Psychiatry gives me a surprise!!

The 15 day posting ended on 15th April. Haven't exactly been the mood to write since then. Today, I am.

So Psychiatry. Wow! There is something, an inherent, ever-present sentiment.....a disbelief of sorts, that these clinicians can remain Doctors, sane-headed Doctors. It is interesting to listen to the calm and off-hand manner in which the patients speak. Stories seeming to be absolutely impossible, are said with such belief, it is SCARY. These people have a weird expressionless look in their eyes. Apart from that, extremely normal. And, of course, in our posting, we learnt about :

1. Schizophrenia

2. Bipolar Affective Disorder with Psychotic signs

3. Manic Episodes

Almost every second patient seemed to suffer from some kind of auditory and visual hallucinations.

That way, a very easy case to diagnose.

The Mental Retardation cases were heart-wrenching. We had a case of two 27 yr old brothers, who were mentally reatarded in the severest way. They couldn't utter a word , only identified individuals. Their father looked so old and worn-out and tired, I couldn't get his image out of my head for a very long time (stilll can't). The world is such an unfair place. Firstly, people are financially unequal, and to top that, the lowest class of people have to suffer from such disasters. Disasters that need the financial help to run a decent course, a course that is manageable. A mentally-retarded child is loved despite everything by his parentsm probably, even more because of his condition. It is killing to imagine, being in that 60 yr old father's shoes, wondering about the future of his two children, after he may be well beyond the capacity to provide for them....to imagine how he has spent all these years having to look after two children, he could never expect himself to hate or be taken away from him, and yet at times, wish for the same. It aches so much, and I felt relief, and still do, when he mentioned that he also has another son and daughter.

This is the only part of being a doctor that I don't like. Some patients, with the baggage they bring along, touch the most sensitive part of my soul, and almost always, I wish I could run away from it all, and never feel all this stuff.

Any way, I topped in Psychiatry. 37/50!!! It a second. After having got our Gynaec journals checked, the CR told me I did amazingly well in the term-end, and that our HOU was very happy with me. Now this. I feel previleged and lucky. I'm finally making some headway, and it feels like it. So satisfying, and a confirmation that I have chosen the right field.

Our current posting is Radiology. Very interesting. The best part of it is, the posting gets over by 11 30 am. So I easily get about an hour and a half in the library. Plus, I really like it, and the branch is one of my choices for a PG in.

My ICMR project didn't get selected. Only three out of like an easy 15, got selected. I'll still be doing it. The news was saddening, but I don't want my research being wasted, and I intend to see this project through.

Thats about it. We're going to Mauritius next week. I am SO excited!!! Can't wait! And I will write before we leave... I promise myself that.

Over At Last!!

I don't have to look at gynae and babies being born for another two years now!!!! Such a relief I say.

We finally finished with the last part of the term-end today. It wasn't brilliant, but it wasn't bad either. I could answer quite a bit, and over all, did not leave the room red-faced having embarrassed myself to the core. I was asked about the Sim's Speculum, the some drugs used in Obstretics - Oxytocin, Carboprost, Misoprost and Mala-D, the OCP. The viva did not last very long. We didn't even have any questions on normal labour or the maternal pelvis and fetal skull, which I had done more painstakingly than the rest. Actually, if I had been told that the pelvis isn't even kept on the viva table, I wouldn't have bothered at all!!

Any way, it doesn't matter. Fact is, it is over. 2 months.....can't even believe it has been that long. Feel like just yesterday we had started with the posting, and I was so disgusted with the nature of the branch. The past months have been fun obviously. Every batch of students gets closer to each other because of clinical postings, one or the other. In case of the first twenty students, it was their paediatrics posting, in case of roll no.s 25-40, it was their Gynae posting. In our case, i guess it was this posting only. its not anything different than normal. But, I can bear the people in my batch a lot more easily. And I have an easier time, shunning out the talk of people I don't want to listen to. It is just that simple.

In case of Surgery, and to a certain extent, Medicine, we did not really connect. Lots of irritating moments, when I wondered why I had ended up in a batch like mine; when I felt like slapping some people on their faces as hard as I could, and just throw them out of the batch. Trust me, it wasn't the simplest thing meeting them everyday. But, I guess, you do get used to some things when you do them every day. It is just that, with me.

Our unit might not be the most interesting unit, or the most intelligent. But, there's something about it that I am proud of. And, well, although I'm over the moon that Gynae is over, I'm equally excited about our next posting. It is Psychiatry, and I'm very eager to move into that mode. Looking forward to the weirdest patients there might be......:-))

Gynae, SOS!!!!

