I have tried something new this month. I have tried to set up a book club for the local people (read the local ladies as that was who responded…) which is something i have wanted to do for a while. A book club always sounded like a chance for people to get together every other month and talk about a book whilst drinking a couple of glasses of fizz and sharing a few nibbles. So far we have got round to choosing the book and I think I am one of two that have read it… we had to change the meeting date once as it didn’t work for some and then others hadn’t read the book. I am remaining optimistic!
As the person who set it up I felt it only fair I should get first dibs on the book we read. Looking for something different I spied this on Amazon. It sounded good – I wanted something funny and engaging for our first book and hoped that this would fit the bill. I didn’t know anything about it and all I picked up on was what was in the description – a now ex-doctor shares his diaries on what it was like to train to be one. What followed was a book that was as hilarious as it was heartbreaking – the events that took place that had me howling were placed alongside ones that really shocked me. Adam Kay went through the wringer as a doctor and I have learned a new found respect for all they go through.
Some key standout events were: one of his trainees asking him to take a quick look at his penis after he’d boasted to a girlfriend that it was so strong it could withstand the blades of a desk fan… it couldn’t. A colleague telling an hilarious story about a patient who reckoned he could only sweat on half of his face, only to run out of the room mortified when the other doctors diagnosed him with Horner’s syndrome. This also serves as a symptom of a lung tumour… And a final story of a woman who requested a C -Section whose first birth was detailed as quite possibly the worst birth story I have ever heard of. There were times I was laughing so hard I had to put this down.
Without revealing too much, the reasons Kay gives for leaving medicine were unbelievably sad. Throughout the whole book he gives us details on how little time he gets outside of his hospital work and how much it impacts on his personal relationships and his life. I have always heard anecdotes or wondered how NHS staff work so hard and work the hours that they do. It never really occurred to me just how many more hours they work than they are supposed to. I have been quite lucky in that I have had two hospital stays in my life – one for an operation to correct malocclusion on my jaw and another when I had my son. I saw the same staff over the days I was in there but just assumed they came and left – never once did the impact that the NHS has on their lives really hit home. Kay talks about clinics he was holding with patients who were angry at how long they had had to wait without them realising that, even though their appointment may be later than it should have been, his clinic should have ended hours earlier. Every overrunning shift means that the next one starts all the sooner. I was often left feeling quite angry on his behalf; he works his socks off and is doing work that requires absolute precision and care which must feel nigh on impossible when you’re so exhausted.
Kay works on obstetrics and gynecology which is an area close to my heart. My son was born via c section due to me failing to progress in labour. As an aside, I love that they call it that it makes it sound like you just didn’t try hard enough! It took me 26 hours to get to that stage so I really feel like I gave it a damn good go! Kay makes doing sections sound the same as someone who goes to work at Tescos and says they stacked ten shelves that night, as if it is the most simple thing in the world. Which I suppose it is to him in all fairness but I really respected the fact that he kept on going, even when it was hard. I remember my own and how surreal it was that everyone introduced themselves when I was wheeled in – how they had probably just started their shift to be greeted by a woman who was mooing in pain at this stage who then passed out asleep while being stitched back together! I have wondered if I am one of these stories now as I really was mooing…
Kay delivers a heartfelt and hilarious set of notes here – detailing often weird and wonderful events involving odd patients with even odder items inserted into their person! It’s an enjoyable and interesting read that has left me with an even greater respect for the people that manage to work in our NHS and all the rubbish that goes with it. Now, if I could only get the blooming book group together to talk about it!