Some Guys Can Be Just Soooo Ridiculous!

Firstly I have to say I had such a splendid day today, Alhamdulillah. It was really a miracle coz it was so quiet today. The sisters actually call me "Dr Traffic" coz it's being so hectically busy since I've been around;)
 I've seen so many pregnant women that I think I became kinda 'desensitized' but for some reason today it just struck me that it's such an amazing experience to have a baby. As I tweeted earlier I want a baby! I told my mum that if I don't get married I'm gonna adopt a baby... she freaked out a bit. But anyway I wonder if it's ethically correct to adopt a child if you're a single mum?

My cousin's adorable little one

Anyway driving home this afternoon (in this hectic PMB traffic), I stopped behind a car and noticed this dude looking at me in the rear-view mirror, so I just ignored him. Then I see the guy on the passenger seat turning around to look through the back window - I was not impressed and just turned to the side. The next time we moved a bit I noticed that this creep is like constantly staring from his side-mirror. So while thinking to myself about how rude some guys can be, I notice from the corner of my eye that the back wiper of his car has suddenly come on, then there's water squirted and all this while I'm just ignoring. Then he decides to squirt water from his front windscreen and so the water obviously sprayed all across mine...I can't explain how difficult it was for me not to burst out laughing! I mean can a guy act so stupidly just to get someone's attention? Stupid men......It was such a relief when I eventually had to take a different road. But seriously I can't STAND guys like this. Who said staring is halaal? How does he know if I'm married or not? One of the criteria when selecting my next husband is that he must not be a starer! LOL ;)

Some Holiday Snow Pics

My leave (1st leave for the year) was in Ramadhan and I was actually really grateful coz being on call while fasting was really finishing me! So bcoz it was Ramadhan and my sis was not on holiday, we couldn't go anywhere and so we decided to go keep her company in Bloem:)

We were all planned to leave immediately after Fajr, when my sis decided to check her twitter timeline and promptly discovered that the roads were closed due to snow! Oh the benefits of twitter! Anyway so then we had to postpone our trip indefinitely till the roads were open. At least I had more time to pack (was still packing last minute things the next day b4 we left tho ;) - but seriously I think I need to go for like packing management classes or something!!

Anyway just some pic's of the snow, taken by my mum (I was driving - have to admit I felt like a 'man' after driving Pmb-Bloem-Jhb-Bloem-Pmb!).

Amr chillin @ the back :)

Quick little update after quite a loooooonnnnng hiatus;)

Gosh realised I have not posted in over a month!! The reason for my disappearance? Well, there were lots of issues (that's for another long post when I'm in the mood!) and I was on holiday for the last 2 weeks :)

Anyway today was my first day back at work and first day in a new rotation. I've started with Obs & Gynae and I'm stuck in it for the next 4 months! I've previously toyed around with d idea of specialising in O&G but after today...I think not! [Sorry Moulana] Most of the MO's and Reg's are busy with exams so d department is seriously under-staffed and hence us interns have been thrown into the deep end. There was no senior cover in the place I was assigned to today, and it was SO HECTIC. I mean the last time I did O&G was in 5th yr med school!  And lets not even mention the nursing staff! So I know I've only just completed 1 day and my opinion may change, but for now I really don't relish d idea of doing like a hundred PV's a day for the rest of my life! [sorry for being crude, I just feel a bit yucked out for some reason!]

In other news, Eid is on Wednesday here (we always seem to end up keeping 30?) but I'm really glad. I almost had a heart attack during the CII Hilaal Sighting Broadcast when  Moulana Bham said "Alhamdulillah" I really thought they sighted the moon some place and I haven't even asked for Eid day off yet! Hoping to get Eid day off but then again Allah knows best :)

May Allah accept all our Ibadah and may we be able to uphold all the extra we've done throughout the year.
Remember our Beloved Rasulullah SAW said: "The person who stays awake on the nights preceding the 2 Eids occupying himself with Ibadah, his heart will not die on the day when everyone's heart will perish. (His heart will not die during the time of evil and corruption. It could also mean that with the blowing of the trumpet his soul will not become unconscious) May we all be blessed with the ability to fulfill this, Ameen.

To all celebrating Eid on tuesday:

Who said being a doctor is glamarous???

Okay Alhamdulillah I'm alive after one of my worst calls ever! Nursery calls Suck!

The call started off quite well and then things just kinda spiraled a bit out of control - 2 Resus's and 1 didn't make it:( so then there was tons of paperwork to be filled in at like 3:00am.  And seeing that everything in the hospital is based on 

It didn't make my life much easier!

