I've been whinging a lot about the fact that in the first 5 weeks of this term I have been rostered on every single Saturday bar one, and every single Sunday bar none.
Truth is it's probably a blessing in disguise, because weekends can be a lonely time to be at home with too much spare time on your hands. I know all about that from weekdays, heh.
Anyway today my last patient made missing out on a gorgeous nearly-Summer Saturday worthwhile.
A gorgeous 18 yo girl came in with stomach pain. Simple complaint right? I thought it would be a cruisy patient to end my shift with. She was haemodynamically stable, not pregnant and with no sign of infection or anything else too nasty physically. However it did turn out that she may or may not be bulimic, and most definitely is harbouring suicidal thoughts.
To not just see the tears, but to palpably feel her relief at hearing someone say that it's good she came in for help, and that it's okay to talk about these things brought tears to my eyes. Literally.
I don't know what conclusions to draw from this, other than to say I really don't hate my job all the time.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Hon, if it wasn't for people like you, seriously! Your selflessness, generosity and all round gorgeousness is a gift. It's so beautiful to see what you get out of giving so much of yourself to help people. Your profession has got to be one of the toughest. How humbling. You really inspire me, and I'm sure there are many more people you have touched in such a way that you will never know. Thank you.
You obviously have an important effect on those that you work with.
Give yourself lots of credit for that.
Thank you for not just being a doctor (we all know how much hard work and dedication that requires!) but a compassionate one.
Thanks for the sweet words of support. Trust me I am not as compassionate as I should be all the time, but in cases like this I can't help it! There are plenty of people I have no patience for, that could be a blog-post all of it's own!
Post a Comment