I've got Internet Again:)

Woohoo:) Yep as the title says, I'm back online so hope to post again soon InshaAllah.

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....