Writing a path back into medicine

When I was in 5th grade, I had to get my appendix removed.

My mother picked me up at school because I had a blinding pain in my lower right abdomen. I had no idea what was going on. My mother panicked because she knew I wasn’t faking the pain. I was one of those kids that loved going to school. (When I was in kindergarten, I made my parents prove to me that school was closed due to terrible weather by walking me to my school and showing me that the doors were closed. I genuinely thought they were lying and wanted me to stay home.)

So, my mother, grandfather, my appendix, and I went straight to the hospital where the doctor told me that he wanted to take my appendix. I said “Okay, sure. I don’t need it. Go ahead, take it.” But, once I found out taking my appendix meant surgery, I bolted out of his office and hid behind a wall of bricks, sending my mother and grandfather into utter panic. I was afraid of needles and surgery meant huge needles, cutting, and lot more needles.

Fortunately, my grandfather convinced me that if I don’t let them take my appendix, it would coil around my intestines, burst, and then I’d die.

Death vs needles. I grudgingly chose the needles.

My grandpa gave me a notebook to document my experience so that I could read it later and learn that there wasn’t much to fear. He told me that the perceived fear was always greater than the reality of it. And I am glad he did :) I wrote down everything I went through. I quizzed every doctor that walked into my room to check on me, sometimes to see if they were qualified enough to be taking my pulse and sometimes to distract myself from the pain that I knew was coming.

That year we had studied how anesthesia was discovered in school. I asked EVERY doctor “Do you know who discovered anesthesia?” and put down a small check mark and a smiley face next to the doctors that did know the answer. I didn’t spare my anaesthesiologist either (well, what business does he have administrating the happy juice if he didn’t know who discovered it, right? Yep, I was an infuriating kid, not much has changed since!)

I must have read my tale of breaking up with my appendix several times after my surgery. That’s when I knew I loved medicine. I wanted to study it and become a doctor.

But, I also loved writing.

Today, finally after years of traversing different paths, I’ve found something that lets me indulge both my love for medicine and my love for writing.

We celebrated the Castor Research Award today where we had 9 researchers from different walks of medicine presenting their research projects.

Each project is definitely going to revolutionize the field of medicine as we know it. I have never been this amazed before. Not even when I look out my window and see the Rijksmuseum every morning (for a girl who lived in India all her life, this view means she's won the lottery.)

It’s been over a month since I started working at Castor. The day I got the first email from them, I was over the moon because Castor is revolutionizing data capture to improve medical research and help find cures for disease faster. But I tethered myself to a really strong grounded pole that kept me on earth long enough to not get ahead of myself because the prospect of working, of writing for a company that is working towards making medical research faster and smarter was all my dreams coming true.

Today, while I walked back home after spending the past 2-3 hours frantically tweeting the event (check out our live tweets here - #CastorResearchAward), I couldn’t wipe the big grin off my face. Not only am I doing what I love - writing, I am also part of a company whose vision is to ensure that the world is stepping towards a healthier tomorrow by creating a platform that helps medical researchers from all over the world capture high-quality standardized medical research data. Working with this team of extremely driven, talented, and cohesive people, I am learning something new every day.  

The vision of creating a healthier tomorrow doesn’t just reflect in the product we’re building but also in the way we do things here at Castor. “A happy and healthy team” aren't just words on a company-culture presentation deck. It is seen in the way the organization works with the healthiest lunch I’ve ever eaten every day, daily meditation breaks, CATS (Castor-Accessible-Training-Sessions) that includes everything from yoga to martial arts, and so much more!

That 12-year-old girl had indeed laid out all the best plans. Dreams do come true. :)