The Strike Times

When I walk to the ward everyday, with utmost difficulty by 7.30am, as the register was marked around that time, I see her doing the ward round and over half of it already completed. Well, she is obviously not one to be missed with her big belly with a foetus on ,over 24 weeks. I remember the complaints my relations had when they were pregnant. Difficult to walk, morning sickness, leg pains etc etc and here is a lady perhaps with all those difficulties still managing to come to the ward and do the rounds before any of us come to the ward. It was not only her, the junior doctor who was presenting patients to her was also with a belly of over 28 weeks perhaps. Some days, the nurse following the ward round too was pregnant. It was a ward treating sub-fertility and as expected, a ward with good success rates in that regard perhaps.

I see that senior doctor doing the ward round there, takes something for breakfast and returns to consultant's ward round wiping her mouth; perhaps half eaten. Then she follows the consultant, under goes the mind storming the consultant expects of her. Then are the scans which she has to complete. Sometimes it is the operation day, she is to visit the theater early, guide her juniors, make everything ready and wait for her boss to come and make the incision. She does the surgeries, not second to any. Then there are issues like the belly coming between the bed and her, making the approach much difficult. But somehow she is to complete the theater with in the time limits allocated.

Ward and theater are better, then comes the clinics. Many patients coming from all around the country. She is a doctor taking care of the patients, a student under her consultant, a tutor for the lazy medical students around and is the one who has to make all decisions the SHO is unable to. To add on to this, there are days we hear the consultant saying things like, there is some session and ask her to make a presentation for him to present. Or asking her to visit some place where there is session for her to attend to.

Well, she must have run through the 3 wards she has to take care when she is on call; which comes every other day as there are just two registrars working; and complete her night ward round around pm. And then complete all the scans by about 9.30 pm. Then comes her teaching episode. She visits to the class of medical students, who by this time are blaming her for being late as she has requested the students to come by 8 pm, and one and half hours of their precious time is wasted. Somehow she comes and do the teaching for the medical students for about 30 minutes, which is a bit quicker teaching than usual speed medicos will get. The usual worry of the medicos at the end of session is, 'why the hell did I come to class today? It was too fast. I better would have slept at that time. With all these untold comments on her teaching, I see her leaving, to somewhere a HO has requested her opinion on a bad patient, about 11 pm on the clock and still with the same dress I saw her at 7 am

Then it was one night, I was chatting in fb around 12am mid night as it was my rotation that day, there was a bad patient in labour. The new HO's who are clueless of most what is happening around anyway, are supposed to call registrar's opinion. The nurses, and all were busy stabilizing the patient, and here comes her, with tiresome eyes, swollen face, and her child in the womb. What ever she had felt, how much she would have wanted to sleep after the heavy work of the day, she had no option. That is what she decided her job must be.

She might have been someone who wanted to be a doctor from her early childhood, like about 50% of child population in Sri Lanka. ( Perhaps figures might have changed these days as majority would like to be some sort of a star) She might have chosen Bio stream in A/L's; perhaps as she really wanted to be a doctor. May be because her best friends did the same. May be because she was not good in writing essays with numbers in Maths, ( I have seen my friends doing A/L maths, the question was so long. As a person who usually messed my +,- signs in my O/L maths days, i was clueless how these guys would not mess the so many letters, signs, numbers in the questions), or hated her own Sinhala handwriting ( like in my case, end of O/L Sinhala day for me gave a great satisfaction as i thought that would be the end of my Sinhala essay writing- which partly was true, I hated my hand writing), or not much in to business ( in commerce if you do it, you would need a lot of experience and do CIMA,AAT etc etc extra exams to get a good job). Her only option would have been to do Biology. Then for some strange reason she might have passed A/L s with flying colours. And since that day her friends, relations etc everyone would have called her 'doctor'; though she never wondered the courses she would have applied with her results. She might not have known herself, what she likes, what she doesn't like when she applied. Obviously she might not have expected the life she is spending now. Somehow she must have entered to the Medical faculty, and since day 1, she might have had thousands of lectures, dissections, practicals, tutorials, visual learning exercises etc etc And at the end of the teaching, she would be given the vacation of one or two weeks, which at the end will be proceeded with an examination. The term of 'vacation' redefined by 'study leave'. Not to miss the number of family gatherings, college functions and friends' gatherings she would have missed, not merely because she was busy with studies, but she had to be marked present to avoid repeating the appointment , which she will have to repeat during a rare free week that she may get. These are just the study issues, what about her other girl issues?? The fashions, the relationships etc.. All issues that an ordinary girl in this age would have will surely be common to her if she was doing medicine or not.

