Down with the Sickness

I just finished the second of my three 2-week rotations for family practice. This clinic was a significantly different brand of medicine than the first two weeks - whereas the first placement was a wealthy retirement home, full of bed sores, dementia, and medication lists as long as my arm. We just finished at a clinic attached to homeless shelter. Only, it wasn't a homeless shelter per se; it was more of a rehab program - we saw people from all over the country, and from outside of the States. The illnesses were more of the flu-variety - Nicole and I both got sick on the very first day, and spent the rest of the two weeks recuperating (this was the first time that I was truly grateful for all of our required vaccines).

Fortunately, the clinic didn't have us working days that were as long as the last clinic. The information wasn't exactly mentally stimulating, but I loved it because of the autonomy. We went and saw the patients, did an H&P (history and physical), formulated a plan, and then came out and presented to the attending physician. The best part of it was the practice - constantly writing up SOAP (Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan) notes,tying in pertinent positives and negatives, getting a pointed physical exam, and figuring out how to connect the dots of their physical presentation were perhaps the best parts of it. Also, the reading and researching became much more streamlined - instead of going over dementia and COPD, I got to review things that were a little more common in family practice - differentials for cough, diabetes, hypertension, and the differences between viral and bacterial upper and lower respiratory infections. This was all covered on Step 1, but the clinical aspect helped to cement things. It's one thing to know theoretically that you give antibiotics for bacteria, but it's another thing entirely to have a patient who presents with a two-day history of cough hack up some sputum, so you can see if the color warrants a Z-pack or just water and bed rest.

Also very positively, this clinic was run by one of the docs who taught us during our 5th semester. This gentleman is so personable, he's gotten other docs to come volunteer at this clinic, and is responsible for setting up some of the rotations we did in 5th semester, as well as, possibly, some of the clerkships we may or not soon be getting in Miami.

After the last day, Nicole and I drove up to drop off our patient logs, site reviews, and the paper we had to do, and turned in the paperwork for our next clerkship: OBGYN. After that, since we took a little drive up to Costco. The goal of the trip was to get to Sports Authority, so I could get an E-Z curl bar and some weight plates - I'd been trying to work out with some resistance bands I'd gotten at Target, but they snapped. Anyway, there was a Costco close by, and Nicole loves her Costco. So we walked around, lite-shopping with a friend, and were caught in a torrential downpour. The clouds were black and ominous when we left the clinic, but by the time we finished shopping at Costco, it was the Biblical flood all over again. I should have listened to the girls; they were telling me to keep the cart along the sides of the parking lot, next to the cars, but deep down inside, I'm still a little boy - giving the cart a big shove, I figured I might be able to just ride it through the rapidly accumulating lake. Much to my chagrin, the car stopped right in the middle of the ankle-deep rainwater. Fortunately, it was more hilarious than frustrating. After draining our shoes, we made our way to the sports store, and then I drove barefoot all the way home.

Yesterday, a friend came down and we all walked down the Boardwalk to Starbucks, making the most of the day. I can’t help but be pleased that I’m not up north, despite how I’d thought things would be - I prefer Ocean Avenue to snow any day. After she left, I took Nicole out to eat at Catina 27. I had an interesting salmon-farfalle, and then we went for a walk. Nicole had really wanted to go to theVan Dyke Cafe, so we went ahead and stopped in. Apparently, it's incredibly difficult to get in to listen to the live music, but we didn't have any trouble. Tony Succar and "El Grupo Mixtura Latin" threw down their singular brand of Afro-Caribbean jazz, and we made our way back down Lincoln Road to home.