Mohaنّad

It’s not the hard exams, or the the long working hours, or the seemingly endless oncalls, or the demanding patients’ families, or the difficult-to-deal-with colleagues. The toughest thing about medicine is when you’re not sure whether you’ve done right by your patients or not.

@MarwaMwm 👏 👏 👏 👏 👏💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻

الحمدلله Rotablation ✅ Orbital ✅

“When I entered Gaza the Israeli military had a rule: I was only allowed to bring in three kilos of food. As I was weighing out protein bars, trying to get under the limit, I said to my husband: ‘How sinister is this?’ I’m a humanitarian aid worker. Why would there even be a limit on food? I’ve worked in many places with extreme hunger, but what’s so jarring in this context is how cruel it is, how deliberate. I was in Gaza for two months; there’s no way to describe the horror of what’s happening. And I say this as a pediatric ICU doctor who sees children die as part of my work. Among our own staff we have doctors and nurses who are trying to treat patients while hungry, exhausted. They’re living in tents. Some of them have lost fifteen, twenty members of their families. In the hospital there are kids maimed by airstrikes: missing arms, missing legs, third degree burns. Often there’s not enough pain medication. But the children are not screaming about the pain, they’re screaming: ‘I’m hungry! I’m hungry!” I hate to only focus on the kids, because nobody should be starving. But the kids, it just haunts you in a different way. When my two months were finished, I didn’t want to leave. It’s a feeling I haven’t experienced in nearly twenty years of humanitarian assignments. But I felt ashamed. Ashamed to leave my Palestinian colleagues, who were some of the most beautiful and compassionate people that I’ve ever met. I was ashamed as an American, as a human being, that we’ve been unable to stop something that is so clearly a genocide. I remember when our bus pulled out of the buffer zone. Out the window on one side I could see Rafah, which was nothing but rubble. On the other side was lush, green Israel. When we exited the gate, the first thing I saw was a group of Israeli soldiers, sitting at a table, eating lunch. I’ve never felt so nauseous seeing a table full of food.” ------------------------------------------------------- Aqsa Durrani is a pediatric doctor and board member of Doctors Without Borders USA, with nearly twenty years of experience in humanitarian projects. During our interview Aqsa repeatedly expressed a desire to center the voices of her Palestinian colleagues. To this end I’ve spent the past week collecting stories from the Palestinian staff of Doctors Without Borders in Gaza. I will be sharing these stories over the next several days. I’m so grateful for the time that these people gave me; they were sleepless, hungry, traumatized, and often working 24-hour shifts. Because of the unreliable internet connection their images are sometimes grainy. Their words, however, will be crystal clear.

@876ani 😂

LOOOOOOOL at Barcelona!

It may not be any special kind of triumph, but there’s something profoundly gratifying about someone sharing their success and letting you know you were part of it.

An urgent summons for our inner reserves of resilience.

Amazing how with just a little self-observation, a slight bit of self-awareness and a teeny tiny touch of introspection, we can all be less annoying.

This compliment, ladies and gentlemen, the grandest form of praise, the warmest expression of approval, is when a colleague brings their loved ones to your clinic.

A compliment, be it fake or genuine, always feels great. Compliments on looks or intelligence or personality are all well and good, but there’s one compliment that tops everything else. You can sit here and look for a better one till the cows come home but you’d never be able to.

ﺧﺮّﺑﺖُ ﻫﺬﺍ ﺍﻟﻌﻤﺮَ ﻏﻴﺮَ ﺑﻘﻴﺔٍ ﻓﻠﻌﻠّﻨﻲ ﻟﻚِ ﻳﺎﺑﻘﻴﺔُ ﻋﺎﻣﺮُ ﻭﻋﻬﺪﺗﻨﻲ ﻓﻲ ﻛﻞّ ﺷﺮٍّ ﺃﻭّﻻً ﻓﻠﻌﻠﻨﻲ ﻓﻲ ﺑﻌﺾِ ﺧﻴﺮٍ ﺁﺧﺮُ

عن الأمل…

@Riyouf I guess so 😅 we wouldn’t be here if we hadn’t withstood one or two storms already

We are all built to withstand storms, every last one of us.

@8uthainah Yes the unknown is always scary

@Mohanad1902 I think it's like a sudden, unsettling reminder of the fine line between life and the unknown (death?) which is too much for the mind to bear, leading to feelings of unease

One of the weirdest symptoms in cardiology is palpitations. It’s strange in the sense that it is a very telling symptom. Not necessarily telling of a lurking organic ailment; it seldom is. But it’s very telling of so much of someone’s life.

@Monerh__A 😂😂

@Mohanad1902 well, that's not as romantic, but it probably is 😂

@Monerh__A Aww thanks 🙏 Well for my simple non-urologist mind, it’s just UTI 😅plain and simple

@Mohanad1902 enjoyed the thread throughly.. makes me wonder what does dysuria signify?! 💭

This thread was “On The Strangeness of Palpitations”. Stay tuned for “On the Strangeness of Chest Pain” which can easily take up a whole book.

I think I read somewhere (I guess it was Alain de Botton) that palpitations are basically ‘the heart’s attempt to say what our minds are keeping quiet about’.