MEMORY

இனிய பொங்கல் வாழ்த்துக்கள்!

So..

I'd been at work today and amidst doing our usual stuff, we had a meeting about lung cancer.
As I was half zoning out and half paying attention to whoever was talking, my trainee intern happened to turn around and ask: "Do u know any particular features of Small cell Lung Cancer Dr?". Now it'd been a long time since I read up about lung cancer in that much detail. Probably for my final exams.

"uhh... yeah, the cells would be smaller relatively. the nucleus would be bigger relative to the cytoplasm though. It is more likely to be found in the bigger airways. It is a subtype that is strongly related to smoking. Generally has a grim prognosis. Not very successful in terms of operative resection."

"Oh right. Thanks"

It is beyond me to think that I had pulled out some of that from some study I had done a few years ago. But somehow, most of it is indeed true.

Being a "good" doctor can be bizarre. You do make important decisions based on your knowledge and recollection. It is your professional responsibility to know your stuff. But objectively, it can almost be disconcerting that a lot of the time, we do have to call upon some obscure thing we had read or experienced at some point in time to make life-deciding decisions, regardless of the level of our experience.

E.g., I had seen a patient the other day nearing the end of my shift around 10 pm. He LOOKED ok. Conscious, talking. But his BP was a bit on the low side. And he was very sweaty. Thats about it. But something about him wasn't quite right. So I thought I better talk to my senior night doctor about him just in case. Next morning I got a phone call saying he didn't make it through the night.
Of course, I am only describing something that is not that unusual in a hospital. But the ONLY thing that made me a little uneasy about him that night, was the fact that he was very sweaty, and sweatiness, though quite normal on a hot day can be associated with systemic and serious infection. On another day, on another patient, that little piece of info, whereever it was remembered from, could have a made a difference to someone being alive or dead......

PS:- On a lighter note, I dont have great powers of memory and recollection at all.  Friends/family point out that I seem to be stuck in another planet most of the time, much to my indignation. I probably compensate for it by other means. (ஏதோ திருந்தினா சரி :-D)

.