I know I've been a slacker and haven't posted in awhile. I just haven't had any great stories. I finished up OB/GYN and just can't even believe 4 weeks went by so fast. The rotation was amazing; it's everything I hoped it would be and I am 100% sure I want to go into this.
I am one week into my second family medicine rotation. I have to say that I work harder and longer hours on my family rotations than anything else. I leave my house at 5:45 am, meet Dr. D at the hospital to round on our patients, then drive to our office and see patients until 5ish. Then I have to stay another hour to go through labs and phone messages. To be honest, I don't like it. It's really hard coming off the rotation that I love love love and going to one I'm not really interested in. I'm never home. The silver lining is that I get one day off a week. The doctor I'm with is great, and I'm working hard, not letting him know for a second that I'm not happy, but ugh. Our mornings typically consist of diabetes and hypertensive patients with a mix of a few other things. I'll write about some frustrating stories.
Story 1- female in her thirties who has been sick for over a week. She's had a terrible cough and her lungs are really wheezy. We give her two nebulizer treatments and her lungs sound the same. Dr. D really wants her to get a chest xray. She is self pay and doesn't want to spend $12 on an xray. So what does she decide to do? Head on over to the ER. Where she is then admitted. *BOOM* That was the sound of my head exploding. Really? Who is going to pay for that $5000 visit? Oh the taxpayers of Ohio, that's who. That is just so frustrating to me. Dr. D was less than pleased too.
Story 2- a 35 year old male who weighs over 320 lbs. He stopped taking his blood pressure medication a few months ago because he ran out and didn't want to refill it because he doesn't like to take pills. In the office, it was pretty high. He told me he didn't mind dying (not in a suicidal way, just in a lazy I just don't want to take pills way). Yeah dying is the easy part. The hard part is having a stroke and being in the hospital post stroke not being able to move or speak. We talked him into restarting his meds.
It's really frustrating to take care of people like this.
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I think being a doctor is a little like being a teacher (what I did for 2 years - high school math). You go into it with hopes of "saving the world", making a difference - then you run into people/patients like this who could give a rat's @$$. I'm sorry you're having a hard time in this area - I would too. Just want to shake the person until they wake up.
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