Psychiatry

Loved my new job even before day 1 started. Woke up at 8, when I would previously have already battled the morning traffic and chased up bloods and be starting the ward round.

Not sure what I'm allowed to do yet. The first couple of days weren't really representitive I hope, because of the induction, meetings, teaching sessions etc. My third day was a bit strange, ward round in the morning without any patients, then a meeting where I sat and listened to people talking about whether they needed to bring people in from the community. Lunchtime I was told there wasn't a junior doctor in another unit so could I go and sign some paperwork? Had a lovely drive in the sunshine, stopped off for lunch and a browse around asda. Signed paperwork and went back to home unit.

As there didn't seem like anything else to do I wandered into the office and, having left before half 4 the previous days, thought I'd say farewell and head off to the sunny back garden for an ice cream. However, there was a new patient that needed clerking in and no other doctors around to do it.

First psychiatry clerking since finals went ok. I asked most of the right questions and got a lot of the answers without prompting. I thought the rapport was ok, even though the patient was psychotic with illusions, delusions, auditory and visual hallucinations! At one point she asked if I was laughing at her which makes me think that my ?finals remark about having a smile that was out of place might have been correct. I can't help it though, my smile is me.

I sometimes wonder whether when I'm mildly depressed I'm like other people normally. Unless I can give a big grin and mean it I don't think I'm happy. Maybe I'm "normally" in a hypomanic state. My last educational supervisor said I was "cheerful" on my report form, and everybody says how nice it is to see a smile in a morning. It's nice not to be depressed at the minute. Sunshine and prozac. Marvellous.