Seista!!

And a very unexpected one too!! We were told that Thursday was declared a government holiday. Alandi yatra. I don't even know why that is a government holiday this year, when there was nothing last year. Any way, point is, Thursday was declared a holiday.
To my utter delight, and the absolute disgust of about 200 other people in college, a low-pressure zone built up in the Arabian Sea. Result: Heavy ( and I mean H-E-A-V-Y) rains, searing winds and dark dreary skies paid homage to the beautiful and warm state of Maharashtra. I remember talking about how much I missed USA, in my last post. And, as if my prayers had been heard, I got New York's climate down here!! Dark clouds, sun hidden behind their thick coat, cold air hitting you in the face as you travel by rickshaw every morning, and rain!!! The feeling of 9pm at 5 pm......I'm telling you, this week has done away with everything called stress and tiredness of last week's.
So, because of the incessant and heavy unseasonal rainfall that we had, the basement of BJ got flooded (as it normally does. But, you wouldn't expect floods in November, would you?), and the PSM department had to cancel our practicals on Wednesday. I decided to attend the Pathology practicals with the other batch. And then decided to bunk Thursday. Of course, at that point, the holiday had been shifted by our college from Thursday to Friday. So, basically, I've got a four day break!! Hurray!!! It is amazing! I already feel all the fatigue ebbing away.
Not that I haven't given myself work to do. I've got Medicine to complete ( rather, START), and I've landed up with one of my favourite things to do: Prepare a presentation!! This one is an Inter-Departmental Seminar on Thyroid Gland. Department of first-year are involved, and I'm doing the Physiology aspect of the gland. It is going to be so much of FUN!! Putting together a presentation on something I loved from last year, is definitely alluring.
And, I started with Immunity in Pathology. Robbins' rocks!! I know it is very long, that chapter, but, it is enjoyable at the same time!!
And, lastly, the weather has returned to normal again. The sun has come out in the open, and yes, the afternoons are again pretty hot as usual. BUT, the past week was one of the best of this year's. I know a lot of damage was done, lot of fishermen are still missing, the winter crops have taken a beating, and lot more.....yet, personally, I probably did need something of this sort to help me pull myself out of the slumber I was in the danger of slipping into.

A Varied Week

This is the first week of second-year, when I've actually felt tired and bored of college. Frankly, I shouldn't be feeling like this at all. It wasn't even 6 days of college. We had a holiday on Monday, and since then its been just 5 days, as usual. But, I am pretty bugged of it all. We haven't done much. In fact, its been an average week throughout. The exception being Wednesday. The day of Borse Unit's OPD has been shifted to Thursday. And our ward is now ward No. 13, as opposed to the earlier No. 15. So we had to go to the ward on Wednesday, instead of the usual OPD.
Sadly, our lecture that day was taken by Dr. Dushyant Pawar. To say the least, he is a little scary. Not lookswise, just the way he speaks. He expects us to know everything, which isn't the case. After all, we're just 2nd year students. And this is our first medicine posting. On top of that, we don't read up a case before taking it. Its always the other way round. So, we were told to take a case to examine Splenomegaly ( the patient also had hepatomegaly. We could actually palpate masses this time, unlike last year) . And, so the first thing we told him was that this was a case of Splenomegaly. But, the chief complaints of the patient didn't match at all. So, to put it in blunt and army-terms, he took our case. Completely. So much so, that the girl presenting the case, ended up in tears, and didn't want to do it any more. If Dr. Pawar is reading this, I'd just like to clarify, I'm not insulting you in any way. I'm just pleading here: We're just students, babies out of first year still trying to find their own footing. Please have mercy, and spare us a little bit.

OPD was pretty good on Thurday. I felt the irregularly irregular pulse for the firt ever time, and an irregular heart-beat too. The girl suffered from atrial fibrillation.

Our case on Friday was one of Pneumonia. This was taken by another lecturer. This experience was poles apart from the previous one. He showed us the systemic examination of Respiratory system. I learnt a lot. And, of course, at the end of the lecture, we had a lot to read up on our own. One thing, however, I do have to mention here. Stuff taught in Physiology is just a baseline. It is applied, not word-to-word, in other branches of the field. And this is true in the case of Clinical Examination of the systems.

Our HOU ( Head of Unit), Dr. Borse himself took a lecture on CNS. He made it look very simple. Of course, its not. But, he has a very different style of teaching. Methodical, concise and ver clear. This was easily the best lecture we've had all term.

Well, so because I was so bored of college, I decided to attend a workshop on Laproscopic Surgery, held in Bharati Vidyapeeth Medical College, here. Yesterday was the Live Surgery session. Its the first time I've attended it, so obviously it was very, very, very gruelling. We watched 14 cases in the entire day. These included Inguinal Hernias ( direct and indirect), Incisional Hernia, Cholecystectomy, Gjostomy, Rectoplexy, Hysterectomy, Appendicectomy. There was also an MIPH ( Minimally Invasive Partial Haemorrhoidectomy) which got postponed. They were extremely well-done, and all successful. It was definitely a day of learning a lot. But, of course, it did take a toll on me. I don't think I'll be watching surgeries for some weeks at least. :-) However, the session did get me interested, and now I can say, that I would include 'watching surgeries' as one of my favourite pasttimes. And I feel that's an achievement in itself. I, obviously, am developing an interest for them.

The Student Council has finally formed its committees, and everyone is neck-deep into work. We went to our Juniors on Thursday to talk about the magazine. Of course, our reaction was one of " How dead can a batch be?!" Normally, annoucers of announcements ( thats a funny phrase :-)) encounter a lot bench-tapping, ssshhhh noises, claps, chatters all around, and everything that we can do to make them feel uncomfortable, embarrassed, and forced to raise their voices to decibels unknown. But, we got pin-drop silence, a serious and eerie atmosphere, and the feeling that the people we were talking, weren't exactly awake! That's a batch!! A first, really.

And I guess that is it. Studying is part and parcel of the whole thing. I only seem to mention it when things aren't going my way, or I'm simply out of topics to talk about. So, just a line here, its going well. I'm not exactly worried about it. Hopefully, this week would be less boring and definitely more interesting that last week has been. But, then, its probably a case of 'high apple pies in the sky'!

P.S.

1. I'm missing my vacation of last Diwali. Every day I think about that day in the USA last year.....

2. Our college magazine needs a name. We're thinking of a Marathi name or a medical term. Help would be gratifyingly appreciated.

3. Our seniors, exam-going now, are thoroughly bored of their PLs. Give them their way, and they'd finish their exams this week itself..