20 Things I've Learnt at 20 Years

Hey guys,

I turned 20 on the 16th of March alhamdulillah (have I dragged out my birthday for long enough yet?). As you can tell by the title of this post, I am going to be imparting some knowledge I have gained from all my 20 years of life. I enjoy these types of videos on YouTube, so I thought it would be fun to do my own but blog-style.

1. Hard work translates to success a lot of the time. But, I have learnt that sometimes you can put in lots of effort and not reach the goal you set and that is OKAY. Perhaps, that thing was not meant for you or it is meant for you but not yet. Your life is a journey, try and enjoy the ride.

2. That leads me on to the second thing I've learnt. Patience is a very important attribute to have in life. 

3. Don't stress the small stuff. At the end of the day, if it won't matter in the long term, is it really worth your tears? No, thought so. I've learnt to leave things in the hands of Allah, God. I do what I can and hope for the best.

4. If you love or like someone, tell them. I'm thinking, parents, grandparents, friends, siblings etc. To be honest, I am still working on this.

5. Do not be scared to step out of your comfort zone and try new things. It is hard, of course. But, you would be surprised how much more fun and rewarding your life would be that way.

6. Stop being such a homebody and just go out and have fun. Especially if you are ever feeling down, a dose of banter with friends will help at least a little. Obviously don't overstep your own boundaries but socialising can do a lot more for you than Netflix or your bed. That is coming from introvert so.... Or maybe I'm not an extrovert. That could be another thing I've learnt.

7. Don't 'beg it' with anything or anyone. Not everyone will like you and that is okay. i/e never force friendships, relationships, ponytails... If you do, you're bound to get a headache.

8. Do not let anyone make you feel like crap. I can be meek sometimes, but when it comes to my mental well-being, only I'm allowed to make it worse. But that leads me to my next point.

9. Practice self love consistently until it becomes second nature. It is important to be nice to yourself and the body you were given.

10. For the love of God, go to bed on time.

11. Always wear what makes you feel the most comfortable and good.

12.  Twitter is very addictive. I have learnt that, from time to time, I need to stage an intervention for myself and log out/ delete the app.

13. Same as above but about Instagram.

14. Learn how to do your own thing, even if it means having no one there with you. If it is what you are passionate about, that should be enough.

15. There is rice at home.

16. What you think is a lot of money before the age of like 18, is really not that much money at all.

17. As demonstrated by the mess that is Brexit, avoid leaving things to the last minute. Let's be honest, I'm going to need a miracle to completely get rid of my procrastination tendencies but all you can do is try your best. Repeat after me: "Procrastination IS A SIN!".

18. Self reflection is very important. I have my course to thank for this. (You didn't think I was going to make a blog post without referring to the fact that I'm a medical student did you?) A huge part of being a medical student and future doctor is being able to reflect effectively on your personal growth, scenarios you find yourself in and your interactions with others.

19. It seems like the more outgoing you are, the more likely you are to do well in life.

20. You are not running out of time, or behind. Not everyone can be a billionaire by the age of 20 nor do they need to be. Stop comparing yourself to celebrities.

Week In My Life: 2nd Year Med Student

Hello lovelies, welcome to another blog post from me, Aisha. It's been a while.

This is detailing what I get up to in a week as a second year medical student. It's basically a secret diary on the internet- so not so secret... But, I hope you enjoy. I put pictures of the outfits I wore too.

I just want to start off by saying I am a MuSlAmIc Muslim and I pray 5 times a day this isn't mentioned later in the blogpost and read the Quran most mornings- also not mentioned later on.
Okay, bye.

Monday:

Woke up: 7am

Breakfast: 8:30am

I thought I had a lecture at 9 and was ready for 9am but that was not the case so I had an hour to spare. So, I should do some work, catch up on work right? Nah, I decided to take an outfit pic. Keep reading to see it.

I then had 3 lectures back to back from 10am to 1pm. I found that tiring as we haven't had that in a while and we usually have breaks between the lectures. They were on screening and surveillance, metabolism of alcohol and liver disease and failure. For a bit of context, we're currently doing the gastrointestinal system/block. 

I got a Greggs three cheese pizza with a friend - yumm. 

At 2 - had a debrief session and this is where we talked about our 2nd week at hospital and reflected on it. We also did a patient-doctor practice with history taking focused on Urogenital and Neurosensory systems.

At 4, we finished that and went to last lecture of the day. 

Relaxed till about 6.  

I then planned out my evening. 

- cook and eat dinner 

- prep for CAHR tomorrow
- lecture notes 

- do this blogpost 

- make a poster for an event my society is hosting 

I need to go to bed early becauseeeee your girl is tired. Hopefully be done with everything by 10:30.
Hey, it's me from Tuesday: I went to bed at 11.

