EARLY MORNINGS AND CAFFEINE

It's been a month since I've lasted posted on my blog and that's pretty disgraceful. I know that you've all been dying to know what I've been getting up to but in all honesty, I just haven't been able to think of anything interesting to write about. 

I've recently started my GP placement and also changed my hospital rotation to a nearby town. Which means getting up at 6:00 in the morning, travelling for an hour and a half and then getting back home at 18:30 only to collapse onto my bed exhausted from a long day.

Every Tuesdays and Wednesdays, a bunch of medical students can be found scattered along different bus stops around the city. Waiting to be picked up by the coach that is like a second home to all of them. As each student boards the bus, they stumble along to a seat and with a yawn, they drift off into sleep; in the hope that it will re-energize them before they start their day. Strangely enough, by now everyone can sense the proximity of the hospital building because as soon as the coach pulls in, everyone wakes up in unison. Sounds of people stretching and yawning fills the air as everyone gathers their stethoscopes and bags together and makes their way towards the building. Once inside, it's a mad rush to put everything in our lockers and sign in; then to be hypnotized by the smell of coffee that drifts from the canteen. After stimulating the nervous system, it's time to find willing patients to clerk and hunt down junior and senior doctors to present cases to. 

I thought that getting into medical school would be the hardest part of my long career. But each day brings its own challenges. Then again, this keeps things interesting because you never know what you have to face when you wake up every morning.

MECHANICS IN MEDICINE

I had an orthopaedic filled day today! It involved watching a few surgeries and sitting in the fracture clinic with the trauma consultant.

I never really considered orthopaedics as a field that I could go into. Stereotypically, I wouldn't get very far because of my size. I mean, how will someone as small as me hammer and screw into the human skeleton...

It was fascinating looking at all of the equipment that was laid out on the table today. I have never seen so much metal work that were available for the surgeon to use to manipulate to his/her will. Watching the surgeon work was like watching an artist create a masterpiece. Hours of dedication and meticulous planning to produce the desired outcome in order for the patient to have a better quality of life.

Surgery has always been something that I've been seriously considering and after today, I am 97.5% sure that I still want to follow this path. That's not to say that in a few months time I'll change my mind and want to do something completely different... The beauty of medicine is that the options and oppurtunities are endless

A LIFE OF ASSESSMENT

It's nearly halfway through the first month of 2015 and the one thing that's already in the back of my mind are the exams that determine whether I progress into third year. Statistics show that the first and second years of medical school are the times when the majority of students that aren't cut out for medicine fail. If I go by this, then I have one more hurdle to face before I am filled with confidence that I can actually graduate after 3/4 years. 

Many people think that after getting into medical school, you have completed the greatest challenge. But it's only just beginning. Each year you are filled with self-doubt as you wonder whether you will be able to make it to the next stage of achieving your goal of becoming a doctor. It doesn't really get much better once you graduate either; as each year your competency is assessed thoroughly. 

For those considering medicine, I would strongly advise you to think about these things along with many other factors before you decide to pursue this path. For me, I don't mind having a life full of exams and stress. Because at the end of it all, I will be doing what I love the most and seeing change in the world around me. Being a part of that change is bound to give me the adrenaline rush that I long to have in my working life. 

After a fairly gloomy post, I thought I'd conclude with something that made me very happy. A few days ago I opened my jar of memories from last year and read the notes that I had put in there throughout 2014. Some made me chuckle whereas others made me relive moments that I would never forget. I've chucked all of them away (except for a few special ones!) and I have started a brand new one for this year; and I'm happy to say that I already have had two precious memories only 2 weeks into the year.

God bless

BALANCING LIFE AND MEDICINE

Eyes widen and heads shake in pity as I tell people I do medicine when they ask me about what course I'm studying at university. Medicine is NOT hard. The content is actually easy to grasp and you are walking into the exam with a cheat sheet, your own body.

