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
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!
"
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