
• HSBC - now appear to charge me about 36p a month for having a bank account. This requires a phone call every month to be told it's a mistake and I will be refunded and that it won't happen again. Well guess what HSBC - it does happen again. And again. And the phone call to tell you roughly costs about 36p, so by the time I'm done waiting for some incompetent to process my call (which I know is important to you), we all lose out!
• Manchester City Council and GMPTE - this is about congestion charging. If this gets implemented in Manchester, it will cost me £8 a day to drive to Salford (unless I do what everyone else is likely to do and use the tiny residential streets to escape the charged roads). MCC and GMPTE claim that this will make me want to use public transport. Well guess what, it won't! I used to use public transport which took 3 times as long to get me anywhere. And cost more than it currently does to drive in my little car. I am all for the environment, and I tried taking the bus to Salford every day after I had got my car because I felt it was the right thing to do. But instead of feeling good, I felt punished that it would take me 90 minutes instead of 20 minutes to get home each day. I'm not giving up my car any time soon - and if I'm saying that as quite an environmentalist, then the authorities have a lot of convincing to do. But then we all know that congestion chraging is not for the benefit of the environment, and that in no way is 100% of the residual profit going to go on funding public transport. Or maybe I'm just cynical...

But it hasn't all been doom and gloom, a call to NTL, nicknamed by some as NTHell, was a rather suprisingly pleasant experience. My call was answered as soon as I'd pushed my final option in. I'd rung because the transition to Virgin Media has meant that my bill has changed and they'd got my package wrong. The woman knew exactly what I was talking about, and despite the fact that my old NTL package did not now exist for the same price under Virgin, she changed the bill so it did, and all because she trusted the fact that I told her I'd signed up for a 12 month contract - even though there was no evidence on her screen.

So why have I ranted all this off? I'm about to get philosophical, that's why. The biggest challenge facing humans in the 21st century is not global warming, nuclear warfare, terrorism or racism in the Big Brother house. It's social management. All these problems come from humans primeval instinct to be selfish and look after ourselves. We needed that when we were cavemen, but we aren't going to get anywhere if we can't all start to see that if everyone was willing to give up a little for everyone else, then everyone would be happier. The trouble is, you just need one person who isn't willing to take the bus, or give their staff proper (and thus more expensive) training, and it all collapses.
So let's all make the effort not to be that bad person! In New Zealand, they have a national Random Act of Kindness Day (which is coincidentally my birthday) - that's a start, but we have 364 days to go!