olaoluwatomi

Here's wishing everyone in blogsville and beyond the very best of the season! I pray that the christmas break will be a time of true reflection, a period when new dreams will be birthed and may the dreams find fulfillment in the new year! Amin. 2007, its been one great year and I have so much to be thankful for, family, work, friends, me! 2008........a new page, an unwritten script, a fresh prescription! May we all have a lot to continue to thank God for.

Im always amazed at the level of confidence patients have in me when they divuge information they would not dare tell their spouses or closest friends. It gives me a thrill but also the weighty knowledge that their confidence cannot be broken under any circumstance. What makes a man/woman decide to spill the beans on issues over a decade old to a mere stranger simply because he/she has a label 'Doctor' attached to his name. Is it the certainty that the doctor has sworn an oath forbidding him to spill secrets that loosens the tongues or the overpowering need to unburden a load that has weighed him down for eons? Secrets are sacred things and I consider them holy ground, to be shared by one already desecrates the ground, to break the confidence is akin to a taboo. I would never dream of disclosing something shared with me. If I have a secret I'll probably not tell, not that I wont be tempted to whisper it to the grasses but the fear of the grass being turned to a flute and ...

I grew up speaking English as my first language and I can tell you that is one fact I am not proud about. I remember once when we were much younger shouting out the only Yoruba words we knew as children 'olosi', 'oloriburuku' etc. My grandmother came out of the house hurriedly to put a stop to our foolishness, what on earth did we think we were doing? she asked, our reply still puts a smile on my face 'we are speaking Yoruba' we replied. My lack of proficiency in speaking Yoruba ( I can write it:) is revealed anytime I speak to my patients. When our conversation is not just me answering in monosyllables, I begin to speak rapidly in my mother tongue but by the end of my first two sentences, I hear myself stuttering and stammering and Im wondering if the patients don't think this doctor is having a sudden attack of catatonia! My Yoruba teacher in Secondary school summed up my Yoruba speaking prowess to my parents during an open day 'She is a good student b...

Yesterday was quite a day at work for me. I had been idle most of the day; having sometime to myself I indulged in my favorite pastime- reading. My quiet time was soon shattered by the sound of gunshots fired in rapid succession. The shots were soon followed by the cries of what I first assumed to be that of a murderous mob and my first inclination was to dive behind anything that looked remotely like a shelter from whatever was coming my way. The cries of ‘Doctor do something’ rent the air and I had to change direction to face the oncoming crowd. They were made up of students from a nearby secondary school and on closer inspection; they bore the blood soaked body of one of their colleagues. They quickly deposited him on our examination couch and proceeded to cry out in heart rending tones that we should save their friend. In between a cursory exam and crying out for various materials needed to resuscitate him, it was quite obvious he was in a very bad state. He had been stabbed by unk...

I saw a young lady last week with gangrene of her left foot. She had developed a sudden pain in that foot while returning from an errand a month before which left her unable to use the limb. As is usual in this part of the world, 'forces of darkness' had been responsible for the pain and loss of function. It was suggested by many people that she had stepped on some fetish and thus was unable to walk. She presented a month after the initial episode with gangrene of the foot. All her toes were already very dark. She was cachectic, pale,and very unhappy. I took one look at her and knew right away what needed to be done, I was sure that my diagnosis and suggested mode of management would not be warmly received. She was my first patient that morning and I wondered at my rotten luck to have to dish out such unpleasant news to a young woman. I did not rehearse the lines running through my head ('young lady, the only way your life can be saved is to have an amputation'). How co...

Simple measures save lives, thought I'd add a few tips to my blog about simple health measures you can take to prevent disastrous situations. This topic is basically for those who are diabetic but I guess anyone can learn a few tips. Diabetes is one disease that sticks with the patient for life. Like primary hypertension, it is not a disease that dissapears. So its important to do things that help prevent complications that may arise if the condition is not well managed. In diabetes the care of the foot can prevent a most dreaded complication- The diabetic foot. Here is what I tell my patients who are diabetic about their feet: Doctor O: So Baba have you ever been told how to take care of your feet? Patient: Ese mi, O ti o (My feet, No i haven't) Doctor O: OK ill tell you. Your feet are very important to you and you need to do the following: 1. Don't wear ill fitting shoes, that is shoes that are too tight, or don't fit you too well. Patient: Ah doctor I don't eve...

