Happy Halloween !

So close

So the good news is I almost got to see a birth, but then i went off shift and I missed it. To be honest I wasn't all that bothered because the midwife that I was with was less than helpful, I could tell that she really didn't want me to be there and that I was clearly in her way. She wasn't English so it was difficult to understand what was going on and I could tell that the women labouring couldn't really understand what was going on either, this obviously made it more stressful and upsetting. I felt sorry for the lady labouring and definitely thought she deserved more information than she was given. It was difficult as a student to be there as I couldn't really answer any of the questions and had no idea how to reassure her and help, I felt useless and in the way. To be honest I'm glad it wasn't my first birth because I had no idea what was going on and the midwife was less than helpful. :( So I came back to the flat in the worst mood of my life. Then to top off the evening I came back to the flat to find the kitchen in a state. I knew jack had caused it so I was ready for an argument. I got one.
So anyway nothing really exciting to tell anyone, I am getting better at giving out information now and I can palpate which is nice. I'm soo tired now though :)

Show me some babies!

Tomorrow I have my first real chance of seeing a home birth or birth at the hospital depending on how quiet it is, I'm on a late shift so I don't start until 2, which means a nice lay in :)
Sad thing is because I'm a midwifery student I can't go out on Halloween :( :( How tragic! So it's just means I'm going to be in a bad mood at work all day, not that i think i could really enjoy a night out because I'll be more excited about sleeping than anything else. I AM SOOOOOOO TIRED! I have to get up at like 6 in the morning most days and I'm not going to lie it's killing me. On the brighter side Ive almost finished my essay and done a few reflections so I don't feel like I'm doing to badly at the minute.
   I would quite like to go home next week, but if my dad makes me get the bus then I'm staying here :) I'm not taking all my dirty washing on the bus and that is final!  especially not on a Puke inducing national express cattle class bus.
   Other than that all is well and I seem to have settled into the routine now, thank god. I also ate some fruit today for the first time in about a month. So I'm feeling pretty good with all that good healthy vitamin C inside me :)
   Oh and...There possibly wont be another blog until Sunday because I'm on a late tomorrow, so you should expect a nice long blog all about my late shift either Sunday or later on in the week :)

93 views? That makes me nervous.

Last night my blog had an epileptic fit and wouldn't load for some reason, when I looked at my page views it had gone from about 9 a day to 93, This made me nervous. Either I had a serious stalker or something went wrong. Anyway I had to change the name in case someone was watching me (which I'm sure that's not the case).  Ha, shocking I know.

Moving on, I have all today off so I intend to battle through this assignment, write up my presentation. Work on my EBL and then play the Sims. It's one in the afternoon and I don't think there's much hope of me getting dressed today, I think I may just stay in my cave and try and battle this work.

Oh and by the way I'm planning to go home next weekend for a little bit of a break :) and to see my GG of course!

They trust me

Three weeks into placement now! That's crazy. They’re starting to trust me now as well. Now they don't even check the BP's after I’ve done them or the urinalysis. That is very brave of them. I do feel much more comfortable now though. I can happily waffle on about diet in pregnancy, What to eat, what not to eat, how to exercise, dental care and Toxoplasmosis. Booking interviews are starting to make sense now at first I just used to sit in to corner and pray no one asked me anything but now it's all changed and I want people to ask me why. Its strange how quickly I’ve picked it up, I learn something new pretty much every day and I'm getting over my fears of doing new things. It's nice to feel like I'm achieving and moving up. I can also talk to mums that are P/N about breast feeding and I'm also getting to know all the terms that they use in notes now. people are starting to ask me how long I'm into my training and when I tell them I’ve only been in placement for 3 weeks they looked shocked because they thought I'd been doing it longer. I honestly can say this is the right place for me, although next week the tables may have changed and I'll be depressed, anxious and worried.

