Diary of a Doctor

Happy New Year !

noreply@blogger.com (Drfunmi) — Fri, 06 Jan 2023 16:12:00 +0000

Happy New Year dear friends. We made it to the amazingly pregnant year 2023! May it deliver to us the goodness thereof. May we be beneficiaries of its numerous blessings while the evil thereof will never come near our abodes.

It has been such a long time I showed up on this side of the world. My apologies for the inconsistency. However, I have decided to turn over a new leaf and steadiness of writing is one of my goals which would be equivalent to New year resolutions for believers of that.

Now, we have a lot to catch up on. Last year 2022 was a very interesting year. It was full of numerous wins, pleasant surprises, answered prayers, some failures, a lot of tears, few disappointments, etc. I made new friends, re-connected with old friends. I finished residency training in Internal Medicine. My status changed. I became an attending physician or as we call it in my country of origin, I became a consultant. All glory to God. I am a woman of faith for those of you who do not know me yet. Perhaps in the nearest future, I will do a re-introductory blog post.

I hope you started your year on a good note. If you didn't, you have an ample opportunity to do so.

While I do not intend that this would be a long post. I just wanted to take out time to reconnect with you and encourage, as well as inspire you all to go do great things this year. A few things to remember:

1) Have a list of goals you would like to achieve this year and write them down somewhere for your personal reference.

2) Make it a priority to seek knowledge. Read for at least 30 minutes everyday. By the end of the year you would have effortlessly read for 10,950 minutes ( 30 x 365). For those of you wondering how I got that!

3) Declutter your life. Get rid of things that are no longer serving you. These includes clothing items, shoes you do not need any more. It also includes parasitic relationships in your life.

4) Prioritize self care this year. Stop putting others before yourself all the time. Regularly pamper yourself because you deserve it. This also includes you incorporating a strategy to de-stress.

5) Take care of your health. Your health is key, it is important. Don't ignore your mental health too.

6) Find time to do the things you love. Be it writing( like me), painting, running, swimming, playing the piano, playing chess, cooking, etc

7) Observe your quiet time daily.

8) Build social connections. Connect with friends. Check up on loved ones.

9) Plan your vacation. Be very intentional about this.

10) Be frugal with your spending. Take your financial life seriously.

Alright people, I hope you have an amazing 2023! May you always find a reason to smile every single day of the year .

" First comes thought; then organization of that thought, into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination." - Napoleon Hill

Things To Know Before You Start Residency

noreply@blogger.com (Drfunmi) — Mon, 16 May 2022 03:31:00 +0000

Hello World! It has been a long while I showed up on this side of things but I am glad to be back here. I want to share some very important tips that will be helpful for anyone planning to start residency program in the United States of America. You need to be aware of these things. I realized that we put in a lot of effort to prepare for the moment leading up to the match, but not many people are adequately equipped with all the right information needed before residency actually starts.

However, before I proceed, I need to say "congratulations!" It is a huge feat that you are at this point and you should never forget that. You deserve all the accolades. A few pieces of advice from someone almost at the very end of a journey you are just about to start. These are a bit unconventional because I do not typically mince my words. If you take to these pieces of advice, in the words of one of my favorite interns, ‘you will be in good shape’.

1. Get an index card and document this joy and excitement you feel now. I call mine the ‘gratitude card’. Document all the enthusiasm and joy flooding your heart at this time. You will need it in the nearest future. It will remind you of how you started and help you re-focus when residency gets tough. I am sorry, but the truth is that it will get tough. A dear friend gave me this advice and it was quite helpful.

2. Come into residency with a mindset to be better daily. It is a learning curve, but eventually you will find your pace & place and you will be fine eventually.

3. Study daily. Even if it is a few pages. Read about your patients. Use upToDate a lot plus any resources applicable to your specific specialty. Your life will get very busy but you need to create time to read.

4. Have a notebook and write down one special thing you learnt that day. An ICU attending gave us this advice. It is golden. Now I have four such notebooks!

5. Be friendly. Make a lot of friends of your colleagues, nurses and hospital staff, but never forget that not everyone is your friend. Not everyone will have your back. It is a sad reality but that is life.

6. Identify a great mentor very early on. In choosing a mentor, make sure it is someone who has your genuine interest at heart. Someone who truly wants to see you win.

7. If you are black by race, please be twice as good in everything. What others will get away with, you will not. Be very bold, loud and assertive. Know your stuff. Be confident.

8. Prioritize self care. Eat a healthy balanced diet as much as you can. Try to meal prep when you get your day off. Sleep well. Exercise regularly.

9. No matter what situation you are faced with in residency, be professional always.

10. Do not let residency take away your hobbies. When you are on a lighter rotation, still play that instrument, still dance, still paint, still write, still blog, still volunteer, etc.

11. Lean on your support system as much as possible. You will need them. Do not ignore them, do not "ghost" them and do not push them away.

12. After each block rotation, take yourself to the store, and buy yourself a special gift to reward yourself constantly for all your hard-work. Just don’t over-do it.

13. If you are in a relationship, it will be the toughest time in your relationship. Be intentional about your relationship. Plan activities to do together with your partner. Inculcate date nights into your schedule. Be more tolerant of each other. Be more forgiving. Increase your bandwidth of taking “crap”. Residency will increase your irritability levels rather quickly. You have a higher tendency to develop a short fuse and you might occasionally experience a “volcanic eruption” in your emotions. However, you will be okay, eventually.

14. If you are a mom, you need a supportive spouse and a live in nanny or a trusted family member. Get a nanny camera. Take time out to regularly look through to watch and listen to the recorded videos.

15. Plan your vacation ahead of time.

16. Read at least a non-medical book a month.

17. Stay hydrated. Get a water bottle.

18. Don’t over-do coffee.

19. Keep some emergency snacks in your bag for days when you will be too busy to get lunch. Also keep a packet of chewing gum in your bag for days you will be too sleepy on rounds. Thank me later.

20. Pray daily so that you do not make a mistake or fall into temptation. Pray for favor always.

Above all, never let residency change who you are at your very core. You are an amazing, kind, compassionate, loving and lovely doctor. You got this!

Rooting for you always,

Dr Funmi

"There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure."

-- Colin Powell

The Panic Button

noreply@blogger.com (Drfunmi) — Fri, 14 May 2021 04:23:00 +0000

It was a typical morning about two years ago when my daughter was quite younger. I was trying to get the children ready for pre-school. My daughter was all ready and groomed and I was trying to help her older brother get ready too when I suddenly heard a noise. It sounded like someone was in distress. It was my daughter crying loudly and frantically trying to open the door to her room because she had apparently jammed the door and locked herself up. I ran to her rescue and mommy saved the day, in the words of paw patrol, by opening it with a key from my side. Words could not describe the relief written all over her face. She gave me the warmest hugs her tiny hands could give. I was so sure she would not be going near door locks anytime soon.

When something goes wrong especially in an unexpected circumstance, most people start panicking as the default mode. It is kind of expected because the human body instantly goes into a "flight or fight" mode in order to protect the individual from further harm. Just like in a hospital, when the red alarm is pressed, chaos sets in after that because it means somebody is "coding" which could be a matter of life or death. The pagers go off at the same time indicating that there as been a cardiac arrest at a certain portion of the hospital. Everyone runs towards the direction of the outcry. As doctors or health-care professionals, when chaos sets in, you cannot afford to go into panic mode. You have to be calm, yet swift and precise. Maybe not the kind of calmness of a cucumber, but that which is a calculated one to enable you function at your optimum in order to save the day, to save an actual life. Such is the life a doctor has signed up for. To be peaceful in the midst of chaos or to assume the similitude of it even when your brain is screaming "pandemonium".

Therefore, when life presses your panic button be sure to face it with calculated calm and confidence.

Remember that peace does not mean you are in a place with no noise, it is the ability to maintain your composure despite all the noise and still do the needful.

“Peace is not the absence of chaos or conflict, but rather finding yourself in the midst of that chaos and remaining calm in your heart.” ― John Mroz

Maskne

noreply@blogger.com (Drfunmi) — Mon, 01 Feb 2021 05:38:00 +0000

Yes, face mask acne is now a thing. It is called "Maskne".

I have always prided myself in having a very beautiful, smooth skin. Even as a teenager, I never had issues with acne at all. Therefore, when all of a sudden in the year 2020, few months into the pandemic, I noticed a number of pimples on my face. It was especially around the edges of the mask where it made contact with my skin. I also noticed quite a few just on my cheeks as well. Then, I realized it was attributable to the mask. The timing of when I started noticing the pimples tallied with when I started wearing a disposable N95 mask all day whenever I worked at the hospital. That is a very long time to adorn these masks. But safety over comfort is a wisdom nugget to hold in high esteem especially at this time. Another reason I knew it was the face mask that was responsible for the break-outs or acne, was because at the time I had stopped applying make up because there was no point anyway because it gets covered by the face masks. Also, because make up will only stain the masks and make them look bad. Therefore, make up is a confounder I eliminated from the equation as a possible culprit.

I was able to establish that face mask caused irritation responsible for these break outs because masks traps moisture, sweat, oil and dirt close to our skin which eventually leads to acne, irritation, pressure marks, pressure sores and contact dermatitis. Another mechanism is through generation of friction at the point the mask touches the skin. This is further aggravated by when you touch your face, adjust the mask, try to get to an itch on your nose, when you move your mask briefly in order to get a quick sip of water.

Also, worthy of note is the fact that breathing and talking into the mask and sneezing increases the moisture within the area of the face under the covering of the mask. This ends up increasing the skin's natural physiology. Eventually this causes overgrowth of bacteria causing acne. It could also explain inflamed hair follicles and a flare of rosasea.

The following are tips to bear in mind to help reduce the risk and effect of Maskne :

1) To avoid blemishes, you need to alter your skin care routine and consider what kind of mask you are wearing.

2) Make sure that your mask is the right size. Ensure that it is custom- fitted for your face.

3) Keeping your face clean is very crucial. Before wearing a mask, wash your face with a gentle facial cleanser such as Alaskin or Cetaphil or neutrogena.

4) Add soothing products e.g skinceuticals or Neutrogena or Avene's cicalfate restorative skin cream. These help to hydrate, repair and restore the skin by providing support for the barrier function of the skin.

5) Avoid wearing make up, which can soil the mask and further clog your skin.

6) To tackle irritation from masks from friction, barrier cream can be applied e.g Vanicream moisturizing ointment. The goal is to seal moisture into your skin to protect it.

7) You can also apply a moisturizer containing anti-inflammatory ingredients e.g Niacinamide.

8) Use eco-friendly laundry detergent to wash your face masks to further reduce chances of irritation especially for the washable masks.

9) Overall, sleep well. Eat fruits and vegetables. Drink lots of water.

10) Most importantly, stay safe. Maintain social distancing and wash your hands.

Stay sweet. Stay safe. Stay sassy!

“If you have health, you probably will be happy, and if you have health and happiness, you have the wealth you need, even if it is not all you want.”

– Elbert Hubbard

Hope For A New Day

noreply@blogger.com (Drfunmi) — Sun, 10 Jan 2021 00:27:00 +0000

Happy New year friends. May this be a great year for you all. May you never have to describe it with the word horror . Rather, may it be filled with hope of brighter days. That is why I want to talk about hope today.

I randomly decided to type in the word "hope" into my google search box and curiously awaited my results. The first thing that caught my eyes was the definition of hope. First was the noun which means ; a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen, synonymous with aspiration, desire, wish, expectation, ambition, aim, plan, dream, daydream, pipe dream.

While the verb means ' to want something to happen or be the case'.

