Sunday 29 July 2012

Alcohol is the most dangerous drug

Every weekend thousands, if not millions of people head out on the town to have a drink, some get wasted, some just have a few, but the majority of the general population believe that, while yes alcohol does cause harm, that it is not overly dangerous compared to most "illegal" drugs, however! Studies have shown that alcohol is THE most dangerously weighted drug when its affects on the individual and its effects on the people around that individual are considered!

Alcohol, if it was to be classed as an illegal and controlled substance would be ranked up as Class A, the same as crack cocaine, heroin, LSD, ecstasy and even the naturally growing magic mushrooms.

However! Studies have shown that alcohol is 9 TIMES more dangerous than ecstasy, and that things like magic mushrooms are the least dangerous drugs, yet people still go out and pump their bodies full of this every weekend without knowing the true affects!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11660210

Please share this post with everyone you know who goes out drinking, together, we can bring the true dangerous of alcohol abuse to light!
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Wednesday 25 July 2012

Things that make me laugh

So many people insist that their degree is hard, but yet your average student is out drinking every week, killing their brain cells, or seem to have all these extra activities that they do, for no real reason other than for fun,

Peoples parents are paying 3000 (this year, 9000 next year) or they're getting into 3000-9000 debts each year to pay their fees, and yet they still think its acceptable to destroy their chances.

At the end of the day, university is there for you to learn, if you don't enjoy your course, you're in the wrong course, if you enjoy your course, you're going to have fun every day for the next 3 years.

First year, yes, go out, get smashed, do the fun stuff, live a lot, do the things people have been telling you not to do for years, but beyond that, grow up and focus on the things you're there to do.

Things are only hard if you don't put the work in.

If you don't put the work in, you've no reason to say its hard!

Fed up of people moaning about taking a positive step in life!

Liam!

Out!
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Friday 20 July 2012

Also!

My eye has gone a lovely shade of yellow xD
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Emotionally, mentally and physically drained

Wow, what a day, let's start from the top!

Went in at 1 this morning to help the night time radiographer switch the department on, after a generator change, to find that everything came on 2 hours before, so stayed for an hour, went to do a couple of patients on mobiles, but decided they could wait 'till morning (wasn't going to wake them up at half one to see if a NG tube was correctly fitted, that the patient had been fed through (without issue) since it was placed/ wasn't going to wake a little old dear up to check if her infection had gone down when she was in the best place if it hadn't) had a hot chocolate and went to bed.

Then got up at 8:45 (so officially a late start) to go into work and found I was in room 7 all day x-raying the ward patients (always upsetting because they're normally really old people that are in a bad way) but today was particularly crazy.

2 patients stood out most, because of the pure contrast of them.
The first one was an 87 year old lady who was adamant that she wanted to die, kept on literally screaming prayers to god to take her and end her suffering, so sat I and talked to her to bring her round and to allow us to do the x-ray, we spent so long discussing whether she really wanted to "see god" so soon, her reasoning was that she didn't know what was wrong, so I sat and explained that while yes this was hard, the pictures would help the doctor help her understand what was wrong, didn't do much to make her feel better but she did stop asking god to take her, so maybe I reached her, maybe she started praying internally, but the way she kept on saying how unhappy she was makes me think I helped changed her view on life.

As we took her out my next patient was telling her how well she'd done (he obviously didn't know what had gone on in the room, but must have heard what she was saying and was clearly trying to make her feel better (instantly liked this patient before I'd even spoke to him, just for his pure selflessness)) then we brought him in and he was cracking jokes and kept flirting with the radiographer in a dead sly way (un beknown to her) and whilst we were positioning him (which was clearly very painful) kept on smiling and had me in stitches on at least two occasions, and I think he genuinely enjoyed the company and the laughter and joking he got out of us (now whether he was doing it to pick us back up having heard what we'd gone through or was just a genuinely happy guy I don't know, but he was great) he was so patient with me (told me the best way to lean him forward to get the x-ray plate behind him (before quickly saying "not like I'm telling you how to do your job, but this seems to have worked so far" (was SO pleased when he said that because I had no idea how to lean forward a patient with a recently operated on shoulder without causing too much pain (I'm a big fan of positioning patients whilst causing minimal pain, and always look for the easiest way for them))

So I'd gone from mega upset to having a giant grin on my face in the space of 30 minutes.