I dragged my sister (BintMahmood) along with me. I left her snuggled in my sleeping bag for most of the night

 

but she really helped me out this morning and had to run quite a few times to the lab. I felt really sorry for her though, coz Nursery is very very warm even though it's freezing outside, and shame she kept feeling dizzy and faint... so she had to go out a while and then come back to help me!

For my sis

The worst part about a Tuesday call is that handover happens late coz of a departmental meeting on a Wednesday. So yeah instead of being relieved at 8am, I had to cover the ward and C-sections till 10am.

And as luck will have it, the sisters kindly informed me at 7am that 5 IV lines were infiltrated!

Gosh these IV lines on these tiny babies are just soooo frustrating! After walking around the whole night my feet were killing me,

I was hungry and exhausted and really struggled with the lines:( I was so fed up, I just felt like bursting into tears.

The best part was: I inserted one IV line on a baby after struggling for about an hour,( I secured it really well) and then had to go for a c-section. When I got back the sister tells me that this baby needs a drip, and I was like sister I did that one already before I went to theater. She looks at me and she's like oh she thought that was the old drip that was infiltrated, so she removed it! Seriously I didn't know whether to burst out laughing or crying!!! I attempted it another 3 times, failed and then gave up and decided to leave it for the day staff. The mum was quite upset and started crying but I mean if I can't do something, I can't!! 

So I was still battling away with drips when the day staff eventually came - boy was I relieved! It seemed as though my shift was never gonna end! 

Alhamdulillahi Allah Kullee Haal.

(Next Nursery Call: 26/07/2011)

I Don't Know How To Respond Or What To Answer When...

People tell me;

1. "Oh you so short?"
Really people, I've lived in my body my entire life - tell me something I don't know!


2. "How old are you?"
Do I just say my age or what?(but u don't just go about asking people their ages anyway!) I already know the response is gonna be " but you look so young" as though it's so shocking!


3. "Oh so you just a GP?"
WTH!!! Do you realise what it took just to get into Med School and to stay in there for 6 years? And hey every Dr has to start off as a GP anyway!

4. "How's your husband doing?"

Oh dear where do I begin! Should I just smile and mumble he's fine or do I go into the whole history:(

Family members ask;

1. "So how much are you earning?"
Isn't that personal? Sorry uncle but I don't exactly ask you how much you earn!


2. "So how many patients have you killed already?"
That is so not a funny question.


3. "The specialist said I'm going to need this Medication/Operation/Test, you think it's necessary?"
Hey you've been to a specialist and now you asking my opinion? I'm Confused?


4."My back/finger/toe/ear/hair/any other body part.... is paining, what do you think is wrong?"
I'm flattered by your faith in me but seriously I really can't just make a diagnosis based on your vague symptoms only!


5. "So do you think this drug 'trade-name' is good?"
I'm sorry I know I'm a Dr but I don't know the trade-names of all the drugs available.


6. "I would never send my daughter to University like how your mother sent you."
I'm glad I'm not your daughter:)




Patients say:


1. "I don't have money for bus-fare or to make a call to my family"
I'm really lost when it comes to this coz I mean I wanna help but then again majority of the patients are from poor social circumstances and I can't help everybody:(

2. "But Dr am I gonna be ok?"
Ooh I just hate this:( Usually get this after having explained a condition in simple terms. Should I be honest but cruel or just give false hope???




Colleagues say:


1. "You don't watch TV!! So what do you do when you get home?"
I don't know! TV has not been a part of my life for so many years so my routine is without it, anyway.


2. "You can definitely eat these gummy sweets, its got the halaal stamp on it:)"
No I can't! Why the hell do we have to have so many halaal certifying organisations in SA and no consensus amongst them!


3. "How come Muslim guys don't drink alcohol but they are allowed to do drugs?"
No they not supposed to do either...but how do I know what makes them think drugs is a lesser sin!

4. "You don't know what you missing out by not eating bacon. You should try some when your parents are not around"
Seriously do I look that starved?? And hey it's not my parents making these rules!

Nursery; The Woes, The Joys

Ok so being in nursery is becoming a bit monotonous! I mentioned previously that I don't exactly work in nursery itself, rather I'm in charge of all the post-delivery wards and have to do a head-to-toe examination on all the babies and discharge asap coz there's a shortage of beds!!! I mean seriously can't a mid-wife/nurse do that??  And when I'm done, I then become this kind of 'floating' staff-member that has to go help out wherever I'm needed:(

Anyway it's so amazing to see so many babies being delivered daily :) It's actually quite weird coz you have like a whole ward of babies with the same birth date! I wonder if they'l ever meet up again in the future??

 I guess it's becoming monotonous for me coz there's so many babies to see and there's always a rush to see each one and it ends up feeling like I work in a factory!

