Warning:

Dates in the calendar are closer than they appear!

*This is just to remind me to not while around, & get back to books!

4 & A Half Years... Still A Novice!

Okay! So I'm getting into that chilly zone of exams again. With Pre-Univs round the corner & Univs lined up as a Happy 2009 gift in early Jan, its high time that I start studying seriously.

But the so-called 'Final Year' that was supposed to be the toughest (yeah!I know it IS!!!) & the most exhaustive period of Med College, somehow flew by! I wonder if I actually got to learn anything new this year!

I still cannot differentiate between a bronchial & vesicular breath sound.

I still get my vertex & breeches mixed up!

I still see a nothing more than a tiny scrawl while reading an ECG. (Okay, maybe I can tell you where a ST elevation is, but that's only when I'm told beforehand that its a MI ECG)

I still don't know the the Glasgow coma scale.

I still can't get an IV line in!

I still can't auscultate & recognise a heart murmur on my own!

Although there are some things that I can do, too (tho they're really numbered):

I can tell you what a 'strawberry tongue' is.

I know a lot of things eponymous with 'Charcot' in medicine :)

I know the triad of congenital rubella syndrome.

I know what 'Battle's sign' stands for.

I might not know the exact components of Brown-Sequard syndrome, but I do know how it was discovered :P

I know what Pickwickian syndrome is.

I know the story behind Ondine's curse.

I know what a Keel operation is for. (It may be obselete, but who cares. The examiner will pop the question anyway!)

[One thing that I realised this year is that somehow, I'm good at just one thing. Eponymous syndromes & signs!! & the rarer the better. :) Of course, these aren't gonna come in use in any time during my medicine career. But then, these are about the only things I can learn with low input. Wonder if someonw would hire me where I just have to tell the components of named syndromes. Man, I would love that job! :D ]

I know for sure that however much may I love Med College, I ain't no match for "FINAL YEAR"! It calls for continuous studying, with lo-ooong hours of cramming & rote. Well, my butts aren't prepared for that kind of sitting! So then, I might face a tough time just trying to pass some of the subjects. * Do pray for me!!*

& know the final year's almost ended, with me just worrying about finishing the syllabus. With the exams at a really scary distance, I'm still not one with even the first read of books! Haven't even purchased Psychiatry & Anesthesia ki books! :(

Well at this point of time, it seems kinda stupid for me to be still sitting here moping about the epic-course & my tiny pool of knowledge, when I should be studying surgery. But hey, this was a great way to let off steam.

Right, I might as well get back to reading how to amputate a limb now. :/

*Plus one more thing on my mind right now: I HATE OBS!!!!!

The Best-est Teacher In The World!

(I’m writing this while I’m sitting in the car, on my way back home.. So got an excuse for doing this instead of studying. :))

This post is for my absolute favourite teacher in the world- My Dad!

Umm..not citing his name as the best teacher for general things you learn from parents like how to live, love & care (Yes! He’s taught all that too!) but for literally being the best teacher through the years.

My Dad’s been teaching me since I-can’t-even-remember-when. Every year as my syllabus changed, he had to (read: was forced to) read it too, coz being the lazy bum that I am, I used to do just one casual reading & consider it done (..& obviously I didn’t remember any of it an hour later!). He used to sit with me before every test & exam, & do it with me.

There’s this one incident that I remember vividly. (Shruti, you might’ve even heard this one from me before). I had my Sanskrit half-yearly exam the next day & midway through noon I was busy playing with my cousins who had come over. When my dad came back home from work, he asked about what my scenario with the preparation was, I was quick to reply with a “Papa, wo to ho gaya..”.Then when he decided to quiz me with some questions; within 5 minutes I had tears running down my face & a blank look with no answers. He then took me up to the terrace & instead of scolding, sat down with me & got me started with balak ke shabd roop (ermm..its the basic grammar in Sanskrit. I had not bothered to learn ANYTHING!). This was quite some work for him too, coz he knows zilch in Sanskrit! I can still picture us sitting there-me on a ragged old dari & him, in front of me with the book, sitting on an old piece of bedding, & both of us reciting “Balakah, Baalakau, Baalaka”!
But then, by the end of the day, I had done enough to last me that exam (& quite a few exams in the coming years too!)
....That’s the kind of teacher my Dad is. :-)

