OBG=OMG

I have stated again and again that. how paranoid I would get with Obstetrics... You deal with two lives here and one mistake and somebody will take the burden of your wrong doing throughout their life . Being a Clumsy head I was pretty sure I would mess up things.  Gynaecology and Obstetrics posting order was given at last so the fear kept building up throughout the year listening to people's experiences.

A day before the Posting

 

I had enjoyed my Radiology posting thoroughly and now on the last day , I loafed about needlessly! Munching some food, blabbering nonsense , fiddling with stuff .

Clearly , I was dying of anxiety . What if the baby slips?😧 What if the mom dies ? What if I prick myself ? What if the  baby's head separates while I pull it?The anxiety grew hour by hour to an extent that I started nibbling my nails in some corner of the house . 

Mother = Mentor

My mother was a little surprised at this new development. I would usually be optimistic about any change in life be it posting or people.

 

You won't be alone there. The pressure of world maternity will NOT be rested on your shoulders . Take it easy! There will be people to help you out . Go sleep now. This did nothing . I didn't sleep a wink. 

 

Next morning , I headed to the hospital. I was posted in morning labour . It was the first time I had been to MGMH . I thought the place would be pathetic , stinky and unbearable. To my surprise it was much better than OGH and I later got to know that it is the busiest maternity hospitals of Asia. (Oh really? Posh no? ) Ok , the infrastructure was cool. I roamed around like a wanderlust (exaggeration) finally found the labour room.

The environment didn't seem welcoming. 

Intern? Yes . Why so late ?

 Well...

Go ! Do the delivery there .

 I stood there in disbelief! Are you kidding me? I have Just stepped into the hospital and you expect me to do the delivery?!

Mam , its my first da....

Ill tell you what to do !Go get the delivery kit . 

I looked around clueless . How does the kit even look like ? Where the heck is it 😑 ? 

She ran to get it . Meanwhile the lady delivers spontaneously on the bed. See, now!

Clamp ! Clamp! I was panic struck now... She got it and did the delivery herself .The lady turns around and says , see she has got perineal tears !Its all because of you ! I knew about the temperament of Obstetricians but this case was a league ahead.  Later,I  met other ladies ,they explained me how and what is to be done. 

There is one characteristic thing about MGMH , once you enter the labour room, there is noway that you can escape  heading home as the stinkiest human being on earth. The characteristic odour tags along.

Night duty:

 

Quite clueless ... I . I joined my unit PGs. They were really friendly , chilled out. They were aware that we are new to the place and were constantly behind teaching stuff and made sure we were comfortable.

So , we were asked to observe first . But then there was the thought of delivering the baby all by myself lingering in my head . *How will I do it ?* 

To ease the process , the senior PG she taught me to deliver the placenta first. She observed me while I did the same for 2-3 cases . By the end of it I was pretty confident in what I was doing . 

Now ,I wanted to learn more. Her politeness , composure made the environment comfortable. I kept running behind her like a toddler because in a hall of aggressive ladies a friendly mentor is something you don't want to lose. 

I requested her to teach me how to suture the perineal tears and episiotomy tears . She agreed. 

Suturing :

Sitting on that stool to view the whole new world. Sarcasm aside . It was a horror and just not a good place to be at. Inserting 2 fingers and figuring out the apex of the tear while the uterus keeps bleeding. 

"Follow the tear till you reach the apex."

"Ummm..."

"Found the apex? "

"Ummm... No . "

"How deep is the tear? Extending to submucosa? "

"Ummm...umm ... Mam!"

I turned back with a puzzled , lost expression. Forget the mucosa , submucosa ... All I could see was a bleeding orifice . Who remembers anatomy anyway!She could make out my problem and a super calm head that she was , she explained the location of the tear ... Its apex . But still all that was a bad mess! She explained me how to suture layer by layer. It took me about an hour but I did it. (Tortoise feels)

By this time it was shift time. I was dead tired I chose the second shift.

I woke up to find a perineal tear waiting to be sutured . I jumped in to suture it. But I realised it was a bhool bhulaiya and I needed to make a call for help.  I called a senior resident to help me . She kept correcting and over correcting me ...😂 

No , this is not how you hold a needle holder!

No , this is not how you hold forceps.

No , the knot is loose . 

The knot is too tight. (For 1 long hour)

After all the corrections I was really drained out and wanted to disappear into space. I no longer wanted to work! She was called for a surgery and she left . I then asked another pg to check if what I had done was fine. She came inspected and palpated . 

Dear! You have missed the apex . The entire thing you have done is a waste if your apex misses out .

* No gynaecology and obstetrics for me please !* 

You should have asked for help . *Well ,I did . It was a supervised error*

She had to redo it.

That duty fortunately ended. I had to continue morning labour room. Something which my tired body refused to do . I desperately searched for somebody to do my exchange. It took 2 hours to find one.

Homesick

I started missing home . This thing had never happened . I was missing home , my bed , my pillow. I was dying to go home. As soon as I reached home ... I didn't bother to have breakfast . I crashed on the soft mattress and woke up 9 hours later.

Unfortunate day

Next morning in the labour room , I went determined and was on my toes to deliver a baby at least halfway. I saw crowning , went next to the lady and stood. A PG came next and told , you want to deliver? Its IUD case ( Intrauterine death) the baby will come out on its own . You just stand and wait. All the excitement came down . *Phus* I stood their like a wicketkeeper . And the baby came out . I didnt know what to do honestly ... Be fast with clamping? How does it even matter ... The baby is dead . Take the baby and put it where? In the Warmer? How does it matter! Anyway , PG had come by then . She directed me to whats to be done.