Typical scenario: "Hello mum how are you? How's baby doing? Are you going to breastfeed or use formula milk? Is baby feeding well? Has baby passed urine? And Stool? Okay now I need to examine baby" - followed by a head to toe examination."Okay mum your baby is fine, so baby is discharged". I move to the next bed to repeat the procedure while the nurse gives the immunisations and gives the mum the date for the follow-up visit. And so I move from cubicle to cubicle...and once I get to the last cubicle the 1st one has some new babies already! Alhamdulillah most of the babies are normal :)

It's actually quite a mission to communicate with the mums that don't speak any English! The Zulu word for urine involves clicking of the tongue - something I'm quite pathetic at and so it always sounds so funny and some mums still don't understand me LOL!

Another thing is that it's winter here and my hands are constantly cold so I feel really sorry for the tiny ones! It's really cute examining them but off course there's some things I just hate; like palpating the head of a just delivered baby - the hair is all matted with blood and amniotic fluid and oh gosh I don't even like to think what else!! I also hate my stethoscope coming into contact with the freshly cut umbilical cord - gross! Babies that have caput also kinda freak me out. (Caput is when the baby's head goes into this cone shape due to a difficult delivery, becomes normal after a while.)

 

It's really sad to see so many babies born to mums who are HIV positive. However the good news is that apparently our PMTCT programme  (prevention of mother to child transmission) is actually working :) Majority of babies of positive mums are now found negative :) The sad part is that some mums opt to formula feed (instead of exclusive breastfeeding) and they can't afford it so the babies end up dying from severe malnutrition:(
Anyway that's all for now....

Another 'Everything' Post

Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah! I'm officially over with 'that' ward at EDH :) I am just so happy! This last month was just too hectic! My call on Saturday wasn't too bad though, except that POPD was freezing cold! POPD is located in this container that's attached to the main hospital building and none of the heaters are working there currently [This is Edendale;) ] My teeth were like constantly chattering and my nose and fingers felt like they were gonna fall off! Luckily I got an early post-call and I blasted the heater in the car! Even though I still have 2 months left in Paeds, I'm certain on one thing - I will NEVER become a Paediatrician - it's just not for me.

So I started in Nursery today at NDH and it's quite busy, but busy in a 'nice' way. It's a district hospital so the Nursery itself is not high-tech and I have to go to all the post-delivery wards and check the newborn babies before discharge :) Apparently here post-call is at 8:00am and you get one half day off a week :) :) :)

Anyway here's some pics from the wedding I recently attended:

Sweet Table

The hall decor was stunning!! While I don't believe in spending a lot on decor, it was nice to attend such a function:) Sadly my pics don't seem to do justice to the beauty:(

Designer: Mohamed Paruk

Stunning Handpiece :) [Designer: Mohamed Paruk]

Walimah:

Bride & Groom

Yummy Burfee

Designer: Mohamed Paruk

I'm around :)

POPD Consulting Room

It seems like I haven't posted in ages! As usual been quite busy! The good news is I have just 2 days left in this ward that I'm currently in :) Alhamdulillah the 4 weeks went really fast :)

Actually I'm post-call today - don't think  I'll ever get used to calls! It's impossible to explain the post-call feeling - it's like you are just totally physically, mentally, emotionally exhausted!!

Anyway I was on call in POPD and the electricity at the hospital cut and somehow the generators didn't come on so yeah we were in complete darkness for about 1 and a half hours! Luckily at that point it wasn't that busy... so once the lights came back, I decided to go read my salaah. My day had been very hectic and I hadn't even had time to read any salaah so I decided to make use of the quiet time to catch up. Now I had to make wudhu but when I got to the room, I started having second thoughts coz the sink wasn't exactly 'wudhu -friendly' and there was no hot water ( it is currently freezing here in PMB!). So just as I was giving up on the idea, my reg opens the curtain and asks what I'm up to, so I told her I was deciding to pray. She was like so excited by the fact and began asking like a hundred questions about Islam and praying. She even wanted to know if there are Black South African Muslims. Anyway while chatting about Islam etc. she mentioned that she really admires the fact that Muslims pray anywhere, whereas they usually only pray like twice a week sometimes and personally she feels quite lost regarding religion. She believes in a Higher Power but doesn't really know whether she's Christian or believes in traditional African beliefs. She feels really lost at times and wanted to know whether I think by praying 5 times a day, things work out more smoothly in my life etc. So anyway after she left I felt so grateful that Allah blessed me with deen and has granted me peace and contentment. I felt so ashamed of even thinking of making my salaah (a gift from Allah) qadhaa that I immediately made wudhu and hit the floor!!! May Allah guide us all and keep us on the straight path, Ameen.

