From Oculoplasty and back

“Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there’s love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.” —Ella Fitzgerald

Its been an incredibly long time since I've been active on this blog. Partly because I have been busy and mostly because I haven't been inspired to write in a long time. I was in Bhubaneshwar sometime back and it has kind of brought me back to a place where I almost gave up on Oculoplasty as a career. In my earlier blog posts I had professed immense interest in Oculoplasty and haven't really updated what happened afterwards. Its a huge story worth a potboiler at the very least (ha ha I'm kidding). Well I wont bore you with all the details.

But something incredible happened in the end of September 2013. I got an offer letter from National University Hospital, Singapore accepting me for their Orbit and Oculoplasty clinical fellowship program. I had applied to NUH after my residency  just like the many other institutions I had applied to. Somebody there had seen a spark in me and selected me. I was ecstatic and that hunger to get into the fellowship kept me from giving up during the protracted paperwork process to start my fellowship.

I'm now more than 4 months into my fellowship and its been an amazing experience till now and I feel I'm in the best place that I could be. I have finally found a mentor who could really shape my career the way I would want it to go. I'm learning new things everyday and things I never thought I'll be doing.

I'm training in navigational surgery of Orbital fractures,small incision endoscopic browlift, Aesthetic procedures, attending orbital fracture implant courses and a myriad things I hadnt even imagined I would be able to do.  I realize that i'm at the forefront of technology and innovation in my field here in Singapore. The real challenge will be to use the knowledge and training that I have gained here into a place like India where there are always impediments to one's growth. A lot of it is economic and most of the rest of it is politics and nepotism that thrives in my profession in India. I sometimes worry that I'm getting spoiled by all the high tech gadgetry that I see here in Singapore and I fear becoming obsolete in India. Also I'm recently married so to get the kind of solid support from my wife has been comforting but I understand the sacrifices she's making for my career and it sometimes troubles me.

But after a lot of reflection I realize that the basic emotion here is "Joy". Joy in what I am doing despite hectic schedules of this fellowship and finding happiness in an equally important marriage at the same time. This beats every fear that I'll ever have. I figure that if I'm enjoying what I'm doing I'll find a way to make a living out of it.