Just what the hell is this?!

I hate introductions, I hate small talk and right now I don't like a lot of things around me, and it turns out, it's not only me!!!

 

I'm writing this blog as an attempt to put in words what I think most of us are going through at this point of our lives, in this career and in this country. If I could, I would make a drama series, maybe a play to try and explain what we go through, but this is what I have and writing about specific incidents will not sum up what I have to say.

 

Lately, I just find myself staring into the distance, just watching people around me, thinking of everything going around me, analyzing, judging, trying to find a solution, and just continuing to sit there moving forward in my downward spiral into depression, and it doesn't get better.

 

I wonder what was causing me to feel so down.  Let me try to analyze what is going on:

 

I am not going to explain who I am, what my education is or what my life experience is, because that would be bragging, a waste of lines and everybody is proud of whom they are.  My point is, we are supposed to be highly intellectual people, the cream de la cream of society, in every aspect.  But here I am finding myself extremely weak, living in a weak, corrupt and powerless society destroying and antagonizing anything good.

 

Where do I start.  Maybe it’s the sense of not knowing what I am exactly, right now.  Am I a doctor worthy of respect from my patients, colleagues, residents, senior staff, the community and people I live around and even hospital workers.  Or am I nobody, just a porter, to drive papers and patients around, with everybody bossing me around and insulting for no good reason including all the previously mentioned categories, below or above me, and no matter how hard you work or how good you are people still hurt you just to feel their power.  Or is it that I find most of the people around me in their different categories lacking discipline, endurance, perseverance, knowledge, a good way of thinking, bigger values, just full of talk about how they want to fix things and become somebody when they can’t even commit to the simplest tasks assigned to them because they feel they are too good or too big for it, full of anger and taking this out on other people and neglecting what they should be doing, and the worst being living with and for all what is wrong, shallow and useless in life.  What have we come to?

 

Is it that we have lost the sense of self achievement, that we are getting no praise from anybody, nobody notices us or what we do or are capable of, we are being downgraded all the time by everybody and our rights and freedom taken away a piece at a time.  Or is it that we have lost cause and direction.  Or maybe that we have given up on learning, improving and moving forward because of all of the above.  Maybe, it’s because we can not see the light, that person to follow, a promise or somebody willing to reach out for us and understand truly what we are going through, nobody has any more time or patience for us.   Or maybe it’s that we’ve lost the sense of beauty and are no longer grateful to what we have.

 

We live in a place where people are treated like animals, have no rights, no freedom, people live in the sewers with rats eating them alive, being bullied, killed and raped by those in power and with money, who have no values, humanity, or even intelligence.  Why have people lost respect to each other, and treat you on who you are and how much damage a person can do to another?  It’s undeniable, and it’s there, you can see it everywhere.  We are insecure in every life aspect.  The people who are supposed to protect us are not, in fact they are the one being disrespectful and being bullies.  Where do we stand?

 

I have not yet started talking about what life matters we think about such as marriage and the limited resources we are faced with and who people in other carriers are doing so much better than us in every single aspect in life and are not faced with any of the hardships we are faced with or what we have gone through or will go through.

 

People have stopped smiling and stopped saying phrases such as “no problem” or “let me see what I can do for you”, nobody wants to help any more.  Instead they try to complicate things for other people for no apparent reason than to exert power.

 

Our close family and friends have no idea what we are going through and have no interest but to express their own pain and their own point of views.  We do not matter any more and people have stopped caring about, who you really are, how they are treating you and what they are saying to you.

 

We have lost the sense of real power, the power of big personalities, empathy, resourcefulness, truth and all that is good and right.  “It is time to start working and spend less time sleeping” as a wise man once said.  It is time to restore what is right.  But the question still remains, is it possible?

 

I have learnt one or two things with time, don’t put expectations and you won’t be disappointed and live for a bigger cause, be one of the big personalities and don’t get affected by the smaller people.  It helps.

 

Maybe I am being pessimistic, and maybe I am over doing it.  But this is what we are going through.

 

Our power is not to let this affect us, only make us stronger.  We still have the power of intellect.

 

As another wise man said “Sadness is a luxury, and as long as you are still ambitious, then you are not luxurious”.  So let us raise our head high and continue walking and dealing with life with what we are and not with how we are being treated.  Let us not let ourselves be them.

Another day at El-Demerdash

It started off just like any other day at El-Demerdash hospital, by signing in at 8:15, then mingling with the guys till 8:45 and then heading to wherever the ...  we need to be.

The resident had 5 requests in store for us, the 5 interns that were only here today to get them done in 1 hour tops and go home or wherever the.... we were going or at least that's what my friend and I thought was going to happen.  Well we thought wrong.

Looking at the requests paper, my friend Islam and I decided that we were going to take the 2 patients that needed interventional radiology, thinking that it was a cool thing, that we could learn and see something new and that it wouldn't take much time.

So we took our patients down to the clinic and rushed in to get an early spot, and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited.................... and waited.

Sitting down with the other interns in the modest airconditioned waiting lounge we started chatting about all kinds of different stuff.

