Labour, in every facet of the meaning

It started with the Seminar on Thyrotoxicosis last week, on Feb 8th. It was a wonderful experience. Standing in front of a huge audience and speaking as calmly as I did, I have to say to myself, "Kudos!!". I ended with the sentence, "Even though the thyroid gland is not essential for survival, absence of the hormones can cause physical and mental slowing and affect the quality if life." That raised up a controversy amongst the teachers sitting in the front. But, there were some who agreed with what I said, and frankly, I don't think what I said was wrong. The Thyroid doesn't decide the life and death of a person. Nor do the hormones. They make a person capable of living what is termed as a normal human life. My friends said I spoke a lot better than I had, during the rehersals. Personally, I'm glad I was able to stand up for myself at the podium, and say what i thought was right when the controversy came up. Plus, I got a certificate, which for me, is more important. You could say that I am selfish enough to participate in this kind of activity only for the certificates!!

Moving onto my next goal, after two days of running around and being tense that I might not be able to finish off with all the signatures in time, I have finally sent my Research Proposal to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). The results will be out in April. I don't care whether they choose my project or not, I'll be doing it any way. But, there is always a sense of achievement in having your project selected by such a prestigious body. Also, they choose just 500 such projects from all over the country. So, I guess, its easy to get what I'm trying to say. I just have my Ethics Committee proposal to be handed over tomorrow, and then wholly, and truly, I will be done with it all, till April.

After this, it is our Intercollegiate Competition Vedant to think about. I have to come up with my entire schedule to hold the Debate and Essay competitions. I don't know what the verdict on this time's Vedant will be after the bomb blast yesterday. But, lets remain hopeful.

Now, labour. In the field of Medicine. Overcoming my pre-construed aversion to the process of Miracle of Birth, I watched 3 normal deliveries and a Caesarien Section (CS), yesterday, during my first ever Emergency Duty (ED) of my term in Gynaecology and Obstretics. The Caesarian was a textbook operation. We've already had our clinic on the step-by-step manual of performing a CS. Yesterday, we had a practical version. The deliveries were a little gross, but the babies when taken out looked really, really cute. As luck would have it, we didn' see any girls being born. It was all male babies. Hmm, maybe next time!!

So its been eventful, this week. And I really hope, next week is a little less taxing. Ciao!!

Pressing Matters

The exams having finished, and my voice and health having returned to more or less normal (I can sing now, without flinching at the sound of my voice!), I now turn my attention to two pressing matters: The Thyrotoxicosis Seminar which will take place on the 5th of Feb and the final decision on my ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) Project.

We had a rehearsal of sorts on Thursday (21st Jan) for the Seminar. My presentation took 15 mins, more than 2.5 times the alloted time. I have to cut down on a lot of matter, something which I am so NOT interested in doing. I've spent ages on making the presentation just right. Lets see what my guide has to say about what we can cut down upon. But, as such the experience of standing up there and talking was brilliant. I did not have jitters. That might not be the case on the 5th, when there would easily be a huge crowd, and the venue would be the MGA. I'll be doing all that I can this week, to make sure I'm fully prepared.

The ICMR project deadline has come, and it is the 15th of Feb. Having come down to two topics, I'll hopefully be making a decision and submitting a report to the Ethics committee of our college for approval of the project. I am hell-bent on doing this project and I do hope things work out well.

Moving onto the earliest and most enjoyable event of all, we have a trek to Purandar Fort next weekend (29th, 30th, 31st). This reminds me a lot of the Lohagad trek we had last year, and I can't wait to go for another one. We will have a meeting mid-week so that we can be told of the itineary and the stuff we need to carry. But, I'm a hundred percent sure this trip will be a major fun trip for me.

The weekend was a welcome break for me, with all the remnants of my illness bearing down on me during the week. Also, we missed out on almost 17 days of our paediatric posting because of the terminal examination. So, the last week in college hasn't been a restful one, complete with 3 hrs being spent in the wards. I love paediatrics. The patients are so CUTE!!! And, I get to unleash all of my sweet side onto those patients. We have an amazing lecturer teaching us too. A Dr. Chhaya, who has a certain way with children and us too. I really wish we had been able to finish the entrie posting. It would have been an experience. But, now I do know that there's one branch I wouldn't mind specialising in.

And I saw my Micro marks. They are pretty ok. I've passed by a fair amount. It wouldn't have hurt to score a little more, bu then medicine isn't about scoring marks, it's about learning and enjoying the subject. So, that has been able to console me a bit.

This week has been fun. Hope the next one is too :-)