kinda cliche secretsss

Cool, I just accidentally discovered that if you zoom out of my blog’s homepage, you get a nice background surprise!

When you don’t like your patient

I’m still on the way home, on the second leg of my trip.  I am eavesdropping on the conversation going on in the row in front of me.  13C is coming home from Guyana where he’s been working in mining exploration.  He looks like a young guy, maybe around my age, with a kind of Western or Southern drawl.  He’s describing what he does to 13D and I’m trying to listen for any indication of gross injustices against the environment or local communities.  He’s an outgoing guy and seems really friendly.  He leans over the empty seat beside him and is now chatting with 13A, whose contribution to the largely one-sided conversation is the occasional “ah” or “huh”, “yea…”.  He’s talking about his life working overseas.  He proudly mentions having 4 girlfriends, who don’t know about each other “no, they don’t know about each other”.  He sounds jovial, like someone talking about how fresh the fruits are at the local market or maybe how a dad would talk about his son’s little league team.  I wondered how I would approach this if he were my patient.  Would he tell me about his 4 girlfriends?  How would I respond?  Impassionate, matter-of-fact: “Oh, well do you use protection? Have you been tested for any STDs?  Alright, well we have the facilities here to do that”.  I pictured the movie effect where you have a map with a pin-point on it that just spreads like a black wave, sludgy and oozing across the continent.

I remember one time my mom came home from the office upset.  One of her patients was cheating on his wife who was terminally ill.  His mistress wanted him to promise to be with her.  He was stressed and depressed but didn’t know why.  When my mom asked if he thought perhaps it had to do with his relationship situation, he was surprised and hadn’t considered it.  My mom was boiling the whole hour of therapy, as she was reminded of being cheated on herself so publically by my dad.

As much as Western medicine is about micromanagement and control of biology (at least we like to think that), we’ll eventually end up with patients who we will feel crappy listening to.  I’m thinking of the simulated patient we had who was abused by her husband but didn’t want to admit it.  Doctors are legally mandated to report child abuse and elder abuse but not spousal abuse, and I can’t imagine what it will be like to have to see some women walk back out into trouble despite all the counselling you give.

I guess part of becoming a health professional is always keeping a professional front.  Obviously my mom couldn’t bring her own baggage into the care of her patient.  The trick will be finding the balance between being jaded and being human.

As seen on Facebook

Things I won’t have to deal with anymore… at least for awhile… hopefully:

Accidentally wearing short-shorts on a Clinical Skills day and then being nominated to be examined in all manner of undignified ways.

Giving a daily presentation on a disease (as though I’m an authority on the matter) having only just discovered what it was 4 hours ago.

Studying the night before a Clinical Skills / Standardized Patient quiz not because I give a damn about my grade, but purely to avoid emotional damage secondary to being shamed… which usually happened anyways.

I won’t miss you, Term 4.

There’s a lot to thank Term 4 for: learning professionalism, patience, flexibility and a bit more maturity.  Snarky, ya — but the truth in this post was just too funny to not share.

Everyone is an expert

In front of me in the study hall, two term 2 students are giving two other students advice on term 1 exams (“Biochem is the great equalizer.  They use it to weed people out”).  Everyone always has lots of advice, and I suppose at some point everyone else is looking for advice too.  But inevitably, the advice turns into rants about the class and you wonder who the advice-giving is helping more.

Kids in the garbage

Leaving Frond’s place just after midnight a few nights ago, I saw a boy carefully and slowly untying plastic bags in the trash bin.  There was an older boy, early teens maybe, doing the same in the bins for the apartment building across the street.

What is going on?

Just amblin’

Finished the micro exam today! Just 1 more to go on Monday, Clinical Skills and Physical Diagnosis.

Yesterday there was a “Grenadian traffic jam” when a car was walking down the middle of the road.  It ran off to the side, the cars passed, then it stuck to the sidewalk and passed by.  Then it started running (galloping?), crossed the street and jumped up onto the other sidewalk.  Moo Mad Cow!

I love when cows stop traffic.

It’s not about me but I remember when it was.

It is 1:29am.  Someone just came home.  Romance is in the air.  I like being on this side of things!  And that’s all I’ll say about that.  G’mar Tov, all!