Doctor Psychobabble

“Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.”

- Oscar Wilde

I’m proud and happy to say that I officially made it through two months on a busy med-psych unit. I will forever treasure the days spent on that unit. I can’t express enough how amazing my time was there, and how many truly amazing patients I had the privilege to care for.

Today, I started a new one month rotation in forensic psychiatry. The bulk of my days will be spent participating (I can’t do them on my own, due to legal reasons) in psychiatric forensic evaluations of prisoners. The majority of the evaluations are to determine if someone is fit to stand trial or if they could be considered “not guilty by reason of insanity” (NGRI) or “guilty but insane/mentally ill.” More on that to come.

Today I participated in four different evaluations. Every single one of them was interesting. I really want to share the details of one, in particular, but of course I cannot due to the quite sensitive nature of the case. What I can say is that we determined that the defendant was clearly not “sane” at the time of the commission of the crime due to an actual medical, but not psychiatric, reason. It was absolutely fascinating.

I can tell that I’m going to thoroughly enjoy this rotation. And the hours ain’t too shabby, either.

After working all day in the court system, I had a psychotherapy session with a patient I’m seeing once a week. Soooo many things I want to share about that, but can’t. Perhaps I will HIPAA-ize some of it and share it on here.

But for now, it’s time to eat after a long day.

Enjoy the photos with this post. The first one was taken on my walk to the hospital last week. The second one is a portrait of me made by a manic patient of mine. She told me that she loved me that day and wrote me a rap poem. The very next day she threatened to kill me. Love my job.

Part of My “Yo Brooklyn, Fuhgeddaboudit” Photo Series

I am writing you today to tell you about an upcoming event that I am participating in that is both very important and very exciting to me. NAMIWalks, the signature walkathon event of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, is being held in New York, NY at South Street Seaport on May 12, 2012.

I would like to ask you to come and walk with me or to donate to support my participation in this great event. Visit my personal walker page to sign up: http://www.nami.org/namiwalks12/NYC/kendra. It features a link to my team’s page where you can see who else is walking with me. There is also a link so you can donate directly to me online. Donating online is fast and secure, and I’ll get immediate notification via e-mail of your donation.

NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, is the largest education, support and advocacy organization that serves the needs of all whose lives are touched by these illnesses. This includes persons with mental illness, their families, friends, employers, the law enforcement community and policy makers. The NAMI organization is composed of approximately 1100 local affiliates, 50 state offices and a national office.

The goals of the NAMIWalks program are: to fight the stigma that surrounds mental illness, to build awareness of the fact that the mental health system in this country needs to be improved, and to raise funds for NAMI so that they can continue their mission.

NAMI is a 501(c)3 charity and any donation you make to support my participation in this event is tax deductible. NAMI has been rated by Worth magazine as among the top 100 charities “most likely to save the world” and has been given an “A” rating by The American Institute of Philanthropy for efficient and effective use of charitable dollars.

Thank you in advance for your support.

Sincerely,
Kendra Campbell, M.D.

Below are some photos from last year’s walk and our Metabolic Screening Booth.

“Neurosis is always a substitute for legitimate suffering.”

- Carl Jung

I just got home from a fairly long day at the hospital. I continue to enjoy my rotation in inpatient psychiatry. It is challenging, and wonderful, and entertaining, and tiring.

I also saw a patient afterwards for a psychotherapy session. I am just learning how to actually do psychotherapy. It’s much harder than it sounds. Much. So many issues come up. Sometimes I feel like I have no idea what I’m doing, although I’m a doctor and psychiatrist-in-training who should hypothetically know more than the average person about it. It’s humbling, indeed.

Time to eat. And get my groceries delivered.

Photo: The fruit stand and “cart” outside of my hospital. There is nothing as wonderful as the fact that I walk to the cart guy, don’t order, and get my perfect coffee order. Then walk to the fruit cart, don’t order. And get my banana.

“I wanna hold the hand inside you
I wanna take the breath that’s true
I look to you and I see nothing
I look to you to see the truth
You live your life, you go in shadows
You’ll come apart and you’ll go black
Some kind of night into your darkness
Colors your eyes with what’s not there”

- Lyrics to “Fade Into You,” by Mazzy Star

This song came on shuffle play on my iPhone today on my walk to work. It inspired me.

