Monday, June 26, 2006

Horrah for Shadowing!

It's amazing that after only about 8 hours of shadowing I feel like I've already seen such a wide variety of patients. I've seen people that have dropped 45 lbs. weights on their feet and breaking every metatarsal. (And not having it looked at for over 24 hours) I've had a little old lady come in with these ridiculous clear plastic shoes that she want turned into customized orthopedic shoes. I've had someone cry once they heard that their shoulder was probably going to need surgery to fix and that is would only be 80% better at best. Then there was the very odd hippie couple that had a million and one questions about a broken heel surgery and then decided they wanted a second opinion. There was the single mom with the baby who had a "bent" wrist but didn't have the insurance to pay. (They were taken care of free of charge.) Oh I love shadowing so much. Too bad that I don't think the doctor feels the same way about someone extra being in his way. Oh well, this is what I have to do and I'm not taking prisoners.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have a friend who saw a 23 week old baby die because its pregnant crackhead mom decided that she loved crack more than anything in the world, so she did crack after going ~23 weeks without. That induced labor, and subsequently resulted in the kid dying in the NICU. And she was completely distraught about it, which I didn't really get, but then again, I really don't like kids or crackheads.

Anyway, the surgeon I was shadowing loved me, and will still sometimes call me to tell me if there is a particularly interesting case that he's working on that I'd be interested in seeing. It's pretty much because I was awesome.

But seriously, the guy you're working with should like you; it's not like he was forced to take you along to work with him. Offer to go out to bring him back lunch if he's swamped during lunchtime (doctors, surgeons especially, LOVE getting a good lunch since normally they have to eat that hospital cafeteria crap), and little things like that; it's the least you can do for him giving you the opportunity he's giving you. Is he a DO, or an MD?

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a typical day in that office. Bottom line is that people do stupid things and they are almost always responsable for their own poor health.