Where have I been...?

Wow..it seems like I have been gone forever. To be honest, I did not realize the length of my tardiness until an old friend had reminded me. Has the time come for me to come back to the blogging world? Am I ready? We shall see...



So..what has happened to me in the last two years that I must update you on.



1. I have completed 2 years of medical school successfully. [Passed the board exams and am in clinical clerkships now. Yes, it is a shock to me as it is to you.] I have started my third year where I actually SEE patients and talk to them and also be insulted by my superiors. :) Love it. One day, I shall be the one humiliating the low-life medical students who look so lost and are in the verge of tears because they don't seem to know much of ANYTHING regardless of the FINE basic sciences education of 2 years.



2. I've grown old and wrinkly. I passed the quarter century last month and don't feel a day older than 14. Umm...I'm not in denial. This is my way of embracing the old age. :D



3. I have gotten married and am pregnant with twins. Just kidding.....[about the marriage AND the pregnancy]. I still don't have room for the word 'wedding' in my dictionary of life.



4. Pardon me if I come across as conceited, but I feel more confident, beautiful, and loved than I did 2 years ago. It may be the people in my life or it may be the environment, or it may just be that I've grown to love and accept the persona that I am. Either way, I feel as though I'm a stronger person.



Now..on to some other things.



I was having a conversation with a fellow medical student who was about to start her clinical clerkship. She was so melodramatic about her new clerkship. Apparently, the day after she was to see an HIV+ patient and do physical examination on him/her. She did not want to touch the patient nor did she want to be so near him/her. Now, I understand being concerned about contracting HIV, if YOU ARE WALKING AROUND WITH A DAMN NEEDLE WITH HIV+ BLOOD. You are NOT going to be HIV+ by touching that patient. I was baffled by her reaction. I can understand the ignorant, uneducated, and biased among the general population having a 'concern' like this. But she is a medical student who has studied human body for 2 whole years and her actions were unacceptable. I have had students in my class who did not even touch the cadavers that we used to dissect in the 1st year, because they were so 'yuck'!!



If she thinks she can get away with this kind of disregard for a patient, she has it coming. Guess who gets to do all the DRE (Digital Rectal Exam)? Yup..you guessed. They make the medical students do all the DIRTY [literally AND figuratively] stuff. Oh yes, my dear... guess what the D in DRE stand for... uhhhuh...your FINGERS!!



I am in pediatrics rotation now. Those kids carry around all kind of germs, and they are FILTHY. And guess who they drool on? Yup..me! Guess what they grab with the same hands that they put in their nose? Yup..my stethoscope. Guess where they vomit? Yup...my shoes! Guess who has to check their diapers as part of routine examination? Uhhuh..that's right, ME! I am certain that the first diaper that I'm going to change IS NOT going to be my child's [if I ever get around to having a child, that is]. But..at the end of the day, it is not about how filthy they are or how their shriek gives you a headache. It is about what you have learned and also what you take away from that patient. Is it really about getting that extra one point on your board exam because you learned that the 'satellite lesions' are associated with 'Candida infection' or is it about you make it a note to tell your next patient that it is not safe to smoke INSIDE the house with your 5 day old child because it will lead her to have asthma and other complications?



We have all had difficult times in our lives, some more than others. But I think we all will appreciate our parents and our childhood when we across a 1 year old child who lives with his mother and grandmother because his father left him, and is in a coma today because his mentally retarded mother used him as a punch bag?

Happy New Year, people!