Now it's time to catch up a little bit.... Where we last left off I think I had just had a really interesting couple of weeks with neurology. The two weeks previous to that was spent with a nephrology (kidney) team, and it was fantastic. The doctor in charge is notorious in the hospital, as are his two brothers who are also doctors in CUH, each one taller than the next. The nephrologist is the most wacky, however. Imagine Groucho Marx as a brilliant doctor, and you're in the right ballpark. I learned a ton. We got regular little teaching sessions about medications or dialysis or other conditions, and rounds with the team were very informative because there were a lot of patients so it was easy to learn by repetition.

Your plumbing, on the left, and your kitchen's plumbing on the right. Are the shapes a coincidence? Well, yes. This part of the blog was inspired by coming home to make dinner one night only to find the sink plugged with rice. Similar to the problem kidneys can have with contrast media.

What I think is so fantastic, though, and may have already mentioned, is that it really made me feel like I was a medical student, and helped me to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I was treated as someone who needed to learn medicine for the purpose of being a doctor, not as a student who needed to be kept busy. My mood continues to be elevated, even more so after a restorative couple of weeks at home.

I don't expect to write too much about the next month. I'm spending two weeks in ENT (or otorhinolaryngology if you want to give your tongue and spellcheck a little practice) in Limerick. The teaching is pretty good, but I'm just not that interested. We spend most of our time in outpatients, clearing a lot of wax from people's ears. That whole thing about never putting anything in your ear smaller than your elbow is true, by the way. Cotton buds really foul things up. I'm staying with a kind woman who appears to be afraid of everything under the sun. God, MRSA, dirt, water getting on the floor of the bathroom. The place is right across from the hospital, though, which is convenient. There's a couple of pubs, restaurants, and a Tesco nearby, so even though we're on the edge of town it's convenient enough. After this is done, I'll be spending a week with vascular surgeons and a week with urologists, both at the Mercy Hospital in Cork. That trifecta has earned this month the moniker "the tubes rotation."

Hello, I must be going.