Against my better nature on a weekend, my day started relatively early with my alarm. I wanted to have eaten and showered before my on call started at 9, and just about managed it.
The first call was at 10am, when I joined the on call doctor conference call. I was pleased to hear several familiar voices, including a couple of people I went through training with, so I am sure we are in good hands today. There were a couple of assessments to be completed, but otherwise little to report and the meeting was short.
After the call finished, Sarah and I continued our mission to sort through our stuff before we move out on the 12th June. Today it was the turn of the top of the wardrobe, cupboard under the stairs and the airing cupboard. Within an hour or so we had enough bags to fill my car, so had to stop as we do not have more space until I can get to the recycling centre again on Tuesday.
After our sorting spree, it was time to take the dog for a walk, and back to the in-laws. He was full of energy today, in part buoyed by the strong winds which he is a particular fan of, so we took a more circuitous route than usual to make sure some of his energy was burned off.
When we dropped him off we briefly saw Sarah’s dad (at a distance of course). He has been painting garden furniture and seemed well.
It was during our walk that I received my first call of the day. It was switchboard checking the number they called me on was the number I was using. I did wonder what they would have done if it was not the number I use, but thought better of asking the question and simply confirmed she had called my number instead.
Back home, and I spent much of the afternoon working through Cloud Atlas. I am about half way through now, and both loving the book and completely confused as to the direction the story is taking. What I do know is I am glad I decided to stop reading the previous book to read this instead.
My second call of the day came from a junior colleague seeking advice about a patient she was considering admitting to hospital. In ordinary times, psychiatrists assessing a patient for admission would not need to discuss this with the on call consultant, as they are perfectly capable of making the decision to admit or not. Currently it has been agreed any patients will be discussed with the consultant, because of the increased risk of catching COVID from admission to hospital. As it happened, today I agreed with the trainee that admission was the best option.
For dinner, Sarah made a prawn coconut curry with rice on the side, which was lovely. The plan this evening is to watch a film, possibly Ghost, before I have my second conference call of the day with the night team at 10pm. Hopefully things remain much the same this evening and tomorrow, and before I know it, it will be Monday morning and my on call will be done.
(And for those eagle-eyed amongst you, I have changed the Lockdown Blog photo slightly, good spot. If you had not noticed, see if you can guess what has changed.)
Self-Indulgent Twaddle 