Wednesday, March 7, 2007

I had a good day at the hospital again on Monday. It was my turn to find a patient- so I went in early to find a good one… and I did! He was a 60 year old man who had been in and out of the hospital since 1984 with heart problems. (I was supposed to find a patient in the cardio ward since we are still focusing on cardiology stuff at the hospital.) He was my MOST favourite patient yet. I felt so sorry for him... but despite all his problems he was so nice and very helpful. He had 3 daughters around my age. In 1984 he had a problem with his heart that resulted in him having double bypass surgery. (When he was first admitted to the hospital in 1984, they sent him to the psychiatric ward for a week, thinking he was depressed, before they realized that he actually did have a serious heart condition! Poor man!) He has had one heart attack since then. This time, he had another episode of stabbing/radiating pain and drove himself to the hospital. Anyway, his story wasn’t all that different from the other patients in the ward, but he was just so nice. It makes me want to be a GP because I’ll actually be able to get to know my patients instead of seeing them once or twice and sending them away.

We also saw a man who was in his late thirties who had very severe pancreatitis. He had two small kids and his prognosis apparently was not very good. We saw him in the Palliative Care Ward.

In the afternoon we learned how to move patients around and getting them from bed to bed (using slide sheets, adjustable hospital beds and pat slides/hover mats). We also visited the Intensive Care Unit.

At the end of the day we went to the Emergency ward again and visited a man who was cut in a bar fight (on his arm and right down to the bone!) and a 25 year old girl with an extreme allergic reaction. I took her blood pressure. :)

I fell asleep that evening pretty much as soon as I got home.

Tuesday was full of lectures and PBLs. My first lecture was on phychosocial development (which was a huge waste of time), but the next ones were on evaluating diagnostic tests and screening (which were interesting and I think very useful). I also went to a talk on some University-run options for us to choose from (for our mandatory option in Med 1). The ones I’m thinking of doing (if I can’t think a good one to do at home) are: “Clinical Pharmacology” (since it will help learning what kinds of medications to prescribe), “Immunology” (which just looks easy), “Care of a Dying Patient” (which I’m not sure I can stomach) or “Primary Healthcare in the Prison Environment” (which might be interesting, but… it’s in a prison).

Today I had a few labs on biochemistry and genetics and then a lecture on nutrition in pregnant and breastfeeding mothers as well as newborn babies and infants. It was all pretty interesting and good stuff to know! I also found out that there are about 20-30 people in my class who have kids… and one of the girls just had a baby 2 weeks ago! I have no idea how she is going to do this.

I’ve signed up for that diving course with Janice that starts next week- and I’m really looking forward to it. I’m going to be able to dive with Brent in Fiji now too!

Not much else is new here. Hope everyone is surviving the cold ok! Miss you heaps!