DELHI ON SALE!

No Delhi was not up for sale but I think each n every shop in each of the Delhi's markets had sale on…….I hadn't realized the implication that this sale would have on my shopping budget but in the end I bought stuff worth Rs. 7000 (approx 140$) for Rs. 4000 (approx 80$)………that's a saving what say??!!

The shopping had started on the pretext that both me and my sister were in dire need of a pair of jeans n even I couldn't believe what all I had bought at the end of the spree…….

………you see the problem with jeans n me is that the exact fit is very hard to find…..i had to go through hours of walking n shop visiting n atleast over fifty trials to actually land on one particular jeans that was the right fit, wasn't vulgar or didn't have a cheap look to it………since it was sale season I inquired about the price….guess what we were told…?there was NO discount on the jeans BUT if we shopped for rs 2000 (approx 40$) we would get another rs.2000 worth of shopping free….now this is a God's gift to any girl………I went ballistic………I mean do u know what that means? well I'll tell you what it finally boiled down to……. A pair of denim jeans with a touch of pink in it ………. A pair of denim capris………one white t shirt n a pink sleeveless top………I just cant explain the happiness I felt that day…..the whole day I was smiling ……..

Another pink top that i acquired isn't MY pink top.... its actually my sister's but I borrowed it from her for a certain outing ……its by Provogue………..when I first saw it I simply detested it……I mean pink!?n that too with a net lining along the collar…..it was on sale n I still didn't wanna buy it….but it was the first thing that my sister had actually demanded during the entire shopping spree…..so I just couldn't say no to her….. Then comes the best part …..the price…..well it was on sale…..the actual price was rs.700 (approx. 18$) but after the discount it came to…….your guess……!!!!hehehe…..it was cheap…..cheaper than I had thought ……n that was a branded t shirt mind you……….. Well it went on to buy another pair of jeans from Pantaloons and a matching white belt to go with it……(remember niru you always wanted me to have a belt!!) I even ended up buying a yo yo cause a friend who had accompanied us had absolutely given his heart away for it!! Imagine the situation was so desperate that we bought a rs. 150(approx.3$) worth yo yo which from somewhere else outside would have been dirt cheap(cant convert it anymore)……….but I finally bought it n u should have seen the smile ……….it was bigger than any that you could see on a girl's face if you bought her a diamond set!!.......:)

PS: after all this I had dreaded what my parents would do when we returned …..but except for a sly comment from my mom that it seemed that we had bought the entire market…….all was well n so I am writing this wearing the pink t n the jeans with a pink dash n the white belt to go………………

letter to the editor

THIS WAS A LETTER THAT I HAD SENT TO METRONOW A DAILY IN DELHI WITH REGARDS TO A PARTICULAR ARTICLE THAT HAD APPEARED IN THEIR PAPER....UNFORTUNATELY IT WAS NOT PUBLISHED..........



Dear Metro Now,
It is quite commendable that no act of negligence goes unnoticed by your reporters & that you bring it to all your readers( AIIMS doctors leave towel in lady's stomach- Friday,10.08.07).
On that note i would like to bring to light that only the doctor is not responsible inside the operation theatre.There are nurses and other assistants who are also present to make sure all materials (like swabs,towels,etc) are counted before the start & end of the operation.So its not just a one man show!
On the same note i would like to ask why doctors are portrayed so grimly??Why don't you do an article on how many lives are saved by the doctors each day?!
With the inhuman working conditions, time constraints, extreme work load, mounting pressure of consumer protection acts & legal proceedings and newspapers after their lives its a wonder medicine is still one of the most sought after professions!!

casualty contd.........................