And now, that I’m in his field, I get to know more & more about his knowledge n teaching skills each day. Believe it or not, questions that he says are important have a habit of turning up on the exam the next day.
There’s this other incident that is my favourite. (You might’ve heard about this one too, Shruti)
It was right before my AIIMS pre-med entrance exam. We were standing outside the centre & I was busy doing some last moment cramming. Out of nowhere, he told me that Thalidomide, was a drug that had re-entered the market recently as it had found new use in Multiple Myeloma.
**What was a drug that had re-entered the market recently as it had found use in what!!**Seeing the blank look on my face, he said, “Just remember that the drug caused Phocomelia i.e. seal like limbs,in the fetus… So it was withdrawn from the market earlier. & is now used for MM”. Now being the stubborn ass I am, do you even think I bothered with all these new names!
But then, there I was in the Exam hall & Ha! It was right there, “Thalidomide in utero causes:..” My heart skipped a beat! I knew this! I tried to recollect, but it wouldn’t come to me…(You see, I hadn’t made any effort to learn it!) Couldn’t make out what the answer was. But in the excitement, that I at least knew the name of the drug, I marked an answer (which turned out to be wrong!!)

And then in my First year Per-Univs, one night before the Anat exam, I was studying at Ritu’s place. As I talked to Pa, he said that they had a full question on ‘Arches of the foot’ in their Pre-Univs. So that was an important topic, I ought to study it too.
I didn’t. Ritu did.
Voila. The first question, carrying 10 marks was… [No prize for guessing what that was!]

He somehow has this knack of knowing what might be there in the next day’s paper! (Last year, he even got Bhavesh a 4 mark question in the Boards!! He’d just told him the thing before leaving for the exam centre!)

Okay, not only this, he’s also an amazing teacher otherwise. Never knew about his knowledge till I started with Medicine. Clinics with him are awesome. Ask him anything off-hand & he’ll explain it to you really well. (Once taught a topic in Gynae too.. :)). Even at classes, he’s one of the good teachers. Plus, he’s always there to clear my concepts of the tracts in the spinal cord and diabetes insipidus!

He loves teaching. Even if its dud students like yours truly.
In fact, he’s the one I hold responsible for me-making-it-through into Medical! He did more Zoology than me in my pre-med days. There are some things that he told me back then (like all about Adrenals on a trip back home from Jaipur), that have been helping me till this day!

Not many can boast of a combo of an amazing dad & an awesome teacher!
Am really really lucky to have him!! I’d be screwed otherwise! Bigtime!

Learn To Live

Rock On!!

One word for the movie: Rocks!!!!!
Man!! I had been waiting for the movie long enough...& now that I've seen it, all I can say is that, is was WORTH the wait!! Farhan Akhtar rocks as the actor & more so, as the SINGER!! Has a different *in a good way* voice that blends really well with Shankar-Ehasaan-Loy's music! The music trio have put together an awesome bollywood-rock score. 'Socha Hai' & 'Pichle Saat Dino' are my absolute favourites!!
The actors were great. All four gel as a group. *gives a DCH like feeling at times* Get Purab's boyish charm, Luke's seriousness & Joe's solidarity. .& you can't help but feel good!
The direction-WOW. The song 'Sindbad the sailor' was the high point for me. It feels as if you're actually in a concert!!

Why am I doing a (something that cannot be even called a )movie review here? Coz I LOVED the movie *& Farhan in particular ;)* & wanted to pen down something abt it, just to get it out of my system :)
Go watch the movie. Live your dream.

Rock on!!