The other good news is I've found another place that does pole fitness; this made me very happy because I thought I was going to have to give it up :) So Guys back home I know what I want for Christmas ;)

PS. Emily I got my Sims game it's amazing ;) Shame you can't play it! Ha :)

Things to enjoy on a sunday afternoon

Didn't go to bed til like three yesterday  because my flat mate decided to get her self so drunk that it took three of us to get her into bed and make her go to sleep. I'm pretty tired so i decided I earned a lay in. Today I do have a fair bit of stuff to do, Look at my essay again, write a reflection on social class and how it affects midwifery care and research screening in the blood spot test done 5 days after birth. So what Ive learnt today
1. Phenylketonuria, Which is an inherited disease that affect the way a baby digests a substance called phenylalaine which if left untreated can cause serious weight loss and mental health issues. However early treatment can help to get the baby to feed through a specialist diet which will allow the baby to live a normal life.
2. Congenital hypothyroidism, this is also an inherited disease, this causes problems because the baby doesn't produce enough of a hormone called thyroxine. If a baby doesn't have this hormone then it can lead to serious growth defect and slow growth, this means that babies with CHT are more likely to have physical and mental disabilities. However it can be treated with thyroxine tablets which will prevent abnormal growth and allow them to live a normal life.
3. Sickle cell disease (SCD), Sickle affects the way the cells work within the body, when a baby has sickle cell the red blood cells change to a sickle shape and can therefore not carry enough blood around the body they are also much more likely to become sticky and become stuck in the small blood vessels. This causes pain and damage throughout the whole of the body and can cause serious infections and even death in very serious cases. If it is found that a baby does have SCD then the baby will receive early treatment and such as a high energy diet, medicines and physiotherapy although babies may still become ill although earlier treatment can help to prevent illness.
4. MCADD (Medium Chain Alcy-CoA Dehydrogenase Defincenecy) this is a problem if babies can not break down fats and make energy for the body. Screening can help to detect this early and aid treatment such as making sure that the baby feeds well and often when it is born. This allows MCADD babies to develop normally. If  babies are not screened for MCADD and are a suffer they can become seriously ill very quickly.

And that my friends is what I have spent my Sunday afternoon doing...

Where did that week go?

Saturday already, time feels like it's on fast forward at the minute and is making everything rush by!

I put a hole in my favourite leggings last night and was not impressed but anyway that's not really important. Placement is at the minute everything is still fairly new and difficult, I've kind of got the hang of BP and I palpated and go it right which is nothing short of a miracle. I had a new supervisor yesterday and I was nervous because I have only worked with my mentor so the way she worked was completely different. I can't really write to much about the day because confidentiality, Although it was a very successful day and I got to see lots of new things and a different way of practicing. I will also say that you see such a wide variety of people from people with masses of land a few horses and a land rover, to someone who lives above a shop with 3 other people and only has one smallish room to themselves and a new born baby. Every ones care needs to be different because everyone is different, you can't stereotype because there is just too much to fit into one box, I am enjoying the diversity of the work though.
Anyway Saturday is washing day and therefore I have a huge amount of washing that needs to be done. Yay =_=

General Life



This my friends is a good student dinner, as my father would say it consists of all of the Major food groups! and look there is even a vegetable on there!





To add to my list of achievements I've also kept my flower alive for over a week now!
And I bought myself a pink stethoscope so altogether it's been a good few days :)



Snooze on the bus?

