Speaking doctors

Clinic completes early. So I have an hour, extra and free to my life. The passage from the clinics till B2 oncall rooms is both long and interesting. It gives you a long walk to think. If the day was nice the path is smiley, if the day was not so smooth, you are all the more bitter. So you climb down the flight of stairs, pass through Nazeraliwalji. Three minutes pass There is a lot of construction underway. They are building a two story building. And its building up every day.You have to almost take a u turn and you can see the main building. On this route you see a lot of young and not so young men  with ties. Then comes the round about of the main building. Here if there is an aunty or not so aunty, she makes sure she scans you. She thinks that because you work here so you are highly paid and follow the latest fashion trends. I make sure I throw a smile and move on before she starts to make an effort to smile back. The main entrance is crossed. On the left is th...

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...

Preview Postcall. Very postcall. Finally had a better call. The last two were terribly busy. And now am supposed to come 12 hours later again. Welcome to ER episode three it is. Nothing interesting happened. Four CCU admissions, two chronic myeloid leukemias now with fever, high blood pressures and sugars. Two doctors, one small, one large. As boring as it could get. Docs and the delicious One of the docs in ER is supposed to go to a breakfast at 'barbecue tonight'. How can one get excited about going to a breakfast. Getting dressed, perked up and ready for a hearty meal. Most likely for things like halwa puri and parathas. My father was once invited for breakfast with 'paay'. He didnot go. He had never had such a thing for breakfast and did not plan to break rules. Qaum say khitab and chappal While in the doctors lounge as I yaked away (and a few listened intently, or so I believed), one of the (female) doctors said, "All I have been do...

Its about three pm here. I just talked to this elderly gentleman who had been admitted with gallstones and had quite a stormy hospital course. In and out of the ICU, he looked pretty fine apart from the bag containing some very green stuff (bile). He was more worried about his wife. She had dementia and he was the only caretaker. He continued to care for her despite his bad lungs and hurting tummy. Its only so much a person can take. He came in, in a pretty serious state but has made through. His wife meanwhile has landed in an old home now. He just goes on and on about how she is her soul mate. She could hardly identify him and has very poor bladder control. 'People would just think that I’ve gotten rid of her now, but that's not how it is..........'. Hajra leaves on Friday. Its just Thursday in between. It will get lonely then. I bought three books for my self to beat the loneliness. Readers Digest, the Fundamentalist and another one I don’t remember the name of. I d br...

Finally our team is blessed with another resident. "You are very resourceful now!", says Tahir (our year one resident). "What does that mean?", I say all confused."You have a lot of manpower now!", he finishes. I agree. Finally our team is blessed with another resident. In medicine there are four teams. Each team has a Consultant, a senior resident, one or two residents and one or two interns. All three teams had six members while my team was short of a resident. And it so happened that the shortest team had to deal with the largest number of patients. Half a month passed like this. Coming in the mornings, half-heartedly attending the morning sessions, rushing towards the wards and writing in follow ups. Chasing the labs, checking in on the medications. Things have been going crazy so far...... Here is my team... Fozia Well, she is my sister. Cant say much about her. Samad Our intern from Hyderabad. He has straight long (well, ...

It seems like ages since I wrote my last post. The last few days have been busy, really busy. My world twisted 360 degrees on first July. Post call, in fact very post call, I headed to C2 ward to start off with the sixteen patients that the previous team had left as a gift for me.     The saga begins…… It was a mess, a whole mess.I did not know the patients and the patients did not know me! Then there was the team. Myself, the (so called) senior resident, my sister , the year one resident (post call) and our two brand new interns (and one of them post call!).   Dr Saliha is our consultant. A very pleasant lady. The first day, she bears with us and together we try to sort out what the sixteen of them have. As we complete rounds its two hours spent. Then come in the round orders. My senses are almost going numb. The rest of the team looks tired as well. The first day finishes at six pm. Yes we can! Then comes in the on call day. The day we are supposed to admi...

As I wait for the over , its time for another post. I write because people read, and people read because I write! It's a vicious cycle! Seventeen days of cardiology! Seems like yesterday. The day starts as I wake up at eleven am. Good morning. People at my place are done with nashta, one of the masis is done with her job.Its pretty sunny outside. The newspaper has been read.I fix my breakfast, and also serve tea to the rest of the family. As I sit in the little lawn, I look up at the mango tree. It has started to grow little little flowers , and karis ( small mangoes) . This is the same tree which my uncle said will never bear fruit! Last year it had beautiful sweet mangoes. I call this tree 'hope'.  Mom lazily starts making lunch. I put in my essential touches in the cooking. As I start preparing for the call ahead, my mom forces me to eat literally everything edible in the house!   Its about two pm as I head for AKU. Its too sunny. Actually scorching. Sc...