The Life I Chose

I'm Esther, a Christian and qualified medical doctor. This is my life- a dream became a goal and is now my reality

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Passing my final exams- God is good and amazing 🙌🏾🩷

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Last day of being a registrar 31/5/23. One day I will hope to speak about this journey but glad that it’s over

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The end of third year registrar time… the final count down begins

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Pretty as a picture doing what I love

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Couldn’t find any pics to end off 2nd year reg time so here’s one to remember 1st call of 3rd year reg time 🥳 (04/05/2021)

[estherolusola]

Probably one of the toughest calls I’ve had

So I had been feeling under the weather for the last couple of days. We are already short staffed at work due to the Covid pandemic so getting someone to switch calls with me was out of the question. I self medicated, went for a nasopharyngeal swab (one of the worst experiences of my life) and went on to do the call as I awaited my results.

You know things can only go downhill when your hospital is already full and you’re trying to get diversion to other health facilities cause already we were beyond capacity and bordering on being an unsafe facility. The queue of pregnant woman that still needed to be seen outside our already full admission ward was already a recipe for disasters to come.

So my call started off with both operating theatres being blocked with septic cases. The one had a difficult surgery and chorioamnionitis and blocked theatre for 5 hours, the other was blocked by a Gynae case. I already had more than 10 emergency cases on the board and had to prioritize which patients were more urgent. Instead of cutting from 17.00 I only managed to start my first case at 21.00. Everything seemed fine, as if we could get through this night…and that’s when the mayhem began.

At 20.00 another one of the tertiary institutions were on diversion, and I was informed that a patient with a retained placenta was coming from the clinic and she was unwell. When she came in she was in class 4 haemorrhagic shock. ph 7.1, Hb 5, lactate 14, BE-20, HCO 8. Low blood pressures and a tachycardia of 130. Rushed her to theatre as we were unable to manually remove the placenta, morbidly adherent despite no risk factors for it and she required a hysterectomy. Already from the transfer notes she had lost about 2000ml of blood and had continued haemorraging. Massive blood transfusion protocol was activated. At a point her pH dropped to 6.9 we eventually managed to normalize her pH and lactate, she was weaned her off inotropes but she blocked theatre as no high care beds or ICU beds were available at the time. After about 7 hours of being fluid resuscitated and correcting the correctables she was eventually extubated and transferred to HCA in a stable condition. No neurological deficit. Definitely a win for the books.Honestly it was the highlight of the night. Bringing someone back from the brink of death. You can’t put a price on that.

Then in between that madness, an abruptio placenta with a live baby. Both mom and baby are doing great. Then a woman day one post Caesarean section that had an intra-abdominal bleed that had dropped her Hb from 12 to 6.1. In between all this madness there were still the usual fetal distresses and previous Caesarean sections in labour and severe pre-eclamptics that needed to be managed. It was a night where you just prayed that anyone who could remain stable should do just that.

Honestly I worked with such an amazing team of nurses, my interns- Dr BM and Dr MM were amazing. The lovely Dr J who did the most with the PPH patient. Can’t forget Dr W who is absolutely amazing and such consultant goals and never fails to avail herself when she is needed

Honestly at a time where everyone is just flat out exhausted because of the strain COVID has placed on our healthcare system it really warmed my heart that everyone worked together like a well oiled machine. Yes one or two people were obstructive but the Lord still showed up and showed off that He is in control.

It was a night that reminded me why I want to be an obstetrician and gynaecologist. Why I want to save mother’s and their unborn babies. A reminder that I’m on the right track and though things may not always feel like they are coming together, somehow they actually are.

Thanx for reading this long winded post 🌸. Post call as I’m typing. I need to do better with write more posts

[desultory-suggestions]

Hello, lovelies! I’ve gotten a couple of asks about studying so I decided to condense them into one post for you guys! I’m trying to hit a bunch of different topics so if you need an even more specific post you can send an ask! Without any further ado, have some tips! My studyblr is @spacey-scholar​

Prep

First, you always need a good base for your day! Especially if you’re studying a lot.

Make a good full breakfast! Ex. Eggs and Toast, Smoothie and fruit, Pancakes and a cup of juice. 

How’s your hygiene? Do you need to shower, brush your teeth, wash your face, condition your hair? Do it! You’ll be distracted if you feel messy!

