Waking Hours

Dr Doireann O’Leary (31) is a medical doctor and health blogger. She also loves fashion, and posts photos of her outfits on Instagram. Born in Cork, she lives in Cork city with her husband, Peter. He is a surgeon

Ireland’s most glamorous GP

My husband, Peter, is in general surgery, and his alarm goes off at 5.45am. So he is up and out. I like to get up with him. I work in a general practice, but I don’t start work until 9.30am. I shower, and then I have coffee. Then I take my supplements — vitamin D, a probiotic for my IBS, and folic acid.

I have a bit of an unusual ritual. Because I’m up much earlier than I need to be, I get in the car and drive into town, where I work. I have my coffee, and then I’ll spend an hour-and-a-half working on my blog, in my car, on the phone. I might be writing or researching a new article. I get asked a lot of questions — ‘Will you talk about skin cancer or urinary tract infections?’.

I started the blog in July 2017. Up until then, I was working as a junior doctor in a hospital, and I was putting in 100 hours a week. I had no time to myself. I had no hobbies, I didn’t meet people, and I didn’t see my family. I was hardly exercising, and I didn’t pay attention to my own health. I was grabbing food from vending machines.

I was doing 24-hour shifts and then staying even longer than that. It was brutal. Some people are really suited to it. They can run on adrenaline and function without sleep. But I’m an eight-hour-sleep type of person. I loved the medicine and the patients, but I couldn’t function properly. I felt sorry for the patients.

Then I turned 30, got married and I moved to a general practice. All of a sudden, I was like a normal person with a normal job. I went home at night and I slept. Friday evenings would come and I’d be able to think about what I could do at the weekend.

It was such a novelty. Writing my blog was a new hobby. I wanted to show the positives within the healthcare system in Ireland. I was very excited again about being a doctor.

In hospital, I wore scrubs all the time,

but in general practice, you wear your clothes to work. Then I started sharing photos of my outfits. There was nothing more to it than that. I enjoy fashion. I get a kick out of it. Life is serious enough, but a nice dress or a pair of shoes will bring a smile to my eye. But it doesn’t take up much time. I do all my shopping online. When I’m off work, I want to spend that time with Peter.

When I started the blog, people asked why I was a doctor. I chose medicine because I love science, and I like to know how things work. I like problem-solving, and then as I got older and more mature, I realised that I liked to help people. Medicine isn’t in my family at all.

I work from 9.30am until 6pm. The thing about general practice is that you can have anything — an elderly man with a sore toe; a worried mother coming in about a sick baby; or you could have somebody saying, ‘I had a heart attack last week, what do I do now?’

As soon as a patient walks through the door, I am assessing them. Are they looking you in the eye, chatting or in pain? I think the key to being a good GP is saying as little as possible and just letting the patient tell you what’s going on. I don’t mind if people look up things on the internet. I think it shows an interest in their health.

The biggest challenge of being a GP is time management. Appointments tend to be 15 minutes, but if somebody needs more than that, then I will give them that time. We are all human. You build up a relationship with your patients. You know their medical history and what’s going on in their family.

The role of the GP is to be an emotional support to people, too. Somebody might have lost a loved one, and there is nowhere to go to to say, ‘This is really sad’. Or they might be bullied in work.

Everybody has problems in life, even doctors, but it’s never about us. Some patients sympathised with me about my dad’s death, but I kept it brief. My priority is to help the patient with their problem. I love my job.

I go home for lunch and I have something bland and boring like chicken and salad. I have to cut out certain foods because of my IBS, but it doesn’t bother me. I’m not a foodie. I follow a low-FODMAP diet, and that works for me. The main thing with IBS is knowing your triggers and staying away from them. Exercise is hugely important for it, too. Stress management is important for your physical health, not just for IBS.

I check in with Peter on the phone. I always want to hear about his day. I met him in UCC. I was on his medical team and then, when I saw him at a dance a while later, I asked him up [for a dance]. I wasn’t normally that pushy. I don’t know what came over me. He was my first and

“The key to being a good GP is saying as little as possible and letting the patient talk”

only boyfriend. He’s a very positive person.

I go to the gym about four times a week. I jump on the cross-trainer and listen to some music. I don’t drink or smoke, and I keep myself healthy.

On week nights, I aim to be in bed before 10pm. I’m big into sleep hygiene

— methods so you get a good night’s sleep. I don’t take phone calls after 7pm, and I don’t look at emails at night.

Then I put in my earplugs and put on my eye mask. I also have an air-cooler thing that creates a white noise which helps me fall asleep. It’s a bit extreme, but it all stems from not sleeping after long shifts working in hospitals. I have to work at going to sleep.

Meanwhile, Peter drifts off like a normal person.