Amazing!!

Toledo Dr. will take team to Haiti for help

Dr. Paat is one of the amazing doctors I have had the chance to work with out here in Ohio. He is such an incredible person and a great physician. He is a great example to me. I wish I could drop everything and head to Haiti right now!! ($20,000 just lying around wouldn't be bad either). Click the link and watch the news report. He is an awesome guy.

My pediatrics rotation ended before Christmas break and I already miss working with little kids! I'm now on Internal Medicine for the next three months. My first 2 weeks of outpatient clinic have flown by. Time is marching steadily on and I am freaking out trying to get all of my military rotations scheduled and lined up for this fall. I'm trying to get everything squared away before I start working in the hospital in February. I'm going to be working longer hours and won't have extra time to work on scheduling rotations.

I have been working in a general internal medicine clinic, an infectious disease and nephrology clinic. One of the biggest signs that I was no longer working in Pediatrics was the difference in "prizes" people get at the doctor's office. Little kids get to look through baskets of toys and stickers after they see the doctor. Some age groups actually get books after they have seen the doctor! I loved finding out what the kid's favorite cartoons were while I examined them so I could hand select the books! Adults in the infectious disease clinic get baskets full of condoms to look through. They are just sitting on the table in a little basket identical to the baskets that used to be full of stickers! They're just hanging out in all of their crazy varieties: all sorts of flavors, glow in the dark, his'n'her pleasure and MEGA!! At least in adolescent medicine they were discreetly hidden in a jack'o lantern trick or treating bucket.

Another major difference between pediatrics and adult medicine has been dealing with patient's apathy about their health. Most little kids want to get better, and if they don't their parents sure would like them to. Adults, after some predetermined age, no longer care about their health. Taking care of one's health just seems to be too big of an inconvience after some mysterious time. I saw a guy with end-stage kidney disease, COPD, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, congestive heart failure, depression and a myriad of other problems. We were meeting with him to discuss why he couldn't breathe at night when he lays down to go to bed. He wanted that fixed but seemed irritated when he was reminded that he has been delaying kidney dialysis, gained 20 pounds since his last visit, and wasn't taking his medications like he should!! I need to discover a new perspective during this rotation. How am I going to find the desire to help those who aren't willing to help themselves??