Three months in the neonatal inborn ICU and I'm now finally in the general Paediatrics side.
It's been tiring, what with the constant reshuffling and modified rosters popping up in the middle of the month but the saving grace is seeing some babies get well and go back to their mothers.
With the high sepsis rate in the NICU and lack of some of many essential features of a tertiary level NICU, it gets disheartening to see salvageable babies succumb after a couple of days. But once in a while, a few babies, by their sheer strength and will to survive, backed by the faith of its parents and spared by the sepsis of the ICU, are discharged with a long list of followups.
Particularly heartening is to see an extubated baby make it out of the critical phase and get discharged.
The interesting part is that I would often get to see these babies again in the HRB clinic (High Risk Baby Clinic for follow up of discharged NICU/ SBW babies) and we could see if they were on the road to catch up growth or sometimes, deteriorating further and needing interventions.
Unfortunately, unlike the previous months, single duties in the NICU were so hectic I barely had time to open my books. There were a couple of interesting cases like the Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia that was diagnosed almost 2 weeks later, the Colloidian Baby with a midline skin defect, the Hydrocephalus with myelomeningocoele and the probable Prune Belly Syndrome. There were of course CHDs which were either referred to Jayadeva Bangalore, mild enough for management here after consultation with the paediatric cardiologist at Jayadeva Mysore and some babies which deteriorated before evaluation.
In the midst of all this, we also managed to take breaks, laugh a little and of course, binge on cold coffees!
Towards the end of the month was the much anticipated wedding! I literally begged for leave by coordinating with my batchmates and giving them the time off that was due in order to do my replacement. At long last, after night duty mom and I set off to Bangalore. It felt good to be back after nearly 9 months except of course for the traffic! The first halt was Ajji mane where I caught up with the family and then Mama and I set off for our respective wedding receptions.
There's something overwhelming about seeing your close friends get married. Especially if you've seen them since class 1 and managed to keep in touch despite all the highs and lows, despite the distance and differences in profession.
It kind of hits home that, adulthood has finally set in, like it or not. Nevertheless, it was lovely to see the beautiful bride and groom dazzling on their big day! I also caught up with Mani after ages and had a lot of interesting JJM stories to hear. :)
Back to Vasanthnagar after this, Nidhz and I took a drive down to Sadashivnagar and had some Gelato in a laid back cafe with a lively vibe. The next morning we were up at the crack of dawn and headed to Lalbagh were Pinki joined us. We ambled around the gardens while Nidhi whizzed by and completed 5km. After some Idli and filter coffee at Brahmin's Coffee Bar (who knew they don't serve sambar with the idli there? :( ), it was time to head back, get dressed and rush to the wedding! The bride was simply stunning and there was an aura of grace and elegance that was inimitable. After catching up with the school friends and a quick lunch, it was time to head back home to 338 (only to find my beloved room in an utter state of disregard), say a quick hi to Mittu, Kittu and Kirpaapa and then head towards to the all too familiar Railway station where Pa dropped me off (as always) and waited till the train chugged out of the platform....
The past 2 weeks in General Paeds has been exciting, for the variety of cases I get to see and we had a good balance of hectic duty (36hours) and free time (ward work) that gave us time to read/ spend with the family. Unfortunately, the resurgence of Covid has only thrown us back into the mess that we were in last year with 5 day schedules in Covid, SARI, PICU wards and basically no unit system.
Sometimes I don't know what is it I look forward too, each morning but I tell myself that it's going to be worth it at the end of of day.
Here's hoping the days ahead are brighter,
The Covid cases are fewer,
The learning process is smoother
And Life is lived to the fullest. <3
