Quirky and Quizzically yours...

Medicine Postings (it seemed)

The days passed in a flurry of case taking, OPD day and the occasional days where we didn’t do much and D-day arrived. End posti00ng is the trauma that we are subjected to at the end of every posting.

 Now you don’t have to call it trauma but in this particular instance, it would be safe to say that it was a case of ‘self-inflicted trauma’. Roll Numbers 33, 34 and 35 were allotted a case of anemia due to blood loss and after some lengthy discussion and ultimately choosing the ‘right’ (wrong?!) finger, the 3 of us presented our case to Indumathi Maám(!). Let it be known that I have not only established my masochistic tendency but also my seemingly sadistic personality by taking the hardest route out of End Postings. But in my defence, I had assumed that since the case had been presented to her before by our classmate, we would be able to manage it without much difficulty. Added to that was my Delusion (of Reference?!) that she probably favoured us and would therefore not be the hard task master that she always is.

As it happened, we were ‘fried/baked/boiled/roasted’ and served on a platter over the basics of Jugular Venous Pulse. Starting with the wave form to the explanation behind each wave to the reflexes associated to its significance…

Suffice to say that two of us (BV and I) returned to her the next day with the relevant answers and once again we received a volley of questions (Pulsus Bisferiens?! Pulse in Aortic Stenosis?!); which we couldn’t really deflect but it finally brought us to the end of the GM postings for this term.

I’m currently in Surgery Postings where things are a bit lowkey. However we did see a case of hernia and also a fibroadenoma along with its surgery by none other than Dr Arathi maám. We’ve got series of internals coming up in the next month so gear up for caffeine intoxicated late night posts about life, love, lungs, liver and maybe some laughter. (HOPEFULLY THAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN)

Next up would be the special mention of Simbiosis 2K17.

Govi and I were a team and without much preparation (and some serious tummy troubles), I thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to try our luck. The Prelims were tougher than we expected and we didn’t have high hopes but given how there weren’t too many teams, it would have been a shame if we hadn’t qualified. We recollected most of the questions (something I almost Never do!) and after some tense moments of waiting, panicking and regretting, I got the much awaited call from an unknown number.

The final; to be brief, was interesting and lead to a tie between the two teams from our college. After two failed attempts at breaking the tie, the other team (Ft. Harikrishna and Giri anna) were the winners based on their prelim scores.

Nevertheless, it was a good moment, reminiscent of the past and gave hope for more such possibilities.

Surgery postings in the past week was mostly spend in Nog’s chamber apart from the one day where we’d been to the OT and we got to see an Umbilical Hernia and a case of Indirect Inguinal Hernia (which was later found to be a sliding hernia) being operated upon by (my fav) Arathi maám, Suresh Sir (quite the contrary of how he is in the OPD) and Gopinath Sir.

Post that, I wrecked my brains out over some brainy matters. Yep, Abhi and I were preparing for the State level Psychiatry quiz organized by the Karnataka Chapter of the Indian Psychiatric Society and it turned out to be quite interesting. Especially when we attributed each personality disorder with different people around us* (some were a complete match while some only exhibited a few traits, but nevertheless, it was good fun reading on some of the crazy stuff  (some of it did come in the final quiz and we were inappropriately excited upon being asked about a culture specific sexual delusional disorder :’) )

We travelled to C’durga via Govt bus after a bumpy journey filled with creepy men at whom I threw angry murderous looks because they dared to stare at my dozing dosth and all other annoying patterns of the Y chromosome. After my mostfavouritebutneverevermadeinthemess breakfast of Pongii and some last minute ‘revision’, the program began and Abhi and I gazed at the CUTESTPERSONONTHEWHOLEOFPLANETEARTH to our heart’s content. The prelims were designed to eliminate people by paucity of time but we tried our best to keep up with the speed of the questionnaire. There were a lot of familiar questions just as there were many which we had no inkling of. After a long wait, (filled only partially by food and mostly by tension, some hope and basic panic), the results were announced and we had made it in the 4th position.