Having said that, it can be difficult to manage both a life and medicine at the same time due to the sheer work load and the lack of time to do it all in. I'm not going to that I'm an expert in conquering this task as I'm still working on it. But here are a few tips for all those aspiring medical students out there that find it difficult to get the work-life balance right:

• Set aside some time for family and friends - When you get to medical school, it can be easy to get completely bogged down into your work. Which is understandable as we have worked very hard to get in so it would be a waste to not strive to be the best whilst you're at university. However, spending too much time doing work and not enough with a strong support network can affect you in both the short and long term. There are plenty of stressful times that can arise over the course of each year you spend learning medicine, so it's essential that you build up relationships that can help you ease you way out of these situations.
• Start a blog or journal - Every individual will have personal thoughts that they do not wish to share with another party. Instead of bottling these up, start a private/public blog where you can articulate your inner thoughts and express them to the outer world. If you're not into blogging, then create a journal and write in it regularly. Not only does it lift a burden off your shoulders, but you can also see how you grow as a person as you progress through the course.
• Get organised - One of the greatest mistakes a lot of people make is not getting organised early on in the year. There are plenty of utilities to help with this. I have a diary which I cannot live without, it contains a detailed account of what I need to do every day and it helps me to get all my work done in time. 

Also, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! God bless.

CHARITIES OFFICERS

Earlier on in my blog, I mentioned that I got the opportunity to choreograph the dances in the MedSoc panto - Aladdin. Well the event was a huge success!

Source

In order to respect confidentiality, I have blurred everyone's faces. It's not because we're an ugly bunch...

I have even more good news! At the annual winter ball, myself and my friend (R) got elected to become the successive charities officers on the exec of the medical society. This means that we get to organise the panto next year (Lion King is on the cards!) and many other events in order to raise money for charity. We're both very excited for the year ahead of us!

EPIDEMIOLOGY AND THE TREATMENT OF TROPICAL MEDICINE

It's finally time for me to do my SSM (Student Selected Module). Possibly one of my favourite aspects of the course due to the fact that it involves 4 weeks of reading into a topic of interest and writing a dissertation. Which is a lot less chilled out than the rest of the year!

So this year I picked "Epidemiology and the treatment of tropical medicine". As an individual with a growing interest for global health, this topic is perfect for me to explore in more detail over the next 4 weeks.

The disease I've picked is Ebola. As a current and topical issue, I thought it would be perfect for me to find out more about this virus and how it affects the lives of those living in West Africa and the incredible health professionals that are out there doing their part to contain this deadly disease.

I'm specifically going to look into how and why the Ebola virus is causing such global concern by using epidemiology to back up my findings.

ALADDIN

Last year, I talked about being a part of MedSoc's annual panto (Jack and the Beanstalk) and this year I'm excited to be a part of Aladdin.

Source

I choreographed a couple of the dances last year and this time round I've been given the opportunity to choreograph all of the dances. Which is very exciting as I can sneakily add in some Bollywood numbers!

Anyway, I'll keep you all posted on how things are getting on

MASQUERADE BALL

She hides everything you wish to see,

her emotions, her sorrows and her identity.

But as flutters across the dance floor,

you catch nothing but her eye which gives away her true beauty

Masquerade balls have always fascinated me. The mystery and the elegance is enough to capture the minds of all individuals that are graced to be a part of it.

MedSoc recently organised a ball in order to welcome the freshers. It was a night filled with elegant dresses, dashing suits and good food.

TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE

I know you're all dying to know why I haven't been blogging much this month. Trust me I have good reasons; which will all be revealed in good time. 

Time. Something which I wish I had more of. 24 hours seems like a reasonable amount for one to do all the things that they wish to do (excluding valuable amounts of hours of sleep of course!) As a medical student, one of the things that I've learned to appreciate is time.

Especially now that I'm on campus 2 days a week, hospital 2 days a week and GP/community placement once a week. That leaves just 2 days for you to have "me" time. Even then, those days have to be used to catch up on PBL objectives. Which leaves little/no room for being around things and people I love. 

Do I regret any of it? Of course not! I knew exactly what I was getting myself into. So it would be silly for me to turn around and say that this path that I have chosen was a mistake. 

Anyway, this was meant to be a very short post so I'm going to leave it here. Hopefully, I'll be able to fill you in with what I've been getting up to over the past week or so.

