Today I had my first full history & physical with a REAL patient...wooooow. :)
So besides the fact that my patient vomitted a quart of blood and peed bright red blood and was experiencing the worst pain of her life, I learned today that patients are a little different from the "med school crowd". How so? My patient was a 36 year old, mother to a 20 year old and grandmother to a newborn. She's currently engaged to be wed in June. She has the father of her 20 year old child's name tattooed in the classic heart shape on the front of her chest near her shoulder.
I tried not to act the least bit surprised when she told me all this. And she was not uncomfortable at all telling me anything. That made me realize that this is the norm for her. I experienced this similar "you are different from me" revelation when I volunteered at a local community center last year helping elementary school kids with their homework--half-siblings were the norm.
It is quite sad to see the demise of the traditional family in the West. What is even more disturbing is that it seems to be in lower-classes more often than the upper classes. I haven't researched this obviously to see if that is a statistical reality or if it's just my limited impression. Hmm.....
1 comment:
Welcome to Planet Earth. :)
Seriously, I hire the poor and work for the rich and the only difference is the rich dress it up better. Money doesn't make people moral or stable. If you worked for a plastic surgeon in Scottsdale here you'd see the dark side of "class". May God bless your ministry to the poor.
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