“Yes my baby”
Calls at times are insanely busy, but the one thing that keeps us, healthcare professionals going, is being able to not just feel, but share our patients’ pain and help ease it, especially when it can’t be cured.. and to know that there’s so much in the world right around us that we can’t fix, despite our educational degrees and skills, being physicians, but still an enormous difference we can make in those lives, by giving them what indeed we’re so naturally capable of, though what we haven’t been taught in schools and what we can do better at, but often times overlook the depth of the situation, just by intellectualizing, objectively analyzing the scenario and perhaps forget how significant a difference we can make, just by being there..
We remember clearly the professional aspect of our relationship, of what we are – a patient and a doctor, but we don’t quite often remember who we are – the person in either of us!
There are instances on a daily basis about such special moments, when you try and make a difference in lives of those, who make a difference in yours, when you somehow know that you’re here for a reason!
Someone with no clue how close they were to overt liver failure, as their idea of ‘occasional’ drinking was in fact far from just moderate.
Someone with ‘chest and back pain’ was able to start chemotherapy, now with a better prognosis, because of timely diagnosis of cancer, not metastasized just as yet.
Someone with a bad headache would not die, because they were found to have a deadly infection that is curable.
Someone just needed a shoulder to cry on, because they were abandoned by family for their diagnosis and there weren’t many accepting facilities because of their medical condition.
Someone had no other choice, but to go back to the streets where she was from, despite her progressively worsening illness.
Someone had to still rely on their Mama, as they’d forever be a child mentally although fifty.
Someone was readmitted with failure to thrive, as they were discharged being adamant to be home again with their spouse of 56 years as before, although couldn’t stay awake for too long, eat, drink or ambulate anymore.
Someone wouldn’t want to be discharged from the hospital though stable, as this was the only safe haven they knew of, for food and shelter.
Someone disclosed how they were abused all their life, though appeared calm initially, but within minutes of the encounter seemed desperate to open up to someone they could confide in.
I’m thankful and so grateful that I chose Medicine.
I’ve been blessed to work with an amazing team of nurses, techs, secretaries, consultants & even patient-sitters, to be able to provide our best to those seeking help from us when in need.
And to be with those I can laugh out loud at the “sleep deprived crazy” myself about, without being judged, towards the end of one of my 90-something hour calls in the past 3 straight weeks I worked, answering “I slept ok” in response to obviously something else they’d asked, or wondering if I knew the attending who just passed by was, after having a detailed discussion with him about three of my patients and being reminded simply about it by a colleague, or all engrossed in the patient’s data on my computer screen, addressing a respected nurse out of the blue, “yes my baby”…
With every patient encountered, a new challenge we face and another yet unknown to us until then, emotion is discovered, with an intention to somehow help and heal…
And eventually now comes the time, what known to all fellow living beings is, that what I just can’t wait for – the feeling of so looking forward to crashing and passing out tomorrow.. 😴 💤 🛏
“Yes my baby!!”
😂🤦♀️ 👩⚕️
NotesOfADrMom 