Thursday, 30 April 2015

Education

I guess I should elaborate as to why I took on a second internal medicine residency. Firstly I should clarify by saying that I am not as insane as most people like to think.....Secondly, I should answer what one the specialists and friend of mine once told me, which at the time I did not believe. She said that the US system would stifle me and I would lose my flare for innovative thinking in light of the more intellectually safe evidence based medicine.....Unfortunately she was right.......When I look at evidence based medicine, especially for retrospective studies, and the hospital records they come from I find it hard to believe in these papers. Evidence based medicine to me is one guy successfully trying a certain therapy.........Sometimes, it's trial and error.....So in that way I have been curtailed with my thoughts and therapies and have lost an edge which I once had

For the most part I took on the second residency because I wanted to teach. I saw new graduates complaining about their education and not being trained the way I was. I saw a culture of teaching new graduate veterinarians to refer.....

Whereas I agree in referral, what happens to patients that cannot be referred due to finances, or extenuating circumstances like distance or an inability to travel to a referral hospital ? No one could answer me.

My father was a teacher, I watched the enjoyment he got from it and the frustration he had when the students he taught wouldn't apply themselves....Unfortunately this has become an all too common scenario. There is a a lack of willingness to apply ones self and a for want of better words the thought that every student should be spoon fed the information and be able to graduate without any effort.

 I think whereas there is somewhat of a problem with the process of teaching due to economic cutbacks, teaching hours and hands on exposure to wet labs, there is a bigger problem with attitudes to education and the thought that our younger generation is owed an education......

Here's one of my favourites; Nelson Mandela once wrote 

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world" 

or better still from a man I loved, grew up with and still to this day value as my mentor. 

"If you want to learn, I'm happy to teach. If you don't want to learn go sit in the corner and let the ones who want to learn, learn"

Saturday, 25 April 2015

This week marks 4 weeks since I returned to the states to resume my residency. Over the last few months veterinary medicine was farthest from my mind and I had been focused on protecting my family and the grieving process. Since arriving back I have struggled a little with my focus of my veterinary medicine residency to what sometimes seems like an archaic and futile process....

2 weeks ago, I was transferred an 11 week old puppy who weighed just 300 grams. He was hypothermic, hypoglcaemic and anaemic and in truth seemed not long for this world. His owners however, were true believers, not in me, but in the process of trying and seeing what happens. 2 blood transfusions later, intravenous fluids, intravenous antibiotics as well as some complications like sepsis and getting him to eat we discharged him today into his owners care.......He had doubled his body weight and was eating and behaving like a puppy should. His wife hugged me and simply whispered in my ear "Thank you for saving both the men in my life".....

Turns out her husband has had a gamete of medical problems and has faced an uphill struggle of finding people just to try and see....... I'm telling this story not to highlight anything except that sometimes the textbook should be abandoned and evidence based medicine should be put aside and we should just have a crack and give it a go........

I think J.R.R Tolkien sums it up the best

"Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens...."

Just a dinosaurs impression........

Thursday, 16 April 2015

The sum of Us

Great Aussie movie right....Too bad that's not what I'm talking about....

I think it's the experiences in life that you have. The smells, taste, sites, the good, the bad and the ugly. It's everything that influences our life as to who we become. In life unfortunately there are good and bad experiences, the trick too it is not to get weighed down by the bad and to make sure that all experiences that you have are positive ones....

I find myself these days, questioning the residency thing. When you are going through the process, you make it your whole life. You obsess over it and there is nothing else. You put the rest of your life on hold and there is nothing else. It's life passing you by whilst all your friends and family continue on.

Then something hits you to rouse you out of this trance. It's like a bucket of ice cold water being thrown over you. It burns your skin and you gasp for air trying to suck in enough just to breathe. And then you look around and begin to notice things again. You start to realise that life shouldn't be about the next case walking through the door or who did this study or what it meant.....

Truth about it is I'm really not sure if it's all worth it......

In looking for quotes for this one I found this by Robert Frost Bennett:

"Your life is the sum result of all the choices that you make, both consciously and unconsciously. If you can control the process of choosing, you can take control of all aspects of your life. You can find the freedom that comes from being in charge of yourself"