Day 16, Thursday, 1st December, 2011

I am very happy that I am finally coming up to date on my blog. Thanks to the sporadic availability of internet here in Al Muweh, it was getting to be a serious problem to keep in touch with you, dear reader.


Okay, so basically, this is a Thursday, and therefore an off day for specialist doctors all over the Kingdom, except for those who are on call ... but even they can stay away from the hospital, and attend to patients only when called by the residents in the event of an emergency. The others can even leave town and travel anywhere within the country ... as long as they report back by Saturday morning. So, why am I telling you this? Because, you see, I forgot this  basic fact and reported at the muster desk at 07:45 a.m. in full formal dress! Ha ha, I can hear you laughing/giggling (depending upon whether you are an "open" person or "reserved"). No matter. I myself laughed at my faux pas, so it is okay.


My morning having got screwed up, I went to the cafeteria to be served my last "free" breakfast. Chatted with Dr. Tariq, the locum surgeon who is attending the hospital in lieu of Dr. Shahid who has gone on leave. Breakfast consisted of beans and khubbus (here, it is known as khubs) with tea and an orange. After this, I generally hung around the campus, and also went out with my Canon camera to shoot photos of this and that.


Later, I had a lunch consisting of rice, khubs and chicken, where I met and chatted for a while with sister Jyotsna, who spoke about her back surgery that she underwent a few months ago (she is only 26, but has suffered from a serious prolapsed inter-vertebral disc recently). Afterwards, I went back to my room where I uploaded the photos to my PC and played around with Windows Live Movie Maker to make a movie from the pictures I had snapped earlier in the morning. I will post the movie once I get good connection. 


Slept for an hour or so in the later half of the afternoon, and went in for dinner at a quarter to eight. This consisted of fried fish fingers with cauliflower and parboiled rice.  Returned to my room after this, and did this and that, until the daylight went out and I went off to sleep. 

Day 15, Wednesday, 30th November, 2011

I began the new day at half past three in the morning! This happened naturally, as I had already had over 5-6 hours of sleep. I brushed my teeth and opened the laptop to connect it to the net. I was surprised when the net actually began to be accessible. Actually, to view this logically, it should not have surprised me as the net traffic was bound to be less at such an unearthly hour! I therefore used the opportunity to read my emails, all the notifications on FB and post a few entries or revise them on this blog. I also began to watch “Rock Star” the Ranbir Kapoor movie that I had downloaded at Juzer’s place in Jeddah some days ago.

By 6 o’clock, I began to doze, and indeed, did, waking up at about half past seven, which is actually the time to report in the hospital. I hurriedly finished the morning chores and reached the hospital a little before eight a.m. The muster-signing area was swarming with specialists, and I introduced myself and was introduced to the many doctors chatting with each other there. It was a pleasant community indeed, and my observations over the next few days would convince me that the doctors, including the specialists and residents in this hospital are a happy lot and willing to help newcomers like me.

After breakfast, I joined Dr. Yasser in the Pediatric OPD, and for the rest of the morning and right up to half past three, the two of us saw patients. I think there were about 9-10 patients in all, the youngest being 3 days old and the oldest over 10 years in age. I saw about 4 of these 10 patients. In between, the two of us used our own laptops either for browsing the net, or to read something related to Pediatrics from a file. We also went for the Dhuhr prayers, and at the end of our timings, we did the Asr’ prayers and then went homeward … each to their own homes. I went to the house where Dr. Shahid stays. He is one of the surgeons on the hospital’s specialist panel, and has recently been on leave as he came down with a prolapsed inter-vertebral disc. In a few days, he is expected to be flying to India (from where he comes) in connection with the marriage of his sister-in-law, and also to rest his back. I requested him to allow me to share his premises, and he agreed readily. This quiet acceptance by him came because I offered on my own to share all the house-related expenses and to participate in the cooking as well.

After meeting with Shahid, I returned to the hospital, visiting a few market spots on the way. The evening was spent in the cafeteria, the ER, and my own room surfing the net … in sequential order. I slept early, and would perhaps awaken early too.

My achievement of the day may be summed up thus: I saw and advised treatment for the first patient today … after a gap of over 15 days. And the fact is that it went quite well, thank you, and this is thanks to a Filipino nurse and my Arabic speaking Egyptian paediatrician Dr. Yasser.

Day 14, Tuesday, 29th November, 2011

I slept fairly well in the night, and was up at about 7:00 a.m. in the morning. The working hours for specialist doctors are 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the out-patient department, after which we are free to return home, except that the on-call specialist has to be available on the phone to go back to the hospital in the event of an emergency. I had the opportunity to meet Dr. Shehab again today. I discussed a few issues relating to my appointment with him and then I went to the OPD to meet and join my senior pediatric colleague, an Egyptian named Dr. Yasser. I also met several other specialists at the counter where the papers are kept for daily signature. I signed myself in at about half past seven. Following this, I went about meeting Mr. Nawaf, who is supposed to take some documents from me for the purpose of generating a "mubashshera". I guess this is official acknowledgement of my arrival at my allocated place of work, and smoothens the way for my salary count to begin from the day of my arrival in Riyadh (i.e., the 16th of November).


Thereafter, I went with Dr. Shehab on a round of the hospital. They have a separate male and female ward, and a delivery area with a waiting ward of four beds. There is a nursery with several incubators, but it is not being used, and most problem babies are immediately shifted to Ta'if. I also saw (on my own) the admin offices on the first floor, the kitchen, the cafeteria, the infection control room, the pharmacy, the OPD areas, the isolation rooms in each of the wards, the OR's, the autoclave room, etc. 

Although the entire hospital area is on one floor (the ground floor), the shape of this is a perfect square, and the corridors link one area with the next, and the next, with the third, and so on, so effectively, that after a few days of this, one can readily surf from one place to the other without effort. I say this in retrospect, as on my first day of orientation, I was actually totally disoriented, and kept going to sealed doors and locked rooms instead of where I wanted to be.

Dr. Shehab submitted 2 forms to the in-charge of the cafeteria to allow me to eat free of cost for the last 2 days of November (one form) and the first day of December (one form), thereby giving me a 3-day free meals gift that is as per the law prevailing in the Ministry of Health’s hospitals all over the country for newly arrived doctors. I admired his professionalism, as he had to make 2 forms instead of one, because of the change of month.

I gradually settled into the routine of the day, and by evening, I made a trip on foot towards the city down the one and only main road. About a kilometre down the road I saw a petrol pump with a supermarket attached to it, and I stepped in to buy a few things, including a 900 gram can of Nido powdered milk (SR 35). At a local general goods shop that sold things from kitchen utensils to colour TVs, I bought an electric water-heater to make tea/coffee in my room (SR 85) and a tea cup (SR 4). Later in the evening, I had dinner in the cafeteria of the hospital, and retired to bed by 10:00 p.m.

A note here to tell my readers that the STC net connect device is proving to be worthless in this city due to lack of coverage.