An Introduction

OK, so the title of the blog is a bit of a misnomer, I'm in fact not Dr yet. I'm still Miss, a fifth year medical student, but hey, I'm ambitious. Dr Death was also my nickname in the band I used to play in, and despite all my efforts to the contrary many people still seem to define my medical abilities by my audiogram, so Doctor Deaf seemed particularly apt.

I'm not one of these medical students who knows, and has always known, exactly what they want to do. I'm currently thinking about either general practice (a little bit of everything, and no ward rounds, woohoo) or palliative care (which I did my elective in, and loved every minute.) Anything except surgery, and I've threatened to jump off the top of the hospital if MTAS places me in obstetrics and gynaecology for F1 - admittedly the hospital I do most of my training in is only two storeys, but I reckon I'd still get a decent leg break that'd get me out of doing that rotation!

For the audiologically-minded, I probably ought to introduce my deafness, as well as myself. I have a bilateral profound hearing loss of 90-110dB, and although my audiograms look the same on both sides, I feel as though my right ear is the better one. Possibly I just need my left hearing aid looking at. If anyone's interested, I could at some point dig out an audiogram. I probably qualify for a cochlear implant, but I haven't plucked up the courage to ask about one yet - I'm managing without one, and so far as I'm concerned, if I'm managing without surgery, that's a pretty good reason for me not to have any. I just don't like pain.

When I'm not trying to keep my head above water in med school, I'm playing with my pet rat Dorian, taking photographs, or reading (anything I can get my hands on. The back of cereal packets, if there's nowt else.) Or catching up with friends, and drinking real ale in one of the lovely pubs around uni; I'm sure I live in the best city for ale in the whole country.

I can't think that there's much else to introduce - there probably is, of course, but my brain's gone sticky. Caffeine deficiency, possibly, or too many audit statistics gumming up my synapses. Either way, I'm sure I'll be back.