Although it's only Tuesday I feel completely knackered, I even had to fight my eyes to stay open on the bus journey home. If I didn't I would have fallen asleep for definite and missed my stop. I'm now starting to become a dab hand at the old bus malarkey. Most of it is just guess work and luck but occasionally I get it right, the bus journeys are the hardest part of the day though because I have to get up monstrously early wait in the cold, sit on a cold bus with coughing, sneezing people get off wait for another bus and get off at a bus stop a million miles away from the place I have to be. Plus this evening we had the joys of a very small two year old screaming at the top of her lungs for a full half an hour, safe to say that child was going to get a beating by its rather annoyed parents when they got home.
Anyway moving on, I went to a home visit a few days ago and everything was fine with mum and baby she was just having a few problems but nothing we couldn't help with but they did have a Ginger puss exactly like mine. I took all my might to not burst into tears when he came for a purr round my feet. That made me feel super home sick, I don't get much time to be home sick really because there is always something to do but that did catch me a bit off guard, to some they may think that's the strangest thing they've ever heard but it really is the small things you miss.
Another highlight is that I mentioned the other day about having no bike lights for my cycle home, well ask and you shall receive about a day later I had an email come through saying I had bike lights coming my way (Thanks Dad) in the end I didn't need to bike back because it would have meant biking back from a long way away late at night so I bottled it and decided to take the bus. Which of course I missed so my mentor drove me home! :)

Mum .P.S. My Flowers is doing very well

Yawn

Sunday already, weekends should last longer.
I'm on a late shift tomorrow so I don't start until one but I will finish at about 10. I'm happy about cycling there but cycling back with no light of my bike late at night is potentially risky. I wish I had my car! I've had a lovely relaxing day today which has been ruined with a massive headache. Although I did manage to iron my uniform for tomorrow, I didn't burn a hole in it so I would call that a success. Happy Days :)

Hello weekend

I live for the weekends now! Had an amazing night last night didn't get in till 4 and didn't really get up till midday! I do have a mountain of clothes and work to do though so I can't really go out again now because I need to be a little responsible :( It's so nice not to have to get up at 5:30 in the morning and to just be able to chill out, however I will need to iron my uniform, problem is I don't have an iron.

                            

Moving on,
Placement yesterday was busy, although we only had a few visits the people we did see had a lot of issues and lists of questions for us to answer. When someone says yeah we have a list of questions you know this visit is going to take an hour at least, then we had to sort out some complicated bookings. In the morning though someone came into clinic and she was having contractions fairly close together, this made my mentor very nervous as we were only at a health clinic so she was advised to make her way over to the hospital fairly sharpish. I was disappointed I wouldn't have minded having someone give birth there and then :) but my midwife was pretty keen to get her to hospital so she didn't have here baby there.

There was a lot more but none that I can share because of the strict rules on confidentiality...
Now off to tackle my mountain of work.

Just my luck

I hate study days, they're pointless and they make me feel stupid. Whats more is the two home births that where due both cam yesterday and I missed both of them! When my mentor told me this morning I nearly cried. I'm so angry I had such a crappy day yesterday when I could have been having an amazing one! Sods law they would both have their babies on the same day when I'm at uni. Grr. So feeling pretty disappointed to be honest :(

Mid week slump

Yawn, I'm so tired. Can you die from being too tired because I think I must be close, recently I’ve been bombarded with reflections, IPL’s and various other relevant subject reading. Today we had a study day in university so I didn't need to get up until 9am! I had slept from Tuesday at 8pm until Wednesday 9am so I must be tired.

Mum, you'll be surprised to know I’ve brought a plant for my room to brighten it up, so far it's been alive for two days! Amazing right?  And it's even flowered for me :)

Today I feel like my brain is bleeding, first we had a talk on hormones, which I didn't understand and pretty much sat in silence stunned for 2 hours then we had the menstrual cycle, I swear I’m a women and it confused the hell out of me, she blabbed on forever and by the end of it I just wanted to cry it was so complicated, whether she expected me to understand that or not I don't know but I really didn't and it scared the living hell out of me. It also means that I now have to run through the whole slide show again and try to make sense of it all. Probably impossible, not to mention the genetics reading I should have done. Seriously feel like I’m drowning a bit at the moment!

However this evening I had a lovely evening around Sonia’s (my foster mummy) who made me an amazing dinner of curry :) even better they had a dishwasher so I didn't even need to wash up.

