Doctor

Warning: humblebrag post.

I've been lucky on my medicine service to have really grateful patients. You get so used to hearing the stories of the drug-addicted, narcotic seeking, alcoholic patients who threaten to leave AMA and can't wait to bust out of the hospital, but I've been lucky enough to have the mostly really kind, patient patients who take the time to know my name, ask me questions, always say thank you. Even the grumpy ones turn around in the end (One patient who would always give me one word answers in the two weeks I was following her, was sobbing when we discharged her because she was so happy that I rescued her daughter's picture from a fire!). It won't last, so I should just revel in this naivety for the time being, but I've also starting feeling like my patients have started thinking of me as "their doctor." Sometimes I don't bother to correct them when they refer to me as a doctor because to them, it doesn't really matter.

Today, I was so flattered when one of a patient's daughter's asked for me, by name, to talk to me about her father's condition. Another patient's daughter, of a 92 year old lady who was bleeding internally and had to receive 16 units of blood (she's stable now), always seeks me out to ask me about how her mother's doing and asks for my recommendations. She asks me questions like I'm her mother's doctor. In the beginning of the school year, I was also intimidated by a lot of the nurses, but now I'm much more comfortable talking to them and asking them to do things for me (get vitals, give meds, etc) and they update me and ask me questions about the patients too. As a medical student, it's not often (or sometimes never) you get to assume full responsibility for a patient, so it was just flattering to be recognized for it today, for the first time by having a family member want to talk to me. I'm on my way!