The Pub Culture

The Sutton Arms is a pub just outside Charterhouse square.  Its closer to my dorm than the library is to the Towers back at Columbia.  So its a really convient place for students to go after classes, which in fact they do, at times with their professors.  Sarah and Tess told me today that their professor often goes to the pub after class and even gets wasted and starts talking about all sorts of inapproriate stuff.  Tess was really unhappy about it and felt it was very unprofessional.  I agree. 

Today after dinner, Cat and I went to Sutton arms.  I met 3 of her classmates and her TA.  I think its so amazing to be able to just walk over to the pub and meet up with so many people.  I seriously love this culture.  Its so nice to be able to have a drink after work and just sit and chat.  And to them its so normal. 

I talked mostly to Katy, (from Leeds) tonight.  She told me how shes has a friend at Cornell and has been wanting to visit him but was disppointed when she found out it was far from the city.  I told her about couchsurfers.com and that one of my classmate hosts people and suggests that she try it so she can stay in the city for free.  She asked me how I met Cat and I told her it was through Sarah and we both agreed that Sarah is an amazing person who just speaks her mind.  Katy said that she would be at a pub, and have several drinks and Sarah will join compeletly sober and can join in with the rest of them.  Katy said I was really luck to be on my floor and not with a bunch of weirdos. 

The TA, Jay, asked me about which health care system I thought was better and I told him I honestly didn't know at this point.  I told him the things I liked about the UK system, mainly the 4 hour wait room in the A&E.  He told me about channel4tv.com and mentioned New Girl!  I told him how much I love this show!  I'm sooo happy I can watch it now.  He also told me about the medical drama Casualty, which I'll check up.  One of their classmates was there typing her essay on her laptop in the pub. 

After work today it was still a bit sunny outside so I decided to explore around Barbican which is the tube stop near where I live.  I walked passed the station of bicycles that you can rent.  To hire (i.e, rent) a bike, you simply put in your credit card, select a day rental, and out prints a ticket with a code on it. Then you type in your code at any bike and the bike rack unlocks and releases the bike. You don't have to return the bike at the station you took it from which makes it great for getting from one place to another. I wish I had thought about it before buying my 112 pound montly pass for the tube. The rental is FREE for 30 minutes! Gosh, this city is amazing! For 24 hours it is 1 pound. It so cool to just pick up a bike and go anywhere.

It was an exhilarting experience to ride in London!.  For one, it was totally spontaneous for me today so I was still wearing what I wore to the hospital-- a dress and ballerina slippers, and had my purse on my shoulder.  Second, you're riding with the traffic on the left hand side of the road.  The bike lane goes right by the bus lane.  I was riding really slow!  So many people passed me.  And when you get to a stop light, you wait for it to turn both red and yellow, and then its green and you can go again.  I didn't even know where I was going and was afraid I wouldn't be able to locate another bike station.  But I did.  They are all over.  So you put the bike back into its holding place and it locks!  So cool!

Jess (the other Columbia student) and I have sent a couple of emails back and forth.  I think we are finally going to meet up on Thursday after work and do some siteseeing.

My interesting case today was a baby who had a questionable febrile seizure, with type 2 oculocutaneous albinism.  She had brwon hair and brown eyes thus probably has a form only affecting her retina.  The resident said her red reflex was enhanced.  I also saw a bone marrow aspiration.  I saw a boy as cute as a button with EBV and a huge spleen, 10 cm.  It was almost sitting in his pelvis.  You could feel the edge of it cup around like a C.  I interviewed and examed a pt with sickle cell admitted for chest pain.

I went to a BLS (basic life support) 2 hour lecture today.  We took turns running a simulated code on an infant.  I forgot to do a very basic step-- call for help, and realized this when my patient had no pulse and I needed someone to bag for me while I did compressions.  Sometimes the courses seem like such common sense but I totally forgot to call for help!  My other mistake was when I gave the pt 5 rescue breaths I heard the air leak out of the face mask.  The chest was still inflating so I continued.  One of the SHOs explained to me that compressions are completely useless if deoxygenated blood is circulating, which makes complete sense.  Again though when in the senario of a pt not breathing, you think should you waste time trying to get a good seal, or just keep bagging.  THe SHO told me its better to "waste time" to get the good seal.