4 night duties and 15days after when i look back at casualty posting it has been the most fulfilling posting.....it has been satisfying on the professional as well as on personal front......
professionaly it is needless to say that exposure to patients first hand is a different feeling all together........thinkin of all the possibilites for causes and racking ur brain for the management and sometimes not knowing what to do and so finally ending up referring the cases to seniors or to respective wards.......one thing i learnt most about was acute gastroenteritis or vomiting and diarrohea for the uninitiated........not only did we see the spectrum of the illness from the most mild cases to the really serious almost dead patients..we learnt something else....something very basic which may not be of much use later iin life but at that time we were proud of it........"to excel in the art of inserting cannulas for intravenous lines" (or drips for those not aware of this terminology)........in order to rehydrate these patients we excelled in inserting cannulas.....in any size n shape; of both the cannula n the patient.....here i must thank a particular senior resident from orthopaedics who took pains to teach me how to insert the i.v. cannula correctly........i must say he was a very down to earth person.......he saw all patients ......he did not differentiate them into paediatric cases or surgical or medical..........he did not feel lowly to start iv lines himself when other senior doctors told us that it was a nurse's job n not theirs.......he made almost all diagnoses correct n among all the chaos n mob of patients he took out time to teach a few things here n there.....n mind you in case someone did not know the answer he did not undermine or humiliate that person........he even stayed up most of the time on the night shifts (when all most all seniors went off to sleep by 1 or 2)......n to know that he did his post graduation from PGI just bowled me over.......cause he was so humble........no airs about himself.......i salute u sir n i wish there were more like u......

on the personal front i made new friends-pav ....bonded with my college mate yani........all this while we never had had so much of interaction especially with someone from the college of the hospital....but both me and yani bonded well with pav.........infact pav was the first one to mention that we were just like them(them here refers to those who have done their mbbs from india).........n that we were a lil different from other externees.........probably cause we took our work seriously or maybe the fact that we actually worked!!.......... anyhow wot pav said really touched me .....he said he felt like we were one of them......he is a very down to earth person n really helpful....people like him are rare to find......he also gave us advice on how to tackle interns who dont work or give u trouble........well the talk on this issue started coz dev just wouldnt work........he would keep sitting there not doing anything........waiting till someone really picked him out to do the work....giving stupied excuses like he didnt hav his specs......we did many suturings.but he....i can count ....maybe not more than 5 times........n cannulas that too ......maybe 10 .........whereas our counts were too high to be counted........

anyhow casualty ended and i felt that i learnt quite a few things......n now that i look back im very satisfied with the way it turned out n with the way i completed it..........hope my other postings turn out like this one too...........(amen!!)

Casualty

casualty posting was by far my best posting. itruly enjoyed it. i had heard a lot about it before i started....that how the shifts were hectic and the enormous workload which seemed overburdening.........
the day we were supposed to report we reached at around 8:30 am thinking that the shift changes at 9 am. all of us were huddled outside the CMO's office(cheif/casualty medical officer)
we waited (as if waiting was also part of our training schedule!!)their were students from the attached college also.needless to say we were far apart.i even overheard tehm enquiring about us.....who we were?where we came from....as we had breached there territory.........(i am sure we certainly didnt llok like aliens......!!)
when the CMO came we didnt realise.......we were soon called inside and asked to submit our rosters n then asked to go outside n wait.......after 10minutes or so the peon came out n handed us a pieceof paper.on it was our schedule.around 14-15 of us were divided into 3-4 batches....some got morning, some evening and some night.....and a lucky few got the day off too....those in the evening and night shifts grumbled as they left to return again......i was happy i got the morning shift and it was already 11am or so & the shift changed at 2....
anyhow i was grouped with one of my college mates- yani* & one from the college attached to the hospital - pav*.the fourth one we couldnt spot (dev*)
when all had settled down......we also got down to our business.......but what was our business?now keeping in mind that we were one posting old.......(dermat)-where only our seniors worked & we just observed or waited or did miniscule jobs like giving injections or takin biopsies.......but here we waited for some instructions or things of that sort.....but nothing like that happened..........this went on for about 5minutes till the Medical officer in charge(M.O.) told us that we were "no longer interns but that we were doctors........& that we were to treat patients...on our own!!
with puzzled looks on our faces we turned towards the centre of the room where 2-3 tables were joined together and "doctors" were seated. we looked at Pav.......he was already seeing some patients........so me n devi also sat down n began our task...........

