Long Time No Blog

Haven't written on the blog for a long time since I really did not have much to put out. With college over, drag PSM postings- that we don't even have to go to most of the time, and dredgeries of trying to study for the USMLE, my life's been more of a series of merely surfing the net and sleeping.

Still, all these days have not gone wasted. I got a lot of paperwork done from the college and teachers. Heck! It really sweats you out going time and again for the same kinda stuff over n over again. (And its more of mental exhaustion, where I get an excuse to not study, and sleep away :P)

Then again, another thing I did was, finish watching Grey's anatomy (Season-5) -thanks to Shilpi for unintentionally sending me the online link to the show- I went on to waste almost one precious week waiting for the episodes to buffer and watching them, back to back!! I can really get addicted to a thing, and then its impossible to let go of it till I finish it off (... mind you, it has NEVER been this way for studies!!-its really amazing how my mind can siphon out only those things that are bound to waste time and make me feel guily later on!) But, now that I'm done with the show, I'm a happy person. No more Grey's anatomy as-a-distraction for me :D

Then the last two days have been heavy on the immunity. Had acute urticaria the other day, followed by a bout of rhinitis (..or 'rihintz' for some ;) ) with the eyes and nose running a constant drip. Feeling a lot better health wise now.

Although a mar has been put on the feel-good by the sudden realisation of how little I've studied in the past 10days!! :(

My prep..ermmm..it has been a slow and shoddy affair till now! With just about 3months left to the exam, I still haven't done my first read! Was supposed to finish it by 15th June (ie today!!!), and still have massive amounts of course left!!

*hyperventilates*

Just got a bit serious towards studies 2 days back. Have been doing Physio (one of my least fav subjects!), and realised that they've actually taught zilch at college in the general phys area of the subject. (It might be coz of my sucky memory, but I have a feeling that whatever I studied these days in general physio, sounded completely new!!)

CVS was on shaky lands.

Respi...ermm.. although haven't done it yet, I sure that what I have left of from my first yr knowledge, there'll be massive gaps to fill in there too!

Acid-base give me the shudders!

Only endocrinolgy seems to be good enough with the first yr stuff!

Its a good thing I got around to finally doing the subject, rather than leaving it out of the curriculum.

As for the other subs: If Physio doesn't do it, Biochem is definitely gonna kill me.

Anatomy and BS, not sure how much I know of it, till I do some Qbanks.

Micro...need revision revision..!!

Path..not too shaky, just need to adjust the loose ends a bit.

Hah! Forgot Pharma there.. Goes to show how much I've studied the damn subject! X(

Anyway, my rants about the prep end here. And, I finally got a new post on the blog (however uninteresting it might be!)

PS: Please pray for me!! Pray that I study!

Coo-oooookie !!! :D

RPFMS: Pic#3

One thing that I noticed while looking through pics from med school is that there are a LOT of pictures of us sleeping in the LTs. I guess that was the thing we most often did! As though the lectures weren't sporofic enough, the early morning timings were icing on the cake!!!

Awright, I ain't gonna put in more pics of us snoozing! That'd take a LOT of time!!!

Still, one thing that we did best was sit around and talk!!! All that was needed, was a group of friends and a place to hang out (-- An empty LT was the best!!)

:D :D

Miss those days.

:/

RPFMS: Pic #2

There were days like these (read: EXAMS!!) when someone could be seen studying in every random corner of the college. There's Sat, sitting on the balcony of the first floor, studying hard!

Yeah! There were a lot of such times, when we had to sit down to study. That's what med school is all about!!

Random Pictures From Med School: Pic #1

Right! Since I have nothing better to do, I'm starting a series of putting up random pictures clicked during College. These get me nostalgic & are a reminder of those fun times.

This first one was clicked in one of the Lecture Theatres after a lecture.

While me and KK are jus' lying down to rest our backs, notice that AJ, at the back, has actually gone off to sleep!!! :D :D

Yeah! It doesn't take much to put us down for a nap. All we need is a place to rest our heads.