Part 2- My Verry Happy Birthday

. . . Finally Part-2 of ‘My Verry Happy Birthday’. . .

A bit of jolting from a stranger on the blogging world, an unexpected stretch of peace (thanks to the awesome mausam) & ‘Friendship Day’- a day when I’m really happy & thankful for the best-est friends I could’ve asked for in College - All these have gotten me back in the mood for finishing the long forgotten post abt my birthday.


Lets see.. I’d left off at the point where I found these two "blank" scrolls of papers at AFJ.

Now this was the kaminiyat part… that these guys had planned. On those two scrolls, I was supposed to write a “thank you” note to ANY TWO of the pple. Now of course, it was hard to choose from 10!! & whichever two I chose, the other 8 were bound to kill me with senti-dialogues & what not about how I love those two more than the others! & the worst part was , that I had to do it BEFORE I got my next clue…. :(
So, back at the hostel, I wrote down two names (don’t remember which ones I decided to oblige..) & had to hear a lot of “Oh..you like her more than us!!” & “Ahh… So I’m not a favourite!Sigh!” . It was fultoo melodrama plus meri taang kheechna!

Now, after this, I was given the next Clue. Clue #4.
Here it is:
“Gehra pyaar hai issse
Utpatang hain kaam hamare
Din mein do baar
Saptah mein saat baar
Karta hai CARRY throughout YEAR”
Now this riddle was one of the toughest ones. Took me a looong time to figure it out. I finally got CARRY-YEAR…. CARRIER by myself… But something was missing… I kept lookin & BANG! It hit me:
It was : “GUDS CARRIER”… that’s what they call my Activa sometimes… (Guds is my nickname, for the uninitiated)
I ran to the Activa… But there was nothing there.. Ran back to my room to get the keys.. But of course, I couldn’t find them. That was the hardest part. Again got some help from Anks, while the others were having a good time teasing me! After looking EVERYWHERE, I finally found the keys in Navy’s room (who was either pretending to, or had very conveniently gone to sleep in there!!)…
Getting to the Activa I found my next gift..but no clue..

As I ran back up, got my next Clue in there. Clue #5 was another music clue. As Ritu played the song “Hips Don’t Lie” on her cell, I guessed it was something to do with MG Hospital. As it was almost 11.00, we had to go to the Medicine posting at the hosp. I was told to leave the clue at the moment.
When we got to the Hospital, I saw Navy & Aditi already there. They were waiting at the parking lot for us & grinning. I looked around for a clue or gift- But nopes, nothing in there. Rushed to MM I- nothing in there too! Went to the Medicine office- nothing in there!! Then I decided to go on with the proceedings of the posting, & look for the gift later. Ab finally, when we were winding up with things at the posting, we decided to look for the clue again. Aha.. Hinting time again. I was asked to go & look in the Seminar room once again. I went in there &, Voila! There were two scrolls (once again) near the Podium. And sitting innocently, right next to the sheets was my next clue!

Here it is:
Clue #6:
“Sum of today’s date _____
Arps comes in class ______
Our grp is number _______
Govinda is Hero No. ______
The time you’ll get your next gift _____”
‘Aha! Pretty simple this time’, I thought. Of course, it was all ‘ONE’…
But waitaminnit, as I had calculated, the sum of today’s date was NOT ‘one’!! (1+5+0+3+2+0+0+8 =19; 1+9=10) It was ‘TEN’! & as I pointed this out to the others, *smug at the thought that I’d found an error in their riddle*, I was hit in the head & asked what the sum of 1+0 was…
Oops, I’d been an ass!!! It WAS ‘one’ alright!!! (They were all lauging at my well known maths skills by now!!) ;)

Next was the Paeds Tutorial at Ummed Hosp. We reached there, at about 12.30. Waiting for the tut to start, it was already ‘one’ o clock! I was handed my next gift. These were strips of really cute stickers! Wow! Plus of course, there was the next clue!

