Diary of a Doctor

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...

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 a...

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 ...

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 o...

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...

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 ...

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...