(.....to be continued......)
*names have been changed

can it get any better?

sometimes, some days you get a feeling that things couldnt have turned out any better....its one of those days when u feel like questioning the very existence of things........... beings in this world......
when things go wrong ......(yes one at a time doesnt work for me).......they just go horribly wrong.....
today was my first day of PSM/rural posting.......i was actually on time .......everything was perfect except for my luck i guess.........
just merely 100 metres before my hospital a maruti 800 driver decided to apply the brakes all of a sudden....the toyota corolla in front of me applied brakes n saved himself n had to time to manoeuvre himself out of the potential mess........i applied braked too n saved myself from ramming into the toyota(THANK GOD for theSEAT BELT that i am SAFE!!).........but i wasnt that fortunate......the zen behind me was either slow in applying brakes or had old brakes or did not notice me braking .....and after a scrreeeeeeeeeech and a thuuud...........n jolt forward i got down to inpsect the damage........the left side of my car's bumper had got twisted n the protector from inside(a rod of steel) was jutting out.........
the zen behind me had damage from front n behind as another maruti 800 rammed into it.......the other guy had damaged headlights.........
after few minutes of dilly dallying.....we all set out to our destiantions knowing fully well that arguign or fighting wasnt an option especially when the supposed real culprits had already fled.....as we were about to disperse to my delight i realised that the mud flap was stuck between the bumper n the rear tyre........as i was trying to free it out the other guy behind the zen helped me.....n got it freed........ (i thank him a lot)
anyhow i set out with shaking hands n wobbly legs but reached hospital safe and sound............
since i had to take relieving from the previous posting we had to get it signed by a particular doctor..........well i guess all had not ended yet.......we were to go to the OPD building.....n had to travel by lift to reach the 3rd floor.......it was a crowded one........n after getting the sign and on my way down i decided to give a call to another friend of mine to enquire about the next posting and i m sure no one needs to be a sherlock holmes to guess what had happened..........yes my cell phone had been very neatly taken out of my pocket n very conveniently switched off..........i couldnt believe my luck............
ofcourse to trace back my cell and to expect to get it back is foolish on my part but what can i say my hope is not ready to die yet.......after all it was a nokia 6680.....bought when it was new in the market( i guess no need to mention how much it had cost then)........forget about the cost ......all those phone numbers, lovingly saved messages, carefully set ringtones .......those memorable photos.........all gone......with the mobile hanger which was a very special gift.........
most of my friends told me that i should be happy that something bigger or worse had been warded off or avoided......i seriously wonder what........


PS:the car needs to be assessed by the insurance people( rough estimate ranges from 1500-5500), repair will take a day so the car may end being at the service station for a day or two.....i have blocked the sim card ....contacted police people posted at casualty in my hospital and submitted an application to avoid misuse of my phone number, given the imei no. (no FIR though)......and i am waiting

happy doctor's day!!