This clue #7 was a ‘maths test’! This one might be hard for you to understand, but I figured it out pretty soon (faster than all of these guys had expected! ;))
Here goes:
“Location of ur gift = Your score in exam/ Total amount we’re spending on your gifts”
This one actually is a brilliant puzzle!!! Lemme explain. My overall score in 2nd year exams was 420 marks. Everyone remembers this coz of the sheer interesting-ness of the number ‘chaar sau bees’.
For the next bit: Since 3-4 days before my b’day Navy had been bugging me with her PJs about getting me gifts worth Rs.10… She had decided that they would get me 5 gifts of 2 rupees each… It was supposed to be a shampoo sachet, some toffees, a 2 rupee pen etc. So basically, she had been working to get me ready for this clue.
Now basic maths, 420/10=42. So there it was Room No.42!!!!! Yay!! Although, at that point I was confused whose room it is, but later, it turned out to be Avina’s!!
When we got to the hostel, (after the sad tutorial,) I went to Avina’s room. But there, I was told to wait. Coz the hunt had been put on hold till evening, when Ritz would come to the dorm! So then, I was assured that my guess was correct & my next gift would be in Avi’s room.

So after a fun-lunch, I went to sleep. Shit! I was so exhausted that I woke up right at 5 in the evening. As I went to find the others, I found everyone, including Ritz waiting in Avi’s room. & there were these really pretty balloons all over the place!!! :) :)
To burst my balloon of happiness, there I saw 2 more blank sheets!
It was then that I remembered that I had two more unfilled sheets lying around. Hmmm..This looked like a good prospect. I could fill in all the 4 gals’ names in those. (coz there were none of the guys around!). I was about to start filling in, when I was told that the sheets were to be filled in preference order in front of everyone!! Damn!!
So then again, I was verbally assaulted for thanking pple!

Okay that done with..It was time for the next clue. It was another musical clue.
Clue #8:
“Gudiya humse roothi rohogi,
kab tak na hasogi
Dekho ji kiran si lehar aayi
Aayi re aayi re hansi aayi…”
Instant answer! It had to be with my mom!
You see, this is one song that my Mum used to sing whenever I was mad at her. This would make me smile at once!!

These guys had done ALL their homework. The clues had been spread out all over the place!!!

So post-conformation, I went home.
There on the dining table was the ‘gift’- A pepsi bottle filled with water, with a shampoo sachet & 2 rupee pen floating in it! See, Navy had been true to her promise. I did get my 10 rupee gifts!!! I laughed heartily at it!!
As I went back to the hostel, there was my next riddle.

Clue #9:
“ They all point to one place:
1. Page no.616
2. Your hangout place
3. @^!’s louuu-uuuu”

Okay, I had to LOL at this!!! U won’t really understand it, but it’s an amazing riddle. Page 616 of Park’s PSM book is “Sulabh Shauchalaya”, which had been a butt of a lot of jokes during our stint of studying PSM. (Yes Shruti, we even have to study the sewage system & toilets!! One more point to my course! ;)). My ‘hangout place’: well, I love to spend a lot of time in the bathroom.
I ran to the bathroom & there they were (you guessed it), two more blank sheets & my next riddle.


Clue #10 is my favourite of the lot!!! It actually shows what brilliant brains these guys are. Here’s how it goes:
“You have ‘peritonitis’,
On your tummy, doctor gave a sign;
With ‘Hagrid’ lies your Rx (read:Treatment),
Can’t think of the last line.”

I had to think for a really long time to get this! But amazingly I managed to find the ans all by myself!
The answer was ‘Bhaiya’ ie the guard outside the hostel.
See, ‘the sign of peritonitis on tummy’ is guarding. The ‘Hagrid’ IS a guard. So my next gift was with Bhaiya downstairs. It was another really cute strip of stickers..!!

By the time I was done with it, it was already time for the party. So we got dressed & headed-off. I thought the clues were over, but nahi, there was more to come. . .
There were more clues at the party too!!!

..To be contd..

