Competition Time!!!!!

Aloha my beautiful readers,
In the mist of a very busy day, I thought I'd sneak in and run a give away as promised in previous post.
I would really love to give a detailed and longer review about my latest read, In stitches. But I have so much doing today. So I decided the review will come during the week of the competition.

I have to say this thou, This book is full on humor and a book most people can relate to. I for one. Below is an excerpt from the book.

"I once saw an episode of Grey’s Anatomy in which a character suggested that she—and every doctor—experienced an “aha moment” when she realized she had become a doctor. That never happened to me. I experienced an accumulation of many moments. Some walloped me, left me reeling. Others flickered and rolled past like a shadow. They involved teachers, classmates, roommates, friends, family, actors playing patients, nurses, the family of patients, and patients themselves, patients who touched me and who troubled me, patients whose courage changed my life and who taught me how to live as they faced death, and of course, doctors—doctors who were kind, doctors who were clueless, doctors who were burned out, doctors who inspired me and doctors whom I aspired to be, doctors who sought my opinion and doctors who shut me down".
To read more excerpts visit http://www.institchesbook.com.

To enter for the competition you having to be following this blog, so go ahead click the follow button. Also like the In stitches page  on  Facebook  http://www.facebook.com/institchesbook. Send me a mail with your Facebook name to mee@fabladyh.com or leave it in the comment below. I will randomly select a winner and contact you on the 29th of April. Good luck.

Can't wait!? you can pre-order the book here. Great prices to be won, check out their Facebook page and website.

P.S
Unfortunately I can only run this competition for those in US and Canada.

Pediatrics

Let me start by saying this, pediatric has by a mile been the best rotation I have done this year. Cheers because this is my last rotation (OMG can you believe it, wow time flies). Well with less than a week left to round up my last rotation I am so nervous, as this means by now I should have the confidence and knowledge of a doctor, but I'm so far form it I must confess. In fact I feel no different from when I began this final year.

Pediatrics is an experience worth sharing. Firstly I tried to define what the maximum age limit should be for peds (BTW that's short for pediatric) because this minute it was a two months baby you see in the wards, next minute you see an adult in the age of 16 walk into the out patient. Some books say 21, I think that's pushing it, coz it means for me being in med school and still seeing a pediatrician, lol. Some mention 18 still to old I think, yes I was in med school at this age! To be honest I have no memories of visiting a pediatrician, because from when I got in to secondary school I had started seeing  adult doctors (excuse me). I was just 10 and I think that was to early to graduate to the bigger doctors. So what age? Personally I think 13 yrs is appropriate. Unless you have a chronic condition like, kidney disease, or a heart disease, or diabetes, then I think the pediatrician should follow up this cases till they feel it right to hand them over. What's your view?
 I  met all kinds of kids. the ever smiling, the crying for no reason,the unreasonably quite, the talkative, the gentle, the ones who believed the hospital is their play ground and so must run it down, and the list goes on. Then there are the parents who you also have to deal with, the careless parent, the worrying for nothing parent, the responsible parent, the ones who think the doctor is the enemy and the ones who are on our sides, those who think the doctors should teach their kids manners and to be well behaved, the abusive parent ( which I must add is just terrible) and the list goes on too.
Something I really liked is seeing was dads walk in with there Kids. you can tell mum is home getting a well deserved rest or out and about doing her thing and getting some time off. Who ever thinks its mum's job to do all the kids stuff? I have mates that have argued with me that it is the role of the mum to raise the kids. In the 21st century people still think like idiots, it's sad. well well, I wouldn't go into that. But you and I know the mum should NEVER be responsible alone!
Once this dad walks in hands us (med student) a bag of chocolate quietly, I went like yes, finally we med students are gifted for... well I don't know what it is we do, oh I know we don't hurt the kids, we play the most with them and think ever child is cute (note the male students thou). Well he ask us to give it to his daughter (sad face) after the doctor was done examining her. Saying he told her if she was good, the doctors will give her chocolate (yeah right). And of course his daughter wasn't the typical "screaming-for-no-reason-refusing -to-lie-on-the-examination bed child", she was well behaved. Lesson learnt! In peds if you you want your patients to cooperate you bribe them/ make a bargain with them. Not an easy field right, at least you don't have to bribe adults (well most of them) to cooperate with you and lay on the darn bed to be examined,.
As much as I loved the father-child relationship, I loved when I saw both parents walk in with their child. I kinda observed the difference in kids who came in from stable homes. they were well behaved and in terms of copping with illness, they coped better. Nothing beats a family who fights an illness as a family, especially when the ill is a child.
 I spent most of my time in the respiratory and gastroenterology team. lots of asthma and gastroenteritis cases I saw, but from time to time I was allowed to visit other peds departments; peds surgery, endocrinology, NP ICU (neonatal pediatric intensive care unit). Was a great experience overall. Soon time to head back to Debrecen and face the exams.

P.S
pic: paradise bay, Malta

Keep smiling, stay positive,

In the Mail

Thanks so much to Marni Wandner from Sneak Attack Media, today this came in the mail for me, an advance copy (galley) of Dr Anthony Youn's new book In Stitches. And Thanks to them I will be hosting My first blog giveaway (YAY!!!), so watch out.
This Book is about becoming a doctor, and will be out 26th of April. You can pre order it here.  I am yet to read it, but as soon as I do, I will post up my review.

