Whoops

I'm not great at blogging am I? So now I'm at the end of year 2. The exam I spoke of before, I fail, quite dramatically. I resat over the summer, revised my arse off and passed, with 68% which is great, because in theory we only get two chances then we have to leave. But I was so cross with myself for not doing it the first time round. Failing is becoming quite a habit this summer actually, also failed my medicine calculations exam, not because I got a question wrong though, because I pulled the imaginary syringe to 10.5 ml instead of 12.5ml, so I have to resit that, and an essay. Must pull my finger out next year, there is no time for failing in the 3rd year. It's terrifying that this time next year I'll be preparing to qualify, I don't feel I know enough. I've had 3 lovely weeks of with my pickles but it's back to work next week, on the birthing unit. I'm nervous, I've been looking forward to this placement for 2 years, I was so sure natural birth was the area I wanted to work in, but now I'm doubting myself, and I have 5 weeks there.

It's not all bad though, In March I had the most amazing honour of delivering my friend's beautiful son. I feel so priviliged to have been asked, and I'm still quite emotional about it all. It wasn't the smoothest of deliveries, in fact probably the most complex birth I've been involved in to date. Mum progressed rapidly, and baby had the cord a couple of times round his neck, it was so tight that we had to cut it to free him. He wasn't breathing when he was born, I got on with the job and didn't actually realise the seriousness of the situation because the midwife I was with was so amazingly calm and sorted everything out with the paed while I waited for the placenta. It wasn't till afterwards I realised what had happened and I found it distressing, but thankfully, after a few days on SCBU he was fighting fit and you'd never know now.

I think that'll do for now, I must try to blog more often.
It's mostly rambling I know, but I find it theraputic when I get going, and it's a memory of my training to look back on.
Vx

Happy New Year

I can't believe it's been a whole year since I last blogged, equally, I can't believe I'm still on this amazing journey :) So now I'm year 2, managed to get here mostly in one piece, last year was rocky and stressful and I'm glad it's over. So far I've managed to pass all assignments and exams without failing, placements have been good, currently on DU again, and I should qualify next year 8-/
My last placement was the Early Pregnancy Unit, not my favourite place, half the ward were fighting to hold on to their babies, while the other half were terminating. It's a shame because working there was lovely, the nurses were fab, and I really felt like part of the team, but I don't know how they do it every day, it messed with my head a bit. I was lucky enough to be able to observe in a few clinics too, uro-gynae, gynae-oncology, uro-dynamics and colposcopy to name a few, they were really interesting. My favourite place was visiting the reproductive medicine team and seeing the help they offer couples wanting fertility treatment, and the rep med theatre was great, I got to hold, and have a good look at a uterus after a hysterectomy. Reproductive Medicine is something that really interests me, I'm thinking I'll base my dissertation on it next year, and look in to specialising in it in the future. Apparently you have to have nursing qual's but I'm hoping to find a way in.
I've recently submitted a 4000 word essay about health promotion, I think it's quite good, but generally if I think I did ok, I get low marks, so we'll see. 3 hr exam on Obstetric Complexities in a couple of weeks, not feeling so confident about that. It's so complicated and our teaching has been the best, in fact we haven't covered most of it, it's very much a teach yourself degree.
Anyway, I've jabbered enough, I'll be back with news of my exam results. TTFN

1 semester down, 7 to go

So I've just finished my first semester and it's been.............exhausting! It's great I'm loving it, but it is so hard, so much harder than I ever imagined it could be. So far this month I've submitted 2 essays and done an A&P exam. That was awful, I'm pretty sure I've failed but I'll just have to make sure I pass next time. We get 2 chances. We had to revise everything that was really hard because there has been so much, then in the end the qu's were about the heart and anaemia, the digestion system and constipation during pregnancy, smoking and alcohol during pregnancy. The diagrams were not too bad, although for some reason unknown to me, I labelled the gall bladder as the pouch of douglas! I didn't revise anaemia in enough detail so my answer was rubbish and I don't feel confident enough to use the terminology just yet. Just have to wait and see now.

Pre-Course Induction

I went for the Pre-course Induction Day last Thursday, the 2nd July. I was so nervous but it was brilliant. There will be 28 of us on the course. I found that Liz, who waxes my eyebrows at Julia George will be one of them, which is lovely. I didn't recognise her to start with but she came over and introduced herself. It was great to properly meet the lovely people I've been in touch with through Facebook and SMNet. I was very happy to find out the my clinical placement will be at the Rosie. I was so sure I would get Hinchingbrooke. I really wanted the Rosie, but I been so lucky this year, the place at uni, the new house, that I thought I probably would get it. So very excited, but so much to do before September. I really hope we can move over the summer, it's going to be awful trying to move house, settle the girls into the new school, James into nursery and start uni. I've got to do a 5 minute presentation to present on the first day, that's scaring me a bit but I've done a couple at college so hopefully it will be fine. Now just waiting to here from the hospital about occupational health tests and jabs.

Headed Paper...

Today I got a letter from the uni. It was so exciting to see a letter addressed to me on headed paper. It makes it so real. Super excited again :-)
The letter itself doesn't really say much. It's an invitation to a pre-course day on 2nd July. It's here that we'll get information on pre-course reading, assignments and timetables. We'll found out about our placements in the next few weeks, fingers crossed for the Rosie.

Equipment

I've been talking to Kat today, who will be starting ARU with me in September, and she has bought loads of equipment- steth, foetal steth, scissors, etc and loads of books. Now I'm wondering whether I'll need these. So far I have a lovely fob watch as a present from the children. Hope the uni hurry up and send some info.

Introductions...

Hi, My name is Valerie. I am married to Tony and have 3 beautiful children, Hollie, Megan and James. In September of this year(2009) I will be starting a full time Midwifery degree at Anglia Ruskin University in Cam,bridge. I've decided to start this blog as a bit of a diary to keep an account of my journey over the next 3 years. I got the idea from a very good friend, Jean-Mary, who has 2 blogs of her own, one similar to this as she embarks on her own journey to become a councillor - http://jean-mary.blogspot.com/ and another to showcase her beautiful handmade items - http://sweetpeadesignhouse.blogspot.com/.

I have never had a blog before and I'm not really into chat rooms and forums etc so this is all new. It's going to be mostly random ramblings about things that I need to share but are not interesting enough to actually tell to someone, how I feel and what is happening