( Am getting sleepy now. It’s a really long typing session for a notebook-pen kinda person like me!*Yawn!*)

PS: A biiii-iiiiig HUG to all u guys for the awesome budday! Btw come to think of it, all my birthdays at college have been different (in a great way!!). All thanks to you guys!

"I Wish I Was A Fetus"

Here's an interesting poem that I came across:

I wish I was a fetus
I never would be bored,
Sitting in my uterus
Swingin' on my cord.

To worry the obstreticians
I'd be a proper beast,
I'd change position on the hour
-Transverse, oblique, then breech!

To student midwives, I'd present
A mystifying case
I'd hide myself in the os
& leave an empty space.

I'd tie my cord into a knot
& wave it through the cervix
I'd give the mid-wives such a shock
-& laugh off all my vernix!

And when my membranes rupture
I'd be a right ol' pest
Presenting large diameters
I'd transeversely arrest.

I'd tell my pal placenta
To get himself detached.
To theatre then the lot of us,
would pronto be despatched!

And when they start to Caesar
I'd laugh & think "Ti-Hi"
When no one else is looking,
I'd come vaginally!!

:) :)
-Unknown

PS: If you liked this, check out "Fetus-The Wonder Baby" . Its weird, but different. :)

Take Me To Your Heart : MLTR

Beautiful song by MLTR...
:) :)

Hiding from the rain and snow
Trying to forget but I won't let go
Looking at a crowded street
Listening to my own heart beat

So many people all around the world
Tell me where do I find someone like you girl

(Chorus)

Take me to your heart take me to your soul
Give me your hand before I'm old
Show me what love is - haven't got a clue
Show me that wonders can be true

They say nothing lasts forever
We're only here today
Love is now or never
Bring me far away

Take me to your heart take me to your soul
Give me your hand and hold me
Show me what love is - be my guiding star
It's easy take me to your heart

Standing on a mountain high
Looking at the moon through a clear blue sky
I should go and see some friends
But they don't really comprehend

Don't need too much talking without saying anything
All I need is someone who makes me wanna sing

(Chorus)

M is for Medicine :D

Some interesting Med-Quotes, that I came across. *Tho most of them are 'doc-bashers', take 'em with a pinch of salt...*

Enjoy!! :D :D

Don't think of organ donations as giving up part of yourself to keep a total stranger alive. It's really a total stranger giving up almost all of themselves to keep part of you alive. ~Author Unknown

Our profession is the only one which works unceasingly to annihilate itself. ~Martin H. Fischer

Men are not going to embrace eugenics. They are going to embrace the first likely, trim-figured girl with limpid eyes and flashing teeth who comes along, in spite of the fact that her germ plasm is probably reeking with hypertension, cancer, haemophilia, colour blindness, hay fever, epilepsy, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. ~Logan Clendening

The only weapon with which the unconscious patient can immediately retaliate upon the incompetent surgeon is hemorrhage. ~William Stewart Halsted

The public blabbers about preventative medicine, but will neither appreciate nor pay for it. You get paid for what you cure. ~Martin H. Fischer

Doctors are just the same as lawyers; the only difference is that lawyers merely rob you, whereas doctors rob you and kill you, too. ~Anton Chekhov, Ivanov

The fact that your patient gets well does not prove that your diagnosis was correct. ~Samuel J. Meltzer

Patients may recover in spite of drugs or because of them. ~J.H. GaddumHe's the best physician that knows the worthlessness of the most medicines. ~Benjamin Franklin

A drug is that substance which, when injected into a rat, will produce a scientific report. ~Author Unknown

The doctor is often more to be feared than the disease. ~French Proverb

You may know the intractability of a disease by its long list of remedies. ~Alonzo Clark

When you no longer know what headache, heartache, or stomachache means without cistern punctures, electrocardiograms and six x-ray plates, you are slipping. ~Martin H. Fischer

It is easy to get a thousand prescriptions but hard to get one single remedy. ~Chinese Proverb

