Speaking doctors

(Guest Post) The hospital makes sure we get lots of proteins. I wake up from my slumber and grab my cell to see what time it is. I think the buffer created by the snooze option has made me lazy. Finally, when I gather enough ATPs to drag myself out of bed, I am welcomed by an azure sky and singing sparrows. I get ready for the day and hang my AKU card whose only utility is opening doors. The stage is set As I enter D2, I am to fight, sorry, print out profiles. The day is kicked off. I can hear Dr Zarka (Onco fellow) ensuring whether the follow ups are complete. I am sent on the hunt for red folders as if I am a bull. Meanwhile, the round has started. The onco team is looking forward to Shehzad’s sketches. Someone politely knocks the door. The seeker hesitantly opens the door. He is one of the attendants. He wants to know the exact junction in time and space when the attending will be visiting his patient. I assure him that we’ll be there anything like storm. I re-join...

  Brentuximap in Lymphoma

Weekend passes away like a dream. Monday flies away. Drained totally drained I return home at half past nine (pm). Thursday is presentation day. Tuesday, Wednesday. No time left. I gather some courage to make a few slides but feel too lethargic. I put an alarm for five am and also inform Fozia (my younger sister) that I will wake up at five to prepare for the presentation. Fozia smiles at me (she is preparing for exam and has altered sleep pattern). “I ll wake you up, if you are willing and will salute you if you are able to wake up at the said time!”, she ridiculed. The alarm does not ring. I wake up on this note, “Its five thirty am”. I come out of the dream world into the real one. I drag myself up by six. Namaz is followed by nashta. The tea is terribly bitter. The egg mashed up. After eating like a king (??) , I get hold of the laptop and put it on the table. Few slides are added to the already made presentation. The sun starts to rise and its seven thirty soon. I get ready fo...

On the way back. Its phenomenal. I leave my place at quarter to eight and return at eight. Twelve hours of work, hard work. Lunch is munched while writing chemo orders. Prayers have turned into more of a sit up, sit down exercise. Then the tea. Constant tea. That's the high of D2. When I miss the tea (which is near to none), the D2 staff reminds me. And our constant snacks. My team has turned into munching machines. Today,our only male resident of the team bought chocolates for all the girls. There was a bag of chips as well. My team's uniform feature is the smile on their faces. But we work like crazy mind you. While people may think that our humour has turned into tumour, it has not! The other day Sara said, " Dr Zarka, we have patient on 3b, 4b, 5b, 8b and then hum bhi!" The identity crisis There is this thing known as ID card. For me the biggest use it has is that you  can use it to open doors. So this doc, who pretends to be extremely busy took two and...

Ten thirty five, the clock says. It has been a long day.  Woke up at the sound of my younger brother 's voice, "You ve been sleeping for ages,  get up its your brother 's convocation today! ". Oh well. So I woke up.  Holiday started with a Princess breakfast (as I can never be a king no matter how hard I try! ). This was followed by protected time for newspaper.  News views and confuse. Same old petty national and international issues. God help them. The tea starts to flow Yes it does. Cups upon cups. Under the mango tree.  There are total of three Mango trees.  And this year all three are bearing flowers. Pretty little ones. They tend to shed some kind of powder on the floor , turning it all messy. Plenty of mangoes this year then. Miss bean Beans. Brown and white, along with some pasta. I bought them last week after being inspired by a recipe.  They were soaked and then  boiled.  Half turned into chat and half into soup....