The first thing we discovered was that one of our patients' name was "Soso 3antar" who was incidently married to "Beblawi Ta2awi", and I promise you and I swear this is all true and the names are written as so in their IDs.  We had a good laugh about this for a good 3 hours.  We made all kinds of jokes about it.

Islam and myself decided that we should go check on our patients just to make sure that they were Ok and hanging in there.  But of course both our patients had disappeared.  As we rushed outside the patients' waiting room I found me patient and approached him:

"3am Aly enta ro7t fein"

"Ana mesh 3am Aly"

"Tab fein 3am Aly? Ra7 fein?"

"Wanna eh eli 3arafny? Ana Ma7moud, matrakez shwaya ya doctor!!!"

To my relief, 3am Aly was sitting behind me on the floor leaning on the wall witnissing this comedy show and comforting me that he was still there.

Islam's patient had gone back to her room because she decided she needed some money and that she couldn't trust her roommate with it!!

Anyway, again we had decided to go get something to drink, which took no more than 10 mins.  By the time we had reached the clinic again, my patient had finished everything and was heading back to his room.  After 3 hours of waiting, it turns out that I was not needed for more than 5 mins.

So I decided that I was not going to leave Islam alone.  We were in this together.

So we started to wait again, and he began telling me about the story of his patient who was going for a BM biopsy and just as they started touching her :

"Ana 3atshana, hatooli ashrab, 7amoot"

After drinking some water brought to her by the doctor

"Ana lessa 3atshana, hatooli ashrab tany, 7amoot"

"Tayeb ya mama ba3d man khalas, yalla"

"A3ooth Belah men al-shaitan al-rageem, Besm Allah Al-Rahman Al-Ra7eem

AAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!"

"Eh ya mama dah...... bas ehdy keda e7na lessa ma3amalnash 7aga"

"tayeb tayeb

A3ooth Belah men al-shaitan al-rageem, Besm Allah Al-Rahman Al-Ra7eem

Ketab 7ayaty ya 3en ...etc"

Back to where we were, it had hit 3 o'clock when the doctor finally called Islam's patient, and after 5 mins of examination she turned out to be just fine and didn't need anything.  After we had wasted 6 hours waiting, nothing, zilch, nil.  We had wasted 6 hours doing nothing at all.

Except that we had met "Soso 3anter" and exchanged some useless info.

Thank you Demerdash!!

Feeling it ..

It's been more than four years since i first entered the OR to attend surgeries either watch or assist , mostly they were orthopaedics. But, it wasn't until recently - the past few months - that i attend to the whole process of the surgery including anaesthesia and disinfection and draping and not just the cutting..
I think i am never afraid of going under the knife and think no one should be. I realize of course that every single step of any surgery carry the risk of complications, but, i never got to see how the patients feel. Some were positive about the process, others were really nervous and agitated and most of them recite verses from the Holy book whatever it was. One patient had the bible with her inside the OR.
Last night , i scrubbed in to assist on a hernia surgery, the patient was around 60 with a calm endearing face that i liked to look at. when the anaesthetist was ready to do her magic and told the patient she was about to proceed, he looked at me and stretched his hand towards me. I have never seen this before and have never held a patient's hand in my own , but i did it last night.
I held his hand in both my hands and smiled positively at him and felt his hand weigh down in my mine as he went to sleep.

That was a priceless feeling ..
and a priceless lesson ..
It's the little things that pass unnoticed that would make the huge difference.

The patient is well now.

I know El Demerdash might be a horrible place and patients could be ... let me pass such description, one actually told me " shokran ya asta " a couple of days ago .. but it doesn't matter whose fault it is .. True we don't have the money , but we have our human spirit which is priceless..

For all of you out there , share with us and everyone else your stories of the human-human contact warmth .
There must be some beauty some where there.

Egyptian patients!!

As people from various cultures differ in many aspects in life, they also differ in how they deal with illness and death. The Egyptian variant of patients come in a distinct and strong flavour, a mixture of comedy, ignorance, drama, misery, background and care. A mixture no physician can help but recognize. Now I am referring to the whole population of course, only the common middle to lower social class, the portion of society we are fortunate enough to deal with at El-Demerdash.

To elaborate:

Almost every patient & his/her relative come to the ER complaining of not being well for a while "howa ta3ban ba2alo shwaya", really, I truely thought you were coming to say hi and that everything is fine!

or the other obvious complaint, he is as what he appears to be "ba2alo keda zay manta shayef kam youm"!! Hold on, I have to take out my magic 8 ball and in 5 secs I promise I will figure out what's wrong!

Then you get the patients that make you feel ignorant by saying something like " ba2alha 3 ayam 3amla zay el batta el 3arga eli betrog fi el ard"

Or "meraty lamma tesees tennada3 men 7egraha 7annokah", what the ...?!