This is synonymous with expect, anticipate, look for, wait for, be hopeful of, pin one's hopes on, want.

This year 2021, you have to want something great and positively mind-blowing happen to you. You have to work very hard to make sure that happens.

What have you written down in your journal as a list of things you desire to achieve? You have to be hopeful that they can in fact become realities. However, beyond hoping, you have to put in the work and watch your dreams come to life and flourish.

You can live without food for three weeks and survive. Mahatma Gandhi survived 21 days of starvation without food. The maximum a human can go without water is a week and that is a generous estimate. Perhaps three to four days would be closer to being accurate because at least 60 % of the adult body and every living cell requires water to function optimally.

However , you cannot survive a day without hope. You have to hope for something. Even if it is for the next meal, a birthday party, a childhood dream, an invention, a book you have been writing for ages, or just the hope for a brighter tomorrow. That the future would be glorious even if the the present has nothing glamorous about it, not even a hint of it. Hope preserves the soul. It gives you at least a thread to hang on to no matter how thin.

The moment a man looses hope, then it's over. No matter how bad life gets, it is not over till it is actually over. As long as you still have breath in you, you should be good. You can always make a come back. If there is hope for a tree that is cut down that springs back to life at the scent of water, how much more you.

"Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness".

-Desmond Tutu

Happy New year again everyone. Welcome to your best year yet!

"Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence".

-Helen Keller

Lessons Learnt From the Year 2020

noreply@blogger.com (Drfunmi) — Sat, 26 Dec 2020 09:08:00 +0000

I know this year 2020 has been a year like no other. It is the year of the Pandemic. We have experienced a lot of dimensions to this pandemic. A lot has happened. A lot of tears have been shed. A lot of pain have been endured across the globe this year. I am not sure any dolorimeter has been designed to cater to the immense measure of pain 2020 has spewn on earth. Many have lost their sources of livelihood. Many have lost their homes. Many have lost their dignity. Many have gone hungry. Many have lost their marriages. Many have lost their lives. It is almost too much. However, you made it up to this point! There is still hope. There is covid vaccine now available which is also reported to be quite effective. The vaccine has been described as "A Ray of Hope". Some call it "A Shot of Hope". Wait for and wait on this hope. We know that hope is that ability to chose to see light despite all the darkness.

I know you had high hopes for this year. Big dreams, dazzling visions on our vision boards. However, this year made us cry, a lot. It toughed us. It separated us. It broke us. It stole our smiles. It stole jobs. It stole the brightest minds. It stole the warmest of hearts. It rendered many homeless. It rendered many hungry. It tossed us to and fro with the winds, but it did not destroy us because we have hope. Therefore, because we have hope, we are assured of a fact that the darkness will lift. The flowers will bloom again and again we will flourish. Again, we will see each other’s smiles again. Gradually laughter and joy will paint the canvas of our world in a rainbow of colors.

Let us not be quick to forget the lessons the year 2020 taught us.

1) Choose a vocation that will survive a pandemic. I know life is unpredictable and sometimes life just happens to the best of us. Just make sure that whatever you choose to do with your life, make sure it will stand a "pandemic test".

2) Choose a spouse you will be happy to be stuck with in a pandemic. Many marriages ended in divorce as a result of this pandemic. Some of the reasons include lack of commitment and infidelity. Another major reason is because of problems with money. When you can't take care of your survival needs , the rest of the relationship is bound to fail.

3) Remember that the year 2020 taught us what really matters in life - our genuine connections ( with family and friends)

4) It taught us that sometimes, when you love someone, you make hard choices for them. Remember how we had to stay home at the beginning in the process of flattening the curve. Many health care professionals had to stay away from their loved ones.

5) It is good to plan but it was a stark reminder that man proposes but God disposes. Life is vanity upon vanity. However, Still have plans, but place it all in God’s hands

6) The importance of saving for the rainy day. It taught us the value of securing the financial future of our families

7) Never invest so much in make up. What is the point? You barely touched your make-up this year and you are fine. Embrace more of your natural self.

This year, our creative juices flowed in ways we could not have imagined.

We learnt a lot about life, about ourselves and about corona virus.

We adapted. We changed. We grew. We evolved. That is good.

There is light at the end of the tunnel.

People Bondage

noreply@blogger.com (Drfunmi) — Sun, 20 Dec 2020 01:37:00 +0000

Talking about my personal journey, I have lost count of the number of people that have ever made comments on my eyes. Some were nice, some were rude, but I really never cared because my eyes are one of the qualities that endeared me to my then fiance, now husband. You have to free yourself from the "people bondage". There is nothing that can be perfect in their eyes anyway, which is totally fine. As long as you are perfect to yourself each time you look in the mirror. As long as the person staring back at you makes you smile, people's opinions do not count. 'Your eyes are beautiful'. "You have 'cat eyes'". "Your eyes are big". "Your eyes are globular". "Your eyes are sexy". "Your eyes are huge". As far as I am concerned, my eyes are beautiful because God made me beautifully in His image and in His likeness. No one on earth contributed anything to the way they look until they discovered plastic surgery. So I am content in my own skin. I love my eyes. They allow me see and accommodate images. As long as they are able to allow light pass through my cornea, which in turn refracts in-coming light, and then the retina is able pick up the light sensation and convert it to electrical signals which then travel through my optic nerve to my brain. As long as I can see with my eyes, the rest is a small do.

Many people need liberation from this evil bondage. The negative voices that keep people shackled and unable to maximize their full potentials. These voices say things like:

"That is too ambitious".

"You are a bit loud".

"You are wasting your time".

"I don’t think you can do that".

"That is not what your mates are doing".

"You are too passionate".

"You are too nice".

"You are acting unschooled".

"You are too unconventional".

"You need to tone it down a little".

"You don’t have what it takes to do it".

"You have to study medicine".

"You cannot make it if that is all you do".

"I told you this would happen to you".

"You brought this on yourself".

"You will never amount to something".

"You are not serious".

"You will struggle before you have a girl-child (true life story)

"You are too short".

"You are too old".

"You are too overdressed".

When you allow all these statements hold you back, you rob yourself of greatness. They put you in chains and keep you held in dungeons of self-doubt.

Break free from every chains today.

Receive relief from every "People bondage".

Find liberation in your mind with an epic mental shift so that you are able to actualize the future of your dreams.

“I had to grow to love my body. I did not have a good self-image at first. Finally it occurred to me, I’m either going to love me or hate me. And I chose to love myself. Then everything kind of sprung from there. Things that I thought weren’t attractive became sexy. Confidence makes you sexy.” – Queen Latifah

The Lottery of Grace

noreply@blogger.com (Drfunmi) — Mon, 02 Nov 2020 03:04:00 +0000

A while ago, before my residency program started, we drove to the gas station to get some fuel into the car. While my husband was sorting that out, I looked across at the convenience store within the gas station and saw a notice pasted on the window stating that someone had won $50,000.00 in lottery at that location. I found that quite interesting. Normally I do not even bother to try the lottery because I just don't do well with anything lottery-like. So, I decided to find out the probability of actually winning a lottery.

At the time, I realized that the probability of winning a jackpot was 1 in 13,983,816. You have a better chance of getting in a car accident, plane accident or getting struck by lightening than it is to win the lottery.

I actually did a little research and found out that the lifetime odds of dying from a local meteorite, asteroid or comet impact was 1 in 1,600,000. Compared with 1 in 90 for a car accident, 1 in 250 for a fire, 1 in 60,000 for a tornado, 1 in 135,000 for lightning, 1 in 8 million for a shark attack, or 1 in 195 million for winning the PowerBall lottery.

If the probability of you being struck by lightening (as rare as that is) is relatively higher than the probability of being hit by an asteroid which is also higher than that of winning a lottery. Then, Why do people still play the lottery?

I asked someone this question and the person answered “hope”.

Then hope must be a powerful thing.

According to Laini Taylor "Hope can be a powerful force. Maybe there 's actual magic in it, but when you know what you hope for most and hold it like a light within you, you can make things happen, almost like magic."

That is a powerful quote on hope. I see hope as a light that has the capability to make every darkness go into oblivion. Whatever, life chooses to do to you, never lose your light. Don't give up hope, ever.

Another day, I was getting the children ready for school and we were having one of our early-morning-before school, morning-preparation talks when my daughter said to me "you are so lucky". To which I responded, " sweetheart, I am not lucky, I am graced"! I had to explain to her. Then my son, who was listening to the conversation all along said " Mommy, tell me about grace." To which I said " dear son, grace is the unmerited favor of God that makes us receive without asking. It makes things much easier". Then he said "okay mommy". He seemed satisfied with my response. It was a great teaching moment.

My life is a product of the grace of God. So when I say I do not operate by luck I know exactly what I am talking about. Daily I win a lottery of grace!

" A lesson for all of us is that for every loss, there is victory, for every sadness, there is joy, and when you think you've lost everything, there is hope."

- Geraldine Solon

The Dark side of Choice.

noreply@blogger.com (Drfunmi) — Sun, 20 Sep 2020 06:17:00 +0000

I love writing. I derive pleasure in simply putting pen to paper. I have written a host of things that lie hidden and carefully stored away from prying eyes. However, I have made a resolve to share some of those hence, I share a piece I wrote over a year ago as I realized that it is quite relevant at this time. I call it " The Dark side of Choice".

Choice is supposed to be a good thing. A gift in itself. Alas, it is sometimes the bane of many pursuits in life. If peradventure you make a wrong choice, then you are totally tangential to your destiny and that is rather unfortunate. So choice is a big deal. Choice is a serious business.

Imagine my frustration when I went to the ice-cream parlour once to treat myself to a great sweet tasting, having crushed my health goals for the week and desiring to reward myself. I simply wanted ice- cream, that was all I wanted only to be confronted with a long list of options. You won't believe there were about 32 different options of ice-cream flavours to choose from. I am not kidding.

There was apple pie,banana, birthday cake, butter brickle, butter pecan, cappuccino, craze, cherry vanilla, chocolate, chocolate almond, chocolate rainforest, chocolate marshmellow, coffee, cookie dough, cookies 'N' cream, cookie monster, eggnog, espresso, Kahlua & cream, maple walnut, mint chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, orange pineapple, pistachio, peanut butter cup, rocky mountain raspberry, rum raisin, strawberry, strawberry cheesecake, vanilla, vanilla fudge, and vanilla peanut butter. What was supposed to be a simple delight turned out to be a virtual mimick my medical board exams.

It is almost as if this society is all set to make life difficult with the constant barrage with the need to make sophisticated selections that would either make or mar us on the free platter of choice.That is the 'dark' side of choice. Choice in itself is an inordinate thing. Choice is like an invisible wand placed in the hands of every human with the ability to wield it at your own pleasure to decide your own fate. That is puissant , almost scary. It is birthed out of your free will. Your voilition.

Free will is defined as the power of acting without the constraint of necessity or fate; the ability to act at one's own discretion. Free will is the ability to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded. Free will is closely linked to the concepts of responsibility, praise, guilt, sin, and other judgements which apply only to actions that are freely chosen.

While Choice is defined as an act of selecting or making a decision when faced with two or more possibilities.

There is an information overload that doesn't help matters at all. We have information hitting us from left, right and center, almost unsolicited like tennis balls drifting hapharzardly across the court. This should be no surprise because the good book helps us understand that in the last days, knowledge will increase. Indeed these are perilious times . To say the least, we are in a pandemic. Therefore making simple decisions a herculean task. The choice of a phone plan, the phone itself, the food to eat, what to drink, what movie to watch, who to marry. The list is endless.