Well, non of these should be an excuse to her. She chose the field of medicine with the great social respect associated with the profession. Surely like most of the medicos, she would never have expected to go through this journey to get there. But nothing should be an excuse. All the sacrifices, hardships, they all come in the same plate which all privileges a doctor is entitled to. I have often seen people complaining of jobs, the A/C in the office is not working, heavy work load with about 100 reports for a day, need to work in the dark, the office issues are too much etc. Well imagine a life where your office is a place of crying people, people coming with pain, bleeding, vaginal discharges , menstrual irregularities etc.. It is a life which you will never imaging. A mother will know the pain she under goes during a labour. But to be with mothers undergoing that pain everyday, bear through the screaming daily, and console her with pain relief daily is never an enjoying task. Well the only place you will feel a bit comfortable would be a Paediatric ward. It is like a pre school. Children playing and hiding. There too children cry, but crying is something children do. So, a paed ward would be a bit nicer place. But there are children with serious conditions; where the atmosphere completely changes.

But you admit it or not, she must be really satisfied with the work she does. The job satisfaction she gets by relieving pain, giving a new born to the mother's arm, are only in this sacred position. She is extremely lucky in that regard.

One day I heard a junior doctor was speaking to her saying, one day a security officer has asked who she was while passing through the gate. She has responded saying She was a doctor. The security has replied, "if you were a doctor, why don't you come in a car?". The junior doctor was furious, she has blamed the security officer. Well, I know the majority would say the doctor is rude, she must be clam and explain the reasons, or crack a joke at the security officer. If you were an intern, with a salary just enough to manage yourself, has completed a long day, going for dinner around 11.30 pm , and if some one comments like the security officer, you will understand. But again, nothing is an excuse, it was her who selected the profession, she has to take all the good and bad that comes with it.

All in all, what I see here is that, great majority has a dream of being doctors, yet they don't realize what it is like to be one. When they do realize, some times there is no way out. True, being a doctor comes with a lot of privileges, and so does the dedication and commitment. None of the doctors can say their life is hard, because that is what comes with the profession. It was them who chose it and no one asked them to. But the other aspect must also be remembered. As much as they are responsible for the difficult life they agreed to, they must get the benefits the profession is getting. If the privileges are lost, it is their right to fight. People can say thousands of things, but if you take off some privileges of those who blame others for striking, those guys will be the first to get in to streets. Of the people who shared most posts against doctors recently,  the ones who called if I could help them take medicine early with out being in a cue, or asked who the best consultant in a particular field was, or asked if I could give them an extra car pass were the great patriotic activists.

How much She- the character I described; has to under go in her life these days, I must admit that She is doing one of the greatest and sacred jobs in the world, which the satisfaction can never be compared. She must have done some great great merits to get it in this life. Sometimes, the sinners too get in, may be by mistake. But that is rare, the majority are the lucky ones. Otherwise our health will not be in the standard it is there now.

My opinion on her is that, I have seen her dedication, I have gone just a small distance she went, So, don't bother of what the 'unknown' is shouting, do your job THE BEST way you can, so you may get the satisfaction to the maximum. In the meantime, if there are any issues with the privileges you get, it is only you that needs to fight for it. No one will care of You  in time to come. But at all time, remember, " It is a highly satisfying occupation you got, and at all times keep it's respect. If you are uncertain of your ability, or your suitability for the occupation, or if you are hoping to be a millionaire, just plan some other future that suits you and make life much easier! "

Same warmth, Different routes!

