It went ok

It actually did. It went fine. I did get to speak spanish, and I didn't mess up too bad. And I correctly diagnosed all of my cases (1 acute sinusitis, 1 viral bronchitis, 1 muscle tear, and 2 infected ingrown toenails). I didn't do the best job of presenting the cases to the attending, which is something that i have always been bad at, and apparently will never get better at.

"Presenting" to the "attending" is when you explain a patient to the doctor in charge, and present all of the relevant information to them in a concise, organized, and interesting way. Like, "So, Ms. Rodriguez is a 54 year old woman with a 3 week history of a dry, hacking cough. Blah blah blah." It seems so simple, and when you watch anyone who is good at it, you immediately see that there is no other way that you could possibly present that case. But I'm bad at it! I put things in weird orders. I don't do a good job of relating the chronology of an illness, and there are always important things that I forget. Like, does the woman with a dry hacking cough smoke? Hmmm. That is indeed a very relavent question. Let me go back and ask her. Which looks incredibly professional, let me tell you.

But I want to tell you about the patients I saw with the ingrown toenails. First of all Wallace Medical Concern is a non-profit volunteer clinic for low income folks without health insurance. It is located at the back of the lobby of the Estate Hotel, a seedy residential hotel in Old Town. And IT IS RUN BY ADRIAN ORANGE'S SISTER!! Jennifer. Born Jennifer Orange. Can you believe that? I just found that out last night.

Anyhow, the lobby of this seedy hotel is, on clinic nights, filled with people sitting on cheap folding chairs. A large proportion of the folks there are spanish speaking, and a large proportion of the people in the lobby are their children, who are invariably bored, antsy, hyperactive, and infectious. So I walk into a room to see a young mexican guy with an ingrown toenail. With him in the room are his mother, his aunt, two small children, one teenage boy, a pregnant woman, and her husband. All in this small exam room! 8 people! It turns out that the pregnant lady also had an ingrown toenail, so the family decided that she should come too, to be seen at the same time as the kid. Why not? It was fun, though. I got to say things like "has there been any leakage of pus?" in spanish.

Pus by the way, is spelled the same in spanish and is pronounced "poos."

I liked being there. I realized that I like seeing patients. I enjoy that interaction and the sense of being able to help someone out. It does make me very sad, though, that clinics like this are forced to scrape by on meager funding and donated supplies in a space that is completely inadequate. They are doing such amazing, important work. And yet the waiting room is always jam packed, the appointment slots fill up instantly, and they are always having to turn people away. I had to tell the poor family with the infected toes to call at exactly 8 am on monday to make an appointment to see the foot specialist next Thursday. There are only 4 slots every 2 weeks, so I hope they get in.

When will this country realize that health care is important?