A productive day

We all have our days, good, bad or indifferent. We speak to men and women across the UAE and ask them about their kind of day. What do they do? What do they think? They tell us, in their own words. Today: Dr Pankaj Srivastav, Deputy Director, Dubai Gynaecology and Fertility Centre

My day starts at 6.30am, when I wake up. It's a rush in the morning, as my wife Nishi, who works as Head of Microbiology and Virology at Dubai Hospital, and I leave for work within half an hour. By 7.00am I am at the Dubai Gynaecology and Fertility Centre, sipping my first cup of tea and catching up on the news.

I have on an average two to three surgeries slotted in daily, which start at 8.00am. So we go through the patients' scans before that. It would usually be to extract eggs or sperm from female or male patients, which are then used to create embryos, to be used in fertility treatment.

The embryos can be frozen indefinitely, which are then planted in the womb of the mother to be carried to term. The surgical procedures tend to get over by 11.00am. By then I am hungry, so I have my daily apple and banana.

I haven't eaten breakfast since 1974, which is so against what people conventionally advise of eating a heavy morning meal. But I find if I do that, I feel extremely sluggish and heavy. For the next few minutes I spend catching up on patient e-mails and faxes. I usually advise patients if they want to get in touch with me urgently to call me between 7.00 and 8.00am. After surgery I start the clinical consultations.

I begin with the new patients, who tend to take up more time. I have about two to three new patients daily and with each of them I go through their medical history, any prior fertility treatments that they might have undergone and finally, the counselling – the course of action open to them.

Usually in a day, at least once or twice I have to give bad news, such as negative pregnancy results after the checks, which can be quite difficult. It is emotionally exhausting. I then see the follow-up patients, which start at around 1.00pm.

Meanwhile, the patients in the day ward from the morning surgery have woken up, had a cup of tea and toast and are ready to be discharged. I meet them, give them instructions on what to do and how to take care of themselves.

In some cases where I would have either done a laproscopy or a hysteroscopy, I show them a video of the procedure and explain things. After the patients have left, I look at next day's schedule and catch up on paperwork. By 3.30pm, the centre is closed and I go home.

By then Nishi is back and our younger daughter (eight-year-old) Aashini is also home from school. We help with her homework and then have lunch, which is over by 3.45pm. After that the entire household, including our four-year-old terrier Abbie, takes a nap until 6.00pm.

Our elder daughter (13-year-old) Daamini arrives by 5.00pm. She too takes a short nap. We wake up, have tea, run errands which include dropping the kids off to their music and dance classes. After we have picked them up, which is around 7.30pm, my wife and I go for a 45-minute walk.

This is the time we spend catching up with each other, make plans for holidays and generally discuss issues. After returning home it is time for dinner, the kids have finished their homework by now.

We sit around watch television and chat with the kids. By 10.30pm they are off to bed, and two of us then get some reading done. I don't do any academic reading at home, I prefer travel-related books while my wife is very keen on female Indian authors. By 12.30am we go to bed and that's the end of the day.

It may sound like a hectic day but as we get to catch up with each other and the children, along with taking the afternoon nap, it seems fine.