A year off? Maybe not..

Well I haven't posted in almost a year now, and this isn't gonna be a very long one (as why I have decided to post when I have a wedding to pack for and a dissertation to write I have no idea!) but I will try and catch you up in small chunks. I finished my third year, it,was,hard. No doubt about it. The posts stopped because I was struggling to keep on top of both my ongoing rotation whilst at the same time trying to cram like crazy for the mass of exams at the end of the year that came rapidly one after the other. It was a shame because my very last rotation was paediatrics/ obgynae which was the rotation I had most been looking forward to all year. I really want to do paediatrics so it was a shame that I could not dedicate all of my time during this rotation to seeing as much as possible, however I had to find a balance because I needed to revise hard for my exams. I will try and retrospectively fill in on this rotation later... I made it through my exams somehow on first attempt which was a massive relief because I have no idea where I would have found the strength to do a retake after such an exhausting year. Those who had to and made it through have my absolute respect because I hate to imagine how stressful and exhausting that must have been. So where am I now? Well between my third and fourth medical years we have the option to do what is called an "intercalated degree" . This is effectively where you enter the 3rd year of a normal degree and end up with a BSc on the basis of just this year (your first two years are thought of as being your pre clinical medical year in order to make up the credits but these don't actually count to what grade you get). I choose to do this extra year as did a lot of the undergraduates in my year. However whilst most of my year went of to do (in my opinion) quite dry, very sciency subjects such as immunology or physiology and mostly stay at our home university or go to london, I decided to buck the trend and head to loughborough university to study Sports Science and test out this whole renowned "Loughborough Experience" .

So slightly daunted about leaving all my friends behind (I was literally the only medical student from my year heading to lufbra) last September I headed to a different area of the country to live back in halls with a bunch of 18 year olds. The halls I had picked were the cheapest (my debt is mounting up quite nicely by now, wasting money seems a tad silly) , but known as being the "council flats". Its fair to say that as I drove myself to lufbra, and unpacked my room by myself (whilst my fresher housemates parents ran about giving them roughly a years supply of food and even making their beds) I did wonder slightly what I had let myself in for.. But, thats a reasonable start on filling you in for now, more later!

<- My Halls. Doesn't look so bad right??

Thanks if you stuck with me despite my massive gap, I will try to fill in my intercalated year as quick as possible so that I will be up to date by the time I head out for a hospital placement in Tanzania come august :) . Half a doc xx