I have recently passed my MDRD, and out of the vigour of youth, I do tend to work long hours and I finish a lot of cases every day. A lot of my work is “teleradiology” where I have worked with some of the leading companies in the field.

Radiologists, and especially remote reporting doctors, are under constant pressure and scanner. We do a lot of cases in a relatively short period of time, causing a lot of frustration and irritation on the way. In such conditions, no matter if I am working in the wee hours of the night or early morning, one person who is always ready to put his cute paws (or his naughty head) on my lap is my dog Dr. Snowie (Doctor, as he knows the exact treatment for all emotional conditions). This guy instantly senses my temper and starts doing all sorts mischevious things to cool me down and cheer me up. Sometimes he also wants see what I do on my laptop for so many hours and ends up barking like crazy when I scroll down the images. It has been a very tough roller coaster ride in the past 1 year of my work and there’s no doubt in my mind that I wouldn’t have survived for even a few months if Dr. Snowie wouldn’t have been there in this journey with me.

It’s a proven fact according to sciencedaily.com and ncbi.gov that pets play major role in relieving stress. Stress doesn’t rear it’s ugly head because of the nature of work or the scans we are interpreting, rather due to the insane number of calls from assigners, clients and referring doctors which greatly increases the pressure on us. During our post graduation, we would report hardly 30-40 cases per day on an average, and that too, under the supervision of our seniors and teachers in our department. Now, we do end up clocking at over 100 cases per day and sometimes with clinical history of 1 word (Radiologists - you know what I’m talking about). To top it all, account managers and technicians expect us to complete the critical or stat cases as soon as possible leading to more stress and pressure. We are human, and we also tend to make more mistakes which leads to more frustration and vice versa causing a vicious cycle. The good Dr helps me reset my mind to work again with full force.

As I am writing this blog at 3am in the morning, this fellow is sitting right beside me as he won’t sleep till I don’t go to the bed and tell him bujjo nana (Telugu for go to sleep baby). Lastly, it does make a lot of difference where you work also and with whom you are working. My place of work is comfortable because my family and my dog help in that and people I work with, especially 5C Network, due to their holistic approach towards work has made my work very easy. I highy recommend having a bunch of dogs around you during working and have good people to work with for ease of work and a peaceful life.

I have taken my dose of MMR are you ready to take yours ? 😃