Or something like "bo2i fi barabee2 nar we 3andi 7omodey good mekhaleni 3andi fak el teneen"

Or "gozi lama beyeshrab sodya beyetkara3"

Then you get the more articulate and educated ones throwing words at you like "camula, malasma otherwise known as el dam el asfar, or mostawa el teneen fi el dam (creatinine), and finally el mastara beta3et el bool"

Then you get the more aggressive vairent of patients who spit at, swear and even sometimes hit the doctors.  Unfortunately most of the time it's not called for, or it's because of some misunderstanding between the patient and the doctor.

Just this last year, one of the patients strangled an intern with his stethoscope just because he told him that his relative has passed away.  Others have literally torn down the whole ER, damaging everything and hitting all of the doctors.

Then you get others who call you "ya ostaz, ya captin or ya bash mohandes", but last week I was called something I have never heard a doctor called before by anybody.  The patient's son called me "ya 7adret el zabet"!!

Other patients, when you are done with your job try giving you money.  The lowest I have heard of was 5 pounds and the highest I heard of was 100 pounds.  Again, last week I was offered a cigeratte as if I was a valet or a car cleaner.

It is a prestigious job, don't get me wrong!!

These examples are only part of the patients we see.  It's not all that bad.  We do get praised and thanked a lot by other patients and their families and in the right ways.  It's just the weired things we like to pick out.

If you have any other similar stories please post them

فين الكارت بتاعك ؟؟

Most of the guys at the Medicinal round probably know this story - except myself - and have already asked me that question .. For the ones who haven't and the others who don't know the story , here it is in dialogue ..

مشهد 1

الساعة حوالي الثانية بعد منتصف الليل و طبيب الإمتياز مستغرق في النوم على شبه فراش لا يبدو مريحا على الإطلاق

...
رنين الهاتف

ينهض طبيب الامتياز في عجالة ليجيب على الهاتف متوقعا كارثة




الإمتياز : الو؟

صوت رجل : الو .. 5 باطنة ؟

الإمتياز : أيوة يا فندم .. خير ؟

الرجل : إيه يا استاذ العيانة إللى انت باعتهالي مستشفى الجراحة دي ؟

الإمتياز : عيانة إيه يا فندم .. احنا مابعتناش حد الجراحة

الرجل : انت حتهزر معايا ؟ .. العيانة سعدية من 5 باطنة قدامي اهه

الإمتياز : ايوة بس انا مابعدش أي حد و ما عنديش عيانة اسمها سعدية .. فيه عيانين محجوزين عندي من واحد باطنة يمكن منهم

الرجل : نعم ؟ انت اسمك إيه ؟ نايب و لا امتياز و لا ايه بالظبط ؟

الامتياز : امتياز.. شريف احمد حضرتك

الرجل : ايوة ممضي قدامي على التذكرة اهه شريف محمد



يبدأ الفأر - ليس شعراوي - يلعب في عب الإمتياز .. نعتذر عن اللغة السوقية
لا يمضي الإمتياز بذلك الإسم قط ده إذا كان بيمضي حاجة اصلا




الرجل : ترتيبك كام ؟

الامتياز :409

الرجل : يعني ليك كارت .. فين الكارت بتاعك إزاي ما تبعتوش مع العيانة ؟

الامتياز : كارت ايه وعيانة ايه بس .. انا ما عنديش اصلا عيانة اسمها سعدية و مابعدتش حد

الرجل: انت هتهرج ؟ .. خد العيانة معاك اهه

صوت رجل لامؤاخذة : ايوة يا دكتور انا سعدية .. فين الكارت يا دكتور ؟




يدرك الإمتياز أنه كان ضحية




الامتياز : لا يا ماما .. انت الظاهر


صوت إغلاق الخط .. تيت تيت تيت تيت


و بما إن الصورة ابلغ من الكلام .. ذلك هو شعور الامتياز لحظتها





مشهد 2

الصباح التالي عند سلم المستشفى و مدام منى الكل يسأل طبيب الإمتياز ذات السؤال

فبن الكارت بتاعك يا شريف ؟

Good one guys ..
Of course , it's needless to say i still don't know who's the HO's Ashton Kutcher .. !!!!!

A trip in the Ambulance

It started out as any other night shift in the ER, only in my opinnion that the group of doctors (el-we7da) was the worst group of doctors managing the ER.  Anyway, as we sat there, a middle-aged woman (who later on turned out to be a nurse), came in with her father who was in cardiac arrest.  They statred straight away working on the old man and called for the cardiology resident to come down and take a look at the patient who had just come back from arrest.  By the time the cardio resident came down the man had gone into cardiac arrest for the second time.  Under the cardio resident's specialized hands and compitence, the old man's ticker started beating again.

Anyway, out of nowhere, they decided that the man should be transfered to Al-Hussein hospital.  Of course the man had to be transferred, through an Ambulance with 2 doctors in it.  Guess who one of the doctors was!!

Anyway, we were given our home made lunch box of epi, and atropine, and placed in one of the newer ambulances with a cardiac monitor, DC defib, a whole box of meds and 2 paramedics.

The paramedics, one was a business graduate and the other a media graduate with a 2 week crash course on how to be a paramedic and drive crazy.  I guess the only thing they took out of it was the crazy driving part.  Extremely useless people.