PROCRASTINATION

"Let me just clean my room before I start to work."

"I'm going to make some food before I open a textbook."

"I think I'll quickly update my blog before I do some work."

The list of things that you think of completing before doing work is endless. I see myself as the queen of procrastination. I will literally do anything I can to put off sitting down in front of the 1303 paged Kumar and Clarke's Clinical Medicine book.

What's worse about procrastination is the amount of self-loathing that comes with it when you think about the time that you've wasted carrying out pointless tasks that could have waited for another day. To say that someone has never procrastinated in their life would be a lie. It's a psychological behaviour that affects everyone at some point in their life, be it in a small or big way.

So why is learning how to get over procrastination important? Well if we think about it, putting off a stressful situation can ultimately lead to more stress. You become washed with a sense of helplessness and weakness. However, if you overcome this phenomenon; piece of mind and a feeling of purpose will be what accompanies you as you go through your daily life.

Here are a few ways in which I'm going to overcome this useless trait, hopefully it may help some of you too:

• Being aware of the sinking feeling you get in your stomach when you realise you've wasted your time 
• Actually realising that you're doing something unnecessary which can be done at a later day
• Identifying the real reasons for your delay (lack of knowledge, time consuming)
• Overcome these reasons in order to begin the task
• Praise yourself at regular intervals in order to keep you motivated.

I hope I've helped and now I'm going to stop procrastinating by blogging and do some work before I get grilled at the hospital!

Image from Tumblr

FREEDOM...FREE"DOOM"

Today marks the first day of university for the first year medical students. I cannot believe how quick the past year has gone. I can still remember the strange mix of emotions that I went through leading up to getting the keys to my new home for the year. 

Being independent is something all teenagers look forward to. Making decisions, making mistakes, learning from them and turning into an individual that makes a mark during the limited time that we have on this planet. Deciding to go to university is not a light decision for a young person to make. You are choosing to leave home and go out into the world by yourself. As appealing as that may sound to the adventurous young minds out there, it's a lot more daunting than you may think.

However, after you take the initial baby steps into becoming a self-governing conscious mind; you begin to appreciate everything that was handed to you as a child. You start to see the world in a new light and the thoughts that cross your mind become more and more carefully articulated. 

To all those who are starting university this year:

Live your life and enjoy everything that you set your mind to do. Treasure each and every moment and don't let the stresses of education get to you.

NEW HAVEN

After a tiring couple of days, I am finally settled in my new home. Summer has flown by and it's strange that I'm already back in university for my second year of medical school. 

This quick post is just to show you what I've done with my room. 

As you can see, I've tried to make the decor as cultured as possible so I feel like I'm seeing the world as I look around my room and one day I will see the world for all its charm and artistry.

WHY DO YOU WANT TO STUDY MEDICINE?

Along this journey that I'm going to share with you, I want to try and inspire as many of you as possible to achieve great things. I want to get more people excited about medicine just as much as I am. A lot of people think that I chose this career path because of various stereotypical reasons. 

"Are you sure this is what YOU want to do or is it something your parents are enforcing upon you?"

"It's funny how most Indians go down the medical or engineering path, I didn't take you for someone that would conform to that tradition."

It would be a lie if I said that I knew exactly why I wanted to do medicine when I first decided to go through with the treacherous process of applying. Even when my cousin was helping me with a mock interview, she asked me the most difficult question that all prospective students are bound to come across at some point in their life:

WHY DO YOU WANT TO STUDY MEDICINE?

Erm..err.. I was lost for words. I had no idea how to answer that question. In general, this question is answered quite poorly during interviews.

• I like science and I like people - quite simply the most generic answer and in my opinion isn't a good enough reason to do medicine.
• There wasn't an eye-opening experience in a hospital which influenced me to pursue this career
• I want to help people - why not do nursing or charity work?
• I haven't always wanted to do medicine - this field sparked my interest instantaneously and out of the blue - so what made you pick this field?