My Gynae term has almost come to an end, and I don't feel like I've anything new. Yeah, actually, it's wrong to say that. I have learnt something. But, there's no feeling of achievement, of having learnt something that can make me want to do Gynae. In fact, the feelings are the exact opposite.

Having watched children being born, I am not exactly awed by the procedure. Contrary to that, I'm grossed out by it all. And I have huge respect for any woman who has gone through it all. Man, we have a tough life, don't we?

Our term-end was divided into 4 parts:

1. Complete Journal - 5 marks

2. A short viva by our HOU - 5 marks

3. Case Presentation - 15 marks

4. Table Viva - 15 marks

Points 2. and 3. are over, and they were good. I got a Previous Lower Segment Caesarean Section case, and I enjoyed answering the questions. Trust me, the only enjoyable experience this whole term has been this part of the term-end. The journal completion was hell, and I still have to get it signed.

The last part of the term-end will be held on Monday. I am sort of dreading that, because this is the real test. Of knowledge, application, understanding and of course, the pre-requisite of Medicine - memory. I hope I do well.

The next terms we will have are 15-day terms - Radiology, Anaesthesia, Ophthalmology and Psychiatry. I'm excited about them.

College has been full of interesting academic activities, the latest being the Dr. V.S. Prayag Memorial Oration by Dr. Velu Nair, on Stem Cell Therapy and its future. It was a very interesting take.

Last weekend, we also attended our first Clinico-Pathological Correlation Seminar, popularly termed as CPC. It was a typhoid case. Every department involved presents their viewpoint, and then everyone has a take on the final diagnosis. Lastly, like the magic box, the pathologist has a final say and gives what the actual diagnosis was. Since it was a first, we didn't understand much. But it was an interesting 2 hours to spend.

So, life is abound with lots of sources of knowledge, and I'll make the best I can out of it all.

Gang Day and Traditional Day

The Cultural Week has ended on a high note. Yesterday and today have been awesome!! We totally nailed the meaning of Gang Day! Our theme was a Hawaiian one. Flowery t-shirts and jeans, coupled with a pair of Osho chappals, accesorised with garlands, flower-bracelets, chains and a flower pinned into the hair. We looked pretty great! Some other gangs in college came up themes like Devils, Mafia, a ZooZoo theme, Save the Tiger, Om Mangalam.......and a lot more.

We entered the lecture hall a little late, and the till then quiet class was suddenly echoing with the noise made by all the gangs together! This is College Life in its true sense. We had an awesome time!

Today, all you could see was vibrant colours and extremely pretty girls walking around amongst handsome looking guys. Its so strange how a simple sari or a simple kurta can change your entire persona in seconds!! Traditional day last year was sorta boring. It was all about clicking pictures and then BORED. Today, however, we were clicking so MANY pics, I didn't even realise how quickly time flew! I had the time of my life. Pluc my sari was very heavy, so despite the heat, I didn't want to change into something like a salwar-kameez, like I wanted to, last year. I wore a green sari. The colour really looks good on me.

Now, its the Freshers I'm waiting for, where it'll be total opposite of traditional. Haha!!!

Vedant '10 - The Glorious End

Here are the outstanding rangolis created out of just powdered colours, from the Rangoli competition held during Vedant '10.

The guy who made this has won a prize in all

the cultural events - Rangoli, Poster-Making

& Sketching. Bravo, Amol Deshpande!!

Our very own BJite bagged a little something.

very proud of you!!

A picture of two friends of mine, as we tried to detach the backdrop, to take it to Yashwantrao Chavan Natyagraha for the last event - The Group Dance Competition followed by the Prize Distribution and Dr. Salil Kulkarni's performance.

The Fashion Show held at Yashwantrao Chavan Natyagraha - 'Poise', was a success too. Our college came third and the top honours were taken by SOFT. I didn't go for it. Sadly.

The last day, was mainly a success due to Dr. Salil Kulkarni's presence. God, I am such a fan!! He's a big name in the Marathi Music Industry, and he was our Guest of Honour. I love his songs, and it was surreal to hear him first hand. I even got an autograph, and a photo with him. A friend of mine took the photo, so it'll be some time before that comes up here.

After the Prize Distribution and his performance, my group of friends had a sleepover. We had a lot of FUN!!! Pizzas and the cold coffee from Durga ( famous for its cold coffees)......I didn't stay up too long. We had college the next day, after all. I was the second to drift into sweet sleep...

Currently, we are still reeling under the lethargy of the entire show. But, now our much-delayed cultural week has begun, and next weekend would the weekend of our Freshers'.....God, thigns never seem to end!! After that, would be my Gnynaec Post-End. So, March is not going to be uneventful....

Lord, help me manage it all!!

