Tuesday, October 24, 2006

My Journey

I came into this world in the year 1977. My mom said the doctor used a forceps to grab my head and pull it out ..... imagine that!! He squashed my delicate cranium like a lemon !! ... a head injury on my first journey. That was the start of my brain damage.
when I was 3 I fell from the top of the stairs..... the result - Head injury 2 & some more brain damage.
I attribute the course my life took up to now and the future to this early brain damage.
.....I started getting very good grades in school ! .... I started becoming very competitive (definitely would not recommend that to anyone) ..... I would be sad when I had to miss school (O my God !)
people told me 'become a doctor son', 'you'll make a lot of money', 'people will respect you', 'you'll be paid just to write a prescription'
It was my very impressionable mind at that young age coupled with the brain damage that made me decide to become a doctor. Maybe it was in the genes. You see half of my mothers cousins were doctors, so I can’t rule that out.
I had a tough time getting into med school…. But I managed …why? Obviously for all those rewards at the end.
So I struggled, I studied, I had sleepless nights. To say that I worked hard was an understatement ….but those promised fruits kept me going.
Then graduation day came, but it came alone. When I asked for my due rewards, I was rudely told that ‘a MBBS alone has no value in today’s world son, you have to specialize!’
Oops! It took me a while but I started to accept the reality of the situation. Ok boss, specialize karega (I will specialize)
I was impressed with orthopaedics, it seemed at the time to require more hands than brains. I mean how difficult could nuts & bolts get, right? Besides the branch added a kind of mechanical flavor to medicine and I liked that.
I guess a lot of people shared my views cos it was the toughest branch to get. So take another branch ….no ! Excited by the challenge my damaged brain took over, & I went for it.
Orthopaedics I got but after a long 2 year wait.
Starting my residency, I realized I was only partially correct. Mechanical it was, but easy it wasn’t. For the first time in my medical career, I had difficulty even understanding the subject. As we often say in India…. Sab kuch sir ke upar se gaya ! (everything went over my head)
So again I struggled, I studied, I had sleepless nights…..but this time it was twice as tough. graduation day came, but guess what, it came alone! Kya hua bhaiya? (what happened?)
I was rudely told ‘Orthopaedics has become a general branch now son, you have to specialize’ I could not believe it. So now I am back to square one. In a state of shock. I am waiting for my damaged brain to take over & get accepted at a fellowship program ….thats what they call specialization now! But I am not putting too much hope into it as I am sure I will get another rude answer at the end of it. So here I am waiting for that elusive thing known as success!