To be a good surgeon...you must play 'Call Of Duty'?

Apparently doctors that end up being surgeons are more likely to be male and play video games. Particularly with keyhole surgery, playing video games can apparently help to build the brain's ability to integrate and understand a 2D image on a screen and how it relates to a 3D response with the hands and fingertips. That's not even mentioning the manual dexterity it helps with.

I'm not sure if there are studies to confirm this idea, but in my opinion, it might also help with getting used to seeing blood, guts and gore on screen.

Being more of a Nitendo Wii girl myself, does that mean I should abandon any dreams I may or may not have of becoming the world's greatest brain/heart/any-kind-of surgeon just because I'm not addicted to 'Call Of Duty' or other console games? The fact is I'm just not very into gaming as a past time although from time to time (mainly when I supposed to be revising) I do become engrossed in the sims.

Is that just me? Or is that a female predicament? I haven't done any rigorous investigation into the topic but from anecdotal evidence it seems that more men than women play video games? I know for a fact that the games industry has a 96% male workforce. Maybe they are just not designing games I want to play? Or maybe the games that I would play won't sell? Or maybe I'm just not interested in gaming as a pastime?

There are many questions. And many possible answers. (Sounds like something for some bright medical student to go and research)

Just as a closing thought, there's often another person in the operating room who has to hold the camera during keyhole procedures. That person is often a more junior doctor or at times a medical student. Now you may think that holding a camera is an easy compared to the difficult job of doing a whole surgery inside a tiny space. However I can personally say that it is in fact quite tiring doing it for hours on end without moving or changing position much. My question is: does doing an activity like yoga, which strengthens core muscles, help with doing this task? Or does the ability to enter a zen-like trance at will help make the hours fly by? Who does more yoga men or women? Could this mean that women are more suited to assistant type roles?

Very controversial I know.

Either way, I think it raises lots more questions.

Brave

I sometimes wonder why I write this. Or why I write anything.

I like to think that I have something meaningful to say. Something worth listening to. Something worth reading. But the thing is I don’t tell people about my writing or indeed that I write at all. Very few people know about this blog or my stories or poems. And to be completely honest, I am loath to tell them. I’m not very good at self-promotion. I’d rather be discovered by chance. A happy accident.

I envy people who are brave. Brave enough to show the world what they are made of. What they think, feel and believe.  To expose themselves to the potential ridicule of others and take the risk anyway.

Right now, I’m not even brave enough to put words to a blank page.

I wonder where did my courage go?

I have a story!

I have a story in the pipelines! *Squeal of excitement!* (Me, not you….although you can squeal too if you are excited for me) It’s a short story. My self-imposed deadline for it is 30^th September 2010.  Please hold me accountable. Thank you.

Escape to the Country

It’s (still!) the summer holidays and I am surrounded by – drowning in - daytime television. Has anyone watched this show before? I think it’s about a couple or a family that want to move from the city to the countryside so they go a look at properties (correct me if I’m wrong).  As a born and bred city girl, I have always thought that there’s just nothing to do there.

I will freely admit that I was wrong.

Fields. Trees. Greenery. Fresh air. It all suddenly hits me like a freight train when I leave the hustle and bustle of the city behind. The contrast is more dramatic on a train journey but I suppose on some level this is what the old motorway holidays were like. Exciting, romantic, and thrilling. *cough cough* My lungs aren’t used to this level of cleanliness. There are houses surrounded by empty space. Everything is just so spaced out. It’s amazing. The city is a bubble. Sometimes it’s hard to think there’s anything else outside of it. Sometimes it’s a bit claustrophobic. I can see why people escape. I might try it sometime.

Reunions

Reunions are great. Last week I met up with my friends from my sixth form. It’s fun to catch up with them and find out what’s going on in everyone’s lives. We get to celebrate each other’s achievements and rejoice in their successes. Since leaving school in 2006 most of them have been to university and graduated. It’s just me and the rest of the medics left now (and of course those who didn’t go to university).

There’s one caveat to the trip on the memory train. If you’re anything like me while everyone is talking and laughing (and spilling their Starbucks coffee) a part of your mind will wonder ‘what have you managed to do with the last four years?’ or more specifically ‘X has done something amazing! You have done nothing. You suck.’ I should really use those moments to spur me to do something that can at least become future anecdote in conversation. But I don’t.  Well sometimes I do, but mostly I don’t.

And then my mind snaps back – where was I, oh yes. Celebrating achievements, rejoicing success…lamenting my own seemingly miserable life.

And yes I know I know, a lot of people in the world have it much worse than I do. I know I know, I shouldn’t compare myself to other people. But come on everyone does it. I’m just being honest here.