General Outline of Medicine and M.B.B.S Doctors

General Outline of Medicine and M.B.B.S Doctors

With in six months of registration as a medical graduate, I became aware of my simple predicament.

I had the premonition and was convinced that in medicine, I could get 90% to 95% Right, after a full postmortem examination.

That was my reason for taking up Pathology.

Our late Professor of Pathology was a gentleman with a forensic mind. 

He loved reading detective novels and he was the first one to hit the new film that came to our Kandy town.

He had a heart ailment and he sits in the ODC, never in Balcony. 

I also hit the film on the first day and even though I preferred the ODC, I had to be satisfied with the second class seat. 

Every Friday we had a grand Postmortem Conference and every Thursday I had to go to Kandy Hospital and collect some cases.

He takes the kidney, heart and the lung.

I was left with the filthy gut which I had to clean to examine the stomach and duodenum for peptic ulcers and iluem for typhoid ulcers and the large bowel for amoebic ulcers. 

Infectious Hepatitis was rampant, then and I had to deal with the infected liver. 

He was interested in cirrhosis and he told me he had never seen an amoebic liver abscess in a cirrhotic liver and if I find one that has to be reported in Ceylon Medical Journal. 

We never found such an association.

Little by little, he began to trust me and one day he called me to his room, which was not normal. 

I thought, I had missed something.

He had a big laugh and said there is a good film coming and do not miss it.

No wonder he had noted me in the Film Hall. From that day onward until his death we had a very healthy relationship.

Now the crunch point.

When I was tabulating the postmortem data, he casually told me.

30% is Genetic, 30% is environmental and 40% is Totally Unknown.

Do not bother about the 40% he said and gave me a copy of American Pathology Journal siting the above data, over 30 year period.

That put me off completely.

Also told me never miss reading this journal. 

For our bad luck then Sirimavo regime banned all medical journals.

I had to subscribe for Medical Journals on my own. 

Of course, in later years, I subscribed for Linux Journal until I retired.

With that background let me dish out our M.B.B.S.

1. Teaching was hopeless.

2. Examinations were too many.

3. I tendered my resignation to my supervisor within a month. 

I told her I am going home and looking for a better job.

 

I gave my reasons and they persuaded me to carry on.

4. My father told me I could never become a doctor when I was studying for A Level.

I proved him wrong.

5. Medical Library was poorly stocked.

I donated lot of books as a graduate.

6. I ultimately did my entire postgraduate study in Ceylon well past 50.

My bone of contention was foreign postgraduate studies do not contribute to our (Ceylonese) well being.

7.  My thesis proved beyond doubt 28%, 32% and 40% ratios as stated above.

8. Any doctor who pretends that he knows everything is a Bogus Guy.

9. Good doctor always helps his fellows and we make decisions on collective basis.

10. We never tell the patients everything that they need to know. 

We dish out the minimum.

 

Full disclosure destroys our profession.

11. I do not do any consultation for the past 20 years but continue to teach and educate.

This blog site is an indirect medium of education.

I have some valuable instructions here including Meditation.

It is FREE and no charges.

That is the very reason I dish out this piece well past 70.

Of course, I write books on many topics, including aliens.

12. I never treat my Family Members.

It is a cardinal rule. 

Never dispense advice over the phone to one I have not seen with own eyes.

Now, I have become a freelance guy by default.