Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
The Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams
Randolph Frederick "Randy" Pausch (October 23, 1960 – July 25, 2008) was an American professor of computer science and human-computer interaction and design at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pausch learned that he had pancreatic cancer in September 2006, and in August 2007 he was given a terminal diagnosis: "3 to 6 months of good health left". He gave an upbeat lecture entitled "The Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" on September 18, 2007 at Carnegie Mellon, which became a popular YouTube video and led to other media appearances. He then co-authored a book called The Last Lecture on the same theme, which became a New York Times best-seller. Pausch died of complications from pancreatic cancer on July 25, 2008.(Source-Wikipedia)
In this moving presentation, "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," Pausch talks about lessons he learned and gives advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
I cant touch that dirty 18 lakh cheque #OCD #psychiatry #medtweeps
An elderly man comes to the outpatient department with his son. His face is familiar because he keeps frequenting the hospital, every time with a complaint which grows in complexity. He was looking very worried, his son even more. He is a known case of OCD (Obsessive compulsive disorder), a disorder characteristically marked with persistent thoughts of contamination, among many other things, that are experienced as coming against one’s will. This causes lots of distress and some indulge in washing their hands all day long. This man is retiring from his job and on the day of the farewell ceremony that his company had arranged, they were presenting him a cheque of Rs.18,00,000. It was his hard-earned money. But he saw at the ceremony that the cheque was touched by many people and some of them from a lower caste. So he refuses to accept this cheque as its contaminated, apparently it had become untouchable. His family members go crazy with his behavior and bring him to hospital to somehow make him to accept this cheque and get it signed, so that they get the money. Despite weeks of medications and persuading, he still remains hell-bent on not taking that cheque. Its very hard to imagine that somebody can deny 18 lakhs due to the fear that his hands may get dirty. This just shows how difficult it can become to treat this condition…
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Blind man avoids obstacles!
The spooky phenomenon that allows some blind people to navigate around objects has been pinned down to connections in the thalamus.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Psychiatrist and Holocaust-survivor Viktor Frankl delivers a powerful message about the human search for meaning.
Neurologist and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl pioneered an approach to psychotherapy that focuses on the human search for meaning. He quotes "If we take man as he is, we make him worse, but if we take man as he should be, we make him capable of becoming what he can be."
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
I am engaged to Psychiatry! #medtweeps #psychiatry
Surprised by the title of the post? Well, dont be startled..Choosing a medical specialty in India can be likened to an arranged Indian marriage. Recently i cracked two entrance examinations for getting into postgraduate medical education. During the process of choosing a specialty i found out some really interesting similarities between the process of choosing a career and an Indian marriage.
In India you just cant go and marry the girl you love, you will get ostracized. Although the scenario has changed at many places because of better education and awareness, it is still rampant. So, before you want to marry a girl, your parents should like her and agree. Not only that, all the close relatives must give a nod too. Its only after this that a happy arranged marriage takes place.
Now, medical education...The only doctors that lay people respect here are surgeons and physicians(internal medicine). Or should i say people know only these two. Branches like biochemistry, physiology, pharmacology, pathology and few other para-clinical specialities are totally unheard of. People specializing in these branches are seen as lab technicians. And anesthetists, many people dont know there is a speciality like that. They stay behind masks in the operation theater and totally get unnoticed! Pathetic! So parents tend to force their children into either surgery or internal medicine. Because they want everyone to know that their son/ daughter has gone on to become a great doctor and not just a pathologist or a microbiologist. With the increasing competition in India for post-graduate education, this situation leads to lot of stress on young doctors.
And coming to the specialty i chose in first round of counseling, Psychiatry..The word itself raises many eyebrows! The moment you say i have chosen MD Psychiatry, people say 'Really?' 'Are you sure?' 'Why psychiatry?, Didn't you have any other branch?' 'Psychiatrists have the highest suicide rates!' 'You want to treat insane people all your life?'(Reminds me of the quote "No one is sane!" lols) 'Have you thought about the Countertransference?' (Countertransference is defined as redirection of a psychotherapist's feelings toward a client or, more generally, as a therapist's emotional entanglement with a client. It is the entire body of feelings that the therapist has toward the patient, and also includes cases where the therapist literally takes on the suffering of his/her patient.) The list of startled expressions and pityful statements goes on and on..
To me, Psychiatry gives the opportunity where one person reveals to another his or her innermost concerns, in hope of healing. It creates a relationship, where we earn our patients' trust, and are privileged to learn about fears and worries that our patients may not have shared—or ever will share—with another living soul!
So in India, you just cant choose a specialty because you love it. Parents and relatives should be proud to tell that you are specializing in something, you should choose such a specialty. The situation gets even complicated if one is already married or have a partner. And only after all this dreary process, you can be brave enough to choose a specialty that you love or just compromise with something that everyone else wants you to be!
(Is this the fate of doctors in other countries too?Please give opiniions in comments)
(P.S - I would have put the title of post as 'married to psychiatry'...but there is a second round of counseling, in which i may choose internal medicine which has been my first preferrence, second is psychiatry..so for time being, I am engaged to psychiatry!)
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Monday, December 28, 2009
Friday, December 25, 2009
Christmas and Medicine...Merry Christmas to all! #medtweeps #christmas
Christmas is in the air! I was just wondering how Christmas relates to medicine...Sounds crazy!! But I ended up getting this, an eponymously named disease, clinical signs, radiological signs, a connection to toxicology and few other interesting stuff which is related to Christmas.....Post any further additions to the list in comments..
Christmas disease- aka hemophilia B...Is a blood clotting disorder caused by a mutation of the Factor IX gene, leading to a deficiency of Factor IX(Christmas factor). It is the less common form of haemophilia, rarer than haemophilia A. It has nothing to do with Christmas though, it is called Christmas disease after Stephen Christmas, the first patient described with this disease.
Christmas tree pattern- Seen in Pityriasis Rosea a scaling dermatological disorder, characterized by often widespread papulosquamous, hyperpigmented, scaling lesions that develop a "Christmas tree" pattern on the back.
Christmas tree deformity- A radiological sign seen sometimes in Intestinal atresia..In over 10% of patients with intestinal atresia the mesentery is absent, and the superior mesenteric artery cannot be identified beyond the origin of the right colic and ileocolic arteries. The ileum coils around one of these two arteries, giving rise to the so-called Christmas tree deformity on contrast radiographs.
CO toxicity from leaking electric Christmas tree lights -CO toxicity has also been reported as a result of inhaling methyl chloride vapor, which is a component of paint stripping solutions, or from leaking "bubble" electric Christmas tree lights
Tropical Sporotrichosis is common in those involved in Christmas tree farming- Sporotrichosis is a subacute or chronic subcutaneous infection caused by the fungus Sporothrix schenckii.Diagnosis should be considered when a cutaneous lesion is found on a patient involved with Christmas tree farming, landscaping, rose gardening, berry picking, baling of hay, and in veterinarians.
