Defining Moments of 2012: Med IV

Consider this a wrap-up post of sorts, in collaboration with The Daily Post’s Weekly Writing Challenge. It has been a big year for me, but also an incredibly tough and exhausting year. It’s nice to look back at what has taken place. I hope I have grown in some way, and I do hope that

If I Could Teach Them One Lesson

Registrars are meant to be clever people. Duh, they’ve graduated medicine and practised a few years and are brave enough to specialise. I’ve seen a lot of registrars do a lot of stupid things, but I won’t dwell on that because that’s not what today is about. I recently heard a registrar complain, “If you

Morbid Cartoon Anatomy

You know what’s awesome about fourth year? The lecturers go through so much effort to teach us. They put together nice slideshows, they share interesting tid-bits and they are friendly. They could have saved us all a lot of grief if all lecturers were this nice from first year. But I digress. Anatomical art, which once

We See a Light

As part of Infectious Diseases, we must learn about Syndromic Management. It is not the best approach for a qualified doctor, but it is important to understand – especially in a primary health care setup. During one of these tutorials, the doctor in charge made us close our books and asked us about our approaches

The Original Guinea Pigs

We are currently doing our Infectious Diseases and Clinical Immunology theory block – which means lots of freaky latin names and difficulty staying awake in class. Occasionally though, our class is graced by a lecturer with some spunk. This is South Africa: needless to say, Tuberculosis was one of the first things discussed. You know

Waterworks

My heart just breaks when people cry. And I have never had so many teary patients as I have had in Dermatology. One lady was eighty years old, and drove herself to the hospital. What a lovely person! So lucid, so well-groomed, so independent. And she lives alone.

Lost in Translation

Little Brother (still) says the darndest things. A while ago I posted the following as a status: Practising Derms surgery on pig. Yummy! But in my home language, “derms” means “guts”. So, Little Brother tells The Family that Big Sister is removing pork gut for med school. Nomnomnom indeed! The funniest thing is that a

First Ever Guest Post: Elective in India

A while ago, a friend suggested guest posts for my blog – which is completely understandable, as I represent only one sphere of med student life. At my school, we do electives at the end of fourth year and in the middle of fifth year. As is custom, most students attempt to use it as

Ode to the Hair Follicle

The picture on the right illustrates vitiligo, an autoimmune disorder causing destruction of the melanocytes of the skin, resulting in hypopigmentation. We had a patient like this today, only with a very severe form. What she also had was many small round spots of repigmentation, like the few round spots seen in the picture here.

Superspecialists use elevators?

So I had one of those gobsmacked experiences today. Running to catch an elevator to the eighth floor, someone held the doors open for us. Someone who is a very scary super-super-super specialist, and quite famous for his research. And he is a formidable professor who has the propensity to make one feel rather unintelligent.