It was not a good start though , but optimism was ON , so I waited for next lady to deliver. She took really long, I again had to call PG for help (Ya , nothing coming my way) . All I did was clamp and oxytocin. The baby was deeply asphyxiated because of the meconium stained liquor and could not make it. 

Now , all the superstitions began to knock my head. 

Next ... I am going to do it ... No matter what. I went delivered the baby. Fortunately , the baby was alive ... Came out easily. By the time I took the baby to the warmer , weighed it and came back ... I saw this lady bleed profusely. ( Yes , PPH ) . Yes! Call a PG for help. After administering carboprost and oxytocin drip she could make it .

By now I had labelled myself as a lady with iron hand 🙈 . No normal normal delivery. 

 Cry ,cry ,cry!

By now I had become a cry baby at home. I refused to go to work. * Because I felt baby or the mother was suffering because of me* Yes , As cliche as it sounds... 

Mommy dearest again came into picture , pushed me to go and explained to me that all is well ! 😐 except for my sick mind. Some good food helped me come out of the sad cubicle.

 Motivation

Next day , was a fresh breeze . I delivered a normal baby without complication ... Not even a perineal tear. It felt nice .

 

There are other instances too that I would love to share ... Not that they were great or unique , because am jobless at this point of time.

Oops moments 

The i.m. Injection

Oxytocin is given as soon as the baby is delivered. So , there was one instance when a lady was delivering a *BIG BABY* . I gave an instant oxytocin i.m.and then 5 minutes later the lady complains that she is unable to move her leg on the same side . Even Though you are done with internship you have mild medical student syndrome lingering in your head . "Did I injure the sciatic nerve ? " I kept moving around worried for some minutes . I went to the senior PG and told her the same. She laughed it out saying , " Arey , cramps re those are ! " The patient got better in another 10 minutes. 

You connect one thing to the other, and the thoughts don't stop flowing. It would be completely alright if these were creative thoughts. But if stressful thoughts have taken over, then mess ! Mess ! Mess !

Baby Switch

The concept of babies getting switched has been portrayed many  times in Indian cinema . But this was the closest instance I could relate to. 

It all started with 6 ladies delivering at the same time . It was *catch'em all right now !*kind of a situation . All the doctors on duty were on tip toes. One of my co-interns called up for help. As soon as the baby is delivered , the sex of the baby is shown . Though it was a baby girl , by slip of tongue , the intern said ... Amma , ladka hua hai. I was busy with other stuff so did not have time to see the sex of the baby. But somehow I went back to find out and it was a girl . I came and corrected her . "Amma , ladka nahi ladki hui hai. " 

A moment of silence for all the dreams she dreamt in that span of time. 

She turns around and says , Nahin , unhone bola ki ladka hua hai. I tried hard to explain her. 

Within next few minutes , rest of the ladies delivered babies and all were BOYS! The lady refused to believe hers was a baby girl.  We called seniors for help if the matter was not sorted ASAP ! Everybody came together explained to her that the girl was hers . She was still apprehensive. I guess all through her life the girl will have to hear , Pata nahi kiski aulaad hai... Hamare sar aagai .

Bottom line : The baby was hers only , alright?

Shawarma night

So , we (house surgeons) were really fed up of routine dinner . So for a change , Shawarma for dinner! I had one and half . I hate to waste food . So I thought Ill have it later🙈😂  Soon we split for the shifts . 

After several failed attempts to sleep , I unwrapped the leftover shawarma at 2am.The noise of unwrapping woke the lady next to me , I swear nobody ever gave me such a grave look 😂😂🙈

#midnighthungerpangs

Floor delivery

You have not been in MGMH enough , if you have not done floor deliveries. 

There was a time when all the beds were full and *floor beds* what they are called had 4 patients .( I know this is nothing and an intern who might have done a duty there might as well say , bus? Itne hi? ) There I see a lady ready to deliver . I grab a plastic apron in my right and gloves in left. Get all set to catch the head. The dayamma there comes to help , applies fundal pressure ... And yaaay! Baby delivered. 

Pros

The best thing about MGMH is you are least likely to be called a sister . Male house surgeons are least likely to be called doctors. Also the food here gives you homely feel.

Mini corruption centres

The richest  of the people in a government hospital are the fourth class employees or may be only that is apparent . 

There stood a lady near the radiology department, every day no less than 50 ladies came for antenatal scan during her shift . Everybody HAD to pay ₹20-50 to her to collect their report . Those who refused were literally pushed by her . Seems like a small amount but the Dadagiri 😎.

There were many others too! Lets just not drag the blog.

Everyone talks about how our teen years are the 'toughest' but also the 'best' of our lives, but I beg to differ. Because in what other decade are you thrown, head first into the brave new world that you can finally shape for yourself? When else can you learn to pick yourself up, dust off the soot of past failures, and soldier on? All on your own? 

Being in your twenties is like running with wild horses, constantly praying that you don't fall off the cliff. It's exciting. Terrifying. It's the decade of small celebrations, milestones that mean so little to everyone else but so much to you. At least that's what it's supposed to be.

 

So far so much ( I know , too much)

Bye!