Then some time passed and it got to 16:45 and there was a giant back log of patients, so me and a radiographer got 10 forms together, I checked they were all ready to x-ray at that very moment, and rattled off 10 patients in 15 minutes (she stood behind the screen and pushed the button, I ran backwards and forwards, collecting, talking to, positioning and explaining procedures to patients, before running behind the screen whilst the radiographer started to expose (for those that don't know, you prep an x-ray tube before you expose the radiation, so as I was running behind the screen shouting "BREATH IN NOOWW, HOOLLLD YOUR BREATH" she was already prepping it, so as I stepped behind the screen she exposed, I waited the 10 seconds, or whatever, for the image to come up on the screen and to be told "that's fine" by the radiographer, picked up the next form, and walked out and told the patient they were finished and could go home and their GP would get the results, and started the cycle again with the next patient.

Safe to say I'm knackered beyond compare!

Been a hard day, but a bloody good one none the less.

Liam
OUT!
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Radiography

Post that's bound to upset people, but this blog wasn't designed to make people feel good about themselves, its about my life, its probably the only place I can actually talk about me without worrying, because once its out there its done, and fuck the consequences.

As many of you will know, I'm studying radiography at uni, and I'm currently on a 6 week placement at south shields district hospital, but what hardly any of you (unless the people I work with read this, no one) will know, I put in ridiculous hours because I say I "love the job"

And this is true, I do love it, dealing with and helping people makes me happier than a pig in shit, but its actually done something amazing.

Before I started to course, I saw life as something in between birth and death, just a pain, because let's be honest, the whole worlds fucked up, you found the little things that made you happy and lived day to day putting up with life until these good things came around (used to have diving, and I figured back then diving did for me what I now realise radiography does for me) but other than that life was a giant disappointment that you tried to make hurt as little as possible until the end (not something I'd done very well at until now, but that's another (and VERY upsetting) story)

But going in every day and helping those patients, making them feel at ease, and helping them with their problems (be it a little old lady with a fractured wrist, or a young lad who's fallen off his bike) both physically, but more importantly, psychologically (such as making them feel at ease even though they don't know what's wrong with them) right now? Knowing that I've done this, and in mere weeks (8 after this placements over) I'll be back again helping different patients with different problems, actually makes the bad seem like a mild irritation, and the bad stuff has taken the place of the old good stuff, and the good stuff, is now in majority.

Don't get me wrong, I still hate the whole world and the people in it, because the selfishness of people makes me sick, but knowing that I can make a tangible (a word I used in my personal statement, which was basically all lies back then) difference on someone's life, means I can ignore the disgustingness of the world we live in and just get on and be happy, and isn't that what lifes about?

Something for you all to chew on!


Liam
OUT!
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Wednesday 18 July 2012

Interesting past few days :P

WELL! So much has happened in the past few days :P so I'll start with the pictures,

On monday I went up to theatre in the morning to watch someone get a pace maker fitted, which, for those who don't know, means the room can't be airconditioned, and it was VERY warm, as lots of people were in the room watching to make sure the patient was okay, and I started to feel a bit funny, but I thought it was just head rush, so I stepped back against the wall to let it pass and figured I'll get close and watch again in 5 minutes, next thing I know, I was waking up on the floor being told I'd collapsed and smashed my head on the way down (resulting in me being taken to resus and sitting there for 2 hours or something while a load of tests were done on me)

Remember a few seconds before I came round something swam to the font of my mind, but was lost in a swirl of colours.

Had a complete black out and hearing went when I was outside theatre, stayed stabled but completely lost all sensory action (I have no sense of smell anyway, no one really tastes unless there's something in their mouth, I couldn't see a thing, and I couldn't here anything, if it wasn't for my sense of touch staying (I could feel the sweat POURING off me and the stool I was sat on) I'd have been in a state of pure consciousness with no connection between my body and my mind, it was VERY fun, because I could think clearer than ever before. I was then lifted onto a trolley (I'm 6ft 2 so this can't have been an easy feat for someone) and when I led flat the world came back, which was upsetting, as I was grappling with some tough mental shit while I wasn't being stimulated by the outside world.

