Ok so I still haven’t been able to see a patient completely on my own here. I was so close. I told my attending the plan; on the next obi (obstetrics – initial visit) I would get the patient’s history and stuff and record it exactly in the way that he does in the electronic note, but on paper so we can easily transfer it. Turns out the obi didn’t want a medical student. Ok no biggie, we’ll switch; instead I’ll just get a brief history on the other new patient who was checked it. Wait, she’s Spanish speaking only. So it was a lot of that in the morning and we kinda just gave up. It was unfortunate because everything that could’ve stood in my way, as far as seeing patients by myself, did. We’ll try again next week.
This weekend my attending is on call, so I told him if he gets a call, if he could let me know so I can try to be there for the delivery. He made some jokes about me saying that I would try to be there, but hopefully he will actually let me know.
I also did my first real bimanual today. I feel like this is a specialty where it’s especially sensitive when it comes to being ok with medical student doing certain parts of the exam. Like, they totally don’t have to say its ok, and yet in most cases they are ok with it (I hope they don’t feel pressured at all). So shoutout to all the patients who have contributed to my learning experience out here.
At lunch time today I got a chance to talk a bit more with the MAs at the clinic. I was just having leftovers from last night. I asked them for recommendations for food, nightlife etc. They have me mostly food recs, which is the more important one and so I have a running list of places to try for food out here. I also got to hear some of the gossip around my attending and also about some of the other students who have come through. It sounded like they liked me and thought I was doing a good job relative to others which felt good (but also it doesn’t quite feel like I’m ahead of any curve whatsoever). Hopefully, they weren’t just trying to be nice.
For dinner my roommate and I went to this Mexican restaurant downtown that was pretty good. It was one of those kinds of places that when the food comes out you feel like you’re getting your money’s worth. We then went out to a couple different bars. The last one we ended at had major locals’ vibes, and by the time we left it seemed like the Visalia nightlife we just starting. An adventure for another time.
I probably won’t write again this weekend, but tomorrow I’m supposed to meet up with some other students who just moved out here earlier this week. Looking forward to it.
nANIMOv 