OOTD: 'Casual But Cute'

Tuesday:

Woke up at 7:15

Ate 8:30- ish

Had CAHR ( Critical Analysis ....don't know what the H and R stand for to be honest) from 10-12. The main focus was analysing a case control study about Colo-rectal cancer screening as a small group and presenting our thoughts to the rest of the group (30 people).
It was a cold room. Quite boring at times.
But, I did learn some things about screening (Wilson-Jungner) and how to check how reliable studies are in translating to real life situations.

At 12 - lecture. Not bad. But long. Title was Inflamatory Bowel Disease.

At 1 - escaped from this lecture. Shh. But the slides were up so I will go through it on my own. Had lunch- some pasta.

Got a choc muffin from Lidl. I'm oBsEsSeD. OMG.

At 2:30- had a driving lesson till about 4. I'm an... interesting driver. Only just restarted from not having driven for nearly 2 years- so let's go easy on me okay? cool.

Got home at like 4:30.

Did some lecture notes from then till about 6.

I found out that my team made it to the final of a  medical ethics debate competition. It'll be taking place in March and I'm pretty excited. I'm proud of us for making it!

Ran through a PowerPoint presentation with my friend- for first year teaching. Took us about 2 hours because we were relearning the things on the slide.

From 8 to 10 - literally did nothing and just chilled - jammed to some great toonz. Had dinner- frozen pizza and chicken nuggets- basicallyyyyyy New Year's Resolution is out of the window.

Taking 10 minutes to write this blogpost.


OOTD: This one is called 'Let Go Of The Festive Season Aisha'

 



Wednesday:

Woke up 7-ish again

Went down to do laundry.
Had shower
Put clothes in dryer
Had breakfast

Did some quick prep for HARC & took outfit pics.

At 10 went to HARC. HARC stands for Human Anatomy Resource Centre- where we learn anatomy using prosections of people who donated their body to science- pretty amazing.

At 12 - went to lib for half an hour

Got pizza slice from Greggs again. yum.

Went to lecture at 1 - about intestinal failure

Came home and chilled

Had lunch.

I did lecture notes- watched YouTube videos to help.
I've been procastinating RS2*.

I quickly ran through the PowerPoint again with my flatmate and then did more lecture notes.

Watched 3 episodes of Hollyoaks - I went from bashing the acting one year to getting hooked this year lol.

OOTD: This one is called ' Teddy Bear But It Was Raining So I Had To Change Coats'

Thursday

Woke up at: nearly 8 due to having a  late night :/

Had CBL* at 10 - 12.
*CBL stands for Case Based Learning and it's a group session (there's like 7 of us) and we answer questions based on patient cases/ case studies linked to the system we are studying. (E.g. Mr X has so and so symptoms. On examination, xyz... What is his condition? Answer some questions about his condition.)

Radiology lecture at 12-1

1-3 was in the library catching up on some notes. Printed off some papers for my RS2* in hopes that it will be easier to read the papers.




3-5 made rice. read the papers - success

5-8 prep for and presenting the endocrine system to 5 groups of first year students.

Just chilling till its bed time :D

OOTD: 'Monochrome Moods' 



Friday:

Woke up, ate at normal times.

At 10-12 Clinical Skills. Here, we learn how to do clinical examinations and procedures. This session was about thyroid gland examination and lymph nodes examination.

At 12- there was a picture quiz. I won. Only kidding.

Went to the library to do work/ notes/ read and annotate my articles for RS2.

Went home at 3

Went to my RS2 meeting at 5

TGIF!! Just chilling and watching lots of youtube. Doing today's blogpost.


OOTD: 'Med Student Chic'  



Wearing scrubs because we have to for clinical skills.



*
RS = Research and scholarship. 2000 words reviewing medical literature based on a specific topic. My topic is the use of PET-CT for Follicular Lymphoma prognostication.

Update: Starting Medicine

Today is Saturday the 16th of September and it's the day before I move to Liverpool to begin my journey as a medical student.

I am:
1- excited- I'm actually going to be studying anatomy and physiology and stuff. Wow.

2- nervous/ worried- Imagine if I fail or something? Ahh!

3- thankful- I didn't get here on my own. Alhamdulillah for parents who put up with my breakdowns; teachers who answered my questions; and friends who cried with me and gave me moral support.

4- proud- your girl got A*AA.

Many times during the whole application process for medical school, I felt inadequate and I felt that I wasn't going to make it. It started with my GCSE results, I thought they were below par at 4A* s and 7 A compared to straight A*s I was seeing on TheStudentRoom. I see now that I compared myself to others too often and judged myself too harshly. Then, when it came to studying for the UKCAT, I was so scared by how quickly we were supposed to answer such tough questions. But, I did it and I got an average score of 666, which isn't bad. It was then time to sign up for UCAS and write a personal statement. God only knows how many drafts I wrote, there were loads! Even when I submitted my final draft I wasn't sure I was completely happy.

