A week in the mountains

I was home this week in Waynesville shadowing at a family practice. Lessons from the week are these:
1) I have learned something in the last 2 years. BUT I have much more to learn. Especially that no one uses the generic names of drugs. And that drugs are VERY important to the arsenal of what doctors can do.

2) Saw some cool physical findings, which is exciting to me because most of the time we only see "normal" so, finding something good means it is worth it to try and examine every patient. Tough things were heart murmurs and some lung rales. However I got a good look at interesting eardrums-scarred, full of nasty pus etc. Also saw a couple cool procedures chopping off skin cancers and lancing a cyst.

3) Loved the variety of people we got to see. People with lots of education, people with only a little education, poor people, wealthy people. People I knew, people I didn't know. It was great to wade into every room and expect something different but also to get to talk to very different people.

4) Got to toughen up for a final push of studying for my Boards during the summer (June 15th)

Picture from Ecuador mountains looking over the jungle but enjoyed the mountains of WNC this week!

Off the Map? Off the Mark

Hey guys,

Dad encouraged me to keep writing on my blog here in case people are still interested in what people who look at power points 7 hours a day do with their lives.

I thought I would start with the new ABC Show


Off the Map

I watched the pilot and have refused to watch since. It presumably takes place in the jungle of South America. Having been there for awhile it is of course beautiful but I was so disappointed in how they portrayed American doctors.
A) NONE of the new american doctors spoke Spanish. Every doctor I interacted with in Ecuador spoke Spanish. You cannot be a doctor if you can't talk to people and at least understand a little bit about the culture. These people they brought in were idiots. We are taught to fit our medicine to the culture of our patients and that sometimes culture is a much stronger influence on health than we ever will be. Why are they not at least TRYING to learn Spanish?

B) They don't NEED to be there. The governments of these countries have outposts into the jungle. Far better than any Americans could decide to do it. There is a health system there. They don't have everything that we have but they don't have to chop down coconuts to make a saline solution. So while they do need supplies they most certainly do not need doctors who don't understand the language or the culture.

That is my rant on Off the Map. I do continue to watch Grey's Anatomy...I mean after this long I am just getting old and can't bear to let it go.

I also study...but more on cool diseases later.
Let me know if you want to keep hearing about medical school!