Get to know the blogger - medical edition
1. Why did you choose medicine as a profession?
I didn't find anything else interesting enough. Not to sound too cliché but I just can’t see myself doing anything else every single day 30-40 years from now.
2. When did you know you wanted to go into medicine?
Nana’s cardiac surgery (and my mom’s influence when she got me a doctor’s set to play with.) 🩺
3. Which specialty do you want to practice?
Internal Medicine and then eventually Cardiology 🫀 but I like Paediatrics too!
4. Which specialty did you want to practice when you started med school/nursing school?
Cardiothoracic surgeon (I ended up preferring the medical side over surgical)
5. What was your best moment in medicine? In no particular order:
🦴 Getting scrubbed in every time during my Orthopedics rotation and actively assisting the surgeries at an Intern level (not just retraction/suturing) multiple implants, hip replacements, ilizarov fixation, amputation, casts and slabs. “Interns are Tigers” is what the Orthopods said lol.
👶🏽 Intubating and performing a lumbar puncture on a neonate.
🔥 I was working at the Emergency Department during my first few days of Internship when a mass casualty came in consisting of 30 patients with different degrees of burns at a sugarcane factory nearby, I was sh*t scared initially but this experience taught me good team dynamics with all departments in an emergency situation.
6. What was your worst moment in medicine?
During initial nights of my IM rotation as an intern (in India interns are still like med students and not residents) My junior and senior resident incharges went to sleep and I felt helpless when a patient suddenly stopped breathing minutes after snoring loudly, at this point I wasn’t allowed to intubate without supervision and the residents on-call were just not ready to get up. The patient died eventually and I was crying at the staircase till 4am.
7. How does the medical education system in your country work?
5.5 years of MBBS,
3 years of PG Residency,
2+ years of Super Specialisation/fellowships
and multiple Quack practices. 🦆
8. Favourite medical fun fact?
Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy (Broken Heart Syndrome) shows apical ballooning so the shape of the heart is similar to that of a takotsubo (たこつぼ) a round-bottomed, narrow-necked vessel used to catch octopuses. 🐙
9. Funniest/weirdest thing that happened in one of our classes/rotations?
When a professor way older than me said “You have beautiful eyes” referring to me, on the mic, in the middle of a lecture. 🎤
When a resident tried hitting on me (still a student) and I rejected him but later he became my doctor when I had COVID *awkward*
10. Surgery or internal medicine?
Internal Medicine ✨ (although I do respect surgeons, they’re more fun to be around.)
11. What is your best study advise?
Revise. Slow progress is still progress. Let go of your ego, you won’t retain your knowledge if you don’t revise and eventually people will get better than you and you’ll be left behind.
12. Do you study at home/at the library/elsewhere?
Home (sometimes at the library pre-pandemic)
13. Why and when did you start your medblr?
I’ve been on Tumblr for over 10 years, somewhere during my clinical years I thought I needed to document my life in Medicine so I made a blog for it.
14. How do you treat yourself when you achieved a goal?
Good food and shopping!
15. How do you handle failure/bad critiques/mistakes?
During my internship I saw a lot of incompetent doctors (referring to my point no. 6) It motivated me even more to do my best to not be a doctor like that and only take constructive criticism and learn from my mistakes. Having a mentor helps a lot too.
16. Favourite hospital movie/TV show?
I think my username answers this question, it will always be [Scrubs]
17. Worst hospital movie/TV show?
A certain medical show named after a famous book with never ending seasons, more drama, less medical accuracy. *ahem*
18. Which patient’s/relative’s behaviour annoys you the most?
When they call me a nurse even after correcting them and are extremely rude to me because I’m young. 🥺
19. What would you do if you didn’t work in medicine?
Artist travelling around the world. 🎨
20. What do you like to do when you’re not in school/hospital/studying?
Sleeping for the most part, Anime/Manga, painting sometimes, social media and some cooking these days.
21. Do you have somebody that inspires you?
Dr. Cox & JD from [Scrubs]
My Mentor
Dr. Rohin Francis (Medlife Crisis)
