Done with Surgery-VI

"The End" of Surgery postings..

Over and out with 49 days of 'Surgery-VI'. Got so used to saying that word 'Surgery-VI', that it became similar to the 'Hi' that I used to tell my friends. Every time I went to get or submit the O.T. list, to collecting reports, to calling the wards, to references, to telling umpteen people as to where I belong,...well, it was always 'Surgery-VI'. The fact that it was my first 'major' postings made me go more accustomed to it. All my previous postings were only for 15 days each, and I hardly had any work to do. By the time I would realise that I belong somewhere, postings would get over and I would belong somewhere else. But surgery-VI, Oh it gave me so much work that for the starting few days, I felt that I'm being royally, extremely, unreasonably overworked!!!. Lolz.. I don't blame the people who I worked with, no ways!! There was so much work indeed!

Well, had a nice experience in a few ways and I wanted to flee away from the unit sometimes too.. Had quite a few nice people to work with. Few of them were 'fun' too. I'll always remember them. Had 2 fights too with somebody not-so-nice. lolz. :) But hey, I won- both times. And that's all that matters ;-) I cribbed about the workload quite a few times, but never had any bad experiences that would bring tears in my eyes. I'm just so glad that the Saturday OPD days are gone, atleast for the time being. It used to feel so awkward to work 'busy' on Saturdays and Sundays!! Got to learn quite a bit too. All thanks to-well, those who taught me ;-)

Personal front too went well in the period. No regrets about anything. The number of games in my phone increased, chit-chat sessions with my co-intern increased, number of coffee day visits increased..Only thing that almost came to a nil, was my studies. Its in dire need to be started again!!

Well, all in all, I'm content and happy that I'm done with 'Surgery VI'. But somewhere in some nook of my mind, I'll miss it too. No specific reasons for it. And I don't wanna decipher it too :) Glad just the way it is :)

Chandana C. Shekar

Just when I think I'm done...

Saturday is back again!! Unfortunately!! :( Yeah, you didn't hear me wrong..I said 'Unfortunately' itself. Almost every sane human being looks forward to 'weekends'. For youth like us, Saturdays are always more fun than Sundays. But for me and a few more working with me, well, we just wish Saturdays cease forever..

It feels like just yesterday, that we had Saturday and our OPD and admission day and night shift and all that crap. And Saturday is here again :( How soon did the week pass by ? :(

Physiology says , your body and mind needs adequate rest.Being doctors, we all have studied it properly in our very first year of medical school. We know the disadvantages of not getting enough rest. Then why on earth are we doctors ourselves expected to work like donkeys?!?! We aren't some machines right? Why are we put on 36 hour shift and 70 hour shift and all that? Forget me, one of my friend took up MS general surgery in a government college recently. And poor fellow, he is getting to sleep only for an hour everyday for the past five days!! I mean, won't our efficiency decrease if we work like this?How much can you force your body and mind to work. When your drowsy and your mind is not analysing the history and findings and investigation reports of a patient to come to a diagnosis, forget the treatment part, whose at loss? What if you make a blunder in the treatment?At the end of the day, patients do get affected because of this right?But the world's very diplomatic. Everybody is of the opinion that, 'your a doctor. The noble profession. You should be able to handle all this'. What crap!! I wonder why shifts are so unreasonable. But I know for a fact that, nothing can be changed.

Intake of PGs and staff can be increased and work load will reduce. MBBS graduates are staying at home without PG seats and very low paid duty doctor jobs. But no. No college admits more PGs. I wonder why.When you can admit 150 students for an MBBS course, and you know that just an MBBS degree without an MS or MD leaves you nowhere, why is that you hardly have 50 seats for MD and MS? What are the others supposed to do? Stick to a 10,000 job all through life? Amazing logic ya!! Whatever it is, the hierarchy in this field is horrible. 'Rules' here, means, just what the seniors say. That's it. They are the rule makers and breakers and everything.

I'm not feeling well today. It looks like its gonna continue for tomorrow too. And tomorrow is supposed to be our busy day. How do I work when I myself am not feeling well? But yeah, I have to and I have previously worked while ill too. According to me, almost every intern and pg would have. Nobody in the hospital bothers about it. If at all I go and ask for leave, I won't get it because tomorrow is duty day and moreover, even if i get it, my leave for shruthi's wedding will get cancelled. Heights!!

My friends who I used to hang out with all these years have now shifted to Bangalore and elsewhere because most of my friends are engineers and are working in Metros. They come to Mysore only on weekends and they laugh at me when I say I'm at work!! Wow!! Amazing na? Life is screwed up if your weekends are screwed up yaar.

