medicine and growing up...

....orthopaedic ward..we were a group of 25 students surrounding a patient....a 60 year old lady...she complained of severe pain in her hip joint...we were over with the preliminary examinations..and even the over-enthusiastic lot in our batch were done with exhibiting their special clinical skills..we were getting bored, waiting for our professor to come and elaborate on the case..meanwhile i was loitering around in the ward...and i overheard this conversation which took place between the doctor who was treating 'our' patient and her son..
doc- her condition needs an immediate surgery..u'l be explained everything completely and there's no cause for concern...
son- umm...doctor..how much money..i mean could u give me an estimate..i'll have to arrange for it...
doc- the most minimum estimate wont be less than 20,000 rs...
and then that look on the guys face..blank..then a shadow of despair..and he silently nodded..it stabbed at my heart...money cant buy love...really???

pancoast tumor...a less occurring variant of lung cancer...lung cancer...what's it that comes to ur mind first wen u hear the words..death..loss of a near one..our professor told us to visit the wards and study a patient with the typical presentations of horner's syndrome ( a consequence of pancoast tumor)..i went after college, donning my labcoat..i asked the patient's wife to show me the reports and the x-rays..she thought i was a doc..and said..'doctor saheb, hospital se kab chodenge, pata hai?'..i mumbled..'main toh student hoon, jo doctor inhe dekh rahein hain unse poochiye'...and she said..'didi, aap toh samjhiye, hum garib log hain..doctor ko boliye na jaldi chod de..bahut dino se yahan hain...'
i stared at her...lung cancer..did anyone say death was the first thing on their mind...? ground reality surpasses every emotion...

my first visit to the diabetes clinic..community medicine project, part of the curriculum...before attending the clinic we had a class on how to communicate with the patients we would be interviewing...put them at ease, an instant rapport building is important, listen to them patiently, tactfully handle the questions on 'addiction' and similar seemingly embarrassing topics, hear them and try not to miss any point..so on and so forth..the teacher kept blabbering and we kept yawning..duhh! who cares..we have to go there..get some facts..manipulate sum other data..and write the project...10 marks..thats it..
and then the first patient..a 58 year old retired teacher living in the outskirts of kolkata..waiting in a queue, the weather was hot and all of us were sweating profusely..i spoke to the guy and convinced him to answer my queries till his turn came to visit the doc..
he began quite well, helpful and attentive to the questions, answering them to our satisfaction...in the middle of the questionnaire, his name was called and he had to go for his treatment...i waited for him outside, all the while grumbling about the heat, my parched throat, the stupid com med department and their dumb project ideas...then he came out..and i had to follow him and remind him that he had to complete the questionnaire..
and this time he angrily turned to me and said..' what do u want to know? the doctor didnot have time to hear what i had to say...do u know how far i come from?..how long i waited in that queue today?..and then wen my turn came, he scratched down something on the prescription and said 'thats it'..come for a chk up after a month...is it really so difficult for them to show some amount of concern and empathy...'
i didnot feel like pursuing him anymore..i let him give vent to his anger and saw him trudging out of the building in the sweltering heat...nurturing the doctor patient relationship...shouldnot that be in our curriculum as well..?

Sex and the City

there was something i wanted to write abt which thanks to my procrastination, i've not bin able to write as yet...i saw 'juno' on television..it is a movie about a teenager, a 16 yr old, faced with an unplanned pregnancy, who decides not to go through an abortion, and instead gives the baby to a childless couple..
it is quite a sweet movie..and apart from the character 'juno', essayed by ellen page, and the song 'anyone else but you', what i really really liked was the 'sexual liberation' in the soceity potrayed by the movie...where sex is not unholy and it doesnt merit the soceity's deprecation... yes..teenage pregnanacy is looked down upon..but not coz premarital sex is a sin but because it is imperative to play it safe..and all this when compared to the claustrophobic soceity we live in is utopia...

juno’s parents freaked out when she confided in them…true..but at least she could think of talking to them…if faced with a similar situation, I would have preferred to run away if I had the money or better still put the noose around my neck…than…oh gosh..even writing it here gives me the creeps…and juno’s parents, her mum esp saw it coming when she saw her in such great consternation…that’s coz I guess she knew what it is like to be a 16yr ol…when there’s so much to discover about urself..body and soul..
she could put herself in the shoes of sumone who was not just her daughter but also an adolescent…for that u have to know ur kids not just academically but also emotionally…


this incident happened a year ago...i was walking on the streets with CD (my boyfriend..and i'll write a lot more abt him in the forthcoming blogs..)..i dun remember clearly but probably we were holding hands...and this old lady comes up to us from nowhere..an absolute stranger to both of us..and shrieks aloud..'do ur parents know abt this..??? bunking classes...nothing better to do...blah blah'...and before we could even think of reacting she huffed puffed away...a person who doesnt know us at all has an opinion as to how i should be leading my life...!

another incident... this happened about 6 months back..i was returning to college in the evening and the metro was crowded like hell..there was a young couple waiting near the doors..and as the crowd at 'chandni chowk' station tumbled in all together.. jostling and pushing...the guy put his arm around the girl trying to protect her from the crowd..and this middle aged guy started muttering loudly- ei shob korar jonne victoria aache...('they can do all this at victoria'.... victoria memorial which is calcutta heritage and also a favourite hangout area for couples)...

so gist of the story is that the freakingly narrow minded attitude of the soceity bugs me like crazy...u r looked down upon if u hold the hands of sumone u love and u are considered characterless if u are unmarried and u have physical desires…what I donot understand is why is the whole ‘sati savitri’ image put on such a pedestal…for women that is..guys have always done what they have wanted to…why aren’t the physiological processes of the body given their due importance…I mean there is something called hormones…and its perfectly all right to be governed by their rise and fall! Umm…okay..this is medical shit that I am typing..guess that’s the cue to get back to my books….