Get dressed like it’s a normal day. Staying in PJ’s is okay! But being ready for the day seriously helps focus!

Likewise, your space should be clean. A clean space is a clean mind! Remove dishes, trash, scrap paper, and extra items. Wide down your desk, organize your pens and books. Your space should feel like your space!

Now make a list of what you need to get done! What needs to be done Now, what needs to be done Soon, and what needs to be done Later? 

Order your list how you want your day to go, and don’t put super-tough subjects back to back, or subjects that are similar exercises i.e. reading thirty pages of two different books back to back is no fun.

The Studying

It’s important to buckle down with No Distractions! If you find yourself distracted put your phone away! If you need your phone, put it on Do Not Disturb until you’re done. I also do this at night for better sleep. 

Pick the best technique for you, Pomodoro, reward-based, group studying, etc.

Play music but only if it will not distract you! If you sing along or daydream it’s the wrong music! Classical, Lo-fi, and White noise are all good! My Spotify Here has some good ones.

Use a nice journal (I don’t mean expensive!) and pens/pencils you enjoy using. I like to have a specific journal and color dedicated to each subject. 

Take notes on recorded lectures and classes, if you’re doing online classes right now try to screen record or record the audio! That way if you space out you can play it later and take notes, and you can absorb the lesson better instead of being distracted.

Don’t worry about your notes, stationary, pictures, being beautiful and your grades being perfect. Life doesn’t always look the way it does on Instagram. And the people who spend hours trying to get a good photo of their coffee are not studying! 

Use flashcards! Quizlet is good if you need premade ones! If you can save up and buy them, Barrons AP Flash Cards are the best in my opinion. Very clean, not too long, very durable, and cover all subjects.

Feeling Distracted 

If you catch yourself drifting off and getting into your head, get up and take a quick walk, stretch, or energizer. 

It’s okay if this happens, don’t guilt yourself! practice affirmation. The best and smartest still get distracted. 

If you are drifting, why? Are you hungry? Tired? Thirsty? Bored? Get a snack and some water, take a break and rest, find a way to make your studying more enjoyable. 

Remember that Motivation and Discipline are different things. Sometimes we just won’t be motivated, we won’t want to do it and it will be rather frustrating. But the cure to this is not shaming its discipline. Remind yourself “This may be hard, and I may not want to do this, but I want to reach my goals and If this is what It takes I will make it happen. 

Always do just one more page of you’re tired. One at a time and oh you did it! Maybe just one more? One more? Eh, one more just to finish the train of thought, Oh just- I’m done? Nice!

If you really can’t focus just move on and come back to this subject, you can always ask for help.

Supplementary Things

There are so many apps you can use to study, for free! My favorites are Tide, Quizlet, Focus Keeper, Forest, Flora, Egenda, SpanishDict, Photomath, and Kahn Academy. 

You can also join a study group! You may know one, but if you don’t, there are a lot of online ones! I’m in a study Discord and have been for a while! it helps a lot and motivates me to finish my work!

You can make a studyblr, but don’t do it just for the aesthetics! It’s about studying, and sometimes that gets messy! Sometimes we fail a test, we spill our tea on our notes, we cry because we don’t understand the formula. That’s the part you don’t see!

Having cute stationery can really help, as well as nice organizers and decorations for your space! I don’t have much money so I get a lot of stuff on Amazon or FB Marketplace.

Health

Remember that no matter what you are good enough. It’s okay if you fail, it’s okay if you struggle.

It’s also okay if your path doesn’t go the way you expected! Maybe you go to a different school than expected! Or choose a trade instead! Maybe you take a gap year! Maybe your passion changes! Maybe it changes six times!

Your health is always more important than your school. If you are in pain, mentally or physically, if you are anxious, exhausted, burnt out, talk to your teachers about it! You matter more than a grade.

Your best is good enough! And your best doesn’t look the same as someone else’s best! Don’t compare!

Now go get out there and study!

[estherolusola]

Essential services doing obstetrics theatre...Last day at Sebokeng hospital, last day as a first year registrar 🎉 30/04/2020

[catchymemes]

Credit: @ThinkAnneThink

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Waiting for the next patient to arrive

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The road to becoming an ObGyn 🌸....Sebokeng Chronicles

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Let your beauty glow

[estherolusola]

Community Service complete ✅

2018

So this post is 7 months late 🙈 but what a year it was....