I have so many questions running through my mind none of which Ill ask here. But i need a Daniel to not only tell me what questions trouble me but give me answers to these questions:) Ill be right back!

Typhoid and Malaria are two disease entities that most Nigerians or should i say Lagosians are proud to claim as their own. Anytime anyone walks into my office and has a fever I can be sure that when I ask the question 'what is wrong with you?' The answer I will receive is usually 'I have typhoid and Malaria'! To make matters worse, they usually come armed with Laboratory results from some Lab trying to make a quick buck to substantiate their bogus claims. Of course they are sure to have a Widal's test done to complete the picture and confirm their disease! I have unsuccessfully tried to explain so many times that a Widal's test is not proof that you have typhoid fever. Its foolhardy trying to explain as you will probably come down with the label of a doctor that doesn't know his onions, since almost every private clinic orders a Widal's test to prove that their patients have typhoid fever. Its a waste of time trying to explain to them that with our wate...

I wonder what my life would be like if I was not born when I was, Would I be a hippie or a tech savvy kid? I wonder what it would have been like if I was not born a twin? Would I have so many friends or would I have been a loner? I wonder how my path would be if I had never gone to school? Would I be the wife of a poor farmer, with 6kids or a tailors apprentice? I wonder how it would be if I was male and not female? I wonder! I wonder where I would be now if I was born in Darfur and not Nigeria? Would I be 6feet under or in a refugee camp I wonder........................

Just an incident which made me so annoyed recently. A little girl was brought from her school after falling face flat while running. She had sustained a swollen eyelid and nothing else. We took care of her and decided to observe her for a while before letting her go. In the meantime her guardian was sent for and she promptly arrived thank God for the gsm. I stepped out for lunch and on my arrival met the little ones guardian who stopped me right in my tracks when I was introduced as the attending doctor. The first question was 'doctor the medicines you gave her will it bring the swelling down?' I answered her question and she thanked me most kindly. I noticed there seemed to be a problem when I walked in but I waited till the patient and her entourage had departed before I asked any questions. After they left, the nurse on duty informed me that there had been an unpleasant scene with the lady demanding to know why our bill was so high, she complained about the bill for the doct...

An advertorial of a 'gbogbonise' drug I was given goes thus exactly the way it was printed: Flush your body systems and be clear: 1. If someone has fever, be it hot or cold and is very weak,he is given 1 tablespoon of the drops, if he is not overloaded with other medications, will in a short time come to, the pulse will start to beat again and the fever, no matter how high it was, will pass and the patient will soon be better. 2. if the menstrual flow ceases for a woman or it is too heavy, she takes the drops for three days, what is too much quietens and what is too little, even out. 3.For morning sickness, 1drop in the morning for 3days. These drops should not be taken after drinking milk. 4. For toothache a tablespoon of these drops is taken without water and kept in the mouth for a little while or the aching tooth is moistened. the pain soon eases and the putrefaction dissappears. 5. For stomach ache 1tsp is taken. 6. For serious stomach ache . 2tablespoonful in half a cup o...

May God bless you with discomfort At easy answers, half-truths, and superfical relationships So that you may live deep within your heart. May God bless you with anger At injustice,oppression and exploitation of people So that you may work for justice,freedom and peace. May God bless you with tears To shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger and war So that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to Turn their pain into joy. And may God bless you with enough foolishness To believe that you can make enough difference in the world, So that you can do what other claim cannot be done To bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor. AMEN.

As a sequel to spitting, I think Im beginning to become a social activist. Just for the record it seems like since I wrote the article I have seen many more people spitting than ever before and I have narrowly dodged smothereed by the humongous gobbles of someones salivary juices! Enough of spitting and back to my topic for the day, driving with one hand. I am not an accomplished driver, not in the least, I drive like a proffesional only in my dreams. My first attempt behind the wheel took place over ten years ago and I have made no serious attempts to try and show off my skills or a lack of them! Each time I try to drive the streets of Lagos my pulse begins to gallop, my sweat pores open up as in a deluge, my mind begins to visualise the wheels and the rider of an okada beneath my own.......as you can imagine driving in Lagos is not on my list of hobbies. That is why it amazes me to see drivers on the streets of Lagos driving with one hand and the other hand stuck to their ear with a ...