Anyways, I'm in this department for two more weekends. I'm on leave next weekend and that leaves me with only one Saturday duty and that's tomorrow. Hope things go easy tomorrow and hope my leave for the next weekend doesn't get cancelled. Want to get done with this..ASAP

Chandana C. Shekar

May I consult Dr.Chandana please?

It's a saturday morning and as usual, I was expecting a busy day and night at work. I go to the OPD at past 10 , after finishing the dressings in the ward and there is an OPD card lying on the table unattended. I ask the PG if he is done with that patient and if I can dispense the card, and he says , "That patient wants to consult you itseems". There's no doubt about my reaction. You can guess it right?I know he is just kidding. I ask him to stop it and he says the same thing again. 'What the hell ya, how can somebody fool around like this early in the morning when there is a busy day ahead yet?' is what goes on in my mind. I ask him for the last time to stop acting weird and there he goes, "The patient said that she wants to consult Dr.Chandana itseems". Ah!! Now I know for sure. This guy is nuts. He is having fun at my cost.

Then, for some reason, I turn around and see, and I find that, THE PATIENT IS ACTUALLY WAITING FOR ME!!!. I was shocked, speechless, wondering what my staff would think about it ,and happy too.

Now the explaination for her waiting for me goes like this. This particular lady had come to the OPD last week too and wanted a female doctor to examine her and she was pretty scared about something regarding her health. As I was the only female doctor around, I did examine her, but rest of the diagnosis and treatment part was done by my senior. That time, it has so happened that she has got to know my name from my name-plate. Now,this week, when she has come for follow-up, she is asking for Dr. Chandana!!!

Whoo!!! Felt good in one way. It's a completely different story that it'll be my seniors who will be doing the needful for her and I'm here just as an intern, still in my learning process. But when most of the patients address you as 'Sister'(Patients think any young girl in an apron is a nurse!!! weird!!!) and you keep snapping back at them saying 'I'm a doctor', if a patient asks for you and waits for you, it is but obvious that you will feel good right? When at times, you don't even get the respect that the para-medical staff get, by you very own staff, if somebody is respecting you as a 'Dr' , you will feel glad right? When most of the time you are doing clerical work at the hospital, if a patient actually wants you to treat her, you will feel great right? :) Nice :) :)

Chandana C. Shekar

Surgery, so far... so good :)

I report to Surgery Postings on saturday morning at 9. And I'm on continous duty till monday evening 5, making it a good whole 56 hour shift!!! Unfortunately, I'm supposed to be the only intern as my co-intern is at rotation postings at the Paediatric Surgery department for ten days. And unfortunately again, the junior PG is on leave. And more unfortunately, there are a lot of admissions for those two days. :(

Coming from minor postings and having so much work to do and not knowing how things are to be done felt a huge transition. Days passed and I got used to it. There was more work compared to other unit interns, but then, it all boils down to one thing. If the people who your working with are cool enough, everything goes on smoothly. So did it happen. The profs in my unit weren't 'very' cranky and P.G.s in the unit were really cool. I used to get my share of work to do, no running away from it. But I used to get enough time to do it too. No unreasonable time limit and stuff. Do your work, and your fine. Got to assist surgeries. Learnt a few things too. Felt for sometime atleast that I'm actually a medical intern and not just somebody doing some clerical work, filling forms etc.

There are a few things I have realised in the past few days during my postings here, and few are from some people around:
1. Always have Confidence, come what may. That's going to be your ultimate lifeline.
2. Everybody has workload. Learn to get on with it. Never crib about it for the whole day. Get done with it and then enjoy the remaining part of the day.Be bindaas.
3. Your here for something, keep that in mind first. First things first.
4. Don't believe in somebody else's opinion about people. Make your own. It differs big time. Trust me on that!! Opinions are very very subjective.

Well, a month more to go and I foresee a few changes too. Lets see how it goes :)

Chandana C. Shekar

The first surgery I assisted at JSSH

17 days of internship and Oh Yes, I get my chance to assist a surgery. Do I call it surgery or a procedure? A procedure maybe. But it took one and a half hours. Well, I assisted a Micro Punch Grafting :) . I placed 6 grafts myself too :) Though its not the first surgery I've ever assisted ( I've assisted my mom whose a gynaecologist quite a few times), the fact that its the first one I 'washed' (my hands) for, in the hospital I'm officially doing my internship makes it feel so special :). And I liked it :). I always love the 'First Time' in every aspect of life. First medal, first award, first concert, First monsoons, first birthday gift, first crush, and on and on and on..And this is no exception. I'm happy about it :) Was excited the whole day. :) This happened around 5 days ago, but never got to write about it. Now, i finally wrote about it too.Yippee.. :)

p.s. : I'm liking Dermatology :)

Chandana C. Shekar