My biggest obstacle and my arch nemesis, however, was Chemistry. A combination of a bad teacher, a new syllabus, shaky GCSE foundation and lack of organisation meant I was constantly struggling with this subject. I got predicted a B and I remember crying to my Head of Sixth Form because I thought my medical career had ended before it even began *cries*. So, in Year 13, I got my act together, wrote notes way in advance of the lessons, asked questions, did practice questions and tried to understand things properly and not just memorise them. When I saw that A grade on results day, I was OVER THE MOON.

Applying for medical school and trying to get in was very intense and challenging but I'm not naive, I know the hardest part is yet to come.

LET'S GO!!

Prenatal Screening for Down's Syndrome

My interest in Down's Syndrome testing was fueled by the BBC documentary ' A World Without Down's Syndrome ' by Sally Phillips who in fact has a son, Olly, with Down's Syndrome. In addition, my teacher suggested a radio programme called A Moral Maze where people with opposing opinions could discuss their thoughts on the new 'fool-proof' prenatal Down's tests.

What is Down's Syndrome?

Down's Syndrome is a genetic disease also known as Trisomy 21. Down’s syndrome is caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21 in every cell of a person’s body. Most of the time, it is not inherited and is the result of a random genetic mutation in the sperm or the egg. 

        

Down's Syndrome Testing:

It measures the nuchal translucency and two pregnancy hormones called Papp-A (pregnancy-associated plasma protein) and HcG (human chorionic gonadotrophin) and is performed between 11 and 13 weeks of pregnancy.

The nuchal translucency scan is an ultrasound scan which measures the pocket of fluid at the back of the baby’s neck. An increased amount of fluid may mean the baby has an increased chance of having Down’s syndrome. The measurement is combined with a blood test and age to estimate the risk.

For women who want to be screened after 13 weeks, they can have blood tests between 16 and 19 weeks. It can either be:

1. The triple test where three hormones are measured (Hcg, afp and uE3)

2. The quadruple test where four hormone levels are measured (uE3, afp, Hcg and inhibin)

Screening test should have a detection rate of at least 75%. The likelihood that a pregnant woman will be given a false positive is less than 3%. This is when a woman is told that her baby has Down’s when in fact it does not. 

If screening shows you have an increased chance of having a baby with Down’s syndrome, you will be offered one of two diagnostic tests.

These are called CVS or amniocentesis.

Amniocentesis: A sample of the amniotic fluid surrounding the fetus is withdrawn through a needle inserted into the mother's uterus.

This sample is then used to analyse the chromosomes of the fetus. Doctors usually perform this test in the second trimester, after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The test carries a slight risk of miscarriage, but risk increases if it's done before 15 weeks. 

Chorionic villus sampling (CVS): cells are taken from the placenta and used to analyse the fetal chromosomes. Typically performed in the first trimester, after 10 weeks of pregnancy, this test appears to carry a somewhat higher risk of miscarriage than second trimester amniocentesis.

 

HPV Jabs

I remember a period of Year 9 when the terror of 'HPV jabs' was the biggest stress in my life. (How I miss those days). I also recall knowing little, if not nothing, about what I was being vaccinated against. So, when I saw an article about it in a June edition of The New Scientist, I was intrigued and kept reading. I was excited to find new information and to understand those distant injections.

Since 2008, all girls in the UK between the ages of 12-13 are vaccinated against Human Papilloma virus. This virus is known to possibly cause cervical cancer and is spread by sexual activity. The idea is that the girls receive these vaccines before their sexual 'debut'. Currently, it is only given to girls.

The article that I read was about the pending decision in the UK to make the vaccine available to gay and bisexual men as the virus can also cause penile, anal and throat cancer. However, it is currently given to all boys in the US and Australia and I think the UK should follow suit. The idea, as I previously mentioned, is to get the vaccine before your sexual 'debut' so that people are protected against the virus before being exposed to it.

Back to my HPV jab nightmares and curiosity about what HPV is.
HPV (Human Papilloma virus) is actually the name given to a virus family. These viruses can be high risk or low risk depending on the conditions they cause. High risk = cervical cancer. Low risk= warts and verrucas.

How would the vaccine help? Well it contains Gardasil which protects against the two viruses that cause 70% of cervical cancer cases and also as a bonus protect against the virus that causes genital warts.

It has been proven that the vaccine protects you for as long as 10 years and scientists think it could be longer. Thinking about it now, I realise how lucky I am to have received those jabs through the NHS when I was younger. The terror was definitely worth it.

Thanks for reading and please look out for more.

Aisha