Yes my topic is right spitting. I have noticed that on the streets of Lagos spitting is as common as the number of people walking down the streets. It doesn't matter if the individual is dressed in rags or in an executive suit, you can be rest assured that the release of a gobble of sputum as a missile in your direction is certain.kai! My dad said that when they were young, it was a crime to release the contents of your mouth on the streets as you walked. Repeated messages on the radio or was it rediffusion box ensured that people knew the importance of using the God given reflex of swallowing. It prevented the spread of droplet borne infections like tuberculosis, common colds etc. Nowadays people don't care about such things, in primary school it was a crime to spit, you just didn't dare.Now if you are not careful or extra vigilant you might discover when you get home that your clothes are stained with spittle not just plain spittle but bloody spittle like my dad discovere...

My heart has been stolen utterly and forever, while i wasnt watching my heart was swiped and i doubt i can recover it, i dont think i ever will. Don't get all excited o, its my litttle niece who has done the trick. Its amazing how a new entrant into the family can get everyone on their knees oohing an aahing over her little expressions, the way she looks just above your face to something only her lovely eyes can behold. The way she carries her fingers in oh",such a delicate manner like a little lady, her bicycling act which we sometimes liken to her driving an imaginary jeep. Her clamours for your undivided attention though not earth shattering leave you no option but to attend to her. She is such a delight. Babies do such wonderful things to adults, they make us like them and isnt that the essence of life, Jesus said that to inherit the kingdom of God we should become more childlike!

I just thought the other day that doctors must be seen as waiters by some patients, they walk into a hospital as they would a restaurant, with the doctor as a waiter they proceed to make their orders....... Doctor please can I have some sleeping medications?, the type that will make me sleep throughout the night. Could you give me all the drugs the other doctor gave me two months ago when I had the pain in my back? Please add a few multivitamins and cough syrup for my children................the list can go on and on and on. When i have such patients in my consulting room,I have an overwhelming urge to scream. But you can tell that i hold back the scream and politely ask 'Could you please tell me why you have come to see me'? During youth service at the Camp clinic, I became notoriously popular for informing my fellow non medical corpers that we did not run a chemist shop but a clinic. If they wanted any drugs, they were not to say so but they were to describe whatever ailment ...

Since i was a child, i have been regaled with stories about the supernatural by cousins who were supposed to be babysitting us (my sister and cousins) but i can tell you they scared us out of our wits by feeding us stories about horrible beings or people who changed their shapes to achieve some diabolical purpose! One story that will remain with me for life amongst their horrible tales is one which im sure most kids who grew up in Naija will have heard in its original form or a variant. A certain young girl who had been warned by her mom never to accept lifts did so on a dark night and was picked up by a stranger in a mercedes benz. She sat at the back and was able to view his teeth through the rearview mirror. She almost died of fright when she saw he had pins instead of teeth in his gums. She hurriedly found an excuse to get down and she did but stupidly took another lift from the next car that came by. This time she sat in front and began to regale the man with the story of her near...

Hi! Its been quite a while since i wrote anything on my blog, ive got millions of excuses but ill not give any of them. Just bear with me and if i can ill post one soon maybe today who knows?

It seems like ive been in Lagos for a lifetime while ive actually spent just two months and four days. I remember my first few days at home the noise from the generators put me on edge constantly, i continually complained that the noise was getting to me, a few days ago my mum commented that it had been sometime since i complained about the noise, i looked up startled realisisng that i had gotten used to the noise, now it seemed like it didnt exist. How i wish that was the least of signs that i was becoming more of Lagos and less of an outsider. My trips round Lagos where always met with trepidation on my part, as i wondered how i would meander through the horrors of traffic in Lagos. At first i would stand back at bus stops waiting to board a bus, refusing to rush for a bus i had been waiting almost 10minutes or more for and smiling to myself when i see otherwise civilised persons rushing for and nearly tearing their clothes in a bid to jump on the bus already revving away. I was almo...

1.The City-Noisy 2.The streets- Filthy 3.The Buses- Rickety 4.The Drivers-Reckless 5.The Conductors-Lousy 6.The language-Dirty 7.The people -Frustrated 8.The environment-Polluted 9.The water-Tasty 10.The light-Non-existent 11.Refuse heaps-Everywhere Can't think of more things does anyone there have any good thing to tag lagos with?