Oh! and talking about sleeping, let me also put up this classic one, clicked after a Pharma lecture (you can see the KDTs!). We're definitely not posing in this one!

D, KK and me had very well dozed off.... Some of the pharma lectures were really really sedative!! ( I guesss they wanted to give a practical example of how a sedative-hypnotic drug works!!)

Pharma Lecture ke S/E

Of course then there's this third one that's my favourite, just because of its sheer natural-ness. I mean, we were all so tired, that we went off to REM sleep within 2 minutes!! It took a while to get us back up... :D :D Of course all this was Second year-the best time of College!!

Wake Me Up When...

Ah! Cold-Coffee!!

Everyone has that special hang-out at college. The place where you can sit and unwind, talk for hours or just plain go-and-meet up. For me that special place was AFJ.

It was not the serenity or calmness of the place that drew me to it (in fact, AFJ was the exact opposite of those things, being situated right on the side of a busy road!!). It was not even the seating space it provided (There were random chairs put about a footpath!). It was the heavenly cold-coffee.

AFJ... or 'All Fruit Juice' (for the uninitiated) had the absolutely the BEST cold-coffee that I've ever tasted! (It was way better than the cold-coffee at CCD, which was just 10 steps down from it!) And me, being a major cold-coffee addict, the place acted like a magnet. I would stop there on my way back from the hospital. I'd stop on my way to the library. Or sometimes, just come all the way from the hostel for a nice glass of coffee!!

Whenever we had time left after postings,it was a routine for us to collect there. SMSes were sent, phones rung: and the message was passed on, so that whenever whichever batch got free, they'd start coming over. And after an ice-cold drink and sharing the 'happenings' at the postings, we'd move for further classes. It was a well deserved break.

Then there were evenings, when there was the matter of a 'treat'.. for parents' anniversary, siblings' pass in exam, new bike, newborn cousin, winning a bet, getting a new goldfish, random meet up...and what not!!

Seasons were not a issue! The coffee was always ice-cold and refreshing. It was a retreat in summers and a time-out in exam-filled winters!

Then we all had our own specifications for the coffee. I'm sure bhaiya knew them by heart by our fourth visit there. ( Heck! at the volume we shouted, I bet even the pados-wala panwalla knew them too!). But then, the ritual was never complete without each one ahouting out his own type. It was always a chilled, kam meethi, ekdum strong coffee for me :)

Why am I getting all senti and writing a post about it?? Well coz, the shop got shut down about a year back. The bhaiya there moved to Jaipur, in search of greener pastures, to open another shop (not a juice shop this time--infact he's opened a toy showroom there). Well good for him. But I'm left here all sad & whining everytime I have craving for a cold-coffee (which is atleast twice a day!!). Though I found a minor substitute for it, but still

nothing has been able to replace that special chilled, kam mithi cold coffee at AFJ!!!

McNaughten's Rule Anyone??

I just happened to come across this interesting quote through the Cheeky Quote application on my side panel:

"It's good to know that if I behave strangely enough, society will take full responsibility for me."

-Ashleigh Brilliant

PS: I noticed that a lot of people land up on this post while googling up "McNaughten Rule".

One, I just found out that the spelling slightly different. Its McNaughton Rule (or M'Naughten Rule).

Two, here's the actual rule, "...it must be clearly proved that, at the time of committing the act, the party accused was labouring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing, or, if he did know it, that he did not know he was doing what was wrong."

More info on the rule at Wikipedia.

Ciao.

I got a Prize....!!!

Yes! I got a Certificate!!!! From Shruti, who I can't thank enough for this special Prize!!

(& who I also want to kill for not giving this Certi on time!!).

Even though we'd been a pair of sulking kids after coming in Second that day (ermm...the day WAS unfair to us!!! Those who were present can testify for that!!).

Even though we kept kicking ourselves of not keeping track of one simple question- Name the only vertebrate reservoir for Polio.

