Royal Free is going to be doing the first full face transplant lookee here but they are better than the normal yuppees trying it because they considered the "psychological aspects" now UCL is huuuge on its touchy feely psychology which i'm sure deserves respect.
Maybe its just because I don't really get psychology....through most of my lectures I was thinking either "this is common sense" or "why have they made this all so complicated and abstract"?
Ok you get diagnosed, who cares about the "stages" patients go through (denial, anger acceptance , etc...)? Also why does each patient supposedly act in the same way? I highly doubt this is true in the real world. But also is it not better to just let them get on with it, talk to them if they need it. But not to sit there and analyse every eye movement they make just to categorise them!
Completely strayed off the point. Well I would love to be there to witness the procedure but as im technically not at that hospital now it would be a bit cheeky. Plus about 10000057 top brass consultant peeps will probably be watching.
Today was Wed, which is when they do the Forensic cases. One 6 week old baby had rib fractures which were made between 5-7 weeks before...i.e. it was beaten pretty much as soon as it was born. It had the hugest sub arachnoid haematoma i've ever seen in my life. Blood was everywhere, apparently that meant it had been kept alive on a ventilator for some time. Also "apparently" its 2 year old sister picked it up by the neck and threw if 2 feet across the room. Now i'd be impressed if I could manage that.
Next was an 8 year old boy who hanged himself! How completely sad must he have been to do that to himeself. I'm not sure I even knew how to hang myself when I was eight.
We did one further one but its quite well known, v sad all in all.
My project is using SIDS cases so the brain is "normal". Found 3 so far. Pain in the bum to try and find cases which are suitable and we have consent for. OOO I could ramble ona bit more about consent, i'll save it for later I have to go to St John meeting now!
OK as most (if not all) people were aware that I did seem to be veering towards a Pathology based career.
Well that was untill I saw HEMS taking off from the roof of The London. All the leaves fell off the trees and pretty much everyone couldn't help themselves and have a glance skwards. I shamelessly oogled untill the Helicopter had gone (while managing to walk at the same time-how did I miss all the trees and bus stops?).
But see my thought then was sod pathology, surgery, GP-dome etc... I wanna do St John-ness AND get paid for it!
Then today I had THE BEST lab sesh in the world. I met Andy???? ooo im rubbish with names. Anyways he's a cardiopathologist and he showed me two hearts one from a 12 year old boy and one from a 14 year old boy. Don't get all depressed these were the ones taken out of the patients and replaced by a transplanted heart!
You know I never really thought much about the defective heart and where it went to after transplant, but it gets handed to a department who remove the valves to be used on other patents (soo clever) then the remaining heart gets given to the Cardiopathologist to have a look at.
Patient 1 had cardiomyopathy, although he was 12 his heart was adult sized with a thickening of the left and right ventricles. Twas v smelly but to be honest I though it looked normal. Then the Doc was like "hmmm very abnormal here, here and here" I was nodding while thinking I really don't have a clue :-) but its all great experience.
Patient 2 had been through the mill a bit. He had at least 2 ops trying to sort his lil (actually flipping huge) ticker out. He also had a pacing wire in so the poor guy had been through it. His heart had a congential defect (at birth) but wasnt sure what it was because the surgeons had whipped all the important stuff out of there.
He was a cool guy and he had a little (bigish) mutter about the surgeons: "they always put the specimines in tiny pots with not enough formalin, whenever I try and get one out it's like giving birth!"
Then I planned tomorrow with sue. We are doing immunohistochemistry, and I did some H&E slides for her.
See this confuses me because from today I could see myself settling for a life doing research, its easy, not to physically strenous and we get to drink lots of tea and make sarky comments about dumb people in the news.
OK off to think about my future while playing sonic the hedgehog! (don't ever say that I'm not mature).
I shared my lift with a cadaver and two lovely undertakers. V bizzare for me being squashed up against a dead body, it felt slightly like disection again (appart from the chopping and the smell).
