Ladies your disappointing me....

Perhaps it's because I'm in Idaho, perhaps it's Family Practice, or maybe it's just a coincidence but I'm a little disheartened at the number of females who come into the office in "hysterics" and I really HATE using that term, but it's accurate. I hate that word because of it's sexist origin and what it imply's about women in general. But unfortunately the shoe fits. I am really shocked at the number of female patients that have random vague complaints, are panicked about it, cry and expect... no demand some kind of pill to treat it. I think of myself as feminist ( NOT the porn and striping is empowering to women, all men are potential batterers, rapists and child abusers kind but MORE the old school gender equality, women aren't either a virgin or a hooker dichotomy and women aren't irrational simply because they are emotional, kind of feminism) but geeez, ladies your killing me with the melodramatic sob stories and absurd reasoning.

Things like stating in a very dramatic tone in all sincerity and tears welling up in your eyes, your afraid your going to die because you've got a rash on your hands... really the small bumps on your hands that itch, THAT is what you think is gonna do you in?? hhhmmmm cause I'm gonna say the fact that your skin reminds me of an orange leather jacket from the 70's is gonna swing my vote for death by cancer. OR Yesterday you had a fever of 103, all your muscles and joints ached, you had severe back pain 10/10 on the pain scale, your vision was blurred, you had a slight headache, your throat was so swollen you couldn't even take a Tylenol to bring your fever down, but today every single symptom you had is now miraculously gone... WTF?!?!?! First of all, if everything is fine why are you here now, why not yesterday? and now that everything is fine what the frick do you want me to do for you!? Come on! Beside that this is the 4th flippin visit in 2 months and you haven't had one single abnormal objective thing wrong with you! OR The complaint of a bump, you perhaps think it may be a cyst that needs to be removed or an abscess that should be drained. Alright that's reasonable.... until I see the area in question and I cannot see or feel anything, literally there is NOTHING there and I'm not talking in a "medically trained to distinguish nothing from something" nothings there, I mean the only requirement to know there is nothing there is you be sane. And then after the most detailed, gentle and polite explanation of how there is no way to treat it because there is nothing to treat, somehow I am still looking into eyes that say " yes that's nice, now what antibiotic will I be getting for my rabid MRSA infection".

Is it denial, ignorance, somatization disorder? Possibly, but it's the panic, the agitation the unreasonable conviction all together that I just don't get. Why ladies.... why? and I can't believe how many there are, that's what really kills me. At least one a day, but more consistently 2-3. I'd like to say their all just whack-a-do's but most of them seem extremely normal everyday people, and then that shuts off and crazy just starts pouring out of them like the Deepwater Horizon oil well. I guess in part I feel frustration because I cannot treat them, there is no disease or infection to look at test and treat. And I'm not a counselor, I do my best to poke around to find a relationship issue, work strain/stress, something, anything, I can think of that might be there disguised as crazy. I just don't have an hour to spend sifting through make believe physical complaints in order to get to a real reason someone comes in. It's soooo much better if people could just be honest, you get better, more efficient and effective treatment when your honest. Besides with all the balancing work, family, kids, parents, committee, wife, house, yard blah blah blah women do I understand exhausted, depressed, anxiety, insomnia ect... and any of those look far less "crazy" than being convinced you have some obscure fatigue disease you found on the internet caused by rodent poo and requires a 600$ test to confirm.

Nearing the end of Family Practice

So I'm now 14 working days away from the end of my first (and second) rotation. I finally got to do a few sutures last week which was fantastic and I managed to do a fair job, as in I only needed a small amount of guidance with the first tie. I can now leave the rotation feeling confident I got a health dose of "bread and butter" patients (colds, sore throat, asthma, allergies, muscle aches, ear infections ect..) and at least one chance to practice suturing and I & D. So for the last few weeks I'll be reviewing and organizing my "personal scut" or my black book of cliff notes on all the things I've learned in the last 10 weeks. I can't wait to get home to see my boyfriend and family as well as my fantastic class mates so we can all share "war" stories and revel in the newest leg of our journey to become PA's.

Baby June

Another exciting weekend for me! I had the awesome opportunity and honor of being present while my best friend Shellee had a successful VBAC on July 4th! Beautiful baby June was born on the fourth of July at 12:21pm. I was so proud of how amazing Shellee was during labor, she remained calm and did so good pushing right up till the very end. I actually surprised myself by getting quite teary eyed when the baby began to cry, Adam announced it was a girl and Shellee cried out "I have a baby girl!" It was a very tender moment and I am so happy I was there to share it with them. Now as much as I adore Shellee I couldn't help but watch and listen for the objective medically interesting part of the VBAC... Shellee told me later (while she made beeping computer noises)she could see my "medical mind working" and it's true I would phase in and out of getting wrapped up in the emotion of watching my closest friend have her child and my medical student brain analyze the prep and procedures going on in front of me. I think right after baby June was out and laid on Shellee's chest and the tears of joy receded, my brain kicked into full student mode and I was very focused on the "after birth" procedures. (Since she is my friend I'll restrain myself from further detail) This was the first birth I have witnessed and it will suffice to say I don't think anything will be able to top that experience for many many years. Congratulations to Adam and Shellee and their beautiful baby girl!