1) self reflective writing on their medical student career

Hello there! This is K.Nikhileshwar, posted as an intern in department of general medicine from 1/08/23 to 31/08/23

Initially i was scared regarding how these 2 months would pass by, because since my 3rd year i wasn't much interested in medicine because of its ocean like vastness and complexity. But when the posting started i didnt expect it to be this fun, engaging and ofc with many ups and downs...

The one on one interaction with patient, their regular follow up and their treatment, each and every one of them, was a unique experience which required a lot patience but when i got to see their symptoms resolve, it gave me immense satisfaction and gratification. (We dont get to experience this by reading books as we used to in UG afterall!!)

From 31/07/23 to 14/08/23 i was into unit work, where it was a hassle for me aswell as my cointerns and pgs to deal with the immense number of patients followed by their regular follow up.

I remember a patient who came to OPD and complained of tingling of his hands and feet and prolonged contraction of muscles when he was working out with weights which gave him alot of pain sonetimes. After hearing that, as a regular method of practice i checked his BP, but deep down i know something strange might turn out  in the end for a patient with a symptom like the one mentioned above. as i expected after i raised and held the BP cuff above his systolic BP for 3 min, i was able to see the plantarflexion of wrist which is a classical trousseau's sign.

This ignited the curiosity within me to check for another sign in patient in which we tap the facial muscles anterior to the ear and after that facial muscle twitching on the tapped side is checked for, which indicates a positive Chvostek's sign. But unfortunately that was negative here.

This gave the suspicion of hypocalcemia in the patient.

I immediately informed about these signs to my unit PG and he told me send the blood samples for serum calcium, magnesium and an ECG. The calcium was low but the magnesium was normal. I was wondering why the ECG was for, but after we got the ECG my unit PG showed me the QT interval which was actually prolonged. Till then i didnt actually knew that would happen in such patients.

Like that i saw some regular cases like asthma,  bronchitis, pneumonia, heart failure., etc

From 15/08/23 my peripheral posting started and i was posted as the ward intern and over there i got to interact and observe alot of patients and do their regular followup with investigations and treatment. I was able to empathise wat they were going through at very close distance

After 6 days my ICU duty started in which i was able to cherish and gratify the way im living my life after seeing the kind of patients who are put in ICU. The way they were struggle to literally.. live, the way in which their days on this planet were passing by.. made me feel sorry for them like hell, but on the other side of the coin i felt immensely lucky for my condition.

In ICU i learnt that sometimes even strict monitoring could save a person's life.. which i didn't knew earlier. till then i used to feel monitoring vitals like a burden. But after my ICU posting i realised the responsibility amd impact i have as an intern on a person's life.

After another 6 days my nephrology posting started in which each and every patient gave me the feeling of a silent time bomb, which could explode in seconds. The patient might feel very very normal and come walking to dialysis but nobody would ever imagine the condition in which such MHD patients can go into unless until u have worked in that space.

From 1/09/23 my psychiatry posting started in which i realized the importance of that branch till then i thought it to be a primitive and easy going branch but counselling the patient in the condition in which they came to the psych opd is indeed a real challenge!! 

I came across cases like anorexia nervosa, alcohol withdrawal syndrome, erectile dynfunction, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, etc...,

From 15/08/23 again my unit work begun, and i was engaged to tackle the never ending flow of patients on OPD day and camp cases on regular days...

Like this my medicine posting went on till the present day, which indeed was an experience i would never forget.