@dresmerelda

ID/Micro Academic Doctor & Smiley-faced lover of purple

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Category: Healthy Living

Time (or in reality ‘Me’) Management

November 27, 2017November 27, 2017Leave a comment

I'm pleased to say that I've managed to achieve a fair bit so far in my career while being utterly useless at time. How? Read on...

Rejection and the ‘Science’ of Recovery

August 1, 2017August 1, 2017Leave a comment

Thinking positively isn't always that easy. Here I discuss how I learnt self confidence and coping strategies for a healthier mind.

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Totally late because I’ve been SO busy but here’s my slightly rushed but no less heartfelt happy birthday to our National Health Service. 💕🎉 • Music credit: Bae by Jef 🎼 • PS: sorry I’m a bit absent. Have been ridiculously busy but I’m not sure I can even pin down why! Have an (only slightly working) holiday coming up though 🙌 How are you guys?! 🤗😁 • #nhs #nhsat70 #research #doctorsofinstagram #doctorslife #vlog #purplehair #medicine #healthresearch #healthcareforall #scicomm #socialist #patientcare #patientsfirst #workhard #success #staygood #researchlife #medic #medstudent #nurses #premed #pa #care #transformationtuesday

🌟🌟🌟Interesting microbiome paper🌟🌟🌟: so, C diff is a bacteria that can happily live in your gut and cause no problems. However, lots of antibiotics can give the C diff opportunity to overgrow and become toxic. Sometimes we can’t kill it with targeted antibiotics so instead we have to replace the good bacteria- with a poo transplant 💩 Or at least so we thought. It struck me during our project that we must kill off a lot of the bacteria in poo transplants when we prepare it- so how come it works? 🤔 • Turns out I was probably right to be confused by how much could survive transplant prep. A recent study showed that if you transplant poo with bacteria known to be ‘dead’ it STILL works and cures the patient. They then found that the viruses survive 🤯 • Can’t help but think we’ve spent too much time looking at the bacteria... 💩 • Through the research-arm of the NHS, the NIHR, I got my Academic based job, integrated with my clinical time. It’s been the making of me for the last 3 years in particular- learning about the gut microbiome and conducting a pilot research project has been such a great experience. Just another reason to love the NHS! 👩🏻‍⚕️ • #researchlife #doctorslife #doctorsofinstagram #healthresearch #healthcareforall #medstudent #microbiome #gutmicrobiome #inthelab #saveournhs #nhsat70 #nhs #nursing #premed #pa #wearescience #scicomm #science #scientistswhoselfie #womeninscience #womeninmedicine #womeninresearch #microbiology #bacteria #infectiousdisease #virology #workstyle #purplehair #medicine #research

Some weeks in the NHS are harder than others, but all are rewarding. It’s rarely truly discussed but as doctors, we experience the highs and lows our patients do and we mourn the ones that die. 👩🏻‍⚕️ • This week, I’ve been upset for one patient with a drug addiction that we’ll struggle to safely offer pain killers for in the community when he goes ‘home’; I’ve been sorry to see the end coming for an elderly patient that doesn’t want too much active care; and I’ve been worried for a patient with multiple life-saving operations now caught in troublesome after effects. 😕 • But without the NHS, I may never have met any of these people. The patient with the drug addiction would surely have died without access to healthcare and social support; the elderly man saw the NHS start and advances in healthcare and medicine have reached him through it; the man with the life saving operations may have only had funding for the original cancer operation... Yet as their doctor in the NHS, I can be there for all 3 of them. I don’t worry about their finances when I decide to give them their antibiotics and order their scans. I can look after them equally. And isn’t that just something? 🙌 • #saveournhs #nhsat70 #doctorslife #doctorsofinstagram #microbiology #oncall #summerdress #ootd #stethoscope #scicomm #workattire #medstudent #medicine #nursing #healthcareforall #healthcare #infectiousdisease #microbiology #clinician #lifesaving #lovemyjob #patientsfirst #donoharm #premed #caring #fashion #vintagestyle #workhard #nhs #values

“The NHS will last as long as there’s folk with faith left to fight for it” 💪 • Next week, the National Health Service turns 70. Created shortly after WW2, it sought to address societal imbalance. But since its inception, it has been plagued by naysayers. I won’t deny it has flaws, but the concept of universal healthcare should be lauded, not criticised. We treat you whether you have so much money you don’t know what to do with it, or so little you can’t rub two pennies together. And moreover, despite political puede-string holders and issues, we genuinely strive to provide world-leading healthcare to every part of society. 👩🏻‍⚕️ • A couple of weeks ago I attended a course on Pathogen Genomics in the North of England. There is currently a large research project being undertaken to sequence the genomes of around 70,000 NHS patients with rare diseases. This is also about creating a new genomic medicine service for the UK, something that, as ID/Micro physicians and researchers, we hope will support and include state-of-the-art Microbiology services in the future too. 😍 • In the run-up to the NHS turning 70, I’ll be posting about why I value it so much and what it’s like to work here as a doctor and researcher. In the UK, the NHS has been there for most of us throughout our entire lives. Please feel free to join in and share why it’s special to you too or what value you see in it if you live elsewhere. 👇❤️ • #genome #womeninresearch #womeninscience #womeninmedicine #researchlife #nhs #saveournhs #nhsat70 #publichealth #doctorsofinstagram #doctorslife #medicine #showyoursupport #showyourstethoscope #workabroad #alwayslearning #stayhealthy #healthresearch #dna #scicomm #science #wearescience #genes #medic #medstudent #premed #nursing #pa

