A Day at the Clinic

Ok, let me walk you through a day in my life at the clinic.

Generally, I will arrive at the office around 1pm. Heading to my supervising doctor's office, I talk to her about the patients and cases we'll be seeing that day, as well as any unusual or interesting findings or diagnosis observed in my absence. Occasionally, she will have some articles or books for me to look over concerning a particular condition or disorder. However, I'll only have a minute to look these over before she's saying 'ok, let's go... did you bring your roller-blades today?' And we're off.

Most days the office is a whirlwind. You are barely out of one room - jotting notes down on the chart, before you spin around and head to the next room. There are times when it is not appropriate for me to shadow certain appointments, for example the post-partum mom that came in recently, who sat uncontrollably crying and trembling for 2 and 1/2 hours while her husband looked on helplessly. In such cases as these, you're heart just aches for the patient and you are ashamedly glad that you are not the one who has to talk to her. However, even when not shadowing, I am kept busy. There are charts to be pulled and prepared for the following day, urine analysis to run, immunizations to give, patients to check in, cultures and centrifuges to keep up with.... you get the idea. Still, while keeping on your toes, you have an ear continually open to the shutting of a room door - my signal to hurry up and finish my current task and be waiting to follow the doctor.
It's in this back-and-forth fashion that the main part of my days are ordered, and while I love every second of it, my favorite part is nearing the end of the day. When the nurses are finally sitting down, and the patients are slowly trickling out, this is my opportunity to ask as many questions as I can recall that have run through my mind over the hectic day. Yesterday's big question concerned technique more than disease - When testing test joint reflexes or bone fractures in the joints, where exactly do you place the reflex hammers? Let me just say this ended in me being surrounded by all the nurses, all of whom were trying to find the exact place, eventually declaring me 'retarded.' We were all dying laughing until the doctor came and explained exactly where to place the hammer, and that if one is thinking about it too hard, the test will not work.
When the nurses finally head home for the day, many times I am privileged to sit and listen to the clinic's doctors informally discuss certain patients that may be troubling them, abnormal test results, or even the day's most quirky family member of a patient. Though the terminology can be overwhelming, I love this medical banter.
Following these mini-conferences, I head back to the office to gather my things, and have a last-minute chat with my doctor - usually for more questions, or to research a topic of mutual interest (i.e., Crouzon's Syndrome). I am mindful of the time, as I know she will be working until at least 10:30 that night. I wrap things up, say a quick 'bye, thanks again', and head out the door to my car. On the way home, though winding-down, the slowly-inching traffic gives me a precious quiet time to reflect on the day's cases... It's these thoughts and reflections that stick with me through the hard times at school and prompt me to 'stick-with-it' when feeling so acutely aware of my lack of knowledge. It is this insatiable curiosity and burning desire to help, for which I know I am conscience-bound to pursue such a path as mine. Crazy? most definitely. The right thing? absolutely.