Hurray...we got the raise

Well after a strike of 5 days we finally ended with getting a raise of around 7000 rupees( makes our stipend around 22000,also arrears of 1 year).Its much less than what we had actually demanded(..35000),also less than what we had thought would have been ideal (..25000), bt then something is better than nothing. so its time for celebrations.....

15000......to.......35000 ?? !!

The figures above signify my current stipend and the hike MARD (maharashtra association of resident doctors) is demanding from DMER.Well,we deserve it considering that all other states (..well most of) get more stipend than we do and most of them atleast have fixed hour duties unlike us in maharashtra.But then when did the government started being fair?????

It will take a lot of protests and possibly strikes (....really awaiting one of those.Don't get me wrong, but then strike days are the only ones in a resident's life which qualifies as a holiday) for any decision to come by. so currently we are just happy with looking at the figures..(do we have other choice??? ;-)

Kalyug....

recently came across this sms.it totally highlights the plight of indian doctors who r reduced to muggin mcq's, rather than learning clinical stuff.

here is how it goes '' ramchandra keh gaye siya se aisa kalyug ayega, patient ko bhagwan hi bachayega, doctor mcq padhte reh jaayega."

It's a Paradox....

Well being a doctor is a long and frustrating process in itself,but being an ambititious one makes it much more difficult..Little does one realise that this is a profession where paradoxically,as you move ahead things only become more complicated.

Now for example take my case.When i got 4th rank in cet(...not mentioning it here to boast about it as you will realise),and as i took kem G.med all the people around me had this to say 'tera life to settle hai'.But it is not that easy.The first year went by without so much to ponder over as we were always busy as juniors.Now as second year has started,one would feel i must be happier with lot less work around.But i am not,(...a paradox again) as  i have realised have that i have to start studying(..majorly.a thing which we are  not expected off in the first year.It still isn't obligatory,but as i have said i am ambititious,so i have to work hard.in medicine that translates to studying hard:-).

I also have realised that even after completing my internal medicine,being an ambititious person i am i would go for some sort of superspecialisation.Just to let u know even getting a seat in superspecislity field of your choice is cumbersone enough,let alone be the 3 years u have to spend slogging.Even after that who comes to a just out of the factory superspecialist who charges  a lot of money???(...as u already know in case of doctors usually the older the better).

But then its my choice, and i have to live by it(..as it is i dont have another option;-).I will manage somehow.

P.S: The above post was wriiten in one of those gloomy medicine criticising moods of mine.It usually doesnt last long.

Back to internship.....

well have recently completed my first year of housemanship.thought i would have lot of free time,leaving behind the days of blood collections and ct alls.but then i got posted in cardiology.it is one of the heaviest supesrspeciality in kem.we being juniormost have to do all the intern stuff(..blood collections,fillling discharges..etc).the first day of our posting we got a severe bashing from lecturer(..we were to be blamed partially,as we had joined 3 days late).even during my 1st year no senior even came close to the kind of foul language we were subjected to.(...not mentioning the exact cuss words he used,he might stumble upon this blog,the world has become very small,you see.)...i m missing my first year residency(..specially the ems posting:-(

A NIGHT TO REMEMBER.

...no no, i did not have one of those surreal romantic nights if the title suggests that....i just had a one hell of a night in ems..
having already completed 2 months of ems duties in kem,i thought i had seen the worst and heaviest of days..how wrong i was!
it started with me taking over from previous batch for next 10 hours of my duty, i got quite a few patients directed towards me,that's not unusual,but it was just a pointer of things that were going to come..
..we had ems full of patients all demanding to be seen at that very moment,besides that there were patients on some 15 odd trollies lying around(...we being only 5 doctors or so..).despite sending many patients for ecg and xray's(...a trick we quite often use to dissipate the crowd in ems,it takes atleast half an hour for those patients to come back.;-)..there were no signs of crowd dwindling(..without exaggeration i think i was shuffling around with histories and examination of 4 patients at a time!!!!)
Then we had 3 transfers from cooper hosp.,2 of them being critical... 1 having diarrhoea with renal failure,one having complete heart block ..had to leave everything and attend to them...
.....had a female who collapsed on seeing some blood...(had to use some ether...well inhumane but only way to get best result in 2 seconds)...
....a young chap with such range of implausible movements defying all laws of neurology(...and in aggreement with all laws of psychiatry;-)..but relatives failing to understand that,creating a commotion that he gets attended first among all those critical patients requiring our immediate attention...
....had a patient with past history of intubation coming in with stridor...with no relatives,were unable to intubate..severely stenosed larynx..made to run around to mobilise ent surgeons,sanctioning a tracheostomy tube, getting consent from medical officer...ultimately assisting in tracheostomy(my 1st one..)....alll these in 15 minutes flat..(proud of that feat)..pt ultimately saved...
..had to put in 3 central lines..one patient suddenly gasped while i was introducing line..had to leave that and immediately intubate and resuscitate..patient did not survive:-(
....had 3 poisonings... one of them an opc,extremely difficult intubation,knocked 1 of her teeths off during intubation..
...personally transferred 3 patients to micu..
...shocked 1 patient who had v.tach...
...and in addition to all these filling a death certf, putting notes,monitoring of patients in ems icu,seeing those patients with non specific complaints....phew..just thinkin about this night makes me feel tired.
I just hope i dont have such a day again,now that only few days of my ems duties are remaining.