There has to be a blessing in choice. It was meant to be a gift in the first place. Even though it was choice that put our very first ancestors is trouble. How then can we err on the side of caution when it comes to choice ? Having options in life , being privy to alternatives given a certain level of control, almost like a leeway to express the entirety of our humanity.

Ultimately, what you decide to do with choice when faced with it is your call. Therefore, clinch it and have a free ride.

“Sometimes it’s the smallest decisions that can change your life forever.” — Keri Russell

THE PROCESS

noreply@blogger.com (Drfunmi) — Mon, 07 Sep 2020 02:44:00 +0000

Hello World, it has been a long while. I took a short break off this blog to focus on life. A lot has happened since I last posted here; however, one thing I can say is that I am back and I am better. I have been through a process of refinement and now have a better understanding of who I really am. I am in a better relationship with myself and it can only get better. Thus, I am re-launching a new season of my blogging experience with this short poem I wrote below. Enjoy.

What you become in the process is more important than the dream itself.

The kind of person that you become,

The kind of character that you build,

The courage that you develop,

The resilience you retain,

The faith you are developing,

Are all an integral component of your process of becoming.

So, when life gets hard, do it hard,

When life gets tough, do it tough.

The process is an integral part of your story.

The scars and tears along the way are only trophies that complete the story.

It is like the customized logo of your journey.

Embrace it and appreciate the uniqueness of it.

Comparing yours with that of another is a mistake too grave.

It is like setting yourself up for unwarranted heart-break

The beauty of your process is the charting of your path to ‘becoming’.

The process takes you to a place of beauty where your purpose is given full expression and your destiny is realized.

Pursuing the process paves the path to "the happy place".

Till when next I post here again, remember that life indeed is beautiful.

“Life is a gift, and it offers us the privilege, opportunity, and responsibility to give something back by becoming more.” - Tony Robins

The Tale of The Virus That Changed The World

noreply@blogger.com (Drfunmi) — Sun, 26 Apr 2020 02:56:00 +0000

The true narrative of this epic year began to unfold before our very eyes, initially like a joke, till we all realized we are in this drama for a long haul. Our only hope is that it ends as a comedy. However, that kind of sounds like wishful thinking in the light of what has transpired in these past horrific weeks. The world as we know it, our lives, will never be the same again.

As the year started out, words like “furlough”, “pandemic”, “N95”, “virus”, “surge”, “quarantine”, “ventilator” and even statements like “flattening the curve”, “stay at home”, “those fighting on the front lines”, “stimulus cheques” were not part of our day-to-day vocabulary as it has sadly become our reality. The abrupt change in routine is not part of the typical modus operandi.

What is this micro-organism that has thrown the world into chaos? What is this contagion that has put nations on their knees and has snatched away our brightest in their prime?
What is this plague that has torn families apart - some transiently, some permanently? This virus that has left an indelible marks on most families one way or the other belong to a family itself - the family Coronaviridae. The coronavirus name is derived from the latin word “corona” meaning “crown”. Why have you chosen to crown our lives with so much uncertainty, so much pain? This novel virus called SAR-CoV-2(severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 causes coronavirus disease(COVID-19).

When all these started initially, I was asked to give short talk in my church on how people can protect themselves. I tagged my talk "Covid 19 Awareness". I remember vividly researching how many cases there were in Pennsylvania at the time. That was March 7th, 2020. At that time, there were only 4 reported cases in Pennsylvania which I quoted in my presentation. Today, according to the Pennsylvania department of health, there are 40,049. That is astronomical. It is a mind-blowing geometric progression.

I have been too stunned to write in the past few weeks. Each time I pick my virtual pen, I drop it again out of a mixture of horror, shock and sheer difficulty in grasping the reality of what daily unfolds in recent times. It feels like a horror movie. For one, I never liked horror movies and obviously never will. Every night, I watch David Muir, my favorite newscaster report the hard-breaking yet unbelievable news. Each night, my little ones say a pray that God would take the virus away and that He would make those sick feel better. The furrowed concerns on the face of a three year old with clasped hands as she says her bedtime prayers, heads bowed deeply perturbed by how quickly the world is changing around her, hence her thoughtful prayers. She wants to run free-spirited in the parks again, she wants to build sand castles by the beach again. She misses her friends and wants to go back to school. She was heart-broken when the trip to Disney world was cancelled. I understand her pain. I get it. Wouldn't we all do anything to have "normal" back.

Back in my country of origin, doctors are seen as demigods. When health is concerned, what the doctor says is final. Here, some doctors have been saddled with the herculean task of deciding who has a chance at living or not; playing musical chairs with who gets the ventilator or not. The role of demigods have been entrusted without their permission, without their informed consent. It is a new terrain for many. Too much uncertainty.

As a result of the “lock-down”, a week of which coincided with my paid time off which meant I basically had no real time off as I picked up a multi-faceted, yet joyful job in which I am the class teacher, day-care coordinator, janitor, kitchen coordinator, gym instructor, referee, as I have had to settle fights between under fives. What is that compared to what we face as the “front-liners”? Therefore I cannot complain but basically suck it up and do life.

Each time I felt chills, I took my own temperature and anxiously wait for two agonizing minutes. Never realized two minutes could be that long. I constantly remember the conversation I had with my dear friend and colleague who is based in England who told me about some patients whose only symptom was nausea; another, only sore throat. So each time I felt some dryness in my throat, I think about “it”. Perhaps I feel slightly nauseous, I quizzed to myself. These atypical presentations would give you some level of concern.

Each time I got back home, I exerted an initial inertia about hugging my kids. Actually, the initial instant hugs and kisses is almost non-existent and perhaps extinct, as mommy has to go through the ritual of decontaminating herself from whatever is left of what she brought from the hospital. She has to wash her hands, take off her clothes and have a quick shower. Being smart and really sensitive kids, they have come to accept the fact that mommy would not hug them right away but loves them loads. They became okay with it. No, it's not okay. It is almost like an imaginary, invisible wall that transiently divides us. The painful new reality of our times.

I appreciate the frantic calls and text messages from long lost friends who felt compelled to check up on a friend “at the fore-front”. I shudder each time I hear that phrase and each time I say a silent prayer in my heart for all my colleagues and all the people at the anterior portion of probably one of the greatest battles of our lives.

Yet another extra rhetorical question for the umpteenth time is ‘what would become of the world post Covid-19 era? This is because of a truth this too shall pass.

We must find the courage to pick up from the ruins of this war and indeed build an edifice of hope yet again. As the novel coronavirus continues to take its toll on populations of the earth, let us hold on to hope. It’s all we have left as we patiently wait for the darkness to lift and give way to light.

Till the similitude of normalcy returns, wash your hands, cover your sneezes, wear a face covering if you must go out, ensure social distancing, stay at home and pray hard.

“Darkness comes. In the middle of it, the future looks blank. The temptation to quit is huge. Don’t. You are in good company… You will argue with yourself that there is no way forward. But with God, nothing is impossible. He has more ropes and ladders and tunnels out of pits than you can conceive. Wait. Pray without ceasing. Hope.”
– John Piper

Cervical Cancer Awareness: What You Should Know.

noreply@blogger.com (Drfunmi) — Sun, 19 Jan 2020 22:54:00 +0000

Several years ago, I was a freshly minted medical doctor who found herself as the only doctor-on-call in the Emergency room of a JCI-accredited hospital deep in the heart of Lagos, Nigeria. I quickly realized early in my career life that the ER was not going to be my "thing". I knew pretty early to choose internal medicine. There I was, face to face with a middle-aged woman who was in acute painful distress from complications of cervical cancer that had spread around her body. I did all I could to alleviate her pain. I cannot forget the forlorn look on her face. The sad reality is that her clinical state at that time could have been prevented. If only she was equipped with knowledge and deep understanding about cervical cancer and it's prevention pretty early.
A couple of years back, my mom came visiting on holiday from Nigeria and I ensured that she had a cervical screening before she left back for home. I know that I am a good daughter, thank you. Apart from the "feel good" vibes. It was reassuring to know things are okay from that perspective.
Are things okay from "that perspective" for you and all you loved ones that are females?
I had mine done last year and that was okay. That sounded like TMI, but anyways... Just trying to motivate at least someone to do the right thing. I believe in leadership by example. So, do as I do!

The United States Congress designated January as Cervical Health Awareness Month. Nearly 13,000 women in the United States are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year, but the disease is virtually always preventable with vaccination and appropriate screening (Pap and HPV tests).
While cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women living in less developed regions with an estimated 570 000 new cases in 2018 (84% of the new cases worldwide).

For a disease that is so preventable, it is so unfortunate when it happens. Almost a disaster.
That is why I am taking advantage of the fact that the month of January is cervical cancer awareness month to educate, inform and encourage people to make informed choices about their health.
Cervical cancer screening with Pap smear lowers mortality( this means the state of being subject to death). The pap smear should start at age 21 years. This is regardless of the onset of sexual activity. Pap smears should be done at every three years until age 65 years, when they can be stopped. Cervical Pap screening has dramatically lowered cervical cancer mortality by detecting precancerous changes before they progress to invasive cancer.

Two screening tests can help prevent cervical cancer or find it early:
1) The Pap test (or Pap smear) which looks for precancers, cell changes on the cervix that might become cervical cancer if they are not treated appropriately.
2) The HPV test which looks for the virus (human papillomavirus) that can cause these cell changes.

Both tests can be done in a doctor’s office or clinic. During the Pap test, the doctor will use a plastic or metal instrument, called a speculum, to widen your vagina. This helps the doctor examine the vagina and the cervix, and collect a few cells and mucus from the cervix and the area around it. The cells are sent to a laboratory.

HPV infections are the most common sexually transmitted infections in the United States. Anyone who has ever been sexually active can get HPV, but you are more likely to get it if you have had many sex partners or have had sex with someone who has had many partners. Because it is so common, most people get HPV infections shortly after becoming sexually active for the first time.
Cervical cancer is caused by sexually acquired infection with certain types of HPV.
Two HPV types (16 and 18) cause 70% of cervical cancers and pre-cancerous cervical lesions. There is also evidence linking HPV with cancers of the anus, vulva, vagina, penis and oropharynx.

HPV(Human papillomavirus virus) vaccine is approved for men and women up to age 45 years. Human papillomavirus vaccine can prevent cervical, anal and oral cancers. The Gardasil 9 vaccine, which was approved by the FDA a couple of years back, protects against nine different strains of human papillomavirus (HPV), to cover women and men ages 27 to 45.

Prevention is better than cure. Take charge of your healthy today and spread the message!

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
― Benjamin Franklin

Things To Consider Before the New Year

noreply@blogger.com (Drfunmi) — Sun, 29 Dec 2019 06:13:00 +0000

No matter how disappointed you tend to feel regarding all you had set out to achieve at the beginning of the year, but for some reason just did not happen, stop beating yourself up. Stop blaming the universe for your portion. Stop crying over spilt milk. Actually, it's high time you picked a mop and decide to dry up the floor with the moping stick and rid it of the wasted "milk". Stop dwelling on the mechanism with which the "event" happened and simply move on.
At least try and give yourself some degree of credit for the things you did achieve, even if it is not much. Peradventure you had list of things you really wanted to achieve, but only sixty percent of that happened. Hey, celebrate! You are no longer who you used to be. You are 365 plus days wiser in experience, both on how things should be done, as well as how they are not supposed to be done.You have another opportunity in the coming New year to re-focus, re-analyze, re-strategize, and attain all your heart truly desires. Come up with a new, realistic and feasible plan. You cannot continue to choose to do things the same way and expect a different result. Albert Einstein defined that as the definition of madness. As a matter of fact, I advice you to ditch New year resolutions because those are only as good as 2 weeks and for some pretty determined people, maybe a month.

