Random Thoughts of a Girl in Nairobi

   It’s officially 7 months post-graduation. The gifts and congratulations have stopped rolling in. Not that that was the focus of my attention. Man, I was just glad to be done with med school. Now I get to annoy my friends by wistfully saying things like, “When I was in campus…” or “when I was a student…”  As if that was a million years ago.  That heady euphoria is long-gone and replaced by a different kind of euphoria. I’ve been working and doing actual doctor things for the past 6 weeks and it’s surreal at times. It’s also really exciting. There are aspects of internship that I was prepared for and others that I heavily underestimated. Some things I just did not see coming. It’s been a learning curve though and the good thing is that I work somewhere where everybody is willing to teach. So I’ll highlight some of the things I’ve learned and experienced so far: 1.        You become someone’s boss. It is day 1 and you...

   What are the things that keep you up at night? Are they your studies? Work? The simple task of feeding your kids from one day to the next? It took me a while to come to terms with the fact that for the average Kenyan, a little ache here or a pain there can wait. A cough that’s lasted for more than a month despite having drank an arsenal of cough syrups is only slightly worrisome. Please don’t get me started on our unhealthy tendency to self-medicate. I’m guilty of doing it myself.  The average Kenyan goes to the hospital when the pain is so much that it wakes them up at night. When the headache starts affecting their sight. In other words, when they can’t put it off any longer. And who can blame them; they have bigger problems to worry about. They can’t afford to miss a day or even a morning of work to go to the hospital. They can’t afford transport to the nearest hospital or health centre. They have to choose between feeding themselves and their loved ones and...

I've written about being in med-school before and the things you learn . But I've never written about how it inadvertently changes you. You: 1.       Start using big words in every-day conversations. Case-in-point: ‘inadvertent’ there above 2.       Choose comfort over style. Depending on the activities of the day you may end up choosing these comfy flats that you can stand hours in instead of cute ballet flats, sandals or heels. Those you shall reserve for the weekend. 3.        Lose most of your verbal filter. And therefore end-up often saying stuff that may shock non-medics. It's so normal to you that you only notice it when they give you the 'look'. 4.       Get used to strange meal-times. Early morning classes might mean breakfast at 8/9...despite the fact that you've been up since 5/6am. Lunch at 12/2pm because of surgeries or clinics become a regu...

1. Constant guilt whenever you take time away from studying so that you can do other things. ..like shower 2. No matter how much you get done,  you still haven't gotten anything done 3. Reading, forgetting and realizing you have to read again 4. Rainbow notebooks and textbooks. ..enough said 5. When your non-med school friends complain about not having seen you in a while 6. When people don't understand why your study patterns have gone up 10 notches when you're usually constantly studying in their opinion 7. When you over-hear your classmates discussing a topic that's not even vaguely familiar to you  8. Study-mode is kinda like zombie-mode...only more intense 9. Cleaning and being orderly stops being a major priority. My room becomes a constant tornado of books and papers. 10. In fact,  your personal appearance stops being a priority. ..unless you have orals...Then it's a m...

   I recently finished a 30-day ab and squat challenge that I downloaded off pinterest . How does it feel?  Epic! That is if you totally ignore the soreness in my obliques..but no pain no gain right?  Around this time  last year I developed a keen interest in my health that was driven by two-parts med-student syndrome and one-part vanity. Med-student syndrome because med school just made me very aware of how real heart disease,  diabetes, hypertension and other stuff  is.  That's just drama I'm not willing to deal with in my life if I can avoid it.  I also have a family history of diabetes, stroke and arthritis so I'm not going to stretch my luck too far.   And the vanity you ask?  I like wearing fitting clothes. ...having a pot belly just isn't conducive to such wardrobe tendencies.    But my fitness goals aren't just about losing weight. They involve  eating cleaner and drinking more water and yes....

   For the past one month as part of my fourth year of medical training, I have been rotating in the department of Obstetrics and gynaecology ( basically the guys who specialise in pregnancy and other  female problems ). As we started going through the clinical areas, one thing became clear: Kenyan women don’t know as much as they should about something that could probably kill them. Wait, let me re-phrase that. Something that will definitely kill them if not caught early and dealt with...and it’s scary. So I’m going to give you a couple of facts to help you grasp the gravity of the situation. If you’re a guy and you’re reading this, you should forward this to any woman who is close to you...you might just save a life. Now you know where your cervix is!  Generally speaking, cervical cancer is more prevalent than breast cancer among Kenyan  women.  It mostly occurs in women aged 35-39 years and 60-64 years. We've  made such a brouhaha abou...