[ The thing was that, it was a direct question to another team. All the other teams were supposed to write down the answer & pass them on. The

answers were to be considered only if the direct team did not answer correctly. Now I had read the question as *ahem* 'vertebrae' and decided to venture a guess as 'lumbar'..*wtf!!* & Avina didn't even bother discussing the answer, coz she thought that with such a simple question, the team to which the question was directed initially, was bound to answer!! Butttt, these guys obviously blurted the answer as 'monkey'!! Errmm.. I fumbled... what were these guys talking about.. I read the question again..and realised the blunder I'd made!! In all the hurry all that I could think after 'monkey' was...'apes'!!! *I actually wrote that answer and passed it on*. All this while Avina was looking- first at those guys for getting it wrong...and then at me for getting it wrong AGAIN!! She looked at me with disbelief when I blatantly passed on my answer.]

Even though we kept trying to go back into time to say that 'sickle cell' [For a picture of a sowllen hand & the question: The paient keeps coming back to the ED with swollen hands & fingers. What would you see on his PBF]... or 'John F Kennedy' on time [For a question that went something like this: A famous couple had a baby who died of RDS.... Name the couple. Now I had actually guessed the answer as JFK *deserve a pat on the back for that*, but ran out of time while writing it down on paper! * deserve a kick on the shin for this*].

Even though we realised later on that the quizmaster had NOT given us credit for two of the first three tie-breaker questions! Our answers were correct!! (We checked up on the internet later) [Heck! I think he'd not even read our or the other team's answers!!]

...Ermm.. these were some of the memories of the quiz I

meant to post about. I guess the Certi & Shruti's blog brought them back and made me finally do it. And it feels gooood to have it out!!!*

As for now... I'm really really happy with this Certificate!!!

I'd like to thank Shruti for the special prize!! (Biased as she was towards us :P )

:D :D

PS: I've just penned down the our mishaps of the quiz. There were a lot more highs too.

Like the first question of the day : The Father of Neonatology was not a neonatologist. He was not even a pediatrician. What was he? We were the only team to get a correct answer in that round. It was a calculated guess: Obstetrician. :).....

And there were others that I can't recall now.

:D

Ahem.. The same bit again! :D

Awwright...!! My last take on choices!!

The final draft is ready (for now atleast :P )

After my month long posting in Peds, I'm actually in love with the branch!!

I just love the little patients, their smiles, the way the parents dote over them, how they start recognising you after 2-3 days into the inpatient wards.. its all so sweet.

Then to see a kid get better by the day-- lose that wheeze in his breathing, start gaining weight again after a protracted diarrhoea, begin feeding properly, lose all that puffiness he got from nephrotic syndrome, get rid of the chest tube that had been inserted for more than 15 days. All these little bits, and the kids' reaction to them.. their parents' happiness over all of it--make my day.

Now, I've had such fun in Peds, that I can't picture my self with adults! Kids actually end up making work fun with them!

:)

To Peds or Not To Peds...

As a reply to my previous post, I got this list from Dr.Parang Mehta (who is an aluminus from MY college!! Woo)

Posting it here..

*According to this list, I am definitely NOT made for Peds!! Lol!!*

Five reasons to choose Pediatrics:

1. You like to cure patients. The child with severe pneumonia you admit in the ICU today will be sitting up and trying to pull his IV line out. On Day 2 he'll be running around the ward, destroying everything he can reach.
2. You like challenges. The challenge of diagnosing uncommunicative patients, the challenge of treating reluctant medicine-takers,the challenge of examining a patient in the cacophony created by a child crying and the parents trying to make him stop...
3. You like honest patients. When they say their tummy hurts, it's because their tummy hurts. It's not because of college exams, a tough boss at work, a difficult mother-in-law at home.
4. You like to see the gratitude in parents' eyes when their child gets well. Even if it is ephemeral.

5. You like kids.

Five reasons to not choose Pediatrics:

1. You like money. Pediatrics is the least lucrative of the specialties.
2. You like peaceful nights and undisturbed weekends.
3. You like respectful, cooperative patients.
4. You like patients that keep coming back to you. Forever.
5. You do not like kids.

:/