Anyway, the old man's heart was still ticking as we started moving.  Once we reached our hospital's gates, the monitor decided that it was not going to work any more.  Typical.  The battery was malfunctioning, although we were in one of the relatively new ambulances.

Ok, we had to go old school and use pulse and heart beat.  Just as we reached the Abbasia bridge and just as we started going up the ramp, the old man's heart stopped.  Not knowing whether this was an asystole or VF, I did what I had learned and considered this witnessed arrest a VF and started  giving pericordial thumps and meds.  I  then tried turning the monitor on, which actually worked but only gave us 5 secs of beats at a time then went off again.  Which was fine because it gave us enough time to see the VF waves, which I was very happy to see, because that meant we could still shock the man.  "Charge the defib pls" I yelled at the paramedic.  "It doesn't work sir, and it never has" was the paramedic's answer.  Fine, old school again, continue with the pericordial thumps and meds.

Now when you just think nothing else could go wrong and just as we were approaching the other side of the bridge going down, the lights insde the ambulance turned off and I could hear the sounds of the engine and car mechanics rumble slowly and fad away into a silence.

Helllllll no, that can't be happening.  But it did.  The whole donkey cart broke down actually blocking half of the road in one of the busy streets of Cairo at 11 pm.

Now, there are no lights at this moment inside the ambulance, and so they decide to open the ambulance doors for light until another ambulance comes for rescue.  So were now doing CPR practically in the middle of the street with everybody watching, and our light source was the headlights of the traffic behind us.

After about 35 mins the other ambulance finally decided to show up, equipped with absolutly nothing, except for a stretcher, the moment we stepped into the other ambulance, and I guess from frustration, the old man stopped gasping.

Now, while all of that was going on, the daughter was yelling at us, telling us that we should stop recussitating her father.  Imagining myself in one of the ER episodes I yelled back "I'm not stopping as long as your father is gasping, I'm not going to kill him" ta ta ta taaaaa.  One can only imagine.

That was not the end of it.  After me and my collegue got back to the hospital, we found the same paramedics coming in asking us to write a report to file at the police station, because the old man's family stole him from the ambulance and ran away with him before giving them a chance to go to a hospital and write a death certificate.  I had no idea what in the world that was about, but I was happy to write them the report and send them off to kill more people.

Rabena yostorha ma3ana

Humane Bathrooms !!

I know this entry might sound smelly but trust me , the reason behind it is way from smelly ..
If you're on a night shift or on any work day at El Batna Hospital and just needed a decent bathroom for whatever reason .. where would you go ? .. Don't think it's a simple question with a simple answer.
Read on the count down for the best 5 usable bathrooms in El Demerdash Batna Hospital.

Number 5

Is Actually the least could be used one .. the main Istikbal bathrooms restricted only for the Hospital Staff which makes it reasonably clean , but for some unknown reason it's been locked the past week .. Luckinly we still have more.

Number 4

It's actually one the cleanest most sanitary at the hospital , but unfortunately it's almost always locked and the keys are only with the resident .. we still couldn't make a copy of them . I'm talking about the ones in the rheumatology department .. really good but only if available . that's why it's no 4 on the list.

Number 3




Thought by most of the interns to be the best , but it only lands third on the list .. the famous bathroom in 7ogret el modarres el mosa3ed fel Istibkal .. reasonably clean and not at all smelly with a flush that actually works despite being an IV Line !!!


Number 2


Not known to most of the guys out there , but a very decent bathroom that's almost always available .. the one in the Blood Bank Of CardioThoracic surgery .. you can access it via Istikbal El Batna to the right behind a partition there ..

DrumRoll PLease .. Here comes our TOP of the list for today's guide ..
The GIT 2 Bathroom ..





Considered and in fact is one the most luxurious in El Demerdash Hospital .. recently renovated .. and used exclusively by doctors which pretty much keeps it clean at all times .. And yes ladies , there IS a mirror ..
The only obstacle is to get a way in you need a door knob which is detachable and can be easily found in the classroom right next to it ..


That was all for now ..
Keep reading for more inside Guides ..
Take Care ..

Friendly Critters we met in the hospital so far :)

Man and Beast living in Harmony ... in its cruelest forms , belnesba lel 3ayaneen 2el 3'alaba tab3an ^_^

Critter sightings so far :

WHISKERS THE LURKER
--------------------------------
Its dark and cold , the shadow of death roams the wards , screams of agony,pain and misery break the silence of night ... i walk the hallways back and forth , wandering if for a split second there i walked right through him ... wondering if that chill i felt down my spine wasn't really "ordinary" ... i sure know we've been in the same room before (you pointed that out , faker ya Sherif ??) ...
I got tired , maybe it time to rest for a while ... just for a few minutes ... sure would help me focus, i lay down and just as i start to close my eyes his voice echoes through the halls "MEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW" , i walk , make that sprint through the hall to find him there ... a cat ... a bloooooody cat !!!
La2 we mesh beynawnaw bas , da bey3'anni kaman , 2a3ed ye3'anni we yetnattat fel tor2a chasing an IV line 7ad rabethoolo fe urine bag !!! abl ma7ad yes2al ... AKEEED mosta3mal !!!
If you're interested in Whiskers , he's "3/4 a foot 9" , black-tan coat with pointy whiskers , previous sightings include 2el door 2el talet fe mostashfa 2el batna ... we fe 2esha3at bet2ool 2enno beyagool fe 2esm 2el 2ashe3a belnahar 3ashan 2el patients beyo3odo bel sa3at henakk we beyeb2a ma3ahom 2akl we tasaly :)

