My first time seeing a dying patient felt surreal — One of the things all the newbie doctors were dreading was being put on a weekend shift or night shift so close to starting because that’s when things became very, very real. And that’s what happened to me. So soon after qualifying, I was set to have a weekend 3-night…

Where do writers draw the line — I remember once I had really bad writer’s block. It got to the point where I felt so frustrated, even when I stepped away from the screen. I couldn’t seem to shake it off. …

We’re only human — I remember one particular patient I looked after back when I first started as a doctor. It was on a specialty ward but we were used to having an overspill of “general medical” patients when the hospital was under pressure. This patient had a long extended admission which can sometimes…

To be dangerously in love — Only a small percentage of patient encounters stay with me years after leaving medicine. It’s usually the ones that didn’t go well. The ones that were unique in their complexity or were just truly unsettling. The human mind has a propensity for the negative and mine is no different. I…

2-hour episode summarised — STRESS What is stress?? When faced with a stressful event, we get a spike in cortisol. Cortisol is a hormone that is released from the adrenal glands, and travels through the blood to the brain. Cortisol peaks in the morning and dips at night. There’s a healthy cortisol range and if…

How to come to terms with regret — The pain and discomfort from regret is the clarity you need to lead a meaningful life. This is a sentence I have taken and paraphrased from Dr Rangan Chatterjee’s interview with Daniel Pink on the topic of regret. When I think about regret, I start reflecting on some of my…

Tried and tested tactics from the FBI — “Thanks for your time,” “Thanks all, great call.” I closed my laptop and sighed heavily. That was not a great call. That was the opposite of a great call. Perhaps a slight exaggeration. It wasn’t that bad. But it wasn’t ideal. Immediately, a pop-up appeared at the corner of my…

The wisdom in allowing each season — Life can be difficult. There are times I find myself looking at all the things that I could change and then making a 10-point plan to get started. But what do you do if you try and nothing changes? You could get upset. Throw a tantrum. Try harder. …

The podcast episode that went viral — Writing online Choose between a hobby and getting paid When it comes to writing online, you don’t have to wait for permission like with traditional publishing thanks to the internet. Traditional publishing requires gatekeepers which means you face a lot of rejection before the public can see your work. …