May have made a BIG mistake taking full-time job - help!!!

[pygmyangel]

Hoping there's someone out there who can offer a bit of advice as I think I may have made a huge mistake in taking on this new job.
I've been working part-time in an NHS lab for the past 2.5 years, 18 hours a week, 1:30-7:30 over three days. My DP-soon to be DH-works 250 miles away so is only home on a weekend. We have 2 dc's aged 7 and 2 and i'm also doing some OU study.
I have thought about becoming a doctor for years now and always thought i'd never be able to but it turns out it could be a possibility.
Knowing I needed some practical caring experience to get into med school i decided to apply for, and got a full-time post as a team assistant in the same hospital, however 2 weeks in and i can't cope.
My questions are:

Has anyone ever done this before (i'm sure i can't be the only one!)and what did you do?

Is it ever possible to persuade a new employer that they're better off with you part-time than not at all?

Has anyone ever gone back to a previous job and how did you approach your old boss?

Are there any doctors about that trained later in life with a family in tow and manged to keep their sanity?

Just thought i'd add I have to go to bed now or will never get up in the morning so will check back then

You can do anything for the work experience for medical school as long as it's caring of some sort I believe, even voluntary work. Training as a doctor is really time consuming, all NHS courses are. They do always eat into your life and take it over. I'm not a doctor, I'm a student radiographer, it's hard going, especially working on placement in the hospital, having coursework and looking after ds. He's 10 now, I am hoping to do medicine but am waiting until he becomes more self sufficient as I didn't think it was fair on him to work 60 odd hours a week when he needed me so much. I have met medical students with younger families, they manage with support from families and childminders. They rarely manage to collect their children from school though as they normally study until 5pm or are in the hospital until midnight.

You should discuss it with your partner as it's not easy to do this without support.

I don't know much about NHS or training as a doctor, but I wanted to give a couple of points about working full time:

1. Two weeks in is way, way too early to tell if it will work. It does sound like it will be hard with a partner who works away, but it takes a good few months to develop the juggling and strategies that come with working full time. I would suggest setting yourself a time period - a lot of people pick three months- telling yourself that you will do it until then and then review.

1. If you don't have help at home, is there any way you could afford some. Personally, cleaning is the one that kill?me. Depending where you are in the country, a couple of hours to keep on top of it probably isn't that expensive, and may reduce the 'headless chicken' effect.

1. If you stick it out for six months, you do at least have the legal right to ask them to consider part time hours in this job.

Hope that helps a bit