well HAPPY DOCTOR'S DAY everyone..........i had to write much more and on many more topics but this day came, so this punctuation (and not a full stop) in the order of blogs (which are ofcourse delayed)............
i really dont know what to write about....lets see .....how about the pitiful condition in which doctors are made to work.......three days of night shifts/24 hours duty in a week was enough to drive me crazy.......the ones who really work are lowest in the order of hierarchy........i saw in these days the conditions in which we work....with least resources n worst environment........in places in the hospital where i work to get a fan is also considered good.......one whole night( almost.......)i spent without sleep coz the fan wouldnt throw any air........one room n 6beds crammed.....n patients lying on each....(the room ofcourse was smaller than required to accomodate the patients n the doctors n the nurses n other staff members.........plus the cupboards n wash basin etc)
the basic medicines are lacking.......i am ashamed to disclose that we had on several occasions fooled patients and asked them to get a certain medicine for other needy patients cause they were not available......by saying that this was for their child,brother, sister etc.....what could we do.......if something like phenobarbitone was not present........we were using sterilised disposables punches for biopsies, brought by some previous patients ...over n over again........coz the hospital would not provide n most of the patients could not afford........
i think doctors have the craziest shifts..........24hours in many postings barring a few like casualty n labour room etc.......the nurses have 8 hourly shifts ,,,,,the orderlies have 12 hourly shifts.........
n who does most of the work?well the more junior you are the more work u'll do....take me for instance.........in a posting recently......i was a receptionist, an orderly, a clerk.......a worker ant to be precise..........i ran to the hematology lab to get the vials....i visited the pathology lab for reports.....i was sent to the CT scan and ultrasound room to get dates for patients......and guess what?..........i am the unpaid intern......

(its getting a little depressing so ill end now.......may or may not continue.......)

dermatology........

******this post has been long overdue,but finally i managed to put it through.....to those who were expecting this one.....sorry for the delay********

Dermatology, my first posting was my optional posting.Ichose it with two things in mind..one during my MBBS i did not have much exposure practically & secondly it is an upcoming branch so in case I, by any chance chose it as my post graduation subject, it would serve as a precursor......(hmmmmm.....ya right....thats happening!!.....hehhe).
first day and we had to report to our SRs (senior residents).On that day only two of us made it on time (due to unavoidable circumstances the rest 4-5 reported later).First the SR made us sit in his room along with 2 PG students, 1 more intern & 7-8 3rd year students. Add to this atleast 10 patients in the room. Believe me it was crowded. it had started to become suffocating for everyone.After 10 mins or so we were told to go to the minor OT(operation theatre)/procedure room. Searching through serpentine queues of patients and maze like area for the room, we reached to find a 1st year PG student and a nurse & no patient( well that was a rare sight cause every day after that the room was never empty). The PG student Dr.Jug was very happy; actually so happy that he could not contain himself & he started chatting keeping aside the book on Leprosy that he was till now reading!! Anyhow the patients started to trickle in & Jug took the responsibility of teaching us......from cutting sutures to giving intralesional injections, taking scrappings and biopsies .....we did it all.Not together or on one day but over a period of few days......for all this we are very thankful!!

The next day again we reported to the SR's room.Now there were 7 of us......3 of us remained in the room n the rest 4 were distributed amongst other rooms of specialists, etc. Now we had our opportunity to see a variety of dermatological cases. But fate had other things in store for us!!Everytime we would get to see the patient, the SR would make us sit.he must have asked us to sit atleast 7 or 8 times till he issued us an ultimatum that we better stick to our chairs!Now we were in a dilemma.From the college where we came no senior or professor was ever so admant to make us sit!!So we felt that we were being given a lot of respect.On the other hand we were absolutely depressed that we were not being able to see cases.

Anyhow by the end of the day the chaos had come to an end cause a new schedule was charted out dividing us into groups of three & distributing us in OPD rooms n ward. well in the ward we had an experience that neither we nor our patients will ever forget.we had to do sampling that is prepare vials, withdraw blood etc. Having said this i would like to mention that please consider that we were absolute novices & i'm not trying to portray the situation in a jestful manner....When it came to withdrawing blood ....on the first day Dr.Jug demonstrated on how to do the procedure....next day we were on our own.....We took up the task n with full confidence...after all it had been very easy atleast to see.......

But ..........yes.......BUT......it took numerous unsuccessful attempts from each one of us to withdraw blood from the very first patient only.Kudos to him for having tolerated us!!Same story got repeated on the next patient & the next & the next .........But finally we managed.....