The finals began with BMC, AIMS, SDM, SIMS, JSS and MVJ as the finalists. We had four rounds and the first round was about the sub specialities of Psychiatry while the second one was about Clinical Scenarios conducted by the Prof from BMC. The third round was conducted by a PG from JSS and it was basically an audio visual buzzer round about famous movies, books and personalities associated with mental illness.

We managed to further our lead to a very safe position in this round which was a good idea because the next round was the dreaded rapid fire. So after facing the heat of rapid fire, we remained unscathed and managed to win the first place. :)

It was indeed a great moment and I’m so glad we did this. Somehow, sometimes, things fall in place when you least expect it. Nevertheless, after 3 years of attending quizzes, conferences and MUNs like an enthu cutlet, it felt really good to not come back empty handed. It also kindasortamebi felt good to hear words of appreciation and encouragement from frinz and famili.

The next round would be the South Zonal level but that’s going to be much later.

Anyway, for now, I’ve got to think about what to do with my newly acquired wealth. B) The next month is going to be brutal with OBG internal, Surgery internal, Cousin’s wedding and yet another GM internal all in a span of 3 weeks.

Let’s hope I find my zen in the library and get through this maddening month.

Cheers! <3 ~All thanks to my cord lending friend Accamma:)

Mimosa Pudica #2

^And how everything has changed but it all still feels the same. Old post with the same Caption under very different circumstances. Or are they all the same?!

Sunday nights are potential blog nights, so let’s get to work! :)

Yes, it's been while and I'd like to inform Whomsoever Concerned that I'm currently in Surgery postings after about 6 weeks in General Medicine Postings.

To give you a brief update about Medicine Postings, it began fairly well with a lot of patients in the initial half because the MCI Inspection was round the corner so you could say our hospital was filled to the brim. We saw quite a few of the usual cases of COPD, TB, ALD, DM, HTN and IHD. We also happened to see some psychiatric patients during these postings and even patients who had psychiatric illness apart from the original reason for their admission.

Over the few weeks, lndumathi Ma'am  was 'feared’ among the student population primarily for her disparaging remarks and comparison with Govt medical colleges but she also taught us a lot of things; or rather told us how much more we would need to be reading to catch up with our counterparts.

We also had a new Prof, lrrfan Sir who again expected much more from us This involved me having to auscultate In a patient with RHD for any possible murmur but I  couldn’t seem to elicit anything and later it turned out that there wasn’t any murmur as such but an Ejection Click’ was heard. Nevertheless it was an experience to remember. :)

When I asked Text Fairy to decode the next part of my blog. -_-

To be continued when I find out how to connect my laptop to my phone without WiFi, BlueTooth and when all the USB cords around you seem to fail.

If you're wondering how I typed all this, I took photos of the Word Document, installed Text Fairy, an OCR app to read text in images but it decided to work only for the first image so it's going to be a while before I explain what happens in Medicine End Posting and how Surgery has been going so far.

I have 62625282 things running on my mind, but honestly, the ones that really matter don't demand attention. :')

I'll leave you with this poem that I wrote for the Poetry competition of Simbiosis 2k17 that managed to find itself in second place.

Topic: Dream (This brought back memories of a poem I'd written a year or two ago. I had been looking through some of the past poems for some inspiration prior to the event but I obviously couldn't write along those lines, especially when re-reading them made me feel incredulous about the shit I wrote back then. :')

There are dreams every night,
Dreams that promised of a better tomorrow,
Visions of success flooded my sight,
Joyous was I that I would vanquish all sorrow.

With stars in our eyes, we arrived;
Myriad backgrounds united by a common dream,
Through thick and thin, we strived,
The sweet taste of victory was not far it would seem.

Roadbumps did not hamper our stride,
For years, the midnight oil burnt aglow,
To serve and heal, it would be our pride,
The seeds of good health, we aimed to sow.

Reality gently nudged me awake,
Society and politics threatened to be my brake,
But never a moment shall I rue,
For this dream is coming true!

The eyes had all the answers,
But alas, the language was another.

Harmony

As old as the Sun was their tale
Kindgoms may come and go
Yet She knew that He would never fail,
And the Skies kept their word through high and low.

With bated breath, she held her own,
Through the months of dry famine and drought.
She anticipated His return to the throne,
Come Spring and He would steal the show.