Another Security Guard Rant

Dropped off my friend at the hospital DQ, its 18h10 and as I approach the main hospital boom gates, I see lots of security guards standing on both sides of the road. So as I approach I consider just driving past without stopping and then I'm like no I'll stop, there's too many of them (but I hope they don't make me get off coz it's dark already)....so as I open the window, a female guard quickly asks me how I'm doing and before I can even answer or say that the boot is already open, she asks if I'm going into town coz she and 2 other guards need a lift. So I told her I'm not going to town and in the mean time I see this other guard trying to open the passenger door. I thought he's the guard checking the cars and he probably wants to check the cubby so I unlatched the door. He opens it and he asks which way I'm going, so I named the suburb (knowing he wouldn't want to go there - it's a predominantly Indian area ) and then to my surprise he jumps in and his like that's cool I can take him till a certain traffic circle. I was totally shocked and I really didn't know what to do coz this dude is sitting in my car! Anyway I drive off in silence thinking; how did I manage to be in this situation, alone with this random dude, will I reach home safely - I mean this is South Africa!! Luckily I managed to reach the traffic circle safely and he jumped off so it was fine. But seriously, next time I'm gonna lie and say I live just near the hospital.   Oh and by the way what happened to checking my car huh??

Random Pic's

So yeah the weekend's over, sis is gone back to Bloem and it's back to work from tomorrow.... the great thing is that I have just 2 weeks left in this hell of a  ward that I'm currently in :) :)

Some random pics of Thursday's function:

About....Well, Just about Everything!

Realised it's almost a week since I last posted....yep I've been very busy. Just today I mentioned to my mum, that if breathing wasn't an involuntary action, I don't think I would have had the time to breathe! The ward is just crazy (one of the interns said she feels like she's drowning!), but looking on the bright side, I've already completed a week, so just 3 more to go Insha Allah :) And there's so much to look forward to; sis is coming home tomorrow Insha Allah for a few days,                    

 Public holiday on Thursday and I'm not working,

Going to a pre-wedding function this weekend, braai + wedding + walimah next weekend. Woohoo:)

Anyway I was on call this Saturday, it was busy but Alhamdulillah it went well i.e. there was no resus, no deaths, I ate, managed to perform salaah on time and got 2hrs sleep:) There were some really sick kids though, it's so sad, and so many of them have been kinda abandoned by their mum's and their old grannies have to take care of them...I just don't understand!

Oh ja, you know I think it's an indigenous South African thing where they mix up the pronouns 'he' and 'she' and use 'she' when referring to males. Anyways I seem to be doing it the other way around (unintentionally though!) coz I often assume the kid's a male and ja, then the kid's actually a she! It was quite bad on Saturday with the one patient, coz I took the file from granny in the waiting area and went into the consultation room. They took a bit of a while in coming coz the kid needed the bathroom, so I decided to fill in all the papers. I had briefly seen the kid in the waiting room and thought he was a boy and the name seemed to confirm it, so I circled 'male' on all the papers and plotted the kid's weight and height on the boys growth chart. All through the history taking I kept saying 'he' and 'his' etc. I took the kid to the procedure room to do an ENT exam and noticed girl's shoes on 'his' feet, so I thought maybe 'he's' wearing 'his' sister's. Only when I saw the pink Barbie t-shirt under the jersey, I realised 'he' was a girl! It actually came out quite badly coz I just exclaimed "oh you're a girl?" After that I made sure I asked the parent beforehand, if the child was a boy or girl! Oh and I had to go scratch off everywhere I had male written and re-plot the graphs!

The same above-mentioned patient had this horrible productive cough and little through the history taking I saw the granny hand her a big Nola mayonnaise bottle - I was like huh? I was not impressed at all when I realised why she was given the bottle - she was uhm... collecting all her coughed-up sputum in it! Gross!!! So every time she coughed, she opened the bottle and... oh well you get the picture, I'm not going to go into details but I don't think I'l ever look at a mayonnaise bottle the same way again! 

Actually lots of the kids had nasty coughs and I actually ended up with a sore throat today after being coughed at yesterday. If I never had the TB bacilli in my lungs - highly unlikely, this is SA! - I definitely got them yesterday! I think I finally understood why a lot of the doctors say that at Edendale TB is personified - I really saw it 'walking around'!

To end off, my mum says such things at times! Recent conversation with an aunt....
Aunty: " Shame but Sabeehah has to work so hard. It's not easy for her huh? Shame she could have done something else..."
Mum: " Oh there's nothing shame about it, everything is hard! And Alhamdulillah she gets double reward, coz she'll get rewarded for helping sick people plus she gets rewarded at month end in her bank balance!"
Oh mother!!