ABIDI'S DOCTALK, www.abidi.ourfamily.com,

What Does Medicine Mean For Me?

For me, medicine means "To take care of all and for all ". Does it explain it fully? Nopes? Well what I personally believe is that medicine doesn't mean just to prescribe two tablets and one capsule daily before sleep. It actually includes every method, every tactic by which you can make your patient and his / her loved ones feel better. It includes the kiss you give to a three-year old child suffering from fatal Lukemia. It includes those soft words which you tell to the patients suffering from harmful chronic renal failure. Yes, even those caresses are the part of medicine when your heart is full of sincerity and sympathy for near-dying people and you touch the forehead of patients of Hepatitis -B and C and AIDS. Medicine also has those moments when you assure assuring them, that you will survive, you will complete all that life which Allah has given to you. It includes giving sympathy and comforting words to relatives of all those patients, and to tell them that dont worry, we do know what does this sister mean for you. We do know that this father is the only earning member of this family. Don't worry, we do know that this mother, which is going for operation, has so slamm and young kids, just trust on Allah. We do know that this brother is the only hope for his mother and sister. In the very first lecture of my first year of Medicine, Head of Biochemistry deptt. of my college told us that now you are entering in a profession which places just after "GOD" for the patient. He meant that all of the patient's hopes would be joined with us. His life would be in our hands (provided by Allah), our slightest mistake or error can damage a whole family structure. No doubt, if medicine is supposed to be the noblest and decent of all professions, it can be the source of carrying the profesional to heaven or hell as well.

Some people think "doctors are senseless". I don't agree at all. Most doctors are not senseless or rigid, and inwardly they are as vulnerable to human emotions as others are. However, they become "used to" certain rare, extra ordinary conditions which not every ordinary person experiences every day.

For example, death. Deaths do inspire me a lot. Now after doing one year house job ( internship ) in medicine and studying medicine for six years I have seen different aspects of human life and death. Ranging from births of human children, dangerously complicated surgeries, profusely bleeding patients, severely injured people, highly infected individuals, intensely burnt victims, screaming ladies and shouting men, crying babies and dying youths. I have seen a lot. And I think all this stuff has left unerasable marks on my heart. For sure, I'd never be the same again. It has actually made me more sensitive.

Practical medicine makes one stronger, professional and practical.You develop capability to control your sleep, like sometimes you have 30-hour continous duty and you need to keep yourself alert all the time. You do learn how to control your appetite, your sleep, your thirst, your emotions. You come across with different experiences. Some of those experiences are unforgettable for me too. Like... when I gave my first injection to a very small baby. Or when I saw the first death in front of me. It was a wide contrast to the first birth I saw, delivery of a human child. Also, when I saw first operation. It was a renal transplantation surgery, when I saw Interior of human body for the first time. Since then, I give little importance to the Exterior.

This "Doc-Talk" section of ABIDI'S UNIVERSE is dedicated to Dr.Kazmi, baby Maryam and Zaki from London.