Dr. Cranquis' Mumbled Gripes

wayfaringmd:

It was their third time coding today. Each time they were brought back weaker than before and a little more brain damaged. The family was watching the action through the ICU room window and refused to let us stop.

Y’all, let this be a public service announcement. Breaking your loved one’s ribs,…

Demanding pointless CPR: you may think it shows that you care about your loved one, but to us medical people, it just means you’re feeling guilty about something… and you want to make us feel the same way.

mynotes4usmle:

We’ve all been there. We’ve all wanted to just give up, we’ve all questioned ourselves…”why on earth did I choose Med School” (me as a 2nd year Med student) “why on earth did I choose USA to do my residency” (me, at the moment, sometimes…I really hope I pass)

Is in this particular moments, when you need to remember how all the effort you put every day on pursuing your dreams is going to be paid: with a big THANK YOU.

When I was doing my internship (in Peru, the internship is the last and 7th year of Med School, it lasts 365 days, and once you are done with it, you became an MD), I had a lot of patients, but the one I remember the most was an old lady with end stage renal disease. She decided that she didn’t want dyalisis, but that is bc she had no idea how that worked. She and her family thought that was an over the top really scary and complicated procedure, and they didn’t want her to suffer.

The thing is that she was, and a lot… 

An inspirational and enlightening story by mynotes4usmle — click-through to find out what happened.

These kinds of “family vs. doctor” discussions occur every day in healthcare. They don’t all end in the “best” outcome for the patients, but they all contain valuable lessons for the physician. And the occasions when the patient and/or family DOES show gratitude for the doctor’s patient perseverance — these are truly the Doctor’s Greatest Reward.

wifeofadocstar:

by Ryan Stewart, DO

It’s been two days now since I basked in the glory. I still find myself floating above the ground. I can still feel the weight of the heavy gown and the velvet tam. I can feel the tickle of the tassel on my ear. My eyes fill with tears at the thought of my classmates – those who toiled alongside me – experiencing the same emotions. The reminders of our newfound responsibility echo in my ears, peppered with compliments from family and friends about the noble, giving, altruistic profession I’ve joined.

As young physicians we proudly take our place on the pedestal that society presents us. How could we not? We’ve worked hard for what we know and, with the help of others in our clinics and hospitals, we can actually save lives. We hear it so often, “I’m so glad there are folks like you who are willing to help others,” or “You are such a selfless person, you’ll be a wonderful doctor.”

The truth is, I am as selfish as they come.

Every time I pick up a book or a journal, every time I catch a baby, every time I hold a scalpel or a pair of Metzenbaum scissors, I steal time from those who love me – my wife, my parents, my siblings, my nieces and nephews, and my friends. I repeatedly send the message that I care more about a complete stranger than I care about my own flesh and blood.

And they’ve yet to make a sound. They just sit there, waiting patiently, until my next text message, email or phone call. They wait until my next vacation, then they tell me how proud they are of the work I do. They tell me how lucky my patients must be.

The truth is, I’m the lucky one. People entrust me with their deepest secrets, their doubts and fears, their health. They allow me to take care of their unborn children, and they allow me to meet their children even before they do. I have the pleasure of placing my stethoscope on my patients’ chests, closing my eyes, and being present with them – in awe of the beauty that is the human body. I experience the joy of hearing a patient say “thank you” even when all I did was listen. I receive far more than I give.

The selfless people in medicine are the people a patient never sees. They are the husbands and wives, the mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters. They are the nieces, nephews, cousins and friends. They give far more than I could even imagine, never complaining, only waiting, for the next text message, phone call or email. They selflessly wait for the next vacation.

And I just stand there, gowned and gloved, waiting for the next incredible experience.

Wow!

Reblogging primarily to remind myself to read this to Mrs. Cranquis tonight, followed by a big ol’ kiss of appreciation.

aspiringdoctors:

I am accustomed to always being busy. There is always somewhere to go, things that have to be done, people I’ve made plans with. I always set an alarm to wake me up. I have a system, a routine, a schedule. It works for me, I don’t mind it.

But, once in a blue moon, a day will roll around…

This essay makes a terrific point. Please, current/future doctors: don’t get so caught up in the routine of GO GO GO in your job/schooling, that you ignore the equally (more!) important things in life, such as your personal health, your family, your partner, your children, and your spiritual health. Life is so much more than studying and working.

aspiringdoctors:

So the closer I get to starting med school (AUGUST 13th?? EEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!) the more and more my friends are asking me health-type questions…

I am not sure how I feel about these developments. I have a sneaking suspicion eventually my family will catch on and I’ll be getting all kinds of interesting questions and requests. Current med students and/or MDs- how is it?

It only gets worse from here on out, my friend. Family will ask you for prescription refills or drug samples. Friends will ask you for second opinions on their doctor’s advice. People you barely know (from church, neighborhood, on the bus) will ask you to look at their rashes, feel their gimpy knees, and review crumpled papers full of lab results. People that you don’t WANT to know better (teachers, distant relatives) will reveal personal information to you — shocking, embarrassing, grotesque, “I CAN’T UN-HEAR THAT” information.

And if you’re not careful with your replies, your carefully-couched-in-disclaimers opinions will be grasped as Gospel Truth and waved in the faces of all those peoples’ doctors and family members. And heaven help you if your opinion turns out to actually be correct — that person will sidewalk-consult you on every medical issue from then on. :)

Good luck!

aspiringdoctors:

New York Times op-ed article.

“…As the aging baby boom generation places unprecedented demands on the health care system, there is little ordinary citizens can do — witness the tortuous arguments in the Supreme Court this week over the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act — to influence either the cost or the quality of the treatment they receive. However, end-of-life planning is one of the few actions within the power of individuals who wish to help themselves and their society. Too few Americans are shouldering this responsibility.

Of course many people want more aggressive treatment than my mother. And advance directives aren’t “death panels”; they can also be used to ensure the deployment of every tool of modern medicine. They can be changed or withdrawn at any time by a mentally competent person.

But public opinion polls consistently show that most Americans, like my mother, worry about too much rather than too little medical intervention. In a Pew Research Center poll released in 2006, only 22 percent said a doctor should always try to save a patient’s life, while 70 percent believed that patients should sometimes be allowed to die. More than half said they would tell their doctor to end treatment if they were in great pain with no hope of improvement.

Yet only 69 percent had discussed end-of-life care with a spouse; just 17 percent, or 40 percent of those over 65, had done so with their children. One-third of Americans had a living will and even fewer have taken the more legally enforceable measure of appointing a health care proxy to act on their behalf if they cannot act for themselves.

The latter omission is especially disturbing because by 2030, more than 8.5 million Americans will be over 85 — an age at which roughly half will suffer from Alzheimer’s disease or some other form of irreversible dementia. For many members of the baby boom generation — more likely to be divorced and childless than their parents — there may be no legal next of kin.

Without advance directives, even a loving child may be ignorant of her parent’s wishes. My mother remained conscious and in charge of her care until just a few days before she died, but like most women over 85, she was a widow. My younger brother died of pancreatic cancer two weeks before she did. It was an immense comfort to me, at a terrible time, to have no doubts about what she wanted.

My mother drew up her directives in the 1980s, when she was a volunteer in the critical care lounge of her local hospital. She once watched, appalled, as an adult daughter threw a coffeepot at her brother for suggesting that their comatose mother’s respirator be turned off. Because the siblings could not agree and the patient had no living will, she was kept hooked up to machines for another two weeks at a cost (then) of nearly $80,000 to Medicare and $20,000 to her family — even though her doctors agreed there was no hope…”