Happy 4th =)

Week 1 of 3rd year clerkship in Family Medicine is officially done! Where did the time go? Why it seems only yesterday, I was spewing out information to teachers and tests. Now, I'm getting spewed on and learning how to order tests. Wow.

Saw a good deal of patients this past week and some of them were pretty interesting cases, which I dare not go on about at this point. Lets just say, I'm never bored and am seriously learning a lot. Still, I'm slowly getting the hang of writing SOAP notes and doing histories and physicals. Best time so far is 45 minutes (with another med student helping me, of course). I hope to bring that down to 10 minutes, flying solo. I certainly am feeling overwhelmed, but in a good way. So far, the outlook about this rotation is very positive. I have good doctors teaching me and they are being really good role models as far as patient care is concerned.

I've met several good people along the way too. The best ones are the vets. They always have the best stories. God bless'em. They're all fiercely proud about their close calls and battle scars and they know how to tell it like it is. And rightfully so! There was this one gentleman who wasn't even a patient, but the husband of one and he was telling me the story behind the ginormous scar on his shoulder, how he got hit by shrapnel from an exploded bomb during WWII in Austria; how he lay wounded for hours before the medics found him, barely alive; how he only received one shot of morphine to last him the 20-hr., 200+ mile back-country ride to Italy where he was to be operated on; how he was fading in and out of consciousness because of the pain; how later on, his scar resembled the emblem of his division because it looked like a red "T." Pretty kick-ass, to say the least. Then there was this other guy who told me how he survived the bombing of Pearl Harbor and how he was on 2 other ships later on in the Pacific and again, survived at sea after having his ships torpedoed. Honestly, I could've sat there and listened to them all day.

"He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian:'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.'"

Thank a vet for serving next time you see him or her.

Happy 4th of July.

Song of the day: "Chocolate Jesus" - Tom Waits