Jolt.. Not really from the blue!

Today began like any other exam day.. Mom woke me up around 6 am(that's like midnight on other days!) I woke up from my slumber around 7. When..... I realized I've not read 1 word and its surgery!!!!! Not knowing what to do, i quickly finished the daily stuff and by the time i was ready, it was time to reach there, at a place around 8 km away.
I left in a hurry and to my good luck, by the time i reached there were no residents there. :) I thought, may be, it was after all, "my lucky day!" I had time to read, time to salvage something impossible. So in order to get things started, i decided to remove RDB.
Getting engrossed in gossip around me wasn't all that difficult (General stuff about people hitting on people/people liking other people etc etc) But what i was forgetting was that all those people were really people who had finished reading every minuscule from Love. Finally when i came to my senses, it was too late! The CR had arrived and was distributing exam cases to people. I decided to pray for my life. Hoping to get a hernia case about which i knew something that i could possibly answer. But even God wasn't really answering my prayers today! I got some case with some bandage around his leg. I hoped for the next best thing-a PVD case(in which i could answer "smoking" for any question asked) . But it just wasn't my day. It turned out to be a 68 yr old guy with a dreaded complication of DM-The diabetic foot.
Seemingly the case is as easy as that! But that's what led me into the booby trap.. ("The assumption that acquisition of information can lead to change in attitude is fallacious!" This dictum learnt by many in PSM, is what was flawed. My attitude did change when i took things lightly when people around informed me that the case was as easy as any can beeee!) Sometimes, the easiest things in this world can be the most difficult!
I took the case and was now "prepared" for the viva. Prayer wasn't really helping today, so i decided not to pray for me, me getting a good examiner, someone who would definitely give me passing marks. So i thought someone nice would come.. But it wasn't to be. It was Jadhav mam, the one everyone in the department feared!
It had to be one of those days.. Those, which we don't forget in a hurry, for all the wrong reasons! She came, she saw, and she conquered! That's what happened, all in an hours time.. She started off by asking things which seemed trivial enough like the definition of debridement (which i learnt later, after she told me, is in chapter 1, Bailey and Love, and which i was told, i should read for all further exams, if i have to pass!) After this started the real pounding! Further questions were things like "how do u examine the ankle joint?"(which is given is ortho books, which we never read!), "what are the different types of insulin's and which one will u use in this patient?"(which we had read, given an exam on and forgotten about in the second year), "can a patient have koilonychia and clubbing at the same time??", "can a patient have pallor and be averagely built at the same time??", "how do u demonstrate the palpation of the d.pedis if the great toe is amputed?"(which was amputed in my patient), "whats the first sign of diabetes to be seen in a person?", "endocrine disorders excluding DM which cause delayed wound healing?" (all these, to which i had no answer!) The pounding finally finished with "u people don't know anything.. u'll don't really deserve to be in this college.."
All this came to me as a big jolt(=zatka).. Not that part with "u'll don't deserve to be here etc.." We get that all the time.. It was the realization that i really did know zilch! It was after all my own doing! My doing by wasting time doing nothing at all..
Finally taking things from the brighter side of things, it did however make me realize the responsibilities of being a doctor! That patients lives really do depend a lot on the person(s) treating them..
Hopefully all this'll now make me work more towards becoming a better doctor than what i am!

Does he really have to go??

Grief day for me today! Cause it is Saturday, the 23rd of June 2007. Its the day when he's officially resigning from the post of 'lecturer in medicine' from college. He, who's currently my source of inspiration to become a future physician is leaving. :(
Its when I've come to ask myself the question we all ask when someone whom we like leaves! "Does he really have to go??" When the answer to the question is hidden in the question itself- He must!
Shiva sir, as he's popularly known, was the best lecturer in Medicine i've seen in my 4 years at BJMC, Pune. Someone who always has a smile on his face, the master of all medicine that there is, yet humble and graceful in all that he does, he brings with him an aura, an aura which charms all around. He's a favorite amongst all whom he's taught. The girls love him, the guys love him too! We'll definitely miss him here!
Here's wishing him all the best in his career and in all that lies ahead! Adios Sir!