I implore you to move away from this quite deceptive concept of waiting to make "New year resolutions" before trying to make necessary changes, or make better choices.
I have tried those in the past and I can tell you from experience that they do not last very long. Start making necessary changes now.

Below are some important things to consider as you head for another brand New year.

Write down a list of things you want to achieve.
Create a vivid list of goals you want to see come to pass in your life. Write them down for two reasons - as a reference and as a yardstick to measure how much you have achieved. There is something beyond fulfilling as you tick something off your annual "To-do" list.

Have a Vision Board.
I created one for the very first time this year and it was good. Being a very visual learner, it was great and just perfect for me. You can do the same. When you see it, it reminds you of your "why" as well as your dream target. Thereby infusing in you the energy to pursue and eventually achieve.

Take your health seriously.
I cannot emphasize this enough. I work in the hospital, so believe me that I know what I am saying when I say it is high time you took your health seriously. Schedule your annual physical visit. Don't skip or ignore screening visits. Those may save your life. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables. Incorporate these deliberately into your diet. Have a plan for working out. Be it in the comfort of your home or at the gym. Pay the subscription and purpose to go in January, February, March, still going strong in April, not absconded in May, or totally lost to follow up by December! Don't be that guy or lady.

Surround yourself with people who inspire you to be a better version of yourself.
Not people who feel they are in competition with you. Not people who pull you down in words and in their actions. Surround yourself with driven, high achieving, goal-oriented people who have a true purpose in life and are passionately pursuing them.

Have a mentor. Choose wisely. Have a role model in whom you have found attributes you admire and hope to attain someday.

Read more. By now, I am sure you do not need a prophet to tell you that readers are leaders. That reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. Exercise you mind, your brain. Your brain is made up of about 86 billion neurons. Reading improves the connectivity of these neurons which improves people's memories, increase your brain power. If last year you read only five books because of your hectic busy life, in the coming year, plan to read at least ten.

Have Dreams that leave you scared.
If your dreams don't give you palpitations or make a chill go down your spine when you think about it, then it is not big enough. You need to dream bigger.

Be ready for battle.
To shut down negative voices that tell you that you are not good enough, or that you are very stupid for having such huge dreams. To confront and deal with people who try to speak negativity into your life. You have to make up your mind that things will not be "business as usual".

Shut out the distractions.
Know when you have had enough of social media. Know when to shut your phone off. FOMO(which according to evolutionary biology is an omnipresent anxiety that an exciting or interesting event may currently be happening elsewhere) would not kill you! Think about it for a second, people survived the stone age. You will do just fine.

Schedule a retreat.
Plan to have a set time for a couple of days or a weekend to re-discover yourself, to re-define the direction of your life. It is so easy to get "lost" in the mundane of routine everyday life in the fast lane. To seek the face of your maker. This is different from vacation or you can have a fusion of both. Just find what works for you and make it happen.

Purpose to be a happier person.
One thing I realized is that nobody else is responsible for your happiness in life. Not your mom, your spouse or best friend despite their best intentions. You are to custodian of your own happiness. You are the minister for happiness for your own life! You might not have control over the things that happen around you or what people do to you, but you have the absolute power to control your response. Choose to be happy in the days to come.

I wish you all a Happy New Year ahead. May all your dreams - wild and gargantuan come true.

“Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.” —Oprah Winfrey

Embracing a Fitness Lifestyle

noreply@blogger.com (Drfunmi) — Sun, 01 Dec 2019 04:42:00 +0000

Many people, especially young professionals tend to live life in the fast lane with the associated pressures that come with it. You cannot blame them because a desire for success and a better future tends to drive most people. Therefore, there is this tendency to get carried away by the busyness of work and have genuine excuse for not working out.

I realized that you have two options basically - either to do something or do nothing. You either make up your mind to live healthy and sometimes practically drag your tired body to the gym.
It might be hard and painful but at the end, you will have yourself to thank for that singular decision.

Here are a few Tips to ensure a fitness lifestyle:

1) Choose the stairs over the elevator - You will be amazed by how many steps you get in by just making a decision to use the stairs and ditch the lifts. Apart from helping to keep you fit, this saves you time.

2) Register at the gym - Even for really self-motivated individuals, working out alone by yourself in the comfort of your house could be a herculean task, however going out of your way to the gym and seeing other people who are sold out to healthy living and a fitness lifestyle is a great source of motivation.

3) Determination is key- You have to remind yourself why you are doing this and push yourself hard even when your body is weary. There was a time I left work after a night shift with practically no sleep in twelve hours, I dragged myself to the gym refusing to yield to the temptation to go straight to bed. In life, we have to make some tough and painful calls that ultimately would be beneficial.

4) Meal preparation - This involves planning ahead what you will eat and therefore getting all the necessary ingredients all ready and set to be cooked within few minutes. You can prepare your meals for the whole week ahead of time. This ensures being intentional with what you eat and this even saves you cost.

5) Be deliberate about what you feed yourself - read food labels. Limit coffee. I know this is a hard one especially for shift workers, but try. Eat lots of vegetables and good servings of fruits. Drink lots of water. This is the best drink.

A decision for healthy living is not always going to be easy, but it is a goal that is highly achievable if you put your mind to it.

"Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity."
- John F. Kennedy

The Value of Empathy in Medicine: An Intern's perspective.

noreply@blogger.com (Drfunmi) — Fri, 01 Nov 2019 02:00:00 +0000

Having survived my very first quarter of internship, I decided to share some gained perspectives. I have never taken for granted for once the rare opportunity for a foreign medical graduate like myself to be able to take my residency training here in the United States of America.
Even though this is like my third internship literally speaking, across three different continents, this is totally different. I do not know if the fact that the first time I did intern year, I was a young fresh graduate from a medical school who had just been officially "unleashed to the unsuspecting society" in the voice of one of my professors back in Nigeria ,who had this practical joke of a statement about interns. I approached and embraced life as a real doctor with great gusto. I aced intern year without stress or tears. I was by myself.

The second time I did intern year, I was back in England. I have always been a soul passionate about medicine. Such that when the winds of life blew me to the land of the Queen, while husband was following his dreams of pursuing a Masters at the prestigious Oxford University, I took all the board exams and did my intern year, again. That statement I summarized into a single sentence involved a lot of sweat, midnight candles, and a lot of pound-sterling. This time I obviously had a husband.

The third time and definitely the last time(I had a conversation with myself, this is it!) I found myself doing an internship at this really wonderful program that chance alone cannot explain how I landed here. There has to be an alternative explanation from the universe for how this happened. Call it sheer stroke of luck, call it a miracle, you definitely would not be too far off from the truth. This time, I am not by myself. Now I have a husband, a son and a daughter.

Life has handed me a fair share of the bargain. I have been through pain, overcome insurmountable hardship, trudged through loads of adversity, yet nothing I have been through prepared my for this - Residency in "The land of the free and the home of the brave". Not even my novelty experience of living in the City of the Dreaming Spires. You would assume that there would be a magical innoculation of some sort having lived and trodded the same soil as Stephen Hawkings did. Unfortunately, life does not seem to work that way. How disappointing.

However, it has not been all doom and gloom. The sacred occasion to handle and care for human lives, the smiles on the faces of patients relieved of their initial sufferings, the intense gratitude from family members, whose loved one's life, you saved. The feeling of accomplishment that you truly made a difference in the world. These are worth more than gold.
In those first few months of residency, I have been so close to tears, literally on the edge of wailing but summoning all my will-power not to disgrace myself, my family and the entire medical profession because doctors are not supposed to cry. Like we are some super-humans with some encrypted genes that make us immune to physically expressing our emotions. We are supposed to maintain that outward stoic stance of the formidably, unperturbed personality. It is anathema to express your emotions, so we bottle things up till perhaps many exceed the elastic limit beyond which they cannot handle it all anymore.
One thing I can say is that I still have my empathy intact. The fact that I can still feel something. This is still a good sign. It has to be. Many do not simply feel anything anymore. It is almost like their souls are fibrosed! When a tissue is exposed to so much injury, it tries to heal itself, it goes through a process which involves inflammation trying to default to previous setting and eventually fibrosis occurs. Many healthcare professionals are "scarred" from the many "trauma" they face daily.

I was very close to tears as I watched the family of that man helplessly sat transfixed as my team back in the ICU ruined their day by telling them their father and husband was not going to make it. True to the prediction, he died that day.
I will never forget the forlorn look on the face of that mother who told me her young daughter had a DNR(Do Not Resuscitate order) in place. As I took the history about her daughter from her, my mouth quivered and I literally choked back tears as I struggled to wrap my head around how she seemed so settled about the inevitable.
Another instance was having to "break bad news" to a family. For any intern or any doctor at all, this is always a tough one because what you are about to say will forever alter a family and your face shall always be imprinted on their memory as the "harbinger of doom" of some sort.
It is a tough job.

The question is How do we deal with this day in, day out? Especially, coupled with the events, twist and turns of our own personal lives? How is any medical professional okay?
How do we maintain our passion for the profession, our unflinching love for medicine, commitment to save human lives and empathy in the face this enormous avalanche of emotional overload?
How do healthcare professionals handle the stress life throws their way every single day?
Physician burn out is a real thing.

Many times, I have felt like stopping many of my colleagues to ask them if they truly love this life, this job.Of course, I stiffle the thought and bury it deep down in the abyss of my soul. Simply because many times I see pain and regret in people's eyes. I see frustration written all over many faces. I see a lot of people who "show up to the job". For the love of mike, there are bills to be paid! Totally understandable.
I do not even want to digress into the reasons many chose the medical profession. Obviously, if you chose it simply because of money, you are definitely wrong.

I was taken aback when one of my colleagues actually asked me genuinely if I was doing ok. The person had asked specifically, "How are you feeling?" Of course I was not doing "Okay". It's residency! How could I be? I felt chronically sleep deprived, with two little ones- both under five to care for on my own(hubby travels a lot for work) and close to mental exhaustion because I am on a rather busy stretch on the rota. However, the next thing the person said blew me off. Totally unexpected. "I will be praying for extra strength for you tonight" was the magical phrase uttered by this lovely person. I was shocked because, sincerely no one at work has ever said that to me.
Imagine a medical work environment where we all look out for each other or even go the extra mile to even pray for extra strength for one another. Imagine a perfect work- place totally rid of its unhealthy hierarchial rivalry or the typical "mind your business attitude" in the setting of calculated nonchalance. When people, would take a second to genuinely inquire after one another and lift each other up in words and in deeds. Perhaps, we might be able to cushion a "fall" that would have otherwise been fatal or prevent anyone from 'arresting' in their journey of life. Then perhaps we could save more people, we could save more of our very own.

Health concerns of High Fructose Corn Syrup

noreply@blogger.com (Drfunmi) — Mon, 30 Sep 2019 05:16:00 +0000

A while back on one of my instagram stories, I shared about the difference between an organic ketchup and one that was not and I got a lot of questions. I was basically emphasizing the importance of reading food labels. I advised that when you pick up an item and read the label, and find out that it has high corn fructose syrup, give it serious considerations before you make a decision whether to buy or not. Many times I have had to put items carefully back on the shelf. In my search for answers about the real deal about high corn fructose syrup, I realized that many health care professionals do not believe that it has nutritional value. More often than not, it is usually added as an inexpensive sweetener to processed high-calorie food and drinks.
You have to be sure that yourself and your family are consuming healthy food content.