Next day our SRs informed us that some blood had clotted which shouldnt have happened for investigations like blood sugar.......anyhow we were spared ........that day also we could not withdraw bood in one successful go!!
By 3rd day our SR had a grim look on his face.Clotted blood hampered the reports for some patients again & he gave us a lecture (a mild one) & one to another PG student( a harsher one) stating thay since we were new it ws not our fault but her responsibility to make sure that everything went well ....Anyways by now the patients were scared of us and had already complained to the SRs & no one wanted us to withdraw blood from them.....some were actually giving us pointers on how we should go about the whole procedure....like how to tie tourniquet,etc..Ofcourse both patients and we were relieved of our misery when we were to change to the OPD.

OPD went extremely well.We saw numerous cases....we excelled in diagnosing psoriasis, P.versicolor, Scabies,P.rosea,leprosy, alopecia areata,warts,melasma,etc,etc.....

meanwhile we had befriended Jug & another PG student Aru. Both of them were very helpful & not only taught us practically but gave us pointers on how to tackle the post graduate entrance exams ....esp Dr.Aru......thank you for that...i will make use of all the advice!!

All in all it was a good learning experience & i was glad to have Dr.Aru n Dr. Jug as my friends.We all were also happy that our seniors were satisfied with our performance.

As my first posting i'll always remember it for more than one reason...........

(contd.....)........ i was greeted by unaccountable number of people........men, women and children .....in various sizes & conditions ..... & from different backgrounds......
with my entry into the building i suddenly sensed a rise in temperature of the atmosphere by atleast 4-5 degrees......i got an unpleasent whiff of air ....loaded with carbon dioxide and many other molecules unimaginable........
serpentine queues is only what i saw....the rest of the inner building was obscured from my view....(later i was to know that the queues extend to outside the building ........welcome to a govt. hospital in capital!!)i couldnt see where they actually began.....
since i knew the floor i was to reach n since i didnt really rely on my frail frame to take me up that many flight of stairs i began my search for the lifts.....now i don't ask for directions n that cost me another 2-3 precious minutes.....finally lo n behold at one corner of the building i saw something which resembled a lift.......i slowly and carefully made my way through the sea of human beings towards it.....after i finally reached it i realised that the actual task was to get on it rather than get to it....well there were three of them and all of them took another two miutes to reach the ground floor.....the doors to the 1st lift opened and closed and i found myself way behind in line to get to it....the second one came and went too; the 3rd one i realised was my only hope so i fought and struggled n squeezed past a few cribbing old ladies, a mother with a bunch of wailing kids in tow and many burly uncles and finally made it into the lift and i was pushed to the end of it.....by this time i was having a feeling that i wouldn't probably survive this for many days( i was to discover later that the staff lift is no better...just a namesake!!)........all except me got down at the penultimate floor and guess what i had one more to go.....seconds ticked away and the door to the lift would not shut....i waited a few more agonising seconds but the doors wouldn't budge....now i am not a claustrophobic but i had had enough so i decided to take that one flight of stairs up!!guess what? by the time i reached up so had the lift.....i found myself grumbling but attention was taken off to the empty, almost deserted look that this floor was bearing........in a sharp contrast to just what i had witnessed a few minutes ago....

i kept on wandering really not knowing exactly where to go....but as luck would have it i was in the right direction.....i was instructed to report to the PA to the HOD at 9am.....here i was standing outside the room reading the name of the PA contemplating my next move.....(as if i was planning a war!!)....i finally decided to take the plunge and i entered the room....seems like the PA had a PA who informed me that the PA was on leave....well howzzat?anyhow this guy was really helpful so he told me to report to a certain doctor and gave me the room number too....it was already 9 so i thought it was hardly a matter of time before someone showed up ....but as it turned out i was wrong......minutes after minutes passed and my watch ticked past 915....i thought i probably heard something wrong so i made my way back to the PA to PA and guess what i hear?the doctor whom i was supposed to report is also on leave....and now i am supposed to report to another doctor.....though it was some relief to know that the room hadn't changed....so i made my way back again to where i was.....

