Primary Care's Problem from A Student Interested in Primary Care

This morning I went to the doctor with two complaints: I thought they were pretty general so I went to Student Health.

First, they gave me an N.P. I have no problem with N.P.s...except that they are replacing MDs in Primary Care. How are medical students supposed to be inspired to be primary care physicians when they could've instead chosen nursing and had better jobs doing primary care as an N.P. with almost as good as a salary but with less demands and more flexibility?

Second, primary care is too dependent on empirical treatment. I got two different appointments with specialists to address each of my problems. One because a biopsy would be really helpful (it is a skin lesion and we are taught in school-biopsy biopsy biospy even if something looks innocent so you know EXACTLY what you are dealing with and there is no guess-work involved) and the other because a culture would be helpful (again for the same reason--don't treat blindly!). Several of my upperclassmen friends also complain during their primary care rotations that PCPs write prescriptions for antibiotics all too liberally. How do we practice better medicine if we are not using science?

With the upcoming health care reform, I wonder how all this will affect how primary care is practiced. Statistics tell us that a nation's overall health is better off with more primary care (less infant mortality, better preventative health) and that is super important. But besides the basics, don't we deserve QUALITY health care?

Clearly Not Learning from Microbio

I'm in the library learning about all types of bacteria and the havoc they have on our bodies...

I get an apple out to snack on and it drops from my hand to the ground rolling two desks away. Nobody heard the mini-bowling ball drop...I so smoothly get on my knees and get underneath the desk to retrieve my apple.

I "clean" it by putting my disgusting hands all over it---you know, hands that have been typing on this dirty keyboard, using pens and highlighters, flipping pages of books, all contaminated...mind you I never even washed this apple in the morning.

Taking my robust immune system for granted...

Lion's Breath

Last week, I went to a different yoga class--meaning new teacher. I loved her class because it was harder than any of the other hatha yoga classes I've done at the AFC: she does a lot of bikram yoga poses (minus the room temperature and the lavender towels). The problem is she's soooooooo hippie....and she's Canadian, I can hear it in her voice.

How hippie? She'll blast "rap" songs with lyrics like, "We need to be like Ghandi...Ghandi was a soldier...a soldier for peace...he fasted without food to protest...". And then she'll be like, "Wow guys!!! Did you hear that! Now as we go through our warrior poses....think about how YOU too can be a soldier for peace." Last week, she read us a passage from a Western coming-of-age "Buddhist" book she's reading: topic--"softening your heart." God.

Anyways, when I thought she couldn't get crazier..she had us get into GODDESS pose...

And THEN, we did Lion's Breath!!! Basically, if you exhale with your tongue trying to reach your chin, your eyebrows fully raised and your eyes wide open. After we did this three times, I was trying SO HARD not do fall on the floor and laugh, she sadly said, "There just is not room in our culture for this act....but it is SO ENERGIZING!!!"

I hate to admit it but....I actually did leave a bit energized. hahhahah oh yogis....

Laundry

Yesterday at COCA, Abouna Anthony gave a talk on our need to OVERCOME whatever it is that stands in the way between us and God. He used the analogy of preparing for a wedding, since heaven is appropriately described as the wedding, the union of us, the bride, and the True Bridegroom, Christ. Because God loved us so much, he humbled Himself to the point of HUMANITY, because the bride's debts, the wages of sin, were too great. Christ overcame everything for us, becoming human, suffering the death of the Cross, and descending into Hades to conquer death by death. For people not familiar with Christian thought, these ideas will not make any sense at all, and this blog is not meant to explain Christian theology. And so because, the Bridegroom has done everything to prepare for the Wedding, or as we say in the Coptic tradition, the "ekleel" or "crowning", the bride also must be putting forth preparation. Abouna asked if we were preparing for our heavenly wedding? And furthermore, because a bride and her groom must match, do we match God's holiness? Are we a fit couple? And that's what I would like to meditate on here...

Christ is so good to us. Christ commanded us, "Be Holy as I am holy." There are two ways to be holy: (1) to NEVER sin or (2) to be cleansed of our sins frequently. Practically, #1 is not an option for "all have sinned and fallen short of glory." We have a weak human nature--"the spirit is willing but the flesh is so weak." But by God's grace, Christ cleanses us of our sins. If it weren't for the blood of the Lamb, Christ, we would all be condemned to hell, that place of permanent separation from Christ. But because God in His overflowing love for us, He offers up His own sacred Blood, He is the pure and perfect sacrifice, for our sins. And it is ONLY the blood of Christ which as we say on Good Friday, that God is pleased of the "aroma of this sacrifice" and accepts it. And so, it is my responsibility to live a life of repentance and continual washing of my dirty, sinful body, mind and heart in the cleansing power of the blood of Christ. May God have mercy on us all.