First of all, I must say y'all are commenting like champs! I love watching That McNabster Guy vs. TGTAdventurenz - it's almost like watching the Olympic women's pole vaulting!
And on to today's depressing business. We were on task to find cool physical findings on patients today, so we were running around the hospital with our resident, dropping in on patients for a quick visit. Next up was a ptosis patient. (No, it's not an ailment unique to African click language speakers, it means "droopy eye" - why they can't just say "droopy eye" I don't know, but I think it has to do with keeping up with the lawyers and their secret language.) We'd already seen a girl with scleroderma, where the skin begins to tighten and calcify, and eventually you can't bend your fingers or open your mouth anymore - very sad; a patient who had an ablation to correct her irregular heart beat, but who ended up with a punctured lung- very unlucky; a patient with an old heart valve replacement that apparently clicks so loudly at night it keeps his wife awake - how exhausting; and other fun things. They were all supposed to be quick, in and out visits, but our ptosis patient trapped us!
He had just been diagnosed with leukemia and started on chemo. He was very angry. He let us know it. He was so angry at his primary care doctor for not catching it, he was gonna sue him as soon as he got out of the hospital. Can you say Stage One of the classical stages of loss? He went on and on and on, and in the end he was very appreciative of everyone at UCI because we had turned his life around (obviously it was our great work, since the four of us had never seen him before), but he sure let us have it. We were all very sympathetic and very professional and listened to him rant and rave for a half hour before we cut him off, but it just reminded me why I want to go into emergency medicine - so I don't have to deal with the same irate patients over and over.
The most depressing part was that I didn't really want to listen to him anymore, because I didn't care that much.
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I quit fighting fires and being adored by the public. Now I'm about to become a poo on the heel of the medical profession, otherwise known as a "medical student."
3 comments:
Have him donate to Team in Training to help him start to feel better. As long as he is donating, perhaps he could donate through my site?
http://www.active.com/donate/tntsdh/nationstri
How about I have him be your personal coxswain/cheerleader/support car? Getting out of the hospital and with some good company would be beneficial to both of you, I'm sure.
Oh yes, I forgot to mention the Pam Swan Educational Fund is also taking donations: just make a check out to P-A-M and I'll take care of the rest! For a totally good cause! Help sick and indigent people of all sorts! We take them all - help not limited to one disease! Fully hidden from the law, just pass it under the table! We NEVER turn you down!
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