Got through today, which I'd been dreading for some time now...
Talked about urinary retention in front of the FY1s at the RLUH, which was strangely more nerve-wrecking for me than I thought it would be-I think its getting up to talk in front of people I'm not that close with that makes me nervous.
As expected, ended up talking fast, and trying to cover too much in too little time. Every time I prepare something similar(which isn't all that often anyway), I seem to picture having a lot more time, and prepare a lot more than I actually need to, with the result of having too little time to say all that I want to say. (I'm sure there's a more efficient way of writing all that out as well!)
Was followed by Jack, who did an amazing presentation on COPD. Amazing because he held everyone's attention via a gameshow aka Who Wants To Be A Millionaire style, and amazing because he included plenty of important points for house officers faced with patients with COPD. Enjoyed revising the FEV1 cutoff points for mild-moderate and severe COPD which I'd totally forgotten after doing the respiratory job.
The rest of the day was particularly busy, but mostly enjoyable - ended the day with an unexpected invite to a drug rep presentation at Mayur, an excuse for urology consultants and registrars to mingle and enjoy free food and drink. Vinny and I felt a bit out of place amongst all the big names and timidly asked for a couple of glasses of coke, while around us, Johnny walker Black Labels were being consumed by the glassful.
To mask the event in a show of actually learning something, the registrars had a couple of talks on recent advances in PSA monitoring, and it was pretty heartening to watch senior doctors argue over the definition of a screening test, and how a receiver operating characteristic curve should be interpreted and what 'area under the curve' actually meant. Kind of reminded me of a long ago evening in Barrow 4th year med school where HP, Ed and I sat down to discuss statistics for exams. Much like then, everyone came to the conclusion that no one really fully understood matters:-)
Dinner was good - and while I kick myself now for not indulging in lassi, it was a good, if brief, night out. If only I wasn't working tmrw.
Happy Good Friday!
1 comment:
Hi Jonathan. Greetings from Minnesota, USA. Your blog entry came to me via a google alert I set up for "urinary retention". Why, you ask, do I need alerts re retention? Because I support a company that makes a prostatic stent that is used for cases of AUR... and I like to stay up on things being said on the net re that subject. It sounds like you are a young doctor, perhaps new, and may be interested in the latest "gadgets." So, I'll give you the links and you can ck out the stent. Oddly for our UK friends, it is called The Spanner - which doesn't have a wrench meaning here in US. It is being used lots for post-brachy, post-cryo, post TUMT. But also for bladder neck contractions. And, to me, the most interesting use is as a differential diagnosis to discover if a man's obstruction is causing the retention... in other words, the stent eliminates the obstruction, so the doc can see how well the bladder is functioning. It's pretty cool to watch the docs face when he sees a man with a Spanner (who was thought to have a "dead" bladder) have a full full void and leave near zero PVR. But the MOST satisfying cases are those of geriatric dementia patients who will not leave a foley in place - so the stent greatly helps their life.
Anyway, I've taken enough of your time. Are you an early adopter? If so, get in touch with us! All the best, AN. http://www.thespanner.com. Also ck out the videos on YouTube.
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