Hello, hello, and welcome to February’s Ultimate Coffee Date!
If we were having coffee/tea today, I’d tell you that…I’m still pretty overjoyed that I get to stay warm for another couple months!
Back in West Virginia, Littlefoot (one of my duckies!) is the only one brave enough to venture out into the snowpiles.
If we were having coffee/tea today, I’d tell you that…I’m officially done with my Internal Medicine rotations for the school year!
My team has been really fun to work with, so I’m a little sad to be leaving…but being closer to graduating is kinda nice! I also really miss outpatient medicine–I like having more time to spend with my patients and getting to go into all the preventive medicine that I’m such a big fan of.
If we were having coffee/tea today, I’d tell you that…I’d tell you that one of our patients has had intractable hiccups for 8 years. For serious. Eight!!! Back in my surgery rotation, correcting their phosphate levels always seemed to do the trick, but a 100% success rate in a sample size of 2 isn’t too promising.
So…we took turns spooning the patient.
It’s not what you think though!
We stuck the handles of a bunch of spoons into ice cold water and then took turns poking gently resting the spoon handle on his uvula (the flappy thing that hangs out at the back of your throat!). It’s supposed to suppress the vagus nerve, and we were really excited to see if it worked!
His hiccup-less-ness lasted for the rest of the day, that entire night, and part of the next morning…and then they came back. :[ Maybe it’d work better as prophylaxis? :[
If we were having coffee/tea today, I’d tell you that…I have a somewhat difficult and extremely uncooperative patient at the moment. He refuses everything (e.g. food, medications), answers every question we ask with, “I’m not going to answer that. Leave me alone,” and is pretty hostile to everyone.
But!
He is borderline nice to me!
I thinkkkk it’s because I’ve been trying to take the time to explain to him why we’re asking him questions and what we’re giving him meds for, even during the times where I’m not sure he’s with it enough to comprehend what I’m saying. I’ve also been trying to elicit the reasoning behind why he’s refusing everything, so I like to think that deep-deep down, he knows that we (me and the rest of my team) are just trying to get him better.
Case in point, he decided to give me some advice today in the realms of getting rid of my face-ful of pimples by way of ice-cold water to the face every day for 2 weeks.
wut.
My skin is far from flawless, and I suppose the fact that Ionly use makeup once every couple blue moons doesn’t help, but…I was pretty confused at first, and didn’t realize he was talking to me. I can’t tell if he was mistaking my freckles for pimples or if he’s just still pretty out of it.
My senior resident came to my defense, and our patient got really mad and said he was just trying to help me out, so I thanked him for his advice and he said, “God bless you,” which is quite likely the nicest thing he’s said to anyone since he’s been in here, so I shall take his concern for my face as a compliment!
If we were having coffee/tea today, I’d tell you that…I’m off to perform for the very first time at an AIDS LifeCycle fundraiser this evening! (My friend is biking 545 miles from San Francisco to Los Angeles!) If you’d like to donate to his cause directly, go here!
…and if you’re in the bay area and free, you should come! :D
One of my friends says she’s just going to lie on stage and have someone feed her grapes (I offered to fan her with a giant leaf), and another friend offered to feed me pineapples, since I’m doing a cross between Tahitian and pole. (It was originally going to be hula and pole, but Bel said people would be too mesmerized and would forget to throw money at me.)
Should be a fun evening with fundraisers, raffles, and lots of entertainment! ;P
(Link-up with Coco @ Got 2 Run 4 Me, Lynda @ Fitness Mom Wine Country, & Deborah @ Confessions of a Mother Runner!)
- Do you have a “cure” for hiccups?
- What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever said to your doctor? (Or that your doctor has said to you?!)
- Have you ever been to a pole performance? We’re donating our tips to help fight HIV!
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The skin advice…is so random. Angel has plenty of stories of odd conversations with patients…and with ornery patients…heavy medications don’t tend to help with logical speech function, that’s obvious! :)
Rachel G recently posted…A Lifetime of Valentines
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haha, right? I only had one spot on my skin that wasn’t cooperating with me, so I’m not sure where he saw the faceful of pimples, haha. I think the liver disease and alcoholism was messing with him. x_x
Oh my gosh – I can’t imagine coping with 8 years of hiccups! My Dad always had me drink upside down from the wrong side of a glass – it sort of makes a vacuum I think. And bless you for taking the time to be kind to that patient! I bet he is frustrated and tired of not being well. Have fun this weekend!