Throwback: can’t believe its coming up 3 years since we moved our lives and my career to start my research/ID job!! But time flies when you’re having fun. 🙌 • I find that for every paper I read on the microbiome, I end up with more questions. What’s clear is that there are so many associations between gut microbial health and human health, but working out cause and effect is tricky. The one that I still find amazing is the gut-brain axis. The fact that your little friends on the inside might even affect the way we think is fascinating. There are a number of factors in this: diet, hormones, the vagus nerve and short chain fatty acids to name a few. It’s a complex interplay but there’s something of a vicious-cycle feeling about it- diet is the first thing to go for me when I’m stressed and that has such an effect on the microbiome...💩 • There are clearer examples of the effect of organisms on their host in nature already though- parasites being particularly impressive for their ability to affect host behaviour. For example, the guinea worm causes the host to feel that their affected limb (usually foot) is burning and needs to go in water- just so it can burst its eggs out and complete the life cycle. 🙈 • #wearescience #scientistswhoselfie #nationalselfieday #instascience #microbiome #researchlife #gutmicrobiome #doctorsofinstagram #throwbackthursday #doctorslife #microbiology #infectiousdisease #parasitology #scicomm #throwback #careergoals #careerhighlight #lovemyjob #lucky #happy #vintagestyle #womeninscience #womeninresearch #womeninmedicine #globalhealth #medstudent #premed #nursing #pa #parasites

Is it just me that looks at the Grams sink and thinks of Jackson Pollock? 😂 • Had a pretty busy weekend. Amongst other calls, bed management and ward rounds, the lovely micro BMSs call through new blood culture gram results. I then have to ring out results and decide on antibiotics if appropriate. Having the gram stains is a helpful way of tailoring antibiotics while we wait for the organism to grow. Sometimes, it even points to a diagnosis the team weren’t expecting! Happy Monday folks 👩🏻‍⚕️ • #mondaymotivation #weekendwork #ward #microbiology #microscopy #science #scicomm #infectiousdisease #oncall #gramstain #inthelab #doctorsofinstagram #medicine #medic #md #premed #medstudent #nursing #biology #biomedicalscience #wearescience #art #scienceart

Last weekend was all about research, this weekend is all about clinical! I’ll be on call which means seeing our ward patients and taking calls from doctors about patients with infections. We’ve had some interesting but poorly patients this week. I was on the ward until 11pm last night and then in for clinic today!👩🏻‍⚕️ • Last weekend’s work has paid off though. By running gels I was able to pick out three other samples that can now have their DNA sequenced or “read” to find out what’s in them. Pictured in my hand are fluids we use to run this gel- one is a DNA ladder. When the electric current runs through the gel, the resulting picture of the ladder looks similar to the charts you can see behind me- the different ‘rungs’ correspond to different sizes of DNA. The other fluid, the loading buffer is mixed with my samples. It highlights the DNA in them so it can be seen next to the correspondingly-sized rung on the DNA ladder.👩🏻‍🔬 • Hope you have a great weekend folks! 💕 • #doctorslife #researchlife #doctorsofinstagram #medic #science #scicomm #agarose #gelelectrophoresis #instascience #wearescience #infectiousdisease #microbiology #oncalllife #oncall #medstudent #nurses #pa #hardworkpaysoffs #girlboss #vintagestyle #vintageclothing #fashion #friyay

HUGE congratulations to Paraguay, who have become the first country in the Americas to eradicate malaria since 1973. 🙌🙌 • Malaria killed nearly half a million people worldwide in 2016. Focusing on case management, community and patient education and engagement and diagnosis and treatment options, Paraguay interrupted their malaria transmission. The independent Malaria Elimination Certification Panel therefore made the recommendation to the WHO to announce that Paraguay was officially Malaria-free 👍 • This is such a great reminder of what can be achieved with good surveillance, education and universal free medical treatment. Hurrah! ❤️ • Picture: Plasmodium falciparum (the deadliest type of malaria) forming ring-shaped parasites in red blood cells 💉 • #malaria #southamerica #globetrotter #globalhealth #publichealth #infectiousdisease #microbiology #microscope #blood #bloodfilm #doctorslife #doctorsofinstagram #science #scicomm #womeninmedicine #research #surveillance #celebrate #success #achievinggoals #parasites #parasitology

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