KATKOOT 2EL 2ESTEHBAAAL
----------------------------------
Yes , Saddik 2aw la toSaddik , 3andena katkooot fel 2ese2baal , can't remember exactly meen 7akaly bas as far as i can remember he sounded sincere (sorry if i don't recall exactly who told the story, law tele3 2enta ya sherif feel free to edit my post and tell the story ur way ^_^ )
Heyya deh masr ya 3abla , 2al 2eih ...2el 3ommal fel mostashfa beyrabbo ferakh we katakeet , ana bardo kont 7asses 2en fee 7aga 3'alat , kol kam yoom 2ala2eelak nayeb merawa7 be kartoonit beeed , walla 3arabeyaat 2akl 2el patients 2elly malyana beed masloo2 (2allahomma la 7asad) wa2oool yarabbi tab meneee koll dah ... 2atary 2ell mostashfa mashya bel 2ektefa2 2el zaty ... we kaman tela2eehom beybee3o fel soo2 barra :)
Anyways as the currently annonymous source explains , 2el katkoot dakhal fel 2ooda we 2el dakatra 2a3ado yela3booh :) ... 3ASH :D

SHA3RAWY THE PEEPING-TOM MOUSE
-------------------------------------------
Not really my story to tell , considering 2en its an author's story , fill it out ba2a will ya ;) ???
I'll take it from here thank you very much :)
it was a night shift, and my friends and I were hanging in the "conference room" in batna 2. it was kinda hot so I slid the windows open and opened the doors (which 3amm gamal insists on closing everytime) and just sat there to enjoy the breeze...
it was when the junior resident walked in and whisper/screamed "Close that window, there's a mouse in the area! we saw it in here yesterday!!!"
it's funny how excited I got when she told me about the mouse, I don't care what anybody says about mice being disgusting and carriers for I don't know how many diseases, I think mice are cute (I like anything that has big eyes and fur)
so we waited for the mouse to show up, me and another friend who owns 11 dogs and a cat and who I think shares the same fondness for creatures with big eyes and fur....
again we were left in a room with closed windows and a door that 3amm gamal wouldn't leave open for 10 minutes. so, we turned on the ancient AC and decided to tolerate the cheesy smell...
only when the AC was on that we started hearing squeaking and scratches, and when we looked up there he was, a little brown/grey fur ball with HUGE eyes and popped up ears!!!
he stood still on the AC for a while, checking us out, and us checking him out, then he skittered from the AC to a pipe that leads to the window, when he found it closed, he skittered back to the AC.
he stayed with us the whole shift, he never changed his route from the AC to the pipe and back again, he never tried to go to the window again. and everytime he stopped still he'd just look at us and prop his ears to the "psst psst" sounds we made at him...
after a long and tiresome debate we all agreed to call him "sha3rawy", the only reason we didn't call him "Ragab" which is a pretty good name if you ask me, is that the head nurse in batna 2 is called "ragab" :S bummer
"sha3rawy" still roams the batna hallways, but his headquarters lie in the conference room where we spend our shifts and where 3amm gamal sleeps...

Well thats it for now , follow up later for more interesting "close-encounters"

Zay "Grey's Anatomy" sa7 ??!!