THE GREAT INDIAN DANCE OF DEMOCRACY...our role

well elections are on the scene.the great indian democratic elections...how much ever we try to be ignorant the possibilty of various dangerous outcomes of this election would have been considered by you atleast once....imagine third front coming up,and mayawati as primeminister..even thout of that gives me creeps....a hung up government is also likely..imagine holding reelections with a budget of 10000crores(phew..).
...so wht do we do to prevent such a thing???obviously voting is important.the number of people voting should go significantly up this year with all the awareness goin on,also people from higher strata of society who mostly remain uninvolved r likly to get involved this time around.(..its sad that a incident like mumbai attack has been most influential in people becoming proactive..)
....but we also have to realise that whom do we vote also becomes important...i think we should plan to vote mostly for major parties like bjp nd congress...i will tell u hw it will help.whichever party forms government has to form a stable guv and this can be only done when they acquire a majority...if they are too much dependent on allies their decision makin will also be affected..
....voting for minor parties will make things only complicated...its not that easy to decide.sumtimes a candidate belongin to party other than major parties might be good,and so we might vote him.but what i m tryin to say is we should be able to elect a government who has actual majority rather than 1 which is formed my multiple alliances.a stable government is likely to take decisions without pressures nd will be willing to take the blame for its decisions rather than blaming others..
......so guys please vote nd vote judiciously.
.........it will definitely make a difference hwever minor it may be.

ps: well if anybody is thinking why a political topic in this blog.well really i dont have an answer.i just named this blog as what came to my mind first.never meant it to be restricted to particular field or topic.

The Note Cases

Anybody who has worked in a government college knows how the system works with respect to NOTE CASES in such hospitals.These are patients with some good contacts,related to dean,some professor,politician or worse some politician himself.We call such patients as Note cases(NC in short).Such NC's have to be given best possible services at the cost of others.They expect us to give private service in a government hospital..Even if you have 1 NC admittedwith you it can make life miserable for you.you have to take utmost care that they don't have any reason to crib(...imagine to achieve that feat in a government hospital in india...).

We have to put them in icu(..sometimes for just giving them better conditions without any need for intensive care..),many a times at the cost of more deserving and critical patients.

The politicos are the worst.They don't realise(..or to put it in a better way totally ignore to do so) that if they would have tried the hospital would have been in a much better condition.and they won't have to crib about it.

i m currently posted in emergency medical services(ems) in kem.daily we get a lot of cases of poisoning.many of them are opc poisonings (...opc - its stands for organophosphorous compound. these compounds are absorbed very rapidly,can lead to sudden cardiac arrest or respiratory paralysis.despite treating patients early many have to be kept on ventilators for quite a few days.a few of them ultimately succumb to various complications.its quite easily availaible in indian homes as these compounds are commonly used insecticides.......so it is quite a favourite for suicide attemts in indian population.).the problem is most people consuming it don't realise the harm it can cause.

yesterday we had such a case.a beautiful looking young female came to us sayin that she had consumed a liitle bit of JALLAD poison(its an opc poison..quite deadly...apt name..)....nd on further probing she admitted that she had consumed the whole bottle,she had probably done it to scare her boyfreind,who was accompaning her(..obviously not realising the possible implications of it).fortunately she came quite early to us and so with prompt treatment she did not develop all those possible complications.

we have realised that in most of these cases people are not actually depressed or want to commit suicide.they just do it to scare off their close relatives or for their point of view to be considered.they just dont realise that what a disaster it can lead to.

well being a medicine houseman i have to introduce a lot of central lines.i m most comfortable with subclavians.but last few days hv not been good with those.there has been some problem or the other.it probably started with i failing to introduce 1 a few days back.it probably affected my confidence at a subconscious level.i was finally able to introduce 1 today without any hassles.i think this should end my bad days at putting central lines.

My first blog

i hvnt blogged b4.jst thout will give it a try.just don't ask me why i hv named it so(well the possibility of sumbody askin me that will only arise if sumbody visits my blog..).well i m a doctor(aint hard guessin..hmm),pursuing md medicine in kem hospital in mumbai.hopefully a lot of my blog will be abt my daily experiences and so the name.