My Medical Studies Once Upon a Time - Some Stories

 My Past Medical Studies

Something few people know about me is that I was a medical student at Stellenbosch University after high school. While I did not get to graduate, the journey is one I will never forget and which will always stay with me. 

At first I was accepted for and started a BSc Dietetics degree in the year 2000. I attended about a week or two of the dietetics classes, when I felt unsatisfied. I felt that I could have more potential. However, I might have over-estimated my abilities and asked the university to accept me into the MBChB degree for medicine, which they did on the 7- year extended program. I then had to attend academic support classes and do the first year over a period of two years. I was very happy about this and started with great eagerness and excitement. I was going to use my life to help others. 

Anyway, this did not work out, when I fell into a depression for various reasons including the isolation of being only a hand-full of students of colour on campus, and failed some subjects which I had to repeat. When I failed the 3rd year, I was unable to re-write any subjects and my studies then ended. However, I had the option of returning after completing a BSc in Medical Biosciences and then resuming from the first year or third year again. 

Unfortunately my parents did not have the finances to support my studies any further and I dropped out. This devastated me and I stayed at home for a year wallowing in depression. I eventually got out of it and became a bookkeeper, which I have done ever since these past 20 years. But if I had the opportunity today, I would return to medicine and be more mindful of my health. However, my interests are also in art, psychology and social work. I am very passionate about helping people and tend to understand people, however I am at a stage in my life where it is very difficult to change careers, let alone work and study part-time, which I know a lot of people do but due to being prone to stress and burnout, I don't know if I can do this. 

I have a few stories to tell of interesting things that happened during my medical studies, which is the point of my post. Firstly, in my third year during my obstetrics module, I delivered 7 babies at Karl Bremer hospital in my clinical rotations. This is one of my greatest achievements in life. During a gastro-intestinal operation I had to attend, I became nauseous from all blood and guts I was seeing and thus vomited in the scrubs area. Luckily a senior 6th year student who was mentoring me was there to support me. 

And one night I had a very creepy experience. During one night of rotations, when my shift was nearly over and the nurses gave me permission to go home, I did not have a lift home at 3am in the morning. I then walked down the eastern passage to the lecture halls of the university. The lights down the passage was dim and one had to pass a chapel in the passage. At the lecture hall there were small booths with couches, and I decided to take a nap on the couch. However, I started hearing creepy sounds. I heard the sounds of footsteps which came closer and closer and then eventually just disappeared. Besides the chapel there was no other room in the passage and the chapel was further towards the hospital. I still believe it must have been a ghost. I also heard the sound of what sounded like a cat maouwing or a baby's shrieks. I also believe that could have been ghostly sounds. After that night I promised myself never to walk alone late at night in the isolated passages of the hospital unless necessary. I was also very fit from all the walking I had to do in the hospital. I still remember my white coat and my lithman stethoscope I had to use. And my dissection set which I had to use for dissecting the cadavers. 

We also had to dissect the bodies of cadavers (human bodies which were preserved with formaldehyde) and that did something to one's psyche that stays with one for a long time. I dissected the heart, the brain and the penis amongst other organs. The smell on one's body after those classes were terrible, but it was part of the fun. We also had to take half a skeleton home, a skull and pelvis to learn the skeletal system. It was very interesting but also difficult to remember all those difficult medical names. I had my medical knowledge gained, with me for many years after I left and could help my family with some medical knowledge where I could give advice. 

I still feel like a professional today even though my role as a bookkeeper is a semi-professional or clerical like role. I feel out of place in my bookkeeping career and still have a strong desire to help people and change society. I hope my dreams of going back to helping people in humanities this time, one day soon. I stayed this long as a bookkeeper due to lack of funds to study something (part-time) I like and hope this change can come soon.