The scent of the rains preluded the entry,
As He graced the barren soil,
The birds sang in unison as His gentry.
To celebrate that He had remained loyal.

Year after year, He retuned to Her,
Not long was their union but no matter,
For it gave courage to bear summers strong,
And cherish the youth in Her, every spring.

//when you're at a vantage point in the library watching the golden sunset and envisioning a summer shower.

Summertime Soliloqouy.

The bird that was meant to soar,
Shall only pause in the summer shade;
It's wings that cannot be chained,
Shall only rest awhile in the storm.

The freedom of the open skies shall prevail,
For nothing could hinder a ship that has set sail,
Perhaphs this was how the journey was meant to be;
In her own strength, with the choice to be free.

Unbound yet with deeper bonds she flew,
In the memories of the past, she grew;
Cherished within were stories untold,
But the beating heart remained it's own.

Every cloud has a silver lining 

This Or That.

They say I think in binaries. 0 or 1. Black or White. Good or Bad. Necessary or Unnecessary.  I see no in between, no intermediate entity. I have always had clear cut definitions. I don’t like blurriness; be it in my vision or in my perspectives. This is how I’ve always been. Do I want to change that? I don’t think so. That perhaps explains the uneasiness that gnaws within me.

There is so much I want to do. Am I really working in that direction? Or am I just working and waiting for everything to miraculously materialize? Ugh, I don’t know where this is stemming from but I’m feeling a lot of discontentment about myself. Is it probably inversely proportional to how ‘happy’ I momentarily feel?

I pride myself for my ability to not be influenced by the choices of those around me. It is one trait I hold close to myself hence, I’m pondering if I am consciously responsible for my actions or have I been influenced by those around me, willingly or unwillingly. 

Gokarna, March 2017 with Abhi and BP.

I don’t have the answers to any of these. I know I think too much, trust me, I don’t like it either that my brain keeps churning out such inane rubbish in the midst of an Aortic Aneurysm and I tuck away these thoughts in a tiny cubicle in my brain, assuring it that I will open the Pandora’s Box once I get the time to blog about it. :)

I want to talk a lot more but I don’t know if this is the medium to unload all my burdens, but it makes sense to reflect to oneself instead of somebody else because you will eventually hear an opinion, an advice, a suggestion or better still, a similarity in thought. All of which is unnecessary when all you need is a mirror. A plain mirror to lay the bare truth in front of your eyes; with all its ugliness, its scars, bruises and perfect imperfections. And that cannot come from anyone but me. (To cut a long story short, I find it as important, or probably more important to understand myself, consolidate my thoughts and be a whole person by myself than anything else. 

Or is this defensive attitude stemming from my fear of being influenced by new ideas and thoughts? 

What is nice may not be necessary and what is necessary may not be nice. 

In the end, nothing matters except what you believe in, what you stand for and what you do.

Subtleties are always better. I could write a million lines on everything I can imagine, which a far more powerful tool than reality is. I want my imagination back. I find much more beauty in metaphors, in an indefinite entity than in the raw face of reality. 
Maybe. 

And that reminds me;

http://scienceblogs.com/mixingmemory/2006/07/17/the-cognitive-science-of-art-r/

Read under ‘Perceptual Problem Solving’. I remember reading those very lines in VS Ramachandran’s Emerging Mind.

On an unrelated note, the marriage seems to have bitten the GRS family cousins as 2* more have fallen for the trap and wedding bells shall be ringing throughout this year. 

Jogging everyday hasn’t helped in physically (Let’s be honest :P ) but it certainly elevates my mood and automatically trashes all the clutter that I tend to attract with a magnet. -_-

Can’t wait to meet my super-achieving Minnulli over this month end (hopefully). :)

Bye Bye Old Faithful :)

(Trust me I’m not a raving lunatic who fondly addresses a virtual entity and distances actual people who listen to her. I just like me more.) 

