Lessons to my first-year self: introspections during a pandemic

Dr Erum

When we come out of high school, like a premature baby, some extremely essential organs have not developed to take in the air which is not a 100% oxygen or to take in food which we cannot digest.

If I were to give myself a neonatal ICU, I would parcel all the equipment sterile and pack in wise words back in time.

There wasn’t a need of a C-Section-I could have come out on my own

One of the worst mistakes I made was to blindly follow my role models then- to decide my specialty from the beginning of the first year. “I am going to be the first female plastic surgeon to practice in Bharuch”, said my inner self when I used to watch my dad leave in the middle of the night to attend to a burns trauma. This made me overwhelm myself with anatomy only to be too tired in an already short first year until not much was left in me for biochemistry and physiology. With a photographic memory I would artistically practice those anatomical triangles and think that I am using my assets well while I would understand the chemicals which couldn’t be seen in those diagrams to such an extent in my first read that I would go on to top among the 1200 students in the university and win a state level quiz in biochemistry.

I was cutting myself out in a way that was made up in my mind but little did I know that some incisions are not made, they just tear along the Langer’s lines. By the time I came back to surgery my mind had enjoyed the pharmacological and pathological escape of second year that I had to enter myself in an intervention after which I came to peace with the cut I put on surgery.

Combination therapy works best in hypertension

It is not uncommon to get worked up when you are quite alone in a small town grabbing every piece of correspondence you can get your hands on to prepare for a national level exam which accepts applicants in India’s best medical colleges, when your class-fellows have either left for bigger cities or are preparing for regional exams only. It is also not uncommon to repeat the same mistake of limiting yourself by competitiveness after you have made it into those few colleges. But just like combination therapy works wonders for hypertension trust among fellow students eases the storms that come crashing the same boat. Study groups, mock viva vices and those notes exchanges which help you memorize truck loads of data bring a sense of satisfaction and a reminiscent smile on a successful recall.

There are no guidelines to treat TB, HIV etc., there are always NEW guidelines to treat TB, HIV etc.

Three and a half years into this ever-changing field, I noticed myself talk to my juniors like a fifty-year-old gentleman, talking about,” The guidelines were different at the time I was in First year”. If given a chance to do it all over again, I would start keeping in touch with latest articles and protocols through coming of age technology much before than I actually did. Medicine is a profession which gives you the chance to get younger and younger with each change. On such changing waters, if we can’t seem to steer the boat on a new direction every day, it is a choice-a regrettable choice and not ignorance.

If you open up appendicitis only to find an ectopic, your scheduled surgery is now an ectopic.

So many times, have I stressed myself about not keeping up with the class, with overachieving schedules and the constant need to put myself in the tiring loop of memorizing volatile things over and over? But what lead me through each and every exam, class test, deadline, was a constant skill of improvisation. I would cry, hurt, accept and improvise. Now that I look back a lot of smiles and sleeps were lost in the first two steps which would have recharged my brain’s neurotransmitters to give me lesser chances to lose them again.

Don’t miss the sight of palisades and cell nests while you are busy eliminating the keratin pearls.

A sensible choice between-pushing the limits for the most recent deadline or the most difficult class at present and easing the timeline with diversity in work to keep up to fight till the D-Day arrives-seems so difficult at times when you watch others apparently cruising through medical school. It was always important for me to keep my affairs and priorities in order to avoid impulsively getting ahead of myself. A beautiful line in Robbins made me stop and introspect-Don’t miss the sight of the forest while looking at the trees.

Ask not what history the patient can give you, ask what history you can take from the patient

When you are a part of one of the biggest government hospitals of Asia with drainage of the four most populous states in the country, as a medical student you feel overwhelmed. Everything and everybody in those wards seem to have been sent in Rudolf driven sledges to teach you. Fortunately, or unfortunately, you have the opportunity to spend the maximum time with the patient when your professor asks you to present their cases. One of the worst mistakes we commit at such crucial times is to undermine the sanctity of the white coat, by looking over the long rants of patients about their family members, their religious trips, the government and what not. Little do we realize that it is from these rants we need to pick the gems of a beautiful case history. Hence, the art of listening is the first lesson we should focus on learning during our clinics.

During my final preclinical year of medical school, the dearth of clinical ward postings made me introspect the analogies of life and medicine.

It sounds strange but seems true that learning humanity is the first step to serve the true purpose of human life. If at all we envision a world full of equal opportunities, devoid of disparities and towards sustained satisfaction, we need to let ourselves grow to choose a future that bests suits us, we need to have faith and trust in others who are on the same journey as ours, we need to constantly change to improve ourselves, we need to learn to improvise in situations that put us in difficulties on various levels, at the same time we need to be long sighted and hang in there at times as well, lastly it is what we do for others and not just what they do for us which makes this world a better place to live in.