Well, I went to the umm brain sectioning of a newborn, but unlike those previous ones who died of SIDS this was a Forensic Case. A 17 year old girl had given birth in her room and then the baby had "somehow" sustained a fractured skull, various scratches, a subarachnoid and subdural heamorhage. It seemed as if baby had been flung against a wall. The brain was in bad condition as as its a criminal case they took 26 blocks of tissue, as opposed to the usual 6. Heart breaking stuff.
Then I went onto the Kevin Spacey thing, absolute gold and so what I needed as a change from all the stuff in the lab. We were front row just infront of his arm chair. We could have grabbed him (but we didnt- we got a program instead)
Time for a bit of culture daaaaarling, well actually Beka says "are we going to see a play on Wed?". So we are! Its the one at the Old Vic which had amazing reviews, remeber I went to see Cloaca last year, well this is gonna be better (mainly cos the cute Lawyer who dies IS NOT IN THIS ONE!) and it has Kevin Spacey in it. How can this get any better? Well we got cheap tickets cos we are young wee people who they wanna try and hook for life-yep i'm suckered in AND we are on the front row.
FRONT ROW!! I could spit on Kevin Spacey (not that id want to- but I could act like a crazy person and dive at him if he gets to close)
OK ran away from the Lab cos sooooo couldnt be arsed to do work, yep I know i'm gonna be working for the rest of my life so I should get used to it. But if I can run then I will do! Plus I have a ton of lecture notes to file (in my paddington bear folder) so its not like im not doing ANYTHING. Hmm going to watch Allo Allo while I work, I need a giggle!
P.S. I cant be bothered to queue up for garth marenghi, so gonna order off the old internet.
OK not wishing to be all (I am the greatest-tehehe) BUT I have just finished my essay.....I go up at 6:10 then showered, due to sticky chocolate everywhere :-) Then sat down at 7:00am and wrote an essay and finished it by 9:40! 2 and a bit hours! come on thats pretty darn good. Obviously am kicking myself that I didnt start it earlier as it would have meant a SERIOUS lie-in. But now I have untill 10 to relax. I need a brew now. I bet u are wondering if the completed essay is infact utter bollocks-well actually it is, but so was the last one and he though that was ok.
Meh cant be doing with this week, im doing a presentation on Shock! to some trainee johnnys and I don't actually know anything about it! OOO and im going to meet Garth Marenghi tonight and get his DVD'S oooo hes bloody fab he is!
Oh dear, I may be part of the most excting and groundbreaking reseach posse i've ever been in, but jeez! I feel rough. I cooked chicken on Thur. It was samonella (or similar) ridden. I was up all of the night. Then I worked at Gt Ormond St from 9-6pm feeling pretty ill. I threw up once during the day but though it must be the excitiment of descovery (ok i was in denial-medical people don't get sick).
I got home and was chatting on MSN when the most extreme pain in the world began in my Left Quadrant, thinking I may have the begingings of appendicitis (ok so T10 isnt in the left quadrant but it could be) I start to hyperventilate thinking that im going to die on the floor in my room. Then, probably in my head I think the pain is now on the right side........."this is it" I though "im goinging to die". But then I didnt, I went to sleep and although feel like a hamster who's been run over I'm much better.
So the rule of the story is: always check where the pain is or you could panic!
Oh and don't eat dodgy chicken.
Research is going good! Im a genius with the choppy thing (who's name ive forgotten). I am about to do some immunocytochemistry next week (c434 and d240) then I have 4 paediatric brains with consent so I shall start my proper project. I am mapping an area of the brain who's structure has never been documented before in humans. So that is just the most exctiting thing-i'm finding stuff out that NO-ONE knows about!!!
Calm down. Ok got ot go write an essay on stem cell markers!
Things have gone all polar this week, either fantastic or completely shattering.
Den died, I still can't believe it. He was so much fun to be arround. He's been in my life for like 12 years and the last time I saw him he didnt even know he was sick.