ofcourse in all this while i was busy.....busy doing what? you see if you have forgotten i had this white coat on which gave me the distinction of a doctor .....and from directions to diagnosis to queries about doctors and timings i had a lot of answering to do.....some directions i managed others i had no clue so i politely had to decline and inform that like most of them it was my first day too........some grumbles and some apologetic smiles later i found someone enter the room and so i did too......... with hopes of a new beginning....a chance to learn thigns that i had lost out on earlier on the personal as well as academic front........Amen!!

the wait that was never ending

after more than a month's anticipation my wait finally ended on the 15th may.....five years of hard work was finally going to be put to test .....yes i was going to start my internship.....at a reputed hospital in my city....though i wasnt sure that i would start so early (yet so late)...evrything happened in a flash....one day i was there for the verification of my documents n the next thing i know i had the internship card in my hand!!

well the night before the joining date i was one nervous bundle.....those around me were finding it difficult to handle me.......i had so many doubts n i was so confused!!would i be welcomed?would i make new friends?what kind of work would i be given?would i be judged at every step n how?the questions were endless n more so meaningless.... i mean who had seen the future!!right?

anyhow the wait finally ended n i woke much earlier than i had put my alarm for....(i dont need alarms i think)......time seemed to have stopped....the hands of the clock seemed to have got stuck.....after gulping down the glass of milk which seemed like more of a pitcher n packing the lunch in my bag i almost felt that i m going back to school.....it really seemed so ....n i was more nervous now than i think i was on my first day at school....well by then my sis had assured me that school was bad enough so this couldnt get any worse.........

i drove to hospital all alone with all sorts of thoughts going through my mind....on my way i met a traffic jam n i was oh so sure that i m going to be late....i had begun cursing myself for not starting earlier n the adrenaline pump was by now at the stage of fatigue....but thank God the jam cleared in not more than 5minutes.....n i was again on the road with my thoughts....

the gates of the hospital welcomed me or so i thougt beckoned n taunted me.....as i drove in n found a place for my car to be parked.......

i entered the five storey OPD building what i saw i hadnt expected..........(to be contd) ..........

memory lane

My becoming a doctor turned out to be a more significant and time churning event than I had thought it would be. It seemed it was a milestone not just for me but for many other people associated with me.
For me it was yet another hurdle cleared in the journey of my life. Though just finishing with MBBS means nothing and doesn’t fetch me any significant assurance for my professional life, it does mean a lot. To put it in one of my teacher’s words – only those who have gone through the grind realize the worth of others in similar conditions. It was no joke to have lived away in a foreign land for 5 years, away from home, friends and family. And only the ones pursuing this profession realize the immense amount of time and energy that goes into reading (studying!?) the ‘n’ number of books prescribed under the MBBS curriculum (quite a many easily weighing more than me).
For many others like me time flew by despite our many crying, cribbing, cajoling, irritating, heart rendering moments when time seemed to have stopped.
A very close uncle of mine kept on repeating for a good day or two as how time had flown so fast. As how he hadn’t realized 5 years had gone by!! It was not just him though because I kept on meeting other relatives, friends and acquaintances and they too were chanting the same mantra. It then dawned on me that a significant part of my life was behind me and another one was beckoning me.
It was a moment of realization for my dear friends when we met this time on my “final return”! Everyone knew I had come back for good, they knew there was no deadline this time. They knew I was here to stay and not packing my bags n going off again, not to be seen for another whole year.
I am also at peace. I knew I was here at least for longer than a month (since my fortune as of today says I have travel on my cards next year!!)
My sister is happy that she has someone to talk to, pour her heart out to whenever she wants to..she has someone to discuss everything under the sun that 2 sisters can talk about. Of course both of us are going crazy that we have more clothes to share between us.
My parents have got their daughter back after 5years which had seemed never ending in the beginning and now I hear them ask “had you ever gone?”What do I say? A milestone in memory lane?