La La Land

Hello from the other side! :)

So I’m currently in Medicine Postings and we’re getting to see some good cases. A few days ago, I got a chance to remove the pleural effusion from a female patient and it was quite interesting. It’s not often that the Prof offers a chance to do it and you end up draining about 450mL of fluid from the patient’s lungs. So it was basically a 3 way apparatus where one can drain the fluid and then direct it into a container with the turn of a knob. So it was going well until I suddenly began to feel a lot of resistance while draining the fluid. In cases of progressive Pulmonary TB, there’s a lot of fibrosis in the lung parenchyma making the drainage slightly tricky. Usually giving corticosteroids would prevent fibrosis but this is a double edged sword because it could flare up the inflammatory reactions.

So at one point, the pressure I exerted to push the fluid into the container caused the pipe to snap out and spill some of the liquid. Now, this isn’t what you’d expect in your first attempt so I was naturally worried but when the same incident repeated under able hands, the culprit was identified to be the faulty device and replaced by another and the procedure was completed.

In Medicine, there are going to be 100s of procedures and this is just one among them but there is trepidation, excitement and happiness at having done something new.

Saturday, however, was another story altogether. One thing led to another and I began taking a case with the help of my batchmates.For some godforsaken reason, I didn’t think I would end up presenting it. I don’t feel like elaborating on it, but let’s just say that I felt absolutely inadequate about myself. I need to pull up those socks soon to improve. In my usual twisted logic, I’m glad I did this, because I now know how much more I need to know. Atleast I’m one of the “If you never try, You’d never know” kind of people. (Not always, but atleast in this context! :P )

I have so much to read, I’ve got an OBG seminar coming up and results coming sooner than I’d like. Why can’t the pile of exam papers EVER get burnt so that they’d pass everyone?! Atleast once in this lifetime? I hope nothing changes.

12th March 2017. Cheers to a new experience. :)

Long nights and days that fly.

Hey there. So here's the update that's  (hopefully) been awaited. At least I'm eager to share everything that's been going on so far.

So I'd been to Bangalore on two consecutive weekends and they were spent fairly eventfully.

The first week was spent at home and doing some shopping for the upcoming events. Basically what I do is board the night train from Shimoga and reach Bangalore City Railway station by the crack of dawn and leave the next night by the 11pm train to reach Shimoga around 4.45am. This is probably the most efficient thing to do considering how I utilize the daylight time effectively instead of traveling. After dinner and the last minute (race against time kinda) rush to the railway station, I boarded the train and I must say my night journeys are so frequent that I no longer find it hard to catch a few hours of sleep. So we've got this new cycling equipment at home which I tried out. Pity I don't get that kind of exercise back here in Shimoga.

Next weekend was Gautham's engagement so that kept me busy and it was a short but eventful visit back home.

P

After finally finishing with Obstetrics and Gynaecology we've finally moved on to General Medicine where a variety of cases await us each day, waiting to be examined and understood. I still haven't gotten the hang of these postings but hopefully I shall find my bearings soon.

Now that Dominoes and CCD have opened up in Shimoga we have a lot more 'legit' reasons to travel to the city.

Recently watched two interesting documentaries.
One of them is 'Food Inc.' Which gives us a brief idea of what goes on behind closed doors in animal farms. The second one was on the rampant increase in deaths due to prescription drug overusage/overdose.

MaDi were in town over this weekend and we got to spend some time together playing Uno, sketching and a hundred other games she spontaneously comes up with.

The words that once flowed in ebbs and tides,
Are now but a summertime trickle,
Metaphors and similes once came with ease,
Are now in halting, hesitant flashes.

Perhaps this exile is a twist of fate,
Come spring and perhaps the lyrical hum shall resurface.
With monsoon perhaps my words shall find their muse;
Until then, these verses remain in a hireath.

Mind Over Matter

I haven't blogged in a while. I will, soon. That is when I'm done with Obstetrics and Gynaecology for the next few months. I've convinced one of them of my dimwittedness by messing up with the Parity Index so I don't feel particularly good about myself.

The only thing worrying me is probably why I haven't been blogging as much as I was. The thought of blogging does occur to me but somehow I either don't have the time or the frame of mind or perhaps even the words to articulate everything on my mind. I honestly hope I can change that.

I can't think clearly anymore.

Plain Insomnia

Am I the most self destructive member of my species to roam this planet?

I am confident that I stand a strong chance of winning this dubious distinction.

