Family Medicine

So, 7 weeks is up, and this is the last weekend until St.Johnny B when i don't have to be worrying about school.

I really liked the family med part of these past few weeks.

Although putting judgemental comments here about my experiences is probably stupid, My placement was *fantastic*. This has been the best bit of school so far. I saw lots, i *did* lots, and i came away with a few choice bits of advice:

"growing old is not for wimps"
"growing old is better than the alternatives"
"90% of alcoholics relapse, but that 10% makes it worthwhile"
"Paperwork sucks. So charge for it until you don't mind"
"Asthma can only be disgnosed by PFT's, arterial blood gases, or pulsus paradoxus. Quiet and noisy lungs can be tricky"
"first, warm the speculum"

Speaking of speculums, the other part of family med that rocked was the teaching of pelvic exams.

Contrary to what i had feared, we were *not* taught using unconscious, unconsenting women undergoing surgery. Instead, there is an amazing feminist collective who volunteer to come in and show us how to not be jerks while doing pelvic exams. It was a wonderful upsetting of the dr/patient hierarchy to have the teacher instrucing us from the lithotomy position (aka in the stirrups). Instead of our usual lecture on random rare pathology, we learned about respectful language and patient comfort. I was way more nervous than i thought i would be.

When people ask where i'm going in life i've started to admit that it's family -unless i fall in love somewhere else. I'm just too easily bored to spend all my time on one system. And since i have to go through all of medical school anyways, i'd like to retain this knowledge that i'm paying for.