There are lot of things on my mind these days but I don’t find the time to get it down in words.Blame the busy schedules of my resident duties I could say but maybe not.Whatever the reasons this holiday weekend offers me a little time to reflect on the happenings of my little world and the somewhat bigger world outside mine.
Professionally I'm going great guns in my career and I couldn’t be more happy with it.My cataract surgery count crossed 50 last week.A significant number especially since I'm yet to finish my first year of my residency and I'm already operating with a good amount of skill.I’m doing small incision suture-less cataract surgery and more importantly my cases are truly turning out to be suture-less since the last 25 cases.Adding to that fact my skill has considerably improved (even though I say so myself) since I'd taken my hesitant first steps towards ophthalmic surgery.This applies not only to cataract surgery but also to other surgeries.
On a personal note, as the Kolkata’s summer temperature is reaching unbearable 40s the food is turning out to be as intolerable as the summer heat.The winter vegetables have given way to potatoes and more potatoes.Everyday I'm getting sicker eating potatoes and won’t be worse without it.I know potatoes are cheap here but that doesn't mean that every dish should contain it.Even grass is cheap but do we eat it? But Bengalis love their potatoes and will not stop at my insistence.
It’s been nearly 6 months since I've gone home to Bangalore and i’m getting homesick.But more than homesickness there is a sense of loneliness during my residency days like I have never experienced before during my student life.I lived in Mysore for 6 years during my undergraduate days but never for one day I felt lonely in the hustle bustle of hostel life.There was always something to do,someone to talk to and hang out with.But now since I've started my residency everyday after work is spent in relaxing so that we can work properly the next day.It’s not to say that I’m over-worked but the fun element in our lives as Residents has reduced.This feeling is not restricted to myself but also my close friends have admitted to feeling thus.In our post-graduate life we have less time for ourselves,more responsibility and more worries.This in turn results in lesser effort from us to extend our friendships like we used to in our undergraduate days.The fun we used to have in hostel and the activities I used to indulge in during my hostel days have come to a standstill since the last two years.It doesn’t help that I do not have any relations in or near Kolkata and none of my close friends are nearby too.It is at this point that I value the friendships that i had in my college life.Friends who would readily stand up for you at any given situation, friends who shared common interests,tastes and recreational activities with you,friends with whom you could trust to share your most deepest fears and troubles with and I also miss all the extreme pranks and leg-pulling we used to indulge in during our hostel life.I end up the most lonely during weekends in stark contrast to my UG days when weekends meant parties,excursions and fun.There is this sense of void that I'm unable to fill.Probably I'm overreacting and actually its not that bad.It’s really a transition phase from our college life to the real world.We need to move on in our lives.In fact there is a lot of positive things in our lives now than it used to be.We are doing our post-graduate degree,earning our own bread,having economic independence and we have an exciting career ahead of us now that we have refined our calling.So it’s imperative that we should lose the nostalgia or rather a hangover of our college lives.This in effect is an education of a different kind.It will test friendships as to whether it can stand the long distance bonds.I have reason to believe that it will as i think I've been luckier than most people to have been blessed with really great friends.This transition period will also test the family as to whether they will support their boy who has become a man.Last but not the least it will test myself whether I'm ready to be the Man from the fun loving boy I used to be.
Well there there!!! My heavy lines never desert me.I'm probably more dramatic than I care to admit myself to be.On the face of it I'm not really as unhappy as I sound in the above lines.I do enjoy the small pleasures of life but yes the small pleasures are getting smaller by the day.But again being the eternal optimist that i have become on the proper balance of things I would still say I’m more happy than sad.So maybe its just homesickness and a trip home will cure all ills.until my next blog.Aloha!
Professionally I'm going great guns in my career and I couldn’t be more happy with it.My cataract surgery count crossed 50 last week.A significant number especially since I'm yet to finish my first year of my residency and I'm already operating with a good amount of skill.I’m doing small incision suture-less cataract surgery and more importantly my cases are truly turning out to be suture-less since the last 25 cases.Adding to that fact my skill has considerably improved (even though I say so myself) since I'd taken my hesitant first steps towards ophthalmic surgery.This applies not only to cataract surgery but also to other surgeries.