I once wrote a previous post on The dangers of sugar. You can read about it here. However, I want to share some insights I came across about the dangers of consuming food items with high fructose corn syrup.
Before I proceed, a couple of questions.
Do you read food labels? What guides the choice what you pick up from the shelf into your shopping cart? Is it cost or how attractive the package looks?
What I basically do is read every single ingredient listed, personally, if I see any preservatives or high corn fructose syrup(HFCS) I just drop the item.
High fructose corn syrup is an industrial food product and far from “natural” or a naturally occurring substance. It is extracted from corn stalks through a chemical enzymatic process.
HFCS also consists of glucose and fructose, not in a 50-50 ratio, but a 55-45 fructose to glucose ratio in an unbound form. Since there is no chemical bond between them, no digestion is required so they are more rapidly absorbed into your blood stream. Fructose goes right to the liver and triggers lipogenesis (the production of fats like triglycerides and cholesterol) this is why it is the major cause of liver damage in this country and causes a condition called “fatty liver” which affects 70 million people.The rapidly absorbed glucose triggers big spikes in insulin–our body’s major fat storage hormone.
Fructose is sweeter than glucose.
Fructose itself is a natural ingredient in several foods, such as fruits, natural fruit juice, honey, and even some vegetables. However, some food manufacturers artificially add the compound (High fructose corn syrup) to soft drinks, other sugar-sweetened drinks, processed foods, desserts, cereals, and other baked foods.
HCFR when consumed even in "moderation" is a major cause of heart disease, obesity, cancer, dementia, liver failure, tooth decay, and more.
HFCS can trigger body-wide inflammation and obesity.
Also, in the course of my researching this topic I found out that HFCS contains contaminants including mercury that are not regulated or measured by the FDA.
Calorically sweetened beverages may enhance caloric over-consumption. Think about it, the sweeter it tastes, the more it appeals to your senses, as well as you!

A comprehensive review of existing research confirms that fructose-containing drinks can increase the risk of type 2 diabetes more than other foods that contain fructose.
High corn fructose syrup can contribute unwanted calories that are linked to health problems, such as weight gain, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome and high triglyceride levels. All of these boost your risk of heart disease.)
Glucose is easily transported and utilized by every cell in your body. It's also the predominant fuel source for high-intensity exercise and various processes.

In contrast, the fructose from high fructose corn syrup or table sugar needs to be converted to fat or glycogen (stored carbs) by the liver before it can be used as fuel. This is not helpful if your ultimate goal is not to gain extra weight.

High corn fructose syrup adds unnatural amounts of fructose to your diet, which the human body has not evolved to handle properly.
In essence, what I have been explaining is that as much as you avoid buying any food items loaded with high corn fructose syrup. The natural source is usually preferable. Also do not forget to always read food labels! Till research proves otherwise. Be safe out there people.

"There's nothing more important than our good health - that's our principal capital asset."

- Arlen Specter

Self-care in Residency

noreply@blogger.com (Drfunmi) — Wed, 28 Aug 2019 03:05:00 +0000

I lingered for few minutes as I stood transfixed totally awe-struck by the beauty of the magnificient sunset. Then I realized that I had been too busy to even have time to watch one of the free wonders of nature, the sunset.
It is so easy to get carried away by the sense of urgency that pervades our busy lives that we miss out on the simplest pleasures of life if care is not taken.
For doctors in residency, especially interns, it is so easy for all the excitement of getting into residency to gradually become a blur or fade into oblivion. That need not be your story. Hence, the purpose of this article.
There is a lot of discussions on avoiding burnout. I remember that was a whole lecture during our residency orientation.

I have a long-term affair with libraries. Hence one of the places I located when I started residency was the library. I had gone in to the hospital to study when on my way out, I discovered the library actually has books that are non-medical. It is a real library! I exclaimed to myself. So I paused and lingered a bit on that aisle that took me by surprise. There were a lot of self help and motivational books. However, my eyes caught this particular book titled " Burnout : The Cost of Caring " by Christina Maslach. She said and I quote that "In many of my research interviews, people said that the first bout with burnout was likely to happen in the first few years of one's career". I found this interesting because it only means that interns are particularly at risk. Since the intern year is usually the first job for most doctors.

Physician burnout is like an invisible force that 'drain' well meaning people who set out in their lives to do no harm, having sworn to the hippocratic oath. We all know this is an oath of ethics doctors have historically taken for years on end. However, when care is not taken, the very people who set out with good intentions for their patients stand the risk of causing them harm one way or another either as a 'near miss' or as an error. Nobody wants that. Hence, the grave importance of paying attention to the practice of taking action to preserve or improve one's own health. It is crucial to take active role in protecting one's own well-being and happiness, in particular during periods of stress, which pervades residency.
Allow me digress a little as I was particularly fascinated by the content of the modified version of the hippocratic oath as at 2019 that I came across while putting this blog post together. It states that:

"I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:

I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.

I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.

I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug.

I will not be ashamed to say "I know not," nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient's recovery.

I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.

I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person's family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.

I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.

I will protect the environment which sustains us, in the knowledge that the continuing health of ourselves and our societies is dependent on a healthy planet.

I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.

If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help".

The last time I read or spoke aloud this oath was several years ago during my induction as a doctor, and as I read it again, I basically got goose bumps because, the contents are not for a timid soul. Being a doctor comes with great responsibility such that to be that quintessential doctor that every patient would love, there is a need to pay attention to being sure that we are in the right frame of mind in all ramifications of life. Being the good doctor who is "hippocratic-oath-compliant" would require a person who is more than willing to take personal responsibility to first look after himself or herself. The truth remains, that you cannot give what you don't have. It is not possible to pour from an empty cup.

Whether we like it or not, at some point in our professional journeys, we would be faced with stress. Hence the need to talk about practical ways to deal with these stresses life would confront us with so it does not take a negative toll on the entirety of our lives as a whole.

Good self-care is key to improved mood and reduced anxiety. It's also key to a good relationship with oneself and others. It is perhaps the panacea for the exhaustion that is commonly associated with working in a high-pressure work environment like the hospital. Tell me who doesn't want that?
Here are some of the things you can pragmatically do to avoid burnout and actually self-care. They help maintain a balance between stress and calm:

Deliberately take walks. You will come back from work very tired. My advice is to wash your hands( especially if you work in the hospital you have to be obsessed with doing this already), wash your face. Put on your walking shoes and just move it. Your body would resist it initially, your legs will protest, your brain would make you believe it is irrational because you are physically tired, but eventually, as you take those first few steps, as you take those couple of breathes of fresh air into your lungs, gradually your legs would follow the rhythm of your gait, your brain would apologize that "well this isn't a bad idea after all, I almost robbed you of this bliss". Then you might be able to monster a smile at the end of the process. All I know is that it is not the same individual who walked out that door that returns. Then you could go shower, eat dinner, bond with family, read if you can and sleep. Self-care done! You are so rocking this and your program director would be so proud of this resplendently energized resident that has emerged.

Have a simple workout routine as basic minimum. It could be just 25 squats a day. I would take that over nothing. Half bread is better than none. It could be just 50 jumping jacks. It could be a short while with the skipping rope which by the way is just a dollar at the dollar store. I know there might be the temptation to give excuses that you do not have time to go to the gym. Create your own "gym" right where you are.

Eat healthy. Do meal prep. My residency program during our orientation did a great job of making us have a team building session that was a meal prep activity. It was really nice. Apart from the fact that I had enough tasty meals prepped ready for several weeks, it was a wake up call on the importance of meal prepping during residency in order to have optimum nutrition while outside the walls of the hospital because the hospital provides food at work.

Sleep well when you are not working. For someone who has worked crazy busy shifts back in England. I remember a particular season I was working at the acute care unit, taking calls while about seven months pregnant with my first child and working really hard because nobody really cares you have a bump, they just want you to do your job and deliver you must! One thing that perhaps saved my life was sleep. I never joked with my sleep. Don't either. Don't binge watch Netflix till the wee hours of the morning when you should be sleeping, you will pay dearly for it. Do not cheat nature . Do not underestimate the power of your beauty sleep. I resist the temptation to talk about the sleep cycle and the pathophysiology of sleep.

Connect with family and friends. You definitely need your social support. You need your village at this crucial moment in your life. This is not a time to start acting all grown up and maintaining a distance from your family while using work as an excuse. Arrange to meet up with a friend or group of friends. The love and support of family members helps an individual to cope with the emotional demands of work.

Do not abandon your hobby. Do what you love doing? For me, obviously, I am still blogging! I know many people who medical school took a lot of talents and hobbies away from them. Don't allow residency do the same to you. They say to stumble over the same stone twice is a proverbial disgrace.
Never give informed consent for this to be your portion.

Listen to relaxing music.
Music therapy is proven effective in stress management. On my interview trail, during the residency application process, I came across a Program director who mentioned to me some kind of music deemed "the most relaxing song on earth".
The song is "Weightless" by English ambient music band, Marconi Union. ... Dr. David Lewis-Hodgson of Mindlab International explains to Inc. that "Weightless" "produced a greater state of relaxation than any other music tested to date," dropping participants' anxiety rate by 65 percent.
“Without music, life would be a mistake” ― Friedrich Nietzsche.

Have a massage. This a great way to compensate yourself for all the hard-work you put in. You definitely deserve it. Just call for your own synchronized body massage today and revamp your life. Unpaid free advert alert...

Invest in some essential oils and body lotion. They have really calming and soothing effects. In fact I walked into a body shop once and came across a bottle of natural essential oils body lotion that practically had "Stress Relief" written on it. A very useful aromatherapy resource you should consider investing in. To be honest, it works wonders plus it has an amazing smell. Mind you, this is again an unpaid ad. Just sharing useful tips that I found helpful with others. I am not a selfish person. Take a trip to the nearest body shop to your domicile today.

Put on some yankee candles. One of my friends gave me a very lovely yankee candle as a parting gift just before I moved for residency and I am loving it. It is always so nice when I lit up a number of candles. Yes, I am now officially a yankee candle collector! Yankee candles do not have to necessarily connote romantic things, this is simply romance with yourself in form of self-care.
You can try to light some candles too. Apart from the fact that it is relaxing and you get a great ambience and you also get to reduce your electricity bill. It is a win-win situation.

Read a book. You either buy highly recommended books or re-read your favorite ones. Or better still get a library registration. Sometimes the most important thing to do in a day is it to try to take a rest between two breaths, and a good book would help you do that really well.

Show genuine concern for your colleagues. Be willing to help by stepping in with comfort and support in whatever way you can. Maybe just checking in to say hello or simply helping to answer questions they might have. You are the early warning system for burnout for your mates. If any of your colleagues suffer a burnout, it is on you. Just kidding. However be your brother's keeper or should I say be your 'sister's keeper'.

Avoid Binge-watching Netflix. I mentioned this earlier and now just reiterating it. I have nothing against Netflix. In fact I have a list of movie- backlogs that I need to clear, but one of my personal rules for residency is to try not to binge-watch season movies because one way or the other, you will pay dearly for it. In that, you are decreasing from your regular daily sleep quota. I tried it in the past, it felt good in the moment but afterwards, I did regret my actions. You can watch a couple of episodes, then place a personal embargo on any more.

Lay your own bed. This is a rare or outrightly weird form of self-care. How can making my bed ever be a form of self-care? Let me explain.
If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. Making your own bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter. Those little things that the stress of work so easily snatch away from us. Making your bed might be a small accomplishment, but it's very important because it sets the tone for the entire day. This is a great form of self-care. Make your bed today!

Ensure you hydrate throughout the day. Always grab a bottle of water before you head out of the door. Drink lots of water. Cut down on or avoid caffeine if you can. Don't allow residency turn you into a caffeinated person. Coffee is okay but don't become a coffee addict. Drink water.

