Puff Out Your Cheeks
It’s official. My one month of inpatient internal medicine has come to an end.
I am a changed person.
Even my attending told me during my evaluation session today that it has been one hell of a month.
I will definitely never be the same.
Tomorrow, I start a new month of inpatient neurology.
Lots of asking my patients to “puff out their cheeks.” (Test of cranial nerve function.)
I am unbearably tired.
I did not eat today.
I did learn a hell of a lot during this past month of insanity.
But strangely, it was not really all about medicine, per se.
Mostly I just learned how to be a doctor.
How to answer pages. How to interact with nurses, techs, and social workers. How to talk to patients’ families.
Speaking of, I have so much to say about that.
Why are doctors so scared of telling patients and families about their diagnosis until it is “confirmed?”
A patient’s wife thanked me today for being upfront and telling her that her husband may have metastatic cancer. No, it wasn’t definite. But it was highly probable. And she needed to know. She really did.
So much to say on this topic. I mean, so much. But too tired right now.
It’s bed time for me.
Rinse.
Repeat.
Photo: Taken outside the hospital this morning.