I have not been particularly interested in pursuing medicine that deals with the elderly. I have (to be honest) not had any good exposure to such medicine while in school. The lectures that I have attended have tried to emphasize the and promote the positives, but the clinical aspect is usually based out of some kind of institution where the elderly are senile, demented and generally worse for wear. This is, almost the complete opposite of the image that we get in the lectures. It’s not pretty, in fact it’s down right frightening at times … Regardless of how I feel, more emphasis should be put on the elderly in medical school given that in North America this is a population which is increasing. Creativity is needed in the presentation…such as can be found in the incredible photo-essay “Days With My Father” by Phillip Toldelano. The photo-essay is sad and yet humorous, it makes one see into the elder Mr. Toldelano’s past, and the life he lead, as compared to the life he leads now. Phillip Toldelano has accomplished what the medical school lecturers failed to do, which is to make the face of aging look human.
Categories: Articles of Interest
No longer will I refer to Wikipedia for all my medical information. Instead I will use MEDPEDIA. All hail MEDPEDIA! If only I had had such a resource for all those useless PBL sessions…
Categories: Uncategorized
[The cartoon, medical stereotypes #10, is from the underwear drawer, one of the best medical blogs out there - so go check it out]
I am sorry for the lack of posts lately. Sometime between my last post and this one, it got really busy. For the past few weeks I have been splitting my time between gynecology, which involves a lot of office consultation and OR time, and obstetrics, which involves many hours on the maternity ward. Needless to say it has been one of the busiest rotations I have suffered through yet.
What have I learned?
Well, first and foremost is that kids are really inconsiderate. Babies will decide to come into the world at any time day or night. In fact, it seems as though most would wait until I decided to grab a bite to eat, a moment to pee, or to go to sleep for the night. I have a new respect for the bleary eyed obstetrician, or family doctor that does this for a living. Never have I functioned on so few hours sleep.
The second thing that I have learned is that the maternity nurses are incredibly protective. At times, seeing a patient as a medical student was as much about getting past the nurse as it was about seeing and assessing the pregnancy. For those first time mothers let me reassure you that you are in good hands. I learned many lessons in sucking up, and it took many, many home baked treats before I wormed my way into the hearts and was being paged on a regular basis to help with assessments / deliveries. Unfortunately, this happened at the end of my two week in the section, so by the time they started paging me I was already on a new rotation. I hope the good will lasts until the next time I’m in the section, sometime in the new year.
The third thing I learned, was that obstetrics is incredibly rewarding when things are going well and incredibly hard when things go bad. I have never before been so physically and emotionally drained following a rotation. All in all, I left feeling thankful that I am in medicine, and looking forward to when I return to the maternity ward.
Categories: Uncategorized
