There are two TV shows which are largely responsible for my medical career. The first was ‘Doctors to be’ which scarily first aired on BBC2 in 1992. If you didn’t see it at the time clips still exist on youtube which I would wholeheartedly recommend. If that was my initial introduction to the world of medicine, the second programme quite literally got me through my A-levels….I speak of course of the one-and-only ER. It not only launched George Clooneys career, but in a round about way, also mine.

The one thing that TV medical dramas fail to ever properly convey is how ‘grey’ medicine is. Very often things aren’t clearly obvious and it is only with time, thought and patience that answers appear. Clearly this would make for very dull TV, but it does make for very good medicine. The reason for this preamble, is that most of the health concerns in the following article might be due to a serious underlying condition, but are more commonly caused by something much more benign. ’50 Shades of Grey’ may not have prompted my medical career but (the sentiment) is certainly what my day-to-day work is all about.