I don't know. A gut feeling maybe? I think the answer to this golden question only came to life as I advanced through my first year at university. It's hard for me to explain into words how I felt as I worked through the normal anatomy and physiology of each and every system of the human body. At a cellular level, the processes that enable us to carry on with our periodic habits and routine blew my mind. What's astonishing about the medical pathway that a medical student undertakes is quite brilliant. Essentially, you start off by learning how your body works, this makes the literature you read very personal and makes you appreciate the great mechanisms of one's physical form. Using this knowledge, you can then begin to decipher why something has gone wrong with an individual. As a patient comes to you with multiple symptoms, you piece together fragmented bits of information and build up the jigsaw puzzle and bring them out of a vulnerable position. I guess this among many other factors is what makes me happy about my chosen path in life. I'm sure my reasons will change often but I hope that my passion is fired up more and more each year

Previously on my blog, I've mentioned my cousin who studies medicine at King's College. Recently, she's assisted in setting up a course which helps you with medical/dentistry interviews. They've launched a new site - MedInterview. I definitely recommend it as I personally know two people that are among the tutors. They do have a high success rate and even though the amount you have to spend in order to take part in the course seems like a lot, it's totally worth it!

HOSPITAL PLACEMENT

Early patient contact is a key component a medical student has to undertake in order to become a brilliant physician.

Tomorrow I will be starting my hospital placement which will take place two days a week. As a year 2 student who's still stumbling her way through living away from home and just finishing first year, this is both an exciting and nerve-wracking experience.

One of the many great things about my medical school is the fact that they put you on placement and set you tasks as soon as you begin year 2. Some may say that it's too early and that students are not yet prepared for patient contact, but I strongly believe that this is the best way to improve your communication and clinical skills.

I won't be disclosing too much of my experience at the hospital due to confidentiality reasons; but I will try to give an overview in order for you to get the general feel of what life in the hospital is like.

START OF SECOND YEAR

The day has come for me to return to the North; where the weather forces you to stay inside and do work. I can't believe I'm at the second stage of my degree. I have heard quite a few horror stories about the year that lies ahead of me:

A higher pile up of work, long days following up on case studies at the hospital, a dissertation, the wait until mid July for exams to finish, barely any free time, inability to have a decent social life etc...

As strange as this may sound, I wouldn't trade the position I'm in for anything else in the world. Even though at times the levels of stress that I put myself under take me to the brink of insanity, I thrive in situations when put under pressure.

Anyway, over the summer I've been posting a lot. Every other day to be precise! Don't ask me how my brain came up with the content to write because I honestly haven't got a clue. Wait, maybe I've finally got to grips with the whole blogging thing and can class myself as a blogger now. It's infuriating that I decided to mess around with the HTML of my previous blog to lose all the content from first year; I've definitely learnt from my mistake and will never even go near a HTML code ever again.

Firstly, I'd like to thank everyone that reads my blog. I've received some sweet and kind feedback from the posts and I really am grateful. Secondly, I'm going to try sticking to blogging on a more regular basis. However I don't know how long that will last. Hopefully I can squeeze in half an hour every other day to fill you all in with what I've been getting up to.

A GOOD DEED OR A GUILT FREE HOLIDAY

Voluntourism

vɒlənˈtʊərɪz(ə)m,vɒlənˈtɔːrɪz(ə)m/

noun

1.     a form of tourism in which travellers participate in voluntary work, typically for a charity.

"at the core of voluntourism is the desire to help others"

It sounds like the ideal thing to do right? But there's so much controversy circling this booming sector. One of the main things that I found ethically wrong about this concept is the fact that voluntourism benefits only the volunteer. Some may say that that's a good thing, I mean who wouldn't want to feel great for giving something back to the community...

In my opinion, I think that feeling good about yourself for volunteering is very selfish. You shouldn't feel like you're a Godsend to the community for giving them your time. Most importantly, if you're thinking of volunteering, you should also think about what skills you can offer to people. It's all very well going to an orphanage and playing with the children, but what happens when you leave. Aren't you scarring the children even more than before?

Going to Morocco was something of an experience like I mentioned above. I didn't feel like I was actually doing anything no matter what project I did - except for feeding the homeless, because each of us put a small amount of money towards the food so we felt a bit more useful. Don't get me wrong, it was a great experience. But the fact that I couldn't be bothered on some days to go to projects shows that this wasn't the type of volunteering experience I had hoped for.