The end of the title is ....in his own hometown and that quote comes from the bible where jesus could not performany miracles in Nazareth because the people knew everything about him and they could not reconcile the runny nosed little boy who played with their kids to the preacher with healing powers. This well known quote has gone beyond just being a cliche to being very true, after all the first person who spoke the words is all truth. If i was the first doctor to come from my country, town, village, local government,street or even family i guess the statement may not apply to me, but when im one of the very manydoctors to come from where i do, why does anyone have to reckon with anything i say or do, especially if im one of the youngest. Afterall with the aged comes experience! These facts were brought home with slghtly more force recently when i had to take care of an aged relative. I was in between jobs and was therefore the only available candidate for the job. I proceeded to her...

I have always been small. In primary school from the first to the sixth grade i was one of the shortest in class and as a consequence had the privilege of sitting right in front of the blackboard! Of course i could not get away with any pranks i may have wanted to play. I am now the biggest i have been in my small life and my size is still not enough to ward off the shocked and sometimes admiring looks i get when people know im a doctor. During my youth service year i used to feel uneasy working round the hospital in my ward coat with my stethoscope round my neck because the comments of "Ah small likita" "is that small girl a doctor?" where sure to trail my steps as i walked from my room to the clinic. I don't think i ever got used to it and i made sure i either hurried through the corridors or walked leisurely pretending not to hear the oft repeated remarks and avoiding eye contact with the people making the remarks or else i would be pulled aside to answer que...

Are you young, strong, willing to do something for nothing except getting the satisfaction of doing something that would touch countless lives including yours as well? Then Blood for Life is the group to join. Its a group for those interested in becoming voluntary blood donors and also for those who will be interested in recruiting them. WHY are you needed? A lot of the blood donated in our hospitals today is blood from those whose relations are on admission or from remunerated donors. How safe then is our blood supply? Pretty scary if you ask me. I hope you see the need to become a blood donor, for those interested in doing something worthwhile, get in touch with BLOOD FOR LIFE, 1Chief Norman Williams Alley, General Hospital Lagos. You will be glad you did.

Hi everyone i started work at my new job yesterday and it went well altogether told. Apart from a few rowdy area boys who threatened to beat all the staff up break the windows and set the place alight it was a rather quiet call. Welome to Lagos did i hear you say! It was what you would call a baptism of fire, but we did the right thing we ignored them totally and when they found out that their words did not have the desired effects they slunk out of the reception area dissapointed that they did not have a battle on their hands. Can you imagine me in a fight with area boys! The only person i can fight physically with is my mirror image, no not my twin, me when i look in the mirror:) What had caused the problem, a long story i dont feel like writing about just now. The short and long of the tale was that they later apologised to us blaming their grief (the patient died) as the cause of their uncouth behaviour. If my first day was like this i wonder what the rest of my days will be like. ...

hi everyone i have an offer of a job so hopefully very soon if i accept the offer ill be bringing you more jist about medical practice but this time in Lagos! Stay tuned.

My big cousin came round last weekend to show us his 'bolanle' car as he called it not 'tokunboh' o!, He acquired it after using a jalopy 'sokinso' blue ?sedan. He got it shortly after his wedding and his first child turned ten on childrens day so you can imagine how old the car is and when he bought it, it was a tokunboh! Anyway this his old car obviously had loads of problems, even when it was moving along a newly tarred road it belched petrol fumes as if it was moving uphill. His poor children were obviously embarrased by the contraption their father insisted on calling a car and with not a few protestations urged him to buy another car. When each day passed without the presence of a new car in their house, they came to the conclusion that their father could not part with the tin car and loved to put his family through untold hardship and suffering. Their protests though loud enough did not hit home until one day my cousin went to the bank to withdraw the sum...

Sorry guys really would have loved to post very often but time and of course NEPA have stood against that dream, NEPA actually cut short my last attempts to posting an article, ill try to continue from here though of course the flow is broken..... Well let me tell you about my lack of lagos biz sense......... I had taken my mums laptop to be repaired and foolish me i left it there first mistake, i was told the screen was bad and would need to be changed and it would cost 35,000naira. I tried calling my people to inform them about this unfortunate developement and i could not get through so i decided to leave it there witht them to save myself the trouble of making another trip seeing it is some distance from my place. I left with express instructions not to do anything to it until i had gotten back to them. Two days later we decided at home that we should get a second opinion especially since we ould use the computer occasionally with the screen working after not using it a while. I ca...

