Updates from med school
There's a certain thrill that comes from being given the chance to listen to a person tell you the most intimate parts of their lifes, to touch and move their bodies, and to give advice you had no right, up to a month ago, to give.
Medical school has been an awesome experience thus far. Sure, the classes are still boring (curse you basic sciences, crossing my fingers for anatomy), the exams still suck, the competition is just as intense; however, the one thing that makes it all worth while and transcends you above the muck of it all is the patients. In my dinky little short white coat (which to outsiders seem to be a 'doctor', but to insiders just means you don't know jack), I get to explore this extraordinary dimesion known as the doctor-patient relationship firsthand.
I'll never forget that first day three weeks ago in clinic, when my preceptor handed me her stethescope and walked out of the room. There I was, with a little boy who had pacemaker bulging out of chest, and holding the stethscope trying to listen to that ST split she keeps telling me about. I realized that the skills I am using aren't things I have learned in school in the past month, but from what she taught me in the last five minutes. I was trying desperately to rememeber the various positions to place the scope in order to hear various things. I think my heart was beating so fast that I was listening to my own heart beat more than anything else. (I do have a beautiful ST split as I found out). Here's me, armed with my volunteer experience in the hospitals of Texas, ready to interact with the patient. And all I could say before I finished my examination was "got a strong heart there kid" To which he just gazed away at me disinterested.
Thank God the doctor came back just before I started.
The point is, I think, no matter where you go, there has to be a certain learning curve to things, big or small. Dealing with slippery slopes of that curve is what makes people (and myself sometimes) become discouraged. But I think it has been espicially helpful for me to focus on what's at the end of the tunnel: experiences like this.
Clinic has picked up in that learning curve this week too. Today, I examined a boy who has marfan's syndrome. The kid was 16 and flew from Italy to see doctors here in the US. Because of his condition, he had a S2 that was noticable just by touching him. Just think about that for a second, if you were my friend, and I came up and touched you in your chest area purposfully, you would most likely run away. Or kick me, then run away. I think it's a tremendous honor/responsiblity that doctors are given to be able to intrude on the privacy of someone's body & life.
Hope all is well.
Medical school has been an awesome experience thus far. Sure, the classes are still boring (curse you basic sciences, crossing my fingers for anatomy), the exams still suck, the competition is just as intense; however, the one thing that makes it all worth while and transcends you above the muck of it all is the patients. In my dinky little short white coat (which to outsiders seem to be a 'doctor', but to insiders just means you don't know jack), I get to explore this extraordinary dimesion known as the doctor-patient relationship firsthand.
I'll never forget that first day three weeks ago in clinic, when my preceptor handed me her stethescope and walked out of the room. There I was, with a little boy who had pacemaker bulging out of chest, and holding the stethscope trying to listen to that ST split she keeps telling me about. I realized that the skills I am using aren't things I have learned in school in the past month, but from what she taught me in the last five minutes. I was trying desperately to rememeber the various positions to place the scope in order to hear various things. I think my heart was beating so fast that I was listening to my own heart beat more than anything else. (I do have a beautiful ST split as I found out). Here's me, armed with my volunteer experience in the hospitals of Texas, ready to interact with the patient. And all I could say before I finished my examination was "got a strong heart there kid" To which he just gazed away at me disinterested.
Thank God the doctor came back just before I started.
The point is, I think, no matter where you go, there has to be a certain learning curve to things, big or small. Dealing with slippery slopes of that curve is what makes people (and myself sometimes) become discouraged. But I think it has been espicially helpful for me to focus on what's at the end of the tunnel: experiences like this.
Clinic has picked up in that learning curve this week too. Today, I examined a boy who has marfan's syndrome. The kid was 16 and flew from Italy to see doctors here in the US. Because of his condition, he had a S2 that was noticable just by touching him. Just think about that for a second, if you were my friend, and I came up and touched you in your chest area purposfully, you would most likely run away. Or kick me, then run away. I think it's a tremendous honor/responsiblity that doctors are given to be able to intrude on the privacy of someone's body & life.
Hope all is well.