I would be lying if I said that I had always known about this. And yes I admit to taking pictures whilst volunteering in the past as keepsakes for the future. However, it was only recently that I realised my stupidity. I have been unknowingly treating people in a different community as zoo animals: being amazed by the conditions that they live in and then leaving.

All is not at a loss! Especially for a medic. It's been my dream for a number of years to work with MSF. An organisation that send out doctors to poverty-stricken and war-torn countries in order to provide them with free medical aid. You see something like that is my holy grail of volunteering - not only are you fearful for your life, you also provide people with something which in effect saves their lives.

So to conclude, if anyone is thinking of volunteering I suggest you research really well. Be careful not to fall into the traps of companies online that offer you "an experience of a lifetime". Ask yourself these questions:

How can I help this community?

What skills do I have?

Will they actually benefit from me being there?

Am I doing this because I need to or because of the feeling it gives me?

If you have any doubts or questions, feel free to contact me. I would be more than happy to offer as much help as I can.

RATE YOUR PAIN ON A SCALE OF 1 - 10

Hospitals: they can be fearful places or they can be places which give health care professionals an adrenaline rush every day they come into work.

My little sister has been through a lot over the past year.

A whole year of unimaginable physical pain.

A whole year of walking in and out of hospitals.

A whole year of having her body throw one obstacle after another at her.

This year has gone so quick for me. I’ve achieved a lot and kept myself busy every day so it feels like time has flown past. But I can’t even begin to imagine the year my sister has had.

I wish I could talk more about what she’s been/going through but I have to respect her privacy and I doubt she’d want me to plaster her personal life across the internet! But for all of those who read my blog, if any, I beg of you to pray for her health; both physical and emotional.

I have always admired doctors. The way they remain professional at tough times, the way they know exactly what to say to put your mind at ease, the way they can recall the heap of information that they learnt all those years ago at university. It wasn’t until I became a medical student that I began to gain a new found awe for doctors and other health care professionals.

Being in the hospital to visit my sister has shown me the responsibility and power that a doctor may knowingly or unknowingly hold. The sense of ease that washes over you when a doctor comes into to see you is something which is indescribable. Especially when you know that someone you love is in a vulnerable state and there’s nothing in your power that you can do to change that.

In the midst of it all, there’s one person that I admire the most (directly after my sister); and that is my mum. How a mother can watch her child go through all the things my sister is going through and still remain as strong as she is, is beyond me.

“How would you rate your pain today, A”

“Probably around 3 or 4…”

It wasn’t until I heard this conversation between the nurse and my sister that I began to appreciate the good health that I have been blessed with.  Imagine having to suffer the pain that is constantly there; regardless of whether it’s a 3 or a 4. It’s strange, even as I write this post on the train; I can feel a lump rising to my throat. But I know that won’t change a thing. All I can do now is pray and hope that one day; I will have the same strength that my 16 year old baby sister has.

MEMORIES OF A FRESHER

Alex put together a collection of the best memories of our past year at medical school and it's the most adorable thing you'll ever see.

It's amazing how close some of us have become over the past few months. Knowing people who share the same love of medicine, is something which can't be explained adequately in words.

Memories like these are so precious and what makes it even more special is that these experiences will stay with us (even if it is in the back of conscious mind). Only to resurface when you sit in front of the fireplace, wrapped up in blankets, surrounded by your children and grandchildren and relive them as though they happened just the day before...

AN END OF AN ERA

Today I am moving out of the flat that I have been living in for the past year.

It felt so strange when I was packing all my things away. I've made so many memories over the past year and it seems surreal that my first year as a medical student is over.

I know that university isn't something that suits everyone; but I can honestly say that this past year has been one of the best years of my life.

I have met an array of amazing characters, crossed off a number of things off my bucket list and learnt how to become a unique independent individual. But most importantly, I have gained a great appreciation for the human body. Learning about each and every complex mechanism that arises in the body has made me more than happy to have chosen this career path.

EXTRAV

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