Vedant '10 - Half Way Through

Yes, the week that I was dreading has come to an end. I'm in a dilema here. I have every right to be happy with the way things have turned out. And I also have every right to be unhappy too. The first event of the week and the Festival, the English Essay-Writing Competition, went well. We had 15 participants. Not bad. And some of them were different from the ones who'd registered. So, I was happy. The entire morning went off quite smoothly. One down, the big one still to go.

The Staff Debate was held in the afternoon. Frankly, the meaning of Staff-Debate is a few hours of entertainment for the less-entertained section of the crowd in BJ, if you know wha I mean. The topic was 'Live-In Relationships', and the speakers had a whale of a time talking about everything apart from that.

Tuesday arrived with a friend asking me to help out with the Solo-Singing eliminations. That was a pretty tough task, but the end-result was satisfaction and an eagerness to watch the selected participants sing on the final day. Overall, I felt glad I managed to help her out.

In the meantime, I started getting calls from people outside of college, interrested in paticipating in the English Debate. My earlier uneasiness regarding organising the event was vapourising off quite easily. I was feeling excited about it all. In fact, on Thursday afternoon, I even managed to get all the permissions for the chairs and the table-cloths. I was so excited about it all.

And then it happened.

4 people cancelled their entries. On the eve of the event. I wanted to hold somebody and shake them through and through till every cell in their body hurt. Why in the world did have to happen at that bloody time!! I'd been praying through the entire weekend that I did NOT want the event to happen. And just when I decided that I did want it to happen after all, somebody up there decided to listen to my long overdue prayers! Yeah right, that was so comforting.

It was of no use to hold the event. So, yes, I cancelled it all. Felt dreadful. It isn't right to do this, everything at the wrong time. Any way, point is, my work is sort of done.

Vedant '10 - Enthralling your souls....

It's finally begun! And I think I'm really nervous about it all. I so want the next week to get over as fast as possible. And I really really want my two events to go off smoothly. Its not exactly going to be very easy, but I'm still hoping its easier than I think. And, next time on, I'm only going to do something if I DON'T want to do it. I just wish I can live through the next week, in the same happy and a little carefree way.

Yesterday's Inauguration was great. My friend, Mohini, a Bharatnatyam dancer performed the Ganesh Vandana. She is just so beautiful and graceful, it was hard to to look anywhere else. Bharatnatyam is a very expressive dance form, and Mohini takes to another level. We also watched her Arangetram a few months back, and she just keeps improving and improving! Great going girl!! We all love you!!

Our Firodiya team performed the dances from their play. Firodiya Karandak is a prestigious Intercollegiate One-act Play competition, held in February every year. All colleges perform in the initial Elimination Round, and eight are selected for the Final round. This year too, we did not manage to reach the final eight. But, with the dances ready, it was only proper that the team performed for the Inauguration. They danced better than they had for the competition!!

Some of the Juniors had prepared a performance, and one other Junior played the Violin too. She was fantastic!

All in all it was good, and our Chief Guest, Sudhir Gadgil, went away very impressed. Now, we hope the rest of the Festival also manages to spread joy and creative wind throughout the college.

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!!

PURANDAR 2010

Purandar totally ROCKED!! I had more fun than I expected to have and, once again, found the ardent love I feel for all things Nature.

We left on the 29th, i.e. Friday afternoon. One State transport bus filled with around 103 2nd years and around 7 seniors. It was very stuffy. Obviously. Reaching the foot of the fort by bus took an hour and a half. I could feel my excitement rising as we wound through the streets of my dear city, the noise of the guys singing right behind all of us.

Once we had reached the foot, it was time to haul our heavy back-packs onto our poor backs and start the rigorous journey to the top. It took us a long time to actually manage to reach our base camp. The path uphill wasn't the most difficult in terms of climbing. It was steep and dusty with very few proper foot holds to utilise. Of course, our bags didn't make it any easier.

One of the first rules of ascending a hill or a mountain is that, you shouldn't stop. Making a stop on your way up for a few minutes makes you more tired. All the lethargy that seems to be a centimetre away while walking, floods into you, pushing you into the static inertia from which it is tedious and more energy-consuming to rise. I tried my level-best to put that stop at bay. I could feel the heat and blood charring my face, I could see the redness that my arms were slowly producing, and I could here the vapours of hot sweat leaving my face, as I puffed my way up. Our leader's calls of, "Just five more minutes!" helped in a very small way to actually keep us moving. At one point, I decided not to pay any heed to all the mountain-advice buzzing in my head and I sat down. I deserved it. We had covered 3/4th of th journey, and I had boiled to limit of vapouring into thin air. My mom's advice was now ringing in my ears - " Don't do anything life-threatening." This wasn't exactly that, but I didn't have to wait to move into that category, did I?

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 :-)