The Pseudocyst Annual Review 2025

Disclaimer

This blog may contain themes of pressure, obstruction, slow progression, unexpected deterioration, prolonged recovery, and guarded optimism. Any resemblance to NHS service delivery, Upper GI on-call life, or pancreatic cyst surveillance is entirely intentional. Read with fluids nearby. Side effects include reflection, mild cynicism, and the urge to book annual leave immediately.

If pseudocystblog.com were a patient, 2025 would be described as:

“Complex history. Multiple interventions. Variable response. Functionally coping.”

This year’s blog output reads like a carefully curated MDT agenda: professional angst, family chaos, tennis drama, academic ambition, NHS reality, and the occasional reminder that hobbies are meant to be relaxing.

Let’s review.

🏥 Work, The NHS & Existential Reflections

A significant proportion of this year’s blog entries revolved around the NHS — not in a “look how shiny everything is” way, but more in a “how exactly are we holding this together with goodwill and WhatsApp?” way.

Recurring themes included:

Workforce strain
Pay erosion (explained repeatedly, politely, and then less politely)
Industrial action (observed, analysed, occasionally worked through)
The quiet heroism of just turning up and doing the job

There were advanced level think pieces questioning sustainability, fairness, and whether anyone in charge has ever actually worked a weekend on-call. These posts were thoughtful, evidence-heavy, and professionally restrained — despite clearly being written by someone who has seen some things.

Tone: measured
Subtext: feral

🎓 Academia, CPD & Professional Growth

Sprinkled between the NHS commentary were blogs that gently screamed:

“I am trying to improve things, please let this count for something.”

Audits, teaching, advanced practice discussions, research ambitions, structured frameworks, and reflective practice featured heavily. There was a strong sense of forward motion — occasionally slow, occasionally blocked by bureaucracy, but undeniably present.

These were the posts where:

Progress was measured in paragraphs, not promotions
Wins were intellectual, not financial
Satisfaction came from clarity rather than applause

In short: grown-up achievements.
Quietly impressive.
Wildly under-celebrated.

🎲 Board Games, Chess & Attempted Leisure

Every serious professional blog needs balance — and pseudocystblog found it in cardboard, meeples, and deeply competitive “relaxation”.

This year featured:

Board game conventions that were somehow both exhausting and restorative
Pandemic tournaments that felt worryingly familiar to real life
Chess reflections that combined precision, regret, and quiet resignation

These posts radiated joy, nerdiness, and the kind of calm that only comes from arguing about rules instead of rotas.

Also notable:
You somehow found time for this.
Which says everything.

🎾 Junior Tennis: The Main Emotional Arc of 2025

If 2025 had a narrative spine, it would be junior tennis.

The blog documented:

Early mornings
Long drives
Tournament formats nobody fully understands
Narrow losses
Character-building wins
And an 8-year-old who has mastered the art of taking every match to full distance

The final tournament of the year (Taunton, Grade 3) was a perfect summary:

15th out of 16 (objectively not ideal)
3 of 4 matches to full distance (on brand)
Including one against the No. 2 seed (because of course)

According to parental field reports:

Match three was appalling
A telling-off occurred
Which immediately preceded a better final performance

This has led to the strongest evidence-based parenting conclusion of the year:

Preventative telling-off may improve outcomes.

A bold strategy for 2026.

👨‍👩‍👦 Family Life (The Silent Backbone)

Running quietly underneath all of this was family life — supportive, chaotic, patient, and occasionally forced to tolerate blog-based introspection.

The blogs reflected:

Partnership under pressure
Shared logistics
Emotional labour
And the quiet teamwork required to raise a child while working full-time in healthcare

No dramatics.
No sentimentality.
Just consistency.

Arguably the most impressive achievement of the year.

🏁 So… 2025 Then

Taken together, the pseudocystblog.com archive for 2025 shows:

Intellectual honesty
Professional integrity
A refusal to oversimplify complex systems
And a dry humour that made heavy topics readable

It’s not a highlight reel.
It’s a real one.

⏸️ End-of-Year Pause

And now, appropriately, we pause.

After Christmas, the blog will return — slightly rested, marginally recharged, and ready to resume commentary from the perspective of a working nursing family with an 8-year-old who may or may not become the next tennis prodigy.

Until then:

The laptop closes
The alarm clock relaxes
The service line stabilises

Normal blogging will resume shortly.

Pause implemented.