To be honest ,I'm Not sure why it took us so long to start, stress masalan, aw "masha3'el" ... ma 3aleena :)
A couple of days ago keda , I was out with some friends ... the "heeeheee" type of friends we akeed tab3an 2el kalam gaab ba3do and they started asking "what's it like being an intern ??? zay "grey's anatomy" sa7 ??? ... my answer ofcourse was ... well i guess we all know the answer ^_^ , anyways I've compiled a list of "interesting" facts about our hospital , thats to say ..the "mechanics" behind this inglorious organization we call "el-Demerdash"
The ER
Awel makan beyedkholo 2el 3ayan ... we 3'aleban (wa 2in kan dah mosh rule fe baladna) beyeb2a 2el most critical time for te patient ... 7ayah 2aw moot ya3ni , 3ashan keda dool shwayyet nasa2e7 mohemma giddan lazem ye3rafha kol 3ayan :
- Law gay lewa7dak tekshef...its best 2ennak te3addi 3ala ma3mal 2el taware2 we tegeb anbobteen wenta fel sekka , 3ashan lazem nes7ablak ma3amel ... we ma7adesh haygbhomlak (2etla3 2el matla3 we khosh yemeen ...2el ma3mal fel dawaran)
- Dakhalt tekshef ??? your BP is 300/200 !!! we kaman 3andak chest pain "ya 7abbit 3einy" !!! w Kaman 3andak sokkar !!! ,tab 2ooom ba2a bsor3a ya "sokkar" 2o2af fel taboor we2ta3 tazkara men 3and 2el me3awen 3ashan mesh hanesreflak dawa law ma2omtesh ( to be honest ... 2a7yanan law 2el momareda 2a3da ... we 3'azaletha ray2a ...momken tetala3 2el dawa 2el 2awel )
- Yalla ba2a , 2oom roo7 2el ma3mal salem 2el 2anabeeb , sorry i meant "wareehom" 2el 2anabeeb 3ashan takhod wasl , we ba3deeen 2etla3 bara henaaaaaaaak 3and 2el 2atfal 3ashan tedfa3 2el folooos fel khazna (khalee balak men anboobet 2el kemya ...de men 3'eer 3'ata)
- Le7osn 2el 7az, most patients beyeb2a ma3ahom 7ad ye3mel 2el mashaweer deeh ... waho kollo reyada we takfeer zonooob .. dah tab3an law mabetsebbish we tel3an wenta fel sekka :)
- Fee khedma keda beye3melooha fe ba3d 2el 2amaken ... 2a3taked 2esmaha "re3aya morakaza" ... dah ba2a mawdoo3 kebeeeeer awy hayeb2alo 7awadeet lewa7do ...

Theee Emteyaz Population

"emteyaz" the final year in medical school, where you're supposed to put in practice everything you've learned in the past 6 years of your life. it's supposed to be easier since you actually have an idea about different illnesses and how to treat them, and you're supposed to know what you're doing because you are in one way or another a young doctor waiting to be released into the world.

ironically enough, this has nothing to do with emteyaz, apart from a small number of my colleagues who actually know what they're doing, here's what the rest of emteyazee's are like:

-the "senior"
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a two digit number is MAGIC! suddenly it makes a difference enta tarteebak eh!
yes, you might be a resident next year, that doesn't mean you have any privilages this year!! why should you?! you're still a student, and just because you got higher grades in the past 6 years doesn't mean you can boss your former friends around and get to choose your shifts and they don't! w kol maye7sal clash troo7 2ayel "ana el senior hena" senior 3ala meen bezzabt?! manta el sana el gayya hateb2a junior w hateddereb bel ***** !!! w ba3dein elly enta 3amel 3aleihom senior dole dof3etak (do you even know what senior means?!!!)
ps: I love our senior btw, he's the coolest guy ever, and he's a 1 digit number kaman! :D

- the "3ayza atgawwez" babe
-----------------------------
for the past 6 years she's been quite the background object, never really stood out in anyway, her grades are average, she's no beauty queen, no miss popular. just an average med student.
this year, eddeny ba2a, sunglasses rayban madrooba, make up mesh 3arfa gaybeeno mnein w multi colored 5 head scarves 3ala ba3d!!! and I'll shut up about the skinny pants and the high heels (ya bent el moftareyya, high heels fel demerdash??). w taba3an the SLIM-FIT WHITE COAT... w yalla beena 3al ER!
seriously, sister!!!

-the "burn outs"
--------------------
you find these fel este2bal, from 8 to 8, momken to 9 w 10 kaman, they work work work, and I'm not going to say anything because maybe the reason they work that much is that they're actually learning, or just because the rest of the people just don't!!
I envy those for their enthusiasm, and a big part of me can't believe someone could be THAT interested in batna!!
another type of burnouts don't actually do anything except wear their scrubs and a pair of gloves and start running back and forth from the ER to the hospital, they're not holding blood samples, they don't have a patient's file on them, they just seem to be BUSY w 7'alas, t2olsh beymasselo f ER?!
those I just envy their abilty to RUN, period.

-the "requesters"
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all they ever do is run the stupid errands (rquests), and it's bad enough they do it, they actually volunteer!!!! I have nothing to say to those, good luck with the tan people!

-the "kosh & stairs population"
--------------------------------
e7em, ba3d emdet madame mona, their daily routine is to walk to the batna kosh and get their tea/nescafe/chipsy/brunch/ whatever sets their morning mood, and they walk back to the stairs, and they just hang there for the rest of the day.
they could go upstairs, yesallemo 3al nayeb walla 7aga, do a request or two (I don't) then it's back to the sellem...
there's always someone there, so it's never boring, and there's always someone coming from el atfal or el gera7a so you get to see poeple you haven't seen in a long time.
the one useful thing they actually do is give directions
-fein este2bal el batna law sama7t?
-aho 2oddamik ya mama
-fein el ma3mal wennabi ya anesa (note that they still call you anesa, abla, but never doctor...howa el balto da eh?!)
-awel mated7'ol 3and el dawaran yemeen ya baba
and life moves on...