To my regular readers i am sorry for my long leave of abscence , i have been adjusting or should i say trying to adjust to my sudden change of environment. Whoever said becoming a lagos babe was easy? Anyway i have been out of the clinical arena and been chilling at home and occasionally plodding the streets of lagos looking for a job! Trust me you don't want to hear about it, but i can tell you after being regularly out of Lagos for ten years it has not been easy getting used to the idea that i may be here for sometime. Lagos is a land of noise, smells, dirt and of course oppurtunity! Each time i leave the house i come back witha splitting headache, thanks to my foot dragging i have not properly mastered the art of Lagos driving, so no one has given me official permission to slaughter hapless pedestrians who happen to come in front of me while i cruise round town. So i get to go around town on my famous mode of tansport (danfo and my ever faithfull leggidez benz). Of course you d...

This is my last day at work in BMC, how do i feel? I havent yet sorted out my feelings, but im glad this phase of life is over. After being underutilised during my youth service year it was a great relief to actually work again. (if you know what i mean). I have refined my skills (surgical) that is, learnt some more stuff(academic wise), made new friends (medical students from ibadan-adeyemo(sorry stone), oginni, oye-Lawrence, Omotoso, Okereke, Bitto and Amosun) Yeah u made it into my blog!, renewed old friendships and not the last made some money (don't ask me how much!) In all im glad to be going back home, to family its been 10 years since i have been a constant part of the family (its always been interupptions with school, work, exams etc) hopefully we'll spend some quality time together now. Well ill no longer be writing about my experiences in Ogbomoso except when i reminisce, so get ready for new posts about my transition from Ogbomoso babe to Lagos Chick:)!!!!!!!

Hi everyone still in the dry phase of inspiration will write something soon

The orderlies at BMC are a bunch of delightful characters, i like the older ones best for they tolerate the sometimes spoilt attitudes of we junior doctors. They have seen generations of doctors, (though very few were around when my dad passed through BMC) and therefore are able to with the eye of experience look at us when we act funny, shake their heads and go on as if we have not offended them! The orderlies i want to write about are the oldsters who have seen it all. They constitute themselves into a mafia of some sort and carry themselves with the pride of owning more rags than anyone around. (A yoruba proverb says that the old man may not have as many new clothes as a young man but the young man will certainly not own as many rags as he does). They include Mr Zaccheus Adeniran, Mrs Ladeji, Mama Gynae and Mrs Layiwola the youngest of the lot. They are the orderlies in charge of the Out Patient Department at BMC. My favourite orderly is Mr Zaccheus who is in charge of the Surgery c...

These days I have undergone lethargy of a very serious kind, when I say serious I mean serious. Usually I can extricate myself from the grip of lethargic moods by shaking myself thoroughly, divesting myself of all the clingy garments which seek to weigh me down by focusing my energies on another cause but lately I have found that like Samson I have been unable to get up and go out as before. What causes the lethargy? What makes me so sluggish in my behaviour and attitude towards all things pertaining to a career in medicine? Am I disillusioned with medicine? Questions, questions, questions. I guess I’m going through a phase, which I hope has a short lifespan for it wearies me. Does anybody ever go through the phase of dissatisfaction with present position and not come out in a way changed by the whole process? Either in a positive or negative way, change comes with a realization that things can not be as before, or a resigned acceptance of the inevitability of ones chosen path. Which d...

I was chatting with a friend yesterday and our conversation steered towards the practice of medicine as it usually does with medicos. We just cant seem to seperate our work from our everyday lives can we? Being a doctor permeates everything you do, you sleep, you talk, you walk medicine, and for a dreamer like me ( i actually dream almost always when i sleep. if i put my head down for a couple of minutes i drift off into dream land) i actually dream about seeing patients and performing surgeries, yes o! Well our jist came round to resuscitation of patients. Before i tell you her side of the story ill tell you mine. A patient who decides to gasp down here (ie take the last few breaths on planet earth) does so with no assurance of being brought back. First of all you are ill equipped to do anything, no suction machine to clean up secretions, an ambubag is sometimes available, Oxygen? you've got to be kidding, most times there is none in the hospital and as always the oxygen concentr...

