4.17.2010

I heart Health Fairs

So.... Missed a day of studying to with Women in Medicine to the last health fair of the term. So glad I did. Health Fairs remind me 1) why I came to medical school 2) what life in Grenada looks like past the campus gates 3) how much I like patients -and maybe some other stuff too, though I can't recall at the moment.

Highlights of my day. 1) Patient education, explaining what lymph nodes were and why I was feeling under my patients collarbone and in her armpits. Truly, I love this part of medicine and it is so great to meet a patient who wants to know and have the time and opportunity to help her.
2) Talking to the clinical tutors and physicians that come and make the health fair possible. They teach and supervise and it is amazing. 3) Seeing something that I've only read about in textbooks, it makes it all so much more real and memorable. Today's list includes Pau D'Orange (non-pathological in this case), a total masectomy and a lipoma. I also saw some very painful arthritic nodules on a patients ankles that were making it difficult for her to walk, she also had arthritis in her shoulders making it hard for her to lift her hands above her head. This made me sad because there was nothing I could do for her and she was in a lot of pain.

That's all for now. Back to micro and the lovely infections of the urinary tract, yippee!

1 comment:

  1. Hello Spice Island Queen. I was accepted into SGU a while back and I have even sent in my deposit, but I still have not been able to decide if I should go. I am also married and feel this decision is getting tougher to make day by day. I'd really love to be able to speak with you. My email add is bs2281@columbia.edu.I can send you my phone number in a private email. Would you kindly reply? I'd really love to hear the perspective of a married woman who went to the island. I'd appreciate this very much. Thank you in advance!!

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