Technorati Tags: my 53rd cataract surgery post op
These days ophthalmology has gone beyond the bread and butter cataract surgeries.The newest and most exciting branch among them has been oculoplasty which I’m getting more interested by the day.I’m improving my skills in eyelid surgery,lacrimal surgery,evisceration,enucleation and implant prosthesis which i feel is not getting the attention it deserves.In government set ups like the one i work in when an eye is impossible to save we often times resort to destructive surgeries to remove the eye to save the patient from a systemic infection,cancer,brain spread,to save the other eye or sometimes even to relieve the inexplicable pain that patients experience in Endophthalmitis and Panophthalmitis.But we and i also include doctors do not think of the social stigma of the patient who loses an eye.Not only does the patient see with one eye less but also faces a social stigma of being known as a one eyed man.Shouldn’t we think of cosmetically rehabilitating such a patient with an artificial eye.This is where Oculoplasty has a great role.It is a fact of course that cosmetic rehabilitation costs a great deal and there are people suffering from even worse diseases of the eyes for which more funds need to be channelled.Cosmetic rehabilitation and counselling has less cost benefit in a country like India where people are dying and suffering from TB,cholera,syphilis,oral cancer etc.It is unrealistic to demand a lions share of health funding for such a cause like cosmetic rehabilitation of a one eyed man when there are so many people who are legless and handless for whom their limbs mean a source of livelihood.People in some parts of India can’t even afford to come and get done a cataract surgery done on themselves in free eye surgery camps so its unrealistic to expect more.But we need to spare a thought for the small child who loses his/her eye at 3-4 yrs of age to a dangerous disease like Retinoblastoma or Rhabdomyosarcoma.If we do not put a good implant during removal of the eye then the child will live the rest of his life as a handicapped person.This is also one of the reasons oculoplasty continues to interest me.On a personal note, as the Kolkata’s summer temperature is reaching unbearable 40s the food is turning out to be as intolerable as the summer heat.The winter vegetables have given way to potatoes and more potatoes.Everyday I'm getting sicker eating potatoes and won’t be worse without it.I know potatoes are cheap here but that doesn't mean that every dish should contain it.Even grass is cheap but do we eat it? But Bengalis love their potatoes and will not stop at my insistence.
It’s been nearly 6 months since I've gone home to Bangalore and i’m getting homesick.But more than homesickness there is a sense of loneliness during my residency days like I have never experienced before during my student life.I lived in Mysore for 6 years during my undergraduate days but never for one day I felt lonely in the hustle bustle of hostel life.There was always something to do,someone to talk to and hang out with.But now since I've started my residency everyday after work is spent in relaxing so that we can work properly the next day.It’s not to say that I’m over-worked but the fun element in our lives as Residents has reduced.This feeling is not restricted to myself but also my close friends have admitted to feeling thus.In our post-graduate life we have less time for ourselves,more responsibility and more worries.This in turn results in lesser effort from us to extend our friendships like we used to in our undergraduate days.The fun we used to have in hostel and the activities I used to indulge in during my hostel days have come to a standstill since the last two years.It doesn’t help that I do not have any relations in or near Kolkata and none of my close friends are nearby too.It is at this point that I value the friendships that i had in my college life.Friends who would readily stand up for you at any given situation, friends who shared common interests,tastes and recreational activities with you,friends with whom you could trust to share your most deepest fears and troubles with and I also miss all the extreme pranks and leg-pulling we used to indulge in during our hostel life.I end up the most lonely during weekends in stark contrast to my UG days when weekends meant parties,excursions and fun.There is this sense of void that I'm unable to fill.Probably I'm overreacting and actually its not that bad.It’s really a transition phase from our college life to the real world.We need to move on in our lives.In fact there is a lot of positive things in our lives now than it used to be.We are doing our post-graduate degree,earning our own bread,having economic independence and we have an exciting career ahead of us now that we have refined our calling.So it’s imperative that we should lose the nostalgia or rather a hangover of our college lives.This in effect is an education of a different kind.It will test friendships as to whether it can stand the long distance bonds.I have reason to believe that it will as i think I've been luckier than most people to have been blessed with really great friends.This transition period will also test the family as to whether they will support their boy who has become a man.Last but not the least it will test myself whether I'm ready to be the Man from the fun loving boy I used to be.
Well there there!!! My heavy lines never desert me.I'm probably more dramatic than I care to admit myself to be.On the face of it I'm not really as unhappy as I sound in the above lines.I do enjoy the small pleasures of life but yes the small pleasures are getting smaller by the day.But again being the eternal optimist that i have become on the proper balance of things I would still say I’m more happy than sad.So maybe its just homesickness and a trip home will cure all ills.until my next blog.Aloha!