Long story short, they did their tests, decided I was fine, and I went back to work that afternoon, got a cracking black eye that's fun to make stories up about

Then YESTERDAY I went to donate blood (because I'm such a nice guy) and the guy that was taking it hit a nerve and THE most intense pain I've ever felt shot down my arm, resulting in swearing and screaming on my part.

Today I had my assessment! I'll keep you informed when I've got the results, but even that didn't go great, was setting up for a foot x-ray and bashed my head on the tube in front of the patient, white flash of light and me going "OOH! BUMPER!" (Obviously couldn't swear in front of the patient :P) but my tutor DID say my patient care is very good and beyond what a first year student should display so not all bad

Enjoy the pictures of me in a hospital bed and with a black eye ;)

Liam

OUT!

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Saturday 14 July 2012

Answer to the question,

Which hurts more, getting kicked in the nuts or giving birth?

The testicle is a delicate and very important gland, two reasons why it gives pain as a warning: a kick there is one technique used by special forces to disable or stun a male enemy.

Birth is a natural process, and if you get away from worrying mothers and medics who want to get rich, it needn't hurt that much ... ladies, before you shout, look at native women in many tropical countries: they step off the road, drop the baby, wrap it in their sari or whatever, and carry on walking to town. Much of the pain of birth these days is due to nerves and an un-natural approach to the event


Women, stop moaning about giving birth, no longer will I care or sympathise :)


Liam

Out!
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Weekendss

So, once again the weekends upon us, and I have nothing to do, joys of being poor, so I'm spending all day in bed listening to the radio, I venture out to check my washing every now and then then scuttle back to bed, preferably without talking to anyone

3 weeks into placement and it feels like we never left, getting loads of stuff signed off (we have like 3 A4 sheets of examinations we have to do and be signed off) just getting ridiculously competent at certain things now, feet, fingers, hands, wrists, chests and pelvises to name a few, starting to work on my spinal x-rays now (not by choice, for some reason the forms I pick up come in waves, with plenty of chests in between)


Kinda getting bored of my diet nower days, I've eaten tuna and beans for the past 3 weeks, in different things (bean butties, tuna butties, tuna and rice, beans and rice, beans on their own, tuna on its own) at some point I'll crack open the hot dogs ;) but its proven to me that this "5 a day" the government want us to eat is bollocks, my only form of veg and vitamins has been the beans, (veg is too damn expensive and goes off too quickly) and my health's not crashed as I expected (by now I fully expected to have been begging people to lend me a fiver buy some carrots or something) but I feel exactly the same, if not better, than I used to when I ate loads of veg.

Learning things about life day by day

Liam
Out!
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Friday 13 July 2012

Boundaries

People have no boundaries these days, its been something that's wound me up for years, but some things just tick me off!

Today, I was led in bed chilling before shift, listening to BBC radio 1 as per, when I heard a knock at the door, so I thought "I'm nicely chilled, I won't say anything so they go away and then I'll set off to work in my own time" (I prefer being on my own nowerdays, the blindness of some people to the world just sickens me)

So they knocked again, then walked in! To which I flipped at and said "no get out" and their response? "You didn't say not to come in"

IM SORRY I didn't realise I had to let people know I want to be alone in my own room these days! But the thing that pissed me off the most? If I'd have been in the shower and had left the door unlocked (as I often do, because it should be assumed that no one would just go into your room) I'd have come back and this person would have been sat there in MY room, I don't think the response I'd have given would have been just as nice in that case.

The ONLY people that have a right to walk in and out of someones room/house are:
Immediate family (anyone that I've directly descended from/come from the same line as (mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, siblings AND THATS IT)
Best friends (not just people you associate with, the people that know everything about you)
Significant others.

Everyone else should wait until at LEAST the door is opened for them, its a direct invasion of privacy and its bad enough being watched by CCTV everywhere we go, but when your own room isn't a safehaven for privacy any more, well the worlds just one fucked up place


Rant over,

Blog is becoming more like where I say stuff I don't dare voice out loud

Liam,
OUT!
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