Ever seen a neurologist run?

I did today. There was a man who had a thrombolic stroke this morning- his CT scan was unequivocal proof- and the docs wanted to thrombolyse him. Unfortunately, whatever the drug is called, it begins with an A but it's the French name anyway, it was not in stock in the whole of the hospital because in cardiology and A&E it's a different thrombolytic drug on the protocol.It is held in the pharmacy at Magenta, about a 15minute drive away. The protocol says that this drug must be given within three hours of the CVA. This man is completely paralysed on the left side. The doctors don't feel they can give his family the option of the drug until they know it is in the building. The time since this man had the stroke is 2hours 40mins.

Time seemed to slow down for some reason. I was waiting outside A&E with the doc. It felt like every second was counted while we waited. Eventually we saw the technician who had had to drive from Magenta in his own car with the medicine. There were maybe 5minutes to talk to the family. It was pretty emotional to watch as they were told about the pros and cons of such treatment. They had to make the decision for their father as he wasn't capable of giving consent. It really was their only option, but the fact that it is a dangerous treatment cannot be overlooked and it was so difficult to watch.

They did decide to give him the drug, but we had to leave as we were in the middle of the ward round! So we did not find out til much later. When we went back the infusion was almost complete, but there had been no improvement yet. I will find out tomorrow what has happened.

I got to go on the whale watching catamaran; it was awesome! We were at sea for about 11 hours, it was so relaxing to be on the water with only a net between me and certain death. The whales were incredible. We weren't that lucky compared to the other boats, but even so, we got about 20m from them. You can't imagine the size, they are just huge. And they breathe air, yet live in the sea! It's so weird. Even managed not to get burned, so a good day all round.

There's a really weird grumpy old French man who lives in the rooms next to ours. He looks a bit like Mr Divers but meaner. While we were folding cloth (long silly story but it basically unraveled itself when it fell off the balcony) he came and quizzed Tate for ages about the population of Melanasia. While wearing no shorts. Shiver.

Had a super night out on Friday to celebrate les resultats- what a relief! Went dancing in Baie du Citrone, really want to go there during the day sometime soon. Probably not this week though, Tate and I are heading up north on Thursday to Hienghieng- in a Renault Twingo. Oh and Tate can't drive a manual car and I've never driven on the right!

ROADTRIP!

xx

I PAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSED!!!!

Whoop!!!

And you're all asleep!! How rude!!!

xxx

Happy Birthday Mum!!!

Week 1 over already!!

Gutted I have to pay for week 2 in the hostel tomorrow- already!!!!

Erm so apart from hanging out on the wards in the morning (where I am now the unofficial JHO as the interne is on holiday) I've tried to have a kind of low key weekend, which only partly worked because last night after a couple of beers in the hostel a wee group of us ended up going to some crazy nightclub on the Place des Cocotiers where we xatched the exciting finale of Miss Mont Doré and partook in some serious dancing! So at last, one week later, I have celebrated properly the end of the exams, whoop!

Also yesterday I was on the news at 7:30pm! Tate (my roommate who is doing a PhD in anthropology) and she was going to see the NC delegation for the Pacific Arts departing for the conference in Pago Pago, Samoa, so I tagged along. It was held at the Tjiabou centre, which is a really cool exhibition space. There were some dancers and singing, and some music. It was pretty cool and there were some really big cheeses there from the world of NC arts-even the vice president! And we were on the news! Thank goodness for the red shorts, I had been worried I would blend into the crowd!

Today was feeling a bit sensitive so Tate and I went to the beach near Nouville- randomly there's a resort there and we were both starving so when we saw cheeseburgers and chips it was just perfect. So we sat in the NC sun and ate cheeseburgers and listened to the pacifician? music and watched the inappropriately young girls dancing before lying on the beach all afternoon in the winter sun. It gets dark here about 6pm and cools down really quickly, something to remember if you ever come!

Dad- well done for the comment leaving (technically not part of the actual blog you know!)

xx

Wowee finally here !!

This is technically my third day here already!!! My journey was unbelieveably flawless, only one delayed flight, which was, quelle surprise; Glasgow to Heathrow. But it didn’t really matter as that was certainly the stop with the most time.

Two things I forgot about being here- firstly, despite being located in the south pacific, the plugs are french and not south pacific (except for some bizarre reason, in the shower room) ans secodnly, it’s a stupid french keyboard which doesn’t make any sense. So if i type zithout looking qt zhqt i a, typing i get so,e q,ount of rubbish becuqse i cqn type zithout looking1°

In case you were not aware, my phone does not work here, and I haven’t decided whether or not I will get a sim card, because this might be the most expensive country in the world and it’s hard to know what to do. I also don’t have any friends (yet?). Everyone I meet will say, oh you must not stay in Noumea, you must see the islands, but you shouldn’t travel alone.... Will check out the tourist office and see what’s on offer.

The hospital is pretty nice, most people are nice, apart from one junior whom I was meant to work with, but she obviously didn’t really want to, and there’s a kind of consultant guy who used to work in the Southern and live in the West End (Cecil Street) and who drank in the pub which is across from where Bar Oz used to be (name anyone, it’s beside Clatty Pat’s?) Anyway, he basically wants to speak English, which I know kind of defeats the purpose in travelling over 12,000km to speak French, but he (David) says I can do a lumbar puncture, and frankly I would speak Klingon to get to do that. So now I am with the yellow team.

It’s a lot of stroke medicine (plenty of experience with that then) but there’s some interesting stuff, weird tumours and meninigits, even a new cqse of MS. Not done much yet but there’s plenty of time. I’ve kind of planned to take this week easy and settle in and really get into it next week.

Miss you all, email me anytime!!!

xxx

Where is New Caledonia?

Téléphone: +687 275-879
Fax: +687 254-817
Adresse de l'Auberge:
Auberge de Jeunesse

BP 767

51 bis Rue Pasteur Marcel Ariège

98845 Nouméa

NOUVELLE-CALEDONIE

One down...

One to go. Nearly there!

Three more sleeps.

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