Patients, Doctors, and a Riddle is Solved

Today was yet another day of adventure for the preggo med student. I had my three-hour glucose tolerance test in the morning, so let's start with that lovely trial.

I ate my last meal at 6 p.m. yesterday, and woke up at 7 a.m. today STARVING. Andrew and I groggily prepared for what we knew was going to be a long morning. I suggested that he eat breakfast; he declined to eat without me in a kind, but ridiculous, act of solidarity. At the hospital, I was told to check into outpatient registration. Outpatient registration redirected me to, of all places, the GI-- gastroenterology-- lab! (Read=elderly patients). I have absolutely no idea why I took a gestational diabetes test in the middle of the GI lab... but there were alot of cute old people wandering about.

So, after waiting 1.5 hours, they finally started the test. Took my blood, then made me down the drink of sugar death.

It looked like this. We hates it, preciouss.

I drank it within the allotted 5 minutes, and over the next three hours they drew blood three more times, one for each hour. I wasn't allowed to eat until after 12:30 p.m., when my blood was drawn one last time. Fun, yes? No. No fun. The only good thing was that the gift shop in the hospital lobby was having a $5 jewelry set sale!!! I got 5 sets of matching earrings + necklaces for only 25 bucks. Sweet. Oh, and I forgot. The other good thing was the nurses. I've decided that nice nurses are really awesome people. They spend all day sticking needles into people, cleaning bedpans and all kinds of chores, and they still manage to smile and make you laugh. Plus they don't have the god-complex that some physicians tend to have. I like how practical they are.

Around 11 a.m., Andrew ran back home to pick up my scrubs (I had been told to wear them to my mentor meeting at 1 pm at UTSW) and grab lunch for us. (Leftover shepherd's pie, yum!). We scooted out the door at 12:35 p.m. on the dot and were at UTSW at 12:56 p.m. I didn't know where to meet for my small group, but luckily I ran into a classmate who directed me to the library.

I was breathless and unprepared for my meeting, AND when I arrived, I realized that I had under-dressed! The dress code is either business casual or scrubs. Well, I picked the wrong day to wear scrubs... everyone else had on their nice business outfits. I felt slightly stupid in black spandex leggings and my red t-shirt and sneakers. Oh well! My mentor was cool, though. She showed us how to take blood pressure readings with the sphygamomowhatevermomomonomter. I'd never done it before, so I bungled it my first time, but it was still awesome. It made me feel a little more doctor-ish, you know?

Going from being a patient to being a pretend doctor felt like being turned upside-down, shaken up, and set on my feet again. Like a snow globe. As we practiced bp readings in our physician mentor's clinic, one of my colleagues noted how he appreciated the clinical setting that gave it that "authentic" feel. I could only think, hey I just spent three hours in just such a clinical setting and it wasn't that awesome. Actually, I couldn't wait to get out. Interesting how perspectives change when you're a doctor and when you're a patient.

I loved learning from our mentor, and thoroughly appreciated the discussion that took place afterwards (we talked about the value of observational skills while we reviewed photos of patients with various diseases). But just an hour before this invigorating becoming-a-doctor session, I was a patient in a waiting room, tired and hungry, dizzy from the sugar overload, sick of needle sticks, sporting band-aids on both arms, and bearing the tell-tale plastic wristband of a hospital patient.

I promise that I won't lose track of the human side of me as I progress into medicine. I'm going to be learning a lot about how to see diseases as a set of physical manifestations, but I hope that I never forget that these diseases physically manifest themselves in a human body!

Okay, Jenny has stepped down from her little soap-box. Here is an ADORABLE email that my brother sent Andrew.

Remember the riddle from the last post? Here is Jason's answer:

Tue, Aug 25, 2009

The answer is Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Sincerely your Brother in law and kung-fu student
Jason