Coco recently posted…Shopping And Hosting The Ultimate Coffee Date
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For serious! They stopped when he was sleeping, but aughh! (How did you manage to drink upside down!?) I hold my breath and count down from 100 when I have hiccups!
Thanks! I hope he’s better now! Hope you have a wonderful weekend!
I don’t think I’ve had any weird encounters with DR’s unless I count my dad lol! Sounds like you are relieved to be moving on from your rotation and back to doing what you love. Pole dancing huh? That should be fun! I actually have always wanted to try it! Thanks for joining us for coffee today
Deborah @ Confessions of a mother runner recently posted…Ultimate Coffee Date-February
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haha, I’m on a Neurosurgery rotation right now and the hours are a little nuts, but everyone’s nice there, so I’m trying to absorb information while I can! :P
The show was a lot of fun! I love awesome + supportive crowds! :] I’ll be posting about that hopefully soon-ish!
Sounds like a fun performance. One of my friends is doing that race as well.
I’ve been lucky to have pretty good experiences with my doctors so nothing too weird. I get crap from the nurses because I make some non-mainstream decisions, but my doctors have always been good about supporting my choices.
MCM Mama Runs recently posted…Sometimes you really need a coffee date with friends
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That’s awesome! I can’t imagine biking such a long distance–I’m glad we got to help support him and raise money though!
That’s good that your doctors have been supportive! :]
Oh my goodness EIGHT YEARS OF HICCUPS. I’d go crazy… your ab muscles would probably be pretty strong though? is that a bright side… nutso.
Laura recently posted…Loving the Sweet Potato! Recipe Round Up!
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haha, right? Abs of steel! But augh, hiccups are so annoying to deal with!
Because you’re so sweet I know you’re trying to give that patient the benefit of the doubt…but sometimes, patients be cray (and/or outright rude) and really, you can’t make excuses for that. Smile and nod and don’t let it get to you :) Or kill them with kindness, which it sounds like you’re well on your way to doing!
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haha, yeah. I like to attempt to look for the best in others, but there are definitely some I can’t make excuses for. He seemed like he really did want to help me, but I think the hepatic encephalopathy was still affecting him. x_x
Kill em’ with kindness is my philosophy! ;P
Hiccups for EIGHT years?! I cannot even imagine how awful (and tiring) that must be! I’m quite a hiccup-y person, but it usually passes after half an hour or so. Poor guy!
I don’t think a doctor has ever said anything random to me, nor me to them, unless you count my aunt-in-law! You definitely have some “interesting” characters to deal with!
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Yes indeed–I feel so bad for him! :[ I think he didn’t have them when he slept though, so at least there’s that?
haha, there’s always gotta be an interesting character in every practice! :P
Congrats on completing your rotation! I have so much admiration for people studying medicine….you guys go through so much! That had to be cool trying to cure your patient’s hiccups!
Janelle @ Run With No Regrets recently posted…Ultimate Coffee Date – February 2016
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Thanks, Janelle! It was really cool to try helping him out–I wish the effects had lasted longer though!
I can’t believe that case of hiccups…does it impact their life? Doesn’t your heart rate skip when you hiccup…or something like that? Sorry…no pole advice here.
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I think it was just reallyyyy annoying and distracting. Poor dude. We unfortunately didn’t end up figuring out a cure for him. :[
look at you making progress with the patient, BABY STEPS. his hostility sounds like most of my students! try cognitive coaching – also, you’re beautiful, pimples or not! as far as weird doctor comments, I can’t even put what one has said to me on the internet it was so rude…
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Aww, thanks, Amber! :]! I think he was mistaking my freckles as pimples–twas a really random statement, but I like to think baby steps are better than nothin’! :P
That’s horrible! I’m sorry that that happened to you! :[
<3
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Much love! <3
Difficult patients/clients are hard to deal with. Sigh! Haha. Congrats to finishing up internal medicine rotations!
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Thanks! They definitely can be, but the difficult ones build character, and the awesome ones make everything worth it! :] Done until residency starts, hahaha. :P!
We just got baby chickens and if my husband had his choice we would get ducks too. I told him we would have to have a pond and another coop….so he changed his mind (but I secretly think he still wants one)
Mandi Korn recently posted…Our new baby chicks
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hehe, I don’t blame you! x_x Ducks are a ton of work and they’re pretty crazy-messy (ours were trying to excavate their own natural pond in the backyard), but they’re so adorable that we end up forgetting about it every time we walk by and our quack pack starts quacking away. :P