Just Come Over And Talk

I got called by a nurse last night. (what's new)

"Doc, can you come over to talk to this patient?"
"Which patient is it?" I asked.
"Just come to the station and talk to them." (What?)
"What do you mean?"
"I tried to explain to them but... (muffled)... could you come over now?"

So I walked to the station and to the patient's room - the patient was sitting in her bed, and her mother, with a somewhat frustrated look, was sitting on a chair nearby. As the nurse saw me walking into the room, she said to them, "here's the doctor, he'll talk to you," and swiftly left the scene. "Oh that's great." I thought to myself.

As it turned out, the mother was concerned that we are sending her pregnant daughter home that night when the patient was still having some diarrhea and nausea from her urinary tract infection. I asked the patient repeatedly if she has any pain and if she feels comfortable going home and she said she's fine. I explained to the mother that her daughter's condition is stable and that she has not been having a temperature for 2 days. The nausea is residual and rather than monitoring it here, it'd be better for her to rest at home and come back to the hospital if any of her symptoms worsens again. The diarrhea is the side effect of the antibiotics and it is common.

"Do you want to go home?" I asked the patient. "YES!" I ended by saying that I'll double-check her labs and vital signs to make sure we are happy to discharge her home as well.

The amazing thing is that they are both very satisfied after I talked to them. I am sure the nurse has said the same to them as well, but they apparently trust a new doctor more than an experienced nurse? That can very well be the reason, but I also think that when talking to a patient it's very important to take the time to listen to him/her and respond accordingly. Often times, just showing that you care is therapeutic.

I happily walked back to my tiny call room afterwards, took a short nap, and enjoyed the rest of the peaceful night with 20 progress notes to write.

What Can I Say to a Weeping Medical Student

While I was at the nurse station the other day, a medical student came up to me, with her joyful and smiling face as usual. I started talking to her, and very soon into the conversation she expressed to me that she's feeling stressed as a 3rd year student and asked for my advice because I always look so relaxed despite all the stress as an intern. Apparently she's feeling the competition with the students rotating with her.

Her eyes started turning red. I told her the most important thing is to not take anything seriously, and that sometimes these seemingly competitive students are not directly against a specific person. Now her eyes started tearing. I walked to the other side of the station and was going to guide her away from the patient floor and find out what exactly happened, but suddenly a nurse came up to me with a patient chart and so the student broke away and left. I hope she's doing ok as I hadn't seen her again that day.

What I wanted to say to her is that I do have stress but I usually don't show it on my face. I think I can handle stress well in general because I tend to take things very lightly. Those who know me know that I don't get angry easily. When something doesn't go the way as planned, I usually let it go instead of getting all upset about it. Now how can I tell her not to worry about being competitive in the hospital, when the 2 clinical years seem to be all about competitiveness and showing your best? I don't know. When I was a student in the hospital, I never tried to act competitive because I know I will never be "the top of the crop." Some may say I am an underachiever but again, why should I be all tensed to be the best?

"Whatever rocks your boat," I'd say. Do anything that makes you happy - life is too short to be stressed out everyday.

Banana Bread

I LOVE the banana bonanza bread I got from Trader Joe's today.

A Much Needed Day Off

Tomorrow is my day off of the week... a much needed one indeed. For the past week I have been doing 6am-6pm'ish hours and I am feeling a bit exhausted, especially on "floor" days when I'll be running all over the place doing patient discharges. I have been a late sleeper for years and now I definitely feel the need to adjust my bed hours to accommodate the work schedule. Each afternoon is just a drag and I can't drink coffee because hospital coffee sucks! Starting this weekend I'll be on night float again for a week... yeah I am REALLY looking forward to it (sarcastically, of course).

I am definitely sleeping in tomorrow... and run some errands in the afternoon.

INSANE Heat

Today is hot. Very hot. I saw the temperature display as I passed by Loma Linda and thought I HAVE to take a couple of pictures of it.

A Stupid Delivery Mistake

I was assisting with a vaginal delivery this morning. Everything went well for the most part for the mom and the baby, although a little incident happened and it's all my fault. After we clamped the cord, I was told to collect a bit of the cord blood from the mom for analysis. For some unknown reason I lost control of the hemostat as I was releasing it and I stupidly lifted the cord upward - and voila, blood start squirting all over me and my colleague. We clamped the cord back quickly, but the damage is done. I got a bit of the blood on my lip too but luckily I didn't have any in my mouth.

Well, a good lesson learned.

Goodbye Peds... Hello OB

Today's the last day of my first rotation! I really don't want to move on. I love taking care of children and I don't think I can say the same for their moms - my next 2 months will be in obstetrics and I know I won't be enjoying it as much as peds. OB is just such a different atmosphere - mothers screaming in pain, all sorts of little problems during pregnancy, pelvic exams, negligent meth positive moms (this area is often cited as the meth lab capital of California, if not of the US)...

The hours are longer too... oh well...

Birthday

A big thank you for all who wished me happy birthday today; for someone who's living alone in this strange new place and going through all these new changes in my life, your messages really meant a lot to me. THANK YOU!