    Have you ever felt like that? It's absurd because sickness is something we mostly can't control...but have you ever been in that situation? Like 'Dear food poisoning, today won't really work for me. How about next week? Or next month? Can we negotiate?'

   I’m going to make a confession. For the past approximately 4 years my hair has entirely been in braids. I’d undo one set of braids and get another re-done literally the next day...for four years! Don’t judge me yet because mine is a story many of you might identify with.     Like most African girls, I was told growing-up that my hair was ‘difficult’ or ‘too much trouble’ and therefore the only way to make it manageable was to relax it. I’ve only relaxed my hair twice in my lifetime and both times it ended with a haircut because the breakage was so bad. The first time was in primary school and the second was in form 2 of high school. You can only imagine how frustrated I was both times. The non-stop braiding regime began after high school. The aim being for me to grow my hair to a certain length then probably relax it ( again ). It’s not that I have anything against short hair; it looks incredible on some people. It’s just that some girls prefer flowers...

   We all know that October is Pink month/ Breast cancer awareness month ( And to some extent, cervical cancer awareness month ). What most of us may not know ( up until this week I was in the same category ) is that November is actually Movember – Prostate cancer awareness month! So why the strange name? Well Moustache + November = Movember! Comprendez? The idea is for men all around the globe during the month of November to grow moustaches so as to raise awareness about Prostate cancer and other Men’s health issues.     I’m personally not a fan of facial hair, but in this case I’ll make an exception. It’s for a good cause. An important cause. Being a third year medical student who’s currently doing end-year exams I’ve been obligated to memorize certain statistics: Prostate cancer is the most common visceral cancer in males: If you’re a guy, take a moment to think about all the internal organs you have: Brain, heart, liver, spleen....Basically...

 There are fewer jobs today and machines are partly to blame. Sure, a dramatically increased population size is also a major factor but still, when you can have 1 piece of technology doing the work that 10 people could have done, then you don’t really need those 10 people, do you?  But what happens to them? Does the system find some other job that they can do and machines can’t or do the just fade into unemployed oblivion? It’s happened before in the 1800s during the industrial revolution, and it’s kept happening and escalating ever since. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not by any means technophobic. In fact, I’m the kind of person who feels lost when I wake up and my internet connection isn’t working! Sad, but true.     Today I read an article about 3D printers. Basically they are like the ordinary printers everyone knows, only that they can print actual usable 3D objects based on a design created on a computer.  A 3D printer  As of now, ...

Disclaimer: Based on a true story! He he! I’ve always wanted to say that! I had a Surgery CAT today. Technically yesterday since it’s past midnight. So at some point after finishing the paper and waiting for the question papers to be collected I realised that there are many different personality groups to be observed while an exam is ongoing. They say that stress does strange things to people, well here’s what I’ve seen so far. 1. The star-gazer Or should I say ceiling-gazer. They've read the question, don't know the answer so the look up in the hope that they'll see it. I mean if God can do walls surely He can write on ceilings too! Right? Anybody? Ok, then. But sometimes this strategy actually works and they suddenly remember the answer! 2. The artist Ordinary student who suddenly becomes a Michelangelo during the exam. Their question paper ( if they were handed answer sheets ) or rough paper will be full of creative doodles and will look something li...

  Today way Valentine’s Day and at my campus ( Kenyatta National Hospital for those of you who don’t know ) an event dubbed ‘My Kenya, My Valentine’ was organized by SCORP ( Standing Committee on Human Rights and Peace ) one of the departments per say of the Medical Students Association of Kenya ( MSAKE ). Basically the aim was to promote peace and harmony in light of the fact that we are having elections next month and nobody really wants a repeat of 2007/2008.    So they asked as to come dressed in Kenya colours, and they were handing out roses and ‘Mkenya Daima’ stickers. Dude! They even organised a flash mob! Yes, I’m serious. Video evidence coming soon I hope. But what totally jazzed me was the amount of enthusiasm and patriotism expressed by everyone and I just had to share it with the rest of you. Big-ups you guys! No really, big-ups! So like whoever said that Med-school isn’t fun, clearly hasn’t been to the University of Nairobi. Fine I’ll admit tha...