Never forget that it is not a pneumonia, but a pneumonic man who is your patient. ~William Withey Gull

The patient does not care about your science; what he wants to know is, can you cure him? ~Martin H. Fischer

Medicine is the only profession that labours incessantly to destroy the reason for its own existence. ~James Bryce, 1914

Medicines heals doubts as well as diseases. ~Karl Marx

****************

Btw: I've now become an ardent fan of Martin H. Fischer !! :D

Have-A-Happy-Period. ;D ;D

This is an actual letter from an Austin woman sent to American company Proctor and Gamble regarding their feminine products. She really gets rolling after the first paragraph. It's PC Magazine's 2007 editors' choice for best webmail-award-winning letter.

**IT HAS BEEN COPY-PASTED WORD BY WORD **

Dear Mr. Thatcher,

I have been a loyal user of your 'Always' maxi pads for
over 20 years and I appreciate many of their features. Why, without the
LeakGuard Core or Dri-Weave absorbency, I'd probably never go horseback
riding or salsa dancing, and I 'd certainly steer clear of running up
and down the beach in tight, white shorts. But my favorite feature has to be your
revolutionary Flexi-Wings. Kudos on being the only company
smart enough to realize how crucial it is that maxi pads be aerodynamic. I can't tell you how safe and secure I feel each month knowing there's a little F-16 in my pants.

Have you ever had a menstrual period, Mr. Thatcher? Ever suffered from the curse'? I'm guessing you haven't. Well, my time of the month is starting right now. As I type, I can already feel hormonal forces violently surging through my body. Just a few minutes from now,
my body will adjust and I'll be transformed into what my husband likes to call 'an inbred hillbilly with knife skills.' Isn't the human body amazing?

As Brand Manager in the Feminine-Hygiene Division, you've no doubt seen quite a bit of research on what exactly happens during your customers monthly visits from 'Aunt Flo'. Therefore, you must know about the bloating, puffiness, and cramping we endure, and about our intense mood swings, crying, jags, and out-of-control behavior. You surely realize
it's a tough time for most women. In fact, only last week, my friend Jennifer fought the violent urge to shove her boyfriend's testicles into a George Foreman Grill just because he told her he thought Grey's Anatomy was written by drunken chimps.
Crazy!

The point is, sir, you of all people must realize that America is just crawling with homicidal maniacs in Capri pants... Which brings me to the reason for my letter. Last month, while in the throes of cramping so painful I wanted to reach inside my body and yank out my uterus, I opened an Always maxi-pad, and there, printed on the adhesive
backing, were these words: 'Have a Happy Period.'

Are you fu*ing kidding me? What I mean is, does any part of your tiny middle-manager brain really think happiness - actual smiling, laughing happiness is possible during a menstrual period? Did anything mentioned above sound the least bit pleasurable? Well, did it, James?
FYI, unless you're some kind of sick S&M freak, there will never be anything 'happy' about a day in which you have to jack yourself up on Asprin and Kahlua and lock yourself in your house just so you don't march down to the local Walgreen's armed with a hunting rifle and a sketchy plan to end your life in a blaze of glory.

For the love of God, pull your head out, man! If you just have to slap a moronic message on a maxi pad, wouldn't it make more sense to say something that's actually pertinent, like 'Put down the Hammer' or 'Vehicular Manslaughter is Wrong', or are you just picking on us?

Sir, please inform your Accounting Department that, effective immediately, there will be an $8 drop in monthly profits, for I have chosen to take my maxi-pad business elsewhere. And though I will certainly miss your Flex-Wings, I will not for one minute miss your brand of condescending
bullsh*t.

And that's a promise I will keep. Always.

Best,

Wendi Aarons

Austin , TX

**********************

PS:This applies to the context of another company marketing sanitary pads in India, with the same tag-line *ring a bell, yet??* :D :D

BTW: Here's the link to the blog:

http://allscrubbedup.blogspot.com/2008/03/have-happy-period.html

Cheers!