Never skip breakfast. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I do not think it is an economic strategy by the cereal manufacturers to make more money. Think twice next time before you skip breakfast.

I have talked about a number of things which I continue to find really helpful. I hope you make of paramount importance your own self-management and personal care. Never forget to take time out to listen to the tweeting of the birds, the chirping crickets or perceive the smell of the beautiful flowers, to feel the breeze blow across your face.

Residency is not a 'sentence', it is a pathway to greater things to come.
The way most residencies are designed, it seems like a sinusoidal curve to me. In which there is this season of crazy, mad, busy patch of the rota and then a 'cooling' down season. You need to take advantage of this. That season when it seems like work is chilled, take advantage of it. Visit fun places, bond with family, take time to cook your favorite cuisine since you know that might not happen again till the next 'cooling season' which could be another month. However, I would rather take something than nothing. That is the smart thing to do.

In other to avoid burning out from the stress of our daily lives in the fast lane, there is a great need to make of paramount importance self care. Deliberately reseting our whole being. The key to prevention is early action. Putting the right measures to reduce your risk of burning out. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I know it is easier said than done, but at least Try!
Fuel your tank and never run on empty.
Who will help the helper? Just look in the mirror - Yourself!

“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes…Including you.” –Anne Lamott

The First Week of Residency

noreply@blogger.com (Drfunmi) — Mon, 15 Jul 2019 17:51:00 +0000

The journey culminating in the start of my residency program in Internal Medicine has been a mix of excitement, 'hussle', 'grind', sweat, 'burning the midnight candle', several highs, lows and of course joy. To read about my journey into residency, you can read here.

After completing two weeks of orientation and getting acclimatized to what was “coming” through several lectures, simulations, boot camps, group activities, BLS course, the ACLS course, fundamentals of critical care course, etc.
I would say many of us became close to being information ‘overloaded’, but they were all useful and relevant. Trust that I had them all written down for future reference. However, the excitement of starting work as a doctor in an entirely different continent for me, was almost overwhelming. I simply could not wait to adorn those cool hunter green scrubs. Who wouldn't?

The most optimistic way of putting completion of the first week of residency is to say one week done, one hundred and fifty-five more to go! Similar to when my toddler child asks if it is Christmas yet in April.
The first week was indeed full of a lot of “firsts” for me. I got to write my first note, placed my first order, do my first transfer order, make my first presentation to the attending, I had my first day call and a host of others.

I met a lot of wonderful people at work. Friendly nurses, super-helpful colleagues.
However, there was always the constant anxiety and feeling of not knowing what you are doing, at least the first couple of days, but I realized that the anxiety only reduced with each day. When you perceive the extent of your naivety is being titrated against the enormity of your responsibility, then you know you are in for a big deal. Nevertheless, I realized that the anxiety actually subsided with each day. The beauty of it is that I cannot complain, because this is exactly what I prayed for.

Still working on gaining speed with my notes so that I stop spending extra hours after my official closing hours.

On my very first day of work, in a bid to get to the ICU seminar room for hand off meeting early in the morning, I had left the headlamp of my car on. Unfortunately, the battery ran down in all those ten hours I was at work. I had to call the ‘triple A’ road assistance. Of course, I had to wait for over an hour. It was so frustrating, but the brighter side of it is that while waiting for the guy who came to jump-start my car, I found someone to take a nice picture of me. Another lesson learnt to always see good even in every "storm". Better put, silver linings!

With the baptism of fire of having to start with ICU rotation. After the initial shock, I chose to embrace my new reality with gratitude. Even though this is my third internship, in three different continents, you would appreciate that my passion for medicine is genuine. So bring it on residency!
In summary it was a good week and I trust God for more beautiful weeks to come.

"Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence". - Helen Keller.

Warm regards,

Dr Funmi Folaranmi.

My Journey Into Residency in the United States; A Story of Persistence and Unrelenting Tenacity.

noreply@blogger.com (Drfunmi) — Wed, 12 Jun 2019 16:46:00 +0000

As an International Medical Graduate(IMG) the journey into residency in the United States is one that is not necessarily laced with roses, rainbows and unicorns. Usually, characterized by "thorns", tears, sweats and pain. It takes valor to leave behind a place you have always known and comfortable in to step into the "unknown" in search of a better life, a better training in order to be able to give back to your society one way or the other. It takes courage to venture into the untold path in search of more.

Every individual on earth has a unique journey. Two individuals may go through life doing exactly the same thing, but I can bet that the outcome will be variable in so many ways because of several factors. The beauty of life however is that even though some people are bound to have smooth adversely uneventful journeys, some might have very exciting and adventure-filled journey. However, everyone will reach the summit, all things being equal, with hard work and dedication as a constant. Which is why, one of the most dangerous things you can do to yourself is to compare your life with that of another person.

I have had an interestingly unique career pathway. I attended medical school in Nigeria and practiced for a couple of years before I relocated to the United Kingdom. There, I took the board exams and practiced for a number of years. I had intention of starting training in Britain, but I moved to the United States(long story, perhaps for another time) where I studied for the boards and became eligible to practice medicine in the United States. Some would call me "Ajala". Now, Ajala in my mother tongue is the proverbial description for someone who travels a lot. If perhaps those my intercontinental moves have just been for fun and jolliness, that would have been all exciting. However, my path have been laced with series of examinations. Not only the virtual examinations of life, but the actual ones in which you put pen to paper or finger to keyboard and brain to screen for several hours on end.
I jokingly keep telling my friends that I feel as if I have been writing exams my entire married life. If there is a title like "The most 'Examined' wife" or something like that. Then I should get it. If perhaps you know anyone else in my shoes, please let's form a club.

Recently published a post on Before Residency Starts. You can read here. There I gave a snippet view into days culminating in the Big Match(The Match is an automated, national process for pairing medical students and International medical graduate with residency programs.)

The purpose of this post is to encourage someone never to give up on their dreams. The path may be long and the road rough, never take your eyes off the prize. It might take longer than you anticipated, but at the end things will work out if you persist. Stop listening to naysayers. Start ignoring the voice of negativity.
If you get obsessed with the weather, you will never plant anything.

Having written and passed all the needed board examinations, in fulfillment of the criteria to be eligible to participate in the match application process, I still had some doubts. At the beginning of the application season for residency program, I wrote down two lists. The first was a list of the number of factors I felt were against me. This is because getting into residency in the USA, especially for an IMG like myself, is very tough and highly competitive. Second, was a list of things I felt were working for me. I realized that there where five major factors I perceived to be working against me. Fortunately, as if to cancel the effect of the "unfavorable" circumstances, I wrote down five factors I believed were in my favor.

Many would wonder why I was so excited about the match. After all, my colleagues I left back in Nigeria are already consultants. Even those I left back in the UK are done with their training.
I rejoice because I am running my own unique race. I am not in competition with anyone else, but myself.
So the purpose of this blog post is to encourage you to never give up on your dreams. The journey may be hard, treacherous and almost dangerous, but remain persistent.

Even when there are factors seemingly pointing to the fact that your dream is doomed by human standards, never throw in the towel because it is never over until it is actually over.

A number of things to consider that I found helpful:

1. Cultivate the habit of writing down your goals.

Write down the big goals, break down the big goals into smaller goals and daily do something about them. Even, though many times your plans would change. You would have to revise it from time to time. You still need to write it down because it gives your goal a tangible visual feel to it, which makes it potentially achievable. Plus you get a sense of satisfaction as you get nearer to your goal.

2.Keep track of your time.

Dedicate a certain number of hours to hustle in the place of studying. Burn the midnight candle if you must. What I did was that at the beginning of my study time each day, I wrote down the "Start" time and "Stop" time anytime I took a break. At the end of each day, I added up all the total number of hours I studied. At the time I studied full time from 9am to 5pm. After that, I couldn't read anything till my children( I have two little ones) went to bed, then I would get about two more hours before going to bed.

3. Try to distinguish between what is an "outlet" for stress and what is a distraction.

There seems to be a thin line between both. Know when you are spending excess time on social media versus when you should be grinding in the place of study versus when you need an actual break to rest your brain.

4. Have a tool to access how close you are to your goal.

It may be a mock test or a revision tool. For the USMLE, it was the NBME. This is a standardized exam that gives you a prediction of your score on the real exam, as well as break down to you areas of your strength and weaknesses that you can then work on and improve.

5. Never be discouraged if by the assessment tool your progress is minute.

Still keep pushing. For areas of your weaknesses, get fresh materials, use a different study strategy. Find out what works and what doesn't work. Devise a new plan and stick with it.

6.Get a discussion partner if you must.

No man is an Island. There are various exam forums that could be quite helpful with finding someone with similar goals. Going through many of the forums were very helpful a lot of times. A word of caution on these various exam forums though. Be selective and discerning as you take advise from them. If I followed everything I read on those platforms, I would have bidden my dream of practicing medicine in the States good bye a long time ago. Choose helpful tips, shun depressing , demoralizing ones. Be highly selective and discretionary.

7. Even when things do not work out as planned, giving up is not an option.

Believe there has to be a divine purpose for it. You might feel you have your whole life figured out and then something happens. Still remain persistent, eyes on the goal.

8. You have no excuse whatsoever not to pursue your purpose.

I took one of the exams( Clinical Skills examination of the USMLE, Step 2) while eight months pregnant so you definitely got this. Already, my colleagues who were not pregnant were struggling, but I ignored my baby bump, pushed myself to achieve success.

9. Even if you fail, still it is not over.

Just dust yourself of every 'dirt' and keep moving. Even though you have a lot of explanation to do down the line, but that should not deter you. I failed one of the exams and it was one of the most devastating events of my life because it meant the work of a whole year had gone down the drain. It meant that I had cut my chances of ever matching by more than half. Already as an old IMG, the chances where slim and I made it worse by failing my CK exam. However I realized that according to the words of Winston Churchill, "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts".

10. Occasionally, when you are closest to achieving your purpose or realizing your dream, the universe might want to play a trick or two on you.

A day before retaking my Clinical knowledge exam, I got a call from my baby-sitter I had arranged with previously to babysit my children the entire day while I took my nine-hour examination that she would not be able to do so. I was devastated. It was too late to start arranging for another trusted "emergency" babysitter. Plus husband was definitely not around. He was in another continent at the time. Canceling the exam was not an option.
What was I supposed to do? So I prayed to God for wisdom and strength. Went to church that Sunday, came back home, fed my children played with them. I packed my bag in preparation for "the day of battle" the next day. My previous thought was that they would stay home all day with the baby sitter, so I would not bother with pick up and drop off at the daycare, as I could finish the exam late and the daycare would close. Actually she was supposed to arrive at my house the day before my exam so as to help with grooming the kids as well. Alas, things did not go as I planned. I woke my babies up at 5 am( Gosh, those kids have suffered with me sha!). Brushed their teeth, gave them a bath dressed them, fed them. Put them in the car and we were at the daycare by 6 am which did not open till 6:30a.m. We all waited for the daycare to open, then I dropped my babies off and kissed them goodbye. I called an "uber"(the way uber has been helpful to my life, I am forever grateful to the founder) and went to my exam center which was about 40 minutes away. Fortunately, I made it in time. I did the 'grind' for 9 hours, took another uber back to their daycare and picked up my babies just in time. About 5 minutes to closing time. God indeed granted me strength. I couldn't have done it without Him. Eventually, I did not just pass the exam. I aced it to the glory of God.