-the night shifters
------------------
oh well, I guess by now we've all been there, done that. but here's what I noticed; some people set their night shifts in a way that they never have to show up in the hospital in the mornings
it's friday night so they'll sign on saturday and go home,
then sunday is badal ra7a
monday night, so they won't be there on tuesday
wednesday night, so no thursday
I actually know a guy who does this, w taba3an mezabbat Mme mona :D

-I guess that's all I could think of right now, of course that leaves the NORMAL interns, elly dakatra bgad, but then there's nothing interesting there :D

We're in the news .. That's NO news ..

لمعرفة ما وراء هذه التدوينة , برجاء قراءة هذا المقال المنشور في المصري اليوم بناريخ 2\4\09

كانت نوبتجيتي الأولى في القسم بمستشفى الباطنة في سنة الإمتياز ذات الأداء الـض.ج. , منذ وصولي لردهة القسم لاحظت هدوءا لا يبدو طبيعيا , دخلت حجرة النواب لأجدها خالية إلا من سيدة في الخمسينات من العمر كنت أظنها المدرس الخاص بالوحدة و الأون كول المسئول معي و النائب الليلة و لكني وجدتها تهاجمني بلا مبرر و علا صوتها متسائلة عن زميلي النائب , لم أشأ أن أثر حفيظنها اكثر أو أحتك بها , فأخبرتها في هدوء أنني طبيب الإمتياز المناوب في القسم اليلة و جئت لإستلام النوبتجية . أخبرتني أنها الدكتورة فلانة أستاذ التخدير و شقيقة أحد المرضى المحجوزين بالقسم .. أهلا و سهلا .. و بدون مقدمات أخبرتني أن نائب الوحدة قد قام بسبها حين اتهمته بالإهمال في رعاية شقيقها طبيب الأسنان. و هي تطالب بنقله فورا إلى مستشفى التأمين الصحي , فلأبحث لها عن النائب ليسلمها خطاب التحويل.
تلك كانت حجرة النائب التي احتلتها السيدة و لا أعلم له مكانا آخر, فسألتها من هو شقيقها , فاخبرتني من هو و اين حجرته, فسألتها عن اصل المشكلة , قالت أنه تم حجزه البارحة في غيبوبة لم يفق منها حتى اللحظة و لم يتابع أحد حالته أو يقوم بإعطاءه محاليل - كأنها العلاج السحري - ـأو يقيس ضغط دمه و نبضه . أمسكت بجهاز الضغط و السماعة و خرجت من الحجرة لأقيس ضغط الرجل و ابتعد عن مواجهة تلك السيدة التي هددتني بأنها ستقدم شكوى في القسم و اطباءه و تنشر في جرائد المعارضة و تفضحنا و انا لم اقابلها إلا منذ عشر دقائق !!!!
.. دخلت العنبر حيث فراش الرجل فتذكرته .. كنت نوتجيا الليلة التي قبلها في القسم اثناء استقبال الحوادث.. استقبل المرضى الذين تم حجزهم من استقبال الباطنة لنتابع حالاتهم و نقو بسحب العينات لتحليلها و استكمال علاجاتهم و وصل ذلك المريض قرابة الفجر في غيبوبة تامة لا اعلم سببها و لا اتذكر ما كان بتذكرته - إذ كنت مشغولا بمرضى آخرين يصارعون الموت - فكل ما علمته أنه يحتاج لسرير في العناية المركزة و ما لم يكن متوفرا عندنا في المستشفى تلك الليلة لعدم وجود أسرة شاغرة . فقست ضغطه و نبضه و وجدتهما مستقرين و إخبرت الرجل الذي كان بصحبته باستقرار الحالة و حاجتها لسرير في العناية المركزة. و كان ذلك آخر ما رأيته منه ليلتها
قست للرجل ضغط دمه و نبضه فوجدتهما مستقريت كما كانا بالأمس و اخبرت السيدة ذات النقاب أو الخمار أو الإسدال ( لا أعلم ما الفرق بين أي منهم ) - التي كانت بجواره و لم أرها الليلة التي قبلها حالها حال طبيبة التخدير - بأنه مستقر , فثارت من وراء حجاب على فمها و قالت مستقر إيه ما ماحدش فوقه و لا حد عبرنا .. تركتها و عدت لحجرة النواب حيث شقيقة المريض و اخبررتها بضغطه و نبضه فشكرتني و تركتها أبحث عن أي وجه مألوف في ذلك القسم المقفر .
وجدت النائب في حجرة التمريض عاكفا يكتب خطاب التحويل و على وجهه علامات بكاء.. سألته عن كنه ما يحدث و من هؤلاء و اين كانوا البارحة أو اليوم صباحا فأخبرني أنه فاتني الكثير من الدراما قبل وصولي , فأخبرته بتهديدات شقيقة المريض فتجاهلها و اخبرني ماذا تنتظر من ناس يتركون المستشفى الجامعي و ينقلون مريضهم إلى التأمين الصحي و هو ما أوافق تماما عليه , فبالرغم من تدنى الأوضاع في الدمرداش فهي لا تقارن بالتأمين الصحي , فلي اصدقاء هناك يحكون عن مدى السوء الذي يواجهونه و الذل الذي يعانيه المرضى هناك .
و فجأة و بدون مقدمات علت الأصوات في ردهة القسم لأجد فتاة في مثل عمري تقريبا و معها الرجل الذي كان برفقة المريض عند وصوله المستشفى و الأمن و رجل من إدارة المستشفى على ما اظن لا اعرف اسمه أو صفته بالتحديد.
كانت الفتاة ابنة المريض التي دخلت حجرة التمريض حيث النائب لتأخذ خطاب التحويل , قرأته في عجالة ثم قذفته في وجه النائب و صرخت إيه التقرير الزبالة ده فين التشخيص و نتائج التحاليل حرام عيك اتقي ربنا و قدر إن إللى بيموت جوه ده ابويا .. تدخلت لأحول بينهما و اخرج الفتاة من الحجرة و انا أقول مايصحش كده يا انسة من فضلك اتفضلي في حجرة النواب و انا سأسلمك التقرير كاملا بنفسي هناك لكن ما ينفعش نقول الكلام ده في وسط القسم كده .. تجاهلتني لحظتها و عادت للصراخ في وجه النائب .. يرضى إن والدك يجراله زي ابويا .. يعني ادعي عليه دلوقتي بس هو مالوش ذنب إن شاء الله تكون انت مكان ابويا .. عدت لمحاولة التهدئة ثم ناولني النائب خطاب التحويل الذي ناولته بدوري للفتاة التي علمت من مضمون كلامها و طريقته أنها إما طالبة طب إو طبيبة امتياز زي حالاتي.. اصطحبها الأمن و الرجل الذي يبدو من مظهره أنه إما تمرجي\سكرتير المريض و رجال الاسعاف لينقلوا المريض و معهم طبيب امتياز زميلي كان قد وصل لتوه .. ثم فجأة وجدت تلك الفتاة تعود محدثة إياي و تعتذر عما بدر منها من انفلات اعصابها فرددت بأني مقدر لما تمر به و كلمتين طيبتين كده .. و في قرارة نفسي اتسائل يا ترى بقيت النبطشية حتبقى عاملة إزاي ؟
بقيت و النائب و الرجل الإداري - على ما اظن - نتحاور في الأمر و يشرح لي سبب وجود الأمن ليحول بيننا و أهالي المرضى منعا لحدوث إصابات و هو امر ادركت أهميته بعد ذلك .
بعد حوالى الساعة تلقى النائب اتصالا من مدير المستشفى يبلغه بأمر الشكوى المقدمة إليه من أهل ذلك المريض .. تحطمت اعصاب النائب و أخبرني أن مثل تلك الشكوى قد تفقده نيابته و تعرضه للفصل .. و طلب مني الشهادة إذا تم التحقيق في الواقعة و ووعدته بأدائها و الإدلاء بما شهدته يعيني و هو بالطبع ليس في صالح المريض .. فاتا لم اشهد سوى انفلات ابنة المريض و دعائها على النائب و التطاول عليه و لم اشهد سب النائب لشقيقة المريض كما ادعت امامي و لا يعرف النائب أن طبيبة التخدير قد اخبرتني بما جرى بينهما - و إن كنت لست واثقا من صحته
هذا كان نهاية الموضوع .. لم يتم تحقيق حسب علمي و لم اطلب لشهادة و نسي الموضوع حتى الخميس الثاني من ابريل حين نشر مقال في المصري اليوم ليعيد لأذهاننا تلك الواقعة و يجبرني على كتابة شهادتي لعلها توضج بعض ما حدث تلك اللسلة من منظور آخر ..