Keep Smiling, love

An Interview

Today I was siting in the caffeteria, doing absolutely nothing as my firm had just one patient in the ward, so there wasn't much to do. You will Think I will go home right? Well this was 8am, no way I will go home when ppl are just getting to work. Truth be told I would have gone home, but my consultant kindly asked me to join the pediatric surgeons in the out patient, and since they start at 9am, I had to sit for and hour doing absolutely nothing.

 A young lady came to me and asked if she could ask me a few questions as she was doing a survey on doctors (I know I'm not one, but hey I will be in about 2 months!!!). Well some of the questions really got me thinking. And since she caught me off guard, I think I just babbled. I thought I'd share some of the questions I can remember, feel free answer, make your own observations, comments and whatever.... I'd like to know everyone's view.

• How Relevant do you think doctors are?
• What roles do doctors play in the community?
• Describe a doctor in three words?
• Should doctors be involve in research and have other responsibilities?
• Do you think doctors should be the highest payed people? yes or no?
• Do you think in the next few years there will be more or less doctors? and why?

P.S
Since I am in Malta I have decided to add a picture from the island in all my post while I'm here so you can get a glimpse of the beautiful island.
This pic was actually taken in Gozo a small Maltese island. I went on a boat ride and got very amazing pictures. It was indeed breath taking. This is the Azure window.

Keep smiling and stay positive,

Whats up?!?!

I must apologize for being rubbish on this blog. Well, well, I must confess its so hard to blog about my hospital experience, not because I am so busy (which I kinda am), but primarily because of patient confidentiality. Its hard to twist a story, to preserved patient confidentiality, but I try when I can, because some cases are worth sharing.

An update: I'm currently in Malta (oh d places my final year has taken me to!), for two months and currently doing my obstetrics and gynecology practice. The hospital is a new state of the art national hospital and the primary hospital on the island. Malta's health care system is rated fifth in the world by WHO, very similar to the UK ( I did my internal practice there) which ranks at 18. The Maltese people are so friendly and polite and I am having a great time here.

So the other day, I attended a surgery of a 23 year old lady who had invasive cervical cancer. I know this is not the normal scenario, and as young people we never expert to have certain illness. The truth is that we feel we are immortal, and certain illnesses is for the elderly only. well I had a reality check. I'm sharing this not to scared people or all, but to tell any one who reads this post to go get a PAP SMEAR. VERY IMPORTANT!!. read more here.

P.S
Medical students intrested in doing an elective in Malta, click here  .

Stay positive and keep smiling.

Much love always,

Milo's story

Milo was fertilized in a glass (what medics call an IVF, in vitro fertilization) unlike most of us who are fertilized in a human, our biological mothers uterus. He was put back into his mom and again unlike most of us Milo didn't spend the complete number of weeks in his mum uterus, he was born really premature. Being  born premature means you are not fully fit to survive outside the uterus. The major problem prematures face is underdeveloped lungs (there lungs will just collapse when they exhale), usually steroids are given to help, well in Milo case not only were his lungs underdeveloped but his heart also. He was born with a heart defect. While most children born with heart defect undergo surgery after 3 months or so, Milo was not fit for surgery because he was too little. He was placed on steroids and everyone hoped. The doctors looked at Milo and believed he wasn't gonna survive. But Milo the wonder child survived till he was fit for surgery. He underwent surgery, and everyone, friends, family and doctor were glad the battle for life was won!
But they were wrong, Milo had another heart defect that required he go in for surgery again. This time no doctor wanted to cut open this poor kid. Let him enjoy what was left of life pain free. But it was the strength Milo showed that allowed the bravest of cardiologist take him in for surgery. The surgery went well, once again Milo had beaten the odds.
To everyones disappointment, Milo was still so sick, his heart wasn't supplying his body with enough blood. The brain which is very sensitive to low oxygen will also under develop, meaning if Milo survived  this time he will have a very poor IQ. A check was done and it was discovered that Milo needed a corrective surgery because one of his previous surgery hadn't gone as well. Milo will not survive this!!

Fast foward to 3 years later. I'm standing in the cardiology examination room of pediatic really getting tired and fustrated at all the crying kids who come in. Who knew peds could be this annoying. I'm about to tell my tutor I feel sick, so I can get the hell out of there. The door opens and I see one of the most active, happy kid walk in ahead of his parents, he greets everyone one in the room, and the immediately the mood in the room changes. His mom places him on the examination bed, he looks around at each of us and smiles. He then looks at the doctor and says I've HAD  heart problems, still with a smile on his face. Milo had survive, 3 years later with no complications and the perfect IQ for his age. He is indeed a wonder and a story worth sharing. Even my tutor despite being with Milo in his years of struggle and good health is still amaze as he tells me Milo's story. He didn't believe Milo would survive, no one actually believed not even his parents. Milo is healthy and doing fine and comes back regularly for check ups. He is the wonder kid, who's spirit inspires me.

"The power of the human spirit is to rise up when faced with adversity and as we rise.... we have a responsibility to bring others along with us".




keep smiling, love

Happy Valentines Day!!

A cliché post I know. But all the same, I'll say it Happy Valentines day. Whether you are spending the day with someone special or alone, Doing something special or doing something very boring ( I spent mine in pediatrics with crying children), I hope its a FABULOUS day for us all and the message of love is spread out more in the world.

While its lovers day let me draw your attention to my giving back page here, love is giving right!

Happy Valentines day people.

Keep smiling, love