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Monday, 12 July 2010

Week 1

June 13, 2010

First rotation of third year!

My site is at Danvers Family Doctors, a group practice in Danvers, MA, a city about 30 miles north of Boston. Atisa and I are driving to the site together, which makes commuting a lot more fun. Our preceptor is Dr. Bhattacharya (or Dr. B.), who on the first day immediately greeted us and gave us a detailed and extensive orientation about his practice and about medicine in general. He has already been telling us his various corny jokes, so I'm going to take this as a sign that this is going to be a good rotation :)

Danvers Family Doctors is a private practice serving the suburban community of Danvers, MA as well as the neighboring cities (such as Beverly). At first glance, the population is mostly white and middle class. The practice also takes patients from a number of group homes in the area which house patients with disabilities and mental illnesses. The environment of the practice is fun and relaxed and very positive. I have yet to hear anyone in the office complain about a patient or say anything bad about a patient. This is extremely refreshing to me and something that I want to keep with me throughout the year. Both the staff and the patients are used to having medical students as part of the office - they welcomed us and incorporated us into the bustle of the office without a hitch.

After Dr. B. oriented us to his practice on the first day, we immediately jumped into shadowing him in seeing patients. Atisa and I take turns so the room doesn't become too crowded. It was particularly exciting for me because I saw patients with conditions that I hadn't seen in ICM or in other clinical experiences. For example, I saw two patients on my first day who live in group homes and came in with their caretakers - one of whom severe mental retardation and a seizure disorder, and another who has severe schizophrenia, diabetes and possibly other mental health issues.

Already, just just in the first week, I feel that I am learning a lot. Dr. B began with having us shadow him in the patient visits, and then began to send us in to see the patient and get a complete history from them before we see the patient together. By Friday, we were getting a history on the patient and doing focused physical exams on the patients with Dr. B in the room to observe us.

Dr. B has a style of relating to his patients that is at once gentle and very firm and direct with his patients. He is so effective at dispelling patients' anxieties and empowering patients to take control of their own health. You really have to see him in action to really appreciate his skills. I definitely see myself trying to incorporate elements of his style into my own as it develops. There is so much for me to learn and I really look forward to the rest of this rotation!

Saturday, 27 March 2010

My mood is so labile these days. One minute I'm okay, and the next I'm anxious and irritable and concentrating on anything is impossible and today I tried to put myself in a dark, quiet room to minimize stimulus so that I might calm down? And while I was in my dark, quiet room all I could think about was getting away from Boston and going somewhere far far from here and also adopting a little girl from China and raising her to be 100 times better than me.

Monday, 15 March 2010

Bahhh spring break is over and all I did was study study study and laundry (oh, and eat my first corned beef brisket for St. Pat's Day!), and it has been pouring and pouring for three days straight in Boston. Such is life.

Tremont St. in the Rain (Boston, undated)
From historinewengland.org (sorry if this pic is copyrighted)

This is kind of what Boston looks like right now except way worse.... The whole damn city is flooded and two of my umbrellas died this week AND I was drenched today by a car driving through the biggest puddle I have ever encountered :( Can I get a hallelujah that the sun is supposed to finally come back tomorrow?

A silver lining on the disgusting rain clouds: I can now tell you in overly-intricate detail all the different ways you can get diarrhea and all the what each kind looks like and what it means. Watery, oily, bloody, mucus-y? Sorry if this grosses you out.

In other news, happy Ides of March! From Wikipedia: "According to Plutarch, Caesar was warned by a seer to be on his guard against a great peril on the Ides of March. On his way to the Theatre of Pompey (where he would be assassinated) Caesar saw the seer and joked "Well, the Ides of March have come," to which the seer replied 'Ay, they have come, but they are not gone.' "

Indeed they are not. I am currently celebrating this glorious holiday by eating garlic bread at an Italian restaurant/cafe :)

Sunday, 14 February 2010

Finally, a free weekend! And it's turning out beautifully :) I haven't had a free weekend since I've been back from Christmas break - we've had very short, week-long blocks with exams on Mondays or Wednesdays, which means hectic studying schedules every weekend. But we finally had a Friday exam this week, which means a free three-day weekend! And unlike some of my classmates of the more gunnerish persuasion, I'm NOT getting a head start on our next block (neuro) and NOT taking advantage of the time to study for boards. It's lunar new year, and dang-it I'm going to take my well-deserved vacation.

Saturday was lazy for the most part. I made a scrambled eggs with Tapatio and beans breakfast that (yum) gave me pretty memories of California. Though the weather was beautiful outside for once, I spent my day lazily lounging inside around the apartment, catching up on blogs I've gotten behind on reading and really just doing nothing. After lunch, took a fun trip to the Asian supermarket with my roomie and bought $150 worth of food for our Lunar New Year hot pot dinner :) spent the rest of the afternoon prepping, and at 6:30 pm sharp began stuffing my face with delicious hot pot and didn't stop until the wee hours of the night. Called my momma and poppa to wish them luck and prosperity, but they were too busy celebrating at their own party to talk to me :) I love new year!

I woke up early this morning to go to a ballroom dance competition that some friends of mine from Rolla, Hannah and Ben, had invited me to. It was fun to see them in their dancing element. Ben looked the same as the last time I saw him, but Hannah has really grown up. She looked really lovely on the dance floor in her gold sequined floor-length gown. I forget that she's an adult now :) Time has flown, hasn't it?

Afterwards, I went for a run on the esplanade and was reminded of why I love to run on the Charles. The air was chilly but I was so happy to be running today that I didn't mind. The river had been frozen for days before today's 32-degree temperature and when I ran across the bridge, I could see the giant sheets of ice breaking off into a thousand little pieces - all different shapes and sizes. I wish I could show you a picture of what it looked like!

Spent the rest of the afternoon at Panera in the best mood in what seems like a long time. Read some articles in Harpers - a great piece on the German social democracy system (it was more exciting than it sounds, I promise) and a really beautiful essay by the poet Philip Levine on his hometown of Detroit:

"There are those rare times in my life when I know that what I'm living is in a poem I've still to write. As we sat in silence, I took in as much of the scene as I could until my eyes were filled with so much seeing I had finally to close them."

Here's to having more moments like these. Happy new year :)

Sunday, 31 January 2010

Can I just take a moment to declare my love for the reproductive system? Haha that may have sounded a little funny. But seriously, I've just spent the past two days non-stop studying (and the previous week going to lectures on) reproductive system and it has barely seemed like work! Every time I get to a new chapter, I can't wait to learn more about ovarian tumors or polycystic ovary syndrome or reasons for preterm labor or abnormal pregnancies. i'm so cheesy! i guess that means i should consider delivering babies or helping couples have babies as a career :) yay! hooray for vaginas (and vagina week, which happens to start tomorrow feb 1-7)!