I was going through my journal today and i saw an entry that made me laugh i wrote it when i was undergoing some major stress (or so i thought) at work from a senior colleague, here it goes; WHAT JUNIOR DOCTORS WOULD LIKE TO WRITE TO THEIR SENIOR COLLEAGUES SOMETIMES.............. Dear Sir, I have viewed with growing concern and alarm the way you address me in public. On two different occasions you have referred to me as 'this one'. It gives me the impression sir that you either consider me an inanimate object or a mere creature whose ability to commune with higher 'mortals' is severely diminished. I have both times considered your mode of address not just embarassing but insulting. I make bold to state that though i am many years your junior colleague i do not deserve such shabby treatment especially in public. I not only have a title by which i can be addressed (Dr.) but also a name which is easy to recall and pronounce. I will for the present record see this mode of ...

My dreams to read medicine coincided with the emergence of HIV/AIDS on the global scene. It was I presume one of the reasons my dad tried albeit unsuccessfully to dissuade me from the pursuit of a career in medicine. My first inklings of the disease had to do with the pictures of patients with full blown AIDS, My first glimpse of a patient with AIDS was exactly as the pictures portrayed. I can still remember him, he was dark in complexion, he lay back in bed hardly able to move, he stared at us with sunken eyes, his body emaciated, fat pads long disappeared, he was too ill to even talk. It was my first posting in clinical school; patients with AIDS were something of a novelty then. We all stared at him from a distance of about two feet as if the virus was waiting to infect us if we dared come close enough. He may have been the subject of a residents teaching (I can’t remember now) all I remember is how we stared at him, unwilling even to offer a word of comfort lest he grasp our hands ...

I have never sat down to critically analyse old wives tales especially those that relate to my practice as a doctor until an incident that occurred yesterday jolted me back to have a rethink. As medical students we were told to critically analyse the responses of our patients, inquire into certain points of history deeper and we may just realise that the history given is not a true representation of the facts. Why? Cultural practices, taboos, faith based beliefs etc. Yesterday i was on call and as is the practice was around in the emergency room following the arrival of victims of a road traffic accident, after attending to them, we had a brief respite so we decided to sit down. All of a sudden shouts of doctor, nurse come and help us rent the air, the nurse went out first and i followed soon after, apparently one of the women who had been seen earlier and told to wait outside while we were attending to the accident victims because of the constraints of space was having a seizure. In t...

One of my earliest childhood memories is of a trip to the dentist, it was a saturday morning and we woke up early to make the appointment as our house was a long way from the clinic. Fortunately i had no holes that needed filling or teeth needing extraction so my memories remain pleasant. I remember champing down on a mold of my teeth filled with ?toothpaste. Unfortunately over the years my clean dental record has been marred by several fillings, one root canal and one tooth extraction. My record however will not win me a guiness world record. Thank God and i still think i can appear anyday as an advert on for any toothpaste company worth its salt. Anyway i visited the dentist yesterday were i work for the first time, i had been having a few painful reminders from my right upper premolar about the presence of a crater that needed urgent attention. This visit was different since i had never attended this clinic before and now everyone who saw me knew that the doctor had a problem. I hav...

One of my favorite songs is by ‘Point of Grace’ the lyrics of the chorus goes thus; God loves people more than anything (2ce) More than anything He wants you to know He’d rather die than let you go, God loves people more than anything I was on call over the weekend and I saw a middle aged man who was brought in by His children and other family members with a three day history of sudden onset abdominal pain, he cold tell you exactly when the pain started. The pain was severe, constant, worse in the epigastrium. He had not passed any urine for twenty four hours. On Examination he was without a pulse or blood pressure, his extremities were cold and clammy, he was breathless, and his abdomen was tense with generalized guarding. An erect chest X-ray showed a lot of gas under his diaphragm. We made an assessment of a perforated Duodenal Ulcer. His condition did not improve despite our vigorous attempts to resuscitate him which included 11 liters of Normal Saline, he did not make any urine an...

The food chain was something I learnt several years ago in primary school and I had no fears about suddenly finding myself at the bottom of the chain, after all I am a human being and not some miserable plankton. I just realized that the food chain can be extrapolated to life situations and in that case I may as well find out that i am some miserable plankton after altheir experiencesl. What do I mean? Well join me to draw parallel lines from a food chain to hierarchy in the medical world. Man................ Consultant Lion .................Senior Registrar Goats................Junior Registrar leaves................Medical Officer/ House Officer There is a pecking order and our teachers never let us forget it, why should we? Experience of over thirty years as a medical doctor is no mean feat and a junior doctor with less than a few years practice had better remember that! My classmates will not quickly forget our whispered comments whenever a snr. Doctor made it known either by his w...