Sometimes I wish I could stop it. The pounding needless thoughts within my mind that defy logic and fail to go through the much sought after Problem Tree Analysis.

Socrates: What Plato is about to say is false. 

Plato: Socrates has just spoken truly. 

Oh Bhi Jee is getting to mee. Records, cases, ultrasounds, OTs, NSTs and all the follow ups in the ward before inking the case in the record. 

But I swear I NEED TO BE STUDYING. 

I don't think I can quite write like before but I hope it is only a blantant assumption. 

Somewhere between repression and revolt, 

Somewhere between doubt and clarity, 

Somewhere between dread and desire, 

Somewhere between the sacred and the sinned, 

There is a line, a line hovering close to neither of the two,

But somewhere between the edges of the two extremes. 

Here I stand, unscathed and untouched by either. 

Yet this middle ground is a greater quandary, 

For there is nothing more befuddling than an indecisive soul. 

Beachy Days and Moonlit Nights.

Back after yet another beach side break and with more stories and memories to fill up the blog! :)

But before that, let me pick up where I left.
Snorkelling was more of a learning experience and we did get to see corals and fishes but learning the underwater breathing technique was itself quite a task! After this, we went on a ‘glass bottom’ boat ride so that Ma could also see the fish and corals without having to actually go underwater.

Post Elephant Island, we returned to Symphony Palms for an afternoon siesta and then headed to Radhanagar Beach. MaPa spent some time walking by the shoreline while Di was my swimming coach until we both started feeling a little prickly (probably something crabby creeping up our legs). We watched the sunset by Radhanagar beach and then headed back to our resort for an early dinner and some night time beach watching under the light of the golden moon.

The next morning on 14th January, PaDiMe rose early and headed towards SeaLink Adventures with excitement and tingling nervousness. Yes, we were off to our little underwater expedition. Pa decided that it would be best if he avoided the ordeal given his sore throat so it was just Di and Me who donned the scuba swimwear. We headed towards the water and waited until both of us had individual instructors. We were given hand signals to show in case of any discomfort/emergency so that they could act accordingly. Being thoroughly trained in the technique, they knew exactly how we felt and eased our tension.

Instructor: So we have the oxygen tank which is going to supply the air through the pipe into your mouth.

Me: What if the tank runs out of oxygen?
Instructor: That isn’t going to happen, the tank contains enough oxygen for 3 rounds of scuba diving and we have a meter that shows us the level of oxygen in the tank.

Me: So am I the first person to get this tank or the last?!

Instructor: Haha no, you’re the 2nd one so you’ll have plenty of air to breathe.

As we descended further and further deep into the sea, I saw the blues come alive, to be teeming with life in every nook and corner. Squiggly jelly fish like creatures, school of fish swimming so endearingly close yet slinking out of my reach, and the ocean floor studded with multi-coloured and patterned corals. It was an alternate universe underwater, thriving by itself and somehow undisturbed by the events occurring above its surface. We remained underground for about 30 minutes, clicked a few pictures with Di (who was holding up remarkably well) and then returned back to mainland.

After this out of the world experience, we had to rush back and get ready in a jiffy because the Makkruzz to Neill Island was scheduled to depart by 10 am. After a short cruise, we landed at Neill island, which, true to its name was the in several beautiful shades of Neeli and had most of us stop in our tracks with our luggage trailing behind us just to admire the pristine undisturbed beauty of nature.

We were to stay at Hotel Pearl Park which was very strategically located with beaches on two sides of its triangular property. After a quick check-in we headed to Bharatpur beach which had a fair amount of tourists but it had still retained its beauty. After a sumptuous lunch, we went to have a glimpse of the natural bridge formation which gets submerged every day at the time of high tide and then to Lakshmanpur beach for a view of the sunset.

The next day, i.e 15th January, we took the Makkruzz back to Port Blair and headed to Chidiya Tapu for a good trek to the southernmost tip of the Andaman Island. After some shopping, it was time to head back to North Reef.

The last day, 16th January, again included a very informative and (personally, I found it interesting) visit to Chatham Saw Mill and even a random Gandhi Park (because, Divya). Post an early lunch, we bid adieu to this beautiful archipelago with fond memories and thrilling experiences to last a lifetime.