I am short on words lately due to being busy with work and life.

But I can say that I am loving my rotation this month on the inpatient psychiatric ward. I have the most amazing patients. I see and hear and do things every day, which for most people would be just amazingly shocking. And I get to help people sometimes. A wonderful combination.

I will share a few HIPAA-ized quotes that I’ve heard from patients, recently:

“I am a cannibal. I eat babies. I chew people’s heads off and eat their livers.”

“I can see through walls. I’m looking through you right now.”

“I am expired. I am death.”

“I couldn’t sleep last night because my roommate was rubbing her feces all over herself.”

“You are not my doctor. You are the devil.”

“I just shot lasers out of my eyes and through my window.”

“I have flown over more rivers with my wings than Jesus has children.”

That is all. Nitey!

Photo: Taken during brunch in the Lower East Side in Manhattan last weekend.

“Destination unknown, as we pull in for some gas
Freshly pasted poster reveals a smile from the past
Elephants and acrobats, lions snakes monkey
Pele speaks “righteous,” Sister Zina says “funky”

How bizarre
How bizarre, how bizarre”

- Lyrics to “How Bizarre” From the One Hit Wonder, OMC

My job continues to be awesome. Bizarre. Stimulating.

But I continue to be tired. Word-deprived. And minimally blogging.

For now, enjoy the photo with this post, taken on my walk to the hospital.

Today I performed a rectal exam and diffused an angry patient with a glass of water.

Time to eat, and breathe!

Please check out my latest post on “The Ink Blot” at Medscape/WebMD to read about how much I love me some medical students!

Click Here to View the Original Post on Medscape

“I don’t ever wanna feel
Like I did that day
Take me to the place I love
Take me all the way
I don’t ever want to feel
Like I did that day
Take me to the place I love
Take me all that way (yeah yeah yeah)”

- Lyrics to “Under the Bridge” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers

My most sincere apologies for my absence as of late. Life has thrown my in a tail spin and my site went down at the same time. I hope to have it pretty and nice again, but for now, please forgive the mess.

I just wanted the world to know that I am alive, and kickin.

Just got home from a long day on call at the hospital. I love my job. It couldn’t be more awesome if it tried.

I am trying to make lemonade.

Photo: My baby boy Scope chillin at the farm last week.

“On the first part of the journey
I was looking at all the life
There were plants and birds and rocks and things
There was sand and hills and rings
The first thing I met was a fly with a buzz
And the sky with no clouds
The heat was hot and the ground was dry
But the air was full of sound”-

- Lyrics to “A Horse With No Name” by America

My apologies for my website still not being full functional, but I have had not the time lately to focus on much else besides work.

I started a new rotation last week on an inpatient med-psych unit. It is awesomer than awesome. Many great things to share, in time.

I am home now, post-call, tired, hungry and happy. That is all!

Photo: “These are a few of my favorite things.”

As some of my readers have quite astutely noticed, my site has been intermittently down for the past week. It turns out that my site was hacked! I have now updated and migrated and done a bunch of geeky stuff. But my sidebar is still not legit and some of the other functions aren’t working. Please bear with me while I get the whole site all pretty and functional again.

I have been utterly swamped with work as of late. Long hours, clinics, on-call, etc. I promise to write more, soon! Today I had a patient who got very upset because she thought her roommate was stealing the thoughts out of her brain…what a fascinating job I have, indeed! Time to stuff my face!

Photo: “Scope on a Rope!”

“Scar tissue that I wish you saw.
Sarcastic Mr. Know-It-All.
Close your eyes and I’ll kiss you cause with the birds I’ll share.”

- Lyrics to “Scar Tissue” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers

Went for an awesome 10+ mile run today over the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges. It was magnificent. I started a new rotation on the inpatient psychiatric unit on Friday. More on that to come….

Photo: Taken on my walk to the hospital a few days ago.

Part of My “Yo Brooklyn, Fuhgeddaboudit” Photo Series