.

It takes a MAN ...

That's actually how the Demerdash Hospital Of Internal Medicine ( El Batna ) looks like ..
It takes a man to be here , although the medicinal round could often be thought to be one of the easiest and the most beneficial of all the rounds during the internship year ..

YOU'RE WRONG !!!

The amount of corruption that we're facing on daily basis , the numerous faces of death we face everyday and the various styles of misery, poverty and cruelty we stop by everyday makes it one of the toughest ..
From the residents to the nurses , the teaching the staff and the employees , between the patients and their relatives , the interns and the interns , tons of stuff are going on that take a man to handle.
El Batna is no easy business .. BeWare !!

a little Intro

well, it took us all long enough to start writing in here, I guess it was because "emteyaz" was a little bit overwhelming at first, we didn't know how things were supposed to go.
but now we do, so here we are (hopefully)

"overclocked" and I thought of this blog when we were hanging out one night, it started as a joke then we decided to make it for real. it seemed like fun, writing about all the tiny details that everyone notices but no one really thinks about twice, getting all the gossip (meen sa7eb meen, meen beyzabbat meen, meen 3amal eh...no names taba3an, bas I guess we won't be needing to mention them) also writing about internship itself of course (I'll leave that to sherif, he seems to be the one who kinda knows what he's doing)

so here it is, our "demerdash weekly" (although I'm thinking we should have called it "el demerdash irregular")
I'll be nagging the guys to start blogging :D
entazeroona!