Reflection

Today was my first Proper day of placement, it wasn't scary because of my two orientation days last week, I feel very comfortable with my mentor now and know how she likes to work which is nice. Getting up at 5:30am wasn't too bad either!

Lots of things to be learnt today and I've really enjoyed getting a bit more involved. I've now had a pretty good bash at using the pregnancy dating wheel and urine testing. Both of which I now have no problems using (because I'm just that clever). These are only baby steps though by the end of placement I should be doing a booking interview all by myself! Scary! Had lots and lots of antenatal checks in clinic this morning and only a few home visits so quite a nice variety of people.  Some easier to help than others, I found the key to midwifery is just to listen and try to make them feel as happy and content as possible while also trying to maintain safe practice and a good quality of care.

I love it on placement I learn so much more than when I'm in uni, it kind of makes uni work seem pointless and worthless. Most of the stuff we learn on placement is purely from asking questions about why my mentor offers advice on the topics and then researching them more when I get home. I've also learnt that Placement doesn't stop when I finish at 5pm there is still much to research for example today we had a big discussion with a women who needed an anti D injection, when I got home I had to research why it's given, when it's given, how it's given and possible side effects. The difference between placement and uni is you can see how learning about it can help you develop in your training whereas if you learn it at uni I find it difficult to put it into practice. Anyway moan over I'm not going to read 90pages on genetics, Yay!

Master Chef

Made it all by myself :D I know I'm amazing! Pretty proud of myself, As you can tell I'm doing anything in my power to avoid my assessment plan. I'm sure that when I go back into the kitchen there will be none left. Marie would be proud :)

Loving A nice easy Sunday...

It's All Mine!

Nice quiet day to relax today :) put away some notes and did my washing, The dryers here are crap so I either have to tumble dry it 5 times or hang it in my room for days.
I'm happy to tell everyone that I have finally got rid of my cold in time for the real placement to start and I'm now excited to get it all under way.

Oh and another thing, Someone stole MY grapes out of MY fridge on MY shelf! Sh*t hit the fan people! No one eats my grapes and lives to tell the tale, then to top it all off someone finished the last of my milk and didn't even tell me! Not happy, Really not happy. When I find out who did it they're toast!

Other than that it's been a good day :)

On Request

Finally Friday, I sooo need to sleep in prep for next week, we have to do 5 shifts next week and I think it could kill me. I have to get up so early to get a frigging bus =_= not sure if I can do that all week.
Had a bit of a wobble today because of the amount of things that I have to do and the amount that is building up. I still get that I'm in way over my head feeling and it scares the hell out of me. Although I had a nice reassuring text from my mother that I needed to grow up LOL thanks mum!

                                                            

Not much to report back really, I just have to go with the flow at the minute, because it's impossible to be able to understand everything that's going on and remember it, I had a talk on the cardiovascular system yesterday and how to take BP. I swear the lecturer may as well have been speaking Chinese for all that I could understand, and then she gave me a sheet with everything she was saying so I pretty much zoned out at that point. Everyone's starting to get a bit agitated with each other which can make the group a bit hostile at times. I kind of sit there ignoring it all because I'm just so tired. Days seem to go so quick when we are on placement and it kind of all turns into a blur, so much so I have to bullet point things in my diary so I remember to write a reflection on them when I get home.

Another thing I worry about constantly is my assessment due in December, it may seem like its ages away but with things like assessments I tend to enjoy putting them off and I know they have a tendency of creeping up on you at last minute and there being a mad dash to the end. We have it on the booking interview and we have to pick three antennal test done during pregnancy I have no idea what to do so I’m putting it off until I know what I’m talking about, because at the minute I haven't got a clue.

Will I ever have a clue? That is the question...

Success

I've survived my first day of placement, Hooray!

