firsthand experience

a couple realizations to note:

1) how damn tired my legs are at the end of the day. today we performed at least 10 surgeries. i spend most of the day setting up surgeries, cleaning up, and wrapping the packs again. INSANE. we also fell behind in the morning AND after lunch so i spent the better part of two hours running around, taking in patients, hurrying dr. a, cleaning up, and prepping path bags.

the days aren't always like this, but it isn't uncommon. days like these make me consider how i would want my practice to be. i wouldn't want to burn out my legs in the first year. i like how dr. f has half days on wednesdays - a nice break ni the middle of the week. i think i'd like to start and end earlier on some days and later on others, alternating to accommodate people's schedules, but allocating time to spend with my family in both the am and pm at least part of the week. i've had a dream to open up my own preventative medicine and healing clinic - one consisting of healers from all different disciplines: chinese medicine, naturopathy, nutrition, ayurveda, etc., but i realized today that i need to network and acquire a following first. so a patient today suggested that i work really hard for a few years first within a hospital or managed care company, forming relationships and building a patient base. it makes sense. then i could spend some time raising a family and perhaps open my dream clinic after that.

2) how easy it is to forget that you're treating a person and not just a body. after doing so many skin exams, it doesn't even faze me when private body parts are blatently exposed. it's just skin and flesh. i'm only there to take notes on their skin abnormalities. but no, i should not forget that they deserve to be treated as dignified humans. not that i'm mean to them, but sometimes it slips that nudity, which seems normal in the doctor's office, isn't considered civil in society. relegating the attitude from the office to the real world may offend other people. it's really is true that it's so simple to forget that you're working on a living, breathing person rather than a medical experiment. i don't want to lose my empathy for the patient, so i must remind myself that these spirits need to be treated with respect.