Today, in neonatal resuscitation trolley at labour room were two babies, kept for warmth to prevent hypothermia. They were sharing the same warmth, kicking at each other and were having a good time. They belonged to the two mothers who just delivered them in adjacent beds, who are completely unknown to each other. The two babies, who were born on the same day, perhaps a few minutes apart , are having a good time. I was wondering around, (as usual) and the view of the two neonates just made me think “Will they ever meet again in life? And if they did, will they ever remember that they shared the same warmth on the day they were born ? What would the “time” would have done for their lives by the time they meet? “.This thought reminded me of my own experience.

As for the Free education system in the country, Grade 5 scholarship was (rather still is) an important obstacle for us who studied at the peripheries. We had after school classes; done by our class teacher, 4 days per week, (unlike today, it was free of charge, a social service of the class teacher ; who is the mastermind which guided our lives for our academic achievements up to date ). There were many friends, whom we used to play cricket until class starts and one of them , for the purpose of this story will be Nimal. It was a wonderful childhood we had though scholarship was a competitive exam. We passed the exams, Me, Nimal and many more included. Well by tradition, at my school, the students who passed the scholarship exam used to give a treat for the staff of the school ; one reason for this being that most who would pass will go for so called better schools around and else where. One of the passed students, will have to deliver the welcome speech for the teachers , and the class teacher offered me the opportunity, as I was the highest scorer, but She told me that, “ if you can’t just let me know, because Nimal would even do a better speech than you, but this is offered to you as you are the highest scorer “ . Well as a kid, I did not want to miss opportunities ; something which is practiced still I suppose. So the speech was delivered, within a few days I left the School and travelled Kandy for better education. I did not meet Nimal since then till date.

Let’s say Sunil; was another student among those who passed the exam with me. He decided to stay at the same school. Up on subsequent visits for my home place I would have met him once or twice, chatted sometimes. Last time when I met him before the story which I am about to describe, he was a Security Officer. But it was last year(2014), as a 3^rd year medical student, when I was walking around, some minor staff person called me. I was not sure what the message the minor staff member wanted to deliver to a medical student, and up on turning I met Sunil, after many years, being a minor staff member : partly explained by the fact one of the previous minister of Health ( Before November 2014) was from the peripheral area where I studied). He was busy carrying some samples, so we only could have a little chat. It was not the Grade 5 discussion we had. Perhaps because he was busy for his work and I was running the marathon from hostel to ward to be at the ward a second before the consultant comes. Subsequently, I met Sunil a few times around the hospital. We had short chats here and there, what the duties are, how the staying conditions , the wards they work, the salaries etc etc etc.. Still I meet him once in a while and each time – both of us running in different directions , in a hurry, just like after scholarship exam.

Last April, I visited my home place for the new year, and I was not feeling quite well. I visited a doctor there and he prescribed some medicine ;( all of which I would have prescribed by myself and so is my mother or any one who had a fever and cough before) I went to the counter and gave the prescription. The lady inside was staring at me; which is a rare occurrence, and after sometime she asked if I was Leonard. Well I was a bit surprised, but given the fact it was my home place I though she would have been someone who would have known me. But she introduced her as; Let’s say Nayanaa ( The Grade 2 Sinhala book),who was another classmate of the Grade 5 class, And I was much surprised and happy to meet her after a long period.  Like Sunil, She is also in the field of medicine, which I would be attached to in the due time, Hopefully.

Well this is the fate of lives the time has taken us over the time. You would have waited to see what happened to Nimal at the beginning. But I don’t really know. Hope he is having a great and a enjoyable life. Sunil is in the same hospital I am training, but he is serving the people & earning and I am studying. Nayanaa, as I heard has married recently, and she is also in the medical profession. There were many who were in the class with me. I do not know that happened to most. I remember one friend was killed by LTTE at a Paddy field during war times. All of us shared the same warmth of the Grade 5 class, had the same freedom and happiness at that time. Just like the two babies in the labour room now. But now we do not know what happed to most of our friends. But, once in a while we might meet some of those classmate. But when we do meet ; our lives are never the same again – THE TIME will tear us a long distance part.

So dear babies , you might probably meet again ; but you will never recall that you shared the same warmth on the day you were born and even if by accident you recall that you were together on your birth day, time will take you a long distance apart.