16.2

Another 16 items related to medicine:

1. I planned to be a journalist if I could not get into a medical school.
   
2. During my final year of medical school, I deliberately modify my biological clock: I slept from 7 PM to 1 AM and work for the rest of the time.
3. I did not finish studying Harrison before I sat for final MB - I skipped the whole section of infectious disease.
4. The only medical book that I read cover-to-cover in clinical years (and till now) is Lecture Notes on Clinical Medicine by Rubenstein and Wayne.
5. When I do not know the answer of an MCQ, I always guess.
6. The only procedure that I wish I have learned but didn't is rigid sigmoidoscopy. When I was given that chance during internship, I chose to learn rigid cystoscopy.
   
7. I did not have to say anything when I interviewed for a medical officer job; I was the only applicant (and there were two posts).
8. I planned to do pathology if I could not get a job in medicine.
   
9. The first patient who died under my hands (when I was a trainee) had indomethacin-induced GI bleeding; I avoided this medicine for nearly 10 years afterwards.
10. I wrote my first paper (a case report) nearly a year after I passed my MRCP. In fact I took three weeks of annual leave and wrote three all at once.
    
11. I had my elective training in Bristol, UK - that's the first time I took a plane.
12. If not because of the mortgage of my house, I would have stayed in Bristol to finish my PhD.
13. I study medicine every morning for 30 minutes before work.
    
14. I wished to be a cardiologist when I was a medical student.
15. I wished to be a hematologist when I was a junior trainee.
16. I ended up in nephrology because there was a post !