As I sit here typing this out I have hiccups. I actually got annoyed at my diaphragm for spasming just now, a little reference to a previous article there! I often get hiccups, not for very long but my diaphragm must be prone or something.
It’s been an eventful and enjoyable week I’m pleased to say. I am at 17 brains now, feeling pretty good about that. I put up a post-it on the wall of the office by where I sit with a tally as I’m sure I’ll lose count at some point. I think it’s good to count as it will be fun later on to recall for people as well as it being a good track of progress. I don’t think I’ll bang on about it quite so much going forward but I’ll probably just mention milestones. I think I’ll aim for 25 as my first milestone, should get to that in a couple of months I predict.
My work in the post-mortem room is coming along as I’ve definitely got better at everything. I can see my confidence growing each day, and I’m stupidly close to being able to do it on my own now for straightforward cases. It’s partly my own confidence holding me back, I struggled with a bladder today for no reason other than my own hesitance. Must remember to believe in myself more!!
A few notable things, in my mind, happened this week and are as follows. A colleague and I got to take one of our patients to Radiology for a CT scan which I have never seen before. CT stands for Computed Tomography, I just had to google that so don’t worry if you didn’t know that. The images produced are a complete 3D image shown in slices across planes of the body. This was absolutely fascinating and a change from the normal day to day work! Huge thank you to the staff in radiology for being lovely and for also finding it quite funny when the machine asked our patient to hold their breath.
At one point this week a patient in the post-mortem room had a tattoo with someone’s name on it and two other people in the room with that name. This made me chuckle a bit at the irony of them all there together. In the office one day we discussed something called situs inversus I’d like to mention to you all. This is where the organs of the body are completely reversed in location. For example, their spleen will be on their right side where in majority of people it’s on the left. From a little bit of research I found that this is a very uncommon occurrence although it is hereditary. Further to that, Enrique Iglesias has situs inversus according to Wikipedia! As far as I can see this condition will not cause you any problems, although it can cause confusion in situations like appendicitis and the pain is on the wrong side which can delay diagnosis if the condition is not known. Fascinating stuff!
Next week I’m off to a training course I will be certain to update you all on. No planned trips anywhere else but the training does take me into the city so I might see if I can include a little cheeky cemetery visit somehow.
Have a great weekend everyone and a huge thank you to you all for reading as always. Keep the comments and questions coming as I love hearing from you all!
MG x
Mortuary Gem 
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