I have a random assortment of things to address today.
First: Be nice to medical/PA/nursing students. Often people will ask me outside of my rotations what I have gotten to do. I'll then elaborate, explaining that I'm further learning suturing, coming up with my own treatment plans (ex: what antibiotic a patient should be given for xyz symptoms), giving injections, etc., and it seems like responses are almost always followed with a horrific facial expression with some comment like 'Have you ever done that before!?' or 'You could really hurt someone!!' Yes, there are potential for fatal allergic reactions to medications. But my preceptor sees everything I suggest and discusses it with me before a final decision has been made. No, I haven't drained an abscess before but I did for the first time the other day. I've only sutured wounds up a handful of times, and yes I did it for the first time by myself the other day. Before that joint aspiration yesterday, no I'd never done one. People are just shocked by this, but please explain to me how I'm supposed to learn how to do anything if I don't just DO IT!??!?!? I can watch and watch and watch but eventually, I have to just DO IT. Anyone who is an expert at anything had never done it before at one point too, so please be nice to students. We have to learn somehow, and if you are going to ask us about it, please refrain from being judgmental or in utter disbelief. We're already nervous enough, we are trying to learn, and please trust that our preceptors wouldn't let us do anything they didn't think we could do well. With that being said, please also let students do things on you. We are sincerely sorry for the additional pain we may cause that an experienced clinician may not inflict, but just think of it as an act of altruism. The next person I do it on will be better! :)
Second: I need to make a confession. I get frustrated with diabetes (type II to be specific), and this is bad. First of all, I want to make it a point to say that anybody can get type II diabetes, not just overweight, generally unhealthy people as often the stereotype is. "Oh you got diabetes because you're over weight and eat poorly." Sometimes true, sometimes not true. Type II diabetes is certainly very much influenced by those things, diet and exercise is the cornerstone of treatment, and with our country's obesity problem diabetes has skyrocketed, but there is actually a stronger family history component with type II diabetes then type I. This seems counterintuitive considering type II is so strongly affected by extrinsic factors like diet and exercise, where as type I is an autoimmune disorder, but even skinny healthy people can get type II diabetes. But back to my confession. Type II diabetes is the #1 cause of adult onset blindness, non-traumatic lower limb amputations, and kidney failure. Diabetes is also a HUGE risk factor for heart attacks and stroke. So my frustrations are this: I know eating well is hard. I know exercising is a pain in the butt and takes time and money and is difficult to do. I know taking medications is hard to accept, costs money, and easy to forget. But I get frustrated, because if people with diabetes don't do these things, the consequences are dire for them and their families. I don't want to see anybody go blind or anybody have to take care of their spouse who had to get their limb amputated just because they weren't willing to do the hard thing. It's hard for me to not be judgmental and think people are selfish when they don't at least try. Be brave! Be courageous! Be bold! Do things you never thought you'd ever do! Try medications; explore eating better; explore different types of exercise you might enjoy. Nobody is asking you to eat lettuce for every meal or become an olympic triathlete. So anyways, I get incredibly frustrated and my entire day gets consumed by these frustrations, which I really need to work on. Seth and I have multiple family members with diabetes, so we see first hand how difficult it is to deal with, but I just know how worried we get about them, so to see somebody with diabetes not work on it I just want to say "Do you KNOW how worried your family is!?" How long is grandma going to live? Is Uncle so and so going to get his foot amputated and need living assistance? Is/when is dad going to have a heart attack? My end message is this though: be nice and encouraging. Sure, our country is obese and many people have diabetes because of that (fat tissue is an endocrine organ all in itself, but we won't go there today), but nobody WANTS to be obese, have diabetes, heart problems, etc, and nobody is inspired to make life changes by being told how terrible you think they are. They already feel bad enough, so be nice. Celebrate little victories and always be aware of your own biases and judgements.
Moving on...
Third: I'm a big liar. I swore to never run again, but I have been. Just 2-3 miles every few days so nothing quite like the half marathon training. I want to exercise, but even though I don't LIKE to exercise it's important to my health, and I feel better after I exercise even though I don't particularly like it while it's happening. And! I don't feel quite as guilty about all the cookies and candy I eat (calories in = calories out!). So! I'm also doing those T25 videos once or twice a week, but those really are designed for you to get strong, and I am currently not strong so they are difficult. I also don't care to be strong, which makes it hard to make myself do them, but running is easy now! Post half marathon, a 2-3 mile run is easy peasy, only takes 20-30 minutes, burns a lot of calories quickly, and sometimes I can get Cooper's exercise in too (half the distance is typically spent trying to find the perfect place for him to poop. He's a diva about that...). So in my daily struggle to find time, energy, and motivation to do some physical activity, that is where I'm at.
Lastly: Seth and I are going to NYC in 6 days for Christmas, and I am so excited I can't even stand it!!!!!!! That is all. :)
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