Now my phone has broken (sounds completely trivial in comparison) and I really don't have the energy to deal with it, I just want a phone that works, clearly thats too much to ask for. Also my ID card is faulty, ahh not a problem.........well yeah actually cos its Great Ormond Street i.e. sick kids and people get suspicious if your standing there trying to get into somewhere and it wont let you!
My essay written on sunday night/monday morning (due in at 8:30 monday) was well recieved! Actually he was really complimentry. I must be one of those rare genious types who can spew out long words- like "subventricular zone" and "rostocaudal gradient of proliferative activity" while semi conscious at a computer screen. (hehe that should get some confused scientists who googled them words!)
I spent the whole of today licking pathology arses! (an exhausting activity) It feels like I am actually gonna pass out. I spent 10 am till 5 pm following various lab people round. I wanna try and sneak into a forensic autopsy before I go, cos apparently soco and loaaads of coppers are there too, and plus it would be facinating.
At about 3pm I finally gets me paws on some tissue. Its foetal PM's so ones which have died before birth or been misscarried. Its really strange seeing a femur which is about 4 cm long, having done disection for 2 years I cant get over how diddy they are. Also trying to work out which blob is the live which is the lungs, thymus, adrenals etc is soo much harder that with adults. We get tiny little bits and because they havnt developped they are so tricky to classify.
Then I observed H&E staining and Pick?? anyhoo the one for iron deposits in the lungs. Then I mounted some cover slips and tomorrow I will be putting the PM bits into wax blocks for sectioning and then cutting some sections.
Some time I am going to have to squeez in my new essay on stem cell makers in the brain eg: nestin-that the only one I know right now because it reminds me of birds nests! I have to read up this and last weeks notes and do shopping.
Found the cashiers office and paid my first terms rent (close to 1500 quid!!!), then went home and guess what?! The first train at Stephney Green was one to Hammersmith via kings cross!! Do you know how rare they are? Well very rare, usually I have to change at Algate East and EVERY TIME a pissed person seems to wanna talk to me.
Came back and watched Edward Scissorhands, no one prepared me for how sad it was............ended up crying for most of the time I had dinner.
Then decided to tackle the tv, OK so now we have E4, UKTV history and one other one. But The Full monty is on Film 4 tonight.....and as a (semi) Sheffield person I have to get Film 4 working... i'm close but not quite there yet.
Yup and the rest of the day shall involve very little.
I'm meeting Tom on Thur to talk about stem cells. I'm of to a Medicins Sans Frontiers meeting on friday........aww aint I good? Oh and LINKS meeting tomorrow, hope I wont have to do anything complicated. Need to wash my trousers as I spilt tuna all down them. I will do that before Thursday evening meditation, good plan.
Oh and look at the latest little dude at the bottom of the page! Its a kick-ass dragon. Waay cooler than my toaster one. Final question.....is the sidebar thing with my profile and archives and stuff, at the top or bottom of the webpage? Ta Ducks.
I was completely take off guard today. I was at Great Ormond Street, oooh I do like saying that. I was at Great Ormond Street-where I am doing research! Hehe ok anyway I have to get a thing called an Honoury Contract. Which is because i'm involved in research using human tissue, most people find it a bit distasteful but the end, I feel, especially in this case, is worth the means. We are looking at stem cells in the brain, involving damage repair mechaninsm....it doesnt take much of a brain to see the potential implications for this. Especially if the stem-cells can be "controlled" brain damage may be limitable or even curable. Which is just huge.
Completely deviated (I would fail on "Just a minute") but I was waiting for some documents when this secretary comes up and says "Hello Dr West, would you like to come though now?" Oh may days......well obvioulsly I could'nt have her thinking I was a Doctor (but the though did cross my mind) so I say "oh its just Kathryn (have to use the full name or they get confused)". But afterwards I though.....Just!The "just" was not necessary.