So community service isn’t always the conventional or mainstream definition sometimes we get placed in district or rural hospitals for a year, if you are as blessed as I was you get placed in a tertiary institution where you get to gain experience in a speciality that you’re interested in.

I spent the full year in Obstetrics and Gynaecology 😃. If you’ve read my previous posts you’ll see that it’s always been a source of joy for me. I was meant to spend 3 months In Paediatric surgery however the person I was meant to swop with wasn’t interested in O&G and would rather do anything but O&G. His loss and my gain 💃🏽.

Initially I was looking forward to rotating out for a bit of a break and I also held myself back because I knew that I was going to have to start afresh with a new group of people, and that nearly cost me a lot. When I found out I wasn’t rotating out I had to change my mindset and get serious very quickly because now a door had been opened and I wasn’t going to let it slip through my fingers.

O&G is such a demanding yet rewarding experience. We have a high turnerover of patients and are on call every 5 days and only get 2 weekends off a month sometimes only 1 weekend off. So it is exhausting but the people I got to meet, work with and the relationships I built made the entire experience worth while and waking up for work each day wasn’t always difficult until the chronic fatigue started creeping in....or when I was being taken advantage of because of my work ethic or my love for just being at work 🤷🏾‍♀️.

Most of the registrars that I worked with between May-October I had worked with while I was an intern and they remembered me which also made the transition and working environment so much better. I had 2 momma bears that really took me under their wing and taught me a lot, not only do they have great personalities, work ethics and were registrar/resident goals they also led their units well. I’ll always be greatful to them both, they played key roles in my life for different reasons and different seasons. I don’t care what anyone had to say about either of them as well Dr R.H and Dr H.L are 2 of the best O&G specialists.

Now to summarize some highlights from last year, I was officially cleared to solo cut Caesarean sections in April last year, did I first case with an intern: previous c/s x1 in labour, breech presentation. First of all it was a challenging case, managed to deliever the baby but couldn’t exteriorize the uterus due to adhesions and I had only seen the uterus being sutured intra-abdominally once by Dr J M (thank you) was literally a see 1, do 1, teach 1 moment. After about an hour or so and sweat dripping down my back the case went well.

I think one of the highlights for me was how people didn’t realize that I was a junior- internship completed just a few months prior. Not sure if was really that confident or was just great at faking it but people kept asking how far I was in the program, whether I had started my research etc, and as music that was to my ears I reminded them that I’m still a junior and still needed to be checked on from time to time. The benefit though was that if I was calling for help they knew to come running. Having said that I knew my limitations and my weaknesses, I was always eager to learn from them and if I said I didn’t know something I would make an effort to learn or ask to be taught how to do it. Not only did I learn but it encouraged others to teach and impact some knowledge while building relationships and bonds.

There are so many good things to write about last year, I made two “besties”- Dr S.N and Dr X-L F. Very unexpected but we all work well together, separated though because of rotations but good friends none the less.

So many noteable people that taught me and continue to teach me a lot but also who have a best interest at heart and have continued to support me from the beginning- Dr E BM., Dr C.J, Dr P. Ml, Dr P.Mo, Dr O.O.... these women have been amazing in my life.

When the Lord blesses you with so many influential people who have each played such a significant role in your life at different seasons and struggles you can’t help but just be greatful. Writing this post I think I underestimated how many people I’m thankful for- especially the women because now a days many women find themselves alone but we’re starting to rebuild ourselves and hold each other up the way we’re meant to.

Having said that there are still a few men out there who have also helped me along my journey- Dr C.M, Dr K. K., Dr K. T- I’m very grateful for the time they took to teach me, all three of them very humble, kind hearted and hard working individuals, very grateful for their contribution in my life.

2018 wasn’t without its challenges and moments where I felt defeated, unfortunately I may have taken out some of that frustration on my juniors which was poor form on my part and I did apologize for my behavior. I’m very self aware or conscious about my emotions so I do know when I’m out of order and need to regroup or realign myself. I did make mistakes, I learnt from them and I grew...it’s part of the reason of how I’ve accomplished certain things in my life thus far.

