Diary of a Doctor

  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...

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...

  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, ...

  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 i...

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 th...

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...

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 ...