11. When your victory is closest, sometimes all hell is let loose but stay prayerful and vigilant and be sensitive.

During the course of the same retake CK exam. While taking the third block of questions on the exam, there was a power outage that lasted 45 minutes. We were presented with the option of re-scheduling. Some people took the option and left. I stayed, I knew if I walked away at that point, I just might never bother ever again. My son was already scheduled for surgery two days from then. So I stayed. The rest is history. Stay committed to your dreams even in the face of adversity.

12. Networking is Key.

Connect with people. Be friendly. Seek counsel. Especially from those who have already been through what you are going through. They might have one or two golden advice to give that would make a whole lot of difference. Honestly, considering my very introspective personality, networking was hard. I tried to reach out to people I know since people advise you to network(which for me was the most painful part of the process. I put it on the same pedestal as studying for step 1). Many gave me valuable piece of information. Many gave words of encouragement. A lot of people were willing to help. A lot really wanted to help but had their hands tied and so could not. A lot of subtle insults but "hey girl, eyes on the prize". I remember quipping to myself several times.

13. Emails are important.

I remember my dilemma at the beginning of the application season whether I should send emails to program directors or not. I asked people, some said it was probably okay to send emails, while some practically said it was a bad idea. I know program directors are very busy at that time and I really feel their pain. They do not have a small responsibility at all. So the idea of some random emails from some desperate, random applicant might not be met with a red carpet, paparazzi-flavored welcome. However, considering all the program directors I met on my interview trail, they are real humans with kind and compassionate hearts. I met the most amazing and friendly ones with real blood flowing through their veins and four heart chambers as all of us. They are not some 'monster' sitting in front of computers chunking out rejection letters. Send personalized emails. Let them know how much you are genuinely interested in their program. That might work or not, but at least try.

14. Pray hard.

I believe in God. God is real and He hears prays. I prayed to him on days when I was mentally stressed and exhausted and He granted me strength. Days when I felt like giving up, He gave succour to my soul and gave me the needed nudge to achieve success. It will get to some point especially during the nine-hour stretch of exam that you know you need God absolutely. I could not have done it without His grace.

I believe you can achieve whatever you have set your heart to do, as long as you are determined and hardworking.Stay committed to your purpose and indeed your dreams would come true.

"Stay true to yourself, yet always be open to learn. Work hard, and never give up on your dreams, even when nobody else believes they can come true but you. These are not cliches but real tools you need no matter what you do in life to stay focused on your path". -Phillip Sweet

Follow me on: Instagram
Send an email: funmifolaranmi7@gmail.com

Before Residency Starts

noreply@blogger.com (Drfunmi) — Thu, 16 May 2019 17:20:00 +0000

I have not written anything deeply personal in recent times, but I have decided to share a bit about my journey in the past few months to encourage people who might find this post helpful.
I matched into a Residency program (which is a postgraduate Training program for doctors in their desired specialty) in Internal Medicine and I would be starting residency very soon. Just typing the word "Residency" alone is giving me goosebumps.

I asked “ Siri” on my iphone what I should be doing before residency starts in June. Apparently, “Siri” is very helpful with its artificial intelligence, and gave me a list of things to do with a general theme of relaxing, chilling and having fun. A few residents had given me that advise while on the interview trail. I asked a third year resident on one of my interviews at the “resident-mixer”( a gathering to meet with resident doctors at a program to ask them questions, usually before the official interview) and the young man looked me in the eyes and said “take time out to relax, enjoy yourself, have fun, go on vacation because residency is tough and very busy”. Since that day, I honestly have lost track of how many times I have heard that statement.
It’s almost like everyone has been consistent in this prophecy of an “avalanche” of things to come. Like a harbinger of some sort of doom.

I believe after all the stress of the USMLE board examinations, the pains of all fifty-two rejections I had from various programs, the joys of a handful of interviews, the stress of traveling all over the country, trying to recover from the great drain and damage the interview trail has put on and done to, respectively, on my finances; the interviews per say, trying to get the right rank order list and being certain that I was not setting myself up for the next three years. I thought at last, the stress was over, at least for a season.

Little did I know that the wait before the match day would be nerve-racking. The harrowing wait of days and hours leading up to the actual time the email bearing "Congratulations, You Have Matched" was sent that fateful Monday was almost crushing.

The ecstatic joy of the actual match day on March 11, 2019. How I heaved a huge sign of relief and danced for joy. Finally discovering four days later that I had matched into my desired specialty- Internal Medicine at my first choice on the rank list. It was a "Happy Friday". That was the best day of my life after my wedding day and birth of my two babies. I was inundated with a lot of joy and my heart was saturated with good vibes.

Again, little did I know that, that joy would be transiently threatened by thoughts of how my life was going to change dramatically for the next couple of years. The gravity of what residency would do to your family, relationships and life generally, and the colossal responsibility of residency itself is no joke.
“This is supposed to be exciting and fun”, I had to constantly tell myself that. Several times I had to snap out of what seemed to be an out-of-body experience and acknowledge the fact that I am actually going to practice medicine again. At the time, it seemed like a sweet dream (still does) that I did not want to wake up from.
However, you cannot help being flooded with thoughts of how, perhaps, inadequately prepared you are for whatever is coming your way in terms of your career. You wonder if you have what it takes to actually save human lives or be entrusted with the most precious gift of life -another life.

I get it, that dealing with human lives could be challenging with its own measure of stress, but people need to stop taking the fun out of it with their attitude. Choose joy. You have sacrificed so much to get to this point in your life.

I know someday down the line I will look back and perhaps force a smile when the forces of the residency overwhelm me and I read this post again.
However till then, I will download common-sense and have as much fun as I can and basically enjoy the “calm” before the “storm”.

You can fathom that human beings are so insatiable. We want something so badly, then get it and start complaining like sheer ingrates.

However, you need to tell yourself that you are more than capable of handling whatever residency or life brings your way. You survived medical school. You handled USMLE Step 1. You aced Step 2 Ck. You rocked Step 2 CS. You are a star. Never believe anything less of that.

You are like a golden needle in a haystack. You were selected over thousands of other applicants because there is something special about you. Simply because someone saw something in you, that you have what it takes to be a fine doctor. That you have what it takes to survive residency.
You are a survivor, you will survive residency. You will make it.
Enjoy this time, stop stressing and believe in you freaking awesome self.

"Believe in yourself, and the rest will fall into place. Have faith in your own abilities, work hard, and there is nothing you cannot accomplish".
-Brad Henry

Instagram : @funmifolaranmi
Email: funmifolaranmi@gmail.com

Save the Earth. Go Green!

noreply@blogger.com (Drfunmi) — Mon, 22 Apr 2019 16:57:00 +0000

This article is particularly relevant at this time in commemoration of the International Earth day. 22nd of April is usually dedicated to that effect. This is a time set aside to have conversations on how to ‘Save the earth’.

Over the decades, global issues like climate change, deforestation, loss of habitats, wildlife trafficking and illegal poaching, unsustainable agricultural practices, pollution and pesticides have led to a lot of detrimental changes to the planet. All these activities have had a negative impact on wildlife generally.

The theme for the Earth day last year, 2018 was on End Plastic Pollution.

I am not necessarily talking about the political action and huge civic participation where people march, sign petitions, plant trees, clean up towns and roads to accelerate work towards conservation and sustainability. My goal in the post is to highlight the simplest things we can do to make the earth a better place for all to live in from our own corners of the world.

I am not particularly a minimalist but simplicity is a principal for me. I figure that ‘more’ or ‘newer’ does not guarantee a better experience necessarily. I do not believe things should go to waste. Blame it on my ability to find it hard to let things go.

I am a mom and the kind who would save the empty egg crate, the Indomie noodles carton, the pampers carton or the used kitchen towel cylindrical rolls simply because I believe that they can be put to good use.

I find it easy to turn a used yoghurt container to the water colour container or the used salt container as the new pencil holder. I remember when I turned a giant whip cream container into my next detergent holder for my laundry. Thereby, reducing the need to spend money on buying new plastic containers .

I use a old tomato tin as my measuring cup for rice in my kitchen .

We have to be enviromentally friendly and contribute our own quota to save the earth.

I do recycle and believe in recycling. Therefore I encourage you to do the same if you have not started yet. It is an admonition to develop a ‘saving mentality’.

I was so sad when I read about the big whale found in a coast line in Manilla with tonnes of plastics in its stomach.

I actively recycle waste in my house. The plastics, used polythene bags, carton, papers, goes into recycle, while everything else that is perishable goes into thrash. I even teach my little ones the need to recycle and how to do it. They usually find it quite fascinating doing this.

I moved away from buying a plastic table and chair for my toddlers to getting them wooden table and chairs. To embracing more wooden toy collections.

We need to do our own little quota of saving the earth and going green.

What can you do?

1 You can plant a tree (as a big gesture) or plant a flower. Get an indoor plant. Plants take carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the atmosphere to do photosynthesis, and thus help reduce the greenhouse gases warming the planet.

2 If you cannot plant a tree, you can start by recycling in your house.

3 You can teach your children to recycle and show them how by leading with a good example.

4 Re-use and re-cycle plastics. Be creative. Rather that buying a plastic pencil holder, you can recreate and re-used the yoghurt container.

5 Skip buying bottled water. Take your own water bottle from home and fill it up with water. Nearly 30 billion plastic water bottles are sold annually in the U.S. Preferably, choose stainless steel water bottle.

6 Rather than taking all your groceries home in those store polythene bags, you can go with your own grocery bag dedicated for that shopping purpose. I cannot tell you how much shopping bags I acquired in my house from grocery-shopping. However, I found ways to re-used those excess shopping bags. Rather than buy shopping bags, I use them to line the thrash cans in the bathrooms in my house. Apart from making it easy to get rid of thrash, it is creatively utilizing what otherwise would have gone to waste or serve no purpose.

7 Conserve energy. There is no point turning on all the light bulbs in your house. Switch off the light, plus you get to save money that way.

8 Conserve water. I know it feels good to linger in the shower, but that practice does not conserve water and not even helpful to your water bill at the end of the month. There are water-saving shower heads that you can install.

9 Go chemical-free. Buy organic and eat organic.

10 Go green with your transportation. Bicycling, walking, carpooling or riding the bus are the best ways to commute sustainably. Inflating your car tires, driving slower, and combining trips will all help you save gas when driving is necessary. Also,for long distance travel, you can take the train. I plan to learn to ride a bicycle myself!

11 Overall, try to reduce waste in your household all together. If you don’t need it, don’t buy it. If you won’t eat it, don’t buy it.

12 Support organizations and charities dedicated to saving marine life, fighting global warming or advocacy on recycling and waste reduction.

If plants contribute to reducing global warming, then we have no excuse. The earth is what we all have in common, therefore we have a collective duty to take care of it.

Choose to go green and save the earth!

"I only feel angry when I see waste. When I see people throwing away things we could use".
- Mother Teresa.

Contact me : funmifolaranmi7@gmail.com

Latest Aspirin Guideline.

noreply@blogger.com (Drfunmi) — Wed, 20 Mar 2019 04:42:00 +0000

Hello people. Trust you are well.

Medical news alert!!!

Are you aware of the fact that there is a New Aspirin guideline?

I know this could be really confusing because one cannot help but wonder why there is so much confusion with aspirin. I remember when I was back in medical school, the teaching was that adults 40 years and older should be on a baby aspirin a day to reduce the risk of a heart attack or stroke.
The beauty of medicine is that learning is unending and research is constantly on-going. Evidence-based medicine is the goal.

Taking a low-dose aspirin daily to prevent a heart attack or stroke is no longer recommended for adults age 70 or over, according to new guidelines.

The American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association reversed previous guidance that recommended adults over the age of 50 take a baby aspirin a day to prevent cardiovascular problems.