That is an achievement in itself; I managed to get up at 5:30am in order to get the bus at 6:20am. I hate buses with a passion, I wish I had my car it would make things so much easier. Anyway after getting confused about buses we finally managed to get the bus to the right place and arrived very early. Laura and myself managed to arrive with little fuss so we were sat nervously in the waiting room for a while, we met our main mentor got introduced and began our day as student midwives.

First thing in the morning was clinic and then in the afternoon was home visits, I preferred the clinics because I was able to see all aspects of pregnancy, whereas community was more postnatal and breastfeeding issues and concerns.

The first lady I saw this morning was to term and was in the high risk category because of the risk of preeclampsia. She had protein in her urine and was palpated by the midwife, urine was dipped and blood pressure was taken. There was a small amount of protein in her urine but no obvious other signs of preeclampsia so my midwife was happy for her to go home and wait.

The next women we saw was an overdue lady who looked like she was ready to blow, and was quite uncomfortable again the midwife checked her urine, BP and palpated. Then it was my go...

Basically I hadn't got a clue and was nervous as hell, there was definitely something in there and it kicked my hand as I palpated. I freaked out (in my head) it has to be the weirdest thing on earth, like a little alien wiggling about in there and how on earth does it all fit! But anyway we listened to the baby's heart beat and it was honestly the most amazing thing I’ve ever heard. When you think about the anatomy and our bodies you never imagine the length it stretches and moulds itself in order to protect and nurture another human being. It's just weird, very weird. She was offered a sweep and the midwife talked about a show. I sat there with not a clue about what was going on about. After the lady left I had to ask as my curiosity got the better of me. So that morning I'd learnt how to, properly test urine, what the symptoms of preeclampsia where, how to palpate a pregnant belly properly and what A show was and what a sweep was and why it was done. So my brain had to work at 300mph in order to keep up with all the new information.
We also did a lot of postnatal appointments in the clinic, this meant that babies would be weighted and mothers would be checked for any signs of postnatal stress or depression and also to help to see if mother and baby were bonding well. Babies can and are expected to lose 10% of their body weight after they are born because this is when the baby needs to establish feeding habits, whether it may be breast milk, formula or a mixture of both. I found that many women who had breast fed their babies had problems and felt guilty about moving to formula. Although midwives are supposed to be very pro breast milk, I personally don't see the point of having a mother dread feeding their baby because of the pain. This means that they often feel stressed and unwell and it can affect how mothers bond with their babies. Personally I believe that there shouldn't be a stigma of not breast feeding after the first few weeks because everyone is different and for some people it may be too much to cope with. I could see that a lot of mothers put themselves under pressure in order to breast feed and when they couldn't they felt like they had let down their baby and were a failure.

Anyway I need an early night and I have a very boring day tomorrow so I will tell you all about the afternoon shift tomorrow Night J

One more sleep

An Early night for me tonight as I have to be up at 5:30am tomorrow to get a bus to my placement.
After returning home yesterday I was pleasantly surprised to find out that we still had a kitchen, even if it did smell really bad!

Had an amazing day at lectures today we did, Ab-do palpation's, urology and BMI measuring and testing. Feeling a fake belly with a baby inside is very, very strange! Apparently everything we learnt today would be useful tomorrow in the real world! Scary stuff. Really excited. However something not so excited now is having to wear my very attractive uniform. Who ever said uniforms are attractive was very wrong and probably very blind!



Add caption

 Go on have a good laugh =_=

Home Sweet Home

As I've got a weekend off before placement I figured I needed some washing doing so dad came and picked me up, I refused to get the national express bus back...Yuck.
Beautiful Weather today :) I've also been able to do my food shopping for the next 3 weeks costing me Lots! I must have been tired last night because I grabbed GG and went straight to bed and fell asleep, I've missed my double bed and wish I could take it back with me when I go back tomorrow. Having a day off has also helped me to catch up on the much needed lost sleep :)

Not long til placement now, I have my uniform so I'm all set.
I'll Probably put a picture up tomorrow for everyone to laugh at!