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Why is it that when men are ill they become absolute babies? I just met my patient and his wife who had surgery a few days ago, and what struck me again was the way in which he displayed his helplessness as he described the not so unfamiliar symptoms associated with his post operative state. He is of average build but is bigger than his wife who is slim. But in matters relating to his health he is not able to pull himself together without her help and support. He came into our hospital on an emergency basis but he was subsequently stabilised, his post admission days were not without hiccups so we decided to take him into surgery. he viewed everything that was happening with an extra measure of fatalism and he would almost begin to weep whenever he had problems we considered minor. His wife however was a study in contrasts the roles of defender and helpless seem to have been reversed, where he was whining she was stern telling him to pull himself together, where he acted the weakling s...

When I was a medical student I vaguely became aware of the underlying currents that exist between nurses and doctors. I was at a ward round during my outside posting as a student when my senior registrar was giving the matron an instruction to have a patient with a thoracolumbar fracture log rolled every two hours. Just as he had finished speaking a thin piped voice was heard to say “We will not move him, we were told not to move patients who can move themselves”. In shock we all swiveled to the direction the voice had come from and saw that it was a student nurse that had spoken, of course my senior registrar was incensed and turned the full wrath of his anger on her she also gave him the full edge of her tongue. The matron that had a few seconds ago been with us on the ward round had quietly moved a few feet away and asked us very innocently what the trouble was even though she had been a witness to the way the student had behaved. To cut a long story short, the student was asked to ...

Just did it again. What? Prescribed paracetamol for a patient who sustained what i thought were minor injuries after being involved in a motorcycle accident, she happens to work in my hospital. Of course she came to work barely able to do anything. My boss happened to see her and was apalled at my use of paracetamol and not something stronger. He suggested that if i had an operation and was in the place of the patient i would probably demand something stronger than the opiod analgesic we use here. Anyway this message on the management of pain is taking hold of me, I promise to be a better pain manager than ive been. So help me God!

Its so easy as a physician to overlook the pain your patient is suffering.And not just think that he is just seeking to be noticed. Ive had a few incidents in the last couple of days which have made me reflect on the pain my patients feel and not just shrug it off as their being unwilling to stand a small amount of discomfort. Im naturally someone who cannot stand people who whine especially when i see absolutely no reason from my point of view for their crying or sniffling as the case may be. My mum and sister have given up on the two physicians in the house (my dad and i) who are not moved by their sniffles when they have colds or the aches and pains which to us can be cured with some panadol and rest and not by us putting the kettle to boil for some tea and speaking soothing words of comfort and our undivided attention for the period of time they are not feeling well. To put it in their words we are hard! Anyway i have this bad habit of classifying pain into categories depending on...

Today i rested, its no wonder the Lord made the Israelites observe the sabbath and keep it holy. Rest does wonders to a body, you can actually smile at people and greet them, you can deal with difficult patients and not become a difficult doctor too. You view the world through a brand new pair of eyes that have had the opportunity to close for more than just a few hours, You actually begin to think you can take on the world, till the cycle of work starts again and you lose all the energy you regained. I have actually spent today resting and i feel brand new. I recommend it for anyone feeling a bit low now, tired and stressed out from the toil of work, take some time off if you can and rest. There are no known side effects. Caution it does not have a NAFDAC number:)

Ever had a difficult patient, i bet all doctors have hads their fair share of them, right now im still stewing from my encounter (not directly) with one very difficult patient a few minutes ago. Of course he is male (sorry guys) but i tend to have men as more difficult to handle than the women folk. A few days ago it was another man! But the funny thing is that at the end of their stay in hospital we are usually good friends or at least we entertain some semblance of friendship. My perceived percentage of difficult patients in my small experience as a doc, well lets say 1 in 50 patients are difficult. I just remebered another difficult one just now hmmmm lets increase the ratio to about 1 in 20. What makes them stand out, well ill try and give a list. 1. The difficult patient has his preconceived notion of how his treatment must be and despite your pathological description of his disease process he clings stubbornly to his own idea of the probable cause. i.e About two weeks ago an eld...