If you are over 70 years old with no previous stroke you shouldn’t take aspirin due to risk of bleeding.
The change comes after a large international study found that routinely taking low-dose aspirin may actually be harmful for older people with no prior history of heart attack or stroke. The groups also agreed that the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding outweighs any heart benefits.
This hits close to home because I know a close family relation who developed complications from “religious” use of aspirin. The person had a gastric perforation and started bleeding. It was scaring but the person survived.

So if you have elderly relations or your parents are over 70 and on aspirin with no previous stroke or heart attack, they might not benefit from use off aspirin.

Either way, consult with your doctor, ask questions and discuss.

Be knowledgeable, Stay healthy, because life is beautiful.

"Life is not merely being alive, but being well." -Marcus Valerius Martialis

Warm regards,
Dr Funmi.

The Menace Of Painkiller Abuse

noreply@blogger.com (Drfunmi) — Wed, 06 Mar 2019 18:23:00 +0000

March is National Kidney month so I decided to publish this article to help promote kidney health.
Pain is not palatable. Yet pain is nature's way of warning us of what could be lurking within the human body. It's almost like a warning sign to deal with whatever is causing the pain.
Many people have devised different ways to deal with their pain. Some pain are physical while some are deeply emotional. I am talking about the first one today.
There was a day I was at the airport, innocently waiting in line for my turn to check in my bag when I looked far ahead of me and saw a man trying to reduce the size of his luggage probably because it was beyond the recommended weight of checkable luggage. Then with my eyes caught a large package of pain medications. Specifically, Advil which happens to be a non steroidal anti-inflammatory. You seriously cannot blame me for seeing it. I committed no crime. You can call it "lookery" if you like.

I am simply very observant nature, no offense. Don't be too quick to judge me, it is one of the qualities of a good doctor. You have to be able to see that which your patient is not even saying. Sometimes practicing medicine is like playing "detective". Let us just put it as, I am a person who is very aware of her surroundings and by the way you should be. I guess that is one of the rules of defensive driving right.Okay, enough digression, back to the topic of discuss.
There is a raging epidemic in our society right now with opioid abuse. I have heard of people doing crazy things like breaking their own bones to have genuine excuse to get opioids. I mean , it is insane.
The situation is very grievious.

I was once at a place and a lady talked about how so close to home the issue of opioid abuse had hit her. Her sister had abused opioids and had been in and out of rehab several times. Someone in her family had died from overdose.
I am sure you know more than two celebrities that died from complications of Opioid overdose.
It is so surreal. Almost a very scary and precarious situation.

Maybe because I am a health care professional with deep understanding of the impact of these medications, I blatantly refused any form of analgesia when I was in the thrones of labor with my children. I opted for a completely natural birth with no epidural or pain meds. Many thought I was crazy, but no. Even after, the birth of my babies I still politely declined to ask for my percocet. I did choose something milder.

Everyone's pain threshold is different and I do not look down on those who really need their pain killers.Painkillers are supposed to be 'life savers' not 'life takers'. Please be cautious if you have need for pain medication.
Always remember that a pain killer no matter how mild still has side effects. What doctors have to do most times is a risk-benefit analysis plus we detest seeing patient in pain, it is not our thing. We are good people with kind hearts.

There are two main types of over-the-counter(OTC) pain medications- Acetaminophen(Tylenol) and Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs(NSAIDs) such as Aspirin, Naproxen( Aleve), Ibruprofen(Advil or Motrin).

When the OTC drugs do not do the trick, that is when doctors prescribe something stronger.

A word of caution on the use of NSAIDs. They can cause great harm to your kidneys.
I once rotated through a Nephrology rotation and was opportune to see a number of patients who ended up on dialysis from complications of using NSAIDs . A large number of the patients I saw had one thing in common. They had taken lots of NSAIDs. However, so many other factors can lead to kidney failure.

Below are listed some of the complications of NSAID use:

1) NSAIDs can cause hypersensitivity reactions.

2) NSAIDs constrict the afferent arteriole and decrease renal perfusion. This is asymptomatic in a healthy patient. Such that there is damage to the kidney, but the patient does not see the symptoms.

3) When patients are older and have underlying renal insufficiency from diabetes and/or hypertension, then NSAIDs can tip them over into clinically apparent renal insufficiency.

4) NSAIDs can also cause :

a) Analgesic Nephropathy.
b) Papillary necrosis which is the sloughing off the renal papillae, which is one of the internal structures of the kidney.

Opioids are not usually first line in pain management because of the potential for abuse.

I hope I have succeeded in scaring you from touching NSAIDs ever again. Actually, that's not my goal. My goal is to help create awareness of the possible complications associated with excessive use of NSAIDs, let alone opioids. Also to help reinforce choosing moderation with the use of pain killers.

"Life is not always easy to live, but the opportunity to do so is a blessing beyond comprehension. In the process of living, we will face struggles, many of which will cause us to suffer and to experience pain."
- L. Lionel Kendrick

Warm regards,
Dr Funmi.

Friendship is Beneficial to your health

noreply@blogger.com (Drfunmi) — Mon, 11 Feb 2019 16:33:00 +0000

February is usually referred to as the month of love.It is a season that emphasizes the importance of love in our lives. Coincidentally, I want to address the importance of friendship to your health. Apart from the myriads of obvious reasons there are for having friends, research has shown that friendships can have a major impact on your health and well-being.

Good friends are actually good for your health.Friends can help you celebrate good times and provide support during bad times. Friends prevent loneliness and give you a chance to offer needed companionship.Perhaps if you are even lucky, you get them to encourage and motivate you to change or avoid unhealthy lifestyle habits, such as excessive drinking or lack of exercise.

In a 2010 meta-analysis that combined data on more than 308,000 people across 148 studies, for example, researchers found a strong connection between social relationships and life span. The size of the effect rivaled that of better-known health-related behaviors such as smoking and exercise.
Even though the studies did not show how many more extra years you get from having true pals, it is still helpful to know that friendship is a good thing scientifically speaking.

I think one of the problems with this society and this generation is the immeasurable degree of superficiality of so-called friendships that have no roots.

I figure it is safe to say that too many people are ‘minding their own business’.

I understand and do not belittle the importance of respecting personal space, but there is a need to show genuine interest in people. Otherwise how do you explain to yourself and the world at large why you do not even know your next door neighbor's name?

What is wrong? I get it, there is wickedness and some people are sheer evil, but there is a lot of good in the world and there are still a host of people with good hearts.

You need to be friendly and invest more time in your friendships. Especially since Valentine's day is just around the corner, show some love to your friends. Check up on them. Give them a random, unexpected call just out of the blues.

Our culture today applauds individualism.

People constantly chasing the next ‘big thing’ and too busy to even engage in the moment, to engage others. So you have to be very deliberate about your friendships. You have to go the extra-mile.

Be kind. Be empathetic. Truly care for others. Nurture these great relationships.

It still beats me how Joyce Carol Vincent (of blessed memory), a British woman, who passed away alone in her home in London and no one noticed for two years!

It’s heart-breaking.

She was said to have passed away from possible asthma attack or complications of peptic ulcer. Either way, it was just so sad.

Our world needs more genuine people who will probe their friends back to safety. Friends who will refuse to be pushed away. People who will abandon the charades of association and embrace an alliance of profound, true, qualitative and selfless friendship.

Indeed friendship is serious business because it sometimes entails sacrifice, giving your time and heart, but it is well worth it.

This is an encouragement to choose and pursue friendship.

A call to spend your energy and invest your heart in valuable friendships and shun bogus ones.

My candid advise is to choose friendship and allow it to flourish and you will reap the benefits immensely.

Take advantage of this season of love and show love to all your friends.

Happy Valentine's Day!

“A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud. I am arrived at last in the presence of a man so real and equal, that I may drop even those undermost garments of dissimulation, courtesy, and second thought, which men never put off, and may deal with him with the simplicity and wholeness with which one chemical atom meets another.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Journey into Fitness

noreply@blogger.com (Drfunmi) — Thu, 03 Jan 2019 19:22:00 +0000

Happy New year friends.
I hope you are as excited about this wonderful 2019 as I am.
May it bring our way loads of goodness in perfect health.

Last year I had New year resolutions, but it was a struggle at some point in all honesty. I did a post on how to stay true to your resolutions last year which was quite helpful. You can read about it here if you have made resolutions.
Hence, I learnt a lesson from my experience the previous year and this time around I only have personal goals I intend to achieve. My plan is to take baby steps and grow. I believe little drops of water make the mighty ocean.
You might wonder, what is the difference between Resolutions and Personal goals.
Let me explain briefly.

A resolution is a firm decision to do or not to do something, while personal goals are plans that involves a detailed proposal for doing or achieving something. Simply put, resolutions set you up to fail from the beginning, while plans involve outlining sensible ways to achieve what your heart desires. It takes more than a firm decision to actually turn your life around for good. You need a plan, a road map, a blueprint.
This year I plan to take Fitness and wellness seriously and I admonish you to do the same if you haven't, and if you have started already, kudos to you.

Physical fitness is a state of health and well-being and, more specifically, the ability to perform aspects of sports, occupations and daily activities. Physical fitness is generally achieved through proper nutrition, moderate-vigorous physical exercise, and sufficient rest. Fitness is beyond just doing exercise. It entails largely your diet, and well as your getting enough rest.

My personal journey into fitness started about fifteen months ago (October, 2017). I am pretty new in the "fitness business". My daughter was just slightly over a year old and I had gradually climbed up to wearing UK size 14! For Christ's sake, I used to be a size 8. Occasionally, in my recent past, I used to be able to squeeze into a size six dress! I decided I needed to loose some weight and change my lifestyle all together. I say that being slim is not equivalent to being fit. Hence, for me, the goal transcended just loosing a couple of dress sizes. I realized I had to be very deliberate and intentional about what I ate, I had to cut down on all my portions, I had to eat more salads and fruits with vegetables. I started reading food labels before I bought them.

I figure it would be fair to say that I chose Fitness and that it did not choose me.

I woke up one day and decided I want to be more healthy, that I want to make more responsible and healthier choices, that I want to be a better custodian of the gift of the 'temple' - my body, that the creator has endowed me with. I decided to actually live what I preached professionally.

A decision was made by me to take responsibility for my health, to stop giving excuses. So I registered at the YMCA (popularly called the "Y") so that I would not have any excuses. I did that because I believed that perhaps if I remember that I am paying money that would reduce the chance of skipping. Nobody likes throwing money into the ocean.

I used to be a sugar addict, before I got 'delivered'. I wrote extensively on The dangers of Sugar a while back. You can read about it here.

If you are still contemplating or still dilly-dallying, you need to be committed for a host of reasons listed below:

1) You are able to actually loose weight.

2) It provides you an opportunity of self-accomplishment each day. That feeling of achieving something good is a nice one.

3) Improved quality of sleep. We all know how "golden" sleep is.

4) It re-shapes your body and makes you more attractive hence, boosting your relationship.

5) It improves your resilience especially with regular strength-building exercises.

6) The Endorphin production. Who doesn't want some dose of "feel good" hormone?

7) It improves your coordination and flexibility. As one gets older, coordination and flexibility take a huge decline. So establishing a routine and keeping up with fitness throughout life can lead to a longer lifespan and a healthier one too.

Set small goals and strive to achieve them.

For me I have a routine which involves going to the gym three times a week. I usually do cardio, some strength and resilience building exercises using the available equipments. A routine I make very flexible.

I cannot forget the day I encountered a visually impaired man at the gym.That man forever shattered every excuse I had for not working out.
What on earth was my excuse again?

“Strength does not come from the physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.”
– Ghandi

Warm regards,
Dr Funmi