its 7:00 am already?? SNOOZE!

Hello again!
Well today is my third trip to San Jose. To be completely honest I did NOT want to wake up to go to the clinic today. I felt so tired and sleepy and I was so comfortable in my bed...well, it was just one of those days. Yet, I sucked it up and went anyways. Again I was with Dr. Bellows and we saw 3 patients in the 2 hours I was there. I see many, many patients go in and out of the other rooms which makes my little station look that much slower. Don't get me wrong, I truly do like going, but how do I put this.... AH! I know. It's kind of like cell lab. When you are doing stuff everything is so exciting and fun but its the waiting that gets ya. So I have a lot of waiting in between patients and sometimes I feel bad because I know the patient has been waiting in the room forever. The Dr isnt' purposely doing this nor is he just goofing off, he is just very diligent and thorough which is understandable as well. Today I also had to do no translations because all 3 patients spoke English yet he let me go in with him anyways. We had some interesting cases, and today was the first time there were some awkward moments in the room. I guess I could see how having a young (and attractive HAHAHA) female in the room when you are a male patient with certain issues could be a little uncomfortable for them. I told the doctor later if he ever needed me to step out the room to not be afraid to tell me so. He said if that were ever the case he would let me know, but he said everything is natural and I had to learn sometime. Again, I appreciate all the time he has put into teaching me. I did however along with the doctor step out of the room in once case as he handed off an unpleasant type of medical examination to one of the medical assistants. Poor guy. lol. But overall the patients today were very kind and welcoming even though they really had no use for me in there. Until next time..

...so much better!

Hello,
Well this was my second week going into San Jose and I must say it went WAY better than my last trip there since it felt like I was going to roll over and die last time. My trips to the clinic have thus far been pretty... well... eventful. Today when I got there in the morning the power was out. Random I know, but there was no lights, the patients were all waiting in the dark, and the alarm was going off. So for the first about 30 minutes, it was just a lot of waiting since we weren't allowed to have patients in the clinic area. Once the power came back on, the charting system was still down so everything had to be done the old-school way... that's right, good 'ol fashion handwritten charting and prescription writing. Everyone seemed pretty bothered by this so I guess we really take for granted how easy computers have made our life. Anyways, I was able to go in with Dr. Bellows to see 4 patients before I had to leave. This is the doctor I will be translating for on a regular basis. He works a little slow on the computer since as he put it, they are not things of his time, but he is very knowledgeable and takes the time to explain to me what he is doing, what he is looking for, possible diagnosis, and possible treatment and future direction which I appreciate since I am learning a ton of new information. Today, 2 of the 4 patients had diabetes. I am especially interested in this since I have lost a large portion of my family to this disease. Hopefully I can learn more specifically about this disease. Oh, and during one of the consultations, the doctor told one of the patients that if their blood sugar drops too low then excessive sweating, weakness and shaking could occur. I then remembered what happened to me the last time I was there. We later spoke of it and he said that that is what probably happened to me and to carry around candy with me in case it happened again. No arguing with the Dr. on that advice :) Until next time..

Did that just happen??

