something unique about me among many of my colleagues: i love clinic. and this is great because i started my outpatient acting internship in family medicine this week.
and it's awesome. i knew it would be. here's why:
1. laid-back doctors who let me do a lot ("did you write the prescription? order the labs? can you just run my clinic?")
2. steady flow of adult patients (no babies! or kids!)
3. 8a-5p, baby
4. and - dum, dum, dum - i did my family medicine clerkship here! so i have intimate knowledge of the whereabouts of important things like the bathrooms, vending machines, staff microwave, younameit
in medical school where you sometimes switch to a different ward/service/specialty as often as every week, it was such a delight to be starting something where it didn't feel like my first day was my first day.
and my cheap jab above about not seeing kids in the clinic? nah, don't sweat it. they say kids say the darnedest things, but i'd be willing to fight 'em for it. here's an example from today from a delightful little woman in her late 60s. my patients say plenty to keep me rolling all day long.
"hi, ms. so-and-so, what brings you in today?"
"this awful cough" ::coughs:: "i've had it for a month. last time i had a cough like this it turned into pneumonia. i hadn't planned to go to the doctor that time, but my husband told me he wouldn't have SEX with me anymore if i didn't get myself fixed up, so i guess i just HAD to!"
"i see. well we wouldn't want that to happen. tell me more about your cough..."
when i was 16, i went to the beach with a friend and her family. one night we decided to hit up a little amusement park, and my friend and i rode pretty much every ride that didn't make me barf. most of the park workers were local teenagers, and as teenage boys are wont to do, they flirted with us. except - they flirted with my friend, telling us they thought she was 17-18 and i was her 13yr old kid sister.
when i was 21, i was in my senior year of college. i went to a local restaurant in the city with some friends for a champagne brunch. we were carded, of course. but when the waiter looked at my license and looked at me, he frowned and said he needed to take my card to his manager. mind you, my friends had out-of-state licenses, in-state licenses, you-name-it. here i was with my in-state as-legitimate-as-you-get-license, getting the twice-over from some waiter likely because of my age.
i could go on and on. apparently i look younger than i am.
but - over the past year, something changed. around january, i stopped getting carded at restaurants. it was mysterious really. i would order my drink, look down to my purse to fumble for my license, and the waitress would have already disappeared. i have been chalking it up to the chronic state of sleep deprivation and stress of third year, especially since just prior to january i had my surgery rotation.
and then it happened. we got our pictures taken for our residency application, and i picked them up yesterday. i looked nice, i thought, and then, out of nowhere: "hey, who is that grown-up?!" apparently somewhere along the way it is the goal of medical school to attempt to make you look like you are old enough to take care of so-and-so's dying mom. hey medical school? goal accomplished. ...or maybe medical school has just flown by so fast the last time i looked in the mirror was my early twenties? in any case, here's the evidence.
yours truly, all grown-up:
