The sick doctor

Pilots are forced to rest for a minimum duration before they resume their next flight 'to ensure no accident occurs due to human error as a result of inadequate rest'. Shouldn't a surgeon receive the same consideration. Why is it that we are expected to be active sharp and possess the most acute faculties irrespective of time. Due to a slightly messed up class schedule and theatre times I have recently been attending theatres in the morning skipping breakfast. In a very complicated part of a thyroid surgery my hands started trembling. Whether due to hypoglycemia or nervousness I dont know.  Blurry vision and slight dizziness hit me during an emergency surgery which occurs following a night duty. Both instances are examples of how doctor is incapacitated merely due to a punishing schedule. And this happens world wide. Is it not time we took a stand. Rested our doctors to ensure the output that we get is of maximum quality. Instead we are making medicine more commercial quantity oriented,  longer hours from the doctor resulting in more revenue more patients seen. More service provided. But is inferior service worth it

The semi educated

Three years of practice have brought me in touch with a wide variety of people. Gone has my habit of remembering individuals. Now I categorize my patients arbitrarily. One category very commonly found is the semi educated. These are people with a formal education, and a basic ability to read medical literature. Mind you the ability to read does not translate to the ability to comprehend.
This group will come with diagnosis. They dont come with symptoms but a diagnosis already formed in their head. Curses strike the doctor who does not agree with their diagnosis. A fine example is the manager I work along with. From a television doctor she gathered that she had a thyroid disorder. And I was the 'lucky doctor' she approached. Despite my reassurance she insisted that I test her. Following a normal test she insisted that I treat her (I am still stumped as to how to treat a normal thyroid). When I took a stand and refused the medicate she of course took a second opinion( which had the same result). Out of her anger at her doctors apparent lack of care she gets her thyroid hormone levels checked monthly. While that in itself is not a problem, me having to tell her every month is really a pain( again a first for me. Getting bad reviews for saying she is fine)

Itchy fingers

They are workaholics. Crazy people. How many times I hear this said about people I hear I have lost count. They dont have fun in life. They forget to enjoy. You get the gist.. My admiration of surgeons is no secret. Specifically though I seem to like surgeons who fall into this no fun category. Who just keeping operating. Seeing these guys in the theatre you see another persona. Back straight chin held high deep in thought but yet intrigued and little excited about performing the procedure. I know this surgeon who had just finished his case and was walking out. He sees another patient in a stretcher and casually comments to me 'my fingers are itching. I wish I could do this procedure also'. The sheer joy they encounter here is unbelievable. It's not a life without fun. It's a life which has so much for them that they dont have time for anything else

JOY OF SERVICE

It is an often encountered and sometimes tiring part of the medical profession. I am talking about people expecting you to rejoice in providing a service to humanity. Often painted in black and white a doctor ranges from a demi god who with a pill and prick saves you from death, to a greedy devil who is out to only bleed you dry(metaphorically speaking). Speaking exclusively of those the public views as demi gods the perception goes that the greatest joy they experience is service to mankind. While the service is good and adulation nice, the thing I most experience enjoy is the joy in practicing good medicine. The fine intricacies of medicine, the fight against the most complex of natures creation, the skill guts and pure intelligence involved in making a decision which may kill or save a life, and the joy in getting it right. Knowing you made a right choice. Knowing you have done the best possible. That is the ultimate joy. The greatest joy I experience as a doctor. The joy of service.....

My buzz word

I keep wondering what is the one word to best describe my life as a post graduate. TIRED is the only thing that seems to strike my mind. In fact am so tired that I can't even complete this post

One year

Other than the fact that the Sun is seen through its whole circumference by the earth in one year there remains no other significance of that particular time frame. And yet the completion of the above said time period is monumental for god knows what reason.  For me it is special cause it marks the one third mark of my surgical training. It means I am about 33% qualified to cut(somethin like I can remove the tip of your appendix). Jokes aside it is an amazing feeling. Moving from the title of junior post graduate to senior. A little more freedom and lot more responsibility.. Hopefully this year brings with it a lil more learning and lot more joy. A rather purposeless post but something I felt like

All is not available online

With google doctors have gone from being a source of information to the stage of being both a source for cross verification and a object whose statements need to be verified. Personally sitting on the doctors side of the table i feel the net is more a source of headache(for both parties involved) than a source of information. rather than give the various examples of the hazards of net i have this story. It was Saturday night(notice how all the fun stories happen at night) and i got Mr.Internet calling me for an urgent consult. His problem was a mole on his face(been there for 20 years). Being a son of the IT generation he looked it up on the net and found out that the mole can be a skin cancer. so he rushed to me the lowly non skin doctor. After explaining that it was a mole and not cancer as he feared i sent him.

Mr IT again comes after(finding out by a post on Facebook no less) getting a biopsy(painful and useless procedure) he came with the report because he found out that biopsy could tell if it was malignant and then read again that biopsy also can be wrong. The smart IT finally decided the net was not enough so he would trust his doctor(not entirely though, cause he consulted other doctors also). So my advice ppl dont look up the net because anything from rubbish to actual facts are online. There is an air of mistrust regarding the docs but at least remember they have been educated..