Hello again,

So today was day 1 of volunteering for the San Jose Clinic. All my classes are around 11:00 am so I had forgotten what Houston traffic was like at 8:00am. So after fighting my way through traffic, I arrived at the clinic, fumbled around and waited patiently until I found Samantha since it was my first day and I had no idea where to go. She then told me that the doctor I was assigned to would not be coming in today and she warned me that today may be a slow (kinda boring) day for me. BUMMER! A nurse then told me that she had reassigned me to Dr. Finkle, an orthopedic surgeon, and I would be assisting him today. My spirits were high again. I saw him tell the girl working behind the desk all the notes that he would normally chart and she typed diligently as he spoke. I had always seen doctors chart their own stuff, I found it interesting they did it this way. He then briefed me on my first patient: a woman, mid 40's with herniated disks with already having had surgery to have some other ones removed. He asked, and I translated basic questions like: how is the pain, is it spreading, when it it worse etc. He then gave her a basic check up and found that a nerve was pinched causing her right leg strength and reflexes to be significantly less than the left. Since she was already on medications and had been exercising, losing weight, and not lifting heavy objects, there was nothing immediate that could be done for her. Again BUMMER! Doctor recommendation: live with it or get surgery. When she heard her options I saw her happiness slowly fade. She told me she could not afford having surgery but she was in a lot of pain which broke my heart. It made me realize that I had been taking for granted the simple ability to go to the doctor for any little incident and know I would be able to receive any treatment necessary. It's hard to believe that not all people have that liberty and must factor in other things; their job, kids, house etc before their own health because of the finances. BUMMED again.. and then BOOM! It happened and out of nowhere while I was speaking to the patient. I started feeling EXTREMELY hot and started to sweat profusely. It looked like I was running a marathon outside. I began to feel very weak and shake. After leaving the patients room, I rushed to the restroom and noticed I was completely pale and I started to black out a bit. I tried to gather myself together and went outside and sat down and began feeling better. The next patient was an English speaker but the Dr. invited me to watch anyways. I went in and as I was standing in the corner...BOOM... it was happening again. I excused myself from the room, went up to Samantha and told her (and she could very clearly see) that something was wrong and I would have to leave. She was understanding but I was still very confused as to what was going on. I grabbed and orange juice because I didn't know what else to do since it didn't seem like any kind of medicine would help and was then on my way to our cell exam. Great timing for my body to breakdown like that right? Anyways, I slowly started to feel better throughout the day and other than my mishap at the clinic, I can tell I am really going to enjoy and learn a lot at the clinic. Until then... 

Officially a volunteer!

Hello!
Well, the last time I posted I was hoping to volunteer at El Centro de Corazon but I never really heard back from them. I was able to send in my application but they never responded and I tried calling and could never really speak to anyone who could point me in any particular direction but, there was no need to panic because I had also applied to the San Jose Clinic and Samantha was very prompt in responding and very accommodating with scheduling. Yesterday, I along with Maria and Yvonne had orientation there. Upon arriving to the clinic I was very pleased with it. I had never been to that particular clinic before but the overall appearance was very welcoming and clean. We all had a, well, "interesting" encounter with the young man who was working at the front desk that gave us something to giggle about later :). We then met up with Samantha who gave us more paperwork to fill out which included the usual background check and confidentiality agreements. She also made us watch an OSHA training video which again provided us with a few laughs. It reminded me of the lab safety video we had to watch before chemistry labs. She then returned and told us a little more about the clinic and the services they offered. I was also very impressed with the number of services and specialties they had. I figured it would be just a primary care facility but much to my surprise there is also a dental clinic, dermatology, cardiology, podiatry, endocrinology and many more specialty services. She also went into further detail as to what each of us would be doing, and I must say I am VERY excited about my assignment. I will be going in on Thursday mornings (before class from 8:30-10:30 am) and I was assigned to a physician whom I will be translating for since we were told the majority of their patients speak very little English. She told me this particular physician is a retired surgeon who now volunteers in their internal medicine department. This is exactly what I wanted to be doing and I am thrilled to have this opportunity. She also mentioned being able to shadow a physician in our area of interest when we have completed our mandatory hours which again is very kind of this clinic and I am personally very grateful. I begin volunteering next Thursday (the 15th) and I look forward to it!

Welcome

Hello, well I am new to the blogging world so please bear with me. Though I have not officially begun volunteering, I have contacted just about every clinic listed to make sure I was able to volunteer somewhere. The clinic I was really interested in was El Centro de Corazon since this was a predominantly Hispanic clinic and I was hoping not only to brush up on my Spanish medical terminology, but also be a medium of information for the patients because I know how hard it is for Spanish-only speakers (and many with English as a second language) to communicate and especially understand anything not in their language. (The only bad thing was that when I emailed the contact person, she had an auto-reply message saying she would be out of town until Sept 8.) In my past volunteering experiences, I have seen many physicians speak to their patients as if they were also doctors leaving the patient more scared than when they initially came in so I am hoping that wherever I end up volunteering I can help people understand what exactly is going on. Yet, I also understand that patient interaction is not always possible and therefore I am willing to help any way I can. It's amazing the services these clinics offer and to be a part of something greater than myself and to help those who truly need help is a great opportunity. I have volunteered in hospitals but not in an under-served clinic so I am excited to get to experience the whole array of medical scenes and opportunities out there. I am also hoping to become more open- minded and understanding to different situations and learn to empathize with people of all different backgrounds. I'm hoping that in the long run, this experience will make me a more well rounded person and hopefully one day a better physician.