A shout out to my family for loving me, supporting my dreams and goals and just standing by me through it all. Lord knows I wouldn’t have gotten though it without them being by my side, praying for me and just being there for me

Went for my very first interview- landed myself a medical officer/ houseman post in O&G for 2019, only lasted for 4 months- that will all be in another post or so 😊

I’ll have to go through my archives for any interesting cases to discuss but year, that was my 2018 in a nutshell. No special hashtags for this one. Just a reminder to myself that I’m not alone in this journey and to just encourage myself to be like the women who have been a part of my journey

[estherolusola]

Celebrate it all 🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾 at this point I don’t care if people think I’m vain but I will take my time to shine and enjoy every moment of it

[estherolusola]

Story of my life

[estherolusola]

My first solo call in Gynaecology

Date: 11/05/2019

Definitely a call I will never forget. A Saturday call even. . . As naive as I was, I really thought women had other things to do with their lives instead of coming to the hospital, but oh was I wrong.

The morning started off with me being late, speeding on the highway and getting a speeding ticket. Great start right. Took handover from the previous registrar on call- no major problems. The bench was empty. Saw the entire ward- took my time because I had an empty bench so I took the time and effort to ensure my patients knew where we were with their management etc., counseled an unhappy family to the best of my ability.

Then I get the call. We have 3 possible ectopics and one just collapsed. Rush to our ‘GOPD’ stabilize the one- 2 wide IV lines, bloods and a blood gas, scan her to confirm the diagnosis. Call the Anaethetist to say that I need to go to theatre. As I attend to the other 2 I get a call from medical casualty that they have an unstable ruptured ectopic that’s on 0.5mcg of adrenaline and they’re about to intubate her. pH 6.8, Hb 3.3, bicarb 10, lactate of 27, BE -28.

I’m like what in the world is going on. Who gets 4 ectopics at the same time? 🙋🏾‍♀️ your home girl right here does. So I prioritize and run to medical casualty, they were more than helpful and went above and beyond my expectations, managed to get her into theatre, informed the consultant on call about my current situation and went into theatre. 3.5 liter haemoperitonium with a right cornual ectopic. She received a massive blood transfusion which included cell saver blood and she ended up blocking theatre for almost 12 hours just to be adequately resuscitated while awaiting a bed in ICU. Long story short she did very well and was extubated the next day. In total I had 7 ruptured ectopics and 1 unstable septic incomplete abortion with an Hb of 2.2 separate from the usual ICAs etc. It was a very tough call. Lord knows I barely recovered for the next call. Which was 5 days later.

But honestly the lady above- ruptured ectopic which we literally brought back from the brink of death made it all worth it. She reminded me why I chose obstetrics and gynaecology. Why I chose to become a medical doctor and why I work so hard. I don’t do it for myself. I do it for the potential lives that I can save and impact on.

And there you have it...my first solo call as a registrar (resident) was pretty brutal but I survived. I was humbled and almost broken by it to be honest...it made me question my life choice and decisions. I will always remember it because even I outdid myself. I handled the situations appropriately. I called for help, advice and assistance where I needed it. But most importantly I did my best and that’s all that matters.

In case you think I’m being dramatic- my work experience thus far- 2 years of internship (1 month of gynae time), 1 year of community service in O&G (1 month of gynae time), 4 months of medical Officer/ houseman (0 gynae time)

Here is to more blogging and sharing my experiences with you all 😘

[estherolusola]

Be careful what you wish for...

So I was really longing for some Gynaecology time to enhance my knowledge and skills. I mean in my 16 months that I spent in the department I only had 1 month of Gyne time. Which is no where near enough. I just started my registrar time and the first two months of it is my gynaecology rotation and so far it has been nothing but rough.

All Gynaecology calls start at 07.00 they are “24 hr calls” but they actually range from 25-30 hours depending on how busy the night is. This far eating or even resting for an hour on call hasn’t happened. The earliest I have left work post call is 14.30 so that’s being at work for 33 hours straight with zero sleep/rest.

This post isn’t meant to be about complaining or at least it’s not my intention but I don’t think I’ve felt such regret for “forcing issues” or “fighting for experience”. This post is to highlight and encourage myself to do better and be better. I can’t kill myself over work. I can’t over work myself to the point of sheer exhaustion because that won’t benefit any of my patients and I won’t be able to function optimally let alone improve my knowledge because I have no time to read.

I refuse to be pushed to a breaking point. I refuse to be defeated. This is what I want to do and I won’t let anyone or anything discourage me from reaching my goals